Old Refining Spirit

Li Xuangeng stood quietly at the forefront of the crowd. Under the [Qi Observation Technique], he could clearly see that with each word Elder Qingxu uttered, along with the fervent shouts of the crowd, wisps of pure, life-giving white energy would overflow from the heads of these tens of thousands of disciples and be greedily absorbed by the nine black dragon pillars.

This is not a mobilization meeting at all, but rather the "bleeding" and "marinating" of the "ingredients" before slaughter!

"Junior Brother Li."

An unnatural voice came from the side. Li Xuangeng turned his head slightly and saw Wang Teng being supported by two disciples, limping over. Although his thigh was wrapped in thick bandages, his eyes were filled with undisguised resentment and gloating as he looked at Li Xuangeng.

"Junior Brother Li is exceptionally talented. You'd better 'perform' well once you enter the secret realm," Wang Teng said with a sarcastic laugh. "The secret realm... is quite 'lively'."

Li Xuangeng ignored the barking, spineless dog; his attention was drawn to a series of hurried footsteps.

Dressed in red, Mu Wanjiao pushed through the crowd and hurriedly squeezed to Li Xuangeng's side.

Her face was pale today, with faint dark circles under her eyes, clearly indicating she hadn't slept well last night. She looked at Li Xuangeng's still nonchalant demeanor, feeling a surge of anger, but the worry in her eyes was impossible to hide.

"You blind fool, you're truly fearless!" Mu Wanjiao said through gritted teeth, her voice low. "My grandfather was forcibly sent by the sect leader to guard the array's core, and now I can hardly even see him. Something's wrong with this secret realm; the yin energy is far too heavy today!"

As she spoke, she quickly slipped a cold object from her sleeve into Li Xuangeng's palm.

Li Xuangeng touched it and immediately sensed that it was a token that was neither gold nor wood. On it, a legitimate [Nine Heavens Universal Transformation Thunder God Talisman] was drawn with extremely pure cinnabar.

"This is an authentic Celestial Master's amulet that my grandfather obtained many years ago. It contains a trace of genuine pure Yang thunder energy." Mu Wanjiao's voice was barely audible, her earlobes flushed, and her eyes were fixed on the ground, not daring to look at him. "If you encounter a monster you can't avoid, crush it, and it can save your life. You...you mustn't die in there."

Feeling the warmth emanating from his palm, Li Xuangeng grasped the thunder talisman. He didn't expose the cruel reality that the talisman might not even last a second in the ensuing carnage, but instead gently tucked it into his robes.

"Thank you, Miss Mu." Li Xuangeng smiled and said in a voice that only the two of them could hear, "When I come out from inside, I will treat you to a whole lamb feast."

"What time is it and you're still thinking about food!" Mu Wanjiao glared at him, but felt inexplicably at ease.

"The auspicious time has arrived! Open the secret realm!"

On the high platform, Elder Qingxu let out a piercing long howl.

The nine black dragon pillars suddenly erupted with a blood-red light that shot into the sky, causing the entire Heavenly Platform to shake violently. In mid-air, the thick, leaden-gray clouds were torn apart by a terrifying force, and a dark red spatial rift, a hundred feet long and resembling a gaping maw of an abyss full of fangs, appeared above everyone's heads!

"Boom—!"

A nauseating, foul-smelling wind, as if it had contained corpses for millions of years, surged out from the crack.

However, these disciples, whose minds had been completely bewitched, smelled a fragrant, ethereal aura under the influence of the illusion.

"My destiny with immortality is right before me! Charge!"

No one knows who shouted the first word, but tens of thousands of cultivators leaped up like a swarm of moths to a flame, rushing headlong into the dark red crack.

Li Xuangeng did not move. He remained standing with his hands behind his back, like an elegant diner waiting for the waiter to serve the first appetizer.

Only after Elder Qingxu on the high platform led a group of core inner disciples into the rift in a beam of light did Li Xuangeng leisurely straighten his Daoist robe.

"The Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches have been exhausted, and Yin and Yang and the Five Elements are in disarray."

His smile gradually turned manic. With a sudden stomp of his long legs, he transformed into a blinding white streak of light, shooting straight into that unknown abyss.

After a dizzying, scrambling sensation of space tearing apart, my feet finally landed firmly on solid ground.

"Pfft."

The sound coming from underfoot wasn't from stepping on mud or rocks, but rather like stepping on a piece of rotten fat.

Li Xuangeng removed the white silk covering his eyes and slowly opened his deep, cold eyes, which shone with the light of absolute rationality.

The world before us is not some kind of paradise at all.

The sky was a sickly purplish-red, devoid of sun, moon, and stars, with only a huge, bloodshot, fleshy eyeball hanging high in the dome like the sun, coldly watching down below.

On the earth, there were no flowers, grass, or trees. Those towering "trees" were all pieced together from countless huge leg bones of humans and monsters; the "fruits" hanging on the branches were human heads that were still dripping blood and had expressions of extreme pain.

Beneath their feet lay dark red, slightly writhing, stomach-like muscle tissue. Rivers of foul-smelling black blood flowed through the grooves of this muscle tissue.

This is the inner world of an indescribable ancient demon! The so-called "secret realm" of the Xuantian Sect is nothing more than sending these disciples directly into the stomach of this demon!

"Ugh—! What kind of place is this?!"

"My hands! My hands are melting!"

"Help! Master, save me!"

All around, the disciples who had rushed in with dreams of immortality were finally freed from the illusion by the intense high-dimensional pollution.

But what awaited them was utter despair.

The stomach acid and corpse poison permeating the air were corroding their protective aura and flesh at a visible rate. Weak rogue cultivators, upon inhaling even a single breath of this air, would instantly have their bodies covered in tumors, screaming as they melted into a pool of blood, greedily absorbed by the stomach walls beneath their feet.

Meanwhile, the core disciples of the Xuantian Sect had already prepared their poison-avoiding magical artifacts. Instead of saving people, they revealed cruel smiles and, like herding pigs and sheep, waved their artifacts, driving the panicked rogue cultivators deeper into the secret realm—the "core area" where the great demon's digestive power was strongest.

"Run faster! Get yourselves into fertilizer for the Sect Master! Hahaha!"

Several inner disciples laughed wildly, and with a flick of their long whips, they cleaved several rogue cultivators who were trying to escape in two.

It was in this scene of utter devastation, like the most horrific hell.

A man dressed in an immaculate moon-white Taoist robe, with a face as handsome as a demon, stood quietly by a river of blood.

He didn't panic, nor did he run away. He simply closed his eyes slightly and took a deep, thoroughly savoring breath of the air filled with the highest level of resentment, corpse energy, and high-dimensional demonic energy.

"It smells so good..."

Li Xuangeng slowly opened his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the ferocious mutants and the Xuan Tian Sect inner disciples slaughtering their own kind, as if he were looking at a Manchu Han Imperial Feast that had just been served.

His Adam's apple bobbed uncontrollably, and his once long, pale fingers split open again, revealing sharp, white teeth. Dark, karmic tendrils rolled out from beneath his robes, emitting hungry hisses.

"My fellow disciples of the Xuantian Sect."

Li Xuangeng's gentle, jade-like voice, amidst the piercing screams, strangely resonated for miles around.

Upon hearing this, the inner disciples who were driving away the rogue cultivators all turned around and stared in astonishment at the white-robed man who had neither been corrupted nor gone mad.

"Such a wonderful dining environment, and all you've prepared are these appetizers?"

Li Xuangeng smiled, and in the void behind him, the ten-thousand-foot-tall dark golden [Creation Furnace] suddenly appeared, and the dark blue Samadhi True Fire instantly ignited half of the purplish-red sky!

"Since the sect leader hasn't served the food yet..."

Li Xuangeng's cracked hands suddenly yanked outwards, and a terrifying suction force that made the entire secret realm tremble instantly erupted!

"Then this humble Taoist priest will have you 'kitchen helpers'... to tide you over!"