293: Chapter 291 Reverse Inflow

The space behind the light gate was not as violent as imagined.

Su Lin stepped out of the light curtain, the sensation of hard, smooth ground beneath his feet. The seven female Disciples followed closely behind, looking around vigilantly.

The scene unfolding before them completely overturned everyone's perception of a Secret Realm.

This Realm had no distinction between sky and earth; all directions were encased in a dark, silvery metallic material.

"Is this the interior of the inverted pyramid that Yue Xiaoxiao saw during her Soul-searching?"

Su Hongling gripped her great sword tightly, her gaze sweeping across the cold metal walls, feeling utterly uncomfortable.

This place was icy cold, without even a single living creature that could breathe.

Luo Ximei closed her left eye, leaving only her white-gold right eye to scan the void.

She frowned slightly and said in a low voice, "This space is extremely lacking in even the most basic Five Elements Laws, relying entirely on some external force to forcibly maintain its operation."

Su Lin's gaze was deep as he stared straight ahead.

There, a transparent glazed pillar stood, piercing through the entire space. Inside the pillar flowed a colorful, iridescent liquid.

Within that liquid, countless pained, twisted faces floated, wailing silently.

"This is the hub they use to extract the Luck and Dao Fruits of the Lower Realm." Su Lin's tone was calm as he walked steadily toward the glazed pillar.

Gu Qiuyue took out her Golden Abacus and flicked the beads rapidly, her expression suddenly turning extremely ugly: "Revered Master, I just calculated the energy flow trajectory here.

This pillar connects to thousands of lower spaces similar to our Cultivation World.

The spiritual power and life force they extract every day are of such value that they cannot be measured by Top-Grade Spirit Stones; this is a full-blown plundering workshop!"

Mu Qingxue raised her Ice Sword slightly, cold air permeating her body, freezing all the filthy aura that attempted to approach: "Revered Master, should we shatter this place?"

"Don't be hasty." Su Lin raised his hand to stop her. He walked to the glazed pillar and slowly pressed the [destiny] Immortal sword in his hand against the surface of the transparent pillar.

"Revered Master, what are you looking at?"

Luo Ximei stepped forward, her white-gold right eye shimmering with an unusual luster. She could feel that the Revered Master's expression at this moment was unprecedentedly focused, even carrying a coldness akin to peeling back layers of silk.

"I am looking at... the truth from a hundred years ago."

Su Lin's voice was very soft, yet it echoed in layers throughout the vast metal hall.

A hundred years ago, he had arrived via Transmigration with a System, starting at the Peak of the Mahayana Stage. He had taken these seven gifted disciples, thinking he could live a carefree life in this Cultivation World, only to be met without warning by that world-destroying so-called "Heavenly Punishment."

In that battle, he had always believed that it was the existence of himself and his disciples that had broken some kind of balance in this world, thereby attracting the instinctive rejection of the Heavenly Dao's will.

But now, as his Divine Sense penetrated bit by bit into the core of this glazed pillar that extracted the Luck of the myriad heavens, the veins hidden beneath the long river of time finally presented themselves clearly before his eyes, as if observing patterns on his own palm.

The [destiny] Immortal sword emitted a low hum, the color of the chaos immortal gold on the blade shimmering slightly, creating a strange resonance with the colorful, iridescent liquid inside the glazed pillar.

Su Lin suddenly opened his eyes; in the depths of his pupils, galaxies flickered and vanished.

"So that's how it is..."

He slowly withdrew his long sword, took a deep breath, and turned to look at the beautiful faces behind him, filled with confusion and concern.

"A hundred years ago, that 'Heavenly Punishment' that forced me to self-destruct my Divine Soul was not at all an instinctive rejection by the will of the Heavenly Dao."

Su Lin's tone gradually turned cold, carrying a rage that had been suppressed for a hundred years.

"That was a targeted purge."

"A targeted purge?" Cold Moon frowned deeply. As the Empress of Southern Yu, she was most sensitive to such terms reeking of conspiracy. "Does Revered Master mean that they had already set their sights on you a hundred years ago?"

"Not just me, but you as well."

Su Lin raised his hand and tapped gently in the void with his fingertip.

A light curtain constructed from Star Power unfolded before everyone.

Projected on the light curtain was the energy network inside this glazed pillar.

Countless energy conduits, as thin as gossamer, could be seen extending from the endless void below, converging into this main pillar, and then leading straight from the main pillar to the tip of this inverted pyramid—the only passage to the so-called Upper Realm.

"In this massive Great Harvest System, this Cultivation World is marked as Orchard No. 7, Grade A."

Su Lin pointed to an extremely thick energy node on the light curtain, his tone chilling.

"Every ten thousand years, the crops in this orchard ripen. Those Cultivators who reach the Body Integration Stage or even attempt to reach the Mahayana Stage are the ripest fruits.

They established the Ascension Reception Platform and set up the scam of the Immortal Transformation Pool just to let these fruits wash themselves clean and willingly deliver themselves to the dining table."

"However, a hundred years ago, a variable appeared."

Su Lin looked at the Disciples before him.

"I suddenly descended, carrying the cultivation of the Peak of the Mahayana Stage. And you, as the Disciples I chose, each possessed Heaven-Defying Aptitude sufficient to break the shackles of this world."

"Our existence was like a towering tree that suddenly grew in the orchard, capable of piercing through the greenhouse; not only did we steal the nutrients from other fruits, but we also threatened the sealing structure of the orchard itself!"

"So, the farmers above panicked."

Luo Ximei's white-gold right eye constricted sharply, and she gritted her teeth as she took up the thread: "So, they sent down the power of destruction disguised as Heavenly Punishment, not to maintain some balance of heaven and earth, but to... weed the garden?!"

"That's right. Weeding."

Su Lin sneered, his gaze filled with extreme mockery.

"They not only wanted to remove me, this towering tree, but also to eradicate you, the seedlings that might disrupt their ten-thousand-year harvest plan.

If I hadn't forcibly poured all my power into the System back then, using self-destruction as the price to tear open a space crack that was not under their surveillance and teleport you away... do you think you would have survived until today?"

Inside the hall, there was a deathly silence.

The seven female Disciples stood there blankly.

All this time, they had believed that the Revered Master's death was because Heaven was jealous of talent, and because this broken world could not accommodate true powerhouses.

That was why they cultivated desperately, why they became paranoid and insane, and why they were even willing to fall into the Demonic Path, study poison arts, and turn themselves into neither human nor ghost, all just to one day possess the power to confront the 'Heavenly Dao.'

But now, the Revered Master was telling them that there was no high and mighty Heavenly Dao.

All there was, was a group of greedy evil ghosts hiding in the Upper Realm, treating them like pigs, like leeks, like weeds to be wantonly harvested and casually eradicated!

A hundred years of pain, a hundred years of separation, a hundred years of suffering day and night...

It was all because of the selfish desires of this bunch of scum!

"Heh... hehehe..."

A spine-chilling, low laugh broke the suffocating silence.

Chu Weiwei lowered her head, her shoulders trembling slightly. Her originally smooth, dark hair moved without wind, and the several jade bottles filled with potent poison that she was clutching tightly were crushed into powder with a "pop" at this moment due to extreme force.

Purple-green venom dripped down through her fair fingers, landing on the unknown dark-silver metal floor, emitting a harsh, corrosive "hissing" sound.

"So that's how it is..."

Chu Weiwei slowly raised her head. Her originally pure and sweet face was now covered in a morbid flush, and within her eyes, those two heart-shaped pupils had been replaced by an endless blood-red color.

"How dare they... how dare they treat Revered Master as a weed?! How dare they make Weiwei leave Revered Master for a hundred years?!!

"Weiwei wants to catch them all... peel their skin off bit by bit, soak their Souls in [Myriad Tribulation Nether Poison], and let them wail for ten thousand years, a hundred thousand years!!!"

"Just soaking them in poison water is letting them off too easily!"

Su Hongling took a violent step forward, her red eyes burning with tangible, violent flames. She yanked the [no edge] great sword from her back, and the terrifying blood and Qi power of a Mahayana Stage Body Cultivator erupted in the hall like a volcanic explosion.

"I'm going to climb up this broken pipe, and with every punch, smash their bullsh*t Upper Realm's Heavenly Gate into dust! I'll dismantle all their bones and use them as firewood for the Old Man!"

"Smash it? No, that lacks aesthetic appeal."

Cold Moon, in her purple-gold dress, walked step by step to the glazed pillar.

This Empress of Southern Yu's eyes were so cold they seemed capable of freezing time. She finally understood why there existed that terrifying loophole known as the scar of heaven beneath the Nanyu Divine Dynasty.

That was not the wreckage of a world collapsing at all!

Cold Moon's voice trembled slightly with extreme rage, "They used the Luck of billions of living beings in the entire Nanyu Divine Dynasty, used the lives of my imperial ancestors, to nourish the prosperity of their Upper Realm!

No wonder... no wonder my Nanyu imperial family has never lived past five hundred years for generations! They are sucking the marrow from our bones!"

"This blood debt..." Cold Moon stared fixedly at the wailing Souls inside the glazed pillar, "I will make them pay with the entire Upper Realm!"

Ye You did not speak; she simply retreated silently to Su Lin's side.

But in the endless void behind her, countless ink-green [Abyssal Devouring] demon vines, thick as dragons, danced wildly, and at the tip of every vine, an abyssal maw filled with sharp teeth opened wide.

She licked her scarlet lips; it was the most primitive desire to feed that an Ancient Vicious Beast felt when facing its prey.

"Revered Master," Ye You's voice was hoarse and seductive, "Youer is hungry. Youer wants to eat an Immortal."

Looking at these disciples whose killing intent had completely materialized and who seemed ready to go berserk and charge into the Nine Heavens at any moment, Su Lin's heart, which had turned cold upon learning the truth, strangely felt a trace of warmth.

These girls, although their personalities were each more extreme and yandere than the last, had an absolute, transcendent unity when it came to protecting their own and protecting their Revered Master.

"I have felt your rage."

Su Lin turned around, his deep gaze sweeping over each of their angry faces, and a cold, sharp arc slowly curled at the corners of his mouth.

"But now is not the time to flip the table just yet."

"This glazed pillar connects to the [Reception Altar] of the Upper Realm. If we were to cut or destroy it now, not only would it immediately alert that group of fake Immortals in the Upper Realm, but it would also cause the extracted Lower Realm life force to dissipate completely in the void."

Gu Qiuyue keenly captured the deeper meaning in Su Lin's words; a golden light flashed in her eyes, and the Golden Abacus in her hand clattered.

"Does Revered Master mean... we are going to 'steal from the thieves'?"

As the Great Proprietor of the Jiuzhou Chamber of Commerce, Gu Qiuyue's business acumen was displayed to the fullest at this moment.

"If they treat us as an orchard to harvest, then the energy stored in this pillar is the 'cargo' they have already harvested, packed, and are ready to ship away!"

Gu Qiuyue licked her lips excitedly, pointing at the colorful, liquid Souls and life force inside the glazed pillar:

"Since we are going to fight back, why not intercept this shipment first? This is supreme fortune accumulated over ten thousand years from who knows how many Lower Realms!

If we can claim this energy as our own... Revered Master, your cultivation, and the Realms of the Senior Sisters, would definitely see an unprecedented surge!"

"Sixth Junior Sister, you are actually smart for once."

Luo Ximei's white-gold right eye erupted with a captivating brilliance. She stepped forward to stand side-by-side with Su Lin, looking at the huge glazed pillar as if looking at a peerless treasure vault.

"Revered Master, Sixth Junior Sister is right! If they can extract it, why can't we suck it back?

If the resentment and life force in this pillar could be channeled into my [myriad soul banner], combined with Revered Master's supreme mastery of Formations to purify and convert it... this is simply the perfect pre-battle supply prepared for us!"

Su Lin looked at these disciples who reacted so quickly and instantly turned revenge into robbery.

These were the disciples he had raised.

If they get hit, they must not only hit back, but also empty out the opponent's entire fortune!

"Not bad, that is exactly what I intended."

Su Lin slowly raised his right hand. In his palm, the [world core], which had fused three fragments and represented the highest authority of this broken world, appeared out of thin air.

The moment this pitch-black crystal touched the aura of the glazed pillar, it actually emitted a resonance sound like a heartbeat: "thump-thump."

"They use this inverted pyramid as a water pump to extract the Origin of the Lower Realm to the Upper Realm."

Starlight shone brilliantly in Su Lin's eyes, and the [Myriad Heavens Star Chart] within his body began to run at an unprecedented speed.

"Then today, I will perform a... reverse backflow for them!"

However, just as Su Lin was about to act and press the [world core] into the Formation eye of the glazed pillar.

Throughout the entire dark-silver metal space, a blinding blood-red alarm light suddenly lit up!

The glazed pillar, which had been quietly flowing with colorful liquid, saw the complex runes on its surface seem to come alive, flashing and twisting wildly, emitting a harsh alarm sound.

Immediately after, inside the glazed pillar, those remnant Souls and Dao Fruits that had originally only been wailing unconsciously seemed to receive some kind of irresistible summons, and began to surge and gather madly toward the top!