Devouring demons, I attain immortality.

Suddenly, applause came from the shadows. Su Wanyun stepped out gracefully, her dark golden pupils now covering the entire whites of her eyes.

"As expected of someone chosen by the Supervisor, he was able to unlock the Star Lock."

The puppet threads wrapped around her fingertips pierced through the void, and black blood seeped from the bronze wall, eventually condensing into three demon generals.

"So you really have sided with the extraterrestrial demons..."

Lin An put the bell into his storage ring, and thunder patterns appeared faintly on his palm.

The newly unlocked lightning magic surged through his meridians, but it needed time to build up.

Su Wanyun chuckled: "Do you really think the Supervisors don't know that the secret realm is connected to the Demon Abyss? The Demon Suppression Token has never been just a pass..."

She suddenly unleashed seven bone nails, pinning everyone's shadows to the ground. "The Demon Lord doesn't want the fragments; he wants you living focal points of the formation!"

A blood-red array suddenly appeared on the ground, exactly like the demonic array outside Jinzhou City.

Lin An's spiritual energy was being frantically drained, but he revealed a cold smile: "I've been waiting for you for a long time."

He crushed the jade bottle in his sleeve, and the demon blood collected outside Jinzhou City was sprinkled into the array's core, causing the entire array to suddenly reverse.

"How is that possible..."

Su Wanyun froze, and the puppet threads binding the demon general suddenly backfired.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Lin An activated his lightning magic, and the starlight accumulated at the top of the bronze tree transformed into a pool of lightning that poured down.

In the blinding flash of lightning, he saw Lu Xiuwen's astonished face and the demonic runes floating out from Su Wanyun's shattered body.

After the lightning tribulation, everyone collapsed to the ground, severely injured.

Lin An dug out half of a bronze mask from the scorched earth, and the Devouring System sent a notification: [A token of the Demon General, traceable to the Sixth Demon Palace].

He looked at the still-operating reverse formation and knew that the real battle had just begun.

Lin An wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and stuffed the bronze mask into his arms.

Lu Xiuwen, leaning on his sword, scrambled to his feet, his face as white as paper: "This woman was already corrupted by demonic energy. She probably thought she'd become a puppet of extraterrestrial demons while she was in the Demon Suppression Division!"

"Leave first."

Lin An tore off the jade pendant from Su Wanyun's corpse; it was engraved with half a red lotus.

The ground was still shaking, and the red light of the reverse formation was becoming increasingly blinding.

Of the five Nascent Soul Realm array masters dispatched by the Demon Suppression Division, only three were still able to walk. They helped each other retreat behind the bronze tree.

Suddenly, a crack appeared in the tree root, revealing a stone staircase extending downwards.

Lin An took the lead, and the Xuan Tian Mirror revealed the dense scratch marks on the stone wall.

As he reached the corner on the third floor, a dark figure suddenly appeared in the mirror. He whirled around, his sword tip pressed against a wounded old man.

"Don't move!" The old man raised his tattered array flag. "I am an array master who was trapped here three years ago..."

Lu Xiuwen recognized the cloud pattern on the flag: "Elder Chen? Didn't you die in Burning Heaven Valley?"

The old man gave a bitter smile: "That fire killed my apprentice. I was investigating the source of the demonic energy and was imprisoned in this dungeon..."

He suddenly widened his eyes, "Hold your breath!"

A strange "clucking" sound came from above the stone steps, and a dozen skeletons staggered down the steps.

The white bones were all embedded with crimson lotus iron plates in their chests, and black smoke emanated from their joints. Lin An threw out a copper coin and smashed the first two skeletons, poisonous smoke bursting from the shattered bones.

"Take the secret passage through the water dungeon!"

Elder Chen knocked away the bricks in the wall, revealing a damp, narrow path.

After everyone squeezed in, he sealed the entrance with array flags. The sound of bones hitting the wall gradually faded into the distance.

At the end of the secret passage was a circular stone chamber with rusty iron chains hanging on the walls.

Elder Chen fumbled and turned the lampstand, and a hidden compartment appeared in the ground with a "click." Inside was an iron box containing a half-rolled, yellowed map.

"This is the true terrain of the Nine Heavens Gate."

Elder Chen pointed to the red dots on the map, "The extraterrestrial demons have set up blood altars at these seven locations..."

Before he could finish speaking, Lu Xiuwen suddenly pointed his sword at him: "Three years ago, your disciple's soul lamp didn't go out. Is he still alive?"

Elder Chen trembled all over and suddenly tore open his clothes.

A fleshy, red lotus-like growth had sprouted on his chest, its roots already burrowing into his skin.

"They used my disciple as leverage... I've been cursed with a Heart-Eating Curse..."

He suddenly grabbed Lin An's wrist. "There are fragments of the Chaos Bell on the altar in the southeast corner!"

The tumor suddenly burst open, spraying black blood onto the metal box.

The blood-stained areas on the map revealed a new route leading deep underground. Elder Chen collapsed to the ground, convulsing: "Beneath the altar... the eye of a living formation..."

Lin An squatted down to examine the body and found a numbered iron plate on the sole of Elder Chen's shoe.

Lu Xiuwen leaned closer to look: "This is the prisoner's insignia from the Demon Suppression Division's death row."

"Someone brought prisoners here as sacrifices." Lin An put away the map. "Let's go to the southeast corner first."

They walked for two hours through the winding tunnels. The air grew hotter, and a dark red liquid seeped from the stone walls.

As I turned the corner, I suddenly lost my footing and fell into a huge underground cave.

In the center of the cave stood seven bronze pillars, each with a dried corpse tied to it.

Blood grooves were carved into the ground, converging at the central stone platform. On the platform lay a palm-sized bronze slab with jagged edges.

"It's a fragment of the Chaos Bell." Lin An was about to step forward when Lu Xiuwen grabbed him: "Look at the pillar!"

The mummified corpse on the fifth bronze pillar suddenly raised its head, a half-silver mask hanging on its rotting face.

Lin An took out the bronze mask from his pocket, and the notch fit perfectly.

"Watch out, there's a magic circle here!"

The three array masters simultaneously threw out talismans.

Black blood suddenly gushed out of the blood tank on the ground, forming a rotating blood array.

The silver-masked, dried-up corpse broke free of its chains, and its bones "crackled" as they reformed into a three-meter-tall skeletal demon general.

The demon general raised his hand and summoned a ball of green fire. The old formation master couldn't dodge in time, and his left arm was instantly charred.

Lin An scattered the copper coins according to the Big Dipper's orientation, temporarily trapping the demon general. Lu Xiuwen seized the opportunity to rush onto the stone platform, but just as the tip of his sword was about to touch the fragments, the platform suddenly collapsed.

"There's lava below!"

Someone shouted.

Lin An swung out the Immortal Binding Rope to entangle Lu Xiuwen's waist, but was himself struck in the back by the demon general's bone claws.

His Taoist robe was torn in four bloody gashes, and he gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on the rope.

Suddenly, the fragments emitted a buzzing sound, and a stone bridge rose from the lava.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Lin An pulled everyone to the other side, but the Demon General was trapped in the blood array and roared in place.

"This fragment has a designated owner?"

Lu Xiuwen looked at the bronze piece in Lin An's hot palm with surprise and doubt.

"Find the exit first."

Lin An put the fragments into a specially made jade box.

At the end of the stone bridge is an upward-facing shaft with an iron ladder in the wall.

The group climbed to the top, pushed aside the stone slab, and surprisingly returned to the vicinity of the bronze tree.

The sounds of fighting came from afar. They hid behind a tree and saw a dozen or so men in black robes repairing the reverse formation.

The leader, with a red lotus tattoo on the back of his hand, was yelling at the jade slip: "Useless! Another sacrificial offering has escaped..."

Lin An took out the iron plaque given to him by Elder Chen, which was numbered "Bingqi".

He gave Lu Xiuwen a wink, and the three of them split up to encircle him.

When the copper coins blocked their retreat, the black-robed leader suddenly crushed the jade tablet, and a red light enveloped his entire body.

"It's a Blood Escape Technique!" Lu Xiuwen cut off the red light, but the man still escaped. The remaining henchmen committed suicide by taking poison, and their bodies quickly turned into blood.

Lin An found an inscribed stone slab at the center of the formation, which read: "The formation will be completed in seven days at midnight." Next to it were more than thirty iron plaques, numbered up to "C39".

"They also want to sacrifice thirty people." Lu Xiuwen gripped the hilt of his sword. "All the altars must be destroyed."