Chapter 1814: Guardian and Prisoner

Li Luo's ghostly voice spread through this stretch of starry sky, falling into the ears of the few people present, yet it made them feel a creeping chill.

Yan Changsheng and Su Ying's pupils shrank sharply. Although they found Li Luo's words utterly absurd, they still couldn't help but take a step back at this moment, their gazes filled with suspicion as they looked at Lingshu's petite, delicate figure.

And under their gaze, the red-clad girl's face turned ashen, her eyes furious as she stared at Li Luo, gnashing her teeth: "What nonsense are you spouting?!"

"I, a dignified member of the Faceless Six, how could I be a prisoner?!"

"As for that demonic seed, it was simply that woman accidentally stumbling into the 'Sect's Ghost Prison.' There, many great demon kings were judged and slain, so naturally a dense miasma of malice lingered, which infected her and coalesced into a demonic seed."

"I was entrusted by the Sect Master to guard the 'Empty Mist Phase' for such an endless span of years. Even when loneliness gnawed at my bones, I still kept my promise, never daring to slacken in the slightest. Now that I've finally waited for you to arrive, how dare you slander me!"

The angrier Lingshu spoke, the redder her cheeks grew. At the same time, a trace of spiritual light surfaced at her brow, and within that light, a divine fruit could be seen trembling, emanating a terrifying pressure of rank.

"If you truly push me too far, even if you are the 'Descendant Sect Master,' I won't let this rest with you!"

Yan Changsheng and Su Ying, seeing Lingshu in this berserk state, actually believed her a little more. After all, they knew her too well, aware that her temperament was mischievous and unpredictable—if truly pushed to the brink, there was nothing she wouldn't do.

"Li Luo, do you have any grounds for such a conjecture?" However, Yan Changsheng was cautious by nature. Although Lingshu's behavior seemed extremely normal, he also knew Li Luo wasn't the type to speak recklessly. If Li Luo had suddenly made a move, there must be a reason. So he asked aloud at this moment.

Li Luo looked calmly at Lingshu, who was in extreme fury, and said: "I sense that you seem very eager for me to take the 'Empty Mist Phase' out of this Wang Zuo."

Lingshu took a deep breath and said coldly: "I've waited for such an endless span of years—shouldn't I be eager? You simply don't understand the terror of time, which is why you speak such ignorant words."

She shook her head, a thick disappointment surfacing in her eyes, and said to Yan Changsheng and Su Ying: "That such a person could be the Descendant Sect Master of the Faceless Holy Sect—this is the sorrow of our Faceless Holy Sect."

"If you want to harbor suspicions, then go ahead and suspect on your own. This Young Lady won't keep you company."

As her words fell, she turned around with an icy expression and walked away.

Yan Changsheng and Su Ying exchanged a glance, just about to speak, when Li Luo's ghostly sigh already rose: "Stop acting. The moment I touched the 'Empty Mist Phase,' it told me everything."

His soft sigh echoed through this star hall, as if even the air had frozen in that instant.

Yan Changsheng and Su Ying were shaken to their core, an unconcealable grief surfacing in the depths of their eyes, their gazens fixed in disbelief on Lingshu's back.

They did not doubt Li Luo's words, for he had no reason to tell such a lie. And perhaps, deep in their hearts, they had also faintly sensed that something about Lingshu seemed not quite right.

And under their gaze, Lingshu's figure, which had been turning to leave in a fury, also froze in place, as if turned to a stone statue.

A suffocating silence lingered in the star hall.

Su Ying's eyes reddened, and she softly broke the frozen silence: "Li Luo, what did the Empty Mist Phase tell you?"

Li Luo said with some regret: "Two seniors, your companion—perhaps from the very moment the Faceless Holy Sect fell, she was no longer herself."

"What survived afterward was not Lingshu of the Faceless Six, but a servant whose heart had been seized by fear, one who had submitted to the demonic might of the Dark Sect Master."

Yan Changsheng and Su Ying couldn't stop their bodies from trembling.

"Lingshu, why? You were a peerless prodigy even the Sect Master praised. We all knew your pride. So why did you abandon all that pride and choose to submit?!" Yan Changsheng asked in a low voice.

"Heh."

Amid Yan Changsheng's grief-stricken questioning, the red-clad girl, whose body had frozen like a stone statue, finally let out a soft laugh. She slowly turned her head. Her previously bright and lovely face was now covered in a heart-chilling gloom, and within her lively, dewy eyes, a pitch-black color began to spread.

Her aura, at this moment, suddenly became sinister and eerie.

"Why?"

Lingshu's laugh seemed tinged with desolation: "You can only ask me this now because, when the Faceless Holy Sect fell back then, you were not present here."

"Because when you personally witnessed that terrifying thing crawl out from the Sect Master's body, and with a mere gesture wipe away the countless years of accumulated foundation of the Faceless Holy Sect—I think your fear would only be stronger than mine."

"That irresistible existence was born from the Sect Master's fusion with the Source of All Evil. Even the Sect Master could not subdue it. It is the greatest terror in the world."

Lingshu's pupils trembled as the memories she had sealed away surged up once more. That day, she had personally witnessed the fall of the Faceless Holy Sect, seen numerous Li Li Tianwang turn to ash before her, their brilliant ranks of power devoured at will by that existence.

In the end, it came before her.

Lingshu at that moment was so terrified that her divine fruit nearly shattered. Her former pride was utterly crushed at that instant, and so she wept as she knelt before it.

She did not know whether she was weeping for her own weakness, or for the collapse of the holy ground in her heart.

But she knew that, from that moment on, she had lost everything—including herself.

That existence planted a demonic seal within her.

Later, the Sect Master, in his final moments, used his last strength to activate the 'Empty Mist Phase,' shrouding the Faceless Holy Sect in mist and concealing it within the river of time. And that existence, which filled her with terror, was sealed within a coffin, while she too was imprisoned within these sect ruins.

Just as Li Luo had said, she was not a guardian—she was merely a prisoner trapped within the ruins.

However, Lingshu knew that existence would surely reappear in the world in the future. By then, the Sect Master would be gone, and no one in this world would be able to stop it.

Su Ying said in a hoarse voice: "Lingshu, that 'Dark Sect Master' is not invincible. In this world today, everyone is searching for that sliver of possibility. You could join us, fight against it, and break the fear in your heart!"

"You can't win. Even the Sect Master and the Source of All Evil failed to defeat it—what makes you think you can?" Lingshu shook her head indifferently. Her voice gradually grew calm, but the aura emanating from her entire body grew colder and colder.

"I have been trapped here for the purpose of obtaining the 'Empty Mist Phase,' to offer it to it."

"It's just that I cannot ascend this Sect Master's Wang Zuo, so I can only rely on you, the Descendant Sect Master, to help me take the 'Empty Mist Phase' out. Originally, I didn't intend to do anything to you—as long as I obtained the 'Empty Mist Phase,' I would have left. But unfortunately, as things stand now..."

"Perhaps erasing all of you is still the best choice."