With each step, a drum beats as they climb higher and higher. Although the resounding drumbeat is not loud, it seems to strike in everyone's heart, making people tremble with fear.

When the ceremony in the shrine began, the dragon veins at the bottom of the valley also began to flow. In the past, the dragon veins had tributaries that needed to be adjusted and appeased, but today, under the mobilization of the witch, they all converged into one place.

This time, not only the intact dragon veins were mobilized, but even the polluted Nine Nether Dragon Veins were activated.

The battle in the valley was still going on, but bursts of Nine Netherworld Qi began to rise from the ground. The entire valley seemed to be boiling, and visible purple-black smoke began to appear on the tens of thousands of square meters of land.

At dusk, the land within a thousand miles of the mountains seemed to wake up, and slight vibrations came from underground from time to time.

"What is this?" In the melee, Master He Ling discovered something was wrong. He swept across with a demonic wind, forcing away the besieging enemies and looking towards the shrine in the distance.

Thick smoke woven with black, purple, and golden red now rose from the once dilapidated shrine. The turbid and clear, the branches and the main veins, the power of countless dragon veins all gathered from here, gradually forming rising cloud pillars, rising layer by layer, breaking through the air waves and reaching into the sky.

As the cloud pillar gradually formed, the Youchi people kneeling outside the shrine began to bleed from their mouths and approached death, as if their lives and souls were sacrificed in this ritual.

The desolate and ancient ritual revealed bursts of cruelty and bloodiness. Perhaps people today have long forgotten it, but in the barbaric era before the Five Phoenixes appeared, the people of this land lived like this.

Without the phoenix that controls the dragon veins, or the shamans who regulate the rivers and streams of various prefectures and counties, the ancient Eastern tribes were still able to activate the dragon veins. However, their methods were completely different from those of today, relying on the mysterious spirits that existed between heaven and earth and were associated with the dragon veins.

For example, Xiangliu, who feeds on the nine soils and has nine heads and a snake body, will cause floods all over the world when he appears.

Like the fire ray that hides in winter and rises in summer, with white scales and red whiskers, seeing it means good harvests all over the world.

And in these sunset mountains, there are naturally strange beasts of heaven and earth that accompany the dragon veins.

A sharp and fierce cry came from the sky. Before the sound could spread completely, the black shadow broke through the clouds in the sky and flew out.

Its wings are hundreds of meters long, and its feathers are black and red, like a ghost's face. When it flaps its wings and falls, the sound is like the side of a wheel grinding against stones, tearing violently.

A huge black and red strange bird fell from the sky.

Its head is like a black phoenix, its body is covered with black feathers, and its tail feathers are long and divided into nine branches. Each feather has blood-red stripes, and its shape is like a human face, which makes people afraid.

After the strange bird landed, it stood on the top of the shrine with its pitch-black legs, flapped its wings and cried loudly. Its voice was shrill, like weeping, and the wind brought by its wings swept through the valley, making countless people feel cold inside and out.

Seeing the strange bird coming, He Ling knew that if he delayed any longer, something bad would happen. So he shouted loudly, and the feather fan broke apart. The feathers flew across like knives, killing several purple-clothed disciples who were trying to stop him. Then he slammed the alchemy furnace again and opened the lid.

Soon another beam of light rose in the valley, and the whirlpools attracted the fragments of the dead souls to flow into it. This time, even some flesh and corpses were swept into it by the evil wind.

The cloud and mist snake that had been recovering in the alchemy furnace rushed out again. Its eight snake heads were wrapped around the furnace, devouring the enemies who wanted to get close to attack. Many ghost-slaying messengers and border troops were killed by the snake's mouth.

In this way, the force that blocked He Ling and his party was finally dispersed, and the road to the shrine was no longer blocked.

Seeing this, He Ling suppressed the backlash within his body and mind and once again activated the alchemy furnace, commanding the cloud and mist snakes to surge towards the shrine. At the same time, the black bird across from him also spread its wings and took off, its sound like the rutting of wheels over stones, a fierce sound.

The white banners and scarves beneath him swayed in the wind, as vast as the ocean, and the copper plates clashed against each other, immersing him in the ancient ballad.

Inside the main hall of the shrine, the shrine maiden in black held a black and white inscribed banner in her hand and slowly turned it. The dragon veins beneath the shrine surged again, and countless mixed dragon vein powers surged up from her body, gradually forming strange lines on her body, making the once kind shrine maiden gradually look old and weird.

And at this moment, the ceremony is far from over.