"Heretical fiend!"
Seeing the sinister smirk playing across his opponent's face, the young Dharma Transmitter was overcome with shock, terror, and fury, unable to stop himself from shouting.
Yet his actions betrayed what he truly felt within.
Swirling dark, eerie light enveloped his body.
As if space itself were being sliced apart, the young man gradually sank into the void, his figure slowly fading into obscurity.
"I can feel the dread in your heart."
"Why run? What is it you fear?"
The Profound Heaven Dharma King gazed at the youth ahead of him and whispered softly.
"Confront your own heart..."
"Allow yourself..."
"To return to your true self..."
The Profound Heaven Dharma King's words seemed imbued with a strange, uncanny power.
As he chanted in a low voice, a transparent dividing line abruptly appeared between him and the young Dharma Transmitter.
The two sides of this dividing line resembled the worlds inside and outside a mirror, corresponding to each other and matching in every detail.
The figures of the Profound Heaven Dharma King and the young Dharma Transmitter instantly overlapped.
In that exact moment, the same black glow manifested by the young Dharma Transmitter appeared around the Profound Heaven Dharma King!
It was as though he truly were the youth's mirror reflection!
Even when the young man witnessed this and looked increasingly terrified, that exact same expression surfaced upon the Dharma King's face!
The dividing line between them brightened slightly.
A moment later, as if the space separating them had been carved away, the distance between the Profound Heaven Dharma King and the young Dharma Transmitter closed considerably.
"You forced my hand!" An unspeakable panic surged through the youth's heart. He gritted his teeth, his voice laced with venom.
Then, a thin golden thread bored out from between his brows.
This slender thread seemed to carry a unique might.
It could not be replicated by the Profound Heaven Dharma King.
The mirrored world that had formed failed to manifest an image of the golden thread, and an unnatural dissonance immediately arose.
Trembling slightly, the mirrored world teetered on the brink of collapse.
Even the Profound Heaven Dharma King's figure grew somewhat indistinct.
"You and I were originally one."
"Could you truly detest yourself to such an extent that you must resort to a treasure like this?"
"Why take it so far?"
...
At the crucial juncture, the Profound Heaven Dharma King's whispers resonated once more in the youth's ears.
The youth's expression shifted from ferocity to bewilderment, before gradually settling into calm.
And that thin golden thread actually withdrew back between his brows.
The distance between him and the Profound Heaven Dharma King narrowed yet again.
"Having lived for so long, yet seeing no hope ahead... I can feel the hesitation and resentment in your heart..."
"Once you reclaim your true self, you will unleash the supreme potential hidden within you. The Grand Dao will be within reach..."
Accompanied by the continuous murmuring of the Profound Heaven Dharma King, the distance between them grew smaller and smaller.
Ultimately, only that single dividing line stood between them.
Their eyes met, the expressions on their faces perfectly identical.
No longer was there any fear or confusion—only the joyous delight of enlightenment remained.
The dividing line erupted with brilliant light.
The next instant, it vanished without a trace.
With that, the world within the mirror descended into reality!
The silhouettes of the youth and the Profound Heaven Dharma King merged completely.
Only the young Dharma Transmitter remained standing in the clearing!
Having completed the fusion, the young Dharma Transmitter stood quietly in midair with his eyes closed.
He seemed to be digesting the massive volume of information flooding his mind.
"The Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable? The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals?"
Before long, he snapped his eyes open, a faint hint of confusion lingering on his face.
"To think that even in this era, they still remain on guard against our Profound Heaven Sect."
"The secret technique of Extirpating the Profound..."
The 'young Dharma Transmitter' sneered. "I wonder where they get their confidence. Several thousand years have passed, yet the contents of this secret technique remain completely unchanged."
"They truly underestimate us far too much."
Following the youth's words, the aura around him underwent subtle adjustments.
"This should be enough to fool them, so long as I do not execute any of the sect's secret techniques."
The youth nodded in mild satisfaction.
Then, a trace of doubt surfaced once more on his face.
"It wasn't a coincidental discovery; he was guided here..."
"Gathering troops and recruiting followers in the name of our Profound Heaven Sect, and even knowing my exact location..."
"And once exposed, shifting the disaster straight onto me."
"The Congyun Mutual Aid Society, the Red Dust Compassionate Immortal?"
In an instant, he reconstructed the truth from the information he possessed.
Having been schemed against, the youth showed no anger. Instead, his expression turned grave as he recalled the faceless Profound Heaven Divine Statue mentioned in the intelligence.
Pinching his fingers in divination, astonishment quickly registered on his face. "I actually cannot sense its location at all?"
"Yet it is without doubt a Profound Heaven Divine Statue."
The perplexity in the youth's eyes deepened.
"Could it be the handiwork of one of our brothers in the sect?"
"Come to think of it, this style of doing things truly does resemble that of our Profound Heaven brethren."
One potential face after another flashed through the youth's mind.
"Knowing the secret was out and unable to handle the mess, did he want to use my hand to quell the matter?"
"It seems this brother, too, has most likely only awakened recently."
As for why the other party had chosen not to meet in person, the youth felt no surprise whatsoever.
Back then, the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao had launched a sudden assault right at the critical moment of the King of Profound Heaven's seclusion.
They had breached the Profound Heaven Sect in a single stroke.
The timing they chose could only be described as an uncanny coincidence.
They had even known the distribution of the sect's defensive forces and the vulnerabilities of its protective arrays down to the finest detail.
The defensive measures were rendered utterly useless.
Taken entirely off guard, the Profound Heaven Sect suffered a crushing defeat.
Casualties were catastrophic.
The King of Profound Heaven and the supreme treasure, the Profound Heaven Treasure Mirror, vanished without a trace, while the various Dharma Kings were either killed or wounded.
It was painfully obvious that to suffer such a total rout, there had undoubtedly been a traitor within the sect.
In fact, there might even have been more than one.
Consequently, every Dharma King who survived had become exceedingly cautious.
Aside from the King of Profound Heaven, they trusted no one.
The youth was no exception.
"Before the Heavenly King vanished back then, he used a secret technique to pass down a message, instructing us to lie low, preserve our lives, and await his summons."
"Unfortunately, after so many years, there is still no word."
Even so, the youth harbored not the slightest doubt that the King of Profound Heaven still lived.
Back when the Profound Heaven Sect fought against Tiandu, although the King of Profound Heaven had suffered considerable injuries, he had forcibly stolen a wisp of their immortal spiritual qi, opening the possibility of attaining the body of a True Immortal.
The King of Profound Heaven's seclusion at that time had been for precisely that reason.
"As long as I can rebuild an immortal body in the lower realm, I will be able to lead our brothers out of this Pitch-Black Star Sea."
The youth still hazily remembered the bold declaration the King of Profound Heaven had made prior to his seclusion.
This was the reason why, through all these years, the youth had never chosen to betray the sect.
To him, several thousand years were merely an extended slumber.
Yet if he were to remain trapped here for all the boundless ages ahead, that would be true despair.
Thus, he had always found it utterly baffling that anyone would ever choose betrayal back then.
Over the years, the only plausible explanation he could deduce was that the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao had likewise promised a means of escaping the Pitch-Black Star Sea—one that seemed even more reliable than the King of Profound Heaven's plan.
Originally, the youth had not believed it.
Yet after absorbing all the memories of this Dharma Transmitter, his conviction wavered.
For he learned that when the great catastrophe of 'dharmas cannot be cultivated concurrently' descended, a group of high-ranking cultivators from the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao had vanished simultaneously.
They had even absconded with a considerable portion of the Xuanhuang Realm's resources.
From that point forward, that group of people had never appeared in the Xuanhuang Realm again.
"If that is truly the case, I fear those traitors are already living in carefree leisure."
A glimmer of murderous intent flashed in the youth's eyes.
"Without the power of a True Immortal, attempting to escape the Pitch-Black Star Sea must come at an excruciatingly tragic cost. It is likely impossible to replicate."
"Therefore, my only hope of escape still rests with the King of Profound Heaven."
As to whether the King of Profound Heaven might have already escaped on his own ahead of time, the youth was not worried.
The King of Profound Heaven cultivated the path of the 'Unity of Word and Deed,' never making promises lightly.
Once a promise was made, it had to be fulfilled. Otherwise, it would destroy his Dao path; even if he achieved True Immortality, he would face the risk of plummeting back into mortality.
Therefore, as long as he was alive, he would certainly reconvene the Dharma Kings and make good on his original promise.
Were it not for this, the King of Profound Heaven could never have secured the allegiance of twelve pinnacle cultivators using only his eloquent silver tongue back then.
'If I find that faceless Profound Heaven statue, perhaps I can pinpoint the King of Profound Heaven's whereabouts,' the youth suddenly thought.
The Profound Heaven Divine Statue had not been crafted in the likeness of the King of Profound Heaven himself.
Instead, it had been fashioned after a True Immortal whom the King of Profound Heaven had encountered in the Ascension Passage.
According to the King of Profound Heaven, the aura radiating from that True Immortal was as vast as mountains and oceans.
Compared to him, a newly ascended immortal like the King of Profound Heaven was as tiny as an ant.
At that time, he had just breached the void and stepped into the Ascension Passage.
Before he could fly toward the long-yearned-for Immortal Realm, a terrifying roar resounded from afar.
The King of Profound Heaven then witnessed a sight he would never forget for the rest of his life.
From distant to near, the Ascension Passage shattered piece by piece.
Countless figures scrambled desperately to flee, only to be sucked into those terrifying black ruins.
Innumerable corpses tumbled through the ruptures of the Ascension Passage.
A catastrophe of unimaginable horror must have occurred in the Immortal Realm!
The King of Profound Heaven had turned tail and fled, not forgetting to loot whatever immortal corpses he encountered along the way.
Yet the speed at which the Ascension Passage collapsed proved somewhat beyond his imagination.
Seeing that he was about to plunge into the black abyss like the other ascenders, a figure flashed past him, casually lending a hand and pulling him out of the collapsing spatial corridor.
Once the King of Profound Heaven collected his wits, he quickly recovered enough to express his gratitude for the figure's life-saving grace.
That figure was evidently an existence of supreme cultivation even among immortals.
The King of Profound Heaven had been entirely unable to see the other's face.
"Flee, quickly! Any slower and it will be too late."
The Faceless True Immortal shook his head, left behind those words, and vanished.
He left behind only a bewildered King of Profound Heaven.
Not until a long time later did the King of Profound Heaven truly understand what the Faceless True Immortal meant by fleeing.
The Ascension Passage collapsed, and the path to immortality was severed.
Leaving behind only that existence known as the Immortal Ruins.
And the influence of the Immortal Ruins upon the lower realm had only just begun to manifest.
Chapter 894