Hao Nhien remained hidden behind the boulder, his gaze fixed on the three layers of cultivators maintaining the ritual below.
The Blood Yin Disc had begun to fluctuate more violently with each cycle of chanting. All eight stone coffins were trembling continuously, and one of them had already shifted far enough for a narrow gap to appear beneath the lid. From inside, strands of gray-black Yin qi slowly seeped out, spreading a chill across the surrounding sand.
He no longer had much time to test different approaches.
After a brief moment of thought, Hao Nhien bent down and picked up three small stones, each only slightly larger than a fingertip. He infused a trace of Wind spiritual power into each one, then wrapped the surface in a thin layer of Fire spiritual power. The two different forces were deliberately held in an unstable balance, so that a sufficiently strong impact would break that balance and create a small explosion.
It was nothing more than an improvised trick and posed little threat to a Foundation Establishment cultivator, but it was more than enough to create a disturbance in the middle of the night.
Hao Nhien held the first stone between two fingers and flicked it away.
The stone skimmed close to the sand, passed around a low dune, and landed to the west, nearly a hundred zhang from the ritual site.
A muffled explosion broke through the night.
Red firelight flashed briefly before fading, followed by a cloud of sand rising behind the dune.
The black-robed leader glanced in that direction for only a moment before continuing to maintain the ritual. Rather than leaving himself, he raised two fingers in a short signal. One of the two early Foundation Establishment cultivators immediately led four Qi Condensation cultivators toward the source of the explosion.
Their response was quick, but not enough.
Hao Nhien waited until the group had moved some distance from the circle before sending the second stone toward the southeast. This time, before throwing it, he also used his spiritual awareness to guide the Tieu Dao Sword out from his hiding place along a wide arc.
The stone landed first.
The second explosion followed almost immediately.
At the same time, a streak of silver sword light flashed through the drifting sand and vanished before the people below could see it clearly.
That glimpse of sword light caused a much stronger reaction than the first disturbance. Several gray-cloaked cultivators in the outer layer instinctively turned their heads, and the steady chanting immediately slipped out of rhythm for a single beat. The violet flame at the center contracted, while the black lines linked to the Blood Yin Disc flickered unevenly.
The leader barked at once,
“Hold the formation. Do not lose focus!”
His hoarse voice carried spiritual power that pressed down across the circle, forcing the gray-cloaked cultivators to recover their rhythm quickly.
But Hao Nhien had already seen what he needed.
As long as even part of the group maintaining the ritual was disrupted, the Blood Yin Disc reacted at once. That meant the formation depended heavily on the precise coordination of those kneeling in the three rings and could not be sustained by the leader alone.
He did not throw the third stone yet.
One early Foundation Establishment cultivator had already left with four Qi Condensation cultivators, while the other remained near the stone coffins. The leader clearly had no intention of dividing his force any further, but everyone's attention had already become far more strained than before.
Hao Nhien slowly rose to his feet.
The Fire Spirit Sword appeared in his right hand. The heavy blade remained dark and subdued, with only a faint red line running along its length as Fire spiritual power flowed into it.
The Spirit Wings opened behind him.
Rather than charging down immediately, Hao Nhien first guided the Tieu Dao Sword far to the south. The silver sword light deliberately revealed itself for a brief instant.
The remaining early Foundation Establishment cultivator turned his head at once.
That moment of distraction was enough.
Hao Nhien flicked the final stone into the outer ring of the ritual.
It exploded among the kneeling Qi Condensation cultivators. The blast was not powerful enough to kill them, but the sudden release of Wind spiritual power sent sand surging upward, while the thin outer layer of Fire spiritual power erupted into a blinding red flare.
The chanting broke apart immediately.
The violet flame at the center shuddered violently, the Blood Yin Disc released a low hum, and the formation lines across the sand dimmed before flaring back to life.
In that instant of disorder, Hao Nhien left his hiding place.
He skimmed close to the ground, the Spirit Wings continuously adjusting his body according to each shift in the wind. Compared with before, changing direction at high speed had become far more natural. He no longer forced his body into new trajectories with spiritual power alone, instead following the airflow and using the Spirit Wings only at the moments when an extra push was needed.
The distance of more than a hundred zhang disappeared rapidly.
When less than thirty zhang remained, the black-robed leader suddenly turned his head. The two murky red gems set into the bone staff lit up at once.
“Someone is here!”
The shout had barely left his mouth when Hao Nhien changed direction.
His target was not the leader but the Blood Yin Disc behind the fire.
More than thirty corpses that had crawled out of the sand immediately turned toward him. They neither roared nor hesitated, but rushed forward together, their decaying bodies filling the space between him and the formation core.
Hao Nhien swept his left hand forward.
Fire spiritual power erupted close to the ground, spreading into a low band of flame across his path. The first corpses that charged into it blackened almost instantly, while the Yin qi clinging to their flesh rose as gray smoke. Even so, they continued advancing under the control of the formation. The bodies behind them even shoved the burning corpses forward, using their own kind as shields to force a path through the fire.
Hao Nhien did not waste time trying to destroy them.
The Spirit Wings beat strongly, lifting him more than a zhang into the air before carrying him over the mass of corpses.
Just as he was about to land near the Blood Yin Disc, the bone staff swept in from the right.
A gray-black stream of Yin qi extended like a whip and struck toward him.
Hao Nhien turned the Fire Spirit Sword across his body to block.
The collision produced a deep explosion. His right arm went numb, and the force shoved him several steps sideways across the sand before he regained his balance.
His gaze immediately sharpened.
The leader himself was only at mid Foundation Establishment, but the staff was directly connected to the Blood Yin Disc. Each time he exerted force, part of the Yin qi gathered by the entire ritual flowed into him, allowing his attacks to erupt with power far beyond his actual cultivation.
The leader did not pursue Hao Nhien. Instead, he immediately drove the bone staff into the ground.
Yin qi rose from the Blood Yin Disc and formed a gray-black barrier around the stone platform.
“Are you from Tam Thành?”
His voice was as rough as dry sand scraping across bone.
Hao Nhien did not answer.
He glanced around the area. The gray-cloaked cultivators were hurrying to recover their positions, while the early Foundation Establishment cultivator who had been distracted by the sword light had already realized what was happening and was rushing back. The group lured toward the west would certainly return very soon as well.
He was running out of time.
The Spirit Wings beat again.
The leader swept his staff three times in succession, sending three streams of Yin qi cutting across the area ahead. Hao Nhien did not move in a straight line. He angled with the wind, changed direction midway, then abruptly dropped lower, causing the first two attacks to strike only the afterimages left behind.
The third passed close to his shoulder.
Hao Nhien appeared to the left of the Blood Yin Disc and immediately brought the Fire Spirit Sword down against the barrier.
A piercing impact rang out.
The protective layer caved beneath the heavy sword but did not break. Within the gray-black veil, distorted ghostly faces emerged one after another, their mouths opening wide as they surged toward the blade as though trying to bite into the Fire spiritual power surrounding it.
Hao Nhien deliberately drew on part of the power resonating with the Fire Qilin Jade in his Sea of Consciousness.
The radiance around the jade deepened. Golden-red Fire spiritual power flowed through his meridians and into the Fire Spirit Sword, carrying the intense heat unique to the Fire Qilin inheritance.
The ghostly faces twisted violently the moment they touched the blade. Gray smoke rose from them, and a long crack appeared across the barrier.
The leader's expression changed.
“This Fire power...”
He did not finish the sentence. His left hand moved at once.
A black banner flew from his sleeve and unfurled in midair. More than ten distorted Yin souls poured out, each carrying an aura close to late Qi Condensation.
Without physical bodies, they were difficult for ordinary weapons to harm.
Hao Nhien turned.
This time, instead of allowing the Fire Qilin Jade to circulate power on its own, he deliberately activated the inheritance he had already integrated. Fire spiritual power surged around his body, and behind him the faint image of a Fire Qilin Beast appeared.
The image existed only as a manifestation of inherited aura. It did not separate from Hao Nhien or act independently. Even so, the scorching pressure caused the approaching Yin souls to slow noticeably. Their warped forms trembled, while the black smoke around them fluctuated chaotically as though their Yin nature instinctively recoiled from the aura.
The leader gritted his teeth and repeatedly urged the banner forward.
The Yin souls were forced to continue their attack.
Hao Nhien stepped forward and punched.
Fire spiritual power condensed around his arm and swept ahead with the force of the strike. The first three Yin souls were hit directly, their hazy forms catching fire before dissolving into smoke, while the rest were driven back by the heat.
But the leader had used that exact opening to close the distance.
The tip of the bone staff stabbed toward Hao Nhien's back.
Hao Nhien sensed the danger but could not avoid it completely. He twisted to the right, escaping a direct strike to the center of his back, but the staff still swept heavily across his left shoulder.
A freezing stream of Yin qi pierced through his robe.
His shoulder immediately went numb.
Hao Nhien used the force to retreat, circulating Fire spiritual power into the wound as he moved. The heat gradually forced the invading Yin qi outward, causing a thin stream of black smoke to rise from his shoulder.
The leader gave him no chance to recover.
The bone staff descended again.
Hao Nhien raised the Fire Spirit Sword to block.
The two exchanged a rapid series of blows around the Blood Yin Disc. Yin qi and Fire spiritual power collided repeatedly, throwing waves of sand into the air. As the exchange continued, Hao Nhien realized that he was being forced backward not because the opponent's technique was overwhelmingly superior, but because every time the staff touched the ground or swept across the formation lines, more power from the ritual flowed into the leader.
At the same time, the early Foundation Establishment cultivator stationed near the coffins had returned.
He controlled two black chains that shot toward Hao Nhien from behind.
Farther away, the group that had been lured west was also returning, led by the other early Foundation Establishment cultivator, who now carried a bone saber.
Within only a few breaths, three Foundation Establishment cultivators had formed an encirclement around Hao Nhien.
The half-burned corpses outside were also closing in.
Hao Nhien drew a deep breath but did not immediately try to break through.
His gaze passed over the bone staff, the Blood Yin Disc, and finally the formation lines beneath his feet.
After several exchanges, he had gained a much clearer understanding of the way the power was moving.
The Yin qi from the eight stone coffins passed through the Blood Yin Disc before being transmitted into the staff. If the barrier protecting the formation core was too difficult to break quickly, there was no need to keep attacking the core itself.
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He only needed to sever the channels feeding it.
Hao Nhien suddenly retreated.
The cultivator controlling the chains seized the opportunity. Both black chains swept close to the sand, and one wrapped around Hao Nhien's right ankle before he could complete his change of direction.
A violent pull threw his balance off for a moment.
Almost at the same time, the cultivator wielding the bone saber rushed in from the left. The blade, wrapped in Yin qi, chopped toward Hao Nhien's shoulder.
Hao Nhien did not try to evade both attacks completely.
He turned and used the Fire Spirit Sword to block the bone saber. The impact numbed his right hand, while the blade still slid down and tore a long gash through his sleeve, leaving a shallow wound across his arm.
The chain around his ankle tightened further.
But Hao Nhien had already achieved what he wanted.
His left foot stamped heavily into the sand.
During the fighting, he had quietly guided three extremely thin streams of Fire spiritual power beneath the ground, letting them travel through the sand toward the three nearest formation lines. The amount of power was too faint for opponents focused on battle to notice immediately, but once all three points reached their intended positions, Hao Nhien no longer concealed them.
The Fire spiritual power buried beneath the sand erupted simultaneously.
Three explosions overlapped almost as one.
The force was not enough to destroy the entire area, but three sections of the formation lines connecting the coffins to the Blood Yin Disc were severed at once.
The light on the stone platform dimmed by nearly half.
The leader's expression changed sharply.
The aura being amplified by the formation fell immediately, while the bone staff in his hand began to tremble.
Hao Nhien did not waste the opening.
Fire spiritual power surged down his right leg and disrupted the Yin qi flowing through the chain. At the same time, he twisted sharply and pulled, taking advantage of the chain wielder's momentary inability to adjust to the change in the formation and dragging him off balance.
The Fire Spirit Sword swept horizontally.
The cultivator with the bone saber hurriedly raised his weapon to block.
The two weapons collided.
The bone saber had already endured a direct impact earlier and immediately developed a crack. Fire spiritual power poured through the fracture and erupted along the wielder's arm.
The man staggered backward in pain.
Hao Nhien followed and drove a kick straight into his chest.
A dull cracking sound came from his ribs as the Foundation Establishment cultivator was sent flying backward and slammed into the side of a stone coffin.
The chain wielder released his weapon and tried to retreat, but the Spirit Wings behind Hao Nhien beat once.
The distance of several zhang vanished almost instantly.
Hao Nhien appeared in front of him and struck his abdomen with a punch. The man doubled over but still managed to drive Yin qi back into Hao Nhien's chest. The protective spiritual power around Hao Nhien shook violently and forced him half a step backward.
Before the man could recover, Hao Nhien seized his collar, turned, and hurled him directly into the ring of corpses closing in around them.
Decaying hands immediately grabbed at him.
A panicked scream rang out.
The leader had no choice but to sweep his staff aside, using a wave of Yin qi to blast the corpses away from his subordinate.
That single delay was enough.
Hao Nhien rushed toward the Blood Yin Disc.
With three channels severed, the barrier protecting the platform had fallen to less than half its former strength. Hao Nhien gathered the purest Fire spiritual power he could draw from within his body while guiding the aura of the Fire Qilin inheritance down from his Sea of Consciousness into the Fire Spirit Sword.
The heavy blade turned red.
Hao Nhien brought it down.
The barrier shook violently. Numerous ghostly faces emerged within it, only to be burned away by the Fire spiritual power. The crack across the protective layer rapidly expanded until the entire veil shattered.
The Fire Spirit Sword did not stop.
The heavy blade struck the stone platform.
The Blood Yin Disc split into two pieces.
All the dark-purple formation lines across the area went out at once. The central flame contracted violently before exploding into a column of black smoke.
The gray-cloaked cultivators maintaining the ritual all suffered backlash. Most spat blood and collapsed, while several clutched their heads and rolled across the sand as the Yin qi inside them ran out of control. The two weakest cultivators convulsed only a few times before their vitality rapidly faded.
The corpses that had risen from the ground also froze before collapsing back into the sand.
But the eight stone coffins did not become still.
Instead, one of them began shaking more violently than ever.
A loud impact rang out as its stone lid was blasted away.
From the darkness within the coffin, an arm as black as iron slowly reached out.
An aura comparable to late Foundation Establishment erupted across the area.
The black-robed leader, who had only just regained his footing, immediately went pale.
There was no joy in his eyes.
Only fear.
“The ritual is not complete...”
He stepped backward.
“Retreat!”
It was already too late.
A figure nearly a zhang tall slowly sat up inside the coffin. Its dry black flesh clung tightly to the bones beneath, while a set of ancient ruined armor still hung across its body. A large hollow had been carved through the center of its chest, and faint gray flames burned inside its empty eye sockets.
The Corpse Puppet turned its head.
It showed no recognition of those who had summoned it.
A nearby gray-cloaked cultivator had barely begun to retreat when the massive hand closed around him.
Bones snapped.
The man's body twisted under the crushing force, blood splashing beside the coffin.
The Corpse Puppet opened its mouth.
A stream of blood qi was drawn from the body and absorbed into the empty cavity in its chest. Its already powerful aura rose another step.
The surviving gray-cloaked cultivators who could still move began fleeing in panic.
The leader turned as well.
Hao Nhien had already appeared in front of him.
The Fire Spirit Sword blocked his path.
“You are not leaving yet.”
The leader gritted his teeth.
“Move! The formation has collapsed. An unfinished Corpse Puppet will not recognize a master. If it keeps absorbing blood qi, everyone here could die!”
Hao Nhien glanced toward the Corpse Puppet chasing the fleeing cultivators.
“Then you have even more reason to tell me how to destroy it.”
The leader swung his staff.
Hao Nhien blocked immediately.
Without the Blood Yin Disc feeding him power, the man's aura had fallen back to ordinary mid Foundation Establishment. His battle experience was still respectable, but the difference from when the formation had been amplifying him was obvious.
After several clashes, the Fire Spirit Sword knocked the bone staff aside.
Hao Nhien turned his wrist and slashed horizontally.
The staff took the full force of the heavy sword and finally broke into two pieces.
The leader tried to retreat, but Hao Nhien's kick struck his knee. He dropped into the sand, and the Fire Spirit Sword stopped against his neck.
“Speak.”
The leader breathed heavily, his eyes repeatedly shifting toward the Corpse Puppet.
“The corpse heart... if you want to kill it, destroy the corpse heart.”
Hao Nhien frowned.
“Where is it?”
“Inside its coffin. The body is only a vessel. The corpse heart stores the Yin qi and resentment, but it is protected by Yin fluid. Ordinary fire is very difficult to use against it.”
Hao Nhien immediately looked toward the open coffin.
A layer of thick black liquid remained inside. Deep beneath it, he could faintly see a dark-purple mass of flesh contracting slowly.
The Corpse Puppet seemed to sense his attention.
It immediately turned its head.
The gray flames inside its eye sockets locked onto Hao Nhien.
Its huge body vanished from its previous position.
It was far faster than the corpses that had appeared earlier.
A pitch-black fist came crashing down.
Hao Nhien raised the Fire Spirit Sword at once.
The sand beneath his feet sank deeply.
Numbness spread through both arms up to his shoulders, and the Corpse Puppet's terrifying physical strength forced him to angle the blade and slide aside with the impact to avoid being driven into the ground.
Its raw power clearly exceeded that of an ordinary late Foundation Establishment cultivator.
The Corpse Puppet continued its assault.
Every punch shattered sand and stone. Hao Nhien stopped meeting it directly, instead using the Spirit Wings to change angles again and again, avoiding the heavy blows while gradually drawing it away from the coffin.
When enough distance had opened between them, Hao Nhien abruptly changed direction.
He condensed a mass of Fire spiritual power and hurled it straight toward the coffin.
For the first time since awakening, the Corpse Puppet released a hoarse sound. Its powerful body immediately twisted around as if trying to return and protect what lay inside.
The mass of flame struck the black liquid.
Yin qi surged from the fluid and rapidly weakened the fire.
The leader had been telling the truth. Ordinary Fire spiritual power had difficulty penetrating the Yin fluid.
Hao Nhien had expected that.
He deliberately drew on the Fire Qilin Jade within his Sea of Consciousness, allowing the aura of the inheritance to merge into the flames burning within the coffin.
The fire immediately turned golden-red.
The black liquid began boiling violently. Yin qi surrounding the flames continuously dissolved into smoke, while the dark-purple heart beneath started convulsing.
The Corpse Puppet went berserk.
Ignoring the fleeing gray-cloaked cultivators, it rushed directly toward the coffin.
Hao Nhien did not give it the chance.
The Spirit Wings opened wide.
He shot past the Corpse Puppet's flank and slashed the Fire Spirit Sword across its hollow chest. The blade did not try to break apart the iron-hard body. Instead, it carved a channel deep enough for Fire spiritual power carrying the Fire Qilin aura to surge inside.
At almost the same moment, the Yin fluid in the coffin was burned through.
The dark-purple heart caught fire.
A muffled explosion sounded from within.
The charging Corpse Puppet suddenly froze.
The gray flames in its eye sockets shook violently before fading away.
The Fire spiritual power Hao Nhien had driven into its chest erupted from within. Its dry black flesh rapidly turned to ash, sections of bone cracked beneath the heat, and the ruined ancient armor fell into the sand.
Within only a few breaths, the nearly one-zhang-tall figure had become a charred skeleton before collapsing.
The surviving gray-cloaked cultivators immediately scattered in every direction.
Hao Nhien did not pursue them.
He turned back toward the leader.
The man was trying to crawl toward the black banner lying some distance away.
Hao Nhien reached it first and stepped on it.
Fire spiritual power poured down.
Sharp shrieks immediately came from within the banner as streams of Yin qi escaped and were burned away. Before long, the entire banner had been reduced to ash.
The leader raised his head, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Hao Nhien.
“You have ruined the Yin Soul Sect's plan.”
Hao Nhien placed the Fire Spirit Sword against his neck.
“The Yin Soul Sect?”
He memorized the name before asking,
“What are you doing in the Western Wastes?”
The leader gave a hoarse laugh but did not answer.
Hao Nhien did not immediately attempt to attack his Sea of Consciousness or soul. Instead, he raised his left hand and formed a small flame of Fire spiritual power in his palm before bringing it close to the Yin qi wrapped around the sinister cultivator's body.
The moment Fire power carrying the Fire Qilin aura touched it, the Yin qi contracted violently.
The leader clenched his teeth.
Hao Nhien allowed the Fire spiritual power to seep into the meridians already occupied by sinister qi. It did not burn the man's soul directly, but the conflict with his Yin cultivation immediately threw the energy in his body into chaos, and pain quickly spread across his face.
“What are you doing in the Western Wastes?”
Hao Nhien asked again.
The leader endured for several more breaths before finally forcing out an answer between heavy gasps.
“Collecting corpses and resentment. Too many people have died in the Western Wastes. The ancient battlefields and the places where fighting has happened recently are ideal for refining Corpse Puppets.”
Hao Nhien's gaze turned cold.
“Why refine so many of them?”
“I do not know the final plan. My group only handles the construction of altars, gathering vessels, and completing the first stages of refinement.”
The leader swallowed a mouthful of blood before continuing.
“When the number is sufficient, the altars will be connected.”
“Connected to where?”
“I do not know. Only the higher-level altar overseers know the location of the center.”
Hao Nhien studied him for a moment before asking the most important question.
“Is the Yin Soul Sect working with Heavenly Eye?”
The leader remained silent.
Hao Nhien only brought the flame slightly closer.
The Yin qi inside the man's meridians immediately fell into violent disorder, turning his face deathly pale.
“Not directly... at least, we do not receive orders from Heavenly Eye.”
Hao Nhien did not overlook the wording.
“Then who is helping you?”
The leader struggled to breathe.
“Someone provides safe routes, corpses, and information about the battlefield. That is how we avoid most patrols.”
“Who?”
The leader opened his mouth.
Before the next sound could emerge, his entire body suddenly went rigid.
A tiny imprint of aura that had been hidden deep within him abruptly erupted.
Terror appeared at once in his bloodshot eyes.
“Soul... restriction...”
Those were the only words he managed before the sinister qi within him violently turned against its owner. His meridians fell into chaos, and his vitality was severed within several breaths. Black blood spilled from the corner of his mouth before his entire body went limp.
Hao Nhien immediately stepped back.
A thin thread of gray smoke escaped from the corpse's brow. It contracted into a tiny point and shot northeast close to the sand at extreme speed.
Hao Nhien started to pursue it, but after only a single breath, the gray point had already vanished beyond the range of his perception.
He stopped.
The smoke could have been some form of message imprint, or perhaps a fragment of soul intent being sent back to whoever had placed the restriction. Whatever it was, one thing was nearly certain: the person behind this group of sinister cultivators would soon know that something had happened to the altar.
Hao Nhien turned back toward the leader's corpse.
He did not touch the remaining items directly. Instead, he first surrounded them with Fire spiritual power and separated them one by one from the lingering Yin qi.
There were few spirit stones inside the storage bag. Most of its contents consisted of several bottles filled with black liquid, pieces of hide covered in unfamiliar symbols, and a small token carved from some unknown gray-white bone.
Hao Nhien did not open the bottles or attempt to decipher the markings there. He placed a temporary spiritual seal around all the items and stored them separately in another storage bag.
These things should be examined by Lieu Thien Van or someone who truly understood sinister arts.
Hao Nhien then walked around the ritual site.
The Blood Yin Disc had been split in two.
The remaining seven stone coffins were still sealed, but the fluctuations within them were far weaker than those from the coffin that had already awakened. After observing them for a while, Hao Nhien could tell that their refinement was clearly incomplete and still far from the stage of awakening.
He had no intention of opening them one by one.
Fire spiritual power carrying the aura of the Fire Qilin inheritance spread outward and enveloped all seven coffins.
At first, heavy impacts sounded continuously from within. Several coffin lids shook as though something inside was trying to force its way out, but the movement soon weakened as the Fire spiritual power penetrated the stone and burned into the Yin qi accumulated inside.
Eventually, everything became silent.
Hao Nhien continued burning the corpses that had been raised, the remaining formation lines, and the black liquid spilled around the site. He had no intention of leaving such concentrated Yin qi so close to the route leading toward the forward camp.
The flames burned for nearly half a shichen.
Only when most of the area had been reduced to black ash and hardened patches of scorched sand did Hao Nhien finally stop.
His face had grown slightly pale.
The battle had not lasted long, but repeatedly using the Spirit Wings, Fire Spirit Sword, remote control of the Tieu Dao Sword, the destruction of the formation, and the Fire Qilin power had consumed nearly sixty percent of his spiritual power. A wound from the bone staff still remained on his left shoulder. Most of the invading Yin qi had been forced out, but the flesh around it remained cold and stiff.
Hao Nhien took out a Qi Recovery Pill and swallowed it.
He remained standing amid the ashes, regulating his breathing while slowly organizing everything he had just learned.
There was still no direct evidence that Heavenly Eye was cooperating with the Yin Soul Sect. The leader had even stated that his group did not receive orders directly from Heavenly Eye, so Hao Nhien could not treat suspicion alone as proof that the two forces were connected.
More troubling was the fact that whoever was supporting the Yin Soul Sect clearly had access to battlefield information and understood the patrol routes extremely well.
If that person belonged to one of the major forces in the Western Wastes, the problem could be far more serious than a group of sinister cultivators merely sneaking into the desert.
Hao Nhien looked east.
The forward camp was no longer far away.
He needed to deliver the evidence to Lieu Thien Van. The altar here had been destroyed, but the gray smoke that had escaped meant the location was no longer safe. If the people behind the Yin Soul Sect sent stronger cultivators to investigate, remaining here would only place him in unnecessary danger.
Hao Nhien summoned the Tieu Dao Sword.
As the Qi Recovery Pill began taking effect, he stepped onto the flying sword. The Spirit Wings opened slightly behind him to stabilize his body, and the silver sword light soon left the field of ashes behind, shooting directly toward the forward camp.
Far to the northeast, deep within a region of gray mist that never seemed to disperse, a gloomy Cave Dwelling was sealed beneath layer after layer of formations.
There were no oil lamps or illuminating crystals inside. Only pale-blue flames floated in the air, causing the stone walls to shift between light and darkness as though they were moving.
A black meditation cushion rested at the center of the Cave Dwelling.
A withered old man sat motionless upon it.
His skin was wrinkled like the bark of a dead tree, his eye sockets deeply sunken, and his breathing so faint that from a distance he could easily have been mistaken for a corpse that had dried there many years ago.
Twelve small lamps were arranged in an arc before him. A gray flame burned within each one, weak but steady.
Without warning, one of the twelve flames went out.
The old man did not open his eyes.
A short while later, a point of gray smoke appeared from a crack beyond the surrounding formations. It passed through layer after layer of restrictions, circled the Cave Dwelling once, and entered directly between the old man's brows.
His withered body moved faintly.
After several breaths, his eyes slowly opened.
Within his gray-white pupils appeared the broken images carried back by the smoke: a sea of golden-red flame, the faint image of a Fire Qilin Beast, an ancient heavy sword, and finally the face of a young man dressed in white.
The images were incomplete.
The old man watched them for a long time.
“A Fire affinity capable of suppressing Yin souls to this extent, and it carries the aura of an ancient divine beast...”
His voice was so dry that it sounded almost like two pieces of bone scraping together.
“This person also wields a heavy sword. His cultivation is only at mid Foundation Establishment, yet his combat strength far exceeds his realm.”
He raised one withered hand.
Another gray lamp floated toward him on its own. Within the flame, a faint map of the outer Western Wastes gradually appeared.
Several black points were scattered across it.
One had just gone dark.
The others were still slowly brightening.
The old man stared at the extinguished point for a moment before shifting his attention toward those near the forward camp.
“The destruction of a single altar is not enough to change what has already begun.”
His dry finger touched the flame.
Three nearby black points brightened at once.
“Send the order to the remaining altars. Shorten the preparation time. Before Tam Thành discovers every trace, the required number of Corpse Puppets must be completed.”
Deep in the darkness behind him, the slow sound of chains could be heard.
A stiff voice, nothing like that of a living person, answered,
“As commanded.”
The old man did not immediately close his eyes.
Within the gray flame before him, the image of the white-robed man appeared once more. The face remained indistinct. There was no name, nor any clear sign of identity.
The old man studied the image for several more breaths before speaking coldly.
“Find out who he is.”
The chains in the darkness sounded faintly once more.
Then the Cave Dwelling gradually returned to silence.