"Speak, what exactly do you want?" Perfected One Yuan Mu took a deep breath and finally asked calmly.
Mo Tiange and Qin Xi exchanged a glance. Qin Xi said, "We don't want anything in particular."
"Fine," said Perfected One Yuan Mu, the highest authority of the Jiuyan Sect. Once he made a decision, he acted without hesitation. "Leave this underground palace immediately, and from now on, we go our separate ways."
Hearing this, the corner of Mo Tiange's mouth curved slightly. She was about to say something when she heard Jing Xingzhi lazily remark, "Fellow Daoist, you're quite the schemer. You get the Spirit-Connecting Treasure, and we obediently walk away. No matter how you calculate it, we're the ones at a disadvantage!"
"Don't push your luck, kid," Perfected One Yuan Mu said, finding Jing Xingzhi particularly irritating. "If we don't take this treasure, we'll just return empty-handed at worst. If you keep yapping, you'll be the one losing your life!"
"Haha, a Late-Nascent Soul cultivator is indeed a Late-Nascent Soul cultivator, so domineering!" The words themselves weren't wrong, but Jing Xingzhi's tone and expression were unmistakably sarcastic.
However, Perfected One Yuan Mu was, after all, a great cultivator. His mental cultivation was extraordinary, and he completely ignored him, turning his gaze to Mo Tiange and Qin Xi. "What do you two think?"
"Alright," Qin Xi said, glancing at Mo Tiange and answering straightforwardly as well. "The three of us will leave the underground palace, and we'll naturally release this junior when the time comes." Seeing Perfected One Yuan Mu's eyebrows raise, he preempted him, "If you two Fellow Daoists don't trust us, then we'll just call it quits. At worst, we perish here, and you can forget about the Bow of the Vermilion Bird."
"..." Perfected One Yuan Mu was silent for a moment. Looking at the three of them, all with expressions of indifference, he secretly gritted his teeth in hatred!
These three were all young juniors, yet they acted so brazenly, comparable to that old fox Ma Laolu who had been wandering the cultivation world for over a thousand years! In truth, he understood clearly that this was a battle of wills. Were they truly willing to sacrifice their own lives? Probably not. But they dared to gamble, and such audacity had already tipped the scales of victory in their favor.
And what about himself? This time, when they opened this space, most of the divine sense on the five sacred objects had dissipated. That meant they could no longer be recognized by new masters and were no longer keys to this space.
Unless they, like the Five Sages, also found a method to open this space. But there was only this final day left before the Immortal Palace closed; it was too late. Without a way to open the space, they could only leave the Immortal Palace before the three days ended and would be unable to re-enter. Under these circumstances, if they missed this opportunity, they would lose the chance to obtain the Bow of the Vermilion Bird forever.
The Bow of the Vermilion Bird. For this artifact, the Jiuyan Sect, for a hundred thousand years, had selected suitable disciples in every generation to cultivate the Ice-Fire Art, preparing for the possible opening of the Guixu Sea space at any time. This had continued for over a hundred generations. A goal persisted for a hundred generations, and suddenly in his generation, there was a possibility of achieving it. How could he let it fail at the last moment? If that happened, he would be letting down the sect's founding ancestors and all the predecessors of past generations!
Thinking of this, Perfected One Yuan Mu suddenly felt a sense of weariness.
He had joined the Jiuyan Sect as a child and, due to his astonishing talent, was taken in as a disciple by a Nascent Soul cultivator. Over several hundred years, he progressed from an outer disciple to an inner disciple, then to a direct disciple, finally forming his Nascent Soul and becoming a Supreme Elder—his path had been smooth sailing. At over five hundred years old, he advanced to the late stage of Nascent Soul, shocking Yunzhong, and became the Chief Supreme Elder of the Jiuyan Sect. For the four hundred years since, his word had been law, his position high and his authority great.
But beneath the glory that everyone envied lay burdens unseen by others. Over these four hundred years, for the sake of the Jiuyan Sect, he had schemed everywhere, exhausting his mind and energy every time. In truth, he wasn't even a thousand years old yet. For a Late-Nascent Soul great cultivator, this was the prime of his glory. Yet he felt as if he had aged, especially when contending with these juniors. It actually made him feel mentally and physically exhausted. Suddenly, he very much wanted to cast all these matters aside and return to a life of secluded, arduous cultivation.
Perfected One Yuan Mu sighed softly and waved his hand. "I'll give you the time it takes for one stick of incense to burn. After that, Fellow Daoist Iron-Face and I will come after you. I hope you keep your word and release this kid before you leave."
His tone was very calm, so calm it carried a hint of weariness, as if he no longer wished to argue with them. This surprised Mo Tiange and the other two.
However, since Perfected One Yuan Mu had agreed, their objective was achieved. Qin Xi gave a meaningful look, signaling Jing Xingzhi to take Ling Yunhe out first. Then, he cupped his hands in farewell to the two Late-Nascent Soul cultivators and, with Mo Tiange, closely followed behind.
They left the grand hall. True to his word, Perfected One Yuan Mu did not follow them with Perfected One Iron-Face.
"Fellow Daoist Ling, apologies for the inconvenience," Mo Tiange said with some regret to Ling Yunhe once they were outside the hall. Previously, when she was alone and oppressed by the three great sects, Ling Yunhe had always treated her quite well. She still remembered that favor.
Ling Yunhe shook his head, his expression calm. "Our positions are different, Fellow Daoist Mo. There's no need to take it to heart." These were words Mo Tiange had once said to him. Back then, he never imagined that one day he would be saying the same thing. It could only be said that the world was unpredictable. There was no fate between them, not even a chance for peaceful coexistence.
Mo Tiange sighed softly and said no more.
"Let's go quickly," Jing Xingzhi said. "Is the time of one incense stick enough for us to get out of the underground palace?"
"It should be enough," Mo Tiange answered, as she was the only one who knew the exit. "Provided our luck isn't too bad and we don't encounter a large group of Demonic Creatures along the way."
When they descended into the underground palace, it had taken them so long to find the grand hall precisely because they had encountered a large group of Demonic Creatures, causing a significant delay.
Jing Xingzhi nodded and said nothing more.
Time was short. The party of four all needed to fly. Mo Tiange's spiritual energy was somewhat unstable, so Qin Xi supported her. Jing Xingzhi, meanwhile, kept Ling Yunhe under his control.
The four had just passed through a stone passageway when Qin Xi suddenly stopped. "What's going on?"
"What?" Mo Tiange asked.
"Feel the surroundings."
In the next moment, the expressions of all four changed.
Within this underground palace sacrificial temple, Demonic Qi filled the air. Even in places where it was relatively faint, one could sense the chaotic intermingling of spiritual and demonic energies. But at this moment, that sense of chaos had changed.
"Demonic Qi..." Ling Yunhe blurted out, pointing at a corner of the wall. There, a very faint wisp of Demonic Qi was slowly losing its color.
Subsequently, everyone could see with their naked eyes that the Demonic Qi around them was slowly disappearing—or rather, this Demonic Qi was surging towards one direction!
She looked up at Qin Xi. Both their eyes held shock!
They both knew that within this sacrificial temple, there was an Origin Demon Stele. This Origin Demon Qi originated precisely from that stele. Now that the Demonic Qi was behaving abnormally, it was very likely that something had happened to the stele! They knew the power of Origin Demon Qi. If something went wrong with that stele, could there be serious consequences?
"Not good!" Qin Xi suddenly shouted. He pulled Mo Tiange and turned to run. "We're going back!"
When he first heard it, Jing Xingzhi was still baffled. In the next moment, his expression also changed. Grabbing Ling Yunhe, he closely followed behind Qin Xi, also sprinting wildly back towards the grand hall.
Demonic Creatures! Just as they had run back to the grand hall, a tidal wave composed of countless Demonic Creatures surged violently towards the direction where the Demonic Qi was disappearing.
Having timely taken refuge back in the grand hall and avoided the wave of Demonic Creatures, all four wore expressions of horror.
The cultivation levels of these Demonic Creatures weren't very high; none had reached the Nascent Soul stage. But they were densely packed, innumerable. Even a Late-Nascent Soul cultivator couldn't take them lightly. If they had been a moment slower in hiding and had collided head-on with these Demonic Creatures, the consequences... "You—" Perfected One Yuan Mu had only uttered two words when he saw the Demonic Creatures pouring out of the stone passageway beside the grand hall. His expression hardened. "What is this..."
He and Perfected One Iron-Face had remained in the grand hall. Within the hall, the Vermilion Bird's aura was dense. That Demonic Qi could not invade, and consequently, Demonic Creatures would also avoid it. Thus, they hadn't noticed the changes outside.
Now, seeing this scene of so many Demonic Creatures surging and running wildly, and upon spreading their divine sense, they immediately understood what was happening.
"What's going on?" Perfected One Yuan Mu muttered to himself. This sudden change left him with no mind to dwell on the fact that Mo Tiange and the others had turned back. Instead, he looked at Perfected One Iron-Face. "Senior Brother Iron-Face, this..."
"Demonic Qi... it's the stele!" Beneath the black iron mask, Perfected One Iron-Face's tone was both surprised and grave. "Could it be that old fellow Guifang?"
The disappearance of Demon Lord Guifang and his disciple had seemed strange even to Mo Tiange, let alone Perfected One Iron-Face, who was more familiar with Guifang. In terms of age, he was much older than Perfected One Yuan Mu, approaching two thousand years. Apart from major events like the Guixu Sea secret realm, he usually secluded himself in his residence for quiet cultivation, awaiting his end. In Yunzhong, the Late-Nascent Soul cultivator closest to him in lifespan was Demon Lord Guifang. Both of them had only about a hundred years of lifespan remaining. Even if they used every life-extending method available, it wouldn't exceed five hundred years.
Being of such similar age, although the two weren't friends, they understood each other better than others did. Given Demon Lord Guifang's abilities, Perfected One Iron-Face absolutely refused to believe he could have perished while searching for the tokens. But where exactly had he gone? They had no way of guessing.
Now, with the Origin Demon Qi in the sacrificial temple undergoing an abnormal change and numerous Demonic Creatures frantically gathering towards a certain location, Perfected One Iron-Face naturally thought of the missing Demon Lord Guifang. Could it be that this old fellow had also concealed his true objective, secretly entering the underground palace to search for that Origin Demon Stele? It wasn't impossible. The spiritual beast aura on the Bow of the Vermilion Bird was something demonic cultivators couldn't control, whereas the Origin Demon Great Method was the supreme treasure for demonic cultivators!
Unfortunately, within this sacrificial temple, the auras were too mixed. Even for Late-Nascent Soul cultivators like them, divine sense couldn't smoothly spread out to investigate the situation in the distance.
This sudden, abnormal change forced the four who had just left back into the grand hall. And the two Late-Nascent Soul cultivators also had no mind to dwell on their previous agreement—if things were truly as they suspected, the situation had just become complicated.
With so much Origin Demon Qi, if Demon Lord Guifang absorbed it, his strength would undoubtedly increase dramatically. He might even use it to attempt a breakthrough to the God Transformation stage. Although the Bow of the Vermilion Bird was useless to him, how could he allow such a Spirit-Connecting Treasure of immense power, one that could potentially threaten him, to exist?
Compared to this, the matter with these three juniors was practically negligible.