The opening scene reveals the story of Yao Lao, alarming the Soul Emperor.

A crimson beam of light was embedded in the stone slab in front of Hunyu's feet, and beneath the illuminated ground, dark energy was surging back and forth.

The voice, which seemed to be coming from all directions, spoke again.

"Closer."

The air in the entire hall seemed to sink a little deeper because of those two words.

The twenty-six Dou Zun on both sides lowered their heads and remained motionless, even slowing their breathing to its slowest pace.

Beside the stone chairs on the high platform, the celestial beings each assumed their most docile postures.

The person on the left in the front row stood to the side of the chair, while the two figures in the back row shrank back half an inch into the shadows.

Hunyuan stood in front of Hunyu, his gray pupils reflecting a crimson light, his mouth tightly shut, showing no intention of speaking again.

Hunyu glanced at the transparent stone slab in front of her.

An undercurrent swam beneath the stone slab, like some living creature sniffing its scent.

"May I ask a question?"

His voice was neither too loud nor too soft, and it carried far through the hall.

"How close is enough?"

The dark red light band flowing on the surface of the sphere paused for a moment, then started flowing again.

"You decide."

"Just go to a place you don't want to go anymore, that's enough."

Hunyu took the white feather fan off his shoulder, held it in his hand, and took his first step.

The heat from the beam of light hit my face, making my skin feel tight and dry.

Without the protection of battle qi, his body was completely defenseless against this energy radiation, but his steps were as steady as a patient's.

The second step.

Following the edge of the beam of light, the crimson light shone on the white fabric, giving it an unpleasant dark red sheen.

third step.

The first step of the platform appeared at your feet.

The moment his foot stepped on it, an invisible force poured down from above.

It wasn't intimidation, it wasn't fighting spirit, it was something much more unbearable.

It felt like something had turned everything inside out, every meridian, every bone, every drop of blood flowing through the veins, all of which had been processed by that force.

The golden feathers of the white feather fan lit up on their own, and a thin layer of golden light rose on the fan surface, trying to block the invasive probing.

"interesting."

That's what the voice said.

"The thing that prolongs your life is also shielding me from it."

"But it's no use. I've already seen enough about your condition."

Hunyu stopped on the third step.

He looked up, and the "eye" that had cracked open inside the crimson sphere of the dome was also looking at him.

Their gazes met.

"What did you see, senior?"

The surface of the sphere flashed.

"Your meridians are broken, and your dantian is shattered."

"If you scrape all the life out of your bones and count it, it wouldn't be enough to last six months."

"The backlash from the laws of the Heavenly Dao Eight Trigrams Formation has already devoured one-third of your internal organs."

The sound paused for a beat.

"At this rate, you can activate the second-layer array twice more."

"Your heart will burst on the third time it starts."

The main hall was so quiet that the flickering of will-o'-the-wisps could be heard.

Hunyuan's gray pupils twitched, glancing in Hunyu's direction before looking away.

The celestial being on the left side of the front row on the high platform tapped his fingers lightly twice on his knee.

Hunyu's expression remained unchanged from beginning to end.

He stood on the third step, a white feather fan hanging at his side, a slight smile playing on his lips.

"What the senior said is very accurate."

"However, one is missing."

"What?"

"Even if I don't touch the Heavenly Dao Eight Trigrams Formation even once, my lifespan will not exceed three years."

He tapped his chest with his fan.

"The old wounds and fragments of laws inside are already fighting each other. Whether we use an array or not, the outcome won't be much different."

His tone was so flat, it was as if he were reading someone else's medical record.

The sphere remained silent for five or six breaths.

"You know you don't have long to live, yet you still dare to accept the clan chief's decree to go to Zhongzhou?"

"How so?"

Hunyu shook his fan.

"Three years and six months, there's not much difference."

"But if it gives me a chance to get into Zhongzhou, dying on the way wouldn't be a loss."

The light from the "eye" inside the sphere shifted, as if something was spinning around inside.

What do you want?

These four words carry far more weight than all the previous words combined.

Hunyu waited for two breaths.

"I want my life."

He waited a moment longer.

"My own life."

The sphere stopped moving.

A long silence followed.

Then a very low laugh seeped out simultaneously from the four stone walls of the main hall.

The laughter was so unnatural that it sent chills down one's spine, and everyone in the hall who heard it tensed up.

"The clan chief is right."

After the sphere said this, its surface began to change.

The crimson light band contracted inwards, and the volume of the sphere visibly shrank.

As it shrank, the cracked "eye" slowly closed.

The light faded, the heat subsided, and the sphere changed from crimson to dark red, then to deep black, eventually turning into a thick cloud of black mist.

The black mist drifted upwards towards the dome, gradually gathering as it went.

During the process of gathering the energy, Hunyu saw what was hidden beneath the black mist.

A throne.

Dark red, bony, sitting on a higher platform above five stone chairs.

The armrests were two curved white bones, and the back of the chair was covered with dense black runes that shimmered faintly.

In front of the throne was a long, dark gold table, on which sat a black jade wine cup and an opened pot of wine.

The black mist gathered above the throne, growing thicker and thicker until it completely enveloped the throne.

A person sat on the throne.

The fog was too thick to see facial features clearly, only a general outline was visible.

Tall and slender, seated upright, with an unnaturally pale hand resting on a bone armrest, long fingers, and neatly trimmed nails.

That hand didn't look like a living person's hand.

At this moment, Hunyuan moved, retreating back to the area of ​​the five stone chairs, standing next to his seat, but not sitting down.

The other celestial beings also made minor adjustments.

Everyone's body language is conveying the same message:

The person above has appeared; those below simply obey orders.

Hunyu put the white feather fan back on his shoulder, took a step back, and retreated to the bottom of the steps, to a less conspicuous spot.

The movements were light and natural, and every step was calculated.

From his vantage point, he could see everything in the direction of the throne without being in anyone's direct line of sight.

The standard bystander stance.

A pale hand in the black mist picked up the black jade wine cup on the table and slowly lowered it into the depths of the mist, as if it were drinking.

After a few moments, it was put back.

"Soul Abyss".

The voice has changed.

It was no longer the aimless noise that squeezed out from all directions; it became a real male voice, coming straight down from the throne.

It was low and deep, carrying a sense of suffocation that had been suppressed for a long time.

A stifling feeling that makes people very uncomfortable.

Hunyuan bowed slightly.

"Your subordinate is here."

"Have you found out what I asked you to investigate three days ago?"

Hunyuan's eyelid twitched, and a very fine crack appeared in the composure that had remained in his gray pupils all along.

"My lord, I am currently..."

"I asked for the results."

The voice from the throne cut him off.

"This is the eighth time."

When those three words were spoken, the temperature in the main hall seemed to drop.

It wasn't a rhetorical sense of coldness, but a real, pressing force from the dome, like an invisible hand gradually tightening its grip on the great hall.

Hunyuan remained silent.

His back was very straight, and the vein on the back of his hand was throbbing even more rapidly than before.

The black mist churned.

The pale hand picked up the wine cup again.

This time, it wasn't brought to its mouth.

Hunyu stood at the bottom of the steps, where he could just see the hand.

The fingers are exerting force.

The wine in the cup sloshed slightly.

He slowly folded the fan, held it in his hand, and narrowed his eyes slightly.

He sensed trouble.

This is a huge problem.