Fairy Fengqing took something out from her bosom, holding it in her palm for Amber to see closely. It was precisely that segment of Qilin Bone!
Amber looked at the object, his gaze dark and complex. After a long while, he let out a soft sigh. "What do you want? I am imprisoned here, all my aura completely restricted. Only my undying body remains. If your demands are too excessive, I'm afraid I cannot fulfill them."
Fairy Fengqing said, "This junior wants nothing. I only beg Senior to let me out."
"Let you out?" Amber revealed a bitter smile. "If I could break the formations here, how could I have been imprisoned for over a hundred thousand years? This request of yours, I cannot satisfy."
Fairy Fengqing was stunned. "Senior, can't you manipulate illusions?"
"I can only make the illusion produce the visions I want it to produce. I cannot break its connection. Moreover, this place is far more than just one illusion. I have been unable to escape for tens of thousands of years precisely because this place is no different from a heaven-spanning, earth-covering net."
The more Fairy Fengqing listened, the paler her face became. Finally, trembling, she said, "Could it be... could it be I am to be trapped in this place forever?"
Amber's tone was indifferent. "You have a lifespan. How can there be 'forever'? When your lifespan ends, you will be free."
Fairy Fengqing stared at him blankly. Seeing his cold expression, not like he was deliberately deceiving her, she instantly lost all strength and slumped to the ground.
"How is this possible? Trapped here for a lifetime, what difference is there from death? I haven't lived enough yet! I'm only seven hundred years old, I still have seven or eight hundred good years to live! I don't want to be trapped here!"
By the end, her face was filled with panic, her voice mournful and shrill, yet no one comforted her. Amber's expression remained indifferent, not a trace of sympathy to be seen.
For a monster like him who had lived for tens of thousands of years, this was simply not worth mentioning.
His gaze shifted, landing on Mo Tiange and Qin Xi. He asked playfully, "Why aren't you two afraid?"
Mo Tiange curled her lip. "If we can break the formations and restrictions here, wouldn't we be able to leave?"
Amber, however, said, "Do you think you can break them?"
Mo Tiange answered a question with another. "The spiritual energy here is so abundant. It's a great place for cultivation." "..."
In her heart, she thought, *This kind of thing has happened before. Back then when we were trapped in the Guixu Sea Immortal Palace, if we hadn't just happened to gather four people and a puppet, we would never have gotten out. Now that it's happening again, it's not so terrifying.*
*Don't forget, we have the Profound Void Cloud Formation in our hands. Even if we don't have enough people, if we wait thirty or fifty years, with the help of the Vermilion Bird's Breath and the Azure Dragon's Breath, Xiaofan and Xiaohuo can advance to the eighth rank. Add the puppet, and we can set up the Profound Void Cloud Formation.*
Amber said, "It seems you two are pure Dao cultivators."
Among the various cultivation paths, Dao cultivators and Buddhist cultivators placed the greatest emphasis on mental state. Upon learning that the formations here could not be broken, Fairy Fengqing's reaction was completely different from theirs, enough to distinguish their respective paths.
And this matter also proved what Qin Xi had said: other paths might not cultivate the mental state, but they often faltered halfway. The Dao cultivator's path, though arduous along the way with many concerns, as long as one persevered, it would be a smooth road.
"Senior!" Fairy Fengqing cried out hoarsely. "Don't you want this Qilin Bone anymore?"
Amber's expression darkened, but in the end, he said indifferently, "For an undying, indestructible existence like me, I could have long since regenerated limbs. I keep this little flaw only to make myself remember the past... You are too self-important."
With that, he flicked his sleeve, retrieving the Qilin Bone from Fairy Fengqing's hand. He said impassively, "This object originally belonged to my body. I have the right to take it back. As a reward for you retrieving it, as long as you are here for one day, I will protect your life for one day."
Fairy Fengqing gave a miserable laugh. *Here, there's no sky above, no ground below. Besides me, there are only Qin Shoujing and Mo Qingwei. What danger could I possibly face?* She didn't know that Amber had sensed her killing intent towards Mo Tiange and Qin Xi, which was why he made this promise.
Watching Fairy Fengqing suffer such a blow, Mo Tiange sighed and asked, "Senior, who laid down the formations and restrictions here?"
Amber glanced at her. "What, want to hear another story?"
Mo Tiange widened her eyes. "Can't this be told either?"
The corner of Amber's mouth lifted slightly. "Telling you is useless. It was an existence far beyond your level."
"Was that during the Ancient Era or the Primordial Era?"
"Are you fishing for information?" Amber hugged his knees and laughed. "Actually, telling you is fine. In our world, there were still people who Ascended and became Immortals."
*So it really is the Ancient or Primordial Era!* Mo Tiange thought. *That means this Senior Amber has lived for at least a hundred thousand years. And he calls himself an undying, indestructible existence. Could it be he has already met the conditions for Ascension but is stranded in the mortal world for some reason?*
"Then why is Senior trapped here? With Senior's cultivation, who had the ability to imprison you for over a hundred thousand years?"
Amber closed his eyes. For a long while, he said nothing. Finally, he let out a faint sigh. "Telling you these things now is useless."
"Because our cultivation is too low?" Amber swept his gaze over them but did not answer.
The answer was obvious. He had been imprisoned here for tens of thousands of years. This was the first time he had seen outsiders, yet he showed not the slightest intention of asking for their help. It was clear this was not something they could assist with.
"Then, Senior, what exactly is this formation?"
Amber lay down, merely reaching out a hand and waving it dismissively, mumbling, "Don't bother me."
Mo Tiange had no choice but to give up. Thinking that since they couldn't leave for the time being anyway, there would be plenty of time to bother him later, she let it go.
Just as she thought this, she suddenly saw Amber's eyes snap open as he sat up. "More people?"
Mo Tiange immediately thought of the demon cultivators. Amber formed a hand seal and pushed outward. The sea of clouds suddenly churned, rippling like water waves. Within the ripples, the figures of several demon cultivators appeared.
These demon cultivators were also trapped in an illusion. Though there was nothing around them, they performed various actions, sometimes joyful, sometimes angry. Xiaofeng was among them.
Seeing the figure of Demon Lord Xuari, Amber narrowed his eyes. "Qilin bloodline..."
Mo Tiange's heart skipped a beat. *That Demon Lord Xuari is from the Qilin clan. Amber certainly won't make things difficult for them. But if they arrive here, would they want to kill us and Fengqing?*
Thinking of this, she looked at Qin Xi. Unable to send a voice transmission, she could only signal with her eyes. Qin Xi shook his head at her. She didn't know if he meant not to worry, or that it wouldn't happen.
After Amber intervened, the illusions the demon cultivators experienced became much easier. They successively broke through the illusions and emerged from the illusionary realm. The first to come out was a slovenly, dark-skinned man—the loach Ni Qi.
He first saw Mo Tiange and the other two. "Huh?" he uttered, pointing at them. "You're humans?"
Qin Xi stepped forward. "Indeed. I am Qin Shoujing, a cultivator from Kunwu. This is my wife, Mo Qingwei. May I ask Fellow Daoist's esteemed name?"
His words were polite, showing no prejudice between human and demon, as if treating him as a fellow cultivator while introducing themselves. Ni Qi grinned, imitating him by cupping his hands. "Ni Qi, a demon cultivator from the South Sea. My true form is a loach."
Hearing the word "loach," Qin Xi's heart skipped a beat. He remembered that while defending the formation, he had slain a loach within the Heaven-Earth Inversion Formation. He had heard that loaches were very difficult to become demons. *It couldn't be such a coincidence that they're relatives, could it?*
Ni Qi didn't know what he was thinking. He swept his gaze over Fairy Fengqing, who was staring blankly in the corner, then saw Amber on the plaque. "Ah!" he exclaimed, then asked, "Are you also from our demon race?"
Amber lazily lifted his eyelids. He was a Divine Beast of the noblest bloodline, while the Ni Qi before him was a loach, the lowest bloodline among demon beasts. This surprised him slightly. "A loach? You, kid, have pretty good fortune!"
Ni Qi chuckled, scratching his head. He asked, "Which clan are you from? Although I know you should be a demon, I can't sense your aura. Are you sealed?"
Amber corrected him. "We are the Spirit Race, not the Demon Race."
Ni Qi went "Ah?" and looked at Amber in confusion.
Amber said, "Don't be misled by humans. Humans are the most selfish. If we are useful to them, they call us Spirit Beasts. If we are not useful to them, we become Demon Beasts. Actually, after we Ascend, we go to the Spirit Realm. Of course, we are the Spirit Race, not the Demon Race."
Ni Qi actually thought about it seriously for a moment, then finally nodded. "What you say makes sense. We cultivate spiritual energy, so of course we are the Spirit Race."
"A teachable pupil!" Amber revealed a smile.
Ni Qi slapped his head again and asked, "You still haven't told me which clan you're from!"
Amber said, "The Qilin Clan."
"Qilin..." Ni Qi's hand, which had been scratching his head, paused. He pulled off a large chunk of black mud but stopped mid-air. He lifted his head, looking at Amber with extreme astonishment. "You?!"
"Is there a problem?" Amber was still lazy.
Ni Qi slapped his head once more and knelt down. "Ni Qi pays respects to Divine Monarch!"
*Divine Monarch... such a long-forgotten title.* Amber sighed inwardly before asking, "How do you know I am a Divine Beast?"
Ni Qi replied, "Reporting to Divine Monarch, we came to this place precisely following the guidance of the sacred object, specifically to seek the Divine Monarch's legacy mansion. We just never expected that the Divine Monarch would still be here..."
Amber's expression turned serious. He sat up and stared at him. "You are a demon cultivator from the Xumi Sea?"
"That is correct." Ni Qi reported. "This little demon is escorting the Crown Prince."
"Crown Prince..." Amber murmured, turning to look at the figure of Demon Lord Xuari in the sea of clouds. He could tell at a glance that this one was of Qilin bloodline, but he hadn't expected it to be the bloodline he had deliberately left behind.
*The Crown Prince of the Xumi Sea, his bloodline has actually thinned to this extent. It seems they sought this place out of desperation. If they didn't find it soon, their bloodline wouldn't be enough to sustain their form anymore.*
After thinking this, Amber felt even more sorrowful. *I am trapped here. Even if they found me, what can I do? I cannot send them out. I can only watch helplessly as they die here with me.*
Ni Qi didn't know the turmoil in Amber's heart at this moment. He saw another person jump out of the illusion—the other tenth-rank demon cultivator, "Elder Jing."
As soon as Elder Jing jumped out, he glanced warily at Mo Tiange and the others, then asked Ni Qi, "Where is the Crown Prince?"
Ni Qi pointed at the sea of clouds. "The Crown Prince hasn't come out yet."
Elder Jing looked. The scene reflected in the sea of clouds showed the Crown Prince's face filled with anger, as if in an argument. Elder Jing was secretly anxious. Demon Lord Xuari showed no signs of breaking through the illusion. He must not be tempted by the illusion and seek his own death.
The third person to jump out of the illusion was actually Jinjing. She glanced timidly at Mo Tiange and Qin Xi, swallowed her saliva, and asked,
"Elder, who are these two..."