Chapter 20: Dragon's Chant

Only seeing the girl's surroundings entwined with light belonging to the heavenly-earthly laws, in less than half an incense stick's time she broke through the shackles of her cultivation, successfully advancing from Qi Refining Ninth Layer to Initial Foundation Establishment.

After Yuan Yao stabilized her internal spiritual energy, she opened her eyes, only to see many people staring at her.

"Congratulations, Fellow Daoist Yuan, on breaking through to Foundation Establishment!" Just as Yuan Yao was dazed, a burst of congratulations suddenly came from the crowd.

Immediately afterward, many people stepped forward, smiling as they congratulated her.

Yuan Yao immediately rose, returned the salute with clasped hands, and openly laughed, saying, "Thank you, thank you."

"Congratulations!" Weng Mingshu said sincerely, "You finally broke through to Foundation Establishment!"

Yuan Yao raised her eyebrows slightly.

After everyone finished congratulating her, Cang Li pulled her aside and whispered, "I remember before I left the sect, your cultivation was only at Qi Refining Eighth Layer. In just a few days, you've broken through to Foundation Establishment. Did you take some breakthrough pill?"

"I didn't take any."

"Then why did you breakthrough so fast?"

"I already said, I want to cultivate well, so I need to raise my cultivation."

Cang Li: "……" That was said so lightly.

Only now did he realize his little junior sister's terrifying cultivation talent, not inferior at all to the Eldest Senior Brother and the others.

Seeing his complex expression, Yuan Yao couldn't help but laugh.

She teased, "Third Senior Brother, do you feel pressured because I'm too outstanding? After all, if I'm not at the bottom, then you'll be the one at the bottom."

"Can you make pills?"

"No."

"But I can." Cang Li said, flicking her forehead hard with his finger.

"Hiss..." Yuan Yao winced, covering her forehead, glaring resentfully at Cang Li.

Cang Li said, "Wait here for me; I'll go up first to see if the mechanism gate above is open."

"Okay." Yuan Yao nodded, "Be careful."

After Cang Li said a couple of words to Yan Haonan, he alone climbed upward.

After climbing to the top, he looked around and found all passages still sealed shut by the mechanism gate.

He carefully probed around the gate, trying to find a mechanism to open it, but as time ticked by, half an hour passed in a flash, and he still found nothing.

He could only return empty-handed.

"Daoist Cang, how's the situation above?" The cultivators, already unable to contain their anxiety, swarmed around him as soon as they saw him, eagerly asking.

"All passages are sealed." Cang Li shook his head with a solemn expression.

Someone anxiously asked, "What should we do now?"

Suddenly, a low, resonant dragon's chant erupted from the dark depths underground, as if the whole earth trembled.

Accompanying this dragon's chant, the entire area began to violently tremble, with rubble falling like rain from above.

Everyone's faces drastically changed; they looked around in terror, not knowing what this sudden change meant.

"What kind of sound is that?!"

Someone cried out in shock.

"A dragon! It's the sound of a dragon!" A cultivator's eyes lit up, shouting excitedly with a face full of enthusiasm.

"A dragon?! There actually is a dragon?"

Everyone wore looks of shock, their expressions varied.

Before anyone could react, a second dragon's chant came again, this time the sound carried fury.

It seemed someone had provoked it.

For some reason, Yuan Yao inexplicably felt a pang of panic.

At that moment, the Kirin Jade Pendant hanging from her waist suddenly fell, emitting a clear 'clang'.

Yuan Yao lowered her gaze, her face changing in shock; she quickly crouched, picked up this Kirin White Jade Pendant, and clenched it tightly in her palm.

The next second, she reached out with her other hand, grabbed Cang Li's arm, and pulled him rushing toward that dark depth.

Cang Li was pulled and staggered, his body involuntarily following her forward; his expression shifted slightly, about to speak, when he heard Yuan Yao's urgent voice.

"Third Senior Brother, I want to go!"

Cang Li's heart tightened.

He turned his head to see her solemn side profile, and without hesitation replied, "Okay."

Although she had never told them, they all knew that the little junior sister's intuition and perception were sharper than ordinary cultivators—no, even stronger cultivators.

"Where are you going?!" Weng Mingshu shouted as she saw Yuan Yao pulling Cang Li away and running.

As a result, the two of them quickly disappeared into the dark area.

Weng Mingshu, anxious, bit her lip, then turned to Yan Haonan and said, "Let's go too!"

This time Yan Haonan didn't say anything; he simply nodded in agreement.

Immediately, they led the remaining disciples of Heavenly Cloud Sect toward the dark area.

Other cultivators naturally followed as well.

After Yuan Yao and Cang Li entered the dark area, the surrounding temperature plummeted, becoming extremely cold.

The surroundings were pitch black, making it impossible to tell any direction.

Pat—

Yuan Yao raised her hand and snapped her fingers, and a flame sparked from her fingertips.

"This way." Yuan Yao pulled Cang Li's arm and ran.

Those closely following behind them, Yan Haonan and the others, could only faintly see a point of firelight.

They followed the firelight as they ran.

Running and running, they could barely keep up.

"These Daoist Friends Yuan and Cang can really run!" someone panted.

And Cang Li, who was being pulled by Yuan Yao, was also stunned, his whole body almost being yanked away by her!

"Yuan Yao, when did you become able to run like this?"

"I've always been like this." Yuan Yao replied while sprinting.

Cang Li realized, "So you were pretending to be weak before?!"

"I am naturally weak."

"Yuan Yao, I really want to poison you!" This damned girl tricked him terribly! From age five to ten, she pretended to be delicate and spoiled, then had their several senior brothers and sisters take turns carrying her up the Heavenly Ladder.

Afterward, she kept finding excuses not to go to Heavenly Ladder Mountain.

As for this, the master turned a blind eye.

Yuan Yao snorted coldly, "Third Senior Brother, every time you get angry you say you'll poison me! Second Senior Sister, when angry, says she'll beat me to death; Fourth Senior Brother, when angry, says he'll make me into a human pig; Fifth Senior Brother, when angry, says he'll chop me into firewood! But Eldest Senior Brother is nice—when he's angry, he still comes to coax me!"

Cang Li retorted, "Eldest Senior Brother forces you to cultivate, but we never forced you!"

The two argued while running!

And the cultivators behind them heard it all: "……"

Moreover, their noisy quarrel weakened the gloomy atmosphere considerably.

Soon, the surrounding light gradually brightened, allowing the surroundings to be seen clearly without relying on firelight.

Yuan Yao stopped, lifted her head, and gazed upward at the front of the passage, where an ancient and solemn plaque hung, bearing four large characters written in vigorous dragon-and-phoenix script: Tomb of Nie Lie.

And beneath the plaque, the passage floor was covered with gleaming white bones, which had clearly existed for a long time, some even weathered and broken.

Among these bones lay two fresh corpses.

They were the corpses of those two disciples of the Chixiao Sect!

"Roar——"

Just then, a deafening dragon roar rang out again, reverberating through the passage like thunder.

The sound was so loud it made Yuan Yao's eardrums buzz.

"Junior Martial Sister Lu, hurry up!" Immediately after, a feeble voice came from deep within the passage.

Yuan Yao's face changed drastically.

"Eldest Senior Brother!" Cang Li immediately recognized him.