Chapter 284: Bloodstained Altar
Tang Wanzhou said: “Ancient books record that one page of scriptures can restore vitality to a prefecture, dispelling all darkness.”
Someone laughed: “Even if we only reclaim a prefecture, it would have extraordinary significance. Once that prefecture is thoroughly stabilized, we can go on to reclaim the next one. This would absolutely be an eternal achievement!”
“Du’e Temple supports Zuo Qiu Gatehouse, so let them fight in Lingxiao Life Realm. We Snow Sword Tang Court will build another life realm ourselves.”
Tang Wanzhou silently walked toward the sixth mural, which was also the last one.
“After the warfare was pacified, the new cult leader mobilized the full strength of the cult to retrieve most of the Bright Star Scroll, fully thirty pages, stored in the Sacred Heart Layer of the Ancestor Court.”
“According to the outlines of Fu Prefecture Underground’s Underground Immortal Mansion drawn and measured by generations of predecessors in history. The Underground Immortal Mansion spans three thousand four hundred li north to south and four thousand li east to west.”
“We are now at least a thousand li away from the Sacred Heart Layer.”
……
Tang Wanzhou and a group of martial way masters began discussing.
Li Weiyi couldn’t interject, so he retreated to the periphery, looked up at the grand mural on the stone wall, and felt doubts arise in his heart.
Doubt one: Undoubtedly, the comprehension value of the 《Bright Star Scroll》 and the value of dispelling the Nether Realm of the Dead—either one taken alone would be enough to drive even transcendent beings mad.
If he were Tang Wanzhou, for such a treasure, he would definitely only lead Snow Sword Tang Court’s most core martial cultivators to search for it.
Yet this trip’s Thirty-Eight Riders included masters from many forces. Outside the Starfire Altar, there were still quite a few guys tagging along to fish in troubled waters.
Did Tang Wanzhou have the confidence to silence everyone after finding the 《Bright Star Scroll》?
Doubt two: Pojia Luo Cult has already been destroyed, and intense turmoil erupted inside the Ancestor Court. Was the 《Bright Star Scroll》 really still in the Sacred Heart Layer?
Tang Wanzhou couldn’t possibly fail to think of this.
Everything before their eyes was absolutely not her true purpose.
What exactly was she plotting?
Li Weiyi came to the jade railing and looked down. Below was a dark, empty abyss.
This was inside the Starfire Altar, with jade railings forming a circular passage over a hundred zhang in diameter. One layer connected to another, as if leading to the earth’s core depths.
Li Weiyi picked up a stone, wanting to test how deep it was.
At that moment, he saw some light spots below the abyss.
The light spots grew more numerous, brighter and brighter……
“That’s……”
Li Weiyi held his breath and focused, looking at the group of veteran martial cultivators still discussing, and said: “There’s something happening below the abyss!”
Everyone became alert and gathered around.
Someone threw down a stone lamp. As it fell, it illuminated the darkness layer by layer.
“It’s fierce insects. They’re flying up—leave this place quickly.” Tang Hu grabbed Li Weiyi and Tuo Ba Bu Tuo’s wrists, preparing to take them away.
This was the secret mission Tang Wanzhou had assigned him!
Tang Hu was an old-generation strong practitioner of Snow Sword Tang Court, a top figure below Longevity Realm giants.
On the surface, it was Tuo Ba Bu Tuo protecting Li Weiyi, but in reality, that was just a smokescreen. In a moment of danger, Tang Hu would first bring the two of them out.
“Oh no, the stone gate is closed!”
Tang Hu set the two down, circulated magic energy in his body, and thrust out both palms.
“Boom!”
Dense formation scripts emerged on the previously unremarkable stone gate, like an ocean of text. It blocked Tang Hu’s palms while surging back with a mountain-toppling, sea-overturning force.
Tang Hu stood motionless in place.
But Li Weiyi and Tuo Ba Bu Tuo were flung out like two leaves, their minds booming with ringing sounds, nearly passing out.
The two of them were not weaklings; it was just that Tang Hu was too strong.
“Master Hu……”
Tuo Ba Bu Tuo shouted loudly.
Tang Hu wanted to strike a few more palms, but hearing the shout, he turned his head and saw that the two he needed to protect had been shaken until they vomited blood by the earlier palm force and formation power.
He had no choice but to bring the two back.
“Swish swish……”
Inside the altar, the glowing fierce insect swarm shuttled in flight like streams.
They emitted harsh cries containing mind force attacks.
Countless mind forces twisted together—even Dao Seed Realm martial cultivators couldn’t withstand it. One person’s face showed madness, his consciousness lost as he drew his blade and cleaved his companion at the waist.
Blood splashed, staining the ground red.
In an instant, the scene became extremely chaotic.
Madam Wanyan released two “Seven-colored Flying Fireflies.”
Shan Ze old man released three Commander Level Strange Insects “Blood Jade Mantises.”
The five Commander Level Strange Insects fought against that swarm of glowing fierce insects.
Strangely, these fierce insects showed no fear even as they were constantly killed. They grew fiercer in battle against the five Commander Level Strange Insects, refusing to retreat.
Shan Ze old man roared: “They’re Nether Domain Mayflies, one of the most terrifying General-level Fierce Insects. There are too many—they excel at mind force attacks and can control martial cultivators’ minds.”
Tang Wanzhou looked at the chaotic battle before her, her eyes calm. Her figure flashed dozens of zhang, and with one finger, she struck down a martial cultivator whose consciousness was lost, pinning him to the ground.
Tang Hu appeared beside her with Li Weiyi and Tuo Ba Bu Tuo: “The entrance is sealed by a formation—very likely……a Saint Spirit Mind Master’s doing!”
Hearing this, Li Weiyi and Tuo Ba Bu Tuo’s hearts turned ice-cold, their whole bodies covered in goosebumps.
“How could there be a Saint Spirit Mind Master in the Underground Immortal Mansion? Someone of that level shouldn’t be able to enter, right?” Tuo Ba Bu Tuo said.
“What if they were originally someone from inside?”
As Tang Wanzhou said this, she sensed something and looked up.
Tuo Ba Bu Tuo thought deeply and was terrified, his eyes nearly popping out.
At the railing of the layer above, two elderly figures appeared—twins, identical in appearance. They stood in the darkness, meeting Tang Wanzhou’s gaze.
One of them let out a hoarse laugh: “Worthy of Tang Wanzhou, who suppressed the Southern Territory’s Fourteen Prefectures with snow. Trapped in such peril, yet still maintaining composure.”
“Peril? Just those Nether Domain Mayflies? Or you two?” Tang Wanzhou said.
Li Weiyi released Great Phoenix.
Its body enlarged, becoming a giant butterfly two or three meters long. It erupted with an aura comparable to a Longevity Realm martial cultivator and charged into the Nether Domain Mayfly swarm.
These fierce insects immediately scattered, not daring to attack Great Phoenix.
Some mayflies even fell directly to the ground, trembling nonstop, not daring to fly.
“Is it an evil cult?”
“Doesn’t matter who they are—kill them first.”
The martial cultivators gradually recovered and released battle intents one after another.
Several of them attacked the two old men standing above.
The two old men used movement techniques to flee upward.
“Clang!”
A sword cry rang out.
Divine Snow Sword turned into a streak of sword shadow, blasting through the formation and shattering the stone gate at the entrance. It flew from the Starfire Altar into mid-air.
Then, it arced back into the altar and landed in her hand.
Tang Wanzhou’s voice echoed inside the Starfire Altar: “There’s an ambush—hurry and withdraw. I’ll cover the rear!”
“No one is leaving today.”
From above, an elderly voice rang out.
Immediately after came a large number of hair-raising roars.
In the darkness at the top of the altar’s interior, a third old man appeared, shaking a ghost flag in his hand.
Countless Departed Spirit Ghostly Shadows flew out from the flag, their eyes burning with ghost fire as they dove down at extreme speed, surrounding the martial cultivators Tang Wanzhou had brought one by one.
Chaotic battle erupted once more.
Tang Hu was the first to rush out of the stone gate with Li Weiyi and Tuo Ba Bu Tuo, appearing on the altar’s surface. Their figures leaped and soared into the air.
“Great Phoenix is still inside.”
Li Weiyi hadn’t had time to retrieve it earlier before being carried away by Tang Hu.
“Don’t worry, Young Lord will bring it along…… Ah……”
From the altar, a brilliant spiritual light chain shot out, extending dozens of zhang to wrap around Tang Hu’s waist in mid-air.
The spiritual light chain was extremely hot, flames burning and scorching Tang Hu’s armor with sizzling sounds.
“Swish!”
A second spiritual light chain flew over, wrapping around Tang Hu’s neck.
“Hurry…… go……”
Tang Hu struck one palm each on Li Weiyi and Tuo Ba Bu Tuo’s backs, sending out a stream of magic energy that propelled them several li away, landing in the thorns of Nether Spirit Plain.
“Master Hu!”
Li Weiyi and Tuo Ba Bu Tuo stood up and looked back.
They saw Tang Hu wrapped by one spiritual light chain after another, roaring like a trapped beast. Then he was suddenly yanked back into the altar, his body exploding into blood mist, turning into a skeleton in armor at the top of the altar.
A top expert at Dao Seed Realm was killed in just a few breaths.
“It’s a Saint Spirit Mind Master…… Run, Li Weiyi. We have to go now……”
Tuo Ba Bu Tuo and Li Weiyi, whose eyes were cold as ice, fled at top speed across Nether Spirit Plain.
Behind them, martial cultivators kept rushing out of the altar’s entrance, only to be constantly yanked back by spiritual light chains—they couldn’t escape at all.
Tuo Ba Bu Tuo and Li Weiyi released magic energy to protect their bodies as they madly dashed through the thorn thickets.
Screams kept coming from the altar behind them.
The more they ran, the more Li Weiyi felt something was off: “Why is it so quiet? What about those martial cultivators who followed us in earlier, trying to fish in troubled waters?”
Tuo Ba Bu Tuo, running ahead, suddenly stopped, looking ahead at a patch of blood-red clearing with terrified eyes.
The clearing, dozens of zhang in size, was filled with corpses strewn horizontally and vertically.
All the martial cultivators who had followed were dead here, the air thick with a pungent bloody stench.
In stark contrast to this hellish scene was a white-clothed woman untouched by any blood, standing at the center amid the corpses like a Shura slaughterhouse. Her long hair swayed, tied with a hair ribbon. Even her back view gave an otherworldly, ethereal beauty untouched by mortal smoke and fire.
The surrounding thorns all emitted purple, blue, and cyan glows, as tall as a person.
The strength of her aura and mind was so overwhelming that Li Weiyi and Tuo Ba Bu Tuo couldn’t even circulate their magic energy—the entire space felt frozen still.
She turned around, pointed once to freeze Li Weiyi and Tuo Ba Bu Tuo in place, then walked toward the towering Starfire Altar. A heavenly voice rang out, carrying far: “Tang Wanzhou, in the clashes within this Jia Zi cycle, have you ever been defeated?”
“Swish!”
At that moment, Tang Wanzhou burst out of the stone gate, severing all the spiritual light chains. Sword in hand, she stood proudly on a dozens-of-zhang-high stone cliff at the edge of the altar, looking toward the white-clothed woman on the distant Nether Spirit Plain.
Great Phoenix flew out after her.
Li Weiyi’s body was bound by a wisp of magic energy, unable to move. Looking at the white-clothed woman’s back, massive waves surged in his heart.
Just now, as the white-clothed woman passed by him, for an instant, Li Weiyi had seen her face clearly.
“Yao Qingxuan……”
This name emerged in Li Weiyi’s mind.
Because she looked too much like Yao Yin.
But how was that possible?
That extraordinary woman admired by countless people had committed suicide over a decade ago.
Had he seen wrong?
……
Monthly Ticket!
