Chapter 2462

Because of its poor eyesight, it circled around once more to confirm its shape.

Indeed, it was that white cracked stone resembling a molar!

No matter how the cave terrain changed, the shape of this white stone remained unchanged.

The stone cricket slowly crawled on the white stone, when suddenly its foot slipped, and without thinking, it fell into the rock crevice!

Everyone knows that such deep earth fissures often contain water.

The white cracked stone was no exception; the stone cricket first pierced through an invisible air membrane, like a barrier, before landing on a patch of fuzzy moss, and after crawling two steps, its feet were soaked.

This moss was long and thick, with a carpet-like texture. Yet each clump of moss bore tiny antennae, like snail eyes, appearing fragile but possessing immense suction. The stone cricket's body was harder than rock, impervious to ordinary blades, yet once these moss antennae clung to it, it began to soften, its limbs grew weak, and it could no longer walk.

These mosses could actually prey upon and digest it.

If He Lingchuan were here, he would likely deduce this was the earth mother's digestive tract.

However, the stone cricket jumped down with a mission. Before being completely subdued, it spat out a chicken-egg-sized sphere from its mouth, along with a thumb-sized jade slip.

This was a polished peach wood ball, its surface engraved with tiny characters, originally emitting no magic power fluctuations. The moss carpet paid it no heed, treating it as any falling object to be captured and digested.

But the instant it was wrapped, the peach wood ball jerked twice; the moss thought it was trying to escape and immediately tightened its grip.

Yet the peach wood ball's surface emitted a faint red glow, and the engraved tiny characters rose to the surface, lighting up one by one.

With each character lit, a loud, resonant voice rang out in the air, reciting it forcefully——

This was Liu Yisheng's voice!

Thirty-five characters formed a section of the incantation, and Liu Yisheng's voice recited it rapidly.

Before one section was even finished, Duzhishan trembled!

This space shuddered violently, the moss carpet withered in large patches, and a muffled cracking sound came from underground, as if something had snapped.

Upon finishing the first section, Liu Yisheng's voice swiftly moved into the second.

When this second section was only halfway through, a deep, mighty roar echoed in the darkness, as if coming from the earth's core; if a living person were here, they would surely be stunned unconscious.

Immediately after, two gray lights flared in the darkness, converging like searchlights onto the peach wood ball.

Simultaneously, two massive boulders lunged toward it from opposite sides, aiming to crush it into powder.

Clearly, Liu Yisheng's two recited sections had caused the hidden dark-dwelling creature extreme discomfort and pain.

Yet no matter how the boulders squeezed or struck, the faint glow emanating from the peach wood ball actually protected it from being shattered.

This was the power of the contract!

Liu Yisheng's voice echoed in this narrow dark space, not only uninterrupted but growing ever louder.

He had already recited the third and fourth sections……

Actually, each section engraved on the ball was identical, requiring a total of seven cycles.

……

Changfeng Valley Garrison Secret Realm.

Prisoner Li Yun had already counted the grains of rice, then turned to counting the stars in the sky.

On this cloudless night, even from Liu Yisheng's perspective looking out of the Secret Realm, one could see the Milky Way shining brilliantly.

For the past several thousand years, his life had remained unchanged—sitting idle, enduring suffering. The only thing that made him feel the passage of time was the shifting of the stars above.

Utterly devoid of joy.

No, he had long been dead—what "joy" could there be to speak of?

Nowadays, he only thinks of liberation each day; sometimes, he even feels that revenge can be abandoned, needing only a little peace.

Time has brought him only endless numbness and fatigue; sometimes, he even envies the mad Li Yun.

The madman's world has no time, thus he suffers no harm from time.

But tonight, the sky still held many streaks of rainbow light dancing.

He knew those were the immortals of Ling Mountain clashing with the Earth Mother.

Who could win? Liu Yisheng held no hope. Shangguan Biao was evil and powerful, having won every past battle against him.

Yet the person who had asked Liu Yisheng to engrave the incantation ball, though hidden in the guise of a cyclops, Liu Yisheng had never seen his true face, yet inexplicably felt:

This time might be different.

Over thousands of years, could this be their closest approach to success?

In Liu Yisheng's heart, a spark of hope rose again. Though his soul's heart did not beat, he actually felt once more the dry mouth and tongue brought by "hope."

After an unknown duration, the ground beneath his feet suddenly trembled.

The Secret Realm would not tremble for no reason; this vibration came from the outside world.

The earthquake of Yujing City!

Previously, every time Yujing City prepared to go underground, the earth would tremble, but that tremor was regular and would not cause buildings to collapse.

Yet what Liu Yisheng saw before him was mountains wailing, trees snapping, and that pavilion he had grown weary of over thousands of years instantly shattered into pieces!

Then, the ground split open with a huge gap, mountain peaks collapsed, while valleys rapidly rose.

The landscape was undergoing drastic change; its magnitude was such that describing it as tendon-snapping and bone-breaking would not be an exaggeration.

He stared wide-eyed at the collapse of the mountain gate garrison, tears slowly streaming down, yet his heart felt an indescribable relief. If even Changfeng Valley was like this, how could other parts of Yujing City fare better?

This was Yujing City, painstakingly maintained by Shangguan Biao—let it be destroyed, let it be destroyed to the fullest!

Liu Yisheng had not yet had his fill of watching, when suddenly a familiar stone figure emerged from before the screen.

Earth Mother.

Or rather, Shangguan Biao.

The flames in his eyes were about to spurt three feet, as if even through the screen they could wound Liu Yisheng.

"What good deeds you have done!"

This roar was furious to the extreme.

Shangguan Biao had never lost his composure like this in front of Liu Yisheng. Liu Yisheng stared at him, not blinking once, afraid of missing an even more spectacular scene: "My Speech-Curse Orb took effect, didn't it?"

How many years had he bitterly waited for this scene before his eyes? As long as it made Shangguan Biao suffer, as long as it made Shangguan Biao fail, he, Liu Yisheng, could pay any price!

He Lingchuan had clearly left earlier, yet returned to find him, precisely to ask him to craft a "Speech-Curse Orb."

The same incantation, when recited by people of different cultivation levels and attainments, produces vastly different effects. In ancient times, there were immortals who specialized in "Speech-Curses," able to seal their own incantation sounds away, to be hurled directly at enemies when needed — extremely convenient.

In later generations, this art was inherited by the Celestial Masters. Fu Liushan, walking the Shanjin Plains catching ghosts and exorcising evil, would often use his self-made Speech-Curse Orbs.

To put it plainly, a Speech-Curse Orb simply sequesters and seals away the recited sound infused with true power, mainly to be given to others for use against enemies, called "borrowing speech."

What He Lingchuan specially used the Speech-Curse Orb to seal, however, was Liu Yisheng's contract backlash incantation!