I gain ten years' worth of cultivation every day, and even geniuses will only see my doorstep!

Somewhere in that palace, Yan Yue is still alive.

He must bring her back.

As the first rays of white light appeared in the east, the sea of ​​fog began to recede.

As if an invisible hand were pulling at the bottom of the sea, the dense demonic energy began to slowly recede, revealing vast expanses of land eroded by the demonic energy. The rocks, soaked in demonic energy for countless years, took on a sickly gray-black color, and when stepped on, they emitted hollow echoes, as if they had been hollowed out from below.

The entire sealed palace was revealed to the public for the first time.

It was a colossal building beyond description; its foundation alone filled the entire field of vision. At the front of the palace stood a colossal gate a thousand feet high, inscribed with seven sacred marks, each as large as a room. The entire gate was bound by countless chains, which flowed with ancient and powerful sealing energy—the final barrier left behind by the seven goddesses.

But the back of the palace presents a completely different scene.

When Qin Yuan led the seven women around to the back of the palace, Yueyao instinctively covered her mouth.

A large hole had been forcibly chiseled open in the wall behind the palace from the outside. The edges of the hole were jagged, with traces of dark red blood and black demonic energy. It wasn't carved out with tools, but rather forced open by the flesh and soul of some living being. The bricks and stones around the hole were embedded with fragments of bone and teeth; countless living people had been sacrificed here to open this "door."

"How many people will die from this..." Hongyue's knuckles turned white as she gripped the spear.

Qin Yuan remained silent. He walked to the edge of the cave entrance, placed his palm on a relatively clean brick, and closed his eyes to sense it for a moment.

"There's the scent of living people inside." He opened his eyes. "At least thirty more. Their scent is weak, but they're still alive."

"Is there a Flame Moon?" Yan Lingji asked eagerly.

"She's not among these people." Qin Yuan shook his head. "Her aura... is deeper within. At the heart of the palace."

"Splitting up?" Mu Hongyi asked.

"No way." Qin Yuan refused decisively. "We don't know the formation structure inside this palace. If we split up, we'll just be defeated one by one. Let's go together and push from the outside towards the core."

He stepped into the cave first, the bone blade appearing silently in his hand. The seven women followed closely behind, and the Seven Star Guardian Array automatically unfolded. Su Yao sat in the center, while the other six lined up on both sides, protecting Qin Yuan at the heart of the array.

The palace was far larger inside than it appeared from the outside. Qin Yuan and his party walked through the dark passageways for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before they saw the first ray of light.

It was a side hall.

The side hall was large enough to hold hundreds of people. Torches burned on the walls, their flames an eerie green. Dozens of figures lay sprawled in the center of the hall, their hands and feet bound by black chains, barely clinging to life.

"They're the people who were captured before." Su Yao squatted down and checked the injuries of the most recently captured person. "Most of their source power has been extracted, but they're not in mortal danger. They were probably used as 'fuel' as sacrifices. The Heavenly Mystery Sect Master wants to keep them for their own use."

"Should we save them?" Hongyue asked.

"Save them," Qin Yuan said, "but not now. Taking them away now will only slow us down and harm them instead. Once we kill the cult leader and destroy the altar, their chains will automatically break."

He raised his hand and set up a protective barrier at the entrance of the side hall, then continued deeper into the hall without looking back.

After passing through two more passageways, the space suddenly opened up ahead.

This place was more than ten times larger than the previous side hall, its dome so high that the top was almost invisible, revealing only darkness. In the very center of the hall, a black altar rose from the ground, above which floated a huge black vortex. The vortex slowly rotated, each rotation releasing countless fine threads of demonic energy that spread to every corner of the hall, penetrating the bodies of the hostages bound within, drawing life force from them and feeding it back to the being deep within the vortex.

At the highest point of the altar stood a person.

He must have once been a human. But now, he is shrouded in black demonic energy, his skin has turned bluish-gray, and two green flames burn in his eye sockets. His limbs are twisted at angles that defy human anatomy, as if they have been deformed from the inside out by something. Only his face can still be vaguely recognized as it was back then.

Master of Heavenly Secrets.

"Qin Yuan..." the cult leader spoke, his voice sounding like countless people talking at once, men and women, young and old, "You've finally arrived. The ancient gods have been waiting for you for a long time."

Qin Yuan ignored his pleasantries. His gaze swept over the hostages bound to the walls of the hall, and in a corner closest to the altar, he spotted a familiar splash of red.

Princess Yan Yue was suspended in mid-air by chains, her red palace dress tattered and her face as pale as paper, but her eyes still shone. She saw Qin Yuan, her lips moved, and with her last strength, she forced a smile.

"You've come..." Her voice was so weak it was almost inaudible. "I knew you'd come..."

On Qin Yuan's bone blade, thousands of patterns lit up simultaneously.

"Release them," he said.

The tone of those two words caused the black vortex behind the cult leader to pause for a moment.

"Release them?" The cult leader tilted his head, a hideous smile tugging at his face, which was twisted by demonic energy. "On what grounds? On the grounds of your broken bone knife? Or on the grounds of those seven women behind you? Qin Yuan, do you think this is still the Myriad Realms? Here, you are nothing."

He raised one hand, and the black vortex behind him suddenly accelerated its rotation, with countless threads of demonic energy shooting out from the vortex and rushing towards Qin Yuan in a overwhelming manner.

Qin Yuan did not move.

The seven women's Seven Star Guardian Array activated simultaneously, their seven sacred bodies intertwining to form a light barrier, blocking all the threads of demonic energy. Heavenly fire burned away the sword intent, mystic ice froze it, and lightning shattered it, while the power of Yin purified all the remaining demonic energy.

"That's it?" Yan Lingji stood behind the light screen, flames condensing into a spear in her hand. "You're weaker than you were back then, Master."

She hurled a flaming spear, which pierced through the demonic energy threads blocking her path and aimed straight for the cult leader's brow.

The cult leader dodged to the side, but the flaming spear grazed his cheek, burning a charred wound into his bluish-gray skin. The demonic energy at the edge of the wound surged wildly, trying to heal, but the power of heavenly fire clung to the wound, causing the demonic energy to hiss and crackle as it burned.

"Heavenly Fire Holy Body..." A glint of greed flashed in the sect leader's eyes, "Perfect, this is exactly what the ancient gods need."

His arms suddenly shot out, and the black vortex on the altar exploded, transforming into a massive crack that stretched from the dome all the way to the ground. From within the crack, an eye covered in black scales slowly opened.

That eye was larger than the entire hall, its pupil vertical, like that of a reptile, yet it reflected the birth and death of countless worlds. With just one glance, everyone felt as if their very soul had been seen through.