Standing at the edge of that giant pit devouring vitality, cold, biting demonic wind swept upward from below, carrying dense blood and despair. It made everyone's robes flutter. Below was endless darkness, seemingly connecting to the Nine Abyssal depths. Only those eight demon-corrupted earth veins like dying giant pythons, constantly injecting extracted dark energy, served as this abyss's only light source—if that could be called light.
"Down." Tang Xiaoqi's voice was low and firm, without hesitation. He first leaped, like a meteor plunging into that bottomless abyss. Liu Yun, Mu Xue, Ao Qin, Zhao Tiezhu, Luo Feng (puppet body), and the rabbit spirit clutching Xiao Qi's shoulder all followed without hesitation.
The descent wasn't free fall. The deeper they went, a strong, sticky suction from below increased, like countless invisible hands pulling them, accelerating toward unknown destination. Demonic energy concentration rose exponentially. Protective spiritual light was compressed until creaking. Divine sense was almost completely ineffective here. They could only rely on instinct and faint visual perception.
After unknown descent time—perhaps an instant, perhaps eternity—a faint glow finally appeared below. That light wasn't hopeful color, but a dim, turbid dark red, like congealed blood.
Suction suddenly increased!
"Prepare for landing!" Xiao Qi shouted sharply. Purification power surged around him, forcibly stabilizing his form. Everyone displayed their abilities—sword intent, ice condensation, dragon cry, qi-blood explosion, rune flashing—canceling that terrifying impact force.
Bang! Bang! Bang!...
Seven figures landed on hard, cold ground. The massive impact made the ground tremble slightly.
Everyone quickly stabilized their formation, vigilantly surveying surroundings.
What they saw, even with psychological preparation, made them inhale cold air, hearts shocked!
This was no longer a natural underground space, but the interior of a vast, unimaginable artificial structure. They stood at a wide corridor entrance. The corridor was a hundred zhang tall. Both sides had countless massive pillars requiring ten people to encircle, supporting a dome beyond sight. Pillars, walls, floor all constructed from some pitch-black, light-absorbing strange stone. Surface carved with countless twisted, painful, screaming demon and creature reliefs—vivid, as if about to break free from walls.
The air carried nauseating dense sulfur and blood mixture. Dark red light came from enormous, turbid red crystals embedded in walls and dome—they were like demon eyes, coldly watching intruders.
The entire space was shrouded under vast, ancient, pure, evil will—clearer and more suffocating than what they felt in the earth vein space. This was the demonic lord's main body's will pressure!
This place was no longer the original Ten Thousand Souls Hall ruins, but a demon palace rebuilt by the demonic lord with supreme demonic power on the ruins' foundation!
A grim palace full of death, pain, and despair!
"We... actually got in..." Zhao Tiezhu's voice was hoarse. Even with his qi-blood like a furnace, he felt soul-deep trembling. The demon palace itself emanated aura sufficient to make those with unsteady minds collapse instantly.
The rabbit spirit had already hidden its entire body inside Xiao Qi's collar, only showing two shivering long ears, transmitting extreme fear.
Xiao Qi's jade pendant at his chest was scorching like a branding iron. Resonance with the lotus seed's main body reached unprecedented intensity, clearly pointing toward the demon palace's deepest depths! Simultaneously, a blood-connected tremor, a familiar aura suppressed for a hundred years, full of pain and struggle, came faintly from the same direction!
Father! Xu Zhan! He was here! At this demon palace's deepest depths!
"The demonic lord is also there..." Mu Xue's ice-crystal staff stamped ground. A thin frost spread from her center, dispelling demonic energy trying to erode. Her face was somewhat pale. Resisting this will pressure wasn't easy.
"This demon palace... itself is a massive demonic formation. It's constantly drawing earth vein energy, also strengthening the demonic lord's power." Second Senior Brother Luo Fenging his puppet shell, runes in his eyes flickered rapidly, analyzing surrounding energy flow and structure. "We must find the core quickly. Otherwise, the longer we stay, the worse for us."
Xiao Qi forcibly suppressed rising excitement and anger. His gaze swept that corridor like a beast's esophagus ahead. Demonic energy like substantial thick fog churned within. Faintly, more branching paths and eerie building outlines could be seen—like a vast maze.
"Follow me!" Xiao Qi low-cried. Relying on the jade pendant's guidance and bloodline intuition, he first entered the corridor.
Inside the demon palace, silence was terrifying. Only the team's footsteps echoed in the empty environment, sounding especially jarring. The reliefs on both walls—countless painful eyes—seemed to really follow their movement.
After advancing merely a hundred zhang, sudden!
Hiss hiss hiss—
On both corridor walls, those grim demon reliefs' eyes suddenly lit with light! Then, streams of pitch-black arrows made of pure demonic energy sprayed from walls like a rainstorm, covering the entire corridor!
"Defend!" Liu Yun's clear shout. Her back sword case opened. A brilliant sword light like a swimming dragon circled her body, shredding all demonic arrows.
Crown Prince Ao Qin let out a dragon cry. A solid water-blue light screen rose, protecting him and nearby Mu Xue and Second Senior Brother. Arrows striking the screen created rippling rings.
Zhao Tiezhu was more direct. He roared. Both fists gained metallic luster, like two heavy hammers, directly smashing the incoming demonic arrows!
Xiao Qi didn't draw the Nirvana Crimson Flame Sword. Only purification power flowed around his, forming a cyan-white light screen. Arrows striking it melted like snow meeting sun.
This assault, though sudden, wasn't beyond everyone's ability to handle. Quickly resolved.
However, this was just the beginning.
As they pressed deeper, the demon palace's traps and guards came endlessly. Bone-spear jungles suddenly thrusting from ground; echo walls twisting perception, creating illusions; shadow demons lurking in darkness, fast and skilled at ambushes; demons completely made of demonic energy, without fixed form...
Every step was full of killing intent. Every encounter required full effort. The demon palace was like a living, malicious organism, constantly rejecting and attacking these "foreign objects."
Everyone's spiritual power and spirit were continuously depleting. Pills were stuffed into mouths like candy, but recovery rate couldn't match consumption.
After unknown how many checkpoints passed, how many demons vanquished, when Xiao Qi again relied on jade pendant sensing, leading everyone through a hall filled with corrosive demonic fog, the scene changed again.
The corridor ended. Ahead was an incomparably magnificent hall, like a mountain's interior hollowed out forming a massive chamber.
At the hall's center was a giant, heart-like pulsating dark red flesh-mass. Countless thick, blood vessel-like demon-corrupted earth vein "chains" connected from all directions to the flesh-mass, constantly injecting extracted dark energy. The flesh-mass surface was covered with twisted demonic patterns, emanating nauseating life fluctuation and terrifying pressure.
Below that giant flesh-mass, in mid-air, a familiar figure was tightly bound and imprisoned by countless pitch-black demonic energy chains.
He wore grim demonic armor, head lowered, crimson cloak moving without wind, emanating overwhelming demonic might. It was the Demon Marshal—Xu Zhan!
Between Xu Zhan and that pulsating flesh-mass, in, a continuously twisting, shape-shifting mass of darkness, as if all world's negative emotions condensed, without fixed form, floated there.
It had no eyes, yet everyone felt locked by an ice-cold, greedy gaze filled with absolute malice.
The demonic lord's true body!
They had finally reached the demon palace's most core location! Directly facing this operation's ultimate target!
Decisive battle, imminent!