"Do you want them?"
These words sounded as though spoken by different people, each with a distinct tone and inflection.
They echoed through the sect's grand hall, lingering long without dispersing, lending an even more sinister cast to an already bizarre scene.
Li Qing, however, showed not the slightest trace of fear. "If the Heavenly Venerable dares offer them, I dare accept."
Senior Sister Zhao's laughter came to an abrupt halt.
In an instant, Li Qing felt as if thousands of gazes from every corner of the hall had turned upon him.
"Profound Heaven remnant..."
"Even if I gave them to you, so what? Could you walk out of my Dadao Sect alive?"
Only a single, chilly voice remained to interrogate him.
Li Qing offered a faint smile. "If I don't try, how would I know?"
The provocation in his words was simply too brazen. Even with Li Qing's extraordinary performance in the illusion, it seemed he had genuinely provoked Heavenly Venerable Yixin at this moment.
Beside Li Qing, in what had been an empty hall, thousands of human faces suddenly surfaced.
Their expressions varied, but every single one of them was staring fixedly at Li Qing.
And from beneath the faces, out of the void of darkness, pallid arms reached forth from thin air, grasping toward Li Qing.
Soon, Li Qing was submerged beneath this surging tide of pale limbs.
It seemed he would soon vanish from the hall entirely.
However...
A moment later, countless shrieks abruptly erupted from the faces.
Screams filled with terror, dread, resentment...
As if something utterly terrifying lurked upon Li Qing's person, every single one of them scattered away, many times faster than they had rushed to devour him!
In the center of the hall, upon the serene face of the teenage Senior Sister Zhao, a ripple of emotion surfaced for the very first time.
Bang!
Above Li Qing, several stone pillars materialized out of nowhere. Crashing down with a deafening thud, they formed a cage, trapping him inside.
"On your person..."
"What is that thing?"
In Heavenly Venerable Yixin's icy tone, there was actually a trace of apprehension.
Li Qing smiled and countered, "I was hoping to ask the Heavenly Venerable about that. Do you perhaps have any inkling as to what it is?"
Silence hung over the hall for a moment.
Then, Yixin's voice rang out once more: "I had my doubts before about whether you were truly from the Profound Heaven Sect, but now I'm actually somewhat inclined to believe it."
"To dare harbor such a thing within your divine soul..."
"What a pity. We can no longer merge into one."
Li Qing smiled without answering.
He merely sensed the flickering seven-colored orb of light within his divine soul.
Ever since he gained consciousness, this thing had been suppressed deep within his divine soul.
It had clearly been implanted by his true self when creating this avatar.
The seven-colored orb itself was not what mattered; what mattered was the entity sealed inside it.
Even with the barrier of the Seven-Colored Divine Light, Li Qing constantly felt as though a blade were hanging over his head.
One could well imagine that whatever was sealed inside had to be extraordinarily perilous.
Li Qing had no memories regarding this thing in his mind, but he knew that the reason his true self dared send him to brave the Dadao Sect alone at the Nascent Soul realm was relying on this very object as a deterrent!
Although such a malevolent thing was harbored within his divine soul, Li Qing was completely unperturbed.
His thoughts flickered and passed in an instant. Looking at the young Senior Sister Zhao sitting ramrod straight before him, he said solemnly, "Now that the Heavenly Venerable has attained the seat of Longevity, those diverse cultivation arts are of no use to you."
"Yet to our Profound Heaven Sect, they are of utmost importance. Why not do us a favor and grant our wish? In the future, our Profound Heaven Sect will certainly offer a handsome reward!"
Seeing that Heavenly Venerable Yixin remained silent, Li Qing hesitated for a moment before adding, "In truth, we of the Profound Heaven Sect are not unreasonable people. If the Heavenly Venerable is willing to return the items to their rightful owner, we can offer commensurate compensation in exchange."
"Furthermore, I believe the Heavenly Venerable will definitely be interested in this."
Li Qing spoke with complete confidence.
In eerie silence, the thousands of faces that had been frightened off suddenly crowded close again.
"Compensation..."
The faces burst into peals of bizarre laughter.
"The Profound Heaven Sect was destroyed a thousand years ago, and you lot are nothing more than rats that shun the light."
"What could you possibly have that is worth my—"
Before the words could finish, they came to an abrupt halt in unison.
They all stared at a beam of golden light that had suddenly appeared in Li Qing's palm. The expressions on their faces froze solid!
This Dadao Sect was the very foundation upon which she had attained the Longevity realm.
Although it still resided within the Xuanhuang Realm, in truth it could be viewed as an isolated realm-within-a-realm under her absolute control.
Every slight rustle of grass, every shift in energy throughout the Dadao Sect could never escape her grasp.
Except for this abruptly appearing golden light...
Heavenly Venerable Yixin was certain that the origin of this golden light was not from within Li Qing's body.
Rather, it came from beyond the Dadao Sect!
To be able to bypass her restrictions and come and go at will...
Sensing the energy contained within the golden light, ancient memories belonging to the former elders of the Dadao Sect could not help but surface.
Seeing Senior Sister Zhao's reaction, Li Qing knew his true self's ploy had succeeded.
Thus, he declared in a clear, resonant voice: "Defeat in a single moment does not mean defeat for all time. Our years of lying low do not mean we have vanished into the river of history."
"Even a hundred-legged centipede dies but never stiffens. How much more so the heritage of a True Immortal?"
Li Qing held his head high.
Having obtained several cultivation arts of the Profound Heaven Sect, Senior Sister Zhao was naturally well aware of the terrifying depth of the sect's foundation.
A mere few heritage arts had virtually forged her into a Longevity Heavenly Venerable.
The true heritage of the Profound Heaven Sect had to be utterly unfathomable.
Even more crucial...
Although the downfall of the Profound Heaven Sect had been carried out through the joint efforts of the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao, according to the Dadao Sect's secret records, that final battle of extermination was actually exceedingly bizarre.
Originally, they had never intended to wipe out the Profound Heaven Sect in a single battle; who could have known that as the fighting raged, the opposing side suddenly collapsed on its own?
More critically, on the battlefield that day, the King of Profound Heaven, who was reputed to be a half-step True Immortal, never even showed up.
That was why that battle had been so effortless.
At that time, the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao had also suspected whether some conspiracy lay behind it.
Fearing that the King of Profound Heaven might stage a comeback at any moment, they issued an absolute kill order against the remnants of the Profound Heaven Sect, all to force this hidden half-immortal into the open.
Never did they expect that he would seem to evaporate from the world entirely, never to appear in the Xuanhuang Realm again.
"Does the resurgence of the Profound Heaven Sect mean that the King of Profound Heaven will also reappear in the mortal realm?"
This question could not help but arise in Heavenly Venerable Yixin's mind.
After all, what the other party had revealed—the gray mold and the golden vow power—were plainly not things an ordinary cultivator could possess.
Heavenly Venerable Yixin did not ponder for long.
In her eyes, having one more disruptor in the Xuanhuang Realm was not necessarily a bad thing.
Although the half-immortal realm was powerful, the Xuanhuang Realm was no longer what it once had been.
Perhaps the resurgence of this half-immortal might even bring unexpected shifts and vitality.
Inside the hall, the thousands of pallid faces staring gloomily at Li Qing vanished in an instant.
The dim hall grew bright in turn.
"I quite fancy the gift you brought, you know."
A voice rang out, its tone completely different from before.
Chapter 926