Chapter 479: Within the Boundary Line, Obstructions One After Another

Could it be that everything is under his control? A vague, indefinable sense of suspicion and doubt rippled in the shadows, followed by a sudden realization that something was wrong.

Boom! A composite demon was hurled over like a ball, exploding on the spot. Amidst the eruption of immense force, the mere shockwave shattered a small portion of the abandoned mine, and a muffled groan immediately sounded from the void.

"Ran away, did you? You can run, but you can't run from the temple."

Du En did not pursue the source of the groan, making this calm judgment. Then, looking at the group of demons who had been about to launch a joint attack but had stopped abruptly, their eyes filled with disbelief, he continued to mutter: "Alright, it's time for you to die too; I might as well clean you up while I'm at it."

"Damn it!"

"He really didn't intend to save us!"

"Kill him!"

The guards shouted, the demonic beasts roared, and their magic power, demonic energy, malevolence, and resentment boiled under the fuel of fear, suddenly forming a bowl-shaped cover that clamped directly onto Du En.

The next moment, wind and sand suddenly began to blow.

It blew from an unknown place, as if flowing from within the heart, or perhaps pressing down upon the heart; in any case, it caused the consciousness of the guards and the demonic beasts to go black on the spot. By the time they regained their senses, they were already physically and mentally trapped within a pitch-black sandstorm, being weathered, ground down, and transformed into a part of it.

Scouring Profound Dust!

Du En had no time to waste here, so he directly activated this Profound-grade Dao technique, instantly killing these individuals who had major flaws in their state of mind and were merely at the ordinary Nascent Soul stage—they were utterly unable to withstand a single blow.

Before they could even let out a scream, the majority of their physical strength had already turned into part of the sky-filling sand. While burning the evil dregs here, he also urged the storm to shroud the entire abandoned mining area south of the city, beginning to pour violently into those mine shafts.

While pondering, Du En, having finished burning the evil dregs, directed a portion of the wind and sand to separate. As it moved, it grew larger and larger; by the time it reached Nine Clouds City, it could completely cover the entire area, forming a terrifying sandstorm weather phenomenon, and continued to expand and rush toward the Nine Clouds family ancestral tomb valley further away.

After completing this action, he began to walk leisurely through the wind and sand.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

The wind blew urgently, and the sand and dust poured through.

The main target was still the mine shaft explored earlier, because Nine Clouds Ascendant had run here, and at this moment, it remained in a clean state after being cleared—it was just too clean, to the point of having a sense of silence.

Step.

Du En stepped here, his footsteps sounding like a bell struck in mid-air; the echoes were distinct and could not be masked by the howling wind and sand. It was quite strange, making him stop and look around.

The sandstorm was clearly extremely fierce, currently wrapping around and pouring in, rapidly dismembering and weathering the entire mine shaft area, even threatening to dig a deep, wide basin out of this place.

Yet, it was very strange; one could taste a sense of clean silence in the surroundings. Standing there, the more he felt it, the more awkward it seemed, a sense of being out of place emerging, as if he had come to a boundary zone, with the wind and sand raging on this side, and clean silence on the other.

Even though he was already stepping on this boundary, walking from this side to that side was no simple matter; rather, it was fundamentally impossible under normal circumstances.

"Because it's not a difference between a front and a back, but an infinitely small boundary line stuck in between? A type of boundary-line-separation layer derived from the forced fusion of multi-layered spaces?"

He pondered this, and then, he took out an object.

That bone whistle originating from Zhu Yi.

Whew, whew~

With its removal, perhaps because of the wind blowing around, it immediately made a sound. It sounded very normal, but at the edge of this boundary line, it was clearly abnormal.

Thus, Du En activated and stirred the wisp of life-source aura hidden within it, immediately making the whistle sound even stranger. The space in front of him then faintly rippled, and the boundary layers of that space vibrated against each other.

The surface layer and the inner layer, the inner layer and the deep layer—two boundary lines suddenly became clear, as if there were truly two lines swaying. They intertwined and circled each other, with a faint sense of resonance.

The bone whistle became the anchor point for this resonance, causing the two lines to suddenly intersect, thus bringing out a strange gravitational force. A black void appeared with a 'whoosh'; the opposite side was pitch-black and very silent, and Du En could even smell a burnt stench.

That was the lingering scent of various things having been scorched by True Flame; it was the mine shaft he had stepped into before! Previously, he hadn't been stepping on the ordinary surface, but had already been walking within the boundary line, only he had been completely unaware of it. Until this moment, it should have served as a door and a deceptive layer to block him, but now that he had seen through the trick on the other side, he would naturally not be deceived again.

He immediately raised his hand and grabbed; the Three Truths Divine Fire transformed into a spear, and with a 'whoosh', it was projected out, piercing through from the pitch-black void to the end. It passed through the face on this side, penetrated the line in the middle, and arrived at the second line—the pressure layer between the original inner layer and the deep layer of space.

With another flash of his figure, he followed closely into it, while still clutching the source of the void's anchor: that bone whistle.

"This bone whistle, what kind of bone is it exactly?"

Just after landing, Du En looked down at it for the first time, revealing a faint look of doubt and curiosity.

If he still couldn't see that it was highly unusual by now, he would be truly foolish; yet, under the Source-Seeing Holy Pupil, it was still just that ordinary cow or sheep bone quality.

He wanted to try applying pressure to test it, but was afraid of breaking it; in the end, he could only put it away for now.

However, at the same time, he also drew out a bit of the aura within it.

"It seems now that this life-source aura probably isn't Zhu Yi's either. I originally thought it was left behind before she lost her obvious uniqueness, but looking at it now, it seems more like something the bone whistle itself retained..."

Du En thought, looking up at his surroundings.

That bit of aura transformed into a candle flame, shallowly illuminating his side.

The deep mine shaft appeared in an abandoned state. Looking toward the back, the direction leading to the surface was completely blocked; looking toward the deep front, there was not a shred of light, and the air had long since stopped flowing, filled with an endless, rotting gloom.

In fact, upon arriving here, Du En had already tried to cast a spell, but it had not succeeded.

Profound-grade Dao techniques could not be derived here at all; the principles being pried were too shallow and could not touch this boundary line. It was like a large stone unable to pass through a sieve; forcing power could try to smash the sieve, after all, this type of boundary-separation surface was itself a place with an unstable foundation, merely a derivative of artificial creation.

However, Du En did not do so, as he still had to catch that Nine Clouds Ascendant and bring Zhu Yi back.

He moved forward with a calm expression, his footsteps still sounding out. It was caused by the environment of this place, echoing in the stagnant darkness, making it easy to be captured.

Dealing with it was also very simple: speed up and hasten his pace.

Thus, the 'tap-tap' sounds suddenly became very fast, and were also deliberately made to sound erratic, echoing one after another in the crisscrossing abandoned mine shafts.

Nine Clouds Ascendant was cautious, currently leading people in circles with him, but the speed here was becoming faster and faster, the pursuit naturally becoming tighter. This forced the opponent, who was clearly hiding without a trace, to helplessly burst forth with speed, intending to open up the distance and buy time.

"In a hurry?"

He was fast, and this side was also fast. Du En deliberately made his footsteps heavier, echoing in the mine shaft, and then abruptly disappeared. It was as if his body was traveling with light, in a special state of movement.

A form of movement possessed by the Undying Holy Source Body, which he called 'Harmonizing with Light and Departing'. In essence, it was light-transformation and co-existence within other light rays, moving as the light moved. Since he was the Source of Ten Thousand Lights, it was very normal for him to be able to do this, instantly making it impossible for Nine Clouds Ascendant to continue monitoring his specific location here.

However.

Hmm? On the way, Du En slowed down slightly.

At this time, he had already followed the faint light transformed from that bit of life-source aura to a very deep place, the location of that secret chamber and dark cave. He had entered without a wall, and then saw the residual images and shadows of the past once again.

He didn't need to activate the superposition of the Source-Seeing Holy Pupil and the Fire Eye Golden Pupil; he could see it very easily. Clearly, the reason these residual images were difficult to observe on the surface layer was that they were originally located within this boundary line between the deep layer and the inner layer.

And the content of the residual images left here was even more extensive. He could continue from the past secret discussion between the demonic cultivator and the evil cultivator, and as he watched, he quickly saw it.

"Then, let's settle it like this."

"Since you have no objections, then we certainly don't have any."

"That's what I'm saying, tsk tsk tsk!"

Accompanied by a chorus of agreement, the fellow previously judged to be Old Daoist Chili merely raised a hand slightly and waved it, after which the other demonic and evil cultivators began to rise and leave, and soon only one person remained here alone.

He fell into a long silence on the spot, then muttered: "Really, don't blame me. To be honest, I was already on the verge of despair, but I never expected to coincidentally meet her, that person with the bloodline of the Upper Realm... Now, I can only sacrifice you first as a preliminary paving stone. Sigh, I truly have no other choice, but this is for the best."

After a pause, he suddenly looked toward the location where Du En was currently situated, his gaze meeting Du En's across space and time, as if he knew a residual image would be left behind and someone would come to watch, and continued: "After all, you were born to be a sacrificial lamb."

As the words fell, the residual image quietly dissipated and vanished completely.

What did that mean? It sounded very profound, not just some inner struggle from when he was alone in the past, but an intentional transmission of information to Du En.

So, who was using this person to transmit it? The Supreme Luo Yu?

Or perhaps, the True Monarch Cheng Ru? In any case, neither of those two were friendly sorts.

Du En merely confirmed this point once again.

As for feelings like being intimidated or feeling anxious and uneasy, he didn't have even a shred of them.

And as for situations like heaven-ordained fate being impossible to reverse, he didn't care about them at all.

Who will ultimately emerge victorious remains unknown even today.

His thoughts were instead entirely focused on the present.

Upper Realm bloodline? He should be referring to Zhu Yi.

However, he, this "local of the Upper Realm," could not see any Upper Realm bloodline in her.

To be able to use such a description, it should specifically refer to all people of the Upper Realm; at the very least, it should be a common situation involving a considerable scale of numbers.

But Sheng Zhaoshui didn't have it either, which was about the same as his own situation.

In other words, this so-called Upper Realm bloodline still warrants questioning.

"And then, that fellow now seems a bit unlike Old Daoist Chili, and somewhat like the Venerable Nine Clouds. It really is quite baffling, but actually, it doesn't matter; as long as I catch the main culprit, that's enough."

Not dwelling on this smokescreen, he continued to pursue toward the direction of the Venerable Nine Clouds.

Behind the secret cave, there was a hidden passage.

Du En quietly penetrated the partition door, or rather the rock layer, which was dozens of zhang thick and had three types of tricky and bizarre evil methods arranged within it: a partition seal laid out with Grudge-Soul Bones, patterns painted with Hell Flowers, and a hidden pit cushioned with Nether Skin.

These were all very rare curiosities that could not possibly appear in the Qingxuan Star Realm, and the methods used to arrange these curiosities were inheritances that the Qingxuan Star Realm could not possibly possess.

So, naturally, he could not avoid these methods.

The Grudge-Soul Bones began to tremble, each one clattering as they appeared to block Du En's path.

There was no other way; he could only force a breakthrough.

Thinking this, Du En directly reverted to his normal state, and amidst a thunderous explosion, he opened a hole directly through the rock layer; the bone wall in front was also shaken so violently it seemed as if it were about to fall apart.

It did indeed fall apart, but in the blink of an eye, it reorganized and pieced itself together, transforming into a ferocious skeleton one zhang tall with three heads and six arms, holding a bone hammer, a bone sickle, and a bone rope in its hands respectively.

A thick aura of grievance and resentment rose up, very pure, because Grudge-Soul Bones originate from the remains of a person who suffered a hundred generations of injustice, specifically a section of bone left behind.

As a type of curiosity, it is inherently very strange and completely different from those vengeful spirits; the blooming of grievance and resentment can make one feel as if they are personally experiencing it, plunging them into that hundred generations of injustice.

This is its unique aspect; if one focuses on the ferocious skeleton that changes, one will only accidentally fall for its trap!

After being immersed in it, it can be called a counter-offensive; the Grudge-Soul Bone transforms into the inflictor of injustice: the hammer can crush the unyielding, the sickle can harvest those who submit, and the rope can bind the clear-headed—in short, it wants to make others suffer the same unjust grievances.

Then it was easily settled by a punch from Du En.

"Fancy and flashy; can your grievances be stronger than the lingering hatred of a Divine Venerable?"

Because Du En's mind was not shaken in the slightest, he naturally did not experience it personally at all, so the unique aspect of the Grudge-Soul Bone could not be utilized, and thus it was easily turned into dust with one punch.

The same applies to the Hell Flower.

It is rumored to be a flower that grows in the Nether Hell, having witnessed the eighteen levels of hell, the eight hot and eight cold hells, and many other such hellish scenes, deeply imprinting those incessant, terrifying punishments onto its own petals.

Using its sap to paint patterns of the Hell Journey can make people feel as if they are walking through hell, suffering boundless torture, their minds lost, their cultivation and vitality drained, becoming a part of that hellish painting.

Originally, it was meant to coordinate with the Grudge-Soul Bones, but as a result, the Grudge-Soul Bones were finished off in one encounter, so it could only go on its own now.

"I could walk through the Heart-Mass Hell without even frowning; how could your pretentious Hell Flower possibly do anything to me?"

Du En struck out with another palm, like a god in a rage, the great sun descending; under the shroud of brilliant divine light, the hell painting turned into dust on the spot.

Even the rock layer in front was swept away, revealing that solitary piece of Nether Skin.

(End of this chapter)