Chapter 1041: Blood-Soaked Secret Chamber

Crack!

A crisp sound echoed.

It was faint, yet when it reached everyone’s ears, it struck like thunder! A fine fissure appeared on the light dome.

All the cultivators’ eyes blazed with heat as they launched frenzied attacks upon it. The cracks multiplied, but the sealing light dome still held firm.

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Qin Sang’s gaze suddenly sharpened. He saw Venerable Ye abruptly cease his attacks. Runes rippled across the surface of his body, and his aura fluctuated chaotically. Su Nu and the others, meanwhile, began to converge toward the center.

The seal isn’t broken yet, and Venerable Ye is already preparing to strike?

That thought flashed across Qin Sang’s mind, tightening his chest. He swiftly stuffed several spirit pills into his mouth, then began forming hand seals with blinding speed.

Around them, cultivators grew restless. Bursts of strange light flared around the barrier as everyone edged closer, poised to strike at any moment.

Crack... Crack...

The cracks on the seal spread rapidly.

Suddenly, a sharp metallic roar exploded beside their ears. Everyone flinched in alarm.

A streak of saber light erupted from the ground, slashing straight toward the sky. In an instant, it descended upon the light dome. Saber qi pierced through the black mist and, under countless horrified gazes, split and multiplied.

The saber light shone with boundless brilliance. Endless waves of saber qi roared forth. Qin Sang’s entire body tensed. That strike had come from Venerable Ye.

The moment the saber appeared, Qin Sang understood that Su Nu’s earlier words had been entirely true. This was proof that Venerable Ye had indeed smuggled himself into this place. Only a Spiritual Infant grandmaster could unleash such a terrifying attack.

"Get out of my way!" A furious shout followed, thundering in everyone’s ears.

The saber light crashed down with a roar like a raging storm. The few cultivators closest to the light dome bore the full brunt. Among them were Blood Bat, Daoist Master Xiaoyun, and several true disciples of other factions.

They were the top Core Formation Realm experts of Canglang Sea, all determined to seize the Soul-Cleansing Liquid. If not for the unexpectedly small quantity available, they would each have claimed a share.

Now, standing at the front, they had instead become the perfect targets for Venerable Ye’s slaughter.

Capture the leader first. Once these few are crippled, the rest will scatter like a headless flock. With no coordination, they will be powerless to form a siege, allowing me to withdraw at leisure.

Venerable Ye thought.

The strike had come without warning. Everyone’s minds had been consumed by the Soul-Cleansing Liquid; no one had imagined that a hidden grandmaster lurked among them.

Blood Bat and the others were struck with sheer terror. Locked by the dreadful saber force, their bodies froze as if trapped in mire. Cold sweat drenched their backs, their faces drained of all color.

They all knew one another’s strength more or less, and none possessed such boundless might.

"Spiritual Infant..." Someone stammered the words through chattering teeth.

"Ahhh!" A shout of rage and fear tore through the chaos.

The strike was too dreadful. It could cleave them in half in an instant. Blood Bat roared in fury, his expression twisted and savage, yet a wave of helplessness washed over him.

He could not comprehend it. The trial realm was supposed to restrict Spiritual Infant cultivators, so why had such a monster appeared? But whether his opponent was a Spiritual Infant grandmaster or not, the saber’s power was unmistakable.

With his life on the line, who could still think about the Soul-Cleansing Liquid? Blood Bat thought only of survival.

But the saber light was as fast as lightning. He barely managed to pour his entire true essence into his inner armor.

Snap!

The armor held for only a breath before shattering under the saber light.

Blood Bat did not surrender. With a roar, he activated a secret technique; a surge of blood and qi burst from within him as the phantom of a blood-red bat appeared, wings spread wide, wrapping him in a crimson curtain.

Screech!

The blood phantom was sliced cleanly in half without a sound. Blood Bat’s body convulsed violently.

"Ahhh!" His agonized scream chilled everyone’s hearts.

Blood sprayed through the air, mingled with bits of bone and flesh, as he was flung away like a rag doll. His final secret technique had worked. It bought him a moment and saved his life, but he was gravely wounded and had exhausted the blood and qi he had cultivated for years.

Daoist Master Xiaoyun felt the saber light's dreadful power and his expression turned grim.

Instead of meeting the attack head-on like the blood shadow, he swiftly drew a palm-sized wooden carving from his Mustard Seed Pouch. The carving was exquisite, with complete limbs but a blank face devoid of features.

As he brought it out, Xiaoyun forced a drop of essence and blood into the carving. The surface writhed, forming eyes, nose, and mouth identical to his own.

Whoosh!

The saber light descended.

Daoist Master Xiaoyun did not resist, and he was split cleanly from head to toe. In the next instant, a strange scene unfolded.

Daoist Master Xiaoyun’s "corpse" vanished into thin air. A ripple appeared in the nearby void, and Daoist Master Xiaoyun reemerged out of nowhere. The wooden figurine in his hand bore an identical wound to the one that had cleaved his body.

Though seemingly unharmed, his aura was faint. His face was pale as paper, drained of all color. It was clear that the cost of using the wooden carving was severe. He was hardly any better off than Blood Bat.

The remaining cultivators fared even worse. Severed limbs were strewn across the ground, wounds gaped horrifically, and their lives hung by a thread.

With a single saber strike, Venerable Ye crippled Blood Bat and the others, dyeing the secret chamber in blood.

One side had planned long in advance, the other had been utterly unprepared, and the difference in strength between them was vast. The outcome was inevitable.

The other cultivators, witnessing this massacre, were stricken with terror and scrambled backward in panic.

"In consideration of your sects, I will spare your pitiful lives! But if anyone dares step forward, don’t blame me for being merciless!" Venerable Ye let out a cold snort. His hand seals shifted, and the remnants of saber light merged into one, cleaving down upon the light dome with brutal force.

Boom!

The light dome, already riddled with cracks, shattered instantly.

The seal was broken! The Soul-Cleansing Liquid was now within reach. Yet, after seeing the fate of Blood Bat and the others, none dared to move.

Under everyone’s gaze, Venerable Ye conjured a massive phantom hand that reached toward the stone platform. With several crisp clinks, four bottles of Soul-Cleansing Liquid were seized at once, flying toward him.

Seeing that the cultivators were indeed cowed and that the Soul-Cleansing Liquid was almost his, a faint smile appeared on Venerable Ye’s face, only to freeze abruptly.

Crack!

From beneath the cavern came a thunderous explosion that shook the heavens, illuminating the depths in blinding white light.

A violent aura, ferocious beyond measure, descended upon them. Venerable Ye’s head snapped up, his expression twisting in alarm.

Not far away, Qin Sang stood with steady composure. His fingers formed the lightning seal, and without hesitation, he unleashed the

Lightning Control Technique

straight at Venerable Ye.

That earlier saber strike had deeply shaken Qin Sang. The gap between the Core Formation Realm and the Spiritual Infant Realm was indeed vast.

If not for the restrictions on Venerable Ye’s cultivation, Qin Sang would never have dared provoke him and could only have watched helplessly as he took the Soul-Cleansing Liquid, hoping later to negotiate with Su Nu.

While Venerable Ye struck, Qin Sang had kept his gaze locked upon him, observing every detail without missing a trace.

Sure enough, just as Su Nu had said, Venerable Ye’s unsealed power allowed for only that single attack. The moment he unleashed it, strange distortions appeared in the void as the trial realm itself began to suppress him.

However, all the other cultivators had been too terrified by the saber light to notice, and Venerable Ye had concealed it well. For a time, no one saw through the truth.