Chapter 67: The Formation

"It's about to collapse!"

Qu Hanchen looked up at the falling yellow earth and crumbling bricks, hurriedly shielding his head as he shouted in alarm to those around him.

Yet, aside from him, the closest to him, Xie Miouan, merely flicked the long willow branch in his hand. The soul-guiding banner that blocked the round archway instantly returned above his head.

The Golden-Eyed White Tiger leapt into the soul-guiding banner.

All the fragments of yellow earth crashed directly into the banner, not a single piece striking Xie Miouan.

Beside him, Xi Chunxue formed a hand seal, murmuring softly, and the pale light glowing at her fingertips instantly enveloped her entire body. Not even a speck of dust landed upon her, let alone the crumbling bricks.

In the distance, Duan Lingqi seemed unperturbed. Clods of yellow earth fell on his head and crumbled to dust; bricks tumbled down, and he merely scratched his scalp, as if it tickled.

Rumbles echoed all around.

It was no longer just fragments—it was vast sections of the dungeon walls collapsing, countless threads of dust and stagnant water flooding the passageway through cracks in the masonry.

"Go behind the bronze door."

Xi Chunxue reached out to touch Qu Hanchen's shoulder, and the white light enveloping her spread to him as well. She swiftly pulled him behind the toppled bronze door.

Xie Miouan moved slowly, gazing up at the collapsing dungeon and sighing softly, following Xi Chunxue through the doorway.

This time, it was not pitch black behind the bronze door.

Glowing pearls, arranged in the order of the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions, were embedded in the domed ceiling of the chamber, seven in each cardinal direction, reflecting off the intricate blood array carved into the floor—a pattern ancient and obscure.

"Why do these glowing pearls look so familiar? Lord, I think these pearls are mine," Duan Lingqi, who entered right after Su Yuanbai, craned his neck to look at the luminous gems overhead, his suspicion growing as he recognized them as the very pearls he’d lost in the dungeon passage.

Su Yuanbai ignored him, lowering his gaze to the complex blood array on the floor, its purpose difficult to discern.

"This is another teleportation array. I suspect the previous array was crafted by the same hand," Xi Chunxue observed, frowning as she studied the design.

"Arranging the pearls according to the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions must have been a convenient improvisation. The creator’s mastery of array arts is likely unmatched in the Twelve Provinces. I’d say the pearls are meant to stabilize the array," she continued, looking up at the ceiling. She sensed a strange harmony between the arrangement of the pearls and the intricate array below.

"This place is about to collapse too."

Xie Miouan, last to enter, regarded the bright chamber and the obscure blood array with surprise, quickly noticing the cracks spreading from the outer walls. No matter how sturdy the chamber, it was built upon the dungeon passage, which was now collapsing—the room wouldn’t escape destruction.

A sharp crack.

One of the seven eastern pearls shattered.

"Where does this blood array lead?" Su Yuanbai asked Xi Chunxue.

"I’m barely able to decipher its purpose, let alone where it leads. After all, I’m not a specialist in array arts," she replied with a wry smile.

"I smell the aura of the false Bi’an dragon soul in this array," Xie Miouan said, stooping to trace the pattern.

"A teleportation array guided by a dragon soul—it must go there..." Xi Chunxue mused, watching Su Yuanbai.

"Where?" Qu Hanchen asked, puzzled.

"The Dragon Palace," Su Yuanbai answered calmly.

He strode to the center of the blood array. The pearls overhead shone brighter, the dried blood patterns began to flow as if coming to life.

A blood-red shadow of Bi’an slowly appeared above the array.

"Wait for me, Lord!" Duan Lingqi’s eyes sparkled as he hurried after Su Yuanbai. The Dragon Palace! Not the crude, stone-strewn cave beneath Yundong Lake, but a true palace of the deep sea. Even if he gained nothing, a mere trace of dragon aura would be a tremendous stroke of fortune!

"Even if a trap awaits us at the other end of the array, it’s better than being crushed to death here. Even if you won’t perish entirely, remember—you’ve offended the King of Hell. Death is not an option."

Moreover, he is with us," Xie Miouan reminded the hesitant Xi Chunxue, glancing sideways as he hunched over, using the soul-guiding banner as a cane, moving toward the center of the array.

A sharp crack.

The fissure on the chamber’s dome widened, branching into smaller cracks. Three more eastern pearls shattered.

"Trust him—he’s never harmed us," Qu Hanchen said quietly, seeing Xi Chunxue’s doubt. He sensed her hesitation, yet he couldn’t believe that this handsome man was a villain, even though the tasks assigned to him had been daunting.

He always recalled the sincere, untainted gaze the man had given him upon awakening—a gaze unbefitting a demon who would bring ruin to nations.

"To descend to the Underworld, then visit the Dragon Palace? In all my years of cultivation, I never imagined such things," Xi Chunxue sighed.

She had never dreamed that inside this dungeon, she would encounter a series of events worthy of legend. When she read "Soul Journey Through the Underworld" by the Real Person of Wuliang Mountain, she never imagined she would live through such scenes herself.

And now, to go to the Dragon Palace? No joke—her Dao heart was wavering.

"Let’s go," Xi Chunxue sighed again and walked toward the center of the blood array.

Seeing this, Qu Hanchen breathed a sigh of relief and hurried after her. For some reason, he felt no fear now—rather, a faint anticipation for the unknown.

The blood-red shadow of Bi’an in the air grew more solid, the patterns of the array surged like the tide, wave after wave, gradually flooding the chamber.

The glowing pearls above began to shatter one by one; the web of cracks spread and deepened. Soon, water mixed with earth poured down.

The glow from the pearls vanished instantly; a flash of blood-red light.

On the surface of the vast sea, gales howled and giant waves battered Sangyu Island like a leaf tossed on the water. Yet beneath the turbulent surface, the ocean was deep and silent.

In the silent depths, shoals of water demons and sea monsters rose, surging toward Sangyu Island.

There, at the sea’s bottom, stood a resplendent palace of glass, radiant and cold, surrounded by coral reefs and stones, quietly looming in the deep.