19: The ruins are in dire straits, and the Soul Palace appears

“Boom—!”

Lin Chen’s figure, like a cannonball, slammed into the deep crack at the bottom of the giant sand dune! Behind him, the purple Dou Qi streak, tearing through the air, almost grazed his back as it crashed against the edge of the opening! The terrifying explosion kicked up a sky full of yellow sand, and broken stones clattered down, instantly burying more than half of the opening!

Pfft!

The immense impact made Lin Chen’s throat sweet, and he spat out another mouthful of fresh blood. His body rolled for over ten meters in the dusty, sloping passage before he managed to stop. A searing pain came from his back. If his Physique hadn't been doubly strengthened by the Serpent Shedding Essence Blood and the ice spirit cold spring, and if he hadn't promptly used Shadow Erosion Dou Qi to protect his vital points, this graze alone would have been enough to severely injure him!

He ignored his injuries and immediately scrambled to his feet. Shadow Erosion Dou Qi instantly covered his entire body, and he vigilantly looked towards the opening, which was half-sealed by sand and stone. Outside, the cold, powerful Snake-People aura had not left; instead, it carried a hint of enraged chill, firmly locking onto this area!

“Sly little bug, do you think you can escape by crawling into a rat hole?” Yue Mei’s cold, angry voice penetrated the sand and stone, “This abandoned relic will be your burial ground!” Immediately following, there was the muffled sound of sand and stone being impacted and moved by a powerful force. She was clearing the opening!

Lin Chen’s heart tightened, knowing that the other party would never give up. He immediately turned and, without hesitation, desperately flew towards the depths of the relic! Shadow Erosion Dou Qi, like a dim light in the darkness, illuminated the path ahead.

The passage sloped downwards, covered with traces of erosion from time. Faint murals remained on the walls, depicting deserts, scorching suns, and some strangely shaped giant snake totems. The air was dry and heavy, filled with thick dust and the scent of decaying stone. Deeper within, a faint, unsettling, icy energy fluctuation subtly emanated.

This relic was definitely not simple!

Lin Chen’s Soul perception was raised to its limit. While moving at high speed, he remained vigilant for possible traps and unknown dangers. The Hall of Souls brand, wrapped in cloth on his wrist, seemed to… *weaken* slightly after entering the relic? As if suppressed by some special energy field within the relic! This caused a slight stir in his heart.

Soon, a large, mostly collapsed archway appeared at the end of the passage. Passing through the archway, his vision suddenly opened up!

A colossal underground space appeared before his eyes. The dome was high, covered with broken giant stone beams and hanging stalactites. In the center of the space, a huge, cracked, trapezoidal pyramid-shaped altar, built from massive black rocks, stood! The altar’s surface was covered with densely packed, ancient runes that emitted a dark glow. These runes were twisted and bizarre, carrying an aura of blasphemy and ill omen. The unsettling, icy energy fluctuation was precisely emanating from the center of this altar!

On the ground around the altar, countless stark white bones were scattered! There were Human Race bones, Snake-People bones, and even some larger, more bizarrely shaped skeletons! The bones piled up like mountains, many still bearing dried, blackened bloodstains and marks from weapon strikes. Clearly, an extremely brutal battle had once taken place here!

“This is… some kind of ancient sacrifice site?” Lin Chen’s pupils constricted. Yingu Old Man’s fragmented memories of Hall of Souls rituals instantly flooded his mind. Those altar runes carried strong Soul and negative energy fluctuations, subtly similar to the style of the Hall of Souls!

Just as he was in doubt—

“I found you!” A cold, purple figure appeared like a ghost at the collapsed archway! Yue Mei had finally chased him in! Her black robe was slightly damaged from the previous pursuit, revealing her slender snake tail covered in fine purple scales and a breathtaking curve of her waist. Under her hood, her cold, purple vertical pupils were firmly locked onto Lin Chen, with the cruelty of a cat playing with a mouse and a hint of anger at being toyed with.

“Run, why aren’t you running anymore?” Yue Mei slowly glided in, her snake tail scraping against the bones on the ground, emitting a grating sound. Her powerful Dou Master pressure was unleashed without reservation, like an invisible giant rock pressing down on Lin Chen! The air throughout the entire underground space seemed to solidify.

Lin Chen’s entire body tensed, like a bowstring drawn to its limit. Facing a true Dou Master expert, especially a Snake-People leader known for her speed and bizarre attacks, he, a one-star Dou Master, directly confronting her was like hitting a rock with an egg! His only chance of survival, perhaps, lay within this strange altar and the environment that suppressed the Hall of Souls brand!

His gaze rapidly swept over the altar and the surrounding environment, his mind frantically calculating. Forcibly break through? Impossible! Use the altar? But he had no idea how to activate it! Create chaos?…

“Your Majesty is very interested in that strange devouring power within you, and also that wisp of… familiar aura.” Yue Mei’s gaze, like a cold probe, swept over Lin Chen’s body, pausing particularly at his heart and wrist. “Come back with me obediently, and perhaps you’ll suffer less.”

Before she finished speaking, she lightly raised her jade hand. Five purple Dou Qi threads, condensed like solid matter and carrying deadly paralyzing poison, shot out like venomous snakes, silently yet as fast as lightning, towards Lin Chen’s limbs and brow! She intended to capture him alive!

There was no avoiding it!

Blood light surged in Lin Chen’s eyes! The dark Qi vortex in his Dantian spun frantically, and thirty drops of liquid Shadow Erosion Dou Qi instantly ignited! Deep purple, almost black, Dou Qi, mixed with icy blue cold Qi, gushed out like boiling ink!

“Shadow Erosion: World-Devouring Ice Vortex!”

He thrust his palms forward fiercely! A rapidly spinning, deep purple-black energy vortex, whose center continuously collapsed while its edges were covered in sharp ice shards, instantly formed, meeting the five purple threads! The vortex erupted with terrifying devouring power, while icy cold Qi permeated the air, attempting to freeze and delay the opponent’s attack!

Chii chii chii—!

The five purple threads fiercely pierced into the energy vortex! There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a harsh screeching sound of energy being rapidly corroded and annihilated! The Shadow Erosion vortex frantically devoured the purple Dou Qi, and the ice shards constantly shattered and regenerated, but Yue Mei’s Dou Qi was far more condensed than Lin Chen’s! The purple threads, like red-hot steel needles piercing thin ice, were only delayed for half a breath before they pierced through the vortex, continuing their momentum towards Lin Chen!

“Puff, puff, puff!”

Lin Chen grunted, his body shaking violently! Although he desperately twisted his body, avoiding the vital point of his brow, his right shoulder, left leg, and right rib were still instantly pierced by three purple threads! No blood flowed from the wounds; instead, they instantly turned purplish-black and numb. The potent poison, accompanied by the icy cold Snake-People Dou Qi, frantically invaded his body! The terrifying impact sent him flying, slamming heavily against the cold base of the altar, blood gushing from his mouth!

The gap was too vast!

Lin Chen felt half of his body instantly lose sensation, as numbness and the excruciating pain of poison corrosion spread frantically. The Dantian Qi vortex violently vibrated, and his Dou Qi was greatly consumed. Yue Mei’s casual strike alone had completely incapacitated him!

“A death struggle.” Yue Mei’s cold voice carried a hint of disdain. Her snake tail swayed, as she glided gracefully and lethally towards Lin Chen, who lay sprawled by the altar. “Now, it’s time to come with me…”

However, just as Yue Mei extended her hand, covered in purple scales, about to grab Lin Chen—

A sudden change occurred!

Buzz—!!!

The silent black altar, as if stimulated by the blood Lin Chen had sprayed on it and the Shadow Erosion Dou Qi fluctuations erupting from his body, suddenly vibrated violently! The dark runes on the altar’s surface squirmed and lit up like living things! A terrifying aura, a hundred times stronger than before, icy cold, dead silent, filled with endless resentment and greed, like an ancient Vicious Beast awakening, suddenly erupted from the center of the altar!

The appearance of this aura caused the temperature of the entire underground space to plummet to freezing point! The air seemed to solidify into ice! The scattered bones groaned under the invisible pressure, unable to bear it!

“What?!” Yue Mei’s face instantly changed! Her outstretched hand abruptly stopped, and for the first time, her purple vertical pupils showed solemnity and disbelief! This aura… icy cold, dead silent, carrying an absolute desire to control Souls… made her instinctively feel extreme disgust and… a hint of dread!

This was definitely not the power of the Snake-People! It was even more evil than any power they knew!

At the same time, on Lin Chen’s left wrist, the Hall of Souls brand, wrapped in cloth and suppressed by the relic, under the intense stimulation of this homologous aura, erupted like a lit powder keg, with dazzling dark red light! The cloth instantly turned to ash! The purple-black poisonous lines wrapped around it wriggled frantically, as if cheering! A clear, bone-chilling Soul tracking fluctuation, like a lighthouse in the dark night, instantly penetrated the relic’s obstruction and transmitted towards a certain direction deep in the desert!

“Hall of Souls!!” Yue Mei exclaimed in shock, her voice filled with astonishment and towering hatred! As a high-ranking member of the Snake-People, she was well aware of the terror and infamy of the mysterious Hall of Souls organization! They hunted the Souls of powerful individuals, conducted forbidden experiments, and were enemies of all living beings! Deep within this abandoned relic, a Hall of Souls stronghold was actually hidden?!

Boom—!!!

In the center of the altar, black mist as thick as ink violently churned, and a giant pitch-black vortex, several meters in diameter, composed of pure Soul energy, slowly formed! In the center of the vortex, countless twisted and suffering Soul phantoms wailed and floated! A vast and boundless terrifying pressure, far exceeding that of a Dou Master, like an invisible tsunami, instantly swept through the entire underground space!

Battle Sect! It was definitely a Battle Sect-level Hall of Souls expert!

A cold, hoarse voice, as if two bones were rubbing together, filled with endless greed and indifference, slowly emanated from the depths of the vortex, like the whisper of the God of Death:

“Heheheh… such pure Soul fluctuations… and also… a fused source core fragment? What an unexpected surprise…”

“Little Snake-People girl… and this little bug with my Hall’s brand…”

“Since you’ve come… stay here!”

As the words fell, a giant ghostly claw, formed from pure pitch-black Soul energy, carrying a Soul-freezing chill and terrifying power to tear everything apart, suddenly extended from the vortex, splitting into two, grabbing separately at the horrified Yue Mei and Lin Chen, who lay sprawled by the altar!

Despair! True despair had arrived!

In front, a Snake-People Dou Master expert; behind, the terrifying ghostly claw of a Hall of Souls Battle Sect!

Lin Chen’s heart sank into an endless abyss!