Chapter 448 - 439: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes

Chapter 448: Chapter 439: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes

’What a strange Suppression Secret Technique!’

Bai Zichen’s heart trembled. The blood-red character for "kill" materialized on his Daoist Robe, looking as if it had been painted with fresh blood before quickly seeping through to his skin.

The strangest part was how it bypassed all his protective measures, appearing as if it belonged there.

He circulated his True Essence, but it was useless against the blood-red character. On the contrary, the character devoured his True Essence as nourishment, growing more sinister, bloodier, and brimming with killing intent.

Thankfully, his Celestial Might Star Bone activated. It released an inexplicable celestial might, causing the blood-red character—which had already seeped into his skin and muscle—to react as if it had met its natural enemy, falling away in a panic.

’The world is full of endless Secret Techniques; you truly can’t underestimate anyone... This seems to be an ancient Witch Priest method, one that directly applies a Curse Killing technique at the Primordial Spirit level. It’s a Clan’s Secret Technique meant for the weak to overcome the strong. I can’t believe it’s still being passed down in this Demon Cave.’

Bai Zichen had dared to charge brazenly into the Endless Sea of Suffering without reconnaissance or roundabout tactics, largely because he had already refined his Celestial Might Star Bone.

It granted him complete immunity to the kind of insidious techniques that specifically targeted the Primordial Spirit, thus preventing any chance of an unexpected, humiliating defeat.

A streak of Thunder Radiance flew out. Two Core Formation Demon Cultivators were instantly pierced through, powerless to resist.

Late-Stage Core Formation Cultivators were like fragile paper dolls before him. A single breath could have knocked them all down.

Within the Nine Nether Cave, a labyrinth of eighteen twists and turns, the Thunder Radiance plunged ten thousand feet to the very bottom. No one, no matter what hidden corner they cowered in, could escape their fate: a scorched black Thunder Mark appearing between their brows.

With no other wounds, they simply toppled over, stiff as boards.

Hundreds of Demon Cultivators perished in an instant, their lives extinguished without a sound. They never even had a chance to cry out in agony.

’One hundred and seven at Foundation Establishment, three hundred seventy-five at Qi Refining... Huh, and two Core Formation Cultivators in seclusion. The Nine Nether Cave’s strength is comparable to a top-tier Core Formation Sect in the Northern Domain. No wonder they dared to run around the Northern Domain, brazenly posing as Tribulation Cultivators and stirring up trouble.’

Bai Zichen could have wiped out the Nine Nether Cave with a single sword strike even before reaching the Nascent Soul realm, but it would have been nowhere near this effortless.

He would have had to exert his full strength, and he certainly wouldn’t have been able to instantly tally the total number of Cultivators in the cave.

’These Cultivators are still too weak; I can’t test the upper limits of the Ziwei Dazzling Thunder Sword... Feiyan isn’t in the cave. Could they have moved her somewhere else?’

Expressionless, Bai Zichen walked over to the Demon Cultivator who had used the Blood Soul Repulsion Curse Killing Technique. He ignored the man’s venomous glare and placed a hand on his Celestial Spiritual Skull.

He had intentionally controlled his Sword Light to leave the man barely alive, precisely for a Soul Search interrogation.

The greatest difference between the Taiwu Soul Searching and Soul Cutting Technique and other Soul Searching Techniques was that it didn’t involve directly intimidating and interrogating a person within their Sea of Consciousness to obtain information.

Instead, it guided the subject’s mind, drawing out memories of past experiences and presenting them in a rapid succession of scenes.

The advantage was its ability to bypass the various Forbidden spells placed on a Primordial Spirit to prevent secrets from being leaked. This was because the process was more akin to the subject unconsciously reliving their past.

The disadvantage was that the contents of the Soul Search could be incomplete; the memories one saw might not be the ones they were looking for.

Furthermore, it was impossible to use this technique to obtain any inherited knowledge, such as Cultivation Techniques or Divine Techniques.

Within the visions of the Sea of Consciousness, such information was always shrouded in a thick fog.

Any attempt to pierce the fog and see what lay behind it would cause the Taiwu Soul Searching and Soul Cutting Technique to fail, immediately ending the Soul Search.

Their eyes met. The powerful Divine Sense of a Nascent Soul True Monarch instantly overwhelmed the Demon Cultivator, plunging him into a dazed, catatonic state.

A young boy on the steppe. His parents perished in a blizzard. A plague swept through his tribe, felling people in droves.

Abandoned by the main caravan, he was waiting to die alone on the steppe when he encountered a gray wolf, starved and emaciated.

He killed the wolf with a Bone Blade, but its claws tore dozens of wounds across his body.

Before he could bleed to death, a passing Cultivator saw him lying amidst the wolf’s carcass and, taking an interest, brought him back.

...

He became a servant disciple in a Sect, where he endured constant scorn and bullying. He threw himself into Cultivation, eventually reaching the Late-Stage of Qi Refining.

The opportunity to consume a Foundation Establishment Spiritual Object, which should have been his, was stolen by a Steward who replaced his name with that of a relative.

The young man harbored a deep grudge. During a Sect mission, he deliberately led the Steward and his team of fellow disciples into a deathtrap, where they were brutally killed by a pack of Demon Beasts.

Having prepared in advance, he escaped the ambush and later snuck back to loot their remains.

After that, he fled the Sect, achieved Foundation Establishment, and joined a notorious Tribulation Cultivation Organization in the Eastern Domain.

...

He fed his old Sect’s secrets to the organization. When they smashed through the Mountain Gate, he stood in the grand hall, cutting off the heads of his former sect-mates one by one with a gleeful smile.

Ruthless and willing to do anything to achieve his goals, he quickly earned the organization’s favor. He was even bestowed a Core Formation Spiritual Object.

After forming his Golden Core, he grew even more arrogant. In one insane year, he slaughtered five Cultivation Families in a row, and his evil reputation spread far and wide.

Once, in a Market, he targeted a fair-looking Female Cultivator. Noticing her lavish spending, he and his accomplices lured her into a trap and killed her. It was only when he searched her storage bag and found her immense fortune that he realized something was terribly wrong.

Through his contacts, he quickly learned that the Female Cultivator was a Direct Descendant of a Nascent Soul Old Monster. The organization was already planning to hand him over to appease them.

He immediately went into hiding. He killed several of his comrades at their outpost, publicly exposed the true identities of the Tribulation Cultivation Organization’s members, and fled to the Endless Sea of Suffering via a pre-planned escape route.

...

"The Jellyfish Spirit Bead is just an appetizer. If you serve the Master faithfully, you might even be granted an opportunity to reach the Nascent Soul realm!"