The four people, who were in utter despair, suddenly froze.
The blood-red patterns on the ground had vanished.
That oppressive aura, the soul-tearing power, seemed to be gone too?
Bai Nianchen's tensed face broke into an excited smile. "Haha! Someone outside destroyed the formation! We're safe!"
The others also showed expressions of wild joy. This was truly an unexpected delight!
They didn't know which little genius managed it, but the scales of victory had tipped back.
Liu Chen had already resigned himself to making everyone in the Lihuo Palace ruins perish with him, only for this to suddenly happen!
He couldn't take it; his Dao heart had collapsed!
"No! How could this be!"
"Under the Blood Fiend Soul Sacrifice Formation, they shouldn't be able to move! Is there a Nascent Soul stage cultivator outside? Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
"Why wouldn't a Nascent Soul stage cultivator just come in and kill me? Is this an opportunity for these juniors to train? Ahhh! I can't accept this! How could this happen? How can this be?"
Extremely weakened, Liu Chen roared at the sky, weeping.
He had committed countless evils in his life. If one were to speak of retribution, being trapped here alone for tens of thousands of years was a form of retribution.
A normal person would go mad after being confined in a closed space for a month, yet Liu Chen had been imprisoned here for seventy thousand years.
Although he was a madman himself, the seventy thousand years of solitude were more unbearable than death.
The malevolent spirits that emerged from him, though still a dense, pitch-black mass, were no longer terrifying now that the oppressive feeling was gone.
These malevolent spirits, despite their sheer numbers, mostly possessed only Qi Refining stage strength.
Liu Chen himself was definitely not going to survive. His true form's strength had already plummeted to the Qi Refining stage.
These spirits, perhaps sensing that their habitat was in trouble, frantically burrowed back into Liu Chen's body.
However, these spirits discovered that their habitat seemed unable to accommodate them anymore.
In their rage and humiliation, they began to savagely tear at Liu Chen's body.
And so, everyone silently watched Liu Chen being torn apart by the spirits he had nurtured within himself.
This was the way of ghost cultivators. Besides turning their bodies into malevolent spirits, they could cultivate by devouring souls. His entire cultivation was built upon these souls.
Furthermore, under the Blood Fiend Soul Sacrifice Formation, these souls had been refined into ferocious evil spirits.
Theoretically, as long as he could consume enough souls, he could continuously improve his cultivation.
This was why, even though such evil cultivation methods were detestable, there were always people willing to practice them.
If he suddenly lost control of the souls within his body, he would face backlash in an instant.
No one sympathized with him. Looking at the souls refined into evil spirits, each one represented a living person he had killed.
Li Qingyun scratched the back of his head. "Who helped us break the formation? Didn't he say that under this formation, only cultivators at the Nascent Soul stage could move?"
Luo Xiaowei spread his hands. "Who knows? Maybe Brother Da Teng or Meng Zibin had a sudden burst of power and just happened to knock over the formation flags."
Qin Xiaoxiao chimed in. "Could it be that Brother Xian came to help us?"
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! This doesn't fit Brother Xian's training style for us!"
"Makes sense, makes sense. But this time it was really dangerous. Nascent Soul stage cultivators are terrifying indeed!"
"He's not just any Nascent Soul stage cultivator. He fell from the Void Refining stage, and he's a… peculiar cultivator, definitely not human!"
They didn't understand the term "ghost cultivator" yet, but they could sense that his cultivation method was definitely abnormal.
In the end, Liu Chen was drowned beneath the dense mass of spirits and quickly lost his vital signs.
Liu Chen was, in essence, the mother body of these spirits that had turned into evil spirits. Upon his death, all the souls faltered for a moment.
They looked around blankly, the malevolence in their eyes gradually fading, restoring the rationality they possessed in life.
Then, these tens of thousands of souls bowed in unison towards Li Qingyun and the others.
In their eyes, they saw sincere gratitude.
Following that, these tens of thousands of souls transformed into specks of starlight and merged into the land.
Among them, an aged soul, staggering, approached the group.
Li Qingyun was shocked. He had been in seclusion in the assembly hall and naturally recognized this person as the fourteenth Sect Master of Lihuo Palace, the Sect Master who came after Liu Chen.
"Senior? Do you have any unfulfilled wishes?"
However, this Sect Master sighed and remained silent, opening his hands towards the group.
Qin Xiaoxiao, startled, hid behind Luo Xiaowei. This being, to put it mildly, was a soul, but to put it bluntly, it was a ghost!
Then, he transformed into specks of starlight and integrated into the bodies of the four.
This fourteenth Sect Master knew that Lihuo Palace had long ceased to exist, and all grudges had vanished with Liu Chen's death.
His only lingering concern was the legacy of Lihuo Palace.
These geniuses were top-tier treasures in any cultivation world, prodigies that their Lihuo Palace could never aspire to.
Now that Lihuo Palace was gone, bestowing their legacy upon these individuals was akin to them becoming disciples of Lihuo Palace!
Everyone's eyes widened as a new surge of memories flooded their minds.
Lihuo Nine Revolutions!
This was not a cultivation technique, but a secret art.
It could connect one's meridians, forcibly elevating one's cultivation.
By circulating through specific meridians, one could unleash a certain potential. If circulated nine times, for those at the Foundation Establishment stage like them, it could possibly raise them to the Golden Core stage.
However, this secret art also placed a significant burden on the body, as evidenced by Qin Xiaoxiao's weakened state after her surge of power.
Moreover, the higher the cultivation, the lower the benefit.
For the Nascent Soul stage, nine revolutions might only elevate one by a minor realm.
At the Void Refining stage, it would be practically useless.
Despite this, such a secret technique, capable of granting them a temporary surge of power, was still incredibly potent. At the very least, Luo Xiaowei was no longer afraid of Meng Zibin in a fight.
"Holy crap! This is totally worth it! Did you all get the [Lihuo Nine Revolutions]?"
"Yeah, this secret art named after their sect should be their ultimate treasure."
"Alas, such a grand sect, and all memories associated with it have now completely vanished."
"This bastard looked so damn scary. After fighting him, I'm not even afraid of the Evil Race three years from now!"
"......"