223: Chapter 223 The Soul Palace's Last Madness: Opening the Ancient Battlefield?

The Abyss of Ten Thousand Demons, located in the far west of the Central Province.

This place was shrouded in thick black mist year-round, impenetrable to sunlight. The air was thick with the nauseating stench of blood and decay. For ten thousand miles around, not a single blade of grass grew, and all life was extinct.

This was the Soul Hall headquarters, a forbidden land that struck terror into the hearts of countless cultivators in the Central Province.

On ordinary days, only the wails of aggrieved souls and the shrieks of malevolent ghosts could be heard here. But today, the atmosphere inside the main hall was so oppressive it felt as if space itself was about to collapse.

“Bang—!”

With a loud crash, the armrest of the Hall Master's throne, forged from ten-thousand-year-old Profound Yin Iron, was crushed into fine powder.

At the head of the hall, a figure completely wrapped in black robes and surrounded by Nether Ghost Fire was trembling violently.

The terrifying pressure radiating from him caused the dozen or so Soul Hall elders kneeling below to shudder, not even daring to lift their heads.

This was the Hall Master of the Soul Hall, Hun Mie Sheng.

“Saint... Physical Sanctification?!”

Hun Mie Sheng's raspy voice was laced with unbelievable fury and a hint of fear that even he was unwilling to admit:

“How many years has that Xu Family brat been cultivating? Twenty years?! Dammit, even if he started eating immortal pills from inside his mother's womb, it would be impossible to become a Saint at twenty!”

“And he even shattered the lightning tribulation phantom of the Young Emperor with a single sword strike?!”

Hun Mie Sheng suddenly stood up. The killing intent that erupted in that instant caused the temperature in the hall to drop to the freezing point:

“Is the intelligence reliable?”

“Re... Reporting to the Hall Master.”

Below, an elder in charge of intelligence kowtowed tremulously, his forehead drenched in cold sweat:

“It is absolutely certain. Three days ago, purple qi traveled thirty thousand miles from the east to the Xu Family, and ten thousand sects came to pay homage. The scene of Xu Chen's tribulation was recorded by countless people using Memory Stones; it cannot be faked.”

“Furthermore...”

The elder swallowed hard, his voice dropping even lower:

“Furthermore, the Shadow Kill we sent not only failed to kill Xu Chen but... but defected instead.”

“According to internal reports, Shadow Kill has now become Xu Chen's personal maid. She even... even made a public appearance at the Saint Feast, standing behind Xu Chen, looking... looking very obedient.”

“Crack!”

The black jade floor beneath Hun Mie Sheng's feet instantly fractured, spiderweb-like cracks spreading all the way to the hall's entrance.

“Shadow Kill... that emotionless killing machine actually defected?!”

Hun Mie Sheng felt as if he had been punched hard in the chest, so frustrated he wanted to vomit blood.

He had lost both his bait and his fish!

Not only did he fail to kill Xu Chen, but he had also gifted the Xu Family a top-tier assassination expert!

Add to that the previously turned Hehuan Saintess, Hua Jieyu... Just what kind of magic did this Xu Chen possess? Why was it that every female antagonist who went before him automatically defected to the enemy?

“Hall Master, please calm your anger.”

Just as Hun Mie Sheng was about to go on a killing spree, a sinister voice drifted from the shadows in the corner of the hall.

An old man, thin as a rail with deep-set eyes, slowly walked out. He leaned on a White Bone Staff, and with every step he took, the surrounding void rippled with eerie disturbances.

The Great Elder of the Soul Hall, Hun Qianqiu.

“Calm my anger? How can you tell me to calm my anger?!”

Hun Mie Sheng roared with bloodshot eyes, “Xu Chen has already come into his own! With his Saint Realm cultivation and those two extreme dao imperial weapons of the Xu Family, what do we have to fight him with? Once he finds the time, the first one he’ll destroy is our Soul Hall!”

“In a direct confrontation, the current Xu Family is indeed at its peak and cannot be faced head-on.”

Hun Qianqiu’s old face, which looked like tree bark, pulled into a smile that was uglier than crying:

“But... who said we have to fight him head-on?”

“What does the Great Elder mean...” Hun Mie Sheng's gaze narrowed.

“Does the Hall Master still remember that place in the west of the Central Province?”

Hun Qianqiu raised a withered finger and pointed toward the vast western horizon outside the hall, his voice as piercing as a night owl's:

“The Central Province Ancient Battlefield.”

Hearing those four words, all the elders present couldn't help but shudder.

The Ancient Battlefield.

It was a fragmented space left behind from the war between gods and demons in ancient times, where the bones and remnant souls of countless ancient powerhouses were buried. The laws there were chaotic, and the baleful aura reached the heavens; it was a true forbidden zone for life.

“That place... isn't it supposed to open in another five hundred years?” Hun Mie Sheng frowned.

“Rules are dead, but people are alive.”

A flash of madness appeared in Hun Qianqiu's eyes as he pulled a blood-colored token covered in cracks from his sleeve:

“As long as we are willing to pay the price, sacrificing three thousand living souls and using this 'Blood Baleful Token,' we can forcibly tear open a corner of the Ancient Battlefield's seal!”

“Furthermore...”

Hun Qianqiu paused and smiled sinisterly:

“Inside the Ancient Battlefield, the laws of heaven and earth are incomplete. All living beings who enter will have their divine sense suppressed to the limit, unable to probe beyond a hundred meters. More importantly, it isolates karma. Even if those old fogies of the Xu Family want to deduce the heavenly secrets to rescue him, they won't be able to calculate the situation inside.”

“We will lay down the 'Ten Thousand Soul Spirit-Devouring Array' inside and join forces with the last remaining 'Tian Sha List' assassin from the Heavenly Court...”

“Even if he has achieved Physical Sanctification, once he gets there, he'll be blind and deaf!”

“As long as he dares to enter, we can ensure he never returns!”

After hearing this, the ghost fires in Hun Mie Sheng's eyes flickered violently.

This was a massive gamble.

If they won, they could not only eliminate the major threat that was Xu Chen but also seize the great providence and Imperial Weapons he possessed.

If they lost...

“No, we cannot lose.”

Hun Mie Sheng took a deep breath, the hesitation in his eyes completely replaced by ruthlessness. If the Xu Family wasn't destroyed, the Soul Hall would eventually perish anyway.

Rather than waiting for death, it was better to stake everything on one throw of the dice!

“Good!”

Hun Mie Sheng swung his sleeve violently, his voice cold as ice:

“Pass down the order! Immediately capture three thousand rogue cultivators and escort them to the altar!”

“Also, spread the news. Say that the seal of the Ancient Battlefield is loosening, and an 'Opportunity for Immortality' has appeared inside, even including the legacy of an Ancient Emperor!”

“That Xu Chen has just become a Saint; it's the time when he's most high-spirited and arrogant. I don't believe he won't be tempted by such a lure!”

“As you command!”

...

Three days later.

The Xu Family.

The morning sun had just sprinkled onto the Taiji Square when the originally peaceful and harmonious atmosphere was suddenly broken by an abrupt celestial phenomenon.

“Buzz—!!!”

A low and desolate horn blast, sounding as if it had pierced through endless time and space, suddenly exploded across the entire Central Province.

Immediately following, the sky in the west of the Central Province split open with a massive rift without any warning.

The rift appeared dark red, like a scar torn into the heavens. Endless blood-colored baleful aura gushed out from the crack, dyeing half the sky red.

Vaguely, people seemed to be able to see a shattered land, broken battle spears, and giant skeletons piled like mountains through that rift.

An aura of sorrow, tragedy, and antiquity instantly swept across the entire Five Regions.

Xu Family Imperial Palace, North Courtyard.

Xu Chen was accompanying Long Aoxue and Feng Jiyou for breakfast.

Sensing the change in heaven and earth, Xu Chen's meat-roasting motions paused slightly.

He looked up, his gaze crossing billions of miles of void to land on that blood-colored sky in the west.

“That is...”

Long Aoxue also put down the bone in her hand, her vertical pupils constricting slightly as she felt a restlessness originating from the depths of her bloodline:

“Such a dense baleful aura! Is that the aura of the Ancient Battlefield?”

“Ancient Battlefield?” Xu Chen raised an eyebrow.

“Yes.” Feng Jiyou nodded with a grave expression. “Rumor has it that it's the place where ancient gods and demons fell, opening once every three thousand years. Although it's incredibly dangerous inside, it also comes with great opportunities. It's said there are many lost ancient divine abilities and precious medicines.”

“However...”

Feng Jiyou frowned and performed a quick calculation with her fingers:

“According to the time, it should be at least another five hundred years before the next opening. How could it have suddenly opened?”

Hearing this, a playful arc curled on the corner of Xu Chen's mouth.

Although he didn't know the specific details, as a transmigrator who had read countless scripts, he was all too familiar with the trope of 'something unusual must be a trap.'

Forcibly opened before the time was due.

The location was in the west, the Soul Hall's territory.

This scent, no matter how you smelled it, had the stale stench of a 'Hongmen Banquet.'

“It seems someone can't sit still anymore.”