After Yi Pin and Uncertain were gone, Ye Qing controlled some of the creatures and slowly moved them upward.

As soon as the creatures broke the surface, their bodies shrank back to the size of a hair or a fingernail in the blink of an eye. Then, they left the pond and scattered in every direction, disappearing into the bushes.

With these creatures, he did not need to scout the surface himself. He could simply make them do his bidding.

Unlike a human though, these creatures possessed little to no sentience. Therefore, he could only attach his demonic thought to their bodies and control their actions directly. Otherwise, they would simply act as their animalistic instincts dictated.

Soon, Ye Qing felt several powerful energies in the air. They belonged to none other than the ghost bride, Supreme Origin Profound Sovereign, and Silver Moon Sacred Lord.

Clearly, the two Sages and one Ancient-class Stranger were duking it out.

By the time Ye Qing’s creatures reached the battlefield though, the trio were already gone.

Judging from the remaining energies, a victor hadn’t been decided yet.

Right after that, Ye Qing distinctly sensed two powerful spiritual energies washing over his creatures. One of them was cold and clear like silver moonlight, and the other unparalleled sharp and unrelenting. The two powerful spirits merged into one and enveloped both the vast sky and the immense earth completely.

The two spiritual powers swept across the pond Ye Qing was hiding multiple times, but they weren’t able to find anything.

It was as Yi Pin claimed. For whatever reason, the pond was perceptually cut off from the outside world, so its depths were safe from even the likes of Supreme Origin Profound Sovereign and Silver Moon Sacred Lord.

Things entered into some sort of pattern after that. Every once in a while—six to ten hours at the shortest, or one to two days at the longest—the ghost bride would catch up to Supreme Origin Profound Sovereign and Silver Moon Sacred Lord and engage them in a huge battle. Every time, the two Sages would escape before the battle could arrive at a proper conclusion.

𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

No matter where Supreme Origin Profound Sovereign and Silver Moon Sacred Lord ran or hid though, the ghost bride could always catch up to them. To call her anomalous would be an understatement.

Although the ghost bride wasn’t strong enough to threaten Supreme Origin Profound Sovereign and Silver Moon Sacred Lord, the duo weren’t strong enough to kill her outright either. Naturally, she was quite the nuisance.

“This ghost bride really is a pain in the ass.”

None of this had anything to do with Ye Qing though. After all, he was just the spectator, not the participant. Supreme Origin Profound Sovereign and Silver Moon Sacred Lord’s experience also taught him exactly how Yi Pin and Uncertain had felt when they were being hunted by the ghost bride. The two Sages were strong enough to resist her powers, but Yi Pin and Uncertain weren’t. They could neither fight her nor shake her off. They must have felt like mice being toyed by a relentless cat, helpless and in despair. He hoped that he would never be in their position.

Of course, since it was his enemies who were suffering, he was lapping it all up like the sweetest nectar. Fuck them up, girl!

He wondered if it was his imagination, but the ghost bride seemed to be growing stronger and more difficult to handle over time. Slowly but surely, she was gaining the upper hand over the two Sages.

Strangely, neither Jiang Yunlai nor Cyan Radiance Superior Celestial showed up even though it had been days since Supreme Origin Profound Sovereign and Silver Moon Sacred Lord and the ghost bride fought each other. He wondered where they went.

While Ye Qing was wondering about Jiang Yunlai and Cyan Radiance Superior Celestial’s whereabouts, the two Sages were standing in front of a gigantic gap with dark expressions and chilly auras. It was a Nine Nethers Rift.

The Nine Nethers Rift was incredibly vast and deep. Not only was it thousands and thousands of kilometers deep, it was spilling an infinite amount of Nine Nethers Demonic Qi to the surface. As a result, almost no light could be found within five thousand kilometers of the gap. Anything and everything was polluted by darkness and corruption.

Countless twisted shadows and Nine Nethers Demons were screeching in the darkness. They were terrifying to say the least.

They were no threat to the two Sages though. No matter how powerful or terrifying they were, they crumbled into ash almost as soon as they got close.

“This is the last place we need to check!”

Jiang Yunlai inspected the Nine Nethers Rift with eyes dazzling as the sun.

They had searched nearly every place the celestials could be hiding or slumbering according to the notebook left behind by their ancestors, but so far, all of their time and efforts had yielded no results. ℞ᴀŊôβÈ𝙨

This was the only place left that they hadn’t checked yet. If they still could not find anything, then they would have a serious problem in their hands.

“It should be here. According to our ancestor’s notebook, this is where the Kunlun Divine Palace used to reside, and the main location where the celestials interacted and practiced.”

“Not only that, this looks like the source of the Nine Nethers Demonic Qi plaguing the Kunlun Ruins. It is very possible that the celestials were gathering in the Kunlun Divine Palace and combining their power with the palace’s to suppress the source and resist the corruption.”

“If that’s true, then there is a good chance that they are all inside the Kunlun Divine Palace.”

“I hope so!” Jiang Yunlai said.

Jiang Yunlai leaped into the Nine Nethers Rift as soon as he was finished. Cyan Radiance Superior Celestial was right behind him.

The Kunlun Divine Palace was not, in fact, built underground. According to their ancestors’ notes, the palace existed high above the nine firmaments with the colorful clouds, clear wind, the sun, the moon, and the stars.

However, the Nine Nethers Rift was the source of the Nine Nethers Demonic Qi, penetrating the ground and polluting the sky. Assuming it had opened up directly underneath the Kunlun Divine Palace, the structure must have fallen inside a long time ago. Naturally, they must dive into the Nine Nethers Rift to find the Kunlun Divine Palace.

The Nine Nethers Rift leading to the Nine Nethers was vast and bottomless like an entire world of its own. The deeper they traveled, the thicker the Nine Nether Demonic Qi became. They gathered here and there like tides or storms, giving birth to Nine Nethers Demons that were even more anomalous and powerful than the ones above.

There was a Nine Nethers Demon called the Mountain Ghost. Big as a mountain and covered in hair, anything caught in its hair would be drained into a pile of bones.

There was a Nine Nethers Demon called the Pill Kui. Shaped like a cyan bull that was carrying a pill furnace, it could pull some living creatures into its pill furnace and refine them into poisonous pills.

There was a Nine Nethers Demon called the Repeated Xiao. Shaped like a monkey with nine heads, it inhaled wind, exhaled clouds, and roared thunder.

There was a Nine Nethers Demon called the Bone Tortoise. Shaped like a giant tortoise, it swam in space while carrying a mountain of corpses and a sea of bones on its back.

These were just the Nine Nethers Demons with recognizable shapes and names. There were countless Strangers more that, despite humanity’s long history with the Nine Nethers, did not have a name or a description.

There was one commonality that all the Nine Nethers Demon shared, however. They were all immensely powerful. The weakest among them was at least Disaster-class, and the number of Ancient-class Nine Nethers Demons roaming the area were far too many. For example, the Mountain Ghost, Pill Kui, and Repeated Xiao were all Ancient-class.

This was why even Jiang Yunlai and Cyan Radiance Superior Celestial did not dare to lower their guard. They did their best to conceal their presence and avoid provoking the Nine Nethers Demon.

Strangely, the Nine Nethers Demons showed no signs of leaving the Nine Nethers Rift despite lingering around it. It was almost as if they couldn’t.