Chapter 177: Medicine Cauldron Shocking Change

I don't know how long we walked, but finally a faint light seeped from below. At the end of the secret passage was a stone chamber about ten zhang square; the chamber was crude, with a stone bed and a few simple utensils.

In the center of the stone chamber, a figure captured their full attention.

He was an old man with white hair and beard; his hair was dry and yellow like tangled grass, his beard knotted and filthy, his robes tattered, his whole body reduced to skin and bones, gaunt and on the verge of death.

Most terrifying, his shoulder blades were pierced through by two black chains as thick as an infant's arm, flashing with dark red runic light, firmly chaining him to the stone wall.

The chains emitted waves of imprisoning and weakening energy, clearly meant to prevent him from using any power.

The old man seemed to sense someone entering; he laboriously lifted his head, his cloudy gaze turning toward the mouth of the passage.

When he saw the Yin Yang Jade Pendant glowing faintly in Zhang Jun and Lin Xue's hands, his formerly dim eyes suddenly burst with an incredulous light of excitement!

His cracked lips trembled as he whispered in an extremely feeble, threadbare hoarse voice:

"Yin… Yin Yang Jade Pendant… you… are you heirs of the Medicine Sect?"

His eyes were full of urgency and pleading.

"Quick… stop her! Stop Qin Yueyao!"

"She's gone mad… she intends to use the Divine Farmer Cauldron to refine and transmute the dragon veins of the capital!"

The old man's words made Zhang Jun and Lin Xue's heads buzz!

"Senior, who are you?" Zhang Jun blurted, stepping forward.

"Cough… cough!" the old man coughed until it felt like his heart was being torn out; the chains clattered with a clatter, pain twisting his whole face. "I… am Qin Boyan, former head of the Qin family… cough… cough… Qin Yueyao is my niece!"

The former head of the Qin family?

Qin Yueyao's biological uncle?

Imprisoned in this damned place?

Zhang Jun and Lin Xue exchanged a glance, each seeing disbelief in the other's eyes.

"Why? Why would she imprison you?" Lin Xue's voice, rarely, carried inflection.

"Because… cough… cough… I oppose her!" Qin Boyan sucked in several rough breaths, his words fragmented: "She… she's overly ambitious! She's not what you see! She has been studying the lost secret arts of the Medicine Sect, hoping… hoping to use the Divine Farmer Cauldron to stir… to refine the dragon veins' earthly qi of the capital!"

"Refine the dragon veins?" Zhang Jun's scalp went numb. "Is she really mad? Does she mean to blow up the capital?"

"Consequences?" Qin Boyan's eyes were full of despair and fear: "At best, the capital's fortune will decline, bringing endless natural and man-made disasters; at worst… the dragon veins will backlash, possibly destroying the entire capital in an instant! She does this to break through herself, to lift the Qin family to heaven! She's already… gone mad!"

"That Black Judge…" Lin Xue interjected suddenly.

"Black Judge?" Qin Boyan's cloudy eyes flashed with a cold light: "Hmph, just a pawn! That girl Qin Yueyao is scheming against you! She's likely using the 'Shadow' to make them cause a commotion openly, drawing everyone's attention, so she can… accelerate her plan in secret!"

Zhang Jun felt a chill run down his spine. If this old man spoke the truth, Qin Yueyao's scheming and methods were simply inhuman!

"I… I risked sending word to you because… " Qin Boyan's breath grew weaker, barely able to hold on, "… the recent movements of the Divine Farmer Cauldron are abnormal! It revived due to the fusion of your jade pendants, but… it seems to have slipped beyond Yueyao's control! I fear… I fear she will stop at nothing, forcibly activating the plan, and then… everything will be over!"

He summoned his last strength, looking at the two of them, his eyes full of urgency and pleading: "You two, heirs of the Medicine Sect, perhaps you alone can stop her! The Divine Farmer Cauldron and the Yin Yang Jade Pendant share the same origin; perhaps you have a chance…"

He struggled, trying to raise a hand to point a direction: "Go to the core of the Medicine Cauldron… there is a secret passage there… the entrance is…"

He hadn't finished speaking—

Boom—

A thunderous roar like an explosion suddenly came from the deepest part of the Qin family manor!

The commotion, as if an earth dragon were turning over, shook the entire stone chamber violently, dust from the ceiling raining down!

Immediately following, a violently turbulent, chaotic surge of energy, like a volcanic eruption, shot up from the direction of the Medicine Cauldron, instantly sweeping across the entire Qin family manor!

Ah—!

What's happening?

The Medicine Cauldron! The Medicine Cauldron has lost control!

From outside came countless terrified screams and the chaotic sound of people running in disarray!

Zhang Jun and Lin Xue's faces instantly turned deathly pale! They clearly felt that the energy was frenzied beyond measure, filled with a destructive aura; the Qin family manor's defensive formations, before this power, were as flimsy as paper, cracking and shattering everywhere! Many powerful auras hidden in the dark, guarding the Qin family, were now fully exposed, shocked and angry, trying to stabilize the situation, but they could not withstand it at all!

The Qin family was thrown into utter chaos!

"No good! She actually forced it to start!" Qin Boyan's face lost its last trace of color as he shouted hoarsely.

At the same time, the forbidden ground where the Medicine Cauldron resides.

Smoke and dust filled the air, energy surged wildly.

Qin Yueyao, dressed in plain robes, was covered in dust, even a trace of blood at the corner of her mouth, her face grim to the extreme. She stood before the frantically trembling, light-flashing Divine Farmer Cauldron, her hands flying to form seals, desperately trying to suppress the rampaging terrifying power, but the Divine Farmer Cauldron, like an awakened ferocious beast, utterly ignored her commands!

At the very moment the Qin family's interior descended into chaos and its defenses gaped with huge holes!

Outside the manor, the Black Judge, who had been lurking and watching, flashed a murderous light in his eyes!

"Hahaha! Heaven helps me! The Qin family is digging its own grave!" He let out a piercing, manic laugh: "The opportunity to scoop up the leftovers has come! Everyone, follow me in the charge! Take the Qin family and seize the Divine Farmer Cauldron!"

The already assembled experts of the Shadow organization, together with the various monsters and evil spirits he had temporarily recruited, who had long coveted the Qin family's and Medicine Sect's treasures, like wolves scenting blood, instantly surged from all directions toward the Qin family manor, whose defenses were wide open, launching the fiercest assault!

Cries of battle! Clashes of weapons! Explosions of energy! Instantly they rang through the night sky! Inside the stone chamber, Zhang Jun and Lin Xue clearly sensed the upheaval outside!

The Qin family's Medicine Cauldron has lost control! The Black Judge took advantage of the fire to loot, leading a fierce assault! Meanwhile, the chained Qin Boyan, using his last strength, gazed at them, his eyes full of anxiety and pleading!

In an instant, Zhang Jun and Lin Xue felt their minds about to explode!

The stone chamber shuddered violently; stones from the ceiling and walls rained down, striking the ground with loud bangs. Outside, battle cries, the booming explosions of clashing magical treasures, the dying screams and panicked shouts mingled into one, like the apocalypse descending, nearly overturning this deep underground chamber completely!

Zhang Jun and Lin Xue's faces turned deathly white at the same time, their hearts pounding like drums in their chests.

The last glimmer of light in Qin Boyan's eyes faded, his gaunt face filled with deathly ash despair: "It's over… it's all over… she still… made her move!"