Chapter 203: It Should Be Almost Resolved by Now, Right?

The moment his words fell, Lu Yuan didn't even glance back at the three super Malevolent Deities.

He didn't look at Li Guanqi or Fu Yuanshan, whose faces instantly froze in shock and stupefaction.

Without hesitation, he spun around.

With his intact left hand he braced his weakened, slack body—made feeble by his injuries and the sealing of his zhenran.

His legs moved as if kneeling, but his steps were unusually firm, heading quickly into the cave's depths, toward the dim area where the Deity of Beauty had earlier emerged.

He headed fast in the direction of the Yin Malevolence Soul-Refining Platform that imprisoned his master.

Lu Yuan didn't call to the Deity of Beauty, but he knew she would follow.

Li Guanqi and Fu Yuanshan might not understand, but the Deity of Beauty certainly would.

All that would be needed next was Qingwan.

A faint, "as expected" smile crossed her flawless face.

She shook her head slightly, as if to say "impatient," but she showed no hesitation.

Her moon-white skirt fluttered gently; her steps were light, as if she were treading moonlight, and within a few strides she matched Lu Yuan's pace.

She stayed half a body length behind him—not because she couldn't keep up, but as a silent, protective posture.

Her amber eyes scanned the shadowed passage ahead and the surrounding space, which had grown more unstable because of the deities' rampage, with stones collapsing at times, making sure Lu Yuan could pass safely.

One in front, one behind, they turned and left in a way that was utterly natural and utterly abrupt.

They abandoned the battlefield behind them, a place about to be completely submerged by the three rampaging super Malevolent Deities—saturated with destruction and despair.

They left Li Guanqi and Fu Yuanshan, who had just been straining to hold on and now gaped at the sight of their backs.

They left the moon-white figure that had just received Lu Yuan's order and had been lowering her eyes midair.

This sudden, almost brazen move stunned Li Guanqi and Fu Yuanshan—who had been exhausting themselves to fight, pinning their last hopes on Lu Yuan, Qingwan, and the Deity of Beauty—leaving their minds utterly blank.

It was like being struck by an invisible thunderbolt; both men froze in place.

Even the raging qi and blood inside them and their collapsing secret techniques experienced a brief stalling because of this extreme miscalculation.

“???”

Li Guanqi's deep purple eyes, rimmed with bloodshot veins and moments ago full of despair, widened until they were nearly spherical.

He stared fixedly at Lu Yuan and the Deity of Beauty as they turned and left without hesitation, his face registering disbelief and absurdity.

He parted his lips, as if to shout.

But the shock and the surge of qi and blood surged back so violently that he could only utter a short, meaningless sound, as if choked off...

"Shun....."

"!! !"

Fu Yuanshan's wrinkled face, contorted by pain and exhaustion, immediately flushed a liver-like color; his eyes nearly popped out.

One hand clutched his chest while the other trembled, pointing in the direction Lu Yuan and the Deity of Beauty had gone; his lips quivered.

He tried to speak, but a coppery-sweet taste rose in his throat—he almost spat out a mouthful of old blood.

What... what is going on?!

Where was the "act now" and "get rid of them" that was said?!

How could he have run off first after saying those words?! And taken that unfathomable "Deity of Beauty" with him?!

Could it be... Lu Yuan meant for Qingwan to handle the Malevolent Deities by herself?

And he and the Deity of Beauty would use the chance to rescue Li Xiuye below?!

Qingwan alone... could she really deal with these three rampaging super Malevolent Deities?!

They had just personally felt the terrifying might unleashed by the deities—a force no human, or even ordinary "divine power," could easily subdue!

Even if Qingwan was unimaginably strong, to face three equally leveled, utterly frenzied sources of destruction at once...

In a flash, countless chaotic, absurd, and even slightly enraged thoughts—of being abandoned and toyed with—collided wildly in Li Guanqi's and Fu Yuanshan's minds.

But their shock, bewilderment, and anger had no time to be voiced and, in that moment, became irrelevant.

Because the three super Malevolent Deities—now freed from the last slender restraint—reached the peak of their rampaging might!

With the faint interference of Yin-Yang Reverse Passage and Time River Draws Away Killings gone, their pure, frenzied hunger for annihilation erupted like sharks smelling blood.

“Roar—!!!”

“Ssang—!!!”

“Chomp—!!!”

Filth torrents, psychic spikes, surging blood-waves.

Three terrifying assaults, each capable of destroying a city and annihilating souls, surged forward with the purest will to obliterate.

They struck viciously toward Qingwan and the two stunned men below, sweeping and devouring all in their path!

Death had already arrived.

Lu Yuan didn't look back, nor did he try to sense the instantaneous, terrifying energy fluctuations behind him that could have changed heaven and earth.

He gritted his teeth against the surging qi and the stabbing pain in his meridians, gathering his last reserves of strength and will into his legs, and dashed deeper into the cave.

The Deity of Beauty followed close behind, the moon-white hem of her skirt drawing an elegant arc.

She did not hurry like Lu Yuan; her steps were composed, yet she always stayed half a body-length behind him.

Like an invisible shield, she quietly isolated the chaos and destructive aura behind them—along with the occasional falling debris and leaking evil energy—smoothing and dispersing them.

She opened a relatively "safe" channel for Lu Yuan.

The deeper cave was far narrower and far more ominous than the main cavern where Liu Xuanyin and the two deities had been entrenched.

The surrounding rock walls bore an abnormal dark red hue, etched with ancient, now-dimmed sealing runes.

The air was thick with dense underground Yin malevolence and the resentful wails of trapped souls, cold enough to pierce to the bone.

An ordinary person would freeze their soul with a single breath.

Now that the Nine Nether Soul-Refining Chains had been torn by the Deity of Beauty, severing the link to Liu Xuanyin, the array's foundation here had been gravely damaged.

Those underground Yin malevolence currents no longer flowed in order.

They darted about like headless flies, making the tunnel's environment even harsher and more dangerous.

Yet the Deity of Beauty's presence carried a strange aura of purification and calm.

Where she passed, those frenzied, chaotic Yin malevolence currents recoiled like natural enemies and dissipated.

Even the hostile sealing runes on the walls seemed to be "soothed" by an invisible force, losing their last traces of activity.

She did nothing overt—simply existing there cleared most of the obstacles for Lu Yuan.

One in front and one behind, they traveled through the dark, winding passage for about a hundred zhang before the space suddenly opened.

A grim, more terrifying chamber of several zhang across revealed itself.

This must be one of the true cores of the Nine Nether God-Refining Array—the Yin Malevolence Soul-Refining Platform.

At the center stood a square stone platform built from countless black, icy stones that seemed to absorb all light.

About a zhang high, the platform's surface and the surrounding walls and floor were carved with darker, more intricate, more vicious dark-red evil array runes than those above.

But most of the runes had dimmed, even cracked.

Clearly, with Liu Xuanyin's death and the Nine Nether Soul-Refining Chains broken, this soul-refining platform had lost much of its power.

On the platform lay an old man in a tattered cyan Daoist robe, hair gray-white, face gaunt—his breath so faint it was nearly imperceptible.

It was the old man!

His robe was soaked in filthy blood and sweat, torn in many places. Exposed skin was covered in shocking blue-black necrotic wounds from the Yin malevolence.

Especially at his shoulders and clavicle area.

Though the penetrating Nine Nether Soul-Refining Chains had been torn away, they left behind horrifically mangled flesh—deep wounds that exposed bone and even hairline fractures.

Edges of the wounds still exuded strands of cold killing qi, continually eating into the surrounding flesh.

His eyes were tightly closed, brows knotted in pain, face utterly bloodless, lips cracked and purple.

His chest barely rose and fell, like a candle in the wind, ready to go out at any moment.

"Old man!"

Seeing the old man in such a pitiful state, Lu Yuan couldn't help feeling his nose sting.

Despite their constant teasing and goofing around, Lu Yuan truly regarded the old man as his closest person.

So this scene broke his composure.

He swallowed hard, rushed to the stone platform in two quick steps.

His trembling but intact left hand gently rested on the old man's wrist, where the pulse was almost undetectable.

The touch was ice-cold; life barely flickered like a dying candle.

But Lu Yuan did not panic. He inhaled deeply, forcing himself to calm.

He first used the most basic Qi-reading technique to examine the old man's complexion carefully.

Then he peeled back the old man's eyelids to check his pupils and observed the flow of the old man's surrounding aura.

Fortunately, though life was faint and the soul grievously wounded with zhenran nearly exhausted, the Three Souls and Seven Po had not dispersed.

A faint pure-yang Dao flame stubbornly burned in his chest, sustaining the last sliver of origin—thanks to the old man's deep cultivation foundation, and because the Deity of Beauty had arrived in time.

She had torn the Nine Nether Soul-Refining Chains and, using some method, temporarily stabilized his condition; otherwise his soul would already have scattered.

"Soul injured, zhenran depleted, body severely corrupted by Yin malevolence—but the root is not severed yet. He can still be saved."

Lu Yuan quickly diagnosed the situation, settling his mind slightly.

He knew the priority was to remove the old man from this Yin malevolence–saturated place.

Find somewhere safe and pure, then slowly heal and nurture his soul.

"Deity of Beauty, help shield us for a moment. I'll stabilize Master’s wounds and block the Yin malevolence here, then carry him out."

Lu Yuan turned to the Deity of Beauty at his side and spoke solemnly.

She nodded silently without speaking.

She raised her right hand slightly and touched the void around the stone platform with a fingertip.

A soft, pure, moon-white halo spread outward from her fingertip, as if able to cleanse all filth.

It formed a faint dome that enveloped the stone platform where Lu Yuan and Li Xiuye lay.

Within the dome, the lingering Yin malevolence that had been assaulting the old man melted and retreated like snow before a white heat.

Even the air seemed noticeably fresher.

Lu Yuan wasted no time.

Feeling the sluggishness caused by his zhenran being sealed, he forced himself to concentrate.

He summoned the nearly imperceptible zhenran inside his body—diminished by severe injury and the effects of the Spirit-Locking Forbidden Land.

He knew conventional Dao techniques would be difficult to perform now.

But he possessed Zhenlong Temple's secret emergency rescue method, which relied less on zhenran and more on spirit and incantation to draw on the world's remaining spiritual mechanisms.

He formed hand seals with his left hand: thumb pressing the base of the ring finger, index and middle finger together and extended, little finger slightly curved.

He made an austere Soul-Pacifying and Spirit-Settling Seal and suspended it three cun before the old man’s brow.

At the same time he began to chant the Zhenlong Temple's "Shangqing Pacify Spirit and Protect Life Mantra" in a clear, low voice:

"Supreme platform star, respond and never stop."

"Repel evil, bind the specters, protect life and guard the body."

"Wisdom pure and bright, mind and spirit at peace."

"Three Souls forever, Seven Po not lost."

"Urgently, urgently, as by the law's command!"

With each line, the Soul-Pacifying and Spirit-Settling Seal trembled slightly, as if resonating magically with the incantation.

Though zhenran was weak, the profound power within the mantra and Lu Yuan's earnest desire to save his master drew upon the thin, untainted spiritual mechanisms remaining in the surrounding space.

They transformed into faint, warm, serene streams of clear spiritual energy that, guided by Lu Yuan's seal, flowed slowly into Li Xiuye's brow.

They nourished and soothed the old man's badly damaged, nearly scattering soul.

Then Lu Yuan changed his hand seal: thumb, index, and little finger straight, middle finger and ring finger curved and hooked together—forming a Protective Golden Light Seal.

He stopped reciting complex mantras and instead concentrated his mind.

He envisioned a faint golden light rising from his dantian, traveling up his arm to his fingertips.

"Golden light appear swiftly, cover and shield the true man!"

With a low shout, Lu Yuan pressed the Protective Golden Light Seal lightly toward Li Xiuye.

A faint but solid, pale-golden film—like the thinnest silk—instantaneously covered the old man.

This golden light was not a powerful defensive barrier; its main function was to block continued infiltration by outside Yin malevolence.

It locked in the last residual life and yang qi within the old man's body, preventing his condition from worsening during transport.

This was the utmost Lu Yuan could manage in his current state.

After finishing, his face was ashen, cold sweat beaded on his brow, his chest heaving violently and dizziness washing over him.

Even performing these minimal techniques was an enormous strain on his battered body and spirit. Yet he dared not stop or rest.

He inhaled sharply several times, forced himself to turn his back to the platform, and crouched slightly.

"Deity of Beauty, give me a hand."

Lu Yuan said in a low voice.

The Deity of Beauty understood. She extended her flawless right hand and made a gentle gesture toward the unconscious old man.

A soft but irresistible force cradled Li Xiuye, allowing him to be placed steadily and evenly onto Lu Yuan’s back.

This avoided touching the terrifying wounds on his shoulders.

Lu Yuan gritted his teeth, hooked his arms under the old man's knees, braced his waist, and rose up with a sudden heave!

"Move!"

From between his clenched teeth Lu Yuan forced out a single word, then no longer hesitated. He hoisted the unconscious Li Xiuye onto his back and marched toward the path they had come.

The Deity of Beauty followed silently at his side, the moon-white dome continuing to shroud Lu Yuan and the old man.

It shielded them from the passage's still-chaotic Yin malevolence and occasional falling rock.

Through the dim tunnel the three hurriedly jogged toward the cave entrance, where the tremendous energy detonations and destructive aura still echoed.

Lu Yuan mulled over the situation as they ran—given Qingwan's strength, she should have pretty much handled it by now, right?