Dragon Ruins entrance periphery.
A young cultivator in a moon-white robe was flying through the air when he suddenly sensed something. He halted his flight and flipped his hand, producing a jade tablet.
The tablet was not small, about the size of a book page, marked with dozens of red dots. Those red dots were now rapidly moving toward one particularly brilliant red dot.
The young cultivator immediately sent his divine sense into the tablet. Soon, his face turned grim.
“Junior Sister Yuyao’s aura on the Qi Machine Book has vanished…”
“Damn it, who did this!”
A flash of killing intent appeared in the young cultivator’s eyes. He then turned his gaze to a spot on the Qi Machine Book.
That was precisely where Lu Yuyao’s aura had disappeared!
“Whoever you are, daring to touch my people means you must die!”
The young cultivator snorted coldly, stored the Qi Machine Book, and sped off in another direction.
At the same time, an elder sitting cross-legged on a mountaintop slowly opened his eyes. He frowned slightly and said, “Lu Yuyao’s aura has vanished too. This is the fifth one… It seems this Dragon Ruins trip is far more dangerous than I imagined!”
…
When Mo Fan pushed open the heavy stone door, he saw a vast blue sea.
In the center of the sea stood an island.
“Good luck. I was teleported directly to one of the Dragon Ruins entrances!”
A flash of joy appeared in Mo Fan’s eyes. Without looking back, he said, “Follow me, or don’t blame me if the poison acts up!”
With that, black wings sprouted from Mo Fan’s back. With a light flap, he soared into the air.
Lu Yuyao gritted her teeth and flew after him.
After flying a certain distance, Mo Fan looked back. Sure enough, the cave he had been in was on a steep cliff wall. He had no idea who had carved that dwelling.
He then turned and flew toward the island.
According to the Black Dragon King’s memories, the Dragon Ruins entrance periphery had many such islands, each connected to an entrance into the Dragon Ruins.
Just then, Mo Fan saw a cultivator flying through the distant sky, heading for the same island.
Perhaps sensing someone watching, that cultivator turned toward Mo Fan. But the next moment, something unexpected happened.
The cultivator was suddenly bisected by something invisible. His body split into two halves, blood spraying into the air.
This eerie and terrifying scene startled Mo Fan and Lu Yuyao behind him, making their scalps tingle.
Mo Fan then saw a golden core shoot out from the corpse, flying back toward the land.
“Hahahaha… What an unexpected delight!”
But as the golden core reached the land, it was seized by someone’s spell power.
“Mercy, fellow Daoist! Mercy!!”
A panicked voice came from the golden core.
“Rest assured, as a fellow human, I will spare your life. From now on, stay obediently in my Soul-Devouring Banner!
Hahahaha…”
From afar, Mo Fan saw the cultivator on the cliff above sacrifice a black banner. With a casual shake, the cultivator’s soul hidden in the golden core was absorbed into the banner.
After finishing, the cultivator held the golden core in one hand and the soul banner in the other. He turned to look at Mo Fan, a cruel smile on his face.
“Not good, it’s a demonic path cultivator!”
Lu Yuyao’s expression changed drastically upon seeing this.
Mo Fan, thoughtful, asked, “Demonic path? Are they strong?”
Though he had Lu Yuyao’s memories, he had not fully read the vast amount in a short time, only accessing important information. Thus, he was still unclear on many details.
“Nonsense!”
Lu Yuyao rolled her eyes, then said fearfully, “Let’s go quickly, or if that guy catches us, we’ll all be soul-extracted and refined!”
Perhaps worried Mo Fan did not understand the demonic path cultivators’ prowess, she explained solemnly, “We orthodox cultivators view demonic path cultivators as great enemies because they do not use heaven and earth spiritual materials as primary cultivation resources. Instead, they seize other cultivators’ foundations through cruel secret arts for their own practice.
Anyone captured by demonic path cultivators will have their souls extracted and refined into treasures.
Moreover, their treasures are evil, often more powerful than ordinary ones, and mostly target the spirit, making them hard to defend against!”
So that’s how it is!
Mo Fan narrowed his eyes but saw the demonic path cultivator did not pursue them. Instead, he flew directly toward the island in the sea’s depths.
“Tell me about these demonic paths. What sects are they, and what methods do they use?” Mo Fan said.
He was not particularly afraid of that demonic path cultivator. Among his divine abilities, some targeted the spirit as well. But he wanted to learn more about these demonic path cultivators.
Lu Yuyao frowned slightly, unwilling to answer at first. But considering her situation, she spoke after a moment of silence. “The Divine Domain Continent has many demonic path sects, but the strongest are the Soul Refining Sect, Sun Moon Holy Cult, and Corpse Yin Sect.”
“Among them, the Soul Refining Sect’s primary methods target souls. That cultivator is likely from there.
The Corpse Yin Sect uses corpses as combat tools.
As for the Sun Moon Holy Cult, they brainwash mortals with their doctrines, inciting war after war on the Divine Domain Continent. Their methods are the most mysterious.” Lu Yuyao added.
“It seems your human race is not united after all. Quite a lot of internal conflicts!”
Mo Fan smiled. This was the first time he heard of these demonic path forces. He then asked, “How does this Soul Refining Sect compare to your Tianlu Sacred Land?”
“Though it is one of the strongest human forces, my Tianlu Sacred Land has five Nascent Soul ancestors in total. It is naturally superior to a mere demonic path sect!” Lu Yuyao snorted coldly.
Hearing this, Mo Fan understood the gist: the Soul Refining Sect’s strength was not inferior to Tianlu Sacred Land!
Moreover, these demonic paths seemed to be one of the human sacred mountains as well!
“Interesting. I once heard humans have several great mountains guarding their destiny. Your Tianlu Sacred Land is one. So, does that mean these demonic path sects are also great mountains?
If so, aren’t you afraid of turning everything into chaos?” Mo Fan asked curiously.
“No matter how fiercely we fight, it is a human affair. But when facing you outsiders, we humans will unite against the enemy!” Lu Yuyao snorted coldly.
Mo Fan smiled and said no more on the topic. At least this time, he understood that human infighting was fierce. Perhaps that was the true reason the Ten Thousand Great Mountains’ demon clans had survived this long!
It was not that humans did not want to exterminate the demons, but they were too busy with their own affairs!
Mo Fan looked ahead, his vast divine sense surging out and spreading through the surrounding space.
Soon, his face showed solemnity.
“So that’s how it is…”
A trace of shock appeared in Mo Fan’s eyes.
He had discovered numerous tiny spatial rifts in the surrounding airspace!
These spatial rifts were so fine that they were invisible to the naked eye. But if one accidentally collided with them, no amount of cultivation would help!
Clearly, the Core Formation cultivator from earlier had hit a spatial rift, slicing his body in two!
“What did you find?”
Lu Yuyao sensed Mo Fan’s vast divine sense, shocked inwardly. She extended her own divine sense and discovered clues as well.
“It seems my sect ancestor was right. The Dragon Ruins is on the verge of collapse. Even this peripheral airspace is filled with spatial rifts…”
Lu Yuyao murmured, her face growing even grimmer.
