Chapter 290: Array Activated, Underworld Opens

The moment the Luoshu opened, the vast world receded from them. Their spirits plummeted as if stepping into empty space in a dream. As they fell, a new scene unfolded before them. It was a boundless, grand, and empty expanse.

Centered on them, six colossal celestial bodies glowed with ethereal white light, aligning into a single line before their eyes, like an arrow poised to fly. Beside the white celestial bodies, twinkling stars, like luminous flowers, bloomed densely in a cosmic meadow. The Three Enclosures, Four Symbols, and Twenty-Eight Mansions, as described in ancient texts, spread across the heavens. They rotated within their vision, making it impossible to tell if the stars were moving or if they themselves were.

Then, they all saw two enormous figures. An dark-golden colossal dragon, bearing countless blades on its back, had a body stretching like a mountain range, having collided with countless meteors and merged with them. Beside it, a black-scaled giant python was almost indistinguishable from the void; the light on its bony scales shimmered like cosmic dust. It flapped its wings, soaring through the void, its immense body large enough to eclipse the light of an entire nation.

Tiancang... Mingjun...

Ning Changjiu looked up. Beneath his feet lay a vast, desolate plain, and above, the illusory figures of deities streaked across the sky. This was the illusory world of the Luoshu, and these figures were supposed to be its masters. They had perished in the first God-Hunting War, slain by an entity of unknown power. Only these two wisps of spiritual energy still lingered here, like an unceasing wind. This was their final spiritual homeland.

Tiancang and Mingjun, sensing their last home invaded, roared in defiance at them. The grand scene flashed and faded, and everything receded from them. The real world rushed back.

Outside the Luoshu Tower, the mist gradually receded. The long night had ended, and bright sunlight once again swept across the plain. The wild grass, having been subjected to waves of special spiritual energy bombardment, was covered in metallic dust, appearing like delicate crystals. The Luoshu Tower stood like a candle at the center. At this moment, the candle finally extinguished, and their spirits returned to their original bodies, which had been floating in the Luoshu world.

Ning Changjiu returned to his long-empty body, as if awakening from a profound dream, and gently landed on his feet. Lu Jiajia was not by his side. Their bodies had presumably floated freely like seawater within the Luoshu world, so their awakening locations were not fixed. Ning Changjiu had anticipated this; before leaving, they had planted spiritual marks on each other, allowing them to quickly find one another using these marks.

"Father! I advise you to let me go, or something bad will happen... Ah!" Qiu Yue emerged from the Luoshu again. At this moment, she was even smaller than a sparrow, resembling a pigeon egg beneath the Luoshu. Having exited the Luoshu and completely drained Qiu Yue of her last shred of usefulness, Ning Changjiu didn't even give her a chance to finish her sentence. He shattered Qiu Yue, who had barely managed to re-coalesce, with a single punch, pressing her back into the Luoshu, signaling the grim outcome of 'leniency for confession'. If he hadn't been unable to destroy the Luoshu, he would have killed Qiu Yue outright.

Qiu Yue's power of spiritual pollution exceeded his imagination; he hadn't detected even the slightest trace when she possessed the little girl earlier. The historical scenes within the Luoshu still flickered before his eyes: the dragon feeders' screams, Qiu Ziguan's grand pronouncements, Zhang Heng's declarations to the stars, Li He's final recited poem... Ning Changjiu closed his eyes, momentarily pushing these thoughts aside.

Since they had lifted the Luoshu's restriction, it meant that what Mu Lingtong was doing in the center of the Luoshu Tower was not yet complete. In his sea of consciousness, the spiritual marks glowed. Ning Changjiu, Lu Jiajia, and Siming converged on the barren plain, treading over the crystal-like fine grass. Siming looked at the shattered ground, her gaze following the cracks towards the Luoshu Tower.

"Tiancang is exhausted," Siming concluded, "but that woman shouldn't have gone far. Follow me." Among the three, Siming currently held the highest cultivation level. In this moment of shared hostility, Ning Changjiu and Lu Jiajia dared not defy her, temporarily obeying her command. Siming intended to intercept Tiancang's God-Heart, using it as leverage for her return to the Divine Kingdom. Ning Changjiu and Lu Jiajia, meanwhile, needed to stop Mu Lingtong, to prevent her from returning to the Ancient Spirit Sect and opening the Underworld, thereby dragging the entire city and sect's living beings to be buried with the Netherworld Divine Kingdom, just as Madam Bai had done years ago.

Mu Lingtong stood atop the Luoshu Tower, pausing to look west with a puzzled expression. She hadn't even touched the Luoshu, so how...? With her doubts, she pushed open the door to the tenth floor. Inside the tenth floor, the Luoshu, enshrined in the center, had vanished. A thief had entered the Luoshu Tower? How was that possible? Mu Lingtong couldn't comprehend this.

In fact, this defied common sense. The Luoshu was a book of spirits, and thus it adhered to the principle of mind over matter. In the Luoshu's spiritual world, Ning Changjiu had ultimately obtained the Luoshu. Therefore, upon returning to the real world, the Luoshu's spiritual manifestation did not return to its original form; instead, its physical body appeared where its spirit was. That was why the Luoshu remained in Ning Changjiu's hands even after he left the spiritual world. The theft of the Luoshu and the intrusion into the tower—these two events signified an unforeseen variable.

Mu Lingtong no longer hesitated. Remaining there was pointless, so she turned directly, took a step, and, carrying the God-Heart, traveled eastward towards the Ancient Spirit Sect. The moment her foot touched the void, the scenery in her eyes changed. The approaching dust motes suddenly slowed. The wave-like dust cloud, exhaled by Tiancang's dragon breath in the Divine Rift Canyon, also decelerated. Everything around seemed to freeze.

"Time?" An unbelievable thought flashed through Mu Lingtong's mind. The thought vanished as quickly as it came. Behind her, immense killing intent stretched across the sky, like the sudden arrival of winter. Mu Lingtong infused spiritual energy into the God-Heart. Tiancang's God-Heart activated, and its power of ruin, like a sword capable of crushing anything, cleaved a clear opening in the vast, ice-bound killing intent. Before the sword, laden with overwhelming killing intent, arrived, Mu Lingtong unleashed a countering strike.

She held nothing back. Netherworld energy surged forth, empowered by Tiancang's authority. The sword in her hand was Luo Cangsu's Demigod Sword, almost an extension of his body. Apart from the divine swords enshrined in the Divine Kingdom, virtually no other sword in the human realm could compare to it. The technique she used was also the final, ultimate form of the Calamity-Binding Sword, a single strike of which had once slain dozens of feathered snake descendants, its pristine white glow imbued with divine blood.

The fiery glow in the sky was extinguished. The surrounding light was instantly suppressed. At the top of the Luoshu Tower, where Mu Lingtong stood, the clashing spiritual energy resembled lightning. It ripped through the air, plummeting vertically, splashing countless stone dust and debris from the tower's summit, and then splitting down along the ancient structure that had stood for a thousand years, like a waterfall of lightning cascading down its walls. Had the surrounding mountains not already been leveled, this moment would have been a catastrophe of collapsing peaks and overflowing rivers.

Within the massive column of lightning, two figures recoiled after their clash, tearing through layers of buffering space, and halted suspended in the air.

"Who are you?" Mu Lingtong's dress, which usually flowed like calm seawater, now surged like monstrous waves. Her gaze, like lightning, shot forward. Beneath her star-filled hair, her illusory eyes, resembling the void, instantly narrowed into a sharp line.

Mu Lingtong prided herself on being an unparalleled beauty of her generation, the most mysterious Sect Master of the Netherworld Dao Spirit Sect, and the renowned, most beautiful Dragon Mother of the Sea Nation. Yet, the beauty of the woman before her still astonished her. The woman wore no luxurious adornments, just a simple black robe and silver hair. But her skin was like fresh porcelain, her features sculpted, and in her cool gaze, every line exuded ultimate refinement—gorgeous yet never vulgar. The sky was cloudless for thousands of miles; she appeared like a wisp of ink blown from beyond the heavens.

Mu Lingtong's astonishment, of course, wasn't merely due to simple beauty, but to this perfection. Such perfection was the work of gods and should not exist in the human realm.

"Are you an envoy from the Baizang Divine Kingdom?" Mu Lingtong immediately deduced her identity.

Siming stood still, her black sword dancing around her body like a coiling black feathered serpent. She looked at Mu Lingtong and said, "Hand over the God-Heart, and I will spare your life." Mu Lingtong silently watched her, then shook her head.

"So, just a god-abandoned child," Mu Lingtong concluded after a moment. She was initially awestruck by the opponent's beauty and divinity, but quickly, with the aid of the God-Heart, she sensed the decline of the other's divine power... perhaps a lost child of the Divine Kingdom abandoned in the human realm.

Siming ignored her gaze. Streaks of sword light fanned out from behind her, like wings growing from her shoulder blades. She would not let Mu Lingtong leave.

Ning Changjiu and Lu Jiajia also arrived. In a battle of this caliber, they could offer no immediate help. However, with the Luoshu in Ning Changjiu's hand, he was ready at any moment to find an opportunity to reopen the book, force Mu Lingtong into its spiritual world, and then use his Asura body to intercept and slay her within that mental realm.

Mu Lingtong saw the Luoshu in Ning Changjiu's hand, her eyes narrowing. "Who are you two? Are you with her?"

Ning Changjiu didn't answer directly, instead asking, "Are you from the Ancient Spirit Sect?"

Mu Lingtong replied coolly, "I am the second Sect Master of the Netherworld Dao Spirit Sect."

The Netherworld Dao Spirit Sect was the Ancient Spirit Sect's original name... Their suspicion was indeed correct; this matter truly was connected to the Ancient Spirit Sect!

Ning Changjiu asked, "What exactly do you intend to do?"

Having lived for so many years, Mu Lingtong guessed the reason from his expression: "Do you have relatives in my sect?"

Ning Changjiu didn't hide it, grunting in affirmation.

Mu Lingtong said, "Then you should especially not stop me."

Ning Changjiu asked, "Why not?"

Mu Lingtong said, "When I obtained the God-Heart, I already ordered the Underworld to open. Now, the King of the Underworld's throne lies vacant, awaiting my presence. If I cannot return as planned, then all the tyrannical beings and fragments of authority within the Underworld will remain unrestrained. The ten great peaks will still be refined into the Halls of Yama, but that will become a leaderless realm where all living beings will perish, and even the souls of the dead will find no peace. The scattered authority of the King of the Underworld, once leaked outside, will trigger an even greater catastrophe, one powerful enough to shake the entire Central Plains."

As she spoke, Mu Lingtong added softly, "In short, if I cannot return, if there is no one with the King of the Underworld's authority to preside over the Underworld, and no Dragon Mother's body with the God-Heart to contain that authority, everything will be destroyed, including, of course, your relatives in the Ancient Spirit Sect."

Ning Changjiu wasn't sure if her words were accurate. However, they also knew another thing: even if they allowed Mu Lingtong to return, the ten peaks would inevitably be refined, and after gaining power, she would undoubtedly seek revenge, and at that point, none of them would be able to escape. It was another dilemma.

Lu Jiajia desperately wished Ning Xiaoling had skipped class and left the Ancient Spirit Sect. But she knew Ning Xiaoling's character; since Ning Changjiu's 'death', her dedication to cultivation had been heartbreaking. The possibility of Ning Xiaoling skipping class was as likely as Siming not lying.

Ning Changjiu looked at Siming. Siming nodded slightly. Ning Changjiu felt a slight sense of relief.

Siming looked at Mu Lingtong and slowly said, "You haven't even fully merged with the God-Heart, and yet you dare to stand on equal footing with me?"

Mu Lingtong said, "The Twelve Divine Sovereigns do not interfere with matters related to the Six Primeval Gods. The Heavenly Punishment of the Divine Sovereigns cannot befall me. Moreover, ordinary divine envoys may not be able to do anything to me. In the entire human realm, who dares claim a sure victory against me, apart from the Sword Saint?"

Siming said softly, "Perhaps the Eighth Master of the Luoshu Tower had a similar thought before he died."

Mu Lingtong's expression turned sharp.

Siming sighed, "The Divine Kingdom has not truly governed the human realm for too long, so many cultivators here have become overly arrogant. Today... I shall awaken you."

Siming's black sword stopped before her, and a slender black wind, like an unfolding domain, devoured the surrounding light, instantly enveloping both of them. Mu Lingtong stared at the sword in Siming's hand. Luo Cangsu's Demigod Sword actually paled in comparison within the black wind. Her sword was actually superior to a demigod's!

Who exactly was she? How could the Divine Kingdom interfere with the affairs of the Six Gods? This was the second time Mu Lingtong had felt true killing intent descend upon her, the first being when she ventured deep into the Underworld years ago and barely escaped with her life. But she felt no fear. When she entered the Underworld back then, her cultivation level was far from its current power, yet she had stubbornly relied on her mental fortitude to enter the Five Paths, obtain the throne, and become one of the masters of the shattered Underworld. Today, she would transform her title from 'Emperor' to 'Monarch'!

The decisive battle unfolded in the sky. The turbulent energy unleashed by their Five Paths cultivation forced Ning Changjiu and Lu Jiajia out of the battle's center. Ning Changjiu didn't want to idly await the outcome of their battle. But traveling to the Ancient Spirit Sect would take a month, a journey too long for them to make in time, no matter what.

In the sky, a battle that would surely be recorded in the history of the Central Plains had begun. Mu Lingtong had reached the peak of the Five Paths. Although Siming's cultivation level wasn't as high, she had been a divine official of the legendary Three Realms when the Divine Kingdom still existed. Though her official position was gone, her Dao realm remained as lofty as a towering pagoda reaching the heavens. Her authority over time, though incomplete, was ultimately one of the world's primordial forces. As a fragment of authority, it was more powerful than the elemental powers of the Six Gods. This was a battle of evenly matched opponents.

Sword light spread across the sky, their figures like intertwined beams of light, soaring into the turbulent, cloud-filled heavens. Looking up, Sword Eyes of the Purple Court realm couldn't even catch their figures. All that could be seen were flashes of sword energy, like lightning, tearing open the sky, and fragments of space suspended between the Void Sea and the human realm. This battle was just like the decisive clash he and the Sinful Monarch had once fought above Cleaving Boundary City. It was a scene he would never forget.

Life and death swept through the elemental turbulence. Sword energy and electrical light together cleaved heaven and earth. Wherever the lightning struck, even the Void Sea was split into gaping holes. Powerful Spirit Devourers stretched their massive bodies out of the Void Sea. Most of them were great demons and powerful cultivators who had died five hundred years ago. Attracted by the dense spiritual energy storm of this battle, they slowly crawled out from the shimmering, glass-like rifts. But this was not the capital of Zhao. While Spirit Devourers were indeed powerful in life, they had now fallen an entire major realm, and beneath their opponents' swords, they were no different from lambs to the slaughter. In the sky, filled with humming sword energy, several Spirit Devourers that had clambered out of the void were entirely cut to pieces, returning to the Void Sea.

On the ground, the heartless Tiancang still wailed, feeling the pain of its God-Heart drifting further away. It had once been the king of all metals and stones. According to the Luoshu, it and Mingjun were a pair of divine consorts. Those who truly fought it in an unending struggle were the later rebellious Arid River Dragon Sparrow and Sui Bodhi. This was not difficult to understand. The vast sky accommodated only one Candle Dragon, but the earth had to accommodate three deities. Although these three deities governed different things, conflicts were inevitable. No one wished to be anything less than the true supreme ruler of the earth. Perhaps this was also why the Twelve Divine Sovereigns now took turns governing heaven and earth. Whichever of them was in power, they were the sole masters of the mountains, earth, sky, oceans, and indeed, the entire world.

Ning Changjiu shielded Lu Jiajia, guiding her away from the center of the battle. Holding the Luoshu, he suddenly remembered something.

"Where did Qiu Yue go?" Ning Changjiu asked.

"Didn't Qiu Yue return to the Luoshu?" Lu Jiajia asked, puzzled.

Ning Changjiu gently shook his head: "I wasn't asking about the Luoshu's spirit..."

Only then did Lu Jiajia realize with a start that Qiu Yue wasn't the little girl; the girl was merely the one she had possessed... So where was that little girl now? Lu Jiajia hadn't been privy to Ning Changjiu's conversation with Qiu Yue in the Luoshu's core, so she didn't consider anything further, only worrying about the little girl's safety.

Ning Changjiu immediately recalled Qiu Yue's childish warning just as they exited the Luoshu... "something bad will happen"?

"Demon God Array!" Ning Changjiu suddenly realized.

But it was too late. In broad daylight, the light was once again swallowed.

Near the Luoshu Tower, in a desolate, forgotten city, an old man with three tails, wrapped in a tattered robe, slowly emerged. If Ning Changjiu had seen him, he would have been greatly astonished. This old man had a human face and a dragon body, but no scales or claws. His hair was like withered wood whiskers, and the clothes on his back were highly arched, as if tumors were growing beneath them. He was identical to the gold prospectors in the Luoshu who were deceived into drinking the 'holy water' years ago. He was the last of the gold prospectors, the sole survivor among the tens of thousands from that time.

He had been lured by lies to the Divine Rift Valley years ago, where he drank the 'holy water' during prayer. They did indeed become dragons, gaining hundreds of years of lifespan, but they had no claws or scales and were incredibly weak. Their prolonged lives were exchanged for nothing more than being slaves to the gods, forced to transport ores and repair Tiancang's shattered remains, day after day. Then, the war abruptly ended, and everything was destroyed. He would forever remember those years of enslavement. He was one of the rare cultivators among those villagers who, by sheer luck, hadn't had his mind corrupted. But this was also a misfortune; enslaved, in the endless lines transporting ores, he could lower his head and see his own hideous body, and when he looked up, all he saw were walking corpses, none capable of speech. The despair brought by such solitude made him want to commit suicide many times.

Thus, his survival to this day felt like an unreal dream; he no longer wished to recall the hardships he endured. He harbored only one final wish in his heart: to utterly destroy that sinful place. This was his sole obsession for having lived until now. The Ten Thousand Demon City had given him this opportunity. Neither truly human nor truly demon, he had lived here anonymously in a perpetually damp cave, only entering this empty city today. The structure of the empty city was a formation: the Demon God Array. He was the designated controller of the array, appointed by the Ten Thousand Demon City.

He tremblingly grasped the array staff, as if placing a scepter at the heart of the formation. As he activated its power, the staff instantly drained all the holy water power from his body, and bloody tears streamed from his eyes. He died the moment he manipulated the staff, but five hundred years of hatred completely unleashed itself here after his death.

The Demon God Array was activated!

The duel in the sky was forcibly interrupted. The God-Heart they were contending for seemed to encounter a primordial force, gripped by an invisible hand, then swiftly snatched away and shot towards a certain direction near the Luoshu Tower. That invisible hand was the Great Demon God Array.

Mu Lingtong was shocked. She had originally been unaware of the Ten Thousand Demon City's plan, but after the tower ship was destroyed, hundreds of corpses were exposed, and with them, the Ten Thousand Demon City's aborted conspiracy was revealed. She had thought it was fate assisting her. All of the Ten Thousand Demon City's vessels had been destroyed in the sea disaster, and their only potential threat had thus vanished. She had more diligently searched and investigated subsequent ships, finding no further female corpses. But why would the vessels prepared by the Luoshu Tower appear near the Ten Thousand Demon City... Who had secretly transported them?

She and Siming tacitly ceased fighting and joined forces to pursue the escaping God-Heart. They were surprisingly unable to catch up.

Outside the Luoshu Tower, in an unnamed corner, the little girl who had previously been possessed by Qiu Yue lay unconscious on the ground, like a corpse. In her dream, the little girl felt herself in ice and snow. Before her was a stack of firewood, and in her hand, only a box of matches. She continuously struck matches, trying to light the firewood, but each one flickered out. By the last match, she had lost all hope. Yet, when she looked up, a meteor streaked across the sky, trailing fire. She closed her eyes and silently made a wish. The meteor struck the firewood stack precisely, igniting a bonfire. Her tender features were illuminated by the firelight. The little girl awakened, her dark-golden pupils igniting.

In Ning Changjiu's hand, Qiu Yue popped out again, tutting, "You didn't listen to your daughter, and now you suffer for it! See? You got your comeuppance, didn't you? But don't worry, the Ten Thousand Demon City's goal isn't us. They're counting on this little girl, who has the God-Heart, to break the cage that seals the Saint. Oh, it's no wonder they're in such a hurry; after all, the Saint alone protects all the great demons. So even the Divine Kingdom can only shatter the demons' physical bodies but can't kill their souls... If the Saint doesn't emerge soon, all the great demons will suffer. But for you, my parents, who are humans, this is good news!"

Ning Changjiu couldn't be bothered with her nonsense and slapped her back into the book again. Although the little girl's target wasn't them, what about the Ancient Spirit Sect's impending destruction?

The Ancient Spirit Sect.

The Fish King stood on the rooftop, gazing at the sky. The Ancient Spirit Sect appeared very quiet. But the Fish King knew this silence was merely a lie. From the direction of the Nine Nether Hall, faint wisps of netherworld energy overflowed, hovering in the air like patrolling black dragons. The Fish King had been uneasy for the past few days. Now, its apprehension was finally about to be realized.

Was it still time to escape...? It turned around, looking towards the direction outside the Ancient Spirit Sect. It quickly walked along the eaves, wanting to leave the Ancient Spirit Sect alone.

"Diting! Diting! Dinner time!"

Behind it, a young girl's voice suddenly called out—it was Yu Jin's voice. Ning Xiaoling was also beside her, but Ning Xiaoling was absorbed in studying her notes, lost in thought. Those notes were also written by it... The Fish King's steps faltered slightly. A cat wouldn't risk its life for a few small favors or dried fish. Moreover, at this moment, it only had the combat power of the Profound Entry Realm at best; staying would be useless. It avoided their gaze and continued walking forward. It knew it was the Fish King, not Diting. Diting was a mythical beast of the Underworld, able to discern good and evil and possessing immense magical powers. But it wasn't Diting, nor was Ning Xiaoling the King of the Underworld. Both it and they would die. These two silly girls, why don't they understand the gravity of the situation...?

The Fish King closed its eyes and walked past the mountain path. The calls faded behind its ears. Yet, its steps unconsciously slowed. When it reached the outside, the entire Ancient Spirit Sect was already enveloped by the Great Netherworld Array; there was no way out. The Fish King sat by the array's entrance, complaining, "It's all my fault for walking too slowly. Oh well, now I have no choice but to accompany them to their deaths." Helpless, it turned around and walked back.

Within the quiet Ancient Spirit Sect, everything unfolded in silence. The Sect Master, who called herself 'Calamity,' was still waiting for Mu Lingtong to return. But it was impossible for her to return on time with the God-Heart. The next few days would bring devastating calamity. Unless someone wielding authority personally suppressed the Underworld, everyone was doomed to die.