Before the morning mist had dispersed, over twenty disciples had already gathered in front of the Xuantian Sect's mountain gate. Yun Qingyu was dressed in dark cyan martial attire with a long sword strapped to his back, standing side by side with Chu Yao, whose white robes were brighter than snow. After three days of recuperation, their injuries were already seven or eight parts healed.
"I heard there are strange omens with the opening of the secret realm this time," a round-faced disciple said mysteriously. "A few days ago, someone saw a white rainbow piercing the sun at the entrance of the secret realm!"
Hearing this, Chu Yao unconsciously rubbed the Jade Flute at her waist. Yun Qingyu knew what she was worrying about—the white rainbow piercing the sun was precisely the sign that the Pure World White Lotus was maturing. If the news was true, it would likely stir the hearts of not just the sect's disciples, but even some secluded old freaks.
"Silence!" The enforcement elder arrived on a flying sword. "The secret realm will be open for three days. Each person may harvest five spiritual herbs, and internal fighting is strictly prohibited. Enter in order now!"
Yun Qingyu took the transmission talisman and whispered to Chu Yao, "Remember, after entering, gather at the northeast first."
Chu Yao nodded slightly, her fingertips gently tracing across his palm to leave a cold talisman imprint—the "Twin Hearts Seal" secretly passed down by the Hanyue Palace, which would allow them to sense each other's location within the secret realm.
As the light of the teleportation array flashed, Yun Qingyu felt the world spin, and when he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a primeval jungle. Towering ancient trees blocked out the sun, and the air was filled with the damp scent of grass and trees. He tried to circulate his spiritual energy, only to find that the laws of heaven and earth here were different from the outside world, and his cultivation base was suppressed to the level of the Qi Condensation Stage alone.
"Just as expected..." Yun Qingyu was not flustered. In his past life, he had entered the Xuantian Secret Realm and knew this was the secret realm's self-protection mechanism. He first checked the Twin Hearts Seal, confirming that Chu Yao was ten miles to the northeast, and then drew his sword to clear the path.
Barely a hundred paces in, the jade pendant at his waist suddenly grew hot. Yun Qingyu alertly sidestepped as a small emerald snake brushed past his ear, its venomous fangs shimmering with a deep blue luster in the sunlight.
"A Azure Underworld Snake?" Yun Qingyu's sword light flashed, slicing the venomous snake into two halves. This type of demonic beast had long gone extinct in the outside world, and its venom could harm Golden Core cultivators! He cautiously bypassed the snake carcass, only to see the severed snake slowly wriggling and reconnecting itself!
"Undying trait?" Yun Qingyu's pupils constricted slightly. There had been no such mutation in the secret realm in his past life. Daring not to get bogged down in a protracted battle, he executed his movement technique to press forward rapidly, with the Azure Underworld Snake closely pursuing him from behind.
After running for about three miles, the view ahead suddenly widened—a clear lake came into view, and on an island in the middle of the lake bloomed three snow-white lotus flowers, with golden light flowing around their stamens.
"The Pure World White Lotus?" Yun Qingyu started, "How could it be here?"
According to Elder Chu, the white lotus should have grown in the cold pool at the very depths of the secret realm. When unusual things happen, demons are bound to be present; he pressed his hand against the hilt of his sword and observed his surroundings vigilantly.
Ripples suddenly broke across the lake water as a white-robed maiden stepped across the waves toward him—it was none other than Chu Yao! With a smile at the corners of her lips and eyes like water, she said, "Senior Brother Yun, I've found the white lotus."
A surge of joy rose in Yun Qingyu's heart, and just as he was about to step forward, he abruptly stopped—the Twin Hearts Seal indicated that the real Chu Yao was still five miles away to the northeast!
"An illusion?" He sneered as Jiuxiao Sword Qi burst forth from his body. "You put on a pretty good act, but unfortunately..."
"Chu Yao's" expression instantly turned ferocious, her figure twisting to transform into a ten-zhang giant python! The lake water boiled as three more giant pythons broke through the surface, surrounding Yun Qingyu in a tight circle.
"Four-Image Illusion Pythons?" Recognizing this rare demonic beast, Yun Qingyu's heart sank. Illusion pythons were adept at probing the human heart, capable of manifesting the person the target cared about most. In his past life, he had only ever seen records of them in ancient texts; he had never expected to find living specimens in the secret realm!
The giant pythons lunged at him simultaneously, and Yun Qingyu's figure moved like lightning, dodging their bites by the narrowest of margins. Yet with his cultivation suppressed, his sword qi could only leave shallow marks on the pythons' scales. More troublesome still, every time he locked eyes with the pythons, he would experience a momentary daze, as if he saw the scene of Chu Yao meeting with danger.
"Don't look into their eyes!" Yun Qingyu closed his eyes, relying purely on his spiritual sense to perceive his surroundings. Closing his eyes actually revealed a clue—the movement trajectories of the four giant pythons closely matched the Four-Image Formation, and the core of the formation was precisely... the fake white lotus in the center of the lake!
His thoughts racing, he feigned defeat and stumbled backward toward the lake shore. When the giant pythons lunged again, he suddenly turned and charged toward the center of the lake, slashing a sword at the fake white lotus!
"Hiss—" All four giant pythons let out painful cries at once, their forms blurring for an instant. Catching the opportunity, Yun Qingyu unleashed the second form of the Jiuxiao Sword Technique, "Heaven-Riving", with all his might, and the sword light shot straight into the core of the formation like a rainbow!
"Boom!"
The fake white lotus shattered, and the python illusions dissolved along with it. The lake surface returned to tranquility, leaving only a delicate little white lotus slowly rising from the site of the explosion—it turned out to be a genuine seedling of the Pure World White Lotus!
"Truth hidden within illusions..." Yun Qingyu carefully put away the white lotus, his doubts growing even heavier. The mutation in the secret realm was by no means accidental; rather, it looked as though someone had deliberately arranged it.
Continuing his advance toward the northeast, the demonic beasts he encountered along the way were several times fiercer than those recorded in the classics. When Yun Qingyu finally found Chu Yao in a mountain valley, she was being swarmed by a pack of blood-eyed wolves, her white robes stained with blood, evidently having fought bitterly for some time.
"Chu Yao!" Yun Qingyu leaped into the battle. This time the Twin Hearts Seal reacted, confirming she was indeed the real person.
The two of them fought back-to-back against the wolf pack. Chu Yao's jade flute blew out crystalline sound blades, each strike capable of freezing a blood wolf solid; meanwhile, Yun Qingyu's sword thrust out like a dragon, targeting the wolf king exclusively. Under their coordination, the wolf pack routed within a quarter of an hour.
"You're injured?" Yun Qingyu frowned, looking at the scratch on Chu Yao's left arm.
Chu Yao shook her head. "A superficial wound. As for you..." She reached out to gently touch a bloody scratch on the side of Yun Qingyu's neck, her cool fingertips bringing a strange, numb tingling sensation. "We need to find the Pure World White Lotus quickly; the demonic qi in your body is starting to act up again."
Only then did Yun Qingyu notice that the black light in his Dantian was indeed much more active than it had been in the morning. He produced the small white lotus: "I obtained this by accident along the way, but its medicinal power is probably not enough."
Chu Yao's eyes lit up. "It is indeed the Pure World White Lotus! Although its age is still shallow, it's enough to temporarily suppress the demonic qi." She split the white lotus in half. "You and I will each take a half; it can ward off toxic miasma."
The white lotus melted upon entering his mouth, and a stream of cooling qi instantly coursed through his entire body. Yun Qingyu felt the demonic qi within him react as if encountering its natural enemy, immediately shrinking back into the corner of his Dantian. Even more wondrously, his spiritual sense had grown much stronger, faintly enabling him to perceive a certain summons coming from the depths of the secret realm.
"You feel it too?" Chu Yao said in surprise. "It feels like something is calling out to us..."
Yun Qingyu nodded. "It might be a larger white lotus. Let's go take a look."
The two of them followed the sensation deeper into the secret realm. As they neared the center, the surrounding vegetation grew increasingly sparse, replaced by large expanses of grayish-white rock covered in sword marks and scorch marks—the ruins of an ancient great battle.
"Strange..." Chu Yao stroked a sword scar that spanned a hundred zhang across. "These marks look as though they were left recently..."
Yun Qingyu squatted down and retrieved a crystal stone from a fissure. "A memory stone? Someone deliberately arranged this here!"
Just as the two of them grew vigilant, the ground suddenly shook violently! The rock wall ahead collapsed with a roar, revealing a deep cave from which rich spiritual energy poured out like a tide.
Deep within the cave, a silvery-white light was faintly visible. The sense of summons instantly grew ten times stronger, and Yun Qingyu and Chu Yao stepped forward as one.
"Beware of tricks." Yun Qingyu pulled Chu Yao back and walked in front himself.
The cave wound downward, and the temperature grew lower and lower. After traveling for about a quarter of an hour, the view suddenly opened up—a huge underground ice cave! Countless icicles hung from the cave roof, and in the center was a silvery pool, in which bloomed a Pure World White Lotus the size of a millstone!
"A thousand-year white lotus!" Chu Yao cried out in surprise. "It's enough to purify Nascent Soul Stage demonic qi!"
Yet Yun Qingyu pressed down on his sword hilt. "Too easy... something's wrong."
Before his voice died away, the pool water suddenly exploded! A behemoth broke through the surface of the water—it turned out to be an ice chi, crystal-clear from head to toe! Sitting atop the chi's head was a blue-robed elder, none other than Xuanxiaozhi, who had been missing for many days!
"I've been waiting for you for a long time." Xuanxiaozhi smiled grimly, the bloody vertical eye on his forehead slowly opening. "I knew the Hanyue bloodline would be able to find this place."
Chu Yao's face turned ashen. "You... you are not Sect Master Xuanxiaozhi!"
"Of course not." The elder tore off his face, revealing his true appearance covered in scales. "This old man is True Lord Hanchi, waiting here by order of the Demon Lord. This white lotus is the funeral bloom prepared for you!"
The ice chi let out a roar, and the entire cave instantly froze solid! Yun Qingyu swung his sword to shatter the incoming ice spikes, shock gripping his heart. This True Lord Hanchi was a Nascent Soul old monster; even with his cultivation suppressed, he was by no means someone they could defeat.
"Run!" He grabbed Chu Yao and rushed toward the cave entrance, only to find that their path back had been sealed shut by solid ice.
True Lord Hanchi formed hand seals without any rush. "The Demon Lord said as long as we have the corpses, that's fine too. Especially you, little girl..." He gazed greedily at Chu Yao. "The bloodline of the Palace Master Hanyue makes for top-tier cauldrons!"
Hearing this, Chu Yao was shaken. "You knew my mother?"
"More than just knowing..." True Lord Hanchi gave a strange laugh. "Back then, this old man was the one who dug out her heart with my own hands!"
These words struck like a thunderclap. Chu Yao's eyes instantly crystallized with frost, and her jade flute emitted a piercing shriek—she was actually forcefully driving a Hanyue forbidden art that she had not yet fully mastered!
"Chu Yao! Don't fall for his trick!" Yun Qingyu hurriedly tried to stop her, but it was already too late.
The cave temperature plummeted, and countless icicles spread out from beneath Chu Yao's feet. True Lord Hanchi was delighted rather than alarmed. "Yes, yes, just like that! Be angry, let the Hanyue bloodline awaken completely!"
Yun Qingyu came to a sudden realization—this old monster was deliberately provoking Chu Yao! He pulled the maiden into a hasty embrace and spoke urgently in her ear, "Calm down! He is luring you into casting the forbidden art so he can seize your bloodline!"
Chu Yao trembled all over, the frost in her eyes receding slightly. Seeing this, True Lord Hanchi let out a cold snort. "Meddlesome brat!" With a wave of his hand, he shot out an ice arrow.
Yun Qingyu turned to take the blow head-on, and the ice arrow pierced right through his shoulder, sending a burst of blood spraying outward. His fresh blood dripped onto the ice surface and was bizarrely absorbed by it, whereupon the white lotus in the pool lit up with a faint glow.
"Oh?" True Lord Hanchi narrowed his eyes. "Your blood can activate the white lotus?" He burst into loud laughter. "So that's how it is! The Jiuxiao bloodline combined with the Hanyue bloodline is precisely the key to opening 'that'!"
Yun Qingyu had no idea what the old monster meant by those words, but his intuition told him a great disaster was imminent. Enduring his severe pain, he secretly circulated the Jiuxiao Sword Technique, preparing to fight to the death.
True Lord Hanchi leaped down from the ice chi's head and walked toward the white lotus. "I originally intended to kill you both and be done with it, but now I've changed my mind..." He slashed open his wrist and dripped his blood into the pool water. "Let you all witness the true purpose of the Pure World White Lotus!"
Blood stained the pool water, causing the white lotus to tremble violently as its petals peeled off one by one, revealing a crystal-clear lotus seed at the flower's heart. True Lord Hanchi's face showed fanaticism as he lunged to grab the lotus seed!
"Stop him!" Yun Qingyu and Chu Yao struck out at the same time. Their sword qi and sound blades intertwined, but both were intercepted by the ice chi.
The moment True Lord Hanchi grasped the lotus seed, the entire secret realm suddenly came to a standstill! Yun Qingyu felt an ancient, vast will descend, and a vicissitudinous whisper sounded in his ear:
"The Jiuxiao... Hanyue... successors... you have finally come..."
The next moment, the lotus seed erupted with dazzling white light, swallowing all four of them whole.
When the light dispersed, Yun Qingyu found himself standing in a void space with Chu Yao right by his side, while True Lord Hanchi and the ice chi were nowhere to be seen.
"Where is this?" Chu Yao grabbed Yun Qingyu's arm nervously.
Dots of starlight suddenly lit up ahead, converging into a hazy figure. As the figure gradually cleared, it turned out to be a palace-dressed woman who looked seventy percent similar to Chu Yao!
"Mother?" Chu Yao cried out involuntarily.
The woman smiled gently, yet looked toward Yun Qingyu. "Descendant of Elder Brother Wuyai, you have finally come."
A violent shock rippled through Yun Qingyu's heart. "You are... Palace Master Hanyue?"
The woman nodded. "Merely a wisp of a remnant soul. Three thousand years ago, Elder Brother Wuyai and I joined forces to seal Tiansha, each leaving behind a strand of our inheritance. Only those possessing both bloodlines can unlock the ultimate secret treasury."
With a gentle wave of her sleeve, a scene manifested within the void—deep underground in the Xuantian Sect, a bronze palace was slowly rising!
"The true sealing ground of Tiansha Mozun." Palace Master Hanyue's expression was grave. "Back then, we intentionally set up a fake seal in the Lingxiao Cave, but our true bodies are actually suppressed within the 'Jiuxiao Hanyue Palace'."
Chu Yao asked anxiously, "Mother, then right now..."
"There isn't much time left." Palace Master Hanyue's figure began to dissipate. "Hanchi has been temporarily trapped by me; you must quickly take the lotus seed and leave. Remember, only those with 'hearts beating as one' can open the final seal..."
Before her voice fell, the space trembled violently! True Lord Hanchi's roar came from afar: "Old hag! Even in death you won't let me be!"
"Go!" Palace Master Hanyue's last bit of spiritual light split into two halves, sinking into the glabellae of Yun Qingyu and Chu Yao respectively. "Take good care... of Yao'er for me..."
Amidst a spinning of the heavens and earth, the two of them returned to the real cave. The white lotus in the pool had withered, leaving only a single lotus seed suspended in mid-air. True Lord Hanchi and the ice chi were frozen within a giant pillar of ice, temporarily unable to break free.
"Quickly take the lotus seed!" Yun Qingyu pulled Chu Yao and charged toward the center of the pool. The moment Chu Yao took down the lotus seed, the entire cave began to collapse!
"Hold on to me!" Yun Qingyu crushed the transmission talisman, and white light enveloped them both. In his final glance, he saw True Lord Hanchi's vertical eye staring at them malevolently through the ice layer...
Upon returning to the entrance of the secret realm, the other disciples had long since emerged. Seeing the two of them appear in such a disheveled state, the enforcement elder frowned and said, "Why are you only just now... Heavens! Is that the seed of the Pure World White Lotus?"
Yun Qingyu concealed the lotus seed inside his sleeve. "A fortuitous obtainment."
The elder looked deeply at them. "Return to the sect quickly to report. The Sect Master... er, the acting Sect Master is waiting for you."
On the return journey, Chu Yao remained silent the entire time. It wasn't until they were far away from the crowd that she softly asked, "Did you see it? What my mother said about 'hearts beating as one'..."
Yun Qingyu's earlobes grew slightly warm. "Mn. But our top priority is to first resolve the threat of True Lord Hanchi."
"He won't be able to come out anytime soon." Chu Yao gripped the lotus seed tightly. "My mother's seal can last for at least a month. The problem is..."
"The Jiuxiao Hanyue Palace." Yun Qingyu took up her words. "It is awakening."
The two of them exchanged a glance, both seeing determination in each other's eyes. No matter how perilous the path ahead, they had to prevent Tiansha Mozun from completely resurrecting!
The setting sun dragged the shadows of the two figures out long, eventually merging them into one, indistinguishable from each other...