"Beyond the 'Yixin' that attained Longevity, the aspect of 'Multitude' is also growing increasingly pronounced."
Li Qing observed his surroundings as he walked.
"Boy, did you have fun in the illusion?"
Right then, a voice suddenly drew his attention.
Li Qing looked over and saw a slovenly old man lying nonchalantly on the ground.
Unsure of the man's intentions, Li Qing prudently refrained from answering.
"Heh, no need to be so tense. Being too stiff only does you a disservice!"
"Just act the way you did in the illusion! Someone like you is exactly what's missing among us!"
The old man was unstinting in his praise of Li Qing.
Yet as the old man spoke, Li Qing faintly sensed hostile gazes repeatedly lingering upon him.
"Oh, right, let me let you in on a little secret."
"To ensure we had our fill of fun, you weren't the only one whose original memories were sealed in that illusion—mine were too."
"Only when the illusion was on the verge of shattering did our true consciousness awaken."
"At that very instant, the memories of everyone in the illusion burst forth all at once!"
A look of intoxication surfaced on the old man's face, as if he had just savored an entire jar of aged vintage wine!
"Two hundred thirty-six thousand eight hundred times..."
"Two hundred thirty-six thousand eight hundred times, ah!"
The old man repeated the number once more.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk..."
"The pleasure you felt doesn't even amount to a fraction of mine!"
The old man shook his head in bliss.
When Li Qing heard the number 'two hundred thirty-six thousand eight hundred,' he was taken aback for a moment, failing to understand what it meant at first.
Before long, however, comprehension dawned, and his expression turned somewhat peculiar.
When he looked again, the slovenly old man had already vanished without a trace.
*That body seemed to be one of the Dao Integration elders of the Dadao Sect back in the day,* Li Qing recalled from the memories of the illusion, pondering inwardly.
He continued forward toward the sect's grand hall at the very summit.
Along the way, Li Qing heard countless bickering voices.
"Why did you have to castrate him? Wouldn't a normal start have been fine?"
"Now you raise objections? You agreed to it back then!"
"I see no problem with meting out a little punishment. The real issue is, why did you give him the Scripture of Inverse Order?"
"It was a newly developed technique; we had to test its effects, didn't we? Who could've thought this kid could stir up such a storm? Tsk, tsk..."
"Heh, I think you did it on purpose."
"In that case, we can't use this Scripture of Inverse Order next time."
"No way! Something so marvelous—how could we just ban it on a whim?"
"I object!"
"I object too!"
...
Not a single figure was in sight.
Yet the voices echoed by Li Qing's ears like phantom whispers, rising and falling without end.
It felt as though countless figures were staring at him in unison, muttering under their breath.
Though Li Qing remained composed on the outside, a creeping chill seeped into his heart.
These intertwined voices felt just like the endless fragmented thoughts within a mind, a psyche shattered into countless pieces.
As Li Qing drew closer to the sect's grand hall, the rising din of voices grew denser and denser.
The words grew increasingly deranged.
They turned into the delirious ravings of fiendgods, stabbing into Li Qing's mind like needles.
Suddenly, Li Qing halted in his tracks.
He sensed a slight dampness across his face. Touching it gently, he discovered that blood was steadily trickling from his nostrils and eyes.
Without him realizing, his surrounding vision had grown somewhat blurry.
Wiping the blood away, Li Qing quickened his pace while his body still had strength left.
Yet the demonic voices in his ears showed no sign of stopping; instead, they raged with ever-greater intensity.
"Cough, cough..."
Li Qing coughed violently, and to his horror, what came out included fragments of his internal organs.
After taking several dozen more steps up the path, the body finally could not hold out any longer.
Under the tremors of those countless cacophonous voices, it collapsed into a puddle of mush.
Soon, however, as flesh and blood squirmed in the void, a new body began to take shape.
Yet those ubiquitous demonic voices clearly had no intention of sparing Li Qing.
Before the body had even fully materialized, it was crushed to pieces once again.
And so, an exceedingly bizarre spectacle unfolded along those long stone stairs.
A mass of mangled flesh, bearing no semblance of a human form, squirmed and crept upward with great difficulty.
With each pulverization and reformation, the total mass of the flesh seemed to dwindle slightly.
Though Li Qing never gave up, by the end, only a small, deformed lump of meat remained, struggling and clumsily rolling upward.
Even reduced to such a wretched state, the surrounding voices showed not the slightest hint of relenting.
Instead, they grew even more excited. The shrieks grew sharp and piercing, no longer resembling human speech, but rather sounding like meaningless static noise echoing through heaven and earth.
Just as Li Qing's final mass of flesh was on the brink of completely vanishing, a phantasmal silhouette of a black sword abruptly manifested.
It let out a faint sword hum.
In an instant, it briefly suppressed the frenzied din of the surrounding demons!
Seizing this solitary opening, the phantom black sword erupted with sudden speed, transforming into a streak of light that shot straight into the sect's grand hall.
Although the grand hall's doors stood open, peering in from the outside revealed only pitch-black darkness.
Like an abyss, nothing could be seen.
Following that momentary stillness, countless voices erupted violently.
Like mountains toppling and seas roaring, like ghosts wailing and wolves howling!
"I told you he could make it!"
"Hehehe, interesting, how interesting!"
"Why did you let him off on purpose? Why? Why didn't you let me grind him into mincemeat inch by inch!"
"Drop the act. Is lying to yourself really that amusing?"
...
In stark contrast to the noisy, terrifying environment outside, the grand hall of the Dadao Sect was unnervingly quiet.
Inside the vast hall, there was nothing except the sect master's throne at the highest point.
Senior Sister Zhao sat quietly upon the throne.
Like a young child, she sat bolt upright with a straight back, her hands resting flat on her lap.
Her facial expression was frozen, completely motionless.
Li Qing stole a glance at Senior Sister Zhao.
Her appearance seemed frozen in her mid-teens, exactly as she had looked within the illusion.
"Greetings, Heavenly Venerable Yixin."
Despite the eerie atmosphere in the hall, Li Qing respectfully cupped his hands and bowed.
"What is your purpose in coming here?"
Senior Sister Zhao's melodious voice rang out.
Yet it did not originate from the figure seated upon the throne, but resonated from every corner of the grand hall.
Li Qing made no attempt to conceal his intent and spoke candidly: "I have come for the former scriptures of the Profound Heaven Sect."
"The Heaven and Earth Mutual Conquest Rhapsody, the Eternal Sole Self Incantation, the Soul-Severing Spirit-Illuminating Art, the Heaven-Grieving Earth-Lamenting Scripture..."
"These scriptures originally belonged to my Profound Heaven Sect. Today, they ought to be returned to their rightful owner," Li Qing said solemnly.
The hall fell silent for a moment.
Then, Senior Sister Zhao began to chuckle softly, as if she had just heard the most hilarious joke.
"The people of the Profound Heaven Sect haven't all died out yet?"
"And how did you know I had once obtained those cultivation arts?"
"Aside from those, I have quite a few others. Do you want them too?"
Chapter 925