Chapter 322: God Lake Immortal Sect

At the heart of the grand hall atop Wu Dao Peak, a group of newly inducted disciples stood in awe before the towering gateway of the Front Mountain. The aura of the Foundation Establishment demon beast radiating from the immortal crane, Xianhe Chengfeng, sent shivers down their spines, further reinforcing their sense of the Immortal Sect’s formidable power. Ding Xiaoxia received the awestruck disciples from Martial Uncle Chengfeng, a wave of emotion stirring within him.

Having witnessed the sect’s rise and fall firsthand, Ding Xiaoxia understood better than anyone how hard-won its current glory was. Normally, he wouldn’t be responsible for welcoming new disciples; his current position had long surpassed such duties. But a token had been brought to his attention by subordinates.

The True Immortal of Longevity’s token.

A child from Black Mountain Village had arrived bearing the True Immortal of Longevity’s token, a matter of such significance that Ding Xiaoxia personally intervened.

“Thank you, Senior Brother,” Du Qiuxian said, his face flushed with excitement. He had never imagined his father truly knew the True Immortal of Longevity, or that a token could secure his admission to the Immortal Sect.

The God Lake Immortal Sect’s entrance examination had become exceedingly stringent, admitting only a dozen or so disciples each year—exceptional talents, one in ten thousand. Though Du Qiuxian possessed a Mid-Grade Spirit Root, he felt vastly inferior to his newly acquired senior and junior brothers.

“What’s your relationship with Martial Uncle Chen?” Ding Xiaoxia asked curiously, walking ahead.

“I don’t know,” Du Qiuxian replied, genuinely perplexed. His father, Du De, had given him the token, and his mother had presented him with an “Immortal Pill,” claiming it was a gift from the True Immortal of Longevity. He was just as bewildered as anyone about his family’s sudden connection to such prominent figures.

“Don’t worry about it. Once we’re settled on the mountain, feel free to ask me anything you don’t understand,” Ding Xiaoxia said magnanimously, patting his junior brother on the shoulder.

The other newly initiated disciples looked on with envy. We all joined at the same time. How could there be such a vast difference between us?

Behind the mountain, in the main hall where Void Sage practiced his cultivation, the atmosphere was far more serene than the bustling Front Mountain. Not a soul was to be seen around the hall. Inside, Void Sage sat cross-legged, facing Bai Su. Their postures mirrored each other, as if they were a single entity. A gray wisp of qi flowed ceaselessly between them.

On a nearby table, a bronze incense burner emitted wisps of blue-gray smoke.

The Demonic Heart Paintings still hung around the hall, but unlike before, their canvases were now completely blank. Demonic Heart Qi continued to seep into the paintings, circulating through them before being absorbed by Bai Su. It then transformed into another form, returning to Void Sage’s body.

Each cycle through the paintings constituted one Heavenly Cycle.

After a long time, their cultivation auras gradually subsided, and both simultaneously awoke from their meditation.

“Sect Leader, the Ghost Temple cultivators have returned,” a hunched figure materialized silently in the hall, moving with ghostlike stealth. If Chen Luo were present, he would instantly recognize the old man as Elder Qu from Divine Fire Peak. This elder, once only at the early Foundation Establishment stage, now radiated the same Demonic Heart Qi as Bai Su.

“Kill them,” Void Sage commanded coldly, a flicker of gray energy flashing in his eyes.

“This time…”

Boom!

A surge of energy shattered the main gate, drawing in a chilling, unnatural wind. The once bright, sunny sky outside had transformed into pitch-black darkness.

“So that’s why Xue Ning died—she was a disciple of the Demonic Heart Ancestor. If I told those seven lunatics from the Qiong Hua Sect about you, do you think they’d come and chop you down?”

A sinister voice, accompanied by a flickering presence, echoed through the hall.

Ghostly shadows flickered within, as if dozens of people were moving about.

Void Sage’s eyes were ice-cold. Before him, Bai Su and Elder Qu stood motionless, their faces blank and devoid of human emotion, like mere puppets.

“Hmph!” Void Sage snorted coldly. He raised his hand, and layers of shimmering shadows materialized in the surrounding blank space. These phantoms swiftly coalesced into illusions, overlapping with reality and filling the air with eerie laughter.

The Ghost Temple cultivators froze, as if struck by an invisible force. The flickering ghost shadows gradually diminished, eventually coalescing into a pale young man.

His face contorted in agony, as if he had witnessed some unspeakable horror, his divine soul twisting in anguish.

“Demonic Heart?” The Ghost Cultivator forcibly suppressed the influence, his gaze flickering with wariness as he regarded Void Sage, who sat cross-legged in the hall.

Though only in the early Core Formation stage, this man already possessed a hint of the Demonic Heart Ancestor’s imposing aura.

“Give him a little more time, and he might truly become a force to be reckoned with. But as it stands…” A cold glint flashed in the Third-Tier Ghost Cultivator’s eyes. “You’d best come back to the Ghost Temple with me obediently.”

He took a step forward, his figure dissolving into mist.

Beside him, the wooden-faced Elder Qu suddenly lunged forward, seizing at the empty space where the cultivator had vanished.

Thump!

A muffled thud echoed as Elder Qu’s hand closed on something unseen. In the next instant, his arm snapped apart at the elbow, and a torrent of blood sprayed from the jagged stump.

“So you can see me? What good is that? Your petty tricks can’t stop me.”

The shadowy figure solidified, and a pitch-black blade materialized in the Third-Tier Ghost Cultivator’s hand. The weapon radiated a mournful wail, as if it were a living entity.

“A Fourth-Tier Magic Artifact?”

Void Sage’s expression turned grave. He raised his hand, and a blank scroll materialized. As he unfurled it, a dark, fiery character for “Fire” materialized on its surface.

The handwriting vanished in a flash.

The Ghost Cultivator who had severed Elder Qu’s arm was about to deliver the killing blow when his hand gripping the long blade suddenly froze. A flicker of pain crossed his face as he pressed his chest, as if an invisible flame were consuming his heart.

Heartfire.

Flames conjured by the Demonic Heart, rootless and intangible, they could only be extinguished by severing the Demonic Heart itself.

“A Fourth-Tier Magic Artifact cannot be stopped by such paltry tricks,” the Third-Tier Ghost Cultivator sneered. A grotesque weeping face materialized on the blade’s surface, its features twisting violently. The Heartfire burning in the cultivator’s chest was instantly devoured by the weeping visage.

Not only that, but Elder Qu and Bai Su both lost consciousness, collapsing to the ground. Black flames erupted from the blank paintings adorning the surrounding walls, and the blade’s inky darkness spread like spilled ink, staining half the chamber.

Void Sage’s expression finally turned grave. He rose to his feet and retrieved a black finger bone from his robe. The moment the bone appeared, the Heart Demon Qi in the entire hall surged tenfold. This concentrated aura, amplified by Void Sage’s manipulation of Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, warped the very air itself.

A dense swarm of ghostly shadows materialized within the hall, accompanied by a cacophony of bizarre voices.

“Hey there, handsome, come play with us!”

“Second Dog, it’s your Third Uncle!”

“Husband, I don’t want to die.”

One after another, distorted ghost figures emerged, instantly overwhelming the space corrupted by the Black Blade and reversing its oppressive influence.

“The finger bone of the Demonic Heart Ancestor?!”

The Ghost Cultivator wielding the blade paled dramatically. He instinctively tried to flee, but it was already too late. Void Sage manipulated the finger bone, gently pointing it in the cultivator’s direction.

Ripples of energy spread outward, distorting the air like ripples in water. A dark speck coalesced, striking the Third-Tier Ghost Cultivator precisely between the eyebrows. The cultivator, who had been certain of victory moments before, froze mid-motion, his vitality extinguished.

Huff!

Void Sage exhaled a long, turbid breath.

His years of cultivation had not been wasted. Recently, he had advanced his cultivation further, successfully refining the Demonic Heart Ancestor’s finger bone. This advancement propelled his Demonic Heart Art to new heights. Unlike Chen Luo’s version, Void Sage’s path drew him ever closer to the Demonic Heart Ancestor, whom the Qiong Hua Sect had suppressed.

“Excellent, excellent! My journey here was not in vain. Fellow Daoist, what do you think of our Ghost Temple?” A voice suddenly rang out.

Just as Void Sage was about to retrieve the Black Blade, he froze, slowly turning around. He discovered that someone had appeared out of nowhere in the spot where he had been sitting: a strange figure clad in the robes of an Imperial Preceptor.

Cold sweat broke out on Void Sage’s forehead as he recalled the information Chen Luo had shared about the Southern Heaven Domain.

The Millennium Centipede Spirit.

After completing the Formation, Chen Luo returned to the sky above the courtyard.

He had temporarily reinforced the area, making it impossible for even the Great King of Black Horn to instantly break through the Formation. With this buffer, Chen Luo could calmly handle any trouble that arose.

“Don’t disappoint me, little one,” Chen Luo murmured, glancing down at Ao Ye in the courtyard. A wisp of Tribulation Qi rose from his body as he descended into the Demonic Heart Tribulation alongside the others. This was the first time Chen Luo had brought so many people into a tribulation. With countless Demon Seeds nourished by Xue Ning’s accumulated precious orbs and stones, and fueled by the Tribulation Qi of the Demonic Heart Tribulation, he wondered what kind of fruit this endeavor would ultimately bear.

As dusk fell, the setting sun cast long shadows across the town.

Golden sunlight bathed the streets as merchants, having worked all day, began packing up their wares to head home. The agricultural tool shops along the roadside started closing their shutters for the night. An old donkey cart rumbled down the road, its wooden wheels creaking rhythmically.

The blacksmith’s forge continued to hammer and refine iron, the apprentice frantically pumping the bellows. Waves of heat radiated from the workshop, and the rhythmic clang of metal echoed like a harmonious melody.

Across the street, Chen Luo, clad in a cyan robe, sat observing the blacksmiths at work.

This was the Demonic Heart Tribulation, one he had triggered himself. Unlike his previous Tribulation Transcendence attempts, this Demonic Heart Tribulation was formed from his own Tribulation Qi, its power dwarfing even the Demonic Heart Tribulation faced by Elder FusionSpirit. To amplify the feedback from this trial, Chen Luo had infused it with a vast number of Demon Seeds and channeled the combined power of two Secret Treasures accumulated by Xue Ning.

The scene before him was so lifelike, it could have been mistaken for reality.

“I seem to have forgotten something,” Chen Luo murmured, lost in thought. This was his personal tribulation. The Demonic Heart Ancestor merely stored and dispersed Tribulation Qi, but when one truly entered the tribulation, they were still vulnerable to the Heavenly Tribulation’s influence. Upon transcending this Demonic Heart Tribulation, he would receive the appropriate rewards.

Tribulation Qi made flesh, a place to sow demons.

An experiment on the path to the Nascent Soul.

His External Brain swiftly materialized, relaying the forgotten information.