Chapter 146

Around the altar in midair floated countless translucent, twisted, struggling shadows, each with a silent screaming mouth, limbs contorted horribly; just looking at them made one's scalp tingle and body break out in gooseflesh.

This place……is exactly the same as what Lin Xue had described in bits and pieces before!

"It's right here……" Lin Xue murmured, her eyes fixed straight on the altar.

The bronze piece in Zhang Jun's bosom and the azure crystal in Lin Xue's pocket, the moment they stepped into this space, seemed to be completely ignited!

"Hum!"

A searing white light that twisted the air, and a frigid azure radiance so cold it almost froze the light itself, burst simultaneously from the two of them like two arrows loosed from a bow, ignoring the drifting vengeful spirits and shooting straight for the altar's very center!

There, pitch-black, seemed to have a depression, like the base of something.

Everyone was stunned by the terrifying and eerie sight before them, their thoughts slowed half a beat.

Just then——

"Boom—!"

A deafening roar suddenly came from the entrance of the passage that had just been bored out behind them!

The sturdy stone wall was blasted open a large hole, shards flying everywhere; the newly ignited seal runes' light, like a punctured balloon, went "pop" and shattered, dissipating into the air!

Amid the smoke and dust, Zhou Qian's old face appeared at the breach, his countenance full of sinister killing intent, eyes like poisoned hooks, locked tightly on Zhang Jun and Lin Xue; behind him followed several black-clad figures with equally chilling auras—the Shadow Guards—though they looked somewhat disheveled, their killing intent was even stronger.

"Heh……found you……" Zhou Qian's voice was hoarse like sandpaper scraping bone.

Smoke and dust filled the blown-open hole, choking and drying throats.

Zhou Qian's old face in the ashen dust looked as if just dug up from a grave, his eyes locked tightly on Zhang Jun and Lin Xue.

The Shadow Guards behind him stood there like wooden posts, their whole bodies exuding an indescribable stiffness and chill.

"Heh……" Zhou Qian rolled a creepy laugh from his throat that made ears ache, "Running? Keep running? This place you picked—nice feng shui, huh?"

Before his words faded, Qin Yueyao had already led her people to retreat to the other side of the altar, facing off against Zhou Qian's people from a distance.

Two Qin family experts guarded her front, while the remaining guards took up stances, all with grim expressions.

In this huge underground cavern, the crowd instantly split into three groups, none near another, the atmosphere taut as a bowstring.

Zhang Jun shielded Lin Xue behind him, his whole body tensed, staring at Zhou Qian, then quickly glancing at Qin Yueyao's side.

If this situation goes wrong even a little, we'll all end up laid out here.

"Zhou Qian, you're really like a dog-skin plaster—can't shake you off." Zhang Jun's voice sank, the pure yang energy in his dantian quietly rising, ready for a fight, "You chased us here to avenge your dead disciples and grand-disciples?"

Hearing that, Zhou Qian twisted his face into a smile uglier than crying: "Revenge? Just a bunch of trash—dead is dead, worthless. What I want is this!"

His withered finger jabbed toward the black stone altar.

"I want this altar! With it, whatever damned Medicine Sect inheritance, whatever immortality, will all be mine!" His eyes gleamed with a ruthless light, gazing at the altar as if it were a peerless treasure.

"Dream on!" Qin Yueyao's voice was ice-cold, undisguised disgust in her tone, "This is the Medicine Sect's forbidden ground—no room for your demonic heresy to run wild! Our Qin clan has guarded this place for generations; you'd better not even think about it!"

The Qin family guards behind her stepped forward in unison, their momentum quite strong.

"Guard?" Zhou Qian sneered, glancing at Qin Yueyao with utter contempt, "Just relying on those Qin family half-trained brutes? Or on these two brats who don't know the height of heaven or depth of earth?"

He thrust his hand up, pointing at the altar, voice rising: "You know nothing about this altar's power! It can communicate yin and yang, refine souls! Today I will use your blood to awaken it completely!"

Before he finished speaking, Zhou Qian's whole body "whoosh" turned into a rolling black mist, emitting a piercing shriek, and lunged straight for the altar's center!

The Shadow Guards behind him also moved, scattering like ghostly wraiths—some entangled the Qin family people, others gloomily lunged at Zhang Jun and Lin Xue!

"Attack!" Qin Yueyao also grew urgent.

The Qin family guards gritted their teeth and went forward!

The Qin family's fierce force and the Shadow Guards' sinister tactics clashed fiercely!

"Bang! Bang! Clang!"

Punch and kick impacts, weapon clashes, and suppressed grunts rang out chaotically in this spacious underground area, the scene instantly erupting into chaos!

Black mist roiled, energy surged wildly, and gravel crackled down!

A cold gleam flashed!

Zhang Jun's heart leapt; he grabbed Lin Xue and darted sideways in retreat.

A dagger slick with eerie light scraped past his arm, the wind it raised carrying a fishy-sweet chill.

"To the altar's center!" Zhang Jun shouted.

The bronze piece in his bosom burned alarmingly, the azure crystal in Lin Xue's pocket trembled till her hand went numb; both forces pointed dead-on at the altar's middle, that pitch-black depression.

That place definitely has something good!

Lin Xue nodded, her face still pale, but her eyes grew much clearer.

Zhou Qian's words, plus the altar's eerie aura, made her jumbled memories feel forcibly suppressed, leaving only an instinctive rejection and a vague, hard-to-describe sense of familiarity.

The two no longer paid attention to the chaotic melee around them; with a flicker of their forms, they slipped through the gaps in the fight between the Qin family and Zhou Qian's men, making their way toward the huge black stone altar.

A Qin family guard, pressed back by a Shadow Guard, was about to collide with Zhang Jun.

Zhang Jun slipped a step, his palm lightly pushing and sending the guard's back; a gentle pure yang energy pulsed out, stabilizing the guard's stance, while Zhang Jun himself borrowed that force to surge forward several meters.

"Tha——" the guard had just uttered a syllable when another Shadow Guard tangled him up and they fought again.

The closer they got to the altar, the stronger the bloody stench and chilling resentful feeling assailed their noses.

The translucent vengeful spirits drifting around the altar, as if startled, wore more agonized, more ferocious expressions, mouths open in silent screams, began to lunge at the approaching Zhang Jun and Lin Xue!

A bone-chilling icy wind blew, making souls tremble, and swept over them!

"Get lost!" Zhang Jun barked, his pure yang energy exploding without reserve, his whole body like a little furnace, scorching heat waves rolling outward!

The vengeful spirits that lunged forward were struck by this utmost yang, utmost rigid aura—like snow meeting the sun—they emitted silent wails, their forms fading considerably, each one frightened and retreating, daring not to approach.