In the underground corridor, the two Demon Gate men’s conversation was still continuing.
With the plan to use “Skin-Painting” to deceive Sang Zhi settled, these two ought to have gone to prepare at once.
Yet the subordinate following behind seemed not entirely at ease.
He stopped walking, glanced back toward the depths of the passage, then lowered his head to check a compass in his hand.
The needle on the compass remained motionless, representing that the entrance-and-exit formation of the underground outpost had not detected any living thing passing through during this period.
“Boss.” The subordinate quickly caught up and reminded him in a lowered voice.
“The formation at the entrance has had no reaction at all. That means that brat named Shen Ci maybe… never escaped this underground outpost at all.”
“Since he is still hiding here, to avoid extra complications, should we notify the brothers to seal every stone chamber, and I personally lead men to dig him out?”
The subordinate’s concern was reasonable. After all, a living person vanishing into thin air, if lurking in the dark waiting for a chance to sabotage, was more or less a hidden danger.
If he waited until they left and then went out to report… the consequences would be unthinkable.
Yet the demonic-cultivator boss walking in front suddenly halted and gave a cold laugh.
He directly cut off the other party’s proposal.
“No need.”
The subordinate froze, his face full of doubt.
Since they knew the person was inside, why not search?
This did not seem to fit the Holy Church’s usual cautious style of acting.
The boss turned around, his face icy, his gaze indifferent.
“The Protector’s order is to assemble at once. The general assault is imminent. Where would we squeeze out time to play hide-and-seek with a Qi Refining waste?”
The boss clapped his hand.
“The mission of this underground fortress ends completely today.”
“Since Shen Ci did not escape, then let him remain inside forever. Pass the order to all brothers. Within half an incense stick, everyone must withdraw from this outpost.”
“After the withdrawal, this seat will personally activate… the ‘Reverse Formation.’”
Hearing those four words, the subordinate sucked in a cold breath, then suddenly understood and nodded again and again.
The Reverse Formation was the formation at the very bottom of the entire cave. Once it operated, it could not be stopped.
When that time came, all associated formations inside this cave would actively begin to reverse.
The result would be…
The hard rock strata would collapse. Hundreds of meters of underground depth would be thoroughly wrung into a pot of slush by violent spiritual power.
No matter which corner that brat named Shen Ci hid in, no matter what aura-concealing treasure he possessed.
Before this kind of world-overturning destructive force, he could only turn into a smear of flesh.
More importantly, doing so could thoroughly erase the traces the Holy Church had operated here for years, and incidentally bury those three imprisoned true elders of the Longevity Palace together.
Three birds with one stone, clean and decisive.
The Demon Gate’s ruthlessness and resolve were displayed to the fullest at this moment.
Moreover, this had in fact already been one link in their plan, a link used to draw the attention of Shen Cang Mountain’s higher-ups and the Mountain Lord…
***
At the other end of the corridor, Shen Ci took it all in by ear.
He had originally already made his plans.
Since the demonic cultivators temporarily had no time for this side, he could well leave the underground and transmit a message to the deacons of the Longevity Palace from a safe zone.
Let Shen Cang Mountain’s people handle this mess themselves and rescue those three trapped elders from fire and water.
That way he could preserve himself and also make Shen Cang Mountain and the Demon Gate completely tear off all pretenses internally.
But… the Demon Gate’s caution and viciousness exceeded his expectations.
Half an incense stick of time to withdraw and destroy the entire base.
Even if he went to report now, Shen Cang Mountain’s deacons would absolutely not arrive in time to save people hundreds of meters underground.
If he allowed those three elders to be buried alive here…
No. These three elders were still useful.
They were an excellent weapon for exposing the Demon Gate’s undercover agents and throwing Shen Cang Mountain’s upper situation into chaos.
They could not die just like this.
Shen Ci turned and, following the original path, silently doubled back toward the lowest-level prison.
On the way back, his figure rapidly transformed in the shadows.
He took a gray-feather cloak from his storage bag and draped it over himself. The wide hood covered most of his head.
Then a bamboo hat pressed down. Last, he fastened a white mask with no features over his face.
When he next appeared before that heavy-criminal cell.
The weak, ordinary Qi Refining disciple Shen Ci had completely vanished.
Now he was a mysterious swordsman as if he had walked out of the netherworld.
Inside the cell.
The three withered elders sitting there noticed the movement at the door.
They merely lifted their eyelids and glanced briefly at the person outside.
Then they closed their eyes again, not the least bit interested.
They did not even… launch the most basic divine-sense probe.
Shen Ci naturally understood these three old men’s thoughts.
In their view, the Qi Refining disciple named Shen Ci had already fled.
The Demon Gate people would surely return in a rage to take revenge.
This mysterious person at the door, dressed strangely and with an unfathomable aura, was surely the executioner the Demon Gate had sent to put them to death.
Since the ending was destined to be death, old monsters like them who had lived for hundreds of years were too lazy even to waste the strength to beg or question.
Facing these three who calmly awaited death, Shen Ci slowly raised his right hand.
Index and middle fingers together formed a sword seal and swept down toward the specially made iron door ahead and the shackles on the three elders.
Three formless, shapeless strands of sword qi shot out from his fingertips.
The sword cultivated by the Formless Sword Scripture did not linger on matter. It specialized in slashing formless aura.
Those three strands of sword qi directly pierced the physical obstruction of the iron door and severed the formation meridians attached to it.
Zheng—
The dark-red runes on the iron door instantly annihilated.
The heavy metal shackles binding the three elders’ hands and feet also collapsed from within, turning into a ground of scrap iron.
The cell was broken open.
The entire process finished in a flash.
The three elders who had originally been waiting for death with closed eyes snapped their eyes open.
They… had originally thought the one standing outside the door was the Demon Gate’s executioner.
But how could this kind of incomparably sharp, utterly pure sword qi come from the hands of those demonic cultivators who practiced demonic arts and were covered in filth?
Even more terrifying, the other party had broken open the specially made formation that had troubled them for years with only a casual sweep!
Who on earth… was this person who possessed such terrifying means?
Shen Ci knew these three hearts were full of doubt, but he had no intention of explaining at this moment.
Time was pressing. He still had to follow those three demonic cultivators and see how they intended to sing that “Skin-Painting” play.
Shen Ci flipped his wrist. Several porcelain bottles appeared from nowhere and landed precisely in the three elders’ arms.
“These are pills for stabilizing the foundation and nourishing the origin.”
Shen Ci altered his voice, speaking like a middle-aged man.
“After the three elders take them, you can suppress your injuries and recover a little true essence. This place is not suitable for lingering. Leave quickly.”
With that he flicked the gray-feather cloak and turned, about to vanish into the darkness of the corridor.
“Benefactor, wait!”
The Grand Elder of the Longevity Palace in the middle struggled to his feet. He had no time to examine the pills in the bottles. He cupped his fists with both hands and bowed deeply.
“May I ask this honored one’s surname and given name?”
“Looking at the sword seal this honored one just displayed, the edge contained yet able to break all methods, it does not seem to be a transmission of our Shen Cang Mountain line.”
“This honored one saved our lives. Such great kindness we will never forget. Please leave a name. In the future Shen Cang Mountain will surely offer heavy thanks!”
Shen Ci’s steps paused slightly.
He stood in the shadows and pondered a little.
On this complicated chessboard, one more powerful false identity would undoubtedly give him much more room to maneuver.
Since these three had all asked like this, then he would go with the flow and finish singing this play.
“I am a person of the Sword Sect.”
The two words Sword Sect came out.
The three elders sucked in a cold breath at the same time.
They looked at one another and each saw shock in the other’s eyes.
Seeing these three react this way, Shen Ci settled slightly inside.
He had previously already been mistaken by those Demon Gate people for someone of the Sword Sect.
Using it now to deal with these Longevity Palace elders was just right.
Shen Ci spoke with feigned indignation.
“Demon Gate fiends act with insidious poison. Everyone has the right to execute them.”
“I received my sect’s order and have been chasing the traces of this batch of fleeing demonic cultivators the whole way. By a twist of fate I was forced to infiltrate your honored faction’s Shen Cang Mountain.”
He found a reason for his own infiltration.
“Just now I sensed something unusual here and merely acted in passing.”
“Once I finish dealing with this batch of demonic cultivators I will leave of my own accord. The three of you need not worry I have any other designs.”
These words were reasonable and fitting.
The three elders listened and nodded again and again. The doubts in their hearts were temporarily dispelled.
No wonder!
No wonder the other party could silently infiltrate while ignoring Shen Cang Mountain’s mountain-protecting grand formation. No wonder the other party could break the Demon Gate’s seal in a single move.
If it was those unreasonable sword cultivators, everything explained itself.
“So it is a high disciple of the Sword Sect! We have been rude! Rude!”
The three elders’ old tears streamed down.
Imprisoned for years, tormented to the extreme, they had originally already been ashen and hopeless.
They had not expected that at this most desperate moment they would meet a righteous expert who acted with the sword.
The three of them knelt to the ground in unison and knocked their heads heavily three times in the direction where Shen Ci stood.
“The high disciple of the Sword Sect acted righteously, saved us old remnants’ lives, and thereby saved the foundation of Shen Cang Mountain.”
“Such great kindness…”
The elder’s words were not yet finished.
The next second.
A violent roar suddenly came from the depths of the earth.
The ground trembled. Stones on the walls cracked. Great amounts of dust and rubble pattered down.
The formation meridians that had originally been circulating steadily throughout the fortress suddenly began to operate in reverse.
Shen Ci narrowed his eyes slightly. His divine sense spread out in an instant.
He immediately perceived the abnormality in the flow of spiritual energy around him.
“The formation reversal has begun…”
Shen Ci understood in his heart.
The Demon Gate people’s hands and feet were quite fast. Over there they had just issued the order, and over here the self-destruction procedure had already started.
These fellows truly intended to flatten this underground outpost completely and leave no traces.
“Benefactor! What is happening?”
The elders cried out in alarm, barely steadying themselves on the shaking ground.
“The Demon Gate is going to destroy this place…”
***
At the same time.
The extreme north of Shen Cang Mountain, the outer perimeter of Wuwang Cliff.
Before that magnificent grand formation.
A petite figure stood quietly.
Sang Zhi had violated the ban issued by the Longevity Palace that all disciples go to the shelters.
She had casually found an excuse of closed-door healing and come here alone.
In her hand lay a jade token that could control the central formation of Wuwang Cliff.
The jade token was extremely warm and moist, faintly resonating with that enormous formation ahead.
So long as she injected true essence into it and slightly shifted a few nodes, this barrier that had guarded Shen Cang Mountain for who knew how many years would open its gates to those Demon Gate people lurking in the dark.
Sang Zhi stood at the cliff edge and let the wild wind disorder her hair.
She bit her lower lip. Her gaze… seemed somewhat complicated.
In truth she did not feel there was anything to hesitate over.
Her original intention in coming to this Shen Cang Mountain had never been to become some disciple of a famous orthodox sect, nor to accept some damned inheritance.
She was an inheritor of the Devouring Great Dao.
A predator walking in the dark.
She had only one goal: follow her master’s guidance, find that person of heavenly fate.
Raise him ripe, then at the most suitable moment strip his fortune and devour his fruit of the dao.
What did the life and death of these people of Shen Cang Mountain have to do with her?
Those hypocritical elders, those foolish fellow disciples—even if they were all slaughtered to the last by the Demon Gate, her heart would not stir in the slightest.
So when that Demon Gate person used Shen Ci’s life as coercion and told her to open the formation of Wuwang Cliff…
She had not even owed a thread of hesitation. She had agreed at once.
Use a mountain that had nothing to do with her to exchange for the safety of the only “fruit of the dao” she cared about.
This deal was extremely cost-effective.
Yet…
When she truly stood before this formation hub and was about to take that irreversible step.
For some reason her fingertips actually began to tremble.
Her heart… actually held a little reluctance.
Why?
Sang Zhi lowered her head and looked at her own palms, her eyes full of confusion.
Why am I hesitating now?
Have I truly developed a sense of belonging toward this broken place?
No. Impossible.
She immediately denied that absurd notion.
Then… because of what?
A mild, restrained face that always carried a few traces of a helpless smile abruptly surfaced in her mind.
Shen Ci.
Sang Zhi’s breathing suddenly stalled.
She suddenly realized that the reason for her hesitation was not Shen Cang Mountain at all, but Shen Ci.
If in the great chaos that followed Shen Ci learned it was she who had opened the gates of Wuwang Cliff.
If Shen Ci learned she was in fact a ruthless demonic fiend.
If Shen Ci looked at her with that kind of gaze one used to look at a monster…
“No…”
Sang Zhi covered her chest. Waves of stabbing pain were coming from there.
Her master’s teachings echoed at her ear: those who stir mortal feelings will have their spirit meridians extracted, their bodies crushed, and be fed to the taotie.
She had always thought she was only guarding her food, only treating Shen Ci as the most delicious prey.
But at this moment she discovered in terror that she was actually afraid.
Afraid of being loathed by him. Afraid of losing him.
This emotion completely beyond her control made this cold-blooded demonic hunter feel a panic she had never known.
Just as Sang Zhi sank into morbid entanglement and self-doubt.
A roar suddenly came from the earth beneath her feet.
Right after, the entire Shen Cang mountain range seemed to shake violently once, the commotion like an earth dragon turning over.
Rubble around Wuwang Cliff pattered down. Even that faint-golden sealing grand formation rippled in circles because of this tremor.
What happened?
Sang Zhi steadied herself and sharply turned her head, looking toward the direction of Shen Cang Mountain’s southern foothills.
That terrifying tremor had come from deep underground.
For some reason her heartbeat suddenly skipped a beat. Worry grew like wild grass.
This commotion was certainly made by the Demon Gate people. It meant they had perhaps begun the general assault against Shen Cang Mountain…
And Shen Ci?
Would he be swept in? Would he be hurt?
“Shen Ci…”
The girl tightened her grip on the jade token in her hand.
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