The myriad hellish phenomena inside Ten Thousand Souls Hall, like cold tide water, attempted to drown the invaders' reason and hope. Countless grieving souls sealed in walls and pillars wailed soundlessly, the central blood pool roiled, extracting living beings' essence and spirits, the air filled with nausea-inducing despair. Yet all focus, all core of evil, converged on that massive dark red altar.
Tang Xiaoqi's gaze, like iron drawn to lodestone, was riveted on the tall armored figure at the altar's summit. Eerie phosphorescence reflected off the cold armor's surface, returning no warmth—only a deathly stillness penetrating to the bone. The helmet covered his face, revealing only those exposed eyes, blood-red as twin dried wells, containing no emotion belonging to "human"—only the purest, programmed slaughter will and absolute obedience to the black shadow above.
That was his father, Xu Zhan. Once the high-spirited Xu Lan Mountain Manor lord who protected his domain, now the Shadow Snake Pavilion's sharpest blade, the demonic entity's most loyal puppet. Despite the distance and thick armor, that resonance and pain from bloodline depths still pierced Xiaoqi's heart like countless red-hot steel needles, the pain almost making him unable to breathe. He could sense his father's life essence hadn't completely dissipated, but that soul's flame was completely suppressed and twisted by a more powerful, more evil force.
And the source of that suppression and twisting was at Xu Zhan's chest!
Before Xu Zhan's magic-pattern-armored chest, about a foot away, suspended in empty space, was a jade token about palm-sized.
The jade token was pitch black throughout, so deep it seemed to swallow all light. Its surface was smooth as a mirror yet faintly pulsed with dark red filaments like living blood vessels. It bore no carvings, but its emitted spiritual fluctuations were intense enough to form visible distortion ripples, spreading outward like invisible tendrils.
An icy, viscous, powerful soul force filled with endless malice and controlling will emanated continuously from that pitch-black jade token, like countless invisible chains. One end was deeply rooted within the jade token; the other firmly wrapped around and imprisoned Xu Zhan's soul core, driving his body, suppressing his will.
Soul-Controlling Jade!
This was the culprit that caused the Xu Lan Mountain Manor tragedy, that had imprisoned his father's soul for a hundred years!
And even more heart-palpitating, above that pitch-black Soul-Controlling Jade, a blurred, constantly twisting black shadow clung like a ghost. That black shadow had no fixed form, sometimes expanding, sometimes contracting, emitting the same source aura as the demonic entity's main body Xiaoqi had sensed before, only more condensed, more focused on control and erosion. It was like an eye, an arm extended by the demonic entity, monitoring the Soul-Controlling Jade, monitoring Xu Zhan, monitoring everything in this Ten Thousand Souls Hall.
Demonic entity's soul fragment!
It seemed to detect the intruders' gazes. That blurred black shadow slightly turned toward Xiaoqi and the others. A will mixing mockery, greed, and icy killing intent pierced the four people's consciousness like an ice pick.
"Mm..." Xiaoqi grunted, feeling his soul pricked as if by a needle. Without the jade pendant's remaining light spontaneously protecting him, this one strike might have wounded him. Mu Qingfeng and Liu Yun also showed slight color change, their bodies' spiritual light spontaneously activating to resist this invisible spiritual assault. Aunt Su's body even trembled, seeming to have deeper fear of this soul fragment's aura.
"Finally... arrived." A raspy, overlapping voice as if composed of countless voices, directly resonated in the four people's minds, filled with cat-playing-with-mouse mockery, "Bringing that mouth-watering purification origin, and... that Four Symbols aura that shouldn't exist in this world. I, have been waiting for a long time."
That demonic entity's soul fragment's will, without hiding, locked onto Xiaoqi, especially that dim jade pendant at his chest.
Simultaneously, at the altar's edge, that sculpture-like Xu Zhan, his hollow blood-red eyes suddenly brightened, like two blood lamps being lit. His cold, emotionless gaze, spanning space, firmly locked onto Xiaoqi! The dark red longspear in his hand let out a low hum, the black energy coiling it writhing like living snakes. A Golden Core level terrifying pressure mixed with pure slaughter will pressed forth like substance!
They were discovered! From the moment they stepped into this Ten Thousand Souls Hall, they might have already been under this demonic entity's soul fragment's surveillance!
The target was close at hand, the Soul-Controlling Jade floating before them, the father (in shell) standing with spear. Yet this short distance seemed separated by an insurmountable chasm. On one side, four people in less-than-full condition, just having fought their way in; on the other, the demonic entity's soul fragment controlling everything, plus the completely controlled Golden Core-level Xu Zhan, plus the endless demonic energy and resentful power support provided by the entire Ten Thousand Souls Hall!
The situation was desperate to the extreme!
Xiaoqi stared at that pitch-black, constantly emitting spiritual fluctuation Soul-Controlling Jade, then looked at those hollow blood-red eyes. Anger, grief, hatred, and a trace of pain from facing closest kin yet unable to acknowledge them, burned his internal organs like poison flames.
He slowly raised his hand, not pointing at the demonic entity's soul fragment, but at that Soul-Controlling Jade before Xu Zhan's chest. His voice, hoarse and deep from extreme emotion, yet carrying a determination pushed to the limit:
"Today, I will definitely destroy it! Free you... from this endless darkness!"
His voice wasn't loud, but in this vast hall filled with grieving souls' wails, it clearly echoed, like a stone cast into dead water, stirring invisible ripples.
Above the altar, that demonic entity's soul fragment issued a sound of mockery-filled sneering.
And Xu Zhan, those hollow blood-red eyes, still showed no fluctuation, only tightening his grip on the dark red longspear, the spear tip slightly raising, pointing toward Xiaoqi's direction. As if saying: Want to destroy the Soul-Controlling Jade? First, step over my corpse.
No, he didn't even have "his own" corpse to speak of. This was a tragedy of a son forced to raise his blade against his controlled father.
Mu Qingfeng and Liu Yun, one on each side, protected Xiaoqi, their spiritual power already raised to peak. Aunt Su also took a deep breath, suppressing the grief in her heart, her gaze beneath the silver mask becoming cold and determined.
The final confrontation, in this myriad-hells demonic hall, was about to erupt!