Chapter 483 : Down Below
483: Down Below
While the two divine beasts had stirred up chaos beneath the blood pool, its surface remained perfectly calm without the slightest ripple.
The stone cavern remained the same, as did the guards. Everyone had their eyes closed, forming hand seals, when suddenly one person opened their eyes and, after silently calculating, said: "Seven days have passed. Those two divine beasts should have been dealt with by now."
At these words, the others making hand seals wavered, almost falling over.
All formations require energy to operate, and the higher-level the formation, the greater the consumption. For instance, the protective grand formations of various sects, once activated, devoured resources like a gold-swallowing beast—no matter how many spirit stones one fed them, it never seemed enough. But the formation they had been maintaining was different; it didn't consume spirit stones but relied on cultivators' spiritual energy, and seven days of output was enough to drain a cultivator completely.
Fortunately, there were far more people in the underground palace than just those in the stone cavern, with cultivators already waiting nearby. Seeing the exhausted group finish their task, several cultivators hurried forward to support them: "You've all worked hard. The superior has ordered that you may rest for now. We will temporarily guard this place."
No one objected to this arrangement. After reaching the stone bridge, the exhausted group immediately sat down cross-legged.
After barely half a cycle of meditative breathing, a tremendous noise suddenly reached their ears—sounds in the underground palace could travel far, and this one clearly exceeded normal levels.
"Enemy attack?!" The replacement guards exclaimed, but instead of rushing out of the stone cavern to confront the enemy, they all began forming hand seals.
They too were activating a formation, not the one in the blood pool but the defensive formation at the cavern entrance—this place was the core of the entire underground palace, its most important location. Even if the entire underground palace were destroyed, this area couldn't suffer the slightest damage!
As they formed seals, the formation's light quickly brightened. Just as the defensive formation was about to fully activate, a sword light forcefully pierced through. Before anyone could react, the half-risen defensive formation was shattered, nearly shocking the eyeballs out of everyone in the cavern... It was worth noting that this defensive formation, though unassuming, was a ninth-grade grand formation—not something just anyone could break.
Of course, since even a ninth-grade defensive formation was broken, it was clear the newcomer was no ordinary person.
Everyone in the stone cavern instantly became alert. As they saw the owner of the sword light step into the cavern, they seized the opportunity to attack. Red, yellow, green—spiritual lights of various colors came flying simultaneously, with the momentum to pulverize the intruder.
Fortunately, the newcomer was well-prepared. With a hand seal formed and spiritual sword extended, a devastatingly sharp sword light swept across horizontally.
As the saying goes, "One force breaks ten thousand methods," and the sword light at this moment possessed an unmatched momentum. As the white sword light passed through, all spiritual lights and attacks melted away like ice and snow, all shattered by this single strike.
Then the person outside the cavern finally stepped in. She wore a white robe and held a sword as frost-like as snow. Her appearance and demeanor were about eighty percent similar to Yun Qingyue's, yet three degrees colder... That familiar face, familiar temperament, familiar Xuanqing Sect robe—who else could it be but Peak Master Qingyu herself?
Peak Master Qingyu had been renowned for many years, and many in the cultivation world recognized her. As it happened, several people in the stone cavern knew her, and now someone couldn't help but exclaim in shock: "Qingyu, how are you here?!"
The people in the stone cavern were clearly surprised because, according to their information, Yun Qingyue's message to Xuanqing Sect had been sent only days ago. She and Jiang Mo had reached Mount Xuanyin so quickly simply because they had been nearby. But Xuanqing Sect was different—flying from there to this location would take at least a month, so they had hardly considered the possibility of reinforcements.
Yet now reinforcements had suddenly appeared before them, almost as if descended from the heavens—how could they not be surprised? But why would Peak Master Qingyu explain anything to irrelevant people?
She swept a cold gaze over the person, whom she didn't recognize, and swung her sword without hesitation. The person struggled to defend.
Fortunately for them, she was alone, while the stone cavern housed many unactivated formations. Even a Great Achievement realm powerhouse could be detained... The group in the cavern exchanged glances, wasting no more time on words or hesitation as they began to coordinate their counterattack.
At first, things progressed smoothly, with the stone cavern guards taking advantage of their home ground. Yet even when entangled and caught in formations, Qingyu showed not the slightest panic.
Soon, the people in the cavern understood why she wasn't panicking—because she wasn't the only one who had come!
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Xuanqing Sect was far from Mount Xuanyin. Under normal circumstances, they couldn't possibly have arrived in time to intervene. Perhaps for this very reason, the Demon Race had chosen Mount Xuanyin as one of their strongholds.
However, many had forgotten that Divine Lord Zhiming of Xuanqing Sect, when not sleeping, possessed abilities others lacked—such as tearing through space and teleporting across half the cultivation continent.
Though Divine Lord Zhiming hadn't come himself, he had sent more than enough people.
Peak Master Qingyu, who had recovered from her injuries, was one of them; Sect Leader Zhu, who had stubbornly insisted on coming, was another. With these two leading, they already had two Great Achievement cultivators. At the same time, Buddha Sect had dispatched a Great Achievement elder, making a total of three Great Achievement realm cultivators—they had no choice; ultimately, it was Tan Xin who was trapped in Mount Xuanyin, and even though Buddha Sect had suffered heavy losses, they couldn't not send someone.
Great Achievement cultivators were already top-tier combatants in the cultivation world. Among the three righteous path sects and four demonic path sects, all seven sects together had only about a dozen such cultivators. With three Great Achievement cultivators gathered, they could virtually walk unchallenged through the cultivation world.
Even though Mount Xuanyin's underground palace was one of the Demon Race's strongholds, and even though the Demon Race had already controlled nearly half the forces in the cultivation world, there couldn't possibly be more Great Achievement cultivators stationed here... And indeed, there were only two Great Achievement cultivators guarding the underground palace. Sect Leader Zhu had volunteered to go with the Buddha Sect elder, leaving Peak Master Qingyu to sweep through the entire underground palace on her own.
About half an hour later, Zhu Baiyi and the Buddha Sect elder defeated their enemies and hurried back. By the time they arrived, the battle in the stone cavern had long ended, with captives sprawled everywhere and Qingyu standing on the stone bridge, looking down.
The fierce battle had left Zhu Baiyi somewhat disheveled. She tidied her clothes slightly before stepping forward to ask: "How are you? Are you alright? Have you found Qingyue and the others?"
Qingyu was naturally unharmed—her cultivation level was overwhelmingly superior, and even with the enemy's home advantage, they couldn't injure her in the slightest. But her expression was far from relaxed as she looked down at the blood pool below, her brows tightly furrowed.
After a while, she pointed at the blood pool below and said to Zhu Baiyi: "Look down there."
Zhu Baiyi followed her gesture. Despite being from the demonic path—the Crimson Blood Sect, named for crimson blood, could hardly avoid dealing with bloodshed—Zhu Baiyi instinctively frowned. She even grabbed Qingyu's arm, trying to pull her back a bit. When that failed, she said: "This isn't an ordinary blood pool below. We'd better keep our distance."
Qingyu didn't move, her brows knitting even tighter: "But Qingyue is down there, Jianbing is down there... Tan Xin is also down there."
……
The thick blood pool seemed to isolate everything—those above couldn't see what was happening below, and those below were unaware of the changes occurring above. They seemed to exist in two separate worlds, with nothing to rely on but themselves.
Yun Qingyue carried Jiang Mo, descending for an unknown length of time before finally reaching the deepest part of the blood pool.
Boundless pressure assaulted them both, negative energy enveloping them from all directions, oppressive enough to drive one to the brink of madness—this was Jiang Mo's most immediate feeling when Yun Qingyue released her, leaving her barely able to stand. And this was with the system helping to eliminate toxins, reducing the negative energy's effect on her; her senior sister had none of these advantages.
Jiang Mo struggled to stand steady, turning to look at her senior sister with extreme concern: "Ah Yue, are you alright?"
Yun Qingyue shook her head, her jade-like phoenix eyes clear and bright, with hidden light gleaming: "I'm fine, perfectly fine."
She spoke the truth. Though she didn't know what restraint she had broken through earlier, that energy continued to flow uninterrupted. Not only had it replenished her depleted spiritual energy, but this energy also seemed naturally able to resist the abnormalities of the blood pool, preventing her from being affected by those negative factors... While Jiang Mo could exert less than one-tenth of her power, Yun Qingyue could still exert eight or nine-tenths of hers.
Her senior sister wouldn't lie. Hearing this response, half of Jiang Mo's worries subsided. As for the other half, it naturally came from her senior sister's unusual reaction—she had been suppressed just like Jiang Mo earlier, but now she was suddenly fine. Could her senior sister have been influenced or assimilated by the blood pool?
This thought flashed through Jiang Mo's mind, causing her some concern, but as long as her senior sister was fine for now, she wouldn't say much. If problems did arise, she could always earn more points to help her senior sister recover.
After checking on her senior sister, Jiang Mo finally had time to observe her surroundings, immediately noticing the huge formation markings beneath her feet.
The illiterate tiger only knew they were formation marks but couldn't identify what kind of formation it was. She carefully stepped over the gaps in the formation and asked Yun Qingyue: "Ah Yue, is this the formation connected to Tan Xin?"
Yun Qingyue's gaze swept over the formation marks before turning to Jiang Mo: "Where is Tan Xin?"
"He's right here." Jiang Mo pulled out the little monk she had been protecting, still hesitating whether to put him down when she suddenly startled: "Wait, what is that?!"
Only to see that at the little monk's chest, a wisp of black energy with only its tail remaining completely entered his heart as she exclaimed in surprise.