The Central Burial Chamber

Thus, Lin Xiao did not continue downward. Instead, he turned around and hurried back to the surface.

Seeing him emerge, everyone quickly gathered around to ask about the situation.

Lin Xiao told them what he had discovered through his experiment.

After hearing that, once they reached a certain depth, the Azure Jade Lotus could protect no more than ten people, the three Nascent Soul cultivators began discussing among themselves who should go down.

The three of them would naturally be among those entering the mine.

Everything below was unknown. They had come to capture the remnants, so they certainly could not afford to waste their combat strength at a critical moment.

The remaining seven Core Formation cultivators were chosen just as quickly.

They simply selected the seven people with the highest cultivation levels from those remaining.

Jiang Sisi of the Azure Lotus Sect was among them.

Originally, her cultivation was about the same as another cultivator’s. However, considering that the Azure Jade Lotus belonged to her sect, and that she might be able to deal with any unforeseen circumstances, they chose her.

As for Li Yuanze of the Pushi Kingdom’s imperial family, his cultivation was insufficient, so he could only be assigned to wait at the mine entrance above with the other ten people.

Lin Xiao was one of the eleven people standing by at the mine entrance.

When it came to choosing who would enter the mine, no one had even considered him.

In everyone’s eyes, he was merely a young cultivator in the early Core Formation stage. The battlefield below was far too dangerous for him.

After the group had been decided, Lin Xiao once again used the white mist of the sealing formation to reconstruct a complete view of the underground area for everyone.

When they saw the enormous cavern at the very deepest point, and also at the center of the underground map, everyone guessed without needing Lin Xiao to explain that this had to be where the remnants were hiding.

After confirming the route, the group of ten, led by the three Nascent Soul cultivators, carried the Azure Jade Lotus and solemnly stepped into the unknown mine.

Several cultivators positioned at the edge of the group, farthest from the Azure Jade Lotus at its center, felt their hearts leap into their throats the moment they entered.

They were afraid that if the range of the Azure Jade Lotus was not as extensive as Lin Xiao had tested, they would suffer considerable damage.

Fortunately, the Azure Jade Lotus behaved exactly as Lin Xiao had observed. The moment the ten people entered the mine, it erupted with azure light and enveloped all ten cultivators, who were pressed tightly together.

Only then did their anxious hearts relax somewhat, and they began advancing steadily.

Seeing that nothing had gone wrong, the cultivators waiting outside found places nearby and sat down to meditate.

Lin Xiao strolled around for a while. Once the ten people who had entered the mine were completely out of sight, he said to Li Yuanze and the others meditating outside, “Everyone, I’m going to take a look around.”

There was nothing else to do at the moment, and no one required Lin Xiao to meditate with them. They all nodded.

“Be careful, Fellow Daoist Lin. Call us if anything happens.”

“All right. Thank you, Fellow Daoists.”

Lin Xiao then wandered away from the mine entrance and disappeared from everyone’s sight.

After walking for quite some time, Lin Xiao judged that he was far enough away and used an Concealment Technique to hide his presence and tracks.

He circled around to another mine entrance.

He had noticed earlier that descending from this entrance would also lead to the central cavern below.

The Jix Stones were practically useless to him now. However, the fact that the entire area below was filled with Jix Stones meant that there would be no spiritual energy to replenish his reserves.

Although he could now automatically convert spiritual energy within his body into origin energy, he still needed spiritual energy as the source.

Otherwise, he would merely be consuming a limited supply with no way to replenish it.

On this trip below, he could only use the origin energy already within his body, so he had to be careful to control how much he spent.

He stepped into the mine. As expected, the Jix Stones had no effect on him whatsoever. This was completely different from before, when entering the mine had immediately made his entire body feel as though it were being pulled apart, while the spiritual energy within him rapidly drained away.

Inside the central cavern.

Several pale-faced people stood guard around the cavern.

The State Preceptor was in the middle, holding a pile of Jix Stones and arranging some kind of formation on the ground.

Several others were dragging women out of a sack nearby.

All ten women were unconscious. One of them looked no older than fifteen or sixteen. Her skin was as fair as jade, and her beautiful features gave her an exceptionally pure and captivating appearance.

The cultivator dragging her out could not resist reaching over to touch her face.

“She is a sacrificial offering for Lord Jixian. How dare you touch her?”

The State Preceptor’s voice drifted eerily from behind him.

The man turned around in terror. Seeing the State Preceptor appear behind him like a ghost without making a sound, he hurriedly waved his hands.

“No, no! State Preceptor, I wouldn’t dare! I wouldn’t dare…”

After following the little manuals the State Preceptor had given them and transforming themselves into Jix cultivators, they did not know why, but they now felt an additional fear whenever they faced him—a fear that came from the depths of their souls.

This terror made it impossible for them to even think of disobeying the State Preceptor.

The State Preceptor lowered his eyes and swept the man with a cold glance.

“Do your work properly, and put away your lecherous thoughts.”

He then returned to his original position.

There was a pitch-black pit there, filled with large chunks of Jix Stones.

He drew a pitch-black staff from within his robes and began chanting something toward the empty air.

After a long while, a flash of dark light appeared. A person suddenly materialized in the pit before the State Preceptor.

More accurately, it was a corpse.

“His Majesty!…”

Seeing the corpse’s corpulent figure, someone cried out in surprise.

The State Preceptor ignored them.

Upon closer inspection, however, everyone discovered that it was not a corpse, but a soul.

The soul of the former king.

After summoning for so long and managing to bring over only the soul, the State Preceptor could not help frowning.

“What a useless fool. He can’t accomplish anything.”

The former king’s refusal to transform into a Jix cultivator alongside the others and his decision to leave had been entirely within the State Preceptor’s expectations.

Not long ago, he had arranged for someone to leak a piece of information to the former king.

He had told him that, in fact, every previous king had been capable of absorbing the Imperial Seal and making it their own. Doing so would greatly increase their strength and allow them to look down upon the entire world.

That claim was indeed true.

It was simply extremely difficult to succeed.

The State Preceptor had tampered with the former king’s soul, increasing his chances of success and making it easier to summon him.

The State Preceptor had intended to summon the former king to this Jix Stone mine with a special summoning formation immediately after he succeeded in absorbing the Imperial Seal, so that he could use him to refine the formation.

Naturally, he had also prepared for the incompetent former king to fail.

If he succeeded, the result would naturally be ideal. But if he failed, the State Preceptor could still take the Imperial Seal for himself and use it as the formation catalyst.

The effect would not be as good as using a human being, but it was better than nothing.

What he had not expected was that someone else had gotten there first and taken away the former king’s corpse and the Imperial Seal.

Looking at the soul in the pit, the State Preceptor’s eyes darkened.

He had no idea how effective the soul of the former king—now deprived of the Imperial Seal’s protection—would be as a formation catalyst.

He then flicked his sleeve and turned around, giving the men unloading the sacks an order tinged with anger.

“Place all the sacrifices on the ten altars!”