Chapter 1492 - 806: Vanished Without a Trace (Double-Length Combined)

The Ancestor Hall was painted with red lacquer and studded with copper nails, its flying eaves and dougong brackets shaped in solemn and heavy lines. The fighting was happening elsewhere, while the Ancestor Hall and the surrounding buildings remained intact at the moment.

The Fly Ascension Ceremony was happening today. The hall doors were open, revealing a spacious interior with towering beams and columns. Beneath the shrine of the Everlasting Lamp was a tiered altar made of ebony wood, with rows of chestnut wooden memorial tablets arranged meticulously and orderly.

The top tier had only one, which was the founding ancestor; the second tier had three, representing the second generation's three True Men; the third tier had seven, the fourth tier over ten, and the bottom tier over twenty. Vertically, the five rows; horizontally, they are orderly. Each tablet had names, Taoist titles, and life dates clearly engraved.

Lines of incense smoke rose gracefully, neither scattering nor dissipating.

Liuyun Palace's history wasn't too long, just over two hundred years since its founding. In the presence of Taoist sects claiming origins from ancient times, it can only be considered a late developer. Yet due to its brief history, its legacy was extremely clear and orderly, uninterrupted without major upheavals. Generations of people built upon it, firmly establishing themselves in Zhongnan Mountain's Cave Heaven Blessed Land, becoming a significant force among Western Jin's Taoists.

At this moment, however, the tranquility and solemnity maintained for over two hundred years were shattered by two staggering uninvited guests.

White Lotus Saint Mother supported Master Yunzhou, who had almost all his body weight pressing down on her, and staggered into the hall. Her gaze quickly fell on Master Yunzhou's pale face as if made of golden paper.

Master Yunzhou's chest wound, pierced by the Tai Sha Sword and worsened by self-mutilation, was shocking. Dark red blood mixed with threads of black mist continuously oozed out, soaking half of his Daoist robe.

With each breath, his wound twitched, his complexion ashen, save for his eyes inflamed by madness now radiant with fierce clarity.

He laboriously lifted his eyelids, his gaze settling first on White Lotus Saint Mother's face. After confirming she was unharmed aside from slightly irregular breathing, he sighed in relief and smiled lightly.

"You... are safe... good."

His voice was hoarse and shattered yet carried an affectionate nostalgia, akin to many years ago at the riverbank, meeting the bewildered young Taoist.

White Lotus Saint Mother looked at his miserable state, hearing these untimely words with a complex expression on her face—a girl's face appearing overly sorrowful, an old woman's face too somber.

"Don't speak such useless things. Right now... what should be done?" Her gaze swept over his terrifying chest wound, her voice quivering: "Can you... still live?"

Upon hearing, Master Yunzhou closed his eyes briefly, gathering some strength before opening them again, looking outside the hall and murmuring: "Leave here... and life will be possible."

Though the words were ambiguous, White Lotus Saint Mother understood them. Leaving here didn't mean leaving the Ancestor Hall, but rather departing from perilous Liuyun Palace, abandoning the Fly Ascension Ceremony, even... leaving this world burdened with a century of shackles. As long as he flees, finds a place to heal, with his remaining cultivation and foundation, there may still be a glimmer of hope.

White Lotus Saint Mother was silent for a moment, gazing at the dying old man in her care, then nodded firmly, "Alright. You and I... will seek life within death."

As her words fell, she suddenly raised her head, eyes like lightning, only to see a fierce blood-hued sword shadow!

The sharp sound of tearing through the air shattered the brief silence.

The Tai Sha Sword shot forth, where it passed; the air was pulled into a clear pale wave.

The copper nails on the hall gates seemed to sense this fierce power, emitting a subtle hum, while the firelight of the Everlasting Lamps on the altar flickered intensely, casting the silent tablets into an uncertain glow.

The echo of seeking life within death was still present, while the blood-hued sword shadow already loomed close.

A flash of fierceness sparkled in White Lotus Saint Mother's eyes, as gray-white death energy from her five fingers quickly condensed, forming a small illusory shield densely populated with eerie lotus patterns, thrusting forward against the blood ray.

The sound of gold stone echoed explosively within the Ancestor Hall, causing dust on the beams to fall and the Everlasting Lamps on the altar to dim altogether.

The gray-white lotus-patterned shield collided head-on with the Tai Sha Sword; the patterns on the shield swirled madly, attempting to transform and dispel the relentless fierce death energy, with the two temporarily locked.

Seeing Master Yunzhou once again using one energy, joining forces with White Lotus Saint Mother to deflect the Tai Sha Sword, and then collectively confronting Chen Yi.

Facing adversity together, though unable to triumph, they could still stand their ground.

Once the martial artist's energy was depleted, they could claim his head.

The gray-white lotus-patterned shield in White Lotus Saint Mother's fingers collided head-on with the Tai Sha Sword, with the shield's patterns swirling, stubbornly resisting that fierce blood light.

Suddenly,

Outside the Ancestor Hall, the hanging ashen blood-colored sky above erupted with unprecedented violent thunder, as if it exploded just above the hall's roof, causing the entire Liuyun Palace to tremble.

The next instant, a thunderbolt as thick as a hall column tore through clouds and mist, struck directly from the opened hall door, its momentum like a dragon, carrying mighty divine power straight toward White Lotus Saint Mother.

"Ugh!"

A short, piercing wail erupted inside the Ancestor Hall.

With the moment the purple lightning touched her body, her entire frame shook violently. The agony of her soul being shattered and torn surged forth, but what was most perilous was right at this moment, the Tai Sha Sword suddenly flared with great blood light.

The force to exorcise evil was exceedingly aggressive, and the small shield could only hold for less than a breath before its surface was covered with web-like cracks, shattering with a crash.