Covering the Sky: The Years I Was the Empress's Strictest Master

All around, the Lingbao Killing Array field slowly dissipated, and the four sword lights disappeared, but the array diagram remained at the four corners, isolating the inside from the outside.

rustling... rustling...

At this moment, complete silence returned to the tomb chamber.

Only the nine stone coffins opened by the underworld cultivators, and the lingering stench of blood and Daoist energy in the air, could barely tell that a "great battle" had just broken out here.

However, with the passage of time, these traces will inevitably disappear completely.

wow...

Li Qingjue raised her hand and summoned the nine skull gourds containing the harvest of decades of work by underworld cultivators, which were floating in mid-air, along with several magical artifacts scattered on the ground, to her side.

Immediately, she scanned the area with her divine sense and, after confirming that there was nothing amiss, nodded slightly to Tan Lin.

It must be said that when it comes to tomb raiding and searching for ancient corpses, the Underworld is definitely the most targeted. If they were to search on their own, they could spend the whole universe searching for ages and still not necessarily find anything.

Beside him, Tan Lin's gaze swept over the nine stone coffins, lingering for a moment on the last remains of a person about to attain enlightenment, and he slowly said:

"These remains have lost their original essence and are of no use to you, so they will be destroyed here to prevent them from being used by the underworld and causing harm to future generations."

Li Qingjue naturally had no objection to this.

For her now, the only useful thing is the original true blood, which is the essential resource for her final transformation into a chaotic body.

These remains, having lost their essence, naturally have little value.

bang... bang...

She quickly destroyed all the remains.

"Let's go."

Tan Lin didn't linger. He put away the array diagram and then silently activated the Soul Pearl's divine power. Within the vortex formed by the Soul Pearl, the three-tenths of the fireflies within the fourteenth deep crimson light point began to burn fiercely.

hum...

In an instant, an unknowable and undetectable crimson mist reappeared, enveloping the two of them.

Just before their figures completely disappeared from this place...

Swish!

Tan Lin seemed to sense something, glancing back at this ancient tomb that had been targeted by the underworld and subjected to this massacre.

A mysterious glint flashed in his deep eyes, and then he and Li Qingjue vanished without a trace.

The tomb returned to its deathly silence, completely empty.

……

at the same time,

In the depths of the universe, in a vast and boundless realm, permeated with deathly energy, lies the turbulent and uncertain underworld.

This place is an absolute forbidden zone in the universe, apart from the major forbidden zones for life in the Big Dipper. In the eyes of some beings, it is the final resting place of the dead, and it is a place that all spirits in the heavens fear and tremble at the mere mention of it.

The underworld.

At this moment, at the core of the underworld,

Amidst endless yin energy and deathly aura, in a near-eternal darkness and silence, stand several ancient and magnificent palaces, seemingly as old as the universe itself.

Those were two halls within a hall, and now there was a barely perceptible ripple.

One of the palaces was as black as ink, forged from an unknown divine iron, cold and lifeless, with its doors tightly shut, as if it had never been opened since time immemorial.

Deep within the palace, in the endless darkness, a pair of eyes, like blood-red stars, slowly opened a crack.

His eyes conjured up images of countless mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and the expression that remained was one of cold indifference and cruelty.

This place is the silent resting place of the Prison King, whom all the cultivators of the underworld regard as the "Emperor of the Underworld".

Countless ages ago, he wielded the Emperor of the Underworld's royal artifact and joined forces with many beings to participate in the battle to assassinate the Emperor...

"Ok?"

Suddenly, a low, soft exclamation rang out in the endless darkness, carrying a hint of doubt and solemnity.

"The people I sent out, along with that junior Ming Gu... all vanished completely at the same time, without any feedback. We can't deduce what happened?"

The sound came from another palace.

That place was equally ancient and weathered, with the entire structure of the palace displaying a dark gold color, as if it were cast from some mysterious substance. Its shape was peculiar, resembling neither a coffin nor a palace.

"If it weren't for the fact that the Heavenly Treasure is still in the Underworld, I would have even thought that person had reappeared in the world..."

"Heh, you're talking about the Underworld Emperor? It's not impossible, but how many years has it been since he last appeared in this world?"

The wisp of divine thought left by the Prison King outside the city fluctuated.

The withered voice of Yama, the King of Hell, rang out:

"We both know that he has not passed away, the 'Seal of Reincarnation'... but when we reach the end of this path, is it really ourselves?"

"Let's talk about this matter. This time, it feels somewhat like the work of that 'Suiren Emperor'."

"Him? Didn't he pass away hundreds of years ago? If he had such abilities, why was he hunted down and failed at the last minute?"

"You have been asleep for too long and are unaware of what happened before..."

The Prison King slowly revealed about 70-80% of what had happened over the years, but deliberately withheld some details.

"I see, but that doesn't prove that person isn't dead..."

A hint of realization crossed Yama's voice, and then he said:

"The possibility of achieving an indestructible golden body in this great lifetime is slim. Put yourself in his shoes. If you were him, and you had not truly passed away and lived another lifetime, would you have evolved an indestructible golden body, a constitution that cuts off your future path?"

He couldn't even achieve enlightenment; that would be self-destructive, worse than his original path..."

"Perhaps..."

The Prison King uttered these three words.

Da...da...

At that moment, someone from the Northern Dipper Immortal Mausoleum came from outside the Netherworld, which caused a supreme being in the Underworld to awaken a wisp of divine thought.

It was because the aura emanating from that person was very similar to that of someone who had left the underworld countless ages ago.

"Tsk, I thought an 'old friend' had returned, but it turns out to be just a junior. If there's anything, let Changsheng come in person!"

The supreme being gave a cold laugh.

The newcomer was under the pressure of the divine senses of several supreme beings. Even though he was a quasi-emperor and had stopped outside the hall, his back was gradually hunching over.

A series of crackling sounds emanated from his body, followed by a labored voice:

"Your Majesties... please be patient. I have come here only to convey my master's deduction..."

"Oh? Tell me about it."

Yama, the King of Hell, said with great interest.

Of the group, his condition was the worst. His lifespan was limited; even if he continued this self-imposed slumber, he could only sustain himself for a little over ten thousand years before passing away.

Therefore, among them, he was the one in the deepest slumber. Unless someone sent him into the underworld, he would rarely awaken, which resulted in him having little knowledge of the outside world.

For this reason, he did not listen to the one-sided story of the Prison Suppressor Emperor, and was now very interested in what the disciple of the Eternal Life Celestial Venerable had brought.

"My master and the 'Supreme Ones' of the several forbidden zones of the Big Dipper have been working together for many years to deduce the secrets and whereabouts of the Suiren Emperor and the Immortal Emperor. Although it cannot be confirmed at present whether the Suiren Emperor still exists."

However, during its brief return several centuries ago, it infiltrated the Undying Mountain several times and even seized several mountain peaks...

Many supreme beings within the forbidden zone of Undying Mountain...

According to reports, in the centuries that followed, up until the incident at the Demon Emperor's Tomb many years ago, similar 'traces' appeared repeatedly in the universe. Through my master's and their deductions...

Strangely, those 'traces' obtained through reverse deduction abruptly stopped about two hundred years ago…

He was naturally unaware that that period was precisely when Tan Lin's Soul Pearl underwent another transformation.

Since then, the Soul Pearl's mystical power has been further enhanced. Even when searching for those undetectable traces in reverse, it is impossible to find them. Everything has become more natural. Even if the supreme beings join forces to deduce, they can at most rely on subjective connections of thought from existing events.

"So, what do you prove with all this? It's all just speculation, like looking at flowers through a fog, and it's all too far-fetched."

Before the visitor could finish speaking, the Prison King impatiently interrupted him:

"And you, since words can no longer reveal any traces, isn't your arrival a bit too coincidental? Could the events in the ancient Mosuo land be related to your master?"

Upon hearing this, Yama, the King of Hell, and another supreme being remained silent, waiting for the newcomer's response.

"What Your Majesty says is different; my master is still sealed away in the Immortal Mausoleum..."

The successor of the immortality lineage vehemently denied this, then quickly steered the conversation back on track:

"Currently, the group with the indestructible golden body is highly suspicious, and there is sufficient evidence to prove that they all have intricate connections with that 'Emperor Suiren'..."

"So what?" Yama asked.

"Among those people with the indestructible golden bodies, there is a 'Heaven-Devouring Maiden' whose cultivation path is inseparable from the origin of a different species. My master noticed this when he awoke more than three hundred years ago and paid attention to that person with the indestructible golden bodies..."

The successor of immortality gradually revealed what he knew:

"Two hundred years ago, those people would occasionally hide in the desolate edge of the universe to undergo tribulations, but in recent years they have been completely silent, and the Devouring Goddess has also shown no signs of going out to collect the origins of alien species..."

Different origins?

Upon hearing this, the three supreme deities of the underworld, including the Emperor of the Prison, had slight fluctuations in their thoughts, but they did not reveal the whole story of the Mosuo ancient land, waiting for him to continue.

But clearly, they had all managed to connect some of the clues.

"What my master means is that this great era has been going on for several hundred years now, and the number of cultivators who have achieved the quasi-emperor level is also increasing."

Unless those people do not wish to attain enlightenment in this great era, they will not remain dormant for long; they will surely make their move in the future.

Therefore, we urge all Your Majesties to continue intensifying the collection of the true blood of ancient corpses and those nearing death, without being overly secretive in their actions. At the same time, we urge you to increase your attention to quasi-Emperor level experts with special physiques and races.

The Devouring Heaven Woman's cultivation had reached the seventh level of Quasi-Emperor, and only the alien origins at the Quasi-Emperor level would still benefit her..."

The words faded slowly.

The depths of the underworld fell silent for a while.

The several supreme beings remained silent for a moment, seemingly exchanging information without words, or perhaps they had some means of leaking information to the outside world, conducting some kind of indirect verification and deduction.

"I understand what 'he' means..."

After a long silence, Yama, the King of Hell, spoke:

"However, all of this is still just speculation. Unless it can be truly confirmed that the 'Suiren Emperor' is not dead, I don't have the energy to waste on such trivial matters."

Since your master is interested in the great secrets that may exist within the Suiren Emperor, then let him handle this troublesome and laborious task himself.

After all, his interest in the indestructible golden body isn't new. Judging from your tone, the possibility of him reappearing in this life is very high. It seems he's probably preparing to really make his move.

For him, regardless of whether he ultimately obtains the great secret, he has still gained something...

"This……"

Upon hearing this, the successor of immortality was about to say something more,

However, seeing that there was no movement from the other two inner palaces, he knew that, at least on this matter, the supreme beings of the underworld had reached a rare consensus.

"..."

The underworld fell into utter silence.

After an unknown amount of time, the successor of the immortality realized that the supreme beings of the underworld did not welcome him, and could only bow in respect:

"In that case, I shall take my leave."

Da...da...

rustling... rustling...

Wait until they leave.

A moment later, the Prison King sneered:

"That Changsheng fellow is playing a clever game. He hasn't revealed any of the clues he's deduced, nor any of the known information he has about that top secretary, yet he expects us to get involved? How laughable!"

"However, this matter is most likely related to the Immortal Golden Body's group..."

"A supreme being said."

His voice was calm and ancient, revealing no emotion, yet it caused the deathly aura of the entire underworld to freeze for a moment.