Chapter 124: A Thread of Yun Tingche's Life

Everyone's hearts sank. Space was chaotic, direction lost, strong enemies closed in, and now they had fallen into the Ancient Ferocious Formation; Xiao Muyu's aura remained faint and blurred, time ticking by second by second.

A sense of despair began to spread silently.

Just then, Yun Tingliao, who was barely regulating his breath to suppress his injuries, suddenly lifted his head, staring fixedly at a certain direction deep within the formation, his voice changing from extreme shock:

"Wait…… that feeling…… is wrong! Besides my eldest brother's painful imprint of imprisonment, how…… how could there also be…… my second brother Yun Tingche's aura of power?! Though extremely faint, …… it's alive! How could he possibly be here?!"

Yun Tingliao's words struck like thunder, exploding atop everyone's already heavy hearts.

"Yun Tingche?" Wei Yuzhu questioned doubtfully, "Hasn't he already perished many years ago? Everyone in the Yao Realm knows the Yao Realm's Second Prince Yun Tingche was a youthful talent, but his body and soul were destroyed in a great battle centuries ago!"

Luo Changfeng also furrowed his brows: "Could the perception be wrong? Here resentment surges to the heavens, space twists, making illusion easy."

"Impossible!" Yun Tingliao excitedly tried to push himself up, his eyes full of shock and confusion, "My eldest brother's residual power is filled with pain and dead stillness, that's the leftover ash after being tortured to extinction! But my second brother's aura…… though as weak as a candle in the wind, it carries a hint of vitality, a hint…… of the throb of struggling to survive! I won't mistake it! We share the same mother's blood!"

His agitation triggered the poison's outbreak; the toxin of Drunken Spring Breeze was extremely overbearing, having left Shi Ran's sea of consciousness and lacking dual cultivation with a female cultivator, so the poison came on fast and fierce; he desperately suppressed it, yet a thread of blood still flowed from his mouth and nose.

Seeing this, Shi Ran rushed forward, searched for a while, and handed the Pure Heart Pill from her Cosmic Bag to Yun Tingliao, saying, "This pill should temporarily suppress your poison; it's my grandmaster uncle's lifelong research, only three exist—you've struck it rich!"

Luo Changfeng wanted to say something, then swallowed it back; forget it, since the grandmaster uncle gave Shi Ran, she ought to know the dosage, and besides, the master is here, right?

Ling Xiao gave Shi Ran a deep‑look, his face grim to the extreme. He slowly closed his eyes, his powerful divine sense—far beyond ordinary—ceased trying to scan widely and instead, like the finest probe, with great difficulty pierced the layers of obstruction in the Ancient Ferocious Formation, extending and sensing toward the rough direction Yun Tingliao indicated.

After a moment, he snapped his eyes open; a sharp light flashed and vanished.

"Yun Tingliao's perception is correct." Ling Xiao's voice low and certain, "Deep within the core of resentment, there indeed lurks an extremely faint thread of life‑force, its origin demonic power sharing Yun Tingliao's attribute but far more fervent and wild—undoubtedly his brother Yun Tingche. Yet this thread of life is wrapped layer upon layer by resentment, death‑qi, and the formation, barely detectable, more like…… a struggling hold‑on in imprisonment."

This news is more shocking than a mere desperate plight. The Yao Realm's Second Prince, long declared fallen, actually has a thread of life secretly imprisoned in the deadly formation deep within his elder brother's territory? What an earth‑shattering secret! Does Yun Cang know? If he does, why does he tolerate his brother's torment? If he doesn't, who then set up this heaven‑concealing scheme?

All clues point to that vanished altar and the black hand behind it. Imprisoning Yun Tingche, stripping part of Yun Cang's tormenting power to form a spatial anchor lures them here—could the target truly be only Xiao Muyu and the other twenty‑six cultivators, or is there a deeper, more terrifying plot?

"Whoever it is, their scheme must be immense!" Wei Yuzhu said coldly, "Using the remnant soul of a Yao prince and the power of another Yao king as a trap—what a grand move!"

Shi Ran's heart clenched. Xiao Muyu had fallen into such an enemy's hands; every extra moment meant greater danger. "Master, since we've sensed Yun Tingche's position, can we use this to locate, even…… break this formation?"

Ling Xiao's gaze swept over the jagged rocks around them, countless runic derivations flashing in his eyes. "This formation draws on resentment and spatial rifts; it's sinister and deceitful—forceful attack could provoke greater backlash, so we must find the life gate or the formation's eye. Yun Tingche's life‑force is sealed near the eye; perhaps…… his very existence is the key clue to breaking the formation, and maybe the biggest variable."

He looked at Yun Tingliao: "Can you sense the specific pattern of that life‑force fluctuation? Or its link to the resentment core?"

Yun Tingliao endured the pain, extending his perception once more. This time he had a clear target, ignoring the overwhelming anguish and resentment, focusing all effort on catching that faint throb of life.

"……Very faint…… like it's sleeping, or like it's sealed…… but his aura fluctuation seems…… seems to subtly oppose some rhythm of this marsh…… no, more like…… it's being drawn out by this formation……" Yun Tingliao described haltingly, his face growing paler; such fine perception drained him greatly.

"Drawn out?" Luo Changfeng caught the word, "Could this Ancient Ferocious Formation not only trap and kill intruders, but also continuously refine Yun Tingche's thread of life to sustain something…… or nourish something?"

This speculation made everyone's blood run cold. Using the life‑force of a powerful Yao prince's remnant soul as nourishment, whatever is being fed is certainly not benevolent!

"We must act quickly." Ling Xiao declared, "Yun Tingliao, using your bloodline as a guide, focus on sensing where Yun Tingche's life‑force fluctuation is strongest—that's likely the formation's eye, or at least the point nearest it. We'll follow the trace; perhaps we can find a crack."

"Okay!" Yun Tingliao gritted his teeth, once again pressing his hand to the icy ground; silvery demon power, like a fine spiderweb, relying on blood‑kin bonds, struggled through the formation's mist to seize that sole point of light.

"This way!" He abruptly pointed toward a direction in the stone‑labyrinth, "The life‑force fluctuation…… though weak, is clearest in that direction! But…… the killing qi along the path is extremely heavy!"

"No problem." Ling Xiao stepped forward, his Dragon Chant Sword Intent icy, "I'll clear the path. Yuzhu, Changfeng, guard the left and right flanks, watch for any changes. Ranran, take care of him."

Sword light rose again; this time, instead of trying to clear a wide area, it condensed like a thread, precisely slicing the invisible killing qi and spatial folds surging ahead in the direction Yun Tingliao indicated. Where the sword light passed, the distorted scene briefly recovered a moment of clarity, revealing a yet more bizarre path littered with remnants of runic shadows.

Wei Yuzhu and Luo Changfeng followed closely; sword light intertwined with talismans, shattering the vengeful spirit killing shadows that flickered in the stone walls on both sides.

Shi Ran and Yun Tingliao remained within this protective barrier; to be safe, Shi Ran wholeheartedly used spiritual and demonic power to sustain a huge gold‑black shield, for the moment unable to attend to Yun Tingliao.

Wei Yuzhu stood on Yun Tingliao's side when a sudden killing qi struck; she swiftly blocked it with keen eyes and quick hands, yet her stance wavered, nearly toppling—Yun Tingliao steadied her, and she lifted her gaze to meet a pair of peach‑blossom eyes.

Yun Tingliao, after supporting her, let go with a low "Be careful!", then turned his gaze to continue pointing the direction.

Wei Yuzhu pressed her lips, suppressing the sudden sourness welling in her heart, and continued holding her position.

Every step they took was heart‑pounding; the formation's counterattacks came in endless waves—sometimes illusions bloomed, snagging inner demons; sometimes killing qi condensed into blades, striking silently; sometimes space shifted, a single step plunging into an abyss. Only Ling Xiao's profound grasp of spatial law and mighty strength forced a passage, and Yun Tingliao's unwillingness to drain his own blood‑line guidance kept them going.

Shi Ran, while maintaining the shield, kept watch on Yun Tingliao, feeling his body tremble and his demon power wane; she could not substitute for him, only continually feeding him power to keep him conscious and perceptive.

Finally, after who‑knows‑how‑many killing qi had been cut and how many spatial shifts endured, the group burst out of an extremely dangerous phantom‑killing passage.

The scene before them opened up, yet it made their scalps tingle.

They seemed to have arrived at a vast underground cavity at the swamp's bottom. At its center lay not the expected altar, but an enormous black vortex formed from condensed black resentment, foul mire, and countless anguished wails of remnant souls.

The vortex turned slowly, emitting a terrifying suction that devoured everything, not even light escaping. At its heart, a pinpoint of extremely faint silver light flickered stubbornly—that was Yun Tingche's life‑force, yet it was being entwined and tugged by countless black, tendril‑like strands of resentment, as if it might be utterly devoured at any moment.

What was even more shocking was that, hovering directly above the vortex, a fractured black stone tablet floated!

The tablet's material was neither metal nor stone, covered in cracks, its surface etched with ancient, sinister runes that now emitted a dim black glow, echoing the resentment vortex below—truly the core eye of the entire Ancient Ferocious Formation!

The aura of this stone tablet shares the same source as the black‑mist giant hand that had attacked them earlier and the black skull that devoured souls, yet its power surpasses theirs by a hundredfold!

"That's the place!" Yun Tingliao cried weakly, his gaze locked on the faint silver point at the vortex's center, "Second brother…… he's inside that vortex! Suppressed by that stone tablet!"

Everyone's eyes focused on that fractured black stone tablet. The key to breaking the formation, Yun Tingche's life‑force, and even the hope of escaping this deadly place—all seemed tied to this object.

However, the terrifying energy ripple emanating from the resentment vortex could shatter the souls of any cultivator below Imperial rank—not to mention the formidable power inherent in that obviously extraordinary evil stone tablet.

A forcible assault would be tantamount to suicide.

Just as everyone concentrated, racking their brains for a countermeasure, the silver point at the vortex's center seemed to sense the approaching bloodline and flared violently!

At the same moment, the hovering fractured black stone tablet seemed to awaken, its sinister runes suddenly blazing!

Hum——

A low‑pitched hum that pierced straight to the depths of the soul rang out; the resentment in the entire underground cavity instantly boiled! The vortex's spin surged, a tremendous pull came, trying to drag everyone in and crush them.

What's worse, the stone tablet's black light blazed forth, a destructive energy ten times denser than before, icy and dead‑still, rapidly coalescing and locking onto everyone below!

The crisis erupted instantly, soaring to its peak!

"Oh no! The formation is activating at full power!" Ling Xiao's pupils contracted, his Dragon Chant Sword humming, his vast immortal power erupting unreservedly, forming a horizontal ice‑clear sword curtain that spanned heaven and earth, firmly resisting that terrifying suction while shielding everyone behind him.

But the destructive energy condensed on the stone tablet was already nocked; once released, it would surely be a heaven‑shaking, earth‑splitting blow!

"We must interrupt it!" Wei Yuzhu urged, her sword already raised.

"Too late!" Luo Changfeng stared at the black light nearly solidified, his face paling.

At the critical moment——

"Use that!" Shi Ran snapped her gaze to Yun Tingliao, a flash of resolve in her heterochromatic eyes, "Try to resonate with Yun Tingche using your bloodline power! Even if you can only awaken him for an instant, it will disturb the tablet's suppression!"

This is a risky move; it may well provoke the formation into a fiercer backlash, but it might also be the only way to create a sliver of chance!

Yun Tingliao showed no hesitation. He bit his tongue tip hard, spraying a mouthful of silver blood containing his natal essence; his hands quickly formed an ancient bloodline secret seal, pouring all remaining demonic power and will into it, and he hoarsely shouted toward the point of silver light at the vortex's center:

"Second Brother—! Wake up!!!"

The bloodline's summons pierced the roar of resentful power, pierced the barrier of space, and accurately struck the faint vitality that had been sealed layer upon layer and tormented for countless ages.

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

Then——

The silver point of light at the vortex's center suddenly burst forth with unprecedented brilliance!

A howl, as if from the ancient primordial wilderness, filled with endless pain and fury, exploded from the depths of the vortex, shaking the entire underground cavity!

Aoo—!!!

Accompanying this soul-shaking wolf howl, the point of silver light suddenly expanded; although it could not break free from the vortex, it fiercely struck the base of the black stone tablet suppressing it!

Boom!!!

The stone tablet shuddered violently; the evil runes flowing across it instantly fell into disorder, and the impending destructive black light thus stalled momentarily, its energy scattering and backlashing in an instant!

Now!

Lingxiao's eyes flashed with sharp light, seizing this fleeting opportunity!

"Break!"

The Dragon Chant Sword rang out with a clear, lofty sword chime that resonated through the nine heavens; a blade of light condensed to the utmost, as if able to freeze spacetime and sever karma, shot up into the heavens—not toward the vortex, nor toward the stone tablet itself, but precisely at the finest thread of the rune junction revealed on the black stone tablet by the energy backlash and wolf soul impact!

Screech—!

Like the sound of cloth being torn, it rang out!

Where the sword light passed, the rune chain in that area of the stone tablet snapped instantly! Although it did not completely destroy the tablet, it instantly shattered the balance of its energy operation!

The entire ancient nefarious formation shuddered!

The rotation of the resentful-power vortex experienced a momentary pause, and its terrifying suction vanished suddenly.

"Go!"

Lingxiao gave a low shout; the sword light swept up everyone, turning into a shooting star. Taking advantage of the moment when the formation stalled and space temporarily stabilized, without hesitation they shot toward the direction Ling Tingliao had previously sensed, where the true altar might exist!

Behind them came the angry hum of the black stone tablet, the resentful-power vortex's roar as it re-accelerated, and the long, mournful howl of the disturbed wolf soul, now more painful yet tinged with a hint of relief...

They successfully used this shocking turn of events to temporarily escape the deadly formation, but the road ahead remains unknown, and the final fate of that sliver of vitality belonging to Yun Tingche also weighs heavily on everyone's hearts.

Is the true altar really just ahead? Xiao Moyu, are you really there?