183: The old woman who helped Xu Ruyu out of trouble in Chapter 183 was actually Xiao Nianyin's martial aunt?

Xiao Nianyin changed her mind.

Since crushing him directly might leave hidden complications, she would choose another way.

Using the Nine Nether Soul-Locking Grand Array, she would grind away Xu Ruyu's life force bit by bit while suppressing and stripping away his secrets—especially that jade pendant!

"Today, we will slay this beast at any cost!"

"Reclaim—the One Sword of Emotional Heaven!"

Nine Elders at the Golden Core Peak or above, including the Grand Elder, were already prepared and waiting.

Upon hearing the order, they stepped forward simultaneously, their figures flickering as they occupied nine specific positions around the Law Execution Platform!

"Nine Nether Soul-Locking—Activate!"

The nine shouted in unison, their hands forming complex and ancient seals!

"Rumble—!"

A dull roar echoed from deep within the earth, as if nine slumbering evil dragons had been awakened!

Nine pillars of light, black as ink and radiating a dense aura of misfortune and death, burst from the ground at the nine positions and shot into the sky!

Within the pillars, countless distorted and wailing Soul shadows were faintly visible, emitting shrieks that made one's Divine Soul tremble!

The nine black pillars intertwined and fused with the blood-colored chains of the original Spirit-Locking Great Array, instantly transforming into the Nine Nether Soul-Locking Grand Array, which enveloped the entire Law Execution Platform area with an aura of despair and destruction!

The moment the array formed, Xu Ruyu felt as if he had been thrown into the depths of a ten-thousand-foot sea.

Terrifying pressure squeezed in from all sides, targeting not only his Physical Body but his Soul as well!

The Spirit-Locking Great Array sealed spiritual power, while the Nine Nether Grand Array ground away Soul Power!

Under this double suppression, even a Golden Core Peak Cultivator at their prime would be trapped and refined to death!

His remaining one-foot Sword Intent Domain, under the erosion of the Nine Nether power, let out a final wail and shattered completely like broken glass!

"Pfft—!"

Xu Ruyu spat out blood again; this time, the blood was already laced with fragments of his internal organs.

He knelt on one knee, barely supporting his body with his sword fingers to keep from collapsing entirely.

The jade pendant on his chest was ice-cold, showing no reaction whatsoever.

His Taixu True Qi was completely exhausted, and his Meridians felt like a dried-up riverbed, throbbing with tearing pain.

His consciousness began to blur, his vision darkened, and his ears were filled only with the shrill shrieks of the myriad Soul shadows within the Nine Nether Array.

It was over.

Was it... truly over?

Xu Ruyu looked up, peering through his increasingly blurred vision at the high-and-mighty, cold and heartless, beautiful figure in the air.

He suddenly twitched the corners of his mouth, wanting to laugh, but coughed up even more blood.

The hand forming the sword fingers used its last shred of strength to slowly tighten.

In his palm, that long-dimmed glimmer of light flickered like a candle in the wind, struggling and refusing to go out.

Today, he might die here.

But even if he died—

At least he had stood and fought.

At least he had briefly... collided with the Peak existences of this world using that unique power from another world.

Could this be considered... a price in another sense?

Just as the shrill shrieks of the myriad Soul shadows in the Nine Nether Soul-Locking Grand Array reached their Peak, and the black pillars of light were about to completely submerge Xu Ruyu's thin figure—

"Sigh..."

An old and long-drawn sigh, without any warning, pierced through the deafening roar of the Formation and rang clearly in everyone's ears.

The sigh was very soft and faint, yet it seemed to contain some ancient and heavy power that caused the violently churning Nine Nether power to stall.

The ghostly wails and wolf-like howls of the Souls filling the sky seemed to be choked by an invisible hand, suddenly dropping several pitches and becoming suppressed and distorted.

Then, a hunched figure appeared out of thin air in the center of the Law Execution Platform like a ghost, standing between Xu Ruyu and that overwhelming killing intent.

It was an old woman.

She wore faded gray cotton clothes; her figure was thin and small, her back slightly hunched, and her silver hair was simply tied up with an ordinary wooden hairpin, revealing a wrinkled but exceptionally clean face.

In her hand, she leaned on a smooth and glossy Ebony Cane with simple cloud patterns carved on the head, looking quite unremarkable.

She just stood there casually, without emitting any powerful aura or even mobilizing a shred of spiritual power.

Yet, the moment she appeared, the Nine Nether Soul-Locking power—strong enough to cause a Golden Core Cultivator's Soul to Fly Away and Spirit Scatter—hit an invisible, insurmountable wall of sighs three feet in front of her, splitting and diverting on its own, not daring to touch her in the slightest!

The entire Law Execution Platform area fell into an eerie silence.

All the Elders and Disciples, including the Grand Elder, widened their eyes in disbelief, staring at this old woman who had appeared out of nowhere.

Most of the young Disciples didn't recognize her at all, thinking the old lady looked as ordinary as a sweeping servant.

But some of the older Elders, especially those with white hair and beards who had lived through the era of the previous Sect Master, saw that familiar yet strange aged face; their pupils suddenly contracted, and their faces filled with a ghost-seeing look of horror!

"It's... it's her?!"

"Junior Martial Uncle... Junior Martial Uncle Liu?! She's actually still alive?!"

"Wasn't it rumored that she failed her tribulation sixty years ago and had long since passed away in the Forbidden Ground of the back mountain?!"

Low, irrepressible gasps rose from the Elders' seats, only to be quickly suppressed by even greater shock.

At this moment, no one was more shocked than Xiao Nianyin, who was suspended in the air.

The moment she saw the newcomer's face clearly, Xiao Nianyin's eyes, which seemed frozen for ten thousand years, showed violent emotional fluctuations for the first time!

Coldness, killing intent, calculation... every part of the majestic mask belonging to the "Sect Master" showed clear cracks at this moment.

In its place was astonishment, disbelief, and a trace of... wariness and complexity hidden deep in her eyes.

The Saint Realm pressure around her body unconsciously withdrew slightly, and that surging Nine Yang Intent also seemed to have its pause button pressed, freezing in mid-air.

"Mar... Martial Aunt?"

Xiao Nianyin's voice rang out, carrying a hint of difficulty and hesitation that even she hadn't noticed.

She slowly descended from the air, her bare feet lightly tapping the Ice Lotus, and landed at the edge of the Law Execution Platform, coming to a halt ten zhang away from the old woman.

This distance was almost equivalent to being face-to-face for a Saint Realm Cultivator, yet she acted exceptionally cautious, even... respectful.

She bowed slightly, performing a standard Junior's salute: "Disciple Xiao Nianyin greets Martial Aunt Liu."

Martial Aunt!

Those two words exploded like thunder in the hearts of the bewildered Disciples!

The Sect Master's Martial Aunt?!

Wouldn't that be a figure from two generations ago?!

The Hehuan Sect actually hid such a living fossil of an existence?!

The old woman—Granny Liu—seemed not to hear Xiao Nianyin's words, nor did she see the terrifying array around her that was enough to make an ordinary Cultivator collapse.

She first turned slightly, using those cloudy yet deep eyes that seemed able to see through time to look Xu Ruyu, who was nearly collapsed on the ground behind her, up and down.