Immortality Cultivation: I can use my clansmen’s energy and blood to add points.

The power that originally required a sacrifice to activate became docile under the soothing influence of the dragon's power.

In Luo Qingchen's mind, it was as if a bolt of lightning had instantly pierced through all the fog.

He got it!

"It's not a sacrifice! We've all misunderstood!"

Luo Qingchen's voice trembled slightly with excitement.

He quickly stepped forward and carefully merged his chaotic power with Bai Ling'er's dragon power, injecting them together into the Star Chart Bronze Disc.

Two completely different, yet fundamentally similar, supreme powers merged perfectly in that new runic pattern.

Those core runes finally revealed their true meaning to him.

"What it needs is not the extinction of life, but a 'resonance' with the origin of life!"

"What it wants is not blood sacrifice, but the purest primordial power that can simultaneously contain the two opposing attributes of 'creation' and 'destruction', as the 'key' to open the stargate!"

Luo Qingchen raised her head, her gaze fixed intently on everyone present.

"My chaotic power and Bai Ling'er's true dragon power, the fusion of these two powers, is the unique key that can gently open the star gate without sacrifice!"

At that moment, all the arguments vanished.

Elder Gu and Elder Zhou wore complex expressions of shock and shame.

The initial conditions for opening the stargate have finally been deduced.

That will be an unprecedented challenge.

But at least, it no longer needs to tarnish the road to the future with cold sacrifices.

While the Star Chart Research Team was conducting intense and secret research day and night deep within the main peak, the world outside Qingyun Sect was already turbulent with undercurrents.

The rain is coming and the wind is all over the building.

Initially, there were only sporadic reports.

Some independent cultivators who spend their years gathering herbs in the mountains, or small families affiliated with the Qingyun Sect, began to spread rumors that the nights in the mountains had become more dangerous than ever before.

There are always some strange shadows flashing by in the woods.

In some remote spirit mines or herb gardens, there are occasional incidents of guarding disciples mysteriously disappearing.

However, these messages were treated as ordinary monster disturbances and did not attract enough attention from the sect's higher-ups.

Everyone's attention was completely drawn to the mysterious ancient star gate that was about to open.

Although Luo Qingchen was fully immersed in his research, the string of vigilance in his heart never relaxed in the slightest.

His keen intuition, stemming from the power of chaos, always gave him a subtle sense of being watched.

It was as if, outside the seemingly peaceful sky above Qingyun Sect, a pair of cold and greedy eyes were staring intently at this place.

This feeling grew stronger with the groundbreaking progress in stargate research.

Finally, on a stormy night, that taut string was finally plucked.

The alarm bells of the intelligence agency were being rung frantically and urgently.

An inner disciple on patrol, covered in blood, steered his nearly broken flying sword and crashed headfirst from the sky in front of the Intelligence Hall's gate.

He only managed to squeeze out a few words through gritted teeth.

"The Li family... the Li family has been wiped out! It was the black-clad demonic cultivator!"

After saying that, he completely fainted.

This news instantly stirred up a huge wave of controversy.

The Li family is among the top five most powerful affiliated families of the Qingyun Sect.

Their family's residence is located in Qingshi Valley, 300 miles west of the Qingyun Mountains. For generations, they have been mining a special mineral called "Moonlight Crystal" for the sect.

The head of the Li family is a cultivator in the early stage of the Golden Core realm. There are dozens of Foundation Establishment disciples in the family, and the entire family residence is covered with a third-order protective array bestowed by the sect.

With such strength, even when facing attacks from sects of the same level, they would be able to hold out until the sect's reinforcements arrived.

But now, they've been wiped out.

As a core member of the research team, Luo Qingchen was immediately summoned by Master Xuanyang to jointly examine the image jade slips sent back from the front lines, which were recorded with the life of the surviving disciple.

When the jade slip was activated, scenes resembling hell were presented to everyone.

The entire Blue Stone Valley was shrouded in a thick, foul-smelling, dark red mist.

The once vibrant valley has now become a dead land.

The earth is cracked and the vegetation is withered.

The corpses of the Li family members lay scattered everywhere, their deaths mirroring those of the miners Luo Qingchen had encountered at the Qingyun Spirit Mine.

Each person's body had been sucked dry, their faces frozen in an expression of extreme terror.

In the center of the ruined council hall, a huge and sinister symbol was etched into the ground in blood.

It was a twisted, black scorpion, as if it were struggling in pain.

"Blood Soul Devouring Array!"

Elder Qin Mingyuan's voice was filled with suppressed anger.

"It's those black-clad demonic cultivators! They've reappeared!"

Luo Qingchen's pupils suddenly contracted.

His attention wasn't entirely focused on that familiar symbol.

He discovered that around the Qing Shi Valley, at the four key array points, there remained four black totem poles that had been reduced to charcoal.

The totem pole is engraved with magical runes that are even more ancient and complex than the Blood Soul Devouring Array.

"No...that's not right."

Luo Qingchen's voice was very soft, yet everyone present could hear it clearly.

"This is not a simple Blood Soul Devouring Array."

"This is a larger, more powerful, and more malevolent variant of the formation."

"They added something new to the original foundation."

The final image on the jade slip recorded a brief but brutal battle.

The head of the Li family activated a protective array, and a pale blue light curtain enveloped the entire valley.

However, a high-ranking demonic cultivator dressed in black robes and wearing a bronze mask simply swung out a palm strike casually.

That palm strike, seemingly light and airy, stirred up the demonic energy between heaven and earth, transforming into a giant, pitch-black hand, tens of feet in size, that descended from the sky.

boom!
There was a loud bang.

The third-tier protective array, which was strong enough to withstand a full-force attack from a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator, collapsed instantly, turning into countless specks of light, as if it were made of paper.

The Li family patriarch, along with the dozen or so Foundation Establishment elders beside him, were crushed into dust by the giant black hand before they could even utter a scream.

The aura emanating from that bronze-masked demonic cultivator had clearly reached the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm!

A demonic cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage!
This discovery sank the hearts of all the elders present.

The seriousness of the situation has far exceeded their expectations.

In the following days, bad news came one after another like snowflakes.

The Wang family's medicinal garden in the eastern part of the sect was destroyed. Thousands of acres of precious spiritual herbs were burned to ashes by a strange demonic fire.

The Sun family's fleet in the south, while transporting supplies, was attacked by an unknown force on the Lancang River and was completely wiped out, turning the river black. Zhangjia Village in the north, the place Luo Qingchen had once passed through, also succumbed to the attack; the entire village was transformed into a ghost town overnight.

Every attack was carried out using the same method.

The scene will always leave behind that distorted scorpion symbol, as well as traces of an even more powerful variant formation.

The enemy's actions are becoming increasingly rampant and unscrupulous.

The entire Qingyun Sect was shrouded in a suffocating atmosphere of panic and anger.

The sect immediately dispatched several elite teams led by elders to search everywhere, but they couldn't even find a trace of the enemy.

This group of black-clad demonic cultivators were like ghosts from hell, appearing and disappearing without a trace.

Every time they appeared, they precisely struck the sect's weakest resource points, and after a successful attack, they immediately fled.

Inside the research hall deep within the main peak, Luo Qingchen stood before a huge map of the Qingyun Mountains and the surrounding area.

On the map, all the locations that were attacked in the past few days have been marked with red cinnabar.

Lijia Qingshigu.

Wang Family Herbal Garden.

The section of the river where Sun's fleet was attacked.

Zhangjiacun.

These four points, seemingly unrelated, are scattered across the four corners of the Qingyun Sect's territory.

But when Luo Qingcheng connected these four points with a line of spiritual energy, a huge, irregular outline appeared on the map.

His heart skipped a beat.

He took out another pen and marked more overlooked small-scale attack locations on the map.

As more and more points were marked, the huge outline became clearer and clearer.

That was the nascent form of an incredibly vast and evil formation that covered the entire Qingyun Mountain Range and even affected the surrounding area for thousands of miles!
"They...they are not simply plundering resources!"

Luo Qingchen's voice trembled slightly, almost imperceptibly.

Upon hearing this, Xuan Yang Zhenren and the other elders gathered around, their faces filled with astonishment and doubt.

"They're setting up a formation!"

Luo Qingchen stretched out her finger and pointed heavily at the center of the map, the location representing the main peak of Qingyun Sect.

"All their previous attacks, all the destruction of affiliated families and resource points, were only to collect materials for setting up the formation and to test the power of the formation."

"Their real target, from the very beginning, was us!"

"They are silently setting up a super evil formation around our sect, a formation we have never heard of before and whose scale is unimaginable!"

This deduction, like a thunderclap, exploded in everyone's minds.

"At this point in time..."

Luo Qingchen's gaze fell on the star map data that the research team had just obtained, and an even more terrifying thought surged into his mind.

"The acceleration of all their actions perfectly coincides with the progress of our star map research!"

"They know we're studying star charts!"

"They might even know that we are about to open a stargate!"

"This enormous evil formation has only one purpose!"

Luo Qingchen raised her head and said, word by word.

"Either they launch a fatal attack from the outside at the most critical moment when we open the star gate and the sect's defenses are at their most critical, completely destroying us!"

"Or... they want to use the energy fluctuations in the heavens and earth caused when we open the star gate to activate their evil array, thereby achieving some more insidious and terrifying purpose!"

"For example... seizing the stargate while the opportunity arises, or... polluting the stargate!"

silence.

Deathly silence.

The air inside the hall seemed to freeze at that moment.

An unprecedented look of horror appeared on everyone's face.

If Luo Qingchen's deduction is true, then what they are facing will no longer be a group of ordinary demonic cultivators, but a terrifying enemy with a well-organized, meticulously planned, and thorough understanding of them!

"Master Master!"

Luo Qingchen turned around abruptly and bowed deeply to Xuan Yang Zhenren.

"This disciple humbly requests that the sect's security be raised to the highest level immediately!"

"All disciples who are out on missions, recall immediately! The sect's protective formation will be activated 24/7!"

"We must take the initiative and destroy their formation before it is fully completed!"

Master Xuanyang's face was so gloomy it was almost dripping with water.

He glanced at the shocking outline of the massive array on the map, then at Luo Qingchen's eyes, which were filled with determination and resolve.

After a long while, he slowly nodded, his voice cold and menacing.

"allow."

"To convey my decree."

"Qingyun Sect, enter a state of war immediately!"

An unprecedented sense of crisis, like an invisible net, instantly enveloped the entire Qingyun Sect.

Behind this vast network, there seems to be an even larger and more unfathomable shadow.

That power far exceeded the scope that an ordinary demonic cultivation organization could possess.

Who are they?

What terrifying beings stand behind them?

All of this is like a huge mystery, waiting for Luo Qingchen and the entire Qingyun Sect to uncover it themselves.

The Qingyun Sect entered a state of war, and the atmosphere throughout the sect became tense and grim.

The towering mountain gate is shrouded in a thick golden light curtain all day long, a sign that the mountain-protecting formation is operating at full capacity.

Patrol teams composed of countless inner disciples, riding on sword light, moved like shooting stars, constantly shuttling between the inside and outside of the sect, their sharp eyes scanning every suspicious corner.

This sense of urgency, with external enemies pressing in, drew everyone's attention to defending against the black-clad demonic cultivators.

However, the strongest fortresses are often the easiest to breach from within.

A conspiracy targeting Luo Qingchen and the Star Chart research is quietly brewing under the cover of this tense atmosphere.

Although Fang Zhenxiong was dismissed from his post and imprisoned in the Xuan Tie dungeon behind the main peak, which was specifically used to imprison serious criminals.

However, the powerful and deeply entrenched influence he had cultivated within the sect over many years was not completely eradicated.

Those who had once attached themselves to him and benefited from him were like venomous snakes lurking in dark corners, temporarily dormant but always waiting for an opportunity to bite back.

Inside the hall of the Star Chart Research Group, a small "accident" is taking place.

One of the array hall disciples, who was responsible for maintaining and monitoring the array, accidentally dropped a valuable high-grade spirit stone while replacing it. The stone flew out of his hand and struck the recording crystal next to him, which contained key data.

Snapped!
There was a crisp sound.

The image-recording crystal shattered instantly, turning into dust. (End of Chapter)