Chapter 92: Sudden Upheaval

Qin Yue’s figure suddenly froze. Before him stood that figure with long gray-white hair hanging loose, a broken sword in hand. Two eyes like ghostly flames stared fixedly at him.

Buzz!

The cauldron from his spiritual world flew out and hovered above his head.

Deep within the mouse-headed bronze wheel, in that chaotic world, the giant bronze mouse opened its eyes. No divine light shone forth—only contempt.

Having formed his yin spirit and truly gained the ability to divide his mind, Qin Yue caught the mouse’s fleeting emotion with perfect clarity.

Only then did he finally understand why he had never once felt fear. So this had truly been because of them.

The mouse had probably never taken this decayed god seriously from the very beginning.

Ever since Qin Yue stepped into the Buried Immortal Sea of Sand, it had silently and invisibly given him immense confidence and support.

From first to last, he had known no fear at all; not even the thought of fleeing had truly arisen.

“Could it be suppression by rank?” Qin Yue thought inwardly. It seemed only when facing this sort of existence did the mouse become especially spirited...

The figure with loose gray-white hair let its ghostly eyes fall upon the small cauldron hovering above Qin Yue’s head.

That vast voice, like muffled thunder, once again rolled through Qin Yue’s sea of consciousness: “Primeval Cauldron... no wonder I did not detect you earlier. If not for the fact that you stole my vital energy and forged a karmic tie, you really would have slipped away.”

The force of the other party’s will was too immense, shaking Qin Yue’s skull with pain. Had it not been for the protection of the cauldron and the mouse, he would likely have burst apart like those paper puppets.

“Leave the cauldron, and I shall spare your life!”

The decayed god’s will came again, bringing with it an oppressive force as unyielding as heavenly might.

The Primeval Cauldron above him hummed, as if refusing.

Across from him, the figure with disheveled gray-white hair and eyes burning with ghostly fire slowly raised the broken sword in its hand.

Buzz!

The Primeval Cauldron trembled slightly, and in nearly an instant it drew out all the power of the great medicines within. Even Qin Yue’s yin spirit clearly sensed that the spiritual soil inside had lost its vitality in that instant.

A more vast power flowed out from within the cauldron, holding Qin Yue’s body in unbreakable protection.

“Such a divine treasure, yet you willingly protect a puny human ant. Ludicrous. But with only this much power, you cannot save him!”

A trace of human-like emotion emerged in the decayed god’s will, tinged with displeasure, and the broken sword in its hand was again shrouded in a layer of blood-red hue.

It slashed down toward Qin Yue.

Only by facing it directly could one feel the despair Mo Lao had faced before such a sword.

Seemingly plain and unremarkable, yet in truth the sword was merely a manifested form.

The incomparably fierce sword intent had already filled the entire space, cleaving at him from every direction.

Such pressure was like facing a palm as vast as a planet descending from the heavens, a suppression of the Dao and of all laws that left nowhere to flee and nowhere to hide.

Qin Yue, with fear “shut off,” watched that strike with utter concentration. This time, he finally caught a trace of its trajectory.

The Primeval Cauldron emitted a strange vibration frequency, and at that instant it actually drew even more power from the monstrous eye.

By now, Qin Yue was completely wrapped in a waterfall of countless mysterious runes.

Clang!

The broken sword struck the body of the cauldron, erupting with a long, distant reverberation like the sound of the great Dao.

The whole place shook violently.

Countless “passages” within the eye snapped apart; mountain-sized masses of tissue fell away, like a scene from the end of the world.

The decayed god’s will raged in fury. Its dreadful sword intent took form as innumerable sword lights, frantically hammering at the mysterious runes cascading from the Primeval Cauldron.

With a single sword, it shook heaven and earth.

Yet at that very moment, deep within the bronze wheel’s mouse head, the bronze giant mouse stationed at the center of the chaotic world suddenly stretched out an enormous paw without any warning.

The instant it emerged from the spiritual world, it became unimaginably vivid, erupting with unmatched power of law.

Like swatting a mosquito, it came down with a sharp smack upon the figure with the loose gray-white hair.

In that fleeting moment, Qin Yue sensed only the boundless terror radiating from the decayed god.

Boom!

It exploded.

...

A towering black pagoda stood between heaven and earth, radiating an aura of utter stillness.

Old Ding and Wang Hong both looked exceedingly grim.

Out of the whole group, only five had survived. The others were all dead.

Even they had barely escaped with their lives after being hunted by that figure with the loose gray-white hair.

The obsession-formed shadow of the decayed god was simply too terrifying. Even though they had made every possible preparation, they remained as fragile as paper before such an existence.

A Heavenly Immortal of the third realm could not even withstand a single sword!

After a long while, Old Ding let out a sigh. “In the end, we still failed.”

This trip had originally been undertaken with absolute confidence; they had even already discussed how the spoils would be divided.

“The immortal seed we went to such trouble to find has already flowered and borne fruit, and yet we were still one step too late,” Wang Hong said, his eyes full of unwillingness, before finally he could only sigh in frustration.

An old man covered in blood and nearly hacked to death sat on the ground tending his wounds. “Be thankful,” he said lightly. “That thing could not leave this black pagoda. Otherwise, with the lot of us, not one would have gotten out alive!”

Another old man murmured, “Do you think that boy from the Azure Bamboo Garden might still be alive?”

“What nonsense is that?” Wang Hong immediately retorted. “Even our Heavenly Immortals of the third realm could not endure it. Is he supposed to defend himself with a look?”

Yet Old Ding frowned slightly. “That is really hard to say.”

Wang Hong looked utterly incredulous. In that instant, he had been plunged into blank despair, profoundly feeling the might of an ancient god.

What heavenly powerhouse? Before that being, they were nothing but crap.

Old Ding said, “The moment it happened, Mo Lao was cut down by that sword. I vaguely saw that young man still sitting cross-legged before the immortal plant, and it seemed the god’s obsession did not move against him...”

“Yes, I saw it too. The existence formed from the god’s will seemed not to see him at all,” another old man said.

“Even so, he cannot have survived! Without us opening the portal to that space, even if he is skilled in escape arts, he cannot get away!” Wang Hong did not believe Qin Yue could still be alive at all.

“Forget it. Let’s go. We should leave first and search for the descending demon child. This black pagoda can only be explored again once the time is right. It’s a pity Mo Lao is dead; it will be hard to calculate when the immortal plant will flower and bear fruit again,” Old Ding murmured.

“I heard him mention it once before. The next flowering and fruiting will be at least a hundred years from now,” Wang Hong said somewhat dispiritedly.

The five then staggered off into the distance.

...

With the gray-white-haired figure manifested by the decayed god’s will slapped to death by the mouse, the entire space lost the power sustaining it and collapsed completely.

Qin Yue escaped in the nick of time, narrowly surviving. Even though his yin spirit could act together with him, at such a moment he could only become one with it and devote every ounce of himself to fleeing.

Once outside, he immediately checked on the mouse.

He could not forget the weakness the bronze giant mouse had shown after blocking a tribulation for him the last time.

What delighted him was that in the chaotic world, the giant mouse entrenched at the center still stood majestic and imposing, appearing unharmed and showing no sign of weakness.

Only then did Qin Yue let out a breath. Looking at the utterly ruined space, he could not help but sigh. If only he had been given a little time to explore properly, perhaps he might have gained something else.

“One must not be too greedy. I already have the Primeval Cauldron, and this mouse is enough for me,” he comforted himself, though he still felt somewhat downcast.

The lower hall of the black pagoda was deathly quiet, yet the space still seethed with all kinds of energy fluctuations.

Qin Yue proceeded cautiously, retracing the route he had taken coming in, and found that the spatial layout here was indeed extremely chaotic, with displacements appearing at any moment.

Whether it was because he had drawn upon the decayed god’s power or not, his ability to perceive the pagoda’s complex space had increased many times over.

He could now clearly map out a path for himself to leave. He had also once considered whether he should casually enter some random pocket of space to investigate, but the next moment he dismissed the thought.

Even someone at the peak of the third realm had been unable to take treasures out from within. If he went in, even if he did not die, he probably would gain nothing.

What a pity that the “great eyeball space” had shattered. He would no longer have a chance to search there for lower-grade immortal soil.

A place like the Buried Immortal Sea of Sand was truly not suited to finding the immortal soil that the Enlightenment Tree desired.

The land had been beaten into sand; everywhere was filled with terrifying fields and baleful energy. What proper immortal plant would ever be cultivated in such sand?

At last, he reached the layer at ground level, but he did not leave immediately. Instead, he observed secretly for a long while.

He did not know whether Old Ding and Wang Hong’s group had survived. In any case, on his way back he had not seen a single corpse, so he had best remain cautious.

He hid in the pagoda for a full two days, continuing to cultivate in the meantime. Only after confirming that there was no one outside did he finally leave with peace of mind.

More than ten days later, he finally emerged from this forbidden zone. Perhaps because he carried the decayed god’s power upon him, he encountered no harassment from any creatures of the forbidden land.

Once outside, he did not see the enormous flying vessel, so it could basically be confirmed that some among Old Ding’s group had survived and already departed.

Given the character of these people from the immortal sects, they would probably not return to the Radiant Sun Sect. Having suffered such a huge loss, they also likely would not report his “death” to people like Ling Jinsong.

Still, it would be difficult to keep the news hidden for long. As for what became of Old Ding and Wang Hong’s group, he did not know, but Mo Lao was unquestionably dead.

Qin Yue decided to secretly return to the Radiant Sun Sect, first to see the situation, and then decide whether to stay or go.

In any case, he could not appear in public. If the survivors of this journey learned that he was still alive, they would certainly come looking for him.

This small flying vessel of Mo Lao’s was of very high grade. Though its space was not large, its speed was astonishing.

Qin Yue piloted the vessel and, in only a few short days, returned to the small town at the foot of the Radiant Sun Sect.

The once bustling and lively town was now shrouded in an air of tension. The smiles had vanished from people’s faces, and in their eyes lingered fear and confusion.

Having hurried back in such dusty disarray, only to encounter this scene, he felt somewhat puzzled.

Could something have gone wrong with the sect?

After circling around twice, he still failed to hear anything of value from the townspeople. So he quietly activated the Netherworld Escape Art and arrived at the gate used by ordinary sect disciples. He immediately drew a sharp breath.

Not only were there many inner sect disciples stationed here, but multiple layers of formation were also in place.

From these people, Qin Yue sensed even more clearly that tense atmosphere.

No one was talking about anything, and there was no exchange even between them.

A very bad feeling rose in Qin Yue’s heart. He urged his movement technique and, using a secret method reserved for sect elders, silently entered the formation.

He slipped in quietly along the misty energy gate.

When he arrived near the main hall of the sect, he was even more shocked.

A funeral was being held here. The whole place was draped in white mourning cloth, and on the funeral couplet were the words: “Sect Master Ling, may your name endure forever.”

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