Chapter 211: Underground Palace Altar

After finishing those old tales, Graceful seemed to have finally set down a heavy burden. She looked at Jiuyou with a lightness found only in a long-awaited reunion, as if she had finally found someone willing to quietly listen to the words that had weighed on her heart all these years.

But Jiuyou's attention was not on her. His divine sense had long since slipped silently from his body, sweeping along the edge of the battlefield and penetrating deep underground, yet he sensed no distinct spatial fluctuations beneath his feet.

He did not immediately withdraw his divine sense. Instead, he shifted its direction, observing the soul remnants scattered across the battlefield. The living souls of the fallen had not been extracted or drawn away—it was as if the Soul Gathering Grand Array had already been dismantled.

However, by reaching out to the Nether Capital Gate in his storage pouch and using the treasure as a medium, he could still catch the faint flow of soul energy. Whichever direction held the densest traces had to be the source.

At the same time, another thought occupied his mind.

Supreme Great Elder Lu Luohan of the Blood Abyss Sect had yet to show his face. Jiuyou had originally assumed this man was the powerful cultivator among the five besieging Graceful, but it turned out to be Ying Tong.

According to the intelligence Jiuyou had gathered back then, Lu Luohan and Ying Tong were on poor terms. Lu Luohan intended to use a Soul Gathering Array to cultivate a Nether Soul Spirit Mushroom and push for Deity Transformation—a secret he should have guarded fiercely. Yet Ying Tong had still tracked him down, which meant someone had likely leaked the information. Whoever had been lying low all this time was probably just waiting for the right moment to strike.

Going by that logic, Lu Luohan had not yet succeeded. Otherwise, he would have slipped away and returned to his sect long ago, hiding himself to digest his newfound treasure. And the ambush on Graceful was likely no spur-of-the-moment decision, either—if the Saintess died here in battle, the Northern Plains would launch a massive, frantic counterattack. The war would escalate, making it far harder for Lu Luohan to keep his hiding spot a secret. Muddying the waters was exactly what Ying Tong wanted.

Jiuyou ran these thoughts through his mind. He was just about to withdraw his divine sense when he was pulled back to reality by Graceful's voice.

"Big Brother Qing? Big Brother Qing?" she called out twice. Seeing him lost in thought, she had raised her voice slightly.

Jiuyou returned to his senses and casually gave a reply. His tone was flat, making it seem as if his mind had only wandered for a fleeting moment.

Graceful looked as though she wanted to say something more, a hint of hesitation in her eyes.

Gu Daobian took it all in. His brows twitched slightly as he stepped forward, cupping his fists toward the two of them. "This place is not safe to linger," he said. "We should find somewhere else to talk."

Hearing this, Graceful acted as though she had suddenly realized something, and quickly added, "He's right, Big Brother Qing. You saved us. Why don't you come back to the Headquarters with us so we can properly thank you?"

She spoke earnestly, unable to hide the anticipation in her voice.

Gu Daobian stood off to the side. His expression remained unchanged, but the corners of his mouth tightened a fraction.

Jiuyou did not miss that subtle reaction, but he did not point it out. He waved a hand at Graceful, his tone flat but decisive. "There is no need. If I have the time another day, I will pay a visit. I have important matters to attend to right now, so I cannot stay."

The smile on Graceful's face faltered slightly, as if the phrase "another day" left her even more at a loss for words than his initial refusal.

Gu Daobian, however, looked as though a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He kept his relief off his face, merely chiming in with a few repeated agreements of "Definitely, definitely," though his tone was noticeably lighter than before.

Jiuyou did not linger. He gave them a slight nod, then turned and left.

A breeze blew in from the edge of the battlefield, catching the hem of his robes as he walked away. It fluttered briefly before falling still, as if it had never been disturbed at all.

Graceful stood rooted to the spot, her gaze trailing after him. She did not chase him, nor did she look away. Grandmaster Gu glanced at her from the corner of his eye. He looked like he wanted to say something, but swallowed the words instead.

The wind continued to blow. After he vanished, the faint traces of his departure were quickly buried by the breeze, leaving little sign that he had ever been there. The moment Graceful finally withdrew her gaze, it was as if she had also let go of a sliver of light she had been clutching tightly in her hand.

Gu Daobian stepped forward and sent her a secret voice transmission, his eyes still shooting uneasy glances in the direction Jiuyou had gone. "Saintess. Although this man saved us, he is still a Ganzhou cultivator, and a sword cultivator at the Late Nascent Soul Stage Pinnacle at that. Bringing someone of his caliber back to the Headquarters so recklessly would be highly inappropriate. The other thirteen Holy Masters may not stand for it. After all, you have only recently taken your seat, and many are still watching your every move."

Graceful did not reply. "Mm," she hummed softly, her voice so low it seemed to scatter in the wind, and she said nothing more.

Gu Daobian let out a long breath, his tone softening. "It is good that the Saintess understands the stakes. This place is not safe to linger. Let us leave things here for today and head back." As he spoke, he tossed a few more healing pills into his mouth to suppress the violently churning qi and blood within him.

Graceful gave a silent nod. Taking Landuo with her, she took to the sky. The three streaks of escape light quickly vanished over the horizon.

At that exact same moment, on the other side.

Jiuyou was speeding through the sky above the border of the Northern Plains. His figure had transformed into a pale golden streak of light, crossing a hundred li in the blink of an eye. The ruins of the battlefield blurred past below him, but his divine sense was spread incredibly wide. Relying on the Nether Capital Gate's connection to soul energy, he tracked that faint, ghostly pull until he finally touched down at an inconspicuous edge of the battlefield.

The terrain here dipped into a low basin. It sat exactly at the downstream confluence of several rivers, cupping the earth like a half-closed palm that gathered all the remnant souls drifting down from upstream.

'He certainly knows how to pick a spot,' Jiuyou thought. He then released the Five Elements Heaven and Earth Ring. Five rings of light, each a different color, silently unfurled and slowly rotated around his body. He closed his eyes, extending his divine sense into the rings to meticulously map the distribution of spiritual qi and soul energy in the area.

A moment later, he opened his eyes and frowned slightly.

"Something isn't right," he muttered. He hadn't deliberately concealed his tracks. Logically speaking, no matter how deeply Lu Luohan was hiding, he should have noticed Jiuyou's approach. Yet, the feedback from the Heaven and Earth Ring showed absolutely zero trace of any cultivator's hidden spiritual qi fluctuations.

Either the man was not here, or he had already secured his prize and left.

Jiuyou did not hesitate for long. He raised a hand and slashed at the empty air. A massive golden sword condensed above his head, its blade solid and its Sword Intent dense and heavy. With a downward point of his fingers, the giant sword plunged straight into the ground, shattering the soil as it excavated deep into the earth. Rubble flew and dirt violently churned. In mere moments, it carved out a vertical shaft several hundred zhang deep.

A heavy wave of soul energy seeped up from the bottom of the shaft, as thick as syrup, bringing with it years of accumulated death qi and churning resentment. Jiuyou leaped down, plunging through the billowing fog of souls until he landed at the entrance of a dark underground palace.

The stone steps were blanketed in dust. The remnants of several array formations lay scattered along both sides of the passage, completely shattered by his sword strike. These arrays had been set up with extreme stealth, but under the Heaven and Earth Ring's senses, reading them had been as easy as reading the lines on his own palm.

Jiuyou did not give them a second glance. He walked straight down the gloomy corridor, his pace neither hurried nor slow.

At the end of the corridor, an altar presented itself before him.

The lighting was dim. A few clusters of dying candles flickered around the edges of the altar. The surface of the stone platform was intricately carved with dense, fine runes, looking like a grand mechanism that had sat dormant for ages but was ready to spring back to life at a moment's notice.

Jiuyou's gaze lingered on the altar for a moment before he stepped forward.

That dense soul energy carried the rich fragrance of vegetation, and as he drew closer, the scent only grew stronger.