624: Heavenly Destiny Gate Altar, summon the Netherworld Beast!

In the deepest part of Soul Refining Mountain, within a massive, hollowed-out cavern spanning ten thousand li, an ancient and intricate blood-colored altar stood.

Inscribed upon the altar were billions of runes, each one seemingly containing the supreme truths of Heaven and Earth, connecting to some kind of Law in the ethereal void.

Around the altar, nine elderly men dressed in black sat cross-legged.

Their expressions were solemn, their auras as deep as the sea, and each of their cultivations was unfathomable. Yet, at this moment, they all wore traces of fatigue and tension, clearly preparing for a major event!

A world-shaking event that concerned their own future destinies.

The surrounding air was stifling, almost suffocating, and a deathly silence lasted for a long time.

Finally, one of the black-clad men, with white hair and beard and a withered face, broke the silence, his voice carrying a trace of imperceptible trembling.

"Grand Elder, tell me... this time, can we really succeed?"

The man addressed as the Grand Elder sat at the head of the nine, his eyes tightly closed.

His features were ancient and simple, his figure unmoving like a mountain, but his voice was incomparably firm, carrying an unquestionable decisiveness.

"This time, we have prepared more thoroughly than any time before. The Soul Refining stones accumulated by our Sect over ten thousand years are nearly exhausted, and the eight hundred and ten thousand living soul sacrifices are already in place, so there is no reason for failure!"

His words were resolute, yet they failed to completely dispel the gloom in the hearts of the others.

"But, Grand Elder, we have already failed eight times in total..."

Another Elder, whose figure was slightly hunched, said with worry:

"Every failure has cost our Sect massive amounts of resources. Eight consecutive failures have already shaken the Foundation of our Sect. Is this ninth time... perhaps too rushed? Should we not prepare for a while longer and wait for the Sect to catch its breath?"

"Indeed, Grand Elder. If the ninth time fails again, I fear the Heavens Mandate Sect... will never have the possibility of a tenth attempt for another ten thousand years!"

The Grand Elder slowly opened his eyes. There was not a trace of cloudiness in them; instead, they were incomparably firm.

"No need. Let us begin now!"

He swept his gaze around, taking in the anxiety on everyone's faces, and said in a deep voice:

"Last night, I observed the celestial phenomena and used the secret arts of our Heavens Mandate Sect to divine the fate of our Sect. I discovered that our Sect's sea of Luck, which had been silent for ten thousand years, had silently surged with monstrous waves!"

"I have a strong premonition that today, at this moment, in this place, we will certainly succeed in summoning a Nether Beast that belongs to our Heavens Mandate Sect!"

Upon hearing the words 'Nether Beast', the breathing of the other eight became uncontrollably rapid, and their withered faces were filled with irrepressible desire and excitement.

Nether Beast!

That was the most mysterious and powerful legendary creature of the Netherworld!

It is said that they were the darlings born from the Origin Laws of Heaven and Earth when the Netherworld first opened. They are the Incarnation of the Law, the ultimate manifestation of power, and each one possesses incredible, immense strength.

Whether it be destroying the heavens and exterminating the earth, or being strange and unfathomable...

In the ancient legends of the Netherworld, there are nine great creation-level Nether Beasts, each representing a form of ultimate power.

To this day, three Nether Beasts have been successfully summoned by the three top behemoths in the Core Region, and symbiotic contracts have been formed.

It is precisely because they possess the protection of a Nether Beast that those three powers can sit securely on the fishing platform, becoming supreme existences that no one in the entire Netherworld dares to provoke.

It can be said that whether or not one can summon a Nether Beast has become the sole standard for whether a power can rank among the Peaks of the Netherworld!

Every Nether Beast is a supreme Divine Beast capable of suppressing the Luck of a Sect; it is the totem of the Sect and the Incarnation of faith!

And the target of their Heavens Mandate Sect this time is the most mysterious and ethereal of the Nine Great Nether Beasts, the one that governs the Luck of Heaven and Earth: the Aura Nether Beast!

For this, they have sacrificed far, far too much...

After a brief conversation, the eight black-clad men ceased speaking.

Infected by the Grand Elder's firm conviction, the unease in their hearts was forcibly suppressed, replaced by a desperate determination to burn their bridges.

They carefully checked every detail on the altar one last time, confirming that all sacrifices and array patterns were flawless, then each took out a Medicinal Pill to consume, raising their minds and cultivation to their absolute Peak state.

"Begin!"

Following the Grand Elder's command, the nine simultaneously pinched out incredibly complex incantations, pouring their own cultivation, vast as a river and sea, into the blood-colored altar before them without reservation!

Hum!

The altar shook violently, and those billions of runes seemed to come alive, lighting up one by one with an eerie blood-red glow.

A blood-colored beam of light, thick to the point of being unimaginable, shot into the sky, instantly tearing through the thick mountain belly, piercing through Soul Refining Mountain, and stirring up the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi for tens of thousands of li around!

The unimaginably massive disturbance spread wildly in all directions with Soul Refining Mountain as the center.

The winds and clouds changed color, and all things wailed.

This was also the reason why they chose to conduct the summoning ritual in this godforsaken uninhabited area.

If it were in the Core Region, such a massive disturbance could not be concealed, and it would inevitably attract the prying eyes and destruction of other powers.

After all, no power is willing to see a new competitor successfully summon a Nether Beast of their own to challenge their status.

The faces of the nine Elders were full of gravity, and bean-sized beads of sweat rolled down from their foreheads. They dared not relax in the slightest, desperately maintaining the stability of the incantations.

The space in the center of the altar began to twist violently. Where the blood-colored light converged, it seemed to be slowly opening a portal to some unknown and strange space.

From the cracks of that portal, the aura of Chaos, nothingness, and deathly silence seeped out.

Time passed minute by minute.

The summoning process was exceptionally difficult. The nine Elders' cultivation poured out like floodwaters from a breached dam, and soon, a full half of it had been consumed!

Their complexions turned pale at a speed visible to the naked eye, and their bodies began to tremble slightly.

Everyone began frantically consuming Medicinal Pills to maintain their own cultivation.

But the Medicinal Pills could not keep up with the massive deficit in cultivation, and soon, they showed signs of being exhausted!

They were about to be unable to hold on.

However, the other side of that spatial portal remained deathly silent, with no response whatsoever.

The Grand Elder's heart, originally filled with fervor, cooled down bit by bit, finally sinking into a bottomless abyss.

Could it be... are we going to fail again?

For this ninth summoning, they had nearly exhausted the heritage that the Heavens Mandate Sect had accumulated over tens of thousands of years!

He still remembered the expectant look in the Sect Master's eyes before he departed...

If they failed again, the Sect would surely suffer a great injury to its Origin Qi and would be unable to make any major moves for a long time.

An expression of despair began to appear on the face of every Elder.