Chapter 593: Mysterious Spirit Golden Chain, Dao Companion Crisis

“This is Fellow Daoist Wei’s private matter. What does it have to do with me? I only need to know that Fellow Daoist Wei is Fellow Daoist Wei.”

Cao Mi’s heart wavered slightly as she comforted herself. She only needed to be Wei Tu’s “battle companion.” There was no need to dwell on confusing and messy thoughts.

Until now, she had always believed she was the best match for Wei Tu. Whether in status or cultivation, she fit well with him compared to his other friends.

Wei Tu had shown her goodwill time and again…

So now, seeing Wang Sutai—the “official wife” in Madam Jin’s words—she naturally found it hard to accept.

But under another’s roof, one must bow their head. Right now, she survived only under Madam Jin’s protection. Without it, she would already have fallen into Ding Lezheng’s hands, that quasi-Divine Transformation powerhouse. How could she dare to recklessly question or demand answers now?

‘That’s right! Madam Jin and her daughter still don’t know Fellow Daoist Wei’s true identity. The two of them only know his false one…’

At this thought, Cao Mi’s expression brightened a little. The sorrow she felt moments ago eased.

…

Inside the Armament Hall, when Ding Lezheng saw Madam Jin suddenly strike to rescue Cao Mi, his face darkened.

At any other time, he would simply have killed Madam Jin and her daughter as well. But now, with righteous and demonic cultivators facing off, one failed strike meant no further chance.

And this matter couldn’t spread too widely. If others learned that Wei Tu had entered the Locking Demon Hall alone, then his plan to monopolize that opportunity would vanish like a dream.

‘That’s right! Venerable Master Jiuli knows that man’s identity…’

Ding Lezheng frowned, but instead of moving against Madam Jin immediately, he looked behind him. He planned to first consult Venerable Master Jiuli about Wei Tu’s true identity before deciding on a strategy.

He understood the saying: “Know yourself and know your enemy, and you’ll never lose a hundred battles.”

But what he saw shocked him. Just moments ago, Venerable Master Jiuli had stood with the righteous side, yet now he had crossed over to the demonic camp.

Ding Lezheng’s face chilled. He instantly understood. His attempt to seize Cao Mi had startled the snake, and Venerable Master Jiuli had switched sides for self-preservation.

Still, Ding Lezheng did not panic.

His gaze shifted directly toward Madam Yinlian, one of the Nascent Soul grand cultivators leading the demonic five sects.

Before entering Zunwang Palace’s secret realm, he had clearly witnessed the quarrel between Madam Yinlian and Madam Jin.

And he himself had some small personal connection with Madam Yinlian.

At their level, in the larger scheme of things they were enemies. But privately, most cultivators of their realm had some ties, however slight.

That bond wasn’t deep, but enough to serve as a basis for cooperation. Together, they could share in the gains of the Locking Demon Hall.

Half was better than none.

Ding Lezheng was old, but he wasn’t foolish.

“Madam Yinlian…” His lips moved slightly as he began transmitting his words to her.

“What? Someone opened the Locking Demon Hall alone?”

Madam Yinlian was shaken, almost disbelieving.

While the two sides fought bitterly over treasures in the Armament Hall, Wei Tu had single-handedly claimed one of the core three palaces—the Locking Demon Hall?

“This news is true?” she pressed.

Compared to the Armament Hall, the Locking Demon Hall held far greater value for her as a demonic cultivator.

Why? Because it contained a rare purity of demonic qi seldom seen in the cultivation world of Great Cang.

For righteous cultivators, that meant nothing. But for demon cultivators, it was priceless—no less than a divine pill.

Cultivators in the lower realm, upon reaching Divine Transformation, faced a dilemma: ascend to the upper realm.

Demonic cultivators, however, had another choice. They could embrace demonic transformation and ascend to an equal plane—the Ancient Demon Realm.

In other words, if Madam Yinlian obtained the pure demonic qi within the Locking Demon Hall, she would gain a shortcut to break through Divine Transformation and ascend.

“Of course it’s true. Would I deceive you in such a matter?” Ding Lezheng replied flatly.

At this, Madam Yinlian silently nodded. As one of Great Cang’s top experts, he would never joke about something like this.

“Still, with the righteous and demonic sides at a stand-off, even though I bear a grudge against Madam Jin, I can’t strike her right away. At least not until we leave the Armament Hall…”

“Or else, I’ll find a chance during the great battle between righteous and demonic cultivators.”

Madam Yinlian’s tone was contemplative.

Though the Hehuan Sect was one of the three great sects among the demonic five, and she herself, as vice sect master, held great authority, they were in the Zunwang Palace secret realm. Other than her and Sect Master Gongshu Chou, only one more disciple of their sect had entered. Among all the demon cultivators present, they were not dominant in strength.

To move recklessly against Madam Jin and her daughter risked suspicion from the other demonic cultivators. That would be a far greater problem.

“After leaving the Armament Hall?”

Ding Lezheng frowned. But with no better options at the moment, he could only nod in agreement.

The Zunwang Palace secret realm would remain open for a total of 20 years.

Now, 7 years had already passed.

But exploring the Armament Hall would never take as long as 13 years.

With Lian Shourang blocking the entrance outside, the time left was more than enough for them.

In the end, the only way he and Madam Yinlian could force Wei Tu to hand over the treasures of the Locking Demon Hall and open its restrictions was by one method—threatening with hostages.

So the matter wasn’t about how long it took.

If Wei Tu refused, then once outside the Zunwang Palace secret realm, they could simply hunt him down.

At that stage, there would be no need to care about how quickly or slowly Madam Jin and the others were captured.

However—

Just as Ding Lezheng and Madam Yinlian were scheming about how to deal with Wei Tu, a sudden streak of golden light shot past them, slipping straight into the depths of the Armament Hall.

It was so fast it was almost impossible to detect.

“Who? Who is it?”

Both righteous and demonic cultivators cried out in shock.

“It’s Divine Officer Sang!”

Only a handful, including Ding Lezheng, caught a clear glimpse of the golden light’s origin. Their faces grew solemn, and with exchanged glances, they all darted forward in pursuit.

The rest of the cultivators saw this and quickly followed behind, no longer daring to stand idle.

…

Meanwhile.

Inside the pitch-black stone tower of the Locking Demon Hall, Wei Tu sat cross-legged, his face expressionless. His hands shifted through strange, complex seals.

Before him floated a black banner, more than a zhang tall, brimming with sinister yin energy.

After about half an incense stick of time, a dragon soul the size of a baby’s fist flew out of the banner. Under the guidance of Wei Tu’s seals, it was drawn straight into the space between his brows.

At once, a golden light flashed. The moment the dragon soul entered Wei Tu’s sea of consciousness, it broke down into clusters of dark qi that floated restlessly.

In the next instant, those clusters melted like snow, merging into his sea of consciousness and vanishing completely.

As the last traces of dark qi disappeared, Wei Tu slowly stopped his hand seals. His eyes opened, and he looked inward at his dantian.

There, in the depths of his dantian, a black seal resembling black jade slowly condensed into form.

The black seal was only one-third the size of his Nascent Soul’s fist. As soon as it was born, it drifted playfully with three jade seals swirling in blood-red light and a single golden seal, all floating in the sea of his mana.

“The Soul-Nourishing Seal… finally formed!”

Wei Tu exhaled heavily, his thoughts clear.

Among the Nine Secrets of Vitality, the Soul-Nourishing Seal was the hardest to achieve. If not for the nourishment of the remnant soul of the human-faced flood dragon, he wouldn’t have been able to condense it until at least breaking through to late Nascent Soul.

Of course, the difficulty was matched by the reward. The formation of this seal greatly increased his strength.

Wei Tu was confident. With the explosive secret art of the Nine Secrets of Vitality, his mana strength now would not lose to most late Nascent Soul experts.

“Now… it’s time to reap the harvest.”

Wei Tu rose to his feet, his eyes sweeping across the fourth floor of the stone tower—the massive corpse of the flood dragon covering most of the space, the seven ancient lamps placed beside it, and the enormous chains that bound its body.

To the master of Zunwang Palace, a Void Refinement powerhouse, these might be worthless. But to Wei Tu, a Nascent Soul cultivator, every one of them was a treasure.

Especially the massive chains. They had bound the flood dragon even in its prime. Their grade had to be at least sixth-rank low grade, since the flood dragon’s cultivation had reached the early Void Refinement realm.

This was something Wei Tu had confirmed from the soul fragments of the flood dragon Pu Chen.

Speaking of Pu Chen, this flood dragon was truly unfortunate. It had only just advanced to Void Refinement in the Ancient Demon Realm and seized a territory to become a demon lord when it was captured by the master of Zunwang Palace, dragged into the Earth Sovereign Pearl, and suppressed inside the Locking Demon Hall for tens of thousands of years.

And now, it had been slain by a mere Nascent Soul junior. Even its remnant soul had been devoured until nothing remained.

“Earth Sovereign Pearl…”

Thinking of this, Wei Tu’s gaze turned toward the Transmission Law Pavilion, his eyes burning with desire. If he was right, the key to subduing this treasure lay within.

The greatest treasure of the Zunwang Palace secret realm was undoubtedly the Earth Sovereign Pearl.

To obtain this spatial artifact was to obtain the entire secret realm itself.

For the Zunwang Palace secret realm… was the inside of the Earth Sovereign Pearl.

But unfortunately, he had no ability to break the restrictions outside the Transmission Law Pavilion.

Even the flood dragon Pu Chen had little memory of Zunwang Palace or its master.

The so-called Spirit Realm techniques it promised him earlier had only been a deliberate lie.

After all, when facing the master of Zunwang Palace, Pu Chen had been captured in just a few encounters and thrown into the Locking Demon Hall. How could it know the master’s secrets?

Still, though it gave him no Spirit Realm methods, Wei Tu did obtain a few profound demonic arts from the Ancient Demon Realm through Pu Chen.

But to a righteous cultivator like him, those arts were nothing more than chicken ribs—tasteless, of little use.

Shaking his head, Wei Tu put away these thoughts. With a wave of his sleeve, he collected the seven ancient lamps and the enormous chains that had bound Pu Chen.

The massive chains shrank instantly under his mana, turning into a golden length engraved with two characters: “Xuan Ling.”

“Mysterious Spirit Golden Chain?” Wei Tu’s heart stirred. At last he knew the true name of the treasure.

As for Pu Chen’s demonic body, Wei Tu did not waste it. With a hand seal, he commanded it.

The long-decayed corpse of the flood dragon suddenly inhaled like a whale, sucking in the pure demonic qi within the tower.

In just a moment, the space was emptied of qi. The corpse, though still rotten, now carried a trace of vitality. Its heart gave a faint beat, as if it had only just died.

Once this was done, Wei Tu left the tower and stepped into the Demon-Refining Formation outside. ℯℯ𝑙.

After all, the high-grade artifact—the Five-Element Demon-Slaying Ring—was still there.

“Fellow Daoist Bai, how goes the breaking of the formation?”

Wei Tu glanced at Bai Zhi, who was seated within the formation, surrounded by floating flags, and asked.

Earlier, while devouring the flood dragon’s remnant soul, he hadn’t wasted time. Instead, he had sent Bai Zhi to work on breaking the formation.

“Breaking this Demon-Refining Formation is no easy task. It will take at least 5 years.”

Bai Zhi paused in thought before answering.

“5 years? That’s not too long.” Wei Tu frowned, then shook his head.

Compared to the outer halls, where cultivators often spent over 10 years breaking restrictions, the time needed for the Five-Element Demon-Slaying Ring wasn’t long at all.

As for brute force…

Wei Tu never considered it. He wasn’t arrogant enough to think he could shatter an array laid by a Void Refinement powerhouse.

…

Leaving the matter of the formation to Bai Zhi, Wei Tu began refining the Mysterious Spirit Golden Chain at the side.

In battle, victory didn’t depend only on cultivation, but also heavily on the quality of one’s artifacts.

And the higher the grade of the artifact, the greater its impact.

Once refined, the Mysterious Spirit Golden Chain wouldn’t make Wei Tu capable of defeating experts like Divine Officer Sang or Ding Lezheng. But with it, he was confident he could at least make them suffer heavy losses.

Time flowed by.

One month.

Two months…

Not long after Wei Tu finished refining the Mysterious Spirit Golden Chain, he suddenly saw a strange white bone bridal sedan borne by two ape-bodied evil ghosts rush toward the Locking Demon Hall.

“The Golden Ghost Bone Palanquin?”

Wei Tu was not unfamiliar with this palanquin. After all, he and Wang Sutai had consummated their marriage within it.

But he couldn’t understand why it suddenly appeared here.

“Have they come for me?” Wei Tu wondered.

Soon, he realized the answer. From the palanquin, he sensed not only Madam Jin and her daughter’s aura, but also Cao Mi’s.

Seeing this, he easily guessed that Cao Mi, the “one in the know,” must have told Madam Jin and her daughter of his location.

Why the three women joined forces, he did not know. But he could guess it was linked to Ding Lezheng, who had left earlier.

Wei Tu did not hesitate. He quickly activated the Yuan Gravity Light to open the Ziwu Strange Prohibition outside the Locking Demon Hall, preparing to let the three women inside.

But at that very moment, Lian Shourang struck.

With a cold laugh, he spat out a tiny ruler. It slashed toward the palanquin outside.

The ruler grew with the wind, expanding to several zhang in size. With a slight shake, it crossed the space and smashed into the Golden Ghost Palanquin, sending the three women inside flying.

Madam Jin and the others were thrown out pale as death, their bodies covered in blood.

“Daoist Fu, if you don’t want your teacher’s wife and your dao companion harmed, then obediently open the Ziwu Strange Prohibition and let me in.”

Lian Shourang sneered coldly, attacking the three women even as he threatened Wei Tu.

At that instant, several powerful auras rose from the distant sky, streaking toward the Locking Demon Hall.