Deep within the valley, the Sword Formation cascaded down like a river of stars. Ye Yunfei sat cross-legged, the mystical patterns within the Divine Pupil at his glabella flowing mysteriously. Two Soul Bodies and sixty Soul Power planets, in coordination with the deduction of the Divine Pupil, had his Soul Force Energy and Mental Force energy simultaneously probing deep beneath the earth. Two to three thousand Earth Dragons swam rapidly in the depths, instantly feeding every detail of what they saw, sensed, and felt back to Ye Yunfei.
At this moment, Ye Yunfei's deduction and comprehension abilities had reached a terrifying level.
And during this process, Ye Yunfei discovered quite a few Earth Dragons indigenous to the Sword Realm Continent underground. He immediately employed the Xiang Di Earth Arts and, almost as an afterthought, subjugated these local Earth Dragons. Having been active deep beneath the continent for a long time, these Earth Dragons were far more familiar with the environment.
At this time, Sword Elder also began employing his own methods to perceive deep underground.
Although Sword Elder had existed on this continent for an extremely long time, he rarely deliberately explored its subterranean world. After all, this was a very ancient and vast continent. The number of sword dao sects of every stripe upon it was countless, with each region belonging to different ones. Randomly exploring the continent's underground would run the high risk of prying into the privacy of other major sects, as many sword dao sects' cultivation secret realms or ancestral lands were hidden beneath the ground of their headquarters. Hence, Sword Elder previously only familiarized himself with the underground world of his own Heavenly Sword Sect's headquarters, avoiding casual prying into the deep earth of other areas on the continent to prevent provoking conflicts with other sword dao sects.
But now, having heard Ye Yunfei's report, he could not afford such caution.
Hummm…
Dense clusters of sword radiance shot out from his form, then drilled underground, transforming into dazzling beams of incredible speed that ventured deeper into the earth.
However, what surprised Sword Elder was that when his radiance reached a certain depth, it was directly blocked by two incredibly terrifying energy auras. One was a sword dao energy aura, but the other was a blade dao energy aura.
"There truly exists pure, high-level Blade Dao Energy deep beneath this continent! How can this be? This is the Sword Realm Continent! The Sword Realm Continent primarily features sword dao energy and sword dao laws. Every other kind of energy and law upon it is suppressed, unable to exist long-term. How could such advanced Blade Dao Energy be present in the depths of this sword dao continent?" Sword Elder discovered that all of the sword radiance he had released had already been destroyed by those two terrifying energies deep below. Affected, Sword Elder's body couldn't help but tremble violently.
"An energy even I cannot contend with!"
Sword Elder instantly realized the two energies deep underground were not simple. Even though he was only a Remnant Soul now, he had been one of the top Sword Realm swordsmen in ancient times. Moreover, he had just remotely tapped into some of the reserves of the Heavenly Sword Sect headquarters, yet was still blocked and unable to probe further. This indicated just how dreadful those two energies underground were.
"Patriarch Mentor, let me do the sensing. The Blade Dao Energy down there is incredibly potent and exists on a large scale. It's not scattered remnants but continuously and rhythmically transmitted upwards from the depths, as if self-perpetuating. This indicates that Blade Dao Energy must have some source somewhere deep underground." Seeing Sword Elder's body trembling, Ye Yunfei quickly spoke up.
Clearly, even Sword Elder couldn't withstand those Blade Dao and sword dao energies underground.
"Very well. Continue seeing what that Blade Dao Energy is about," Sword Elder nodded. He knew Ye Yunfei used the Pupil Technique he cultivated for observation and deduction, avoiding direct contact with the two energies below and thus relatively safe. Especially since the Pupil Technique inheritance from the Heavenly Eye God Monarch was renowned in ancient times as the pinnacle Pupil Technique in the Chaotic Void Sea, said to penetrate all falsehoods of the world and even glimpse past and future. While Ye Yunfei's current cultivation level was still relatively low, he had been practicing this technique for a while. Frequent use had made him increasingly adept with it.
"Patriarch Mentor, my senses indicate it's highly possible a hidden space exists deep beneath the Sword Realm Continent. The Blade Dao Energy down there likely diffuses out from that space. Moreover, it seems the underbelly of this continent has been modified. The flow of earth energy down there is incredibly regular, as if forming a grand-scale Earth Formation. And this grand Earth Formation is continuously gathering the earth energy of the entire continent to suppress... something." Suddenly, Ye Yunfei spoke again.
With the Pupil Technique's amplification, Ye Yunfei had pushed his Xiang Di Earth Arts to their limit, sensing that an immense Earth Formation had taken shape beneath the Sword Realm Continent. The sheer scale of crafting such a vast continent into a large Earth Formation was breathtaking to Ye Yunfei.
"This must have been personally laid down by a master of Xiang Di Earth Arts in ancient times," Ye Yunfei added.
"A large, artificially created Earth Formation? What secrets lie deep beneath the Sword Realm Continent?" Sword Elder was somewhat startled by Ye Yunfei's words.
"Patriarch Mentor, I've discovered another thing. The other end of the fine thread connecting this Heavenly Turtle Token to the eastern region... is actually located underground," Ye Yunfei suddenly said again.
"Oh? So that token might be hidden deep underground! No wonder, over all these years traversing the entire Sword Realm Continent, I never found any trace of those three Heavenly Turtle Tokens. They were underground all along!" Sword Elder was somewhat astonished.
"It seems we need to properly explore this continent's subterranean world," Sword Elder said slowly.
"But first, let me carefully consider what could possibly exist down there." Sword Elder sat cross-legged, entering a state of deduction. He had been one of the Sword Realm Continent's top swordsmen in ancient times, so of course he was extremely familiar with its various aspects. He just hadn't paid attention to the subterranean world before. Now he needed to reorganize his thoughts and deduce anew.
"Patriarch Mentor, it seems someone is spying on our valley."
Right at this moment, Ye Yunfei's expression suddenly shifted. His Soul Force Energy and Mental Force energy, like a tide, emanated from the valley outwards in all directions. And then Ye Yunfei saw many dark figures lurking in the distance, peering at their valley. Since Sword Elder's Sword Formation tightly sealed this valley, making it difficult to sense the interior from outside, those shadows were continuously approaching, likely intending to observe the valley's situation from close range.
"Those fellows appear to be from the Divine Sword Sect. Their energy auras match the sect's sword dao heritage, and... all of them are alive! If my guess is correct, they must be the Divine Sword Sect's Hidden Sword Guards," hearing Ye Yunfei's words, Sword Elder also immediately sensed the shadows closing in and recognized their origins. "In the great war of that era, the vast majority of sword dao sects on the Sword Realm Continent perished. No living swordsmen remained on the continent, as any lucky survivors had fled. I always believed only Remnant Souls and Soul Power imprints remained here on the Sword Realm Continent. I truly never expected the Divine Sword Sect to still have these living Hidden Sword Guards. It seems quite a number of Divine Sword Sect members survived that war, remaining hidden on the continent all this time. I even suspect Mo Chenzi isn't dead either—what usually manifests is merely a Soul Power projection. The Divine Sword Sect has quite the methods! They deceived so many sword dao sects on our continent!" Sword Elder stared at the encroaching shadows, speaking angrily.
After he finished speaking, Sword Elder pointed a finger. The Sword Formation shrouding the valley above suddenly blazed with intensified sword radiance. Sweeping sword beams howled out, carrying vast sword dao energy. Where they passed, space was sliced asunder.
The shadows sneaking close were instantly terrified out of their wits, turning to flee, but it was too late. Miserable screams rang out as the figures were instantly shredded by dense, dazzling sword lights, their bodies torn asunder and scattering onto the earth. In a mere instant, every shadow in the vicinity was completely exterminated.
"Damned!"
At this moment, at Divine Sword Sect headquarters, Mo Chenzi stood at a certain location, watching the Hidden Sword Guards being slaughtered in the east. His face grew flustered and angry.
"Quickly erase the auras of those Hidden Sword Guards! Don't let the remnant souls from the other sects find out, or they'll immediately grow suspicious of our Divine Sword Sect." An old man appeared beside Mo Chenzi and spoke.
"Good. I'll erase all their auras immediately, and order the remaining Hidden Sword Guards into hiding," Hearing the old man's words, Mo Chenzi felt a chill. He produced a banner-like token and forcibly drove it into the ground before him.
The banner shot through the deep earth towards the eastern continent. Then, many powerful currents of sword dao energy soared up from beneath the east, forcibly erasing all traces of flesh, blood, and Soul Body fragments of the fallen Hidden Sword Guards, annihilating them utterly.
"What's happening?"
At this moment, many Soul Power energies throughout the Sword Realm Continent began sensing towards the eastern valley. The commotion caused by Sword Elder's slaughter had attracted attention.
"Fellow elders, Divine Sword Sect's Hidden Sword Guards were tailing and spying on me. Hence I eliminated them. The Hidden Sword Guards I mentioned are all alive." Sword Elder's figure materialized high in the sky above the eastern continent and declared.
"What? Living Hidden Sword Guards? How is that possible? Didn't most of the Divine Sword Sect perish in the ancient war? And for all these years, Divine Sword Sect headquarters have been in ruins, with no living creatures appearing to move about! How could there be living Hidden Sword Guards left on our Sword Realm Continent?" Hearing Sword Elder's words, the various sect's Remnant Souls observing showed expressions of shock.
"Sword Elder, it seems you wish to continue slandering our Divine Sword Sect. My words remain the same: baseless claims require proof. Our sect does not admit to this." As soon as Sword Elder's words fell, a tall figure rose from the ruins of Divine Sword Sect headquarters in the distance, speaking coldly.
It was Mo Chenzi.
Although many Hidden Sword Guards had been slain by Sword Elder moments ago, all remnants, bloodstains, Soul Body fragments, and auras had been forcefully erased. Therefore, Mo Chenzi had no worry the other sect's Remnant Souls could detect anything.
At this moment, those other Remnant Souls were releasing their Soul Power energies to sense, but they detected nothing.
"Mo Chenzi, I wonder how long you can keep up this charade." Sword Elder looked towards Mo Chenzi and spoke coldly.