In the secret realm shrouded in mist, Li Muyang and his group quickly hurried through, soon arriving before the gigantic bronze mirror at the center of the realm.
An enormous fox as grand as a mountain lay weakly on the ground, its eyelids barely able to open.
The injuries sustained by this ghostly deity of the Netherworld were not something that could heal in just one or two days.
Upon seeing Li Muyang and the others arrive, the Ghost Moon Fox sighed inevitably.
“I will send you all out…”
The Ghost Moon Fox remained motionless but expended all the divine power it had accumulated over a long time, activating the giant bronze mirror hanging above the heavens.
As the mirror’s surface emitted a radiant glow, the massive Ghost Moon Fox finally closed its eyes fully, falling into another deep slumber.
Meanwhile, Li Muyang and his group entered the bronze mirror, and the sensation of spinning heaven and earth engulfed them from all directions.
It was unclear how much time had passed before the familiar feeling of spatial teleportation faded; Li Muyang felt his feet land firmly on solid ground.
Opening his eyes, he found himself standing in a forest outside Jiuyuan City.
The mountain wilderness, where rhododendrons should have been blooming in spring, was now desolate, the vegetation withering amidst eerie black aura, while ominous clouds hung over the sky.
Ten grotesque projections of evil gods prowled stealthily upon this land.
One of the evil gods exuded a presence that polluted the earth; its vicinity warped the ground and caused the vegetation to mutate.
In the forest they observed, human faces grotesquely grew from the trees and flowers all around.
As Li Muyang’s group stepped into reality, the hideous faces on the trees and blossoms immediately began screaming in shrill agony.
“Found him! He’s here!”
“Found him! He’s here!”
The anguished cries spread rapidly, echoing all the way to the horizon.
The ten roaming evil gods simultaneously turned in the direction of the initial disturbance.
The silhouettes of Li Muyang and his companions instantly became exposed under the watchful gaze of the evil gods.
Witnessing this, Li Muyang took a deep breath.
“Damn it!”
Without the slightest hesitation, Li Muyang summoned the corpse of Mo Immortal.
Immortal Spirit Qi descended from the sky, tainted with the heavy aura of death.
Though deceased, Mo Immortal’s demeanor and elegance still rivaled that of a True Immortal. The lifeless body raised its hand, and Li Muyang’s Startling Swan Immortal Sword immediately flew into her grasp.
At the same time, from the distant horizon, three streaks of tunneling light pierced through the clouds and surged toward them.
Tantai Mingmie, Haitang Jun, and the Alliance Leader Pei of the Hidden Immortal Alliance… three Great Cultivators of the Heavenly Eternal Realm struck at once, repelling the westernmost prowling evil god in an instant.
They charged directly toward Li Muyang.
At the same moment, Li Muyang also wordlessly decided to meet the three reinforcements halfway.
If their speed was swift enough, they could catch the ten evil gods off guard.
Before the evil gods could encircle them, breaking through in one direction to breach their defense would be their best chance of survival!
…
Within the foggy secret realm, an elderly man with a bronze oil lamp and a weathered face, Wei Suyi, suddenly furrowed his brows and halted.
Almost simultaneously, everyone following behind him stopped as well.
A heavy silence lingered for quite some time.
Xie Liuyun and the others glanced at Wei Suyi but said nothing.
However, at the rear, Sloppy Taoist walking alongside the young Guan Xiaoshun shouted out.
“What’s going on up front? Why has everything suddenly stopped?”
“Did we lose our way?”
Sloppy Taoist asked curiously, his grating voice piercing the mist like a rusted gong.
Upon hearing his question, the elderly man holding the oil lamp slowly turned around.
The dim glow of the lamp cast the elder’s half-face in a lifeless gray hue, making him appear eerily corpse-like.
His eye sockets were deeply sunken, with eyeballs radiating an unsettling gleam.
Gently gazing at the crowd, the elder spoke softly.
“Jiang Xiaoyu has left the secret realm…”
“Just now, the causality thread guiding our path snapped.”
“He’s returned to the mortal world.”
The elder explained coldly.
The other Immortal Artifact Masters frowned upon hearing his words.
Sloppy Taoist exclaimed in surprise, “That fellow hid for so many days, and instead of preparing traps and formations to ambush us, he simply fled?”
Sloppy Taoist expressed disbelief, “What’s the point of escaping? Since he knows we’re coming to kill him, shouldn’t he fight us to the death in his own domain?”
“If he escapes, won’t we still be able to chase him outside?”
The doubts of Sloppy Taoist mirrored those of the group.
However, the archer Tuoba Lie, holding the Moon-shooting Bow, suddenly interjected, “The entrance to this secret realm has been forcibly sealed. If we wish to leave, it will take time…”
Tuoba Lie’s words had barely finished when an eerie and chilling laughter reverberated from the surrounding fog.
In the next moment, several grey-white fox carcasses bolted out of the mist, viciously lunging at the Immortal Artifact Masters.
In the mist, lights flared instantly.
Flashes of sword light and radiance of magic artifacts illuminated the air in vibrant arrays.
It took a full ten minutes for the group to finally repel the strange fox cadavers.
The situation left their expressions slightly altered.
“This secret realm is alive!”
“The master of the secret realm isn’t dead—it’s alive!”
Sloppy Taoist swiftly moved closer to young Guan Xiaoshun, staring at the realm in terror. “Wasn’t this supposed to be a realm carved out by a Netherworld deity? Why is there still a Netherworld deity alive here?”
“That ascendant Jiang Xiaoyu actually colluded with a deity from the Netherworld?!”
Sloppy Taoist was evidently shaken.
But as Xie Liuyun sheathed his sword, he frowned and said, “Something’s off. The Netherworld is the mortal world’s nemesis, while ascendants are the grasp of the Heavenly Dao. The two sides are opposing forces; it’s impossible for them to collude.”
The elderly Wei Suyi holding the bronze oil lamp spoke coldly, “If you want to know the reason, find the ascendant, and you’ll understand.”
“Blast open the secret realm’s exit with full force. Once we get out, we can confirm our suspicions!”
The pursuit of the ascendant by the Immortal Artifact Masters wasn’t only about tracking him down but also unraveling his true identity!
Originally, Wei Suyi’s divinations could only barely trace causality back ten thousand years, leaving him with no clue about the ascendant’s identity in the current era.
But the evil gods patrolling outside Jiuyuan City and those besieging Demon Sword City… these baffling coincidences had given the group a horrifying conjecture.
With time passing by, when the Immortal Artifact Masters spent an hour finally breaching the secret realm’s exit and returning to the mortal world…
What lay before them were traces of combat in the forest outside Jiuyuan City.
And also the departing shadows of evil gods.
The ten projections of evil gods that had been lingering outside the secret realm had now floated off into the distance.
Seeing this, the elderly Wei Suyi grimly furrowed his brow, clutching a sheet of etched paper and frantically calculating for a long moment.
At last, he slowly spoke.
“It’s confirmed. The direction the ascendant fled aligns perfectly with the direction the evil gods are pursuing.”
This outcome deeply unsettled every Immortal Artifact Master present.
Ghost Mansion Seven’s Xie Liuyun and Jing Muan’s Qing Hui, both with past ties to Li Muyang, wore expressions of complexity.
Back in Demon Sword City, when Cang Su San abruptly withdrew, the evil gods scattered afterward.
This had already hinted to the Immortal Artifact Masters that the evil god projections were in pursuit of the mysterious Cang Su San.
When Wei Suyi traced the ascendant to Jiuyuan City, the lingering evil gods outside Jiuyuan City reinforced this notion…
And now, this situation had completely confirmed their speculation.
“The enigmatic Cang Su San is the ascendant!”