274: Chapter 274 The War Soul Appears, Rare Token

The dark blue transmission lines on the Formation Plate dimmed.

The lingering echo of Elder Wei Changfeng's final words still reverberated within the altar space: "The kind for holding Spirit Stones—get the large size—the extra-large size burlap sacks."

Leng Feng's mouth twitched upward by less than half an inch; he spun his narrow-bladed straight sword once around his fingertip before sheathing it at his waist.

As the scabbard's clasp closed, it emitted a faint, crisp metallic click.

Lu Changyuan hung the Formation Plate back at his waist.

His fingers paused on the edge of the plate for less than half a breath.

Five times—he mentally did a quick calculation of this number against the first batch of profits Elder Wei Changfeng had reported before entering the ruins.

After finishing the calculation, he buried the number deep within his consciousness, not revealing any expression on his face.

He took the black crystal out from the inner pocket of his sleeve and held it in his palm.

The surface temperature of the crystal remained icy cold, but the dark golden radial fine lines on its base did not dim after the Formation Plate went out.

Instead, they flickered on and off at an extremely slow frequency.

The rhythm of this flickering was perfectly synchronized with the surging Spiritual Power fluctuations deep within the array core at the center of the altar.

Lu Changyuan turned around.

The Loose Cultivators were still dividing up the Materials from the Foundation Establishment Abyssal Beast.

The Gold-Rank Enforcer was currently extracting a dark blue crystal core from the inside of the Bone Shield user's chest armor; the crystal core, the size of a thumb, rolled across his fingertips before he quickly stuffed it into the Storage Pouch at his waist.

Shopkeeper Qian was squatting at the base of the stone wall, wrapping the few bone armor fragments he had received with scraps of his tattered robe, wrapping them extremely tightly.

After finishing, he wrapped two loops of hemp rope around them; his fingers were still trembling as he tied the knot.

No one noticed that the array core at the center of the altar was changing.

Leng Feng noticed.

His hand had already pressed back onto his sword hilt, but Lu Changyuan raised his hand and pressed his palm downward by less than half an inch.

Leng Feng's fingers released the hilt.

At the center of the altar, the semi-transparent dark golden light wall left behind after the Seal chains broke was thinning.

The speed of the thinning was not fast, but it was extremely uniform.

The thickness of the light wall shrank from three feet to two feet, from two feet to one foot, and from one foot to less than half a foot.

With each reduction, the humanoid silhouette behind the light wall, which was nearly twice as tall as a normal person, became one degree clearer.

The arc of the shoulder armor, the cracks on the chest armor, the dense Spiritual Power flow lines inside the arms—every detail of the silhouette emerged layer by layer as the light wall thinned.

Then, the light wall shattered.

It shattered by dissolving; starting from the center, the light wall turned into extremely fine and dense light dust that spread outwards.

The light dust paused in the air for less than half a breath before being pushed by the Spiritual Power wave surging up from deep within the array core, scattering in all directions.

The light dust drifted past Lu Changyuan's shoulder, past Leng Feng's sword hilt, past the short swords crossed on Shadow One and Shadow Two's backs, and drifted to the front of those Loose Cultivators who were still busy stripping Materials at the base of the stone wall.

Shopkeeper Qian was the first to look up.

His fingers had just tightened the hemp rope knot when the light dust landed on the back of his hand.

The moment the skin on the back of his hand touched the light dust, his entire body froze.

His Qi was locked; every thread of his Qi was pinned within his Meridians by a Spiritual Pressure far beyond his level of cognition, stripping him of even the strength to circulate his True Essence.

His hand was still in the posture of pulling the hemp rope, but his fingers—could not move.

Then it was the Gold-Rank Enforcer.

Then every Loose Cultivator.

Whoever the light dust landed on, their Qi was pinned.

The reaction of those at the Foundation Establishment Peak and those at the Qi Refining Peak was exactly the same; in the face of the Guardian Spirit's Origin Spiritual Pressure, this slight difference in cultivation Realm was equal to no difference at all.

Lu Changyuan was not pinned.

The black crystal was in his palm; when the light dust landed on him, the dark golden fine lines on the base of the crystal lit up, and the light dust was absorbed by the crystal the moment it touched his skin, vanishing.

He pressed the crystal tightly into his palm and looked up—toward the space directly above the array core.

A semi-transparent dark golden phantom slowly rose from the crack in the array core.

The speed of its ascent was extremely slow.

First, the head—a head of dark golden long hair that hung almost to the waist.

The strands of hair floated within the semi-transparent phantom at an extremely slow frequency, with the floating direction of each strand differing from the adjacent strand by less than half a degree, forming an extremely uniform and dense dark golden ripple.

Then, the shoulders—the shoulder armor was tattered.

The left shoulder armor was missing nearly a third, and the break was extremely irregular, not looking like it had been worn away by time—it looked like it had been forcibly torn off in battle.

The right shoulder armor was preserved intact, its surface covered in dense Array Patterns.

The lines of the Array Patterns were of the same Origin as those ancient Array Patterns on the altar floor—but more complex, with the end of each line branching into at least three sub-lines, which then branched again, layer upon layer, covering the entire shoulder armor.

Then, the body—tattered battle armor wrapped around the semi-transparent dark golden torso.

In the center of the chest armor was a crack running diagonally from the left shoulder to the right rib, a crack so deep that one could see the bone structure inside the chest armor.

The edges of the crack curled outward; the curled bone had been repeatedly scoured by Spiritual Power during the thousands of years of the Seal, and the edges had been polished extremely smooth—smooth enough to reflect a faint dark golden sheen under the cold-light spirit stone.

The lower hem of the battle armor was in tatters; the left half was almost completely missing, while the right half hung with a few remaining armor fragments, connected between each other by extremely fine and dense Spiritual Power threads—the threads pulsed with a faint light within the phantom at an extremely slow frequency, which was the Guardian Spirit's remaining Origin Spiritual Pressure maintaining the phantom from dissipating.

Finally, the legs—the leg armor was better preserved than the chest armor, but all the armor fragments below the left knee were gone.

Inside the semi-transparent lower leg, the Spiritual Power flow lines were at least half as sparse as those inside the arms.

The right leg armor was relatively intact, with the surface engraved with Array Patterns of the same Origin as the right shoulder armor.

The Array Patterns extended from the thigh down to the knee, where they were cut off by an old scar running across the knee—the scar was an extremely deep dark gold, so deep it was almost black, forming a striking dark horizontal line within the dark golden semi-transparent phantom.

An old man.

A Haiyuan Clan old man clad in tattered battle armor.

His face finally became clear the moment the semi-transparent phantom took shape—his facial features were similar to a human's, but his cheekbones were higher, his eye sockets were deeper, and his pupils were an extremely faint gold—the color of light itself.

When his eyes opened, the Spiritual Power flow lines inside his eye sockets all lit up, extending from the corners of his eyes toward his temples, and then downward into his neck, connecting into one body with the Spiritual Power flow lines inside his torso.

Then he let out a sigh.

The sound of the sigh came from deep within the array core—sounding directly within their Divine Sense.

The sigh was laced with thousands of years of waiting, thousands of years of loneliness, and the powerlessness of only being able to watch the Seal erode day by day for thousands of years without being able to break free.

Each syllable was extremely heavy—the weight was the weight of Spiritual Pressure vibration—and when the sigh rippled through their Divine Sense, the back of Shopkeeper Qian's head hit the stone wall; his Divine Sense could not withstand the Spiritual Pressure vibration frequency of the sigh, and he was knocked unconscious.

The Gold-Rank Enforcer was still conscious, but being conscious was more painful.

His teeth were chattering—the backlash of Qi in his Meridians caused his muscles to spasm uncontrollably—as the Qi within his body was forcibly suppressed by the Guardian Spirit's Origin Spiritual Pressure.

He gritted his teeth and held on—holding on until his jawbone ached—holding on until faint traces of blood seeped from between his teeth.

Lu Changyuan took three steps forward.

The black crystal was in his palm, and its pulsation had returned—it was a rhythm perfectly synchronized with his own heartbeat.

For every heartbeat, the crystal pulsed once.

If his heartbeat quickened by less than half a beat, the crystal's pulsation frequency would jump up by less than half a notch.

He raised the crystal before his eyes; the dark golden radial fine lines on the base of the crystal were all lit up, each one extending toward the array core at an extremely slow speed.

The Guardian Spirit's gaze shifted from Lu Changyuan's face to the black crystal, and then back to his face.

His eyes—that pair of extremely faint golden pupils—contracted slightly by less than half a degree under his gaze.

His lips moved—the voice sounded in their Divine Sense once more.

"Young man—"

The voice was at least twice as clear as when it had first come from deep within the array core.

Each syllable landed extremely steadily—the sense of hesitation caused by thousands of years of joint stiffness had disappeared, replaced by a deep, slow, and composed tone, like speaking underwater.

"Extend your hand."

Lu Changyuan extended his right hand.

The black crystal was in his left hand—he had extended his right hand.

The Guardian Spirit's gaze swept between the two hands, and the corners of his mouth twitched upward by less than half an inch.

It was a smile, extremely faint—a sort of smile that was hard to tell if it was gratified or bitter.

"Left hand. The crystal."

Lu Changyuan extended his left hand, the black crystal in his palm.

The Guardian Spirit extended his right hand—that dark golden semi-transparent right hand that had reached out from the crack in the array core when the Seal chains broke, pressed onto the stone slab to form a Seal, and poured half a breath of Golden Core Stage Spiritual Pressure into Lu Changyuan's body—and pressed it onto the black crystal.

The moment the crystal touched the palm—Lu Changyuan saw it.

The moment the crystal touched the palm—Lu Changyuan's Divine Sense was forcibly pulled by the Guardian Spirit into a level he had never entered before.

The surrounding altar space was still there—he could still perceive the bodies of Leng Feng, Shadow One, Shadow Two, and the Loose Cultivators—but all matter was retreating and sinking, as if the dark copper alloy floor beneath his feet had suddenly sunk, and he was floating in a Void Realm with no matter, only Spiritual Pressure fluctuations.

The Guardian Spirit stood opposite him.

In this level, the phantom was no longer semi-transparent—the battle armor was complete, with no cracks; the left shoulder armor was intact, and the leg armor below the left knee was undamaged.

The Array Patterns on the surface of the battle armor were all lit up—lit to the extreme—each Array Pattern radiating an extremely bright dark golden Spiritual light.

This was the appearance of this Haiyuan Clan warrior in his prime thousands of years ago.

"My time is short."

The Guardian Spirit spoke—in this level, his voice was no longer a Divine Sense transmission, but a real voice emitted from his throat.

The voice was deep—but not hoarse, carrying a kind of extremely faint and thin weariness left behind after the edges had been smoothed away by time.

"My remnant consciousness can maintain this Divine Sense resonance space—for at most a quarter of an hour.

After a quarter of an hour, the remnant consciousness will dissipate, and the Seal will completely collapse.

You must leave here before the Seal finishes collapsing."

He paused.

His golden pupils looked at the black crystal in Lu Changyuan's left palm.

"Before that—you are qualified to know some things."

The Guardian Spirit withdrew the hand he had pressed on the crystal.

His fingers traced in the air—in the Void Realm, dark golden Spiritual Pressure flowed from his fingertips, condensing in the air into an extremely complex Spiritual Pressure flow map.

The scale of this flow map was not at all on the same level as the sword technique flow map in the side hall's secret room—the one in the side hall was a sword technique, while this one—was a map of a Haiyuan area.

The extremely deep and dark seabed terrain emerged layer by layer within the Spiritual Pressure flow lines: abysses, mountain ranges, plains, palaces, altars.

Each terrain marker was connected to an extremely fine and long Spiritual Pressure flow line; the lines extended upward from the terrain markers, converging into a central node—an inverted pyramid-shaped building.

"The Haiyuan Court."

The Guardian Spirit pointed to the inverted pyramid.

"The royal capital from thousands of years ago when the Haiyuan Clan ruled this deep sea.

You humans now call it—Dragon Burial Trench."

His finger moved downward—from the inverted pyramid to an area of darkness at the deepest point.

This area had no markings on the Spiritual Pressure flow map, only a patch of extremely thick and dark ink-green light spots; the Spiritual Pressure flow lines inside the light spots were all cut off—as if they had been forcibly severed from the outside by something.

"The Sealing Ground.

The place where I—and the Blood Sacrifice Sect's altar—were sealed together.

The purpose of the Seal was not to imprison me—it was to lock the Blood Sacrifice Sect's ultimate altar inside my body.

I have been pressing down under the Seal for thousands of years; what I am pressing is not a stone slab, but the altar.

The altar is alive—it has been absorbing my Origin Spiritual Pressure to maintain its own operation.

The weaker I become, the stronger the altar becomes.

Until you brought the crystal—the crystal is a relic of the Rebel Faction, capable of opening a passage inside the Seal, cutting off the altar's Spiritual Pressure supply from the Abyssal Beasts outside."

Lu Changyuan did not interrupt.

He looked at the Spiritual Pressure flow map, comparing every place name the Guardian Spirit mentioned with the terrain markers he had seen on Elder Mo's deduction paper one by one.

"The Haiyuan Clan—in your era."

The Guardian Spirit's voice sank by a layer, "was a unified kingdom.

Under the Royal Court, there were twelve battle regiments; I commanded the Third Battle Regiment.

But beneath the facade of unity—the High Priest's faction advocated using blood sacrifice to extract the power of the Abyss Spiritual Vein, pushing the Haiyuan Clan to a higher Realm.

The other faction—the Rebel Faction I belonged to—believed that blood sacrifice would destroy the Foundation of the Abyss Spiritual Vein.

Once the Spiritual Vein is destroyed, the entire sea area that the Haiyuan Clan relies on for survival would collapse."

He paused.

The diagonal crack on his chest dimmed by one degree in the memory—as if this scar could still trigger some extremely deep emotion even after thousands of years.

"The two factions fought for nearly a hundred years.

In the end—the High Priest's blood sacrifice ritual had completed its final step.

He sacrificed the core of the Abyss Spiritual Vein—along with the six strongest warriors among the twelve battle regiments—together.

The sacrificed Spiritual Pressure was channeled into the ultimate altar, the altar activated—and then spiraled out of control.

The reason for the loss of control was that the Spiritual Pressure of the blood sacrifice exceeded the altar's endurance limit—the High Priest had miscalculated.

Sacrificing the Souls of six Golden Core Peak warriors—the generated Spiritual Pressure far exceeded the altar's refining limit.

The Spiritual Pressure fed back by the altar backflowed into the Abyss Spiritual Vein—the Spiritual Vein began to collapse."

"I led the remaining people to cut off the connection between the altar and the Spiritual Vein during the collapse.

The method of cutting it off—was to Seal the altar together with myself into the Sealing Ground.

The Seal used my Origin Spiritual Pressure as a lock, trapping the altar inside the Seal.

As long as I am still alive, the altar cannot reconnect to the Abyss Spiritual Vein.

The High Priest escaped—taking the remaining Blood Sacrifice Sect warriors and retreating to deeper waters."

Lu Changyuan's gaze shifted from the Spiritual Pressure flow map to the Guardian Spirit's face.

"The rulers of the deep sea—are now called the Deep Sea Royal Clan."

"Deep Sea Royal Clan."

The Guardian Spirit chewed the four words in his mouth—as if tasting a term heard again after thousands of years.

"The descendants of the High Priest's faction—or a new species mixed from the Blood Sacrifice Sect and the remaining Abyss tribes—I have been locked here for too long, I cannot tell.

But there is one thing—you must remember it."

His finger tapped on the ink-green light spot.

When his finger tapped, the light spot exploded into a ring of extremely faint and fine dark golden ripples, which spread outward, gradually fading as they spread.

[part:gemini-3.5-flash]

"The ultimate altar of the Blood Sacrifice Sect—though I severed its connection to the abyssal Spiritual Vein—was not completely destroyed. For thousands of years, it has been draining my Origin spiritual power to maintain a minimal level of operation. Now that the Seal is broken, and the altar remains intact, it has merely lost my supply of Origin spiritual power. It will begin to search for a new source of supply."

The Guardian Spirit raised his head. His dark gold pupils stared directly at Lu Changyuan.

"The altar will seek you out on its own. As long as you carry the crystal—which is a relic of the Rebel Faction and shares the same frequency as the altar's Origin—the altar will be able to track the crystal's spiritual power fluctuations to find you, no matter how far away you are. It won't be tomorrow, nor next month, but sooner or later. When it finds you, you will have only two choices. First, destroy it. Second... be absorbed by it. There is no third path."

Lu Changyuan spun the crystal in his palm. The crystal's pulsation frequency jumped up by less than half a notch the moment the Guardian Spirit mentioned "the crystal's spiritual power fluctuations." He tucked the crystal into the inner pocket of his sleeve.

"So it's not a once-in-a-lifetime Opportunity—it's a hot potato."

The corner of the Guardian Spirit's mouth twitched upward by less than half an inch. It was his second smile—this one nearly twice as deep as the first, so deep that the spiritual power pathways tracing the edges of his eye sockets glowed faintly.

"Young man, only those who can distinguish between an Opportunity and a trap are qualified to claim the Opportunity." He extended his right hand, pressing his five fingers against the crack in the center of his breastplate. His knuckles stiffened, and then he clawed inward, as if forcefully tearing something out of his Origin core.

The peeling process lasted for nearly ten breaths.

With every breath that passed, the dark gold of the Guardian Spirit's phantom faded by nearly half a shade. From dark gold to pale gold, from pale gold to a nearly transparent light gold, and from nearly transparent to barely discernible in outline. By the end of the tenth breath, the Guardian Spirit's phantom had faded so much that its edges began to scatter light particles. These particles drifted outward from every part of his body, floating toward the altar's dome, the stone walls, and the dark bronze alloy floor.

He withdrew his hand from the crack in his breastplate, holding a dark gold scale between his fingers.

The scale was only half the size of a palm, a perfect hexagon with extremely thin and sharp edges. Its thickness increased uniformly from the edges to the center. The surface of the scale was carved with extremely fine and dense spiritual power pathways—at least an order of magnitude denser than the radial fine lines on the bottom of the black crystal. Each pathway was less than half the width of a strand of hair, yet their patterns were perfectly visible under the dark gold spiritual light. Inside the scale, at the intersection of the spiritual power pathways, something was pulsing at an extremely slow and deep frequency, like a heart shrunk countless times. With each beat, all the pathways on the scale's surface lit up simultaneously, dimmed, and then awaited the next pulse.

The Guardian Spirit pushed the scale toward Lu Changyuan. As the scale floated through the air, the pulsing frequency of its surface spiritual power pathways matched that of the black crystal within less than half a breath. Then they synchronized, resonating at the exact same frequency.

"The Haiyuan Court—the transit token for the Royal Court Imperial Guard." The Guardian Spirit's voice was now extremely faint, sounding as if it came from an immense distance and depth. It wasn't that the volume had decreased, but rather that the spiritual power vibration frequency within his voice was decaying layer by layer. "The Royal Court Imperial Guard—the unit I commanded before the Seal—now lies in ruins. However, the Imperial Guard's armory, the teleportation array, and the deepest part of the Royal Court—the very thing I once swore to protect but failed to safeguard—are all still there."

The scale drifted into Lu Changyuan's palm. The instant it touched his skin, his hand sank by less than half an inch. It wasn't weight, but Spiritual Pressure. The density of spiritual power sealed within the scale was far higher than anything he had ever touched before. It wasn't a physical weight pressing down, but rather the Spiritual Pressure forming a tiny vortex within the Meridians of his palm. As the vortex spun, his Meridians were stretched open by less than a hair's breadth with each rotation. The expansion was extremely slight yet distinct, like the sensation of skin being squeezed when a finger slides through an extremely narrow and tight ring—not painful, but a physical reminder of its presence.

"That Golden Core Abyssal Beast's core is decent, but compared to what is stored in the Royal Court's armory, it is not even worth mentioning. Golden Core Stage Haiyuan Clan crystals, Deep Sea Dark Bronze Marrow, and intact ancient battle armor are all in the armory. However, the token has conditions for its use."

The Guardian Spirit's phantom faded by another layer. Large areas of light particles had begun to scatter from the edges of his outline. The particles were no longer gold but had turned into an extremely pale, almost transparent silver-white—the residual light of an exhausted Origin.

"Do not attempt to activate the token before reaching the Golden Core Stage. The token connects to the transmission array deep within the Royal Court. Meridians below the Golden Core Stage cannot withstand the backlash of spiritual power from the transmission array. The moment it is activated, you will suffer a backlash and your Meridians will be shattered. This is not a warning; it is a certainty."

"At the Golden Core Stage, your Meridians will have undergone true essence remodeling, and the spiritual power circulation frequency within your body can jump from a hundred rotations to a thousand, allowing you to withstand the transmission array's backlash. Once you reach the Golden Core Stage, place the token on your chest and activate it with true essence. The pathways inside the token will automatically project the coordinates of the Royal Court. The teleportation can only be done once. Once you enter, I do not know what awaits you. I have been sealed for thousands of years, and no one knows what the Royal Court has become during this time."

The Guardian Spirit's body began to turn into light particles from the edges toward the center. The rate of dispersal was at least twice as fast as when the Abyss Beast Leader's corpse dissipated—the Guardian Spirit's Origin had reached its absolute limit. His hands were the first to fade, his ten fingers dissolving section by section from the tips into light particles. The particles were of an extremely pale, transparent silver-white, drifting upward through the layer of dark gold spiritual light toward the dome, before merging into the cold-light spirit stones.

Next were his arms, then his armor, and then his legs. The dark gold phantom began to dissolve simultaneously from all parts of his body at an extremely uniform rate, each spot turning into light particles at the exact same speed. The Guardian Spirit looked down at his dissipating body, and for the third time, the corner of his mouth twitched upward by less than half an inch. This time, there was no bitterness in his smile, only an extremely faint, peaceful sense of relief.

"Thousands of years... I can finally leave."

He raised his dissipating hands and cupped them in a salute. Just as his hands formed the gesture, they dissolved up to his elbows. His fists scattered into a cloud of extremely bright, pale dark-gold light specks. The specks paused in the air for a moment, then scattered in all directions.

"The things waiting to settle scores with you outside are far heavier than today's battle. Hold on, young man."

The final syllables of his voice faded within their Divine Sense. The Guardian Spirit's phantom, from head to toe, completely turned into light particles in the exact same instant. The sky full of dark gold particles hovered in the altar space for nearly three breaths, like extremely fine and dense golden snowflakes suspended in the air, neither rising nor sinking. Then, the particles contracted deep into the array core, gathering into an extremely bright, white-hot, dark-gold sphere of light. The sphere flashed in the air, exploded, and the scattered particles fell onto the floor, the stone walls, everyone's robes, and the scale in Lu Changyuan's palm, before finally dissipating.

A very fine and faint dark gold pattern had appeared on the surface of the scale. The pattern was a vertical line running from the bottom to the top of the scale, with three branch lines splitting off from each side. The six branch lines extended outward, stopping precisely at the edges of the scale. That was the last trace of spiritual power imprint left inside the scale by the Guardian Spirit before his Origin dissipated.

The altar space shook violently. The magnitude of the tremor was even greater than when the Haiyuan Clan had breached the gates. On the dome, the cold-light spirit stones began to flash over a wide area, the frequency of their blinking going from slow to fast, and then fast enough to merge into a continuous glow. Then, several Spirit Stones detached from the dome, crashing onto the floor and shattering. The remnants of the ancient Array Patterns on the stone walls began to release their final remaining spiritual light at an extremely rapid pace. Once fully released, the carved lines of the Array Patterns turned from dark gold to a dull gray-white, their spiritual light completely exhausted.

The dark bronze alloy floor began to fracture. The first crack extended outward from the center of the altar at an extremely rapid pace, passing beneath Leng Feng's feet. Leng Feng had already taken a half-step forward before the crack reached him, while Shadow One and Shadow Two stepped back in synchronization, the three of them surrounding Lu Changyuan in the center. A second crack intersected with the first, and a ring of extremely bright, narrow, dark-gold sparks exploded at the intersection. Once the sparks died out, the floor began to collapse downward.

"My Lord—" Leng Feng's narrow-bladed straight sword was already unsheathed. With the tip pointing toward the ground, his Spiritual Pressure flared outward, propping up an extremely faint and thin spiritual power barrier around the three of them.

Lu Changyuan sealed the scale into an empty jade box, which he took from the Storage Pouch in his sleeve. The box had originally contained Spirit-Recovering Pills prepared before entering the ruins, but most of the Medicinal Pills had already been used by Leng Feng along the escape route. He activated the Formation at the Seal of the jade box. The miniature sealing formation on the surface of the jade box lit up as he infused spiritual power from his fingertips, then dimmed. The scale's Spiritual Pressure was sealed inside the jade box, no longer able to leak out.

He tucked the jade box into the inner pocket of his sleeve, placing it in the same spot as the black crystal and the Jade Slip containing the General Outline of the Tiangang Immortal-Slaying Sword. Shopkeeper Qian and the Gold-Rank Enforcer had already woken up, roused by the altar's tremors. As soon as Shopkeeper Qian woke, he saw the crack on the dark bronze alloy floor extending toward his crotch. He scrambled to his feet, his tattered robe catching on a stone crevice—he ripped it free, ignored it, and bolted toward the outer edge of the altar.

"Go—"

Lu Changyuan turned around. His footsteps were almost inaudible amidst the cracking of the floor behind him, but Leng Feng heard them. Shadow One and Shadow Two heard them. Yan Guming slid down from the side of the stone platform, dragging his injured leg. The wound on his left leg tore open by another half-inch, but he grit his teeth and kept up. Shadow Two reached out and supported his right arm.

At the outer edge of the altar, the storage pouches that the Shadow Guards had stockpiled in the corner of the stone platform—more than a dozen bulging bags piled together—were scooped up. Shadow One picked up four with her right hand and three with her left. While Shadow Two supported Yan Guming, Leng Feng slung all the remaining storage pouches over his shoulders—eighteen bags in total, not a single one missing. As the three of them rushed out of the altar, behind them, the crack at the central array core exploded completely. The dark bronze alloy floor collapsed downward in its entirety from the crack, and the edges of the collapse continued to expand outward. With every inch it expanded, another crack appeared on the floor, spreading across the entire altar space like a spiderweb.

In the direction of the side hall, the deepest and most complete sword stance diagram—the cyan spiritual light within the carvings completely went out after one final flash. The carvings remained on the stone wall, but the spiritual light was dead. Lu Changyuan paused at the entrance of the side hall for less than half a breath, glancing at the sword scars on the stone wall that had turned from deep cyan to a dull gray-white, before turning away.

The escape route passage had partially collapsed in the tremors. Debris rained down from the top of the passage. Leng Feng led the way with his narrow-bladed straight sword, splitting the falling rocks with his strikes. The shattered rocks piled up rapidly along the sides of the passage, and within less than twenty breaths, both sides were so choked with debris that only one person could squeeze through at a time. Lu Changyuan slipped sideways through the rubble, with Shadow One and Shadow Two close behind. Yan Guming brought up the rear, and behind them, the entrance to the escape route passage was completely blocked by fallen rocks.

At the intersection of the first escape route and the third escape route, Shopkeeper Qian and the Gold-Rank Enforcer were sprinting madly toward the exit. The floor beneath their feet was collapsing, at a speed barely slower than their running pace. The dark bronze alloy plates buckled inward beneath them, their edges curling as if torn upward from underground by an invisible giant hand. With every piece torn away, the passage shortened by a segment.

"Don't stop! Charge out!"

Lu Changyuan's voice was almost drowned out by the roaring of the collapse, but Leng Feng, Shadow One, and Shadow Two heard him. Shadow One and Shadow Two accelerated simultaneously, their Combined Sword Qi intersecting in the air. The shockwave exploding from the intersection shattered all the falling rocks from the ceiling of the passage ahead, turning them into a cloud of extremely fine and dense dust. Amidst the dust, the light of the cold-light spirit stones at the exit grew brighter and brighter.

The outer wall of the Seal—the remnant outer wall of the ancient Trapping Array that had withstood months of blood-drenching by the Haiyuan Clan for tens of thousands of years—was finally torn open from within, creating a massive rift under the chain reaction of the massive collapse inside the ruins. Outside the rift, the dark green water pressure of the deep sea poured in overwhelmingly. The incoming seawater was mixed with an extremely dense and deep residue of spiritual power—fragments of spiritual power blasted out when the Seal was broken. These fragments trailed extremely long, dim, dark-green tails of light in the water as they rose toward the surface.

The Spirit-Concealing Flying Boat hovered thirty chang outside the rift. The stealth membrane on the hull's surface rippled with faint silver waves under the pressure fluctuations of the rushing seawater.

Lu Changyuan stepped onto the gunwale of the flying boat. Seawater dripped from the hem of his robe, each drop falling through the layer of dark gold spiritual light in a short, straight trajectory, landing on the deck and soaking into the wood grain.

He turned around and looked toward the ruins. The Dragon Burial Trench—the sea region he had entered with the Shadow Guards and emerged from with eighteen storage pouches—was emitting a final, extremely deep and muffled underground rumble. The Seal had completely collapsed. The Blood Sacrifice Altar of the Haiyuan Court, now free from the suppression of the Guardian Spirit's Origin, was awakening at the bottom of the sealed ruins.

The flying boat ascended, breaking through the water's surface. The moment the stealth membrane on the hull's surface made contact with the air, it became completely transparent once more. High above the pitch-black deep sea, the Spirit Stone searchlight at the bow carved an extremely thin, long, and bright trail of spiritual light toward Blue Moon Island.