Xie Linlang abruptly raised his head and looked toward a certain direction.
Le Qingping followed not far behind him. When she saw Xie Linlang suddenly stop in his tracks, she immediately heightened her vigilance and cautiously asked, “Senior?”
Xie Linlang remained silent for a long while before shaking his head without saying anything, then continued walking forward.
After realizing that Pei Ji had been here before, Xie Linlang resolved to thoroughly investigate the situation.
Considering that he had only just been reborn with somewhat low cultivation, Xie Linlang invited Le Qingping to explore together.
However, Le Qingping knew even less than Xie Linlang; she was purely there to tail Shen He.
When the suddenly appearing, exceedingly handsome senior invited her, Le Qingping felt depressed inside but readily agreed on the surface.
The handsome senior clearly had just restarted his cultivation and lacked helpers, so he naturally would not let her go.
Rather than displeasing the senior, she might as well take the initiative—perhaps he would take a liking to her, redefine her from cannon fodder to follower with a mere gesture?
One could only say that Silent Night Palace’s major classes had been quite prescient, and the students had studied diligently.
The senior called himself Xie Yu, a name Le Qingping had never heard of.
But from Senior Xie Yu’s intentions, he seemed determined to fully probe the secret realm.
Le Qingping felt somewhat troubled.
The path they had taken to arrive was gone, replaced by pitch blackness behind them. Their divine sense was confined, unable to probe the situation inside.
Ahead, though there was a hazy faint light, there was nothing else.
On either side rose enormous stone walls towering into the clouds. Both had tried flying upward but could never see the end, as if the walls on both sides climbed along with their position.
With no other choice, they could only press forward.
Fortunately, intense battle marks occasionally appeared on the walls of the enclosure. Xie Yu would stop from time to time, carefully stroking the traces on the wall before falling into a daze.
Whenever that happened, Le Qingping took the opportunity to regulate her breathing and restore her Demonic Qi while trying to activate Senior Ying’s Puppet.
Senior Ying was, after all, a Soul Transformation powerhouse from the White Bone Sect. Though it was merely his Foundation Establishment Puppet, in the hands of a Soul Transformation senior, it could exhibit near-Nascent Soul level strength, providing an extra layer of safety.
Unfortunately, Le Qingping had failed every time.
Truth be told, she now worried not only about what lay ahead but also how they would leave.
Would they be trapped here for many years?
Just as Le Qingping grew uneasy and let her thoughts wander wildly, Xie Linlang, who walked ahead, stopped.
“The path ahead seems to be cut off,” Xie Linlang said uncertainly.
Le Qingping blinked and peered intently ahead, where it remained a misty haze.
She ventured, “Have you scouted the specific situation ahead, Senior?”
Hah, as expected of a restarted powerhouse—divine sense far surpassing his cultivation level. Confirmed!
Xie Linlang fell silent. His cultivation was too low, and his divine sense had not recovered to its peak, so he naturally could not pierce the white mist to see ahead.
But through the sword marks Pei Ji had left on the walls on either side, he judged that a complete rupture lay ahead.
Every swing of a powerful sword cultivator’s blade carried their comprehension of the heavenly dao.
Xie Linlang was all too familiar with Pei Ji’s sword qi. He could even roughly infer from these marks that Pei Ji’s state had been extremely poor—frenzied, even deranged.
The aura on the sword qi was chaotic too, mingled with spiritual power, Demonic Qi, and even obscure Demon Power, as if he had clashed with many people, retreating while fighting until he reached some point ahead.
Realizing escape was impossible—dead end behind, death trap ahead—Pei Ji had used a secret art that burned his spiritual power and divine soul. The sword qi it unleashed carried a mad, resolute desperation, heedless of life or death.
Pei Ji’s all-or-nothing outburst had cleaved a massive, deep scar, imbued with the profound meaning of severance, bifurcation, utter disconnection.
Xie Linlang’s fingers twisted tightly together, his crescent-moon nails digging deep marks into his palm.
He had suppressed his rage the entire way.
While he had been unaware, a group had ambushed Pei Ji—and he had not been by Pei Ji’s side!
Xie Linlang nearly hated his past self to death for slacking off.
Intense killing intent and hatred swirled in Xie Linlang’s heart, stirring his inner Demonic Qi into agitation. The vermilion dot at his brow gleamed ever more demonically alluring.
Xie Linlang strode ahead with murderous aura surging. Le Qingping trailed behind, towing the floating Senior Ying’s Puppet.
She naturally sensed something off with Xie Linlang’s aura and inwardly groaned.
This exceedingly handsome senior wouldn’t suddenly go mad, would he?
The two and one puppet proceeded like this. The white mist ahead gradually thinned, revealing vague silhouettes of objects.
When they reached the very end of the passage, it was indeed a massive cliff.
Ahead stretched chaotic void, with countless shattered stones and steps scattered and floating in between. At the far end loomed what seemed like a palace.
From afar, the palace appeared faintly collapsed, but a fairly spacious plaza lay before it, upon which stood a black stone monument.
Due to the great distance, Xie Linlang and Le Qingping could not make out the inscriptions.
Below the cliff was endless void without edges. The walls on either side of the cliff continued extending upward endlessly.
It was as if they had emerged from a narrow tubular corridor and finally beheld the outer scene.
Le Qingping’s voice grew dry. “Senior Xie, my power has been suppressed.”
Xie Linlang tried forming a Magic Formula, but his Demonic Qi responded sluggishly, as if forcibly pinned inside his body—not only unable to release outward but also unable to manipulate other objects.
