Chapter 2219: Resurrection

"Is this altar the exit?" Lu Ye asked, looking at the altar in the center of the main hall."Yes," the Blood Clan member replied unreservedly. "Leaving from here will take us back to where we first entered. Does my Lord wish to depart?"

Lu Ye pondered silently. Of course, he didn't want to leave. Li Qi was still waiting outside, and even with his hundred *dao* power, he calculated he was still no match for Li Qi and would surely be captured.

By now, he vaguely understood You Die's intention. She clearly aimed to use the ruin's isolation to resolve the life chain's restriction. However, things didn't seem to go as she expected; even within the ruin, the life chain showed no change. To be safe, she had prepared this Blood Clan member beforehand, allowing him to appear promptly and lead Lu Ye to this hall. The Blood Clan member's mission should have been to safely escort him out. Unfortunately, human plans often fall short of divine will. Lu Ye's true strength far exceeded You Die's imagination, rendering a Blood Clan member wielding a Bifu utterly useless against him.

"You just said that the Human and Giant races are also exploring the ruin," Lu Ye asked again. "Does that mean there's more than one entrance to the ruin?"The Blood Clan member replied, "Indeed, there are many, not just one. In the areas occupied by our Insect and Blood races alone, there are three or four entrances. The one we came through was just one of them."

Lu Ye raised an eyebrow. "Have you encountered anyone else while exploring here?"The Blood Clan member said, "Aside from cooperating with an Insect Clan member, I haven't encountered anyone else." Lu Ye knew which Insect Clan member he was referring to—likely the one he had killed in the Blue Water War Zone, from whom he obtained the Bifu as spoils of war.

"So... there's more than one exit within this ruin too?"The Blood Clan member couldn't answer. Although he had explored this ruin many times, he had always stopped at this point and truly didn't know the situation deeper inside. Lu Ye's words, however, made him subtly uneasy. Why did his Lord seem so reluctant to return? He was suddenly startled as Lu Ye looked at him with an unfeeling, scrutinizing gaze that made him feel utterly cold.

However, Lu Ye quickly withdrew his gaze, tilted his head, and gestured. "Lead the way!" He had initially thought of killing the Blood Clan member but reconsidered. He wasn't entirely clear on the specifics of the ruin, and keeping the Blood Clan member alive might prove useful. Besides, if he wanted to kill him, he could do so anytime.

The Blood Clan member froze, then quickly reacted. "Is my Lord intending to explore deeper?""Lead the way!" Lu Ye didn't waste words with him.

Aside from searching for another exit, the mere possibility of finding a way to leave the Splendor within the deeper parts of the ruin was enough to pique his interest. A typical cultivator, even when controlling a Bifu, could only exert limited power, but with his current hundred *dao* strength, wouldn't he be unstoppable in this ruin? He might actually find something.

Meanwhile, on Silver Rock War Star, deep within the Insect Nest, You Die's expression grew anxious. By her calculations, Lu Ye should have already emerged. Yet, Li Qi hadn't seen Lu Ye, and even the Blood Clan member sent to rescue Lu Ye hadn't returned. This worried You Die. Lu Ye's life and death, after all, were tied to the survival of her soul fragment. If anything happened to Lu Ye in the ruin, she would inevitably suffer the same fate. Thus, at this moment, she was arguably the person most worried about Lu Ye in the world. She repeatedly messaged Li Qi for updates, but the results only deepened her unease. What had gone wrong?

"Useless!" Lu Ye grabbed the Blood Clan member, threw him behind him, then lightly punched forward, and a figure in front of him disintegrated. The Blood Clan member landed behind him, filled with shame and shock. He had personally experienced Lu Ye's power before, a power that came not just from sacred suppression but also from Lu Ye's true strength. However, that had been a hasty encounter, so he hadn't grasped the full extent of Lu Ye's power. Now, he understood. The figures blocking their path, formidable enough to cause him despair, were easily dealt with by Lu Ye.

A cluster of glowing light remained. Lu Ye reached out and grabbed it, quickly refining it by activating the power of the Talent Tree. Immediately, over a dozen threads of *dao* power appeared on the leaves of the Talent Tree. He had noticed before that these glows contained *dao* power. While a dozen threads might not be much for him, it was a significant gain for a normal *dao* cultivator. Of course, others refining it probably wouldn't get as much benefit. All *dao* cultivators exploring the ruin could use this glow to replenish their expended energy after defeating enemies.

He no longer let the Blood Clan member scout ahead; the fellow was proving useless. The trials in this passage were indeed harder than before; the figures encountered could exert powers of at least twenty-five *dao*, making it genuinely difficult for the Blood Clan member to handle. Ignoring the Blood Clan member's shock, Lu Ye stepped forward, charging straight through. Any who blocked his path were killed. In just a moment, Lu Ye reached the end of the passage and arrived before another bronze gate.

Lu Ye stopped and turned to look at the Blood Clan member. He didn't know if there was danger inside, so this was naturally the Blood Clan member's moment to be useful. The latter wasn't foolish; seeing Lu Ye's gaze, he knew exactly what to do. He quickly stepped forward, placed his hand on the gate, and slowly pushed, his face a mixture of anticipation and excitement. He also wanted to know what lay beyond this gate. Throughout history, countless cultivators from the Insect and Blood races had explored this ruin, but none had ever reached this point, for it required at least thirty *dao* power to do so. Which *dao* cultivator could possess such strength? There were rumors, certainly, of someone who was highly compatible with Bifu and could exert twenty-five *dao* power, but that was still some distance from thirty *dao*. The previous main hall had essentially been the limit of exploration; perhaps a few had ventured deeper, but certainly no one had ever stood here.

As the great gate was pushed open, an ancient, dormant will was stirred."Go in and take a look," Lu Ye instructed the Blood Clan member. The Blood Clan member steadied himself, activated his power to protect himself, and then stepped into the main hall. Lu Ye stood outside the door, peeking in for a while, confirming there was no danger inside before following him in.

It was another main hall, similar to the previous one, but with a difference: this hall had many doors. Aside from the one Lu Ye and the Blood Clan member entered through, all the other doors were tightly shut. Lu Ye pondered, then suddenly had a thought. According to the Blood Clan member's intelligence, there was more than one entrance to the ruin—there were many. So, within this Splendor dimension, the three factions were each exploring their own paths. But there was only one ruin. In other words, entering from different entrances led through different passages. However, the destination... should be here. The locations connected by those sealed doors must be other entrances. This meant he could leave through a different exit, avoiding Li Qi. However, with the life chain in place, even if he avoided Li Qi, his connection with You Die would not be severed, so escaping from here would still be a problem.

He put that thought aside for now and looked towards the center of the hall. In the previous hall, this spot was the altar-exit, but here it wasn't. Here, there was only a statue: a giant serpent, its body coiled like a dragon, with nine heads, flaunting themselves wildly and facing different directions.

"Nine Infants?" Lu Ye raised an eyebrow, recognizing it at once as the image of the fierce beast Nine Infants. What puzzled him was why there would be a Nine Infants statue deep within this ruin! What about the rumored method to leave the Splendor? Could it be... that the master of the Splendor was the Nine Infants? If so, it would make sense. The Nine Infants was an ancient fierce beast of extraordinary power; it wasn't impossible for it to use an entire Starry Sky as its *Dao* weapon.

As Lu Ye observed the Nine Infants statue, the Blood Clan member behind him was also looking. But with just one glance, the Blood Clan member froze, standing vacantly as if he had lost his soul, his blood-red eyes gradually dimming. Conversely, the eye of one of the Nine Infants statue's heads grew brighter and brighter as the Blood Clan member's eyes dimmed!

Lu Ye finally noticed something was wrong. This statue was clearly inanimate, yet now an aura was reviving within it, and... He suddenly turned his head to look at the Blood Clan member who had been following him, keenly sensing that a strange connection had formed between the Nine Infants statue and the Blood Clan member. Not only that, but a commotion suddenly erupted from the Blood Clan member's chest. His clothes burst open, and a familiar object came into Lu Ye's view: Bifu! At this very moment, Bifu seemed alive, countless tiny tendrils extending from the edges of its scales, spreading over the Blood Clan member's body. In the blink of an eye, the Blood Clan member completely transformed. His body seemed covered in snake-like scales, making him look extremely bizarre, and even his entire aura underwent a massive change.

An inexplicable sense of danger arose in Lu Ye's heart, and he immediately put distance between himself and the Blood Clan member.

"Finally..." a low voice suddenly emanated from the Blood Clan member's mouth. He spread his arms as if embracing a new world, greedily breathing in. "I'm alive again!" The waiting of endless ages had, after all, been worthwhile. After countless years of slumber, he finally stood here once more.

Lu Ye felt a strong sense of foreboding. He could confirm that the Blood Clan member before him was no longer the same person. Combining this with everything that had happened, how could he not know that the Blood Clan member's body had been replaced by another consciousness? The Nine Infants! The legend that a method to leave the Splendor was hidden deep within the ruin was completely false. There was indeed something deep within the ruin, but it wasn't a way to leave the Splendor; it was the dormant consciousness of the Nine Infants. This Blood Clan member's body had been taken over by the Nine Infants' consciousness! And if he wasn't mistaken, the Nine Infants was the master of the Splendor. Who could possibly contend with such a powerful being? It was likely that even gathering all the *dao* fusion cultivators in the entire Splendor would not be enough to withstand a single slap from it.