Chapter 519

It was not surprising to Hua Changxi that various forces of the human race had sent personnel to infiltrate the depths of the Nine Nether; nor was she surprised that those infiltrators were gradually returning.

However, seeing that more than half of the returning cultivators had ignited black flames, her mood grew somewhat somber.

Shura Sect!

There was no need to guess—the black flames ignited by those cultivators were definitely related to the Shura Sect.

Moreover, the Shura Sect's range of activity in the Nine Nether was vast; she had killed one batch, but other batches were still active elsewhere.

Above the Nine Nether Auction House, Su Mingyue would occasionally glance over at the Human Auction House across the way, her gaze especially icy, and when she looked at the Imperial Seat, she revealed a strong killing intent.

"You, come here!"

Su Mingyue glanced at the hourglass, which was nearly empty, and called over the ghost clan cultivator who had previously used a bone umbrella to block the attack of the Lady of the Netherworld Flowerless, handing him a list: "Take a few subordinates and go exchange these supplies."

The ghost clan cultivator Chu Junyi stepped forward, respectfully taking the list, and quickly glanced at Su Mingyue, a trace of reluctance in his eyes: "I will not fail your expectations."

Su Mingyue merely gave a faint "Mm," not even looking at Chu Junyi.

Chu Junyi said no more and quickly left the Nine Nether Auction House with four subordinates.

Lady White Bones watched the five leave, thoughtfully glancing at Su Mingyue.

Nether King Su Mingyue seemed to treat Chu Junyi somewhat specially. Could she be the Nether King who had dealings with the Demon Suppression Army?

After leading Meng Ziyu and the other three out of the Nine Nether Auction House, Chu Junyi looked up at the building, then quickly strode toward the bustling Fourth-Grade Nine Nether Stallway.

"The auction is about to end!"

"We need to quickly find a chance to turn back into humans and return to the human stalls."

The five of them wove between the various stalls, and soon their figures were swallowed by the crowd of Nine Nether beings.

At the same time, at the Human Auction House, additional figures had appeared among the seats of the various holy lands, guardian families, the imperial clan, and other powerful aristocratic families.

Tong Yao, Jing Le, and Yan Zhenzhen quickly exchanged glances.

"Sixteenth Elder."

Xia Zhen walked straight to the Dan Saint Hall's seats, sat down beside Meng Qingyao, and shook his head at Xia Ji, who was next to her.

Xia Ji, seeing his guilty expression, said, "I'm just glad you came back safely."

Xia Zhen glanced at the various Secret Realm Masters of the Dan Saint Hall, and seeing their intense attention on his movements, his face showed hesitation and reluctance.

Information had always been extremely important.

Especially first-hand information of all kinds.

Xia Zhen was well aware that the intelligence they had gathered along the way during this deep infiltration into the Nine Nether was extremely crucial.

Perhaps it could be used to win over some Secret Realm Masters; even if he couldn't win them over, he could at least make them aware of the Xia family's strength.

With that in mind, Xia Zhen suppressed his hesitation and prepared to share the gains from this expedition.

Before taking their seats, every faction set up soundproofing arrays to facilitate communication, so he wasn't worried about his words being overheard by others.

"Of the forces that infiltrated the depths of the Nine Nether this time, except for the Shura Sect, almost none of the others suffered significant losses."

Hearing this, the members of the Dan Saint Hall all showed delighted expressions.

Even if the various major factions were usually in competition, they remained clear-headed in the struggle between the human realm and the Nine Nether.

Meng Qingyao smiled and said, "That's good; after all, those sent out were all elites of the human race."

Hearing this, Xia Zhen shook his head: "The Nine Nether has more experts than we imagined. The reason for so few casualties this time is that someone drew away the attention of the Nine Nether's various clans."

Meng Qingyao was stunned for a moment, then hesitantly asked, "That human person?"

Xia Zhen nodded.

Meng Qingyao was stunned again and exclaimed in surprise, "The rumors about 'one human' are true? Has there really appeared a single human who has thrown the Nine Nether into chaos?"

Dongfang Hao, Dongfang Xu, and all the Secret Realm Masters were also staring intently at Xia Zhen, awaiting his reply.

Xia Zhen shook his head: "I don't know. But..."

"The Underworld Blade has appeared—that much is true."

"The Netherworld Deer has appeared, and that is also true."

"Lady Lycoris had her clone destroyed; Lady Crimson Nightmare, renowned in the Nine Nethers for her nightmare arts, vanished mysteriously, and her manor was burglarized—all of that is also true."

After hearing this, Dongfang Hao asked in confusion, "How could these be related to the human race?"

Xia Zhen said, "Because a peak-king-rank nightmare tapir personally testified that the soul race being who rode the Netherworld Deer and seized the key to the Nine Nether Soul Realm was actually a human in disguise."

"It also said that human stole ten Nine-Orifice Exquisite Soul Hearts from it."

Dongfang Hao shook his head and said, "That nightmare tapir is definitely lying. A human could not possibly summon the Netherworld Deer, the envoy of the Nine Nether Path!"

Xia Ji, seeing Xia Zhen silent, asked, "What, do you think the nightmare tapir wasn't lying?"

Xia Zhen nodded. "Not to mention that a peak-king-rank great demon has no reason to lie, especially using such a shameful method as 'having its home robbed.'"

"More importantly, on the way back, I learned a piece of news from the soul race."

"Although the Netherworld Deer is a path envoy, it enjoys listening to soul ballads."

"That is to say, one doesn't need to be a strong practitioner who has walked the Nine Nether Path; as long as one can play a soul ballad, one can summon the Netherworld Deer."

"And soul ballads can also be played by humans."

Gu Jinfan spoke up: "However, as far as I know, soul ballads are extremely difficult to play. Even among the soul race, who specialize in the soul path, it's rare for even one person in a thousand years to be able to play a soul ballad."

Xia Zhen still insisted on his view: "Difficult to play does not mean absolutely impossible."

"Under the great trend of spiritual energy revival, opportunities emerge endlessly; there is simply no such thing as absolutely impossible."

Gu Jinfan also felt these words were reasonable, but who could have such ability?

Xia Ji narrowed his eyes. "If Shiliu's guess is true, then the key to the Nine Nether Soul Realm is in human hands."

Meng Qingyao looked over. "Master, what exactly is the Nine Nether Soul Realm?"

Xia Ji: "It's a secret realm, a secret realm conceived by the Soul River!"

Upon hearing this, everyone understood the preciousness of the Nine Nether Soul Realm.

Most of the secret realm masters had already opened their Spiritual Platforms, and they knew well that after cultivators open their Spiritual Platforms, they need to cultivate both spiritual power and soul power, with soul power being the primary focus.

After the Spiritual Platform stage comes the Spirit Condensation stage.

To enter the Spirit Condensation stage, without a large amount of soul power to condense a Primordial Spirit, one cannot break through the stage.

The mortal world is rich in spiritual energy, but soul power is insufficient. As a result, after many cultivators enter the Spiritual Platform stage, their cultivation progress begins to slow down.

Xia Ji murmured, "Who could that person be?"

Similar conversations were quietly taking place among other human factions.

After Wei Zhenjie learned that the key to the Nine Nether Soul Realm might really have fallen into human hands, his excitement almost overflowed his expression.

However, because Chu Junyi and the other four had not yet returned, his inner worry suppressed the excitement.

On the Nine Nether Stall Path, Hua Changxi, seeing that many of those human cultivators who had ignited black flames had entered the Mortal World Auction House, stopped paying them much attention.

Nowadays, each stall path was becoming increasingly boisterous and noisy.

Because the auction was nearing its end, both stall owners and traders had become somewhat impatient, with hardly any bargaining process left; both sides of a transaction were eager to complete it quickly.

"Hm?"

Because she had been watched by the Styx River man the whole time, Hua Changxi had never found an opportunity to transform. Suddenly, she sensed a familiar aura.

She abruptly turned around, her gaze like lightning, piercing through the surging figures, and quickly locked onto a male human cultivator wearing a Qilin mask.

That aura...

A magical artifact, once it acknowledges a master, will carry the master's aura.

At that moment, Hua Changxi sensed her own aura on that male human cultivator.

Since she began cultivating, she had only lost one magical artifact—a Buddhist prayer bead bracelet!

In an instant, excitement appeared in Hua Changxi's eyes. Heaven knows how much she wanted to retrieve that prayer bead bracelet.

Losing the bracelet itself was not a big deal, but mainly, the ten Qihuang Tokens and the Totem Golden Bowl inside it could not be lost.

Hua Changxi's gaze fixed straight on the Xuanhuang-colored sword held in the right hand of that male human cultivator.

Tied to the end of the sword's hilt was a string of plain Buddhist prayer beads!

Seeing the long-lost Buddhist prayer bead bracelet, Hua Changxi wanted to dash over and retrieve her belongings immediately, but soon she noticed another astonishing matter.

It's him!

She recognized that male human cultivator and the four people behind him—they were precisely the five human cultivators from the Yellow Springs Ancient Path.

These five people hadn't died!

Hua Changxi also thought of the five ghost clansmen who had always been by Lady White Bone's side...

If those five ghost clansmen were really turned from five humans, then these five people were truly formidable—they had even deceived her Truth-Seeing Eyes!

Now was not the time to delve into this; Hua Changxi suppressed her urge to investigate and quickly approached the five.

Everyone was busy completing trades, packed together—it was the perfect opportunity to quietly 'retrieve' the Buddhist prayer bead bracelet.

Hua Changxi weaved through the crowd, pushing past one person after another.

Unfortunately, as she accelerated, the five ahead also accelerated.

Chu Junyi sensed he was being watched immediately and quickly glanced with the corner of his eye, discovering it was a Jiuyou rogue cultivator.

This immediately made him think of many things.

Why was that Jiuyou rogue cultivator targeting him?

Could it be that some Jiuyou expert had discovered his relationship with his grandaunt?

They had been very careful when turning back from 'ghost clan' to humans; logically, no one should have noticed.

Unless someone had been watching them all along.

"Chief, there's a tail behind us."

The Demon-Suppressing Army had fought through seas of corpses and mountains of blood time and again, so even though Hua Changxi was very careful, Meng Ziyu and the other three still detected something amiss.

Chu Junyi looked up at the hourglass that was almost empty and the stone platform slowly sinking into the ground, a fierce light flashing in his eyes: "Lead that rogue cultivator into the Five Directions Grand Array."

?? Dear readers, the plots of the previous two chapters have been slightly revised.