131: Altars and Conspiracy

"Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!"

The light of the teleportation array flashed continuously as Li Yi's group of three were the first to step into the second-level island Secret Realm.

Suddenly, the scene before them changed drastically!

The originally lush island had turned into a blood-colored desert, with three blue moons hanging in the sky, casting a ghostly glow over the entire land.

In the distance, a giant palace built of white bones stood tall. On either side of the palace gates stood twelve Sea Clan stone statues, each with a cerulean sea god token embedded in its forehead!

Zhang Shun's breathing quickened, the greed in his eyes almost tangible. "Fellow Daoist Li, look..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Li Yi's sword light suddenly flashed!

"Clang!"

Zhang Shun's right arm was severed at the shoulder, blood splashing onto the steps of the White Bone Palace!

"You..." Zhang Shun staggered back, his face full of disbelief.

Li Yi flicked the blood droplets off his sword and sneered, "Did you really think I, Li Yi, wouldn't recognize the Sea Clan's 'Blood Sacrifice Array'?"

He used the tip of his sword to flip over the severed arm on the ground. Beneath the skin of the limb, blue scales were already visible... The Elders of various Sects who arrived afterward gasped at the sight. Who could have imagined that Zhang Shun had already been assimilated by the Sea Clan!

Qiu Lingfeng's face turned ashen; he was also terrified by Zhang Shun's right arm.

"How... how is this possible?"

Qiu Lingfeng staggered back, the color completely draining from his face.

He stared fixedly at Zhang Shun's severed arm. Beneath the scales, the flesh was writhing strangely, as if countless tiny sea worms were crawling through the blood vessels!

Li Yi ignored the fool Qiu Lingfeng; after all, these people were just cannon fodder being used, and they didn't even know the secrets of the Sea Clan.

Li Yi sneered, his gaze sweeping over the crowd like a blade. "I assume you all understand now? This Secret Realm is nothing but a trap set by the Sea Clan!"

He pointed his sword tip at the White Bone Palace, his voice like thunder: "What lies inside is not some secret technique for longevity, but the Sea Clan High Priest's Reincarnation Altar!"

The Elders of the various Sects looked at each other in shock when someone suddenly cried out, "Look at the ground!"

Blue liquid was seeping out of the soil beneath their feet, and countless hair-thin tentacles emerged from underground, quietly wrapping around their ankles... "Ah! My leg... someone save me!"

An Elder screamed in pain. Beneath the skin of his calf, the same scaly patterns as Zhang Shun's had appeared!

"It's still not too late to escape." Li Yi suddenly soared into the air, his sword light falling like a waterfall. "Any later..."

Before he could finish, the White Bone Palace shook violently, and the twelve Sea Clan stone statues opened their eyes simultaneously!

"Hahaha..." Zhang Shun began to laugh maniacally, his smile sickly as if his wish had finally been granted. "Li Yi, although you are clever, you are already inside the trap. Just wait to be assimilated by my Sea Clan!"

"Noisy!"

Li Yi's brow furrowed. The longsword in his hand suddenly flew out, turning into a white rainbow piercing the sun!

"Puchi!"

The longsword pierced through Zhang Shun's throat, pinning him to the gate of the White Bone Palace. But strangely, Zhang Shun did not die; instead, he laughed even more deliriously:

"It's useless... I'm already immortal!"

What gushed from his wound was not blood, but countless blue silk threads. These threads grew frantically, actually fusing with the palace gate!

Behind him floated a phantom of the Sea Clan High Priest, radiating a terrifying pressure.

At that moment, the twelve Sea Clan stone statues stepped forward together, the sea god tokens on their foreheads bursting with blinding blue light. Even more terrifyingly, the Elders wrapped in the silk threads began to walk toward the statues uncontrollably... "Zhang Shun! I'll kill you!"

Although Qiu Lingfeng didn't understand what was happening, he realized that the current Zhang Shun was no longer human!

Zhang Shun snorted with contempt, his tone freezing cold: "Qiu Lingfeng, you're the biggest fool here... hahaha..."

"Boom!"

Zhang Shun took Qiu Lingfeng's blade strike head-on with his body, but in the next moment, his body restored itself again.

Seeing this, Qiu Lingfeng's eyes turned blood-red. His spiritual energy went berserk, and he directly detonated his Dantian Golden Core!

"Zhang Shun! Even if I die, I'm taking you down with me!"

Qiu Lingfeng had made up his mind; even if he died, he would not turn into such a monster.

Zhang Shun's expression finally changed: "Madman! Isn't it good that I'm giving you longevity?!"

Qiu Lingfeng sneered, glancing sideways at Li Yi. "You knew everything all along?" he asked.

Li Yi nodded slightly, his tone flat: "Over fifty years ago, I guessed some of it, but back then it was only a suspicion."

"How ironic." Qiu Lingfeng shook his head with a bitter smile. "Back then we all saw you as an enemy, but in the end, you were the only one holding the truth."

As Qiu Lingfeng spoke, he tore off the Storage Pouch at his waist and threw it to Li Yi: "If you can get out alive, you must tell the world the truth!"

With those words, Qiu Lingfeng's violent energy instantly tore through the blue silk threads binding him. He turned into a blood-colored meteor and slammed into Zhang Shun!

Zhang Shun's pupils shrank, and his arms transformed into countless blue threads to block the impact.

"Boom!!!"

Amidst the world-shaking explosion, a crack was blown open in the gate of the White Bone Palace. The threads controlling the Elders instantly withered slightly.

Li Yi seized the opportunity, his sword soul turning into a stream of light that pierced straight toward Zhang Shun's exposed blue heart.

"Puchi!"

The sword soul was like a white rainbow piercing the sun, instantly impaling that beating blue heart!

"Ah!!"

Zhang Shun let out a shrill roar, his entire body twisting and collapsing like a melting wax statue. But even more horrifyingly, the pierced heart began to writhe frantically, and countless blue silk threads wrapped around Li Yi's sword soul like tentacles!

"It's useless... Li Yi..." Zhang Shun's remaining face twisted into a hideous grin. "The Sea Clan's eternal life... is not something you can sever..."

Li Yi's lips suddenly curled upward. "Who said I was going to sever it?"

He guided the sword soul with a finger, and it suddenly erupted with a blinding golden glow. The blue threads wrapped around it were forced back, and it began to devour the energy within the heart instead!

"You... you are absorbing the Sea God's Heart?!" Zhang Shun finally became terrified.

Li Yi's long hair fluttered, and the old wound on his chest split open completely, revealing the brilliant Flawless Sword Core within: "The cause you planted fifty years ago shall bear its fruit today!"

"Boom!"

The entire blue heart was completely devoured by the sword soul, and the White Bone Palace collapsed! Zhang Shun's final expression turned to ash in despair... Li Yi's fluttering black hair turned silver in an instant.

As the dust settled, Li Yi slowly landed. His demeanor was like a transcendent immortal descending to the world.

He looked at the sword soul in his hand, which had already turned a deep cerulean, and spoke indifferently to the stunned crowd:

"I hope you all will report today's events to your respective Sects!"

"Thud!"

Several Elders with weaker mental fortitude fell directly to their knees.

They looked at Li Yi in terror. His silver hair moved without wind, the cerulean sword soul circulated in his palm, and the pressure radiating from him was even more terrifying than the phantom of the Sea Clan High Priest from before!

"Senior... Senior Li..." A Xuantian Sect Elder's voice trembled. "You..."

Li Yi lightly caressed the sword soul and suddenly showed a warm smile: "Do not be afraid, I am still of the Human Race."

With a wave of his hand, the blue markings on the Cultivators controlled by the Sea Clan faded away: "However, from this day forth, this Sea Clan Incarnation..."

The sword soul suddenly turned into a stream of light and entered his chest. A flash of cerulean crossed Li Yi's pupils:

"...shall be kept by me."

Just as his voice fell, cracks appeared on the twelve stone statues. Soon after, the stone fragments fell away, revealing their true forms sealed inside.

They were actually twelve mummified corpses of various Sea Clan members!

"Are these the long-extinct Dragon-fish Men?!" An Elder recognized one of the mummies and cried out in shock.

Li Yi's gaze swept over the mummies, his eyes narrowing slightly. "No..."

He flicked his fingers, lifting a fragment of a mummy's robe. It was clearly the clothing pattern of the Qingyun Sect from fifty years ago!

"These are the Cultivators who were victims of Sea Clan Possession fifty years ago," Li Yi said in a low voice. "Their Essence Blood was drained, and they became the nutrients for the Sea Clan's revival."

Hearing this, the Sect Elders present were shocked. They desperately wanted to know what had happened back then, but from Li Yi's expression, he clearly had no intention of speaking.

"Alright, it's time we go to the real second-level island Secret Realm!" After saying that, Li Yi walked directly toward the teleportation array.

"Senior Li, this isn't the second-level island Secret Realm?" a Tianxuan Sect Elder caught up and asked.

Li Yi paused and looked back with a meaningful smile:

"Did you all think the Sea Clan High Priest's revival altar would be set up in the actual Secret Realm?"

He pointed to the collapsing White Bone Palace:

"This was merely a 'Slaughterhouse' they set up, specifically to filter for suitable Possession vessels."