Chapter 103 Bizhu: "I want to see her alive or dead!"...

When Jia Yue rushed to the spirit-suppressing array at the back mountain, all she saw was ruins.

The cave that once stood on the ice field has disappeared, replaced by a pile of rubble. The small huts guarding the cave are also gone. Many disciples of the Heavenly Palace have gathered on the ice field, holding torches in the night. The group faces the ruins together, like a funeral procession.

He pushed through the crowd and saw Ling Changyu standing at the front. He asked, "Where are they? Have the people inside come out?"

Ling Changyu was watching his disciples clean up the mess with complete attention. Although the formation had collapsed, Elder Xingxuan had instructed them to clean it thoroughly and report anything they found to him. He could only let his disciples search carefully.

The sudden, sharp question startled Ling Changyu. He turned around and saw the travel-worn Master Zongzi. The man had a tense face, and his expression showed a rare hint of impatience.

Ling Changyu didn't know who he was talking about, but the fact that this person was so worried... gave him a jolt. Did this mean that the rumors might be true?

Legend has it that many years ago, Grandmaster Situ Xin cultivated the Heavenly Art, but instead of successfully ascending, he went mad and became a bloodthirsty and brutal monster. When he was lucid, he built a spirit-suppressing array to lock himself away.

But rumors are just rumors, and few people take them seriously. Tianque only said that the Grandmaster was traveling and would return when his journey was over. For so many years, no one has seen Situ Xin, but no one has gone into the Spirit-Sealing Array to dig him out and ask, "Who are you?"

But judging from the expression on the head of the clan now, the rumors seem to have some credibility. Ling Changyu knows that he is the successor personally chosen by that grandmaster, so the friendship between the two is naturally extraordinary.

He hesitated for a moment before finally managing to say with difficulty, "Reporting to Your Excellency, no one has come out. Moreover... Elder Xingxuan had already come to investigate and confirmed that there is no spiritual energy left inside."

Ling Changyu said in a restrained tone, "My lord, please accept my condolences."

Jia Yue listened intently. He could hear every word Ling Changyu said, but he couldn't understand the sentences they formed.

What do you mean by "no one came out"? What do you mean by "no spiritual energy"?

After a long silence, he slowly asked, "How could it... have suddenly collapsed? What exactly happened?"

"We still don't know the reason." Ling Changyu shook his head. "At midnight, we only knew that there was a strange movement in the back mountain, and the tremors were intense. By the time we got here, it was already like this."

"Nothing else is unusual. The collapse started inside the mountain. Something must have happened inside the spirit-sealing array, but now there's nothing left inside or out... so we have no way of knowing."

Nothing left...

He probed the location of the sword, but the barrier didn't respond...

This place is where the snow on Tianque Mountain never melts all year round. Even cultivators would feel cold if they stayed here for a long time. In the long silence, Ling Changyu felt the cold around him growing colder and colder, and the chill seemed to seep into his bones.

He glanced at Lord Zongzi and saw that his face was calm, but his indifferent eyes were full of doubt.

After a long while, Ling Changyu saw him shake his head. "I still don't believe it. If she didn't get out, she must still be down there. She wouldn't have died so easily."

Jia Yue suddenly turned around and faced the group of Tianque disciples on the ice plain.

"Everyone, listen up! Dig through the rubble!"

"We need to see him alive or dead!"

The moment the cold, sharp voice rang out, all the disciples of the Heavenly Palace were startled. The usually indifferent and ruthless Sect Master suddenly showed a hint of ruthlessness, like a drowning person desperately trying to grab onto something.

The disciples are all cultivators after all, and it wouldn't be difficult for them to dig three feet into the ground and search the entire collapsed area. But what kind of person does the sect leader who issued such an order want to find?

A group of people were using their spiritual power to clear away the rubble and busily searching through the ruins.

Ling Changyu was shocked. He realized that the relationship between the Sect Master and the Grandmaster was so deep. However, he felt that there were some things he needed to explain to the Sect Master.

Ling Changyu spoke with some difficulty, struggling to find the right words, "Sect Master, the collapse of this formation started from the inside, and those inside were the first to be affected. I'm afraid that even with such a large-scale search, we probably won't find a complete... corpse, or even the corpses might be..."

It's shattered beyond recognition.

But Ling Changyu was ultimately an honest and old-fashioned person, and he couldn't bring himself to say such harshly honest words.

In truth, it was useless for him to speak or not, because the person he was advising was now staring intently at everything in the ruins and was no longer listening to anything.

Jia Yue didn't miss a single pebble or crevice... He was completely focused on moving mountains and digging caves, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground while releasing his divine sense to explore downwards. He had already abandoned his senses, but the discussions still reached his ears.

"Such a huge tremor! I saw the Spirit Valley Tower shaking, and I almost thought it was an earthquake. How could the Spirit-Sealing Array have collapsed like this?"

"...I'll tell you this in secret, but don't tell anyone else. Rumor has it that a Grandmaster is actually imprisoned there, and only he possesses such power..."

"But why would a Grandmaster do that? Wouldn't he also die from this?"

"Who knows? I heard that two thieves sneaked in the other day. Maybe they're the ones who angered the Grandmaster."

"Those two thieves were incredibly audacious. They've really brought this upon themselves; they're probably dead inside by now..."

"...They're definitely dead. You arrived too late to see them. The disciple guarding the formation had his bones and meridians shattered. It was only after the Left Protector ordered his men to carry him down. What chance do the people inside have of surviving?"

"Since things have come to this, what else can we possibly find..."

"Perhaps the dead left behind some magical artifact..."

The disciples' complaints were insignificant, but their biggest mistake was making that solemn vow to decide the life or death of the people inside.

"Shut up!"

A sudden, cold rebuke interrupted the disciples' chatter. The few who had spoken turned around, trembling, and saw the sect leader's icy face. His icy blue eyes seemed to be poisoned, filled with deep hatred.

"This disciple has spoken out of turn; please punish me, Elder Master!"

"...Please forgive me, Lord Zongzi!"

The group hurriedly apologized, their voices trembling. They didn't understand what they had done to offend the sect leader, but one thing was certain: if they had angered the sect leader so much, they were doomed.

They heard no sound of the man executing them from above.

Not far away, someone had found something and was running towards them to report it.

"My lord, we've found this!"

The kneeling people all looked in the direction of the newcomer.

The newcomer was holding something in his hand and excitedly presented it to the figure emanating a chilling aura.

Lord Zongzi did not answer.

I don't know if it's just my imagination, but the figure seemed to freeze.

A long time passed, so long that the disciple who brought the item over thought he had only found a trivial trinket.

Therefore, he handed it over to the Left Protector on the other side.

But the next moment, he found something splashed onto his palm, and onto the thing in his palm, cool, even cooler than snowflakes on the ice field.

He looked up.

The perfect, godlike clansman stared blankly at his palm, crimson blood continuously oozing from the corner of his mouth.

Lord Zongzi took the things from his hands.

He heard a harsh sound, like ice and snow rubbing together.

Thank you.

The cacophony of sounds around me suddenly became blurred, as if I were back in the sea, where the water blocked out all sound. My ears were filled with water, which was silent, yet the sound was deafening.

Jia Yue walked down the mountain helplessly. Just like when he first transformed into a pair of legs and stepped on the ground, he could not feel the weight of his legs. He just numbly moved away from everything.

He had held onto a sliver of hope that, while he was unconscious, she hadn't entered the great formation but had instead quietly escaped. He had clearly told her not to go in and die; she must have heard him.

A person as ruthless as her could naturally make her escape quietly.

The sect members simply hadn't noticed.

She must have fooled everyone again.

But why? Why did she actually go in...?

He tripped over something and stumbled, falling to the ground in the snow.

"Your Highness!"

On the snowy plain, the mermaid rushed over to the person who had collapsed in the snow and caught his swaying body before he completely lost consciousness.

"Your Highness!"

Qingping hurriedly leaned the unconscious person against herself, and when Ling Changyu arrived, the two of them worked together to bring the person back to Xihua Palace.

While on the mountain, Qingping was in a hurry to save people and didn't have time to ask in detail. Now that she had arrived at Xihua Palace, she couldn't wait to ask what had happened on the mountain.

Ling Changyu was also completely confused and could only start from the beginning.

"...Those disciples were a bit too talkative, which angered the sect leader. Later, something was pulled out of the ruins, and the sect leader vomited blood, took the thing, and left..."

Qingping looked at His Highness's hand and saw that he was clenching one hand tightly.

Perhaps His Highness was too weak, because as soon as she gently pushed him away, the hand loosened its grip.

He was indeed carrying something in his hand.

It was a bright blue bead, crystal clear, with a black core inside. It was a crystal bead formed from the essence of a thousand-year-old mermaid after its death.

It was the Condensed Pearl that His Highness had instructed her to retrieve some time ago and give to that Miss Jiang.

Upon seeing the bead, Qingping's eyes widened in shock.

An extremely absurd guess was about to emerge, which terrified her.

*

Just before the dark room collapsed, Jiang Yuhuo was pushed by Situ Xin's last bit of strength, her back hitting the hard stone sculpture, making the statue seem to move in another direction.

Situ Xin glanced at her one last time, then ignored her, gazing at the thousands of statues on the stone wall. As they finally vanished, a relieved smile graced his face.

Rocks rained down, and Jiang Yuhuo, while trying to avoid them, spotted Li Mengbai in a corner.

Li Mengbai was struck by Jiang Yuhuo's powerful spiritual energy, losing most of his strength and coughing up blood. He lay on the ground for a long time before he could catch his breath. But before he could get up, the entire stone chamber was about to collapse. He struggled to stay upright among the rubble, but his arm couldn't dodge in time and was hit by a falling rock. He immediately heard the sound of bones breaking.

He finally managed to push away the boulders pinning his arm, but more stones fell from above, threatening to hit him.

The stone didn't fall on him; it was shattered in mid-air by a sword strike. The person wielding the sword landed in front of him and pulled him up from the ground.

"Don't touch me!" Li Mengbai angrily pushed the person away. "Didn't you want to kill me?! Why are you bothering me now?"

His eyes turned red with anger.

He was so good to her, and she actually hit him! How dare she hit him!

"This isn't the time to talk about this." Jiang Yuhuo grabbed his hand. "Let's go out first."

Go out? He should go out; only by going out will he have the chance to settle accounts with her.

But how do we get out?

The formation was about to collapse, and the road they had come from was completely blocked.

Jiang Yuhuo's gaze fell on the wall he had just bumped into. He silently counted a few times in his mind, and then thrust his sword straight at one of the statues.

"Night is eighteen and day is forty, day and night alternate."

The section of wall she struck immediately collapsed, revealing a hole less than half a person's height.

The cave was dark and gloomy; no one knew what was inside or where it led.

Upon seeing the pitch-black cave, Li Mengbai began to back away; he did not want to enter such a space again.

But he had no choice but to comply; the situation here was not just about collapse.

After the Spirit-Sealing Array is destroyed, it will absorb all the spiritual energy within the array and release it completely at the moment of final collapse, utterly destroying everything within the array.

The spiritual energy within the stone chamber flowed in the same direction, and the ground began to tremble.

Ignoring Li Mengbai's resistance, Jiang Yuhuo shoved him inside. The two entered the cave one after the other and then walked a little further.

Amidst the final explosions, they hid in the narrow passage that Situ Xin had prepared, thus escaping unscathed.

The tremors completely subsided. Jiang Yuhuo turned around and found that the entrance to the cave was completely blocked by rubble and merged with the collapsed stone chamber. No one knew that there had once been an escape route here.