"Green Pao, did you hear that sound?"
"Wu Yu, is that the cry of some demon beast?"
"Young Pavilion Master, we heard it too."
On the edge of the grassland in the Huanyu Minor Secret Realm, the teams from Fanglan Sect, Dongyang Mountain, and Qishan Pavilion met head-on. Just as the three teams were about to clash, the disciples of each sect suddenly stopped, looking at their respective leaders with surprise and uncertainty.
Green Pao, Dong Wu Yu, and Qi Xing Chen exchanged glances, then each waved to their teams and led them away. "Let's go!"
This beastly roar was extraordinary. It either indicated a powerful demon or the birth of a supreme treasure.
They all thought of the legendary Azure Dragon Scale.
All three teams quickened their pace!
If one looked closely, they would notice that although they were heading outwards from three different directions, their destinations were the same – a lake in the center of the grassland.
"Peh!"
In the vast, boundless golden desert, the young man spat out a mouthful of sand. The action was undeniably crude, yet he performed it with a natural ease that was far from ungraceful.
"My lads, we're changing course." The young man held one hand over his forehead, shielding his eyes from the dazzling sun. A wooden Buddhist bead around his neck swayed against his tattered cloth robes.
"Uncle-Master Tian Yu, aren't we going forward?" a bewildered disciple of the Buddhist Sect asked from behind. "Didn't you say there were traces of divine fire here?"
They had entered the secret realm at a very advantageous location, right in the center. After Tian Yu calculated with his fingers, he led the reunited disciples towards the desert.
This time, the Buddhist Sect had over fifty slots to enter the secret realm. However, before departure, for reasons unknown, the sect changed its mind, and only about a dozen people ultimately entered.
"No, I will continue forward. You all return." The young man named Tian Yu paused for a moment, as if listening to something. Beneath his whimsical smile, a hint of solemnity was hidden. He repeated, "Listen, hurry back, and head towards the southeast of the secret realm!"
The Huanyu Minor Secret Realm had the grassland in the center. To the southeast resided the Sky-Swallowing Beast, to the northwest lay the golden desert, and to the northeast and southwest were the eternally frozen ice and snow rivers that concealed everything.
The disciples of the Buddhist Sect were unfamiliar with the geography of the minor secret realm, but seeing the coldness in their Uncle-Master's smile, they quickly complied.
Tian Yu watched his disciples leave before turning and heading deeper into the desert.
The dragon's roar sounded again.
"The second sound."
"The third sound."
...
"The ninth sound!"
Tian Yu's expression changed drastically, and a sentence blurted out, "Nine roars to meet the moon..."
"...Dragon soul congregates and is born!" At the junction of the ice river and the grassland, Yue Miao Miao's vertical pupils dilated. She pointed at the grassland ahead. "Senior Sister, Junior Brother Yue, the Azure Dragon is going to be resurrected using this perilous land! We must stop it!"
"Bang bang bang..."
As soon as Yue Miao Miao finished speaking, the ice and snow river before them suddenly exploded, and the entire Huanyu Minor Secret Realm shuddered three times.
"Quick, retreat!" Lan Xue Rou pulled Yue Miao Miao and retreated rapidly. "Junior Brother Yue, what is that?"
Beneath the previously hard ice and snow, a black river was slowly flowing. From within the river, countless impatient monsters, resembling cultivators, crawled out...
"Soul corpses!" Yue Ci's heart sank. "Junior Sister, Xue Rou, I'm afraid we can't leave."
Indeed, as soon as he finished speaking, he saw those soul corpses charging towards the cultivators. And for some reason, a large number of disciples participating in this assessment and trial were gathered around the grassland, but the number of these disciples was like a mayfly trying to shake a great tree compared to the soul corpses, utterly incapable of resisting.
"Help! What is this ghost thing!"
"How can this monster use spirit skills?"
"Soul corpses! These are soul corpses! This is a perilous land! Everyone, run!"
By the banks of the black river, in the blink of an eye, blood and screams of agony filled the world.
"Ye Qingshan disciples, heed my command!" Yue Ci no longer hesitated, shouting loudly, "Everyone, form ranks and kill!"
Yue Miao Miao, Lan Xue Rou, and numerous Ye Qingshan disciples responded in unison and charged towards the continuously surging soul corpses, managing to block a corner.
At the same time, several other sects reacted, leading their disciples to unite and hold back the soul corpses.
However, as time passed, the smell of blood in this place grew heavier and heavier, and the water in the black river seemed to emit black smoke...
A cultivator dodged the claws of a soul corpse but accidentally touched the black smoke with his finger. He cried out in pain, "What bit me..."
*Bang!*
He collapsed to the ground, turning into a dried corpse!
"Senior Brother!" The disciple beside him watched this scene unfold with shattered courage and fear.
At the same moment, several others were struck.
"Thousand Soul Insect Silk! It's Thousand Soul Insect Silk!" Lan Xue Rou's face changed drastically. "This black river isn't river water, it's entirely Thousand Soul Insect Silk! Junior Brother Yue, we don't have Xing Jin, let's retreat quickly!"
As is well known, the Thousand Soul Insect Silk is as disgusting as a Prison Wraith, and except for Xing Jin, there is no way to restrain it.
No wonder the black river was frozen by ice and snow. It was likely to seal this Thousand Soul Insect Silk, but why did the ice and snow suddenly crack open?
"Little girl, be careful!"
The moment Lan Xue Rou was lost in thought, a strand of Thousand Soul Insect Silk drifted over. A young male cultivator beside her quickly pulled her.
"Ah..." Lan Xue Rou, filled with apprehension, repeatedly thanked him, "Thank you, thank you, fellow Daoist."
"If you truly wish to thank me, why not let me accompany you?" Young Ye imitated Bai Qing Jiang's smile from memory, holding one hand behind his back, his demeanor graceful and refined, like jade.
Lan Xue Rou was taken aback, surprised by this person's forwardness. However, the person had indeed saved her life just now.
"Alright," Lan Xue Rou quickly nodded. "Fellow Daoist, perhaps you could stand behind our team?"
She noticed that the person was not young, yet his cultivation was only at the late Golden Core stage. He was alone, so she guessed he might be a disciple of a third-rate sect who had perhaps lost his teammates due to the sudden shattering of the ice river.
"Alright." Young Ye readily agreed and moved to the rear.
"Senior Sister, who is this person?" Yue Miao Miao, while fending off soul corpses, walked up to Lan Xue Rou and said with dissatisfaction, "Everyone is fighting, why is he hiding in the back by himself?"
Lan Xue Rou awkwardly recounted the previous events and her guess, then added, "I asked him to go to the back."
Yue Miao Miao frowned, "Fine. But Senior Sister, you should still be wary. How do I feel that he just wants to sneak into our team?"
It had to be said that Yue Miao Miao's intuition was extremely accurate.
If anyone had been paying attention to Young Ye's movements, they would have noticed him darting left and right, as if teasing the active Thousand Soul Insect Silk, with a nonchalant expression on his face.
"Who would have thought that even the Azure Dragon clan would not be willing to die? Before their demise, they even raised so much Thousand Soul Insect Silk?"
He narrowed his eyes and chuckled softly, "But it's fun! This secret realm that my dear daughter ran to is so much fun..."
Within the Azure Dragon's barrier.
Although the Azure Dragon roared, its attacks on Bai Sheng Yi, Yuan Bing Xin, and Hua Ni Chang did not cease.
One long roar ended, and a new one began. Bai Sheng Yi's expression kept changing. Although she didn't know the special effect of the Azure Dragon's roar, she instinctively felt uneasy.
Bai Sheng Yi continuously urged the Samsara Brush to find a weakness in the barrier. Suddenly, she remembered something, and her breath hitched.
"Little Samsara, I remember someone saying that Black Obsidian Juns Stone can detect weak points in spiritual energy. Can it detect barriers?"
"Yes! How could I forget this thing!" If the Samsara Brush had hands, it would surely slap its own forehead hard. "Sheng Yi, hurry and take it out!"
"How do I use it?" Bai Sheng Yi had already taken out the Black Obsidian Juns Stone.
The Samsara Brush pointed at the moon in the sky. "Throw it towards the moon; that's the center of the entire barrier."
Without the slightest hesitation, Bai Sheng Yi endured the consequences of the Azure Dragon's breath scorching her. She paused her running steps, focused, and threw the Black Obsidian Juns Stone towards the moon!
Brilliant black light instantly enveloped the entire stone. The light was deep in some places and shallow in others. The Samsara Brush pointed to the shallowest spot, "It's there!"
Bai Sheng Yi was about to rush over when, at that moment, the Azure Dragon suddenly stopped its cries.
"Nine roars to meet the moon, dragon soul congregates and is born!"
In her sea of consciousness, the Samsara Brush's voice was piercingly sharp.
"Sheng Yi! The Azure Dragon is using the divine beast's innate divine ability to draw all the life force and spiritual energy from this realm to pave the way for its resurrection! Quickly break the barrier and leave!"
Bai Sheng Yi made a decisive move, holding the Samsara Brush, which had transformed into a long sword, and thrusting it towards the weak point of the barrier.
"Whoosh!"
But at this moment, the Azure Dragon suddenly raised its head and soared straight towards the moon in the sky!
"Crack, crack!"
The sound of bone striking bone was incessant, and a great sorrow surged through heaven and earth.
That sorrow was pity for the fall of a divine beast, and resentment and dissatisfaction towards the heavens and the earth!