Transforming into a stunningly beautiful fox spirit, leaving a scar on the heart of a prodigy.

Deep underground in a cave, the smell of blood in the air was so strong it was almost tangible.

How could you possibly understand her?

Chen Xuan's hoarse, dry mockery echoed through the empty rock face. Those words pierced precisely into the depths of Li Changgeng's Dao heart, which had been barren for three thousand years.

Li Changgeng sat cross-legged at the edge of the formation's core. His face, which was usually expressionless, twitched uncontrollably a few times, instantly distorting his originally cold demeanor. His Supreme Emotionlessness, cultivated for three thousand years, had become so overused that even he couldn't distinguish between truth and falsehood. To outsiders, it was just a stiff and laughable mask, exuding a rotten, sour smell.

"Stubborn and unyielding wretch." Li Changgeng let out a cold snort, and the hand seals he formed suddenly changed.

The dark red Nine Netherworld Refining God Array erupted with blinding blood light. The law chains that pierced through Chen Xuan's joints and collarbone were now covered with dense barbs. The array's suction power suddenly doubled at this moment.

"Ugh—"

Chen Xuan's body convulsed violently and uncontrollably, the heavy iron chains clanging and rattling in mid-air. He clenched his teeth, swallowing back the scream that was about to escape his lips, but large mouthfuls of black blood still spilled from the corners of his mouth. The pain of having one's Great Saint Realm sword bones forcibly ripped away was unimaginable to ordinary people; it was a despair where even one's soul was being ground to pieces on a millstone.

Even so, Chen Xuan's bloodshot, deathly gray eyes remained fixed on the ceiling. His bloodied right hand still gripped the jade pendant imbued with the aura of a celestial fox. There was not a trace of submission in his eyes, only utter mockery of Li Changgeng's hypocrisy.

On the ground, at Guiyuan Hall.

Heavy footsteps shattered the millennia-old silence of the great hall. Su Chang'an, dressed in white robes and carrying the Taiyin Sword, was the first to cross the high threshold. Gu Xiang and Bai Yin followed closely behind, one on each side.

The hall was empty. There were no magnificent furnishings, nor ancestral tablets of the Chen family. The wide obsidian floor was densely covered with intricate, dizzying dark red array patterns. These patterns exuded a nauseating, pungent stench of blood, and the surrounding air was filled with extremely unstable spatial fluctuations.

Su Chang'an stopped in her tracks. She didn't look at the strange array patterns, but instead slightly raised her chin. The Taiyin Moon Amber between her brows emitted a faint, clear light, and her quasi-Emperor level perception extended downwards along the earth's veins, instantly locking onto the hidden spatial coordinates deep underground.

Just as she locked onto the coordinates, a very soft sigh came from the depths of the hall.

Li Changgeng noticed her arrival.

"Buzz—"

The dark red array patterns on the ground came to life, and the blinding blood light instantly illuminated the dimly lit hall. The Guiyuan Hall's foundation, the Nine Revolutions Absolute Killing Array, was directly activated by Li Changgeng.

From the dome and walls of the main hall, countless chains formed from dark red laws burst forth. These chains intertwined and crisscrossed, instantly forming an impenetrable net within the hall, sealing off all escape routes and directions of advance.

At the same time, Li Changgeng's voice, filled with condescending indifference and mockery, echoed through every corner of the hall via the array.

"You've finally come." Li Changgeng's voice was devoid of emotion. "Unfortunately, it's too late. Your chess piece is already useless."

As Li Changgeng finished speaking, a huge blood-red water mirror slowly appeared above the intertwined dark red chains in the air above the main hall.

The image in the water mirror gradually became clear.

The horrific state of the underground cave was laid bare before Su Chang'an and his companions.

Chen Xuan was pinned to the air by dozens of thick iron chains, his body covered in blood, his flesh torn and mangled. Those chains not only pierced his bones but were also relentlessly draining the pure black sword intent from his body. Pinned in mid-air, his very essence constantly being drained, he was in utter misery.

Gu Xiang's hands, which had been tucked into his sleeves, suddenly clenched tightly. He gripped the sage's giant writing brush, his knuckles turning a sickly pale from the excessive force. Beneath his blue robe, an uncontrollable surge of righteous energy rose within him, and his eyes, which always held a mixture of gentleness and calculation, were now tightly furrowed, revealing an undisguised murderous intent churning deep within.

"You old scoundrel!"

Bai Yin let out a roar that sounded inhuman. His eyes instantly turned bloodshot, and even tiny cracks appeared at the corners of his eyes. Dark red Geng metal evil energy erupted from his body and soared into the sky, cracking the obsidian floor tiles beneath his feet inch by inch under the crushing force of the evil energy. If Su Chang'an hadn't yet given the order, this Shura White Tiger, completely driven mad, would have already torn the water mirror in front of it to shreds without a second thought.

Outside the Guiyuan Hall, the remaining members of the Chen family who had been spying from afar, as well as the spies sent by various forces, could also see the scene in the blood-red water mirror through the open doors of the hall.

Gasps of shock echoed through the ruins.

Everyone stared in shock. That was the former prodigy of the Chen family, a member of the Chen family lineage. Li Changgeng, as the sect's patriarch and an elder of the Chen family, had treated his own bloodline with such cruelty and ruthlessness. The foundation of a powerful clan might appear glamorous on the outside, but it was rotten to the core; a slight tug revealed only a pile of musty, decaying rot.

In the water mirror, Li Changgeng's figure appeared beside Chen Xuan. He looked up, met Su Chang'an's gaze through the water mirror, and a cruel sneer curled at the corner of his mouth.

He tried to appreciate the panic and breakdown on Su Chang'an's face.

"This Nine Netherworld Refining God Array is originally one with the Nine Revolutions Absolute Killing Array of the Guiyuan Palace." Li Changgeng's voice was slow and vicious, with an arrogant sense of control over the whole situation. "If you dare to forcibly break the array, the moment the array backfires, this Nine Netherworld Refining God Array will immediately drain the last bit of his essence from his body, causing him to be completely annihilated, body and soul."

Li Changgeng paused, his tone dripping with sarcasm: "Su Chang'an, do you dare to bet?"

This is a dead end. A trap designed to exploit Chen Xuan's life and seize Su Chang'an's weakness, a trap designed to destroy his spirit.

However, faced with Li Changgeng's self-righteous and scathing words, Su Chang'an did not show any of the panic or struggle he had expected.

She didn't even frown.

The white robe fluttered in the gale whipped up by the array. Su Chang'an raised his head slightly, looked at Li Changgeng's hypocritical face in the water mirror, and suddenly let out an extremely cold sneer.

The laughter was filled with a chilling arrogance and disdain.

She didn't respond to Li Changgeng's ridiculous threat, but instead closed her eyes.

At her brow, the crystal-clear Taiyin Moon Amber shone brightly. The purest, most extreme laws of extreme cold instantly seeped outwards from the obsidian floor tiles beneath her feet. The power of extreme cold force forcefully drilled into the ground through the cracks in the dark red array patterns, following the direction of the spiritual veins, and explored all the way to the edge of the Nine Nether Refining God Array.

Under the perception of the quasi-emperor level, no formation in the world can hide from it.

Su Chang'an keenly sensed that the connection between the so-called Nine Revolutions Killing Array and the Nine Netherworld Refining God Array, which seemed to be a perfect whole, actually had an extremely subtle stagnation in its operation due to Li Changgeng's obsession with the Supreme Forgetfulness.

This formation is not indestructible.

Su Chang'an suddenly opened his eyes. There was no warmth left in those cold eyes.

She didn't care about gambling at all; she only believed in the absolute crushing power.

"freeze!"

Su Chang'an parted her lips slightly, uttering two cold words. At the same time, she gripped the Taiyin Greatsword with both hands, and with immense force, plunged the blade into the obsidian ground beneath her feet.

boom!

An extremely terrifying, frigid force erupted from the center of the Taiyin Greatsword.

The dark red chains of law within the hall, which had been frantically intertwining and attempting to strangle them, instantly became covered with a thick layer of dark blue frost the moment they came into contact with this extreme cold power. The roaring sound of the array's operation abruptly ceased, and the entire Nine Revolutions Annihilation Array was completely frozen in an instant, suspended in mid-air.

Gu Xiang had fought alongside Bai Yin and Su Chang'an many times and already understood each other perfectly.

At the very instant the formation was frozen, Gu Xiang swung his sage's giant brush. A golden, millstone-sized character, "破" (break), carrying an overwhelming aura of righteousness, slammed into a formation node on the left that was covered in frost.

Bai Yin let out a deafening tiger roar, and his dark red Asura tiger claws tore through the void, carrying indestructible Geng metal evil energy, and struck the weak point of another formation on the right with unparalleled precision.

Taiyin is extremely cold, righteous and awe-inspiring, and Geng metal is extremely malevolent.

At the same time, three supreme forces, with the most ruthless force, bombarded the connection nodes of the formation.

click-

A teeth-grinding cracking sound echoed in the hall. Immediately following was a deafening roar.

The frozen, dark red chains shattered inch by inch, turning into a shower of ice shards. The floor in the center of the hall could not withstand this level of force and collapsed downwards. A huge spatial passage leading to an underground cavern was forcibly torn open by this violent attack.