It was only because the person who appeared later was merely a youth in his early thirties, clad in green, with a deathly pale face—so pale, in fact, that even his eyeballs seemed entirely white...
Jun Mo Xie had expected that whoever spoke to the skeletal old monster with such an imperious tone would surely be another ancient being, but he never imagined the newcomer would be so young!
It was truly unexpected. The withered old man had just risen, yet before he could reply, the young man’s brow suddenly furrowed in confusion, and he cast a deeply suspicious glance toward the stone wall where Jun Mo Xie was hidden.
Could he have detected me? Jun Mo Xie’s heart jolted. In a flash of inspiration, he enacted the Yin-Yang Escape again, merging himself completely into the most potent, endless tide of corpse energy saturating the area...
The young man examined the area carefully with a puzzled expression but discovered nothing amiss. Finally, he continued in a faint voice, "The intruder today possessed profound, unpredictable mystical skills and utilized supernatural methods, appearing and disappearing without a trace. Even now, we cannot confirm if he has left or is still lurking here. Whether he remains or has gone, he presents a catastrophe for us. If he is still here, with his bizarre methods of concealment, the Zhan Family will likely have no secrets left."
He paused. "What is even more terrifying is if he has left. Whoever this person is, once he escapes, the secrets of the Zhan Family that he now knows are enough to ensure the family’s destruction within days! Therefore, you must, in the shortest time possible, gather the maximum quantity of corpse energy to forcibly and completely seal the Miao Family’s terrestrial veins, ensuring that all the remaining fortune of the Miao Family flows into the Zhan Family’s terrestrial veins within three days. Only then can the Zhan Family escape this calamity!"
"Regardless of how the other great families react, merely deploying the necessary measures will take a minimum of three days! And that is our window of opportunity!"
The emaciated old man shuddered. He replied haltingly, "I understand the gravity of the situation, but... if we proceed like this, it might be too abrupt and easily lead to oversights. Ancestor, you are an expert in this path; you know that such matters abhor rashness! What we are enacting is a method that defies Heaven. If any mishap occurs, it will be impossible to remedy..."
The young man said calmly, "I am fully aware of the circumstances. However, the current situation does not permit us to wait any longer. There is only one path: move forward with all our might! The leak of this place’s secrets is now inevitable. If we fail to complete this task by then, it will spell utter doom for the entire Zhan Family, with no room for reprieve! Although the Zhan Family is powerful, facing the combined might of the Phantom Manor’s Chief Official and the other Seven Great Families, we stand absolutely no chance!"
"Human effort has its limits, and worldly affairs are unpredictable. This accident has truly left us with no choice!" The young man raised his head, his expression vicious, and cursed fiercely, "This damned intruder! Who is he? No matter who he is, if the Zhan Family cannot survive this crisis, I will ensure this person’s entire lineage pays with their lives!"
"Since it has come to this, I shall immediately dedicate my full strength to completing this task." The withered old man deliberated laboriously for a long time before replying in a tone that was almost resolute, his demeanor taking on a look of grim martyrdom, as if completing this task demanded his self-sacrifice...
"Rest assured. After this is done, any lifespan you lose, I have means to restore—even more than a year to fully recover, perhaps even improve it!" The young man was Zhan Lunhui, and at this moment, his voice carried unusual gravity.
"Thank you, Ancestor," the withered man, naturally Tianjizi Zhan Tianji, replied, slightly relieved to hear this. What he was about to do was a complete violation of Heavenly principles. Though it was a technique of Feng Shui, it required the sacrifice of his own vital essence as the catalyst. Otherwise, how could he have withered to a state that would make even a skeleton marvel?
Zhan Lunhui finished speaking and immediately withdrew from the vast stone chamber without lingering.
Watching Zhan Lunhui leave, Zhan Tianji remained standing there, motionless for a long time. After what seemed like serious deliberation, he finally let out a long sigh and settled back down cross-legged, taking a deep breath. Suddenly, both his palms shot upward, and the entire ceiling of the stone chamber erupted in brilliant light...
As the radiance flared, a faint whooshing sound arose from the corpses piled in the great pit before Zhan Tianji...
Outside the door, Zhan Lunhui, who had been standing silently, heard the sound and smiled with deep satisfaction before finally turning and truly departing...
Jun Mo Xie looked up and saw that carved into the ceiling of the stone chamber was an incredibly detailed, complete diagram—the Nine Peaks of the Phantom Manor!
Connecting the peaks on the diagram were lines resembling the meridians of a human body, within which a faint luminescence seemed to flow.
The corpse energy in the pit hissed, slowly congealing in the empty space until it formed a mass of inky black-purple, supremely malevolent energy. With a swish, it fell into the great bronze cauldron before Zhan Tianji. Beneath the cauldron, nine tubes suddenly stirred violently...
Then, a thin, black-purple beam of light rose from the cauldron, striking precisely the depiction of the Miao Family's mountain range on the ceiling mural. Instantly, the color representing the Miao Family dimmed by another shade...
A breath later, amidst Zhan Tianji’s almost exhaustive roar of effort...
"Go!" A plume of ashen gas drifted down from above, landing with a thud towards the upper-left corner of the chamber. The stone wall in that spot immediately became ethereal and hazy... The previous ashen gas had already flown out from that location and vanished—and the direction the gas departed was, by sheer coincidence, the direction of the Miao Family’s terrestrial veins!
Jun Mo Xie could now ascertain that the gas’s landing point must be the critical nexus connecting the Miao Family’s veins to the main peak!
Having accomplished all this, Zhan Tianji’s face instantly flushed crimson. He coughed laboriously, gasping deeply for the air in the chamber, seemingly unbothered by the thick, corpse-scented foulness...
After a long, long while, Zhan Tianji’s face turned deathly pale again, his skin appearing slackened once more. His eyes lacked any luster. He sat meditating quietly, an exceptionally pure and profound Xuan Qi flowing rapidly through his meridians, apparently trying to recover his strength in this brief time... Meanwhile, the bronze cauldron before him had not stopped its function. The nine strange tubes beneath it trembled ceaselessly, causing the skeletal remains below to emit faint tremors intermittently...
Not long after, another wave of dense corpse energy gradually condensed!
Subsequently, another stream of crimson mist slowly flowed in from the upper-right corner of the chamber, maneuvering as before before disappearing from sight...
Jun Mo Xie, who possessed some understanding of the intricacies of Feng Shui numerology, finally grasped the profound mystery.
The Zhan Family was using the lives of countless living people here to forcibly strangle fate, generating the most intense resentment in the world. As this accumulated, it formed a corpse miasma. Then, utilizing a formation precisely mirroring the Nine Peaks of the Phantom Manor, they were forcibly obstructing the original flow of the Miao Family’s fortune, while simultaneously, they were completely sealing the Miao Family's inherent pathways to channel all of that fortune directly over to their own Zhan Family!
Just looking at the pit filled with white bones, Jun Mo Xie estimated that at least tens of thousands of people had perished here for nothing.
And the count seemed to be escalating: perhaps only three hundred corpses initially per day, increasing to five hundred later... How long had the Zhan Family been conducting this conspiracy? Regardless, Jun Mo Xie felt absolute loathing for such brutal conduct!
I was once... one of the common folk!
Though we possess no great power and will never witness the machinations of the highest echelons, we are eternally unwilling to be mere sacrifices in the power struggles of the great figures!
Jun Mo Xie's hand, connected to the space constructed by Hong Jun, tightly gripped the hilt of the Sword of Yan Huang!
Within his heart, the intent to kill slowly coalesced, rising steadily to its peak!
After resting for a while and regaining a fraction of his vitality, Zhan Tianji felt that delay was unacceptable and that he could not afford to relax. He immediately began preparing the next round of refinement!
As a mass of inky black energy reformed, an expression of rare satisfaction—though incredibly ugly—flickered across Zhan Tianji's withered face; he had managed a smile... He pointed his finger, and the black-purple mass fell into the cauldron. After churning, a thin black-purple ray shot upward...
At this precise moment, Zhan Tianji was at his absolute weakest, and simultaneously, his guard was at its lowest! Because the subsequent stages were all completed automatically by the formation; he no longer needed to act...
Yet, at this moment, even breathing was a struggle for him! Although he was a master of the Saint Venerable realm, his current fragility was starkly evident! Even for someone as formidable as him, unilaterally altering destiny and seizing luck required an immense price!
And Jun Mo Xie chose this very moment to strike.
He took a single stride in the void, crossing over twenty zhang in an instant, arriving before Zhan Tianji! This speed already surpassed the limits of human motion!
Immediately following, a burst of explosive sword energy erupted, seeming to cause the space throughout heaven and earth to collapse! A dazzling radiance, carrying a searing sting, slammed into Zhan Tianji’s eyes!
Such a sudden upheaval rendered this Saint Venerable expert momentarily blind and utterly flustered!
Zhan Tianji possessed absolutely no preparedness whatsoever!
This was the very core of the Zhan Family, the location with the tightest defenses!
He believed that within the entire Ethereal Phantom Manor, apart from the Elixir Herb Garden, this place was the least likely spot for an accident to occur!
He felt utterly secure here, with no awareness of being attacked by an enemy! Even though he had heard rumors today that an inexplicable, powerful foe had infiltrated the underground world, Zhan Tianji was certain that this location was an absolute secret realm no one could penetrate!
This was because he had placed countless restrictions in the vicinity! Without his permission, not even Zhan Lunhui could casually enter! (To be continued...)