Chapter 425: Gui Xie

"This is..." Yan Buji stood in front of the Cloud Fortress, looking around.

Not to mention the winged race's vengeful souls in the trench, could such a massive fortress be the winged race's war fortress?

The cloud mist was entwined with dark mist; although the rear was unseen, the fortress likely retained some protective capability even if it had been struck down, otherwise it wouldn't be sealed here.

Yan Buji walked over, looking around.

"This seal... can't be broken."

Yan Buji examined it closely and found the difficulty of the seal greater than he had imagined; it was probably not set by an ordinary cultivator.

Immediately, Yan Buji circled the fortress for a long time and finally discovered a pierced opening at the rear; judging by its position, it seemed to have been penetrated from bottom to top, its direction changing when it fell into the trench.

Yan Buji saw that the seal in front of the opening was even stronger than the previous one, and his complexion darkened instantly.

The blazing light of his technique indicated that the Nine Heavens Qi must be inside; he hoped it was the one he was looking for!

But how to get in?

Yan Buji looked around and touched the dark mist.

"Ghost Qi?"

If he tried to break the seal by force, it would be over before he even began.

For that reason, Yan Buji did not intend to use brute force, yet without knowing how to dispel it, he could not enter.

"But if..." Yan Buji produced the Rift Scepter and probed.

"Sure enough, the Space Power of the Rift Scepter is useful."

It must be the Rift Void Stone's powerful spatial traversal ability combined with the Rift Scepter's innate capacity to command ghostly entities, which prevented the seal from counterattacking.

In other words, Yan Buji fed a portion of the Rift Scepter's power into the seal; since no problem arose, it was straightforward.

Yan Buji began to try using the Rift Scepter's power to interfere with the seal's operation.

In a short while, Yan Buji successfully shattered the dark mist seal before him; however, seeing the dark mist writhing and likely to restore soon, he did not hesitate and stepped through.

Upon entering the interior of the fortress, its structure seemed to be in the same lineage as the metal plates Yan Buji had found outside.

A wide corridor, metallic construction, and flowing array patterns on it—though long ruined, they still faintly revealed the fortress's former might.

"Impressive, they used all this metal as Accumulation Material, serving only as basic framework; according to Accumulation Device theory, this fortress, though large, is extremely streamlined..."

Indeed, the principle of great things being simplified.

In other words, by Accumulation Device theory, the fortress consists of only two kinds of Accumulation Material—from the external cloud mist to the internal metal structure—without any superfluous material combinations.

And these metal plates seem to be forged after melting multiple metals...

"Prime Iron?!"

Yan Buji's pupils contracted as he suddenly recalled something.

The fortress's metal structure couldn't have been forged entirely from Prime Iron alloy, could it?

The external cloud mist seemed to possess floating and flying ability, while the Prime Iron alloy ensured the fortress's defensive strength.

And what linked them were the patterns on those Prime Iron alloy plates, possibly a unique winged race sealing technique rather than an array.

Yet the corridor was square, all Prime Iron alloy plates tightly sealed with no nail marks, each piece arranged with a tidy aesthetic.

After walking along the corridor for a while, Yan Buji entered a room.

Seeing scattered jade slips in the room, Yan Buji picked them up and sensed them.

After a long time, Yan Buji finally sensed something amiss: "Gu Na Xie tribe?"

Yan Buji wore a puzzled expression; the jade slips seemed so ancient that much of their information had faded.

But he could confirm that this Gu Na Xie tribe... was none other than the Heavenly Demon Clan.

In other words, the Heavenly Demon Clan of the Nine Heavens is the Gu Na Xie tribe, apparently originating from a primordial heavenly demon.

The other jade slips recorded even sparser information, but Yan Buji was pleased to finally find news about the Primordial White Day Qi!

It turned out that within this Cloud Fortress lay an Accumulation Device that harnessed Primordial Sky Qi to unleash great power; that device should contain the Primordial White Day Qi he sought!

Boom!

Huh?!

Yan Buji looked up, scanning the surroundings: "What's happening?"

On the other side.

In a spacious great hall, vast numbers of winged race vengeful souls surged, trapping any intruder tightly.

These few were fighting, but the battle had clearly lasted long; suddenly a blast rang out, striking one of them!

"Qian Daoist!!"

The Golden Core Cultivator's eyes widened, his abdomen pierced by a burst of white Qi, his Golden Core destroyed, and he perished!

Lie Huo turned, glaring at the three‑meter‑tall, four‑winged winged‑human vengeful soul before him: "Senior Gui Xie, why did you kill my Daoist?!"

Gui Xie?!

A few cultivators beside them stared at Lie Huo in shock: "So this is the Nascent Soul True Lord ghost cultivator you mentioned?!"

"Jie Jie, the scoundrel of Sun‑Moon Palace, who back then trapped the Elder Ancestor in an attempt to keep me forever in this ghostly place, and now you bring up the Elder Ancestor?"

Trapping people?

The remaining few Golden Core stage cultivators turned toward Lie Huo, eyes filled with caution.

Lie Huo gritted his teeth: "Everyone, do not take his word at face value! Back then it was clearly he who, on the battlefield, disregarding humanity, secretly stole the corpse of a fallen cultivator to use for corpse‑refining; with so many corpse‑refiners out there, can't you tell whose method this is?!"

As soon as he said that, the others nodded silently.

Indeed, this matched their preconceived notions of demonic cultivators.

And after all, these were war dead; how could he steal their bodies for corpse‑refining?

That makes no sense morally or logically.

But if the opponent truly is at the Nascent Soul stage, that would be disastrous!

Gui Xie let out a cold laugh: "Old Ancestor, back then you were invited by your Sun Moon Palace to come fight! It was agreed that the corpses of those who died in battle would belong to me, but later you turned against me and tried to have me perish together with the Wing Clan—and you actually did!"

If not for that, how could the Old Ancestor survive in this neither-human nor-bird appearance! Born as a human, how could I endure this humiliation! The Old Ancestor swears to heaven: today I will kill you few brats, and later I will make your Sun Moon Palace run with blood!

Upon hearing this, the others' faces changed instantly, they stepped back a few paces and said: "Senior Gui Xie, this is your grudge with the Sun Moon Palace; it has nothing to do with us, right?"

Yes, grievances have heads and debts have owners; we swear on our Dao Heart not to reveal today's events—will you, sir, with your magnanimity, let us go?

Gui Xie chuckled: "Fine, you few swear not to speak of this and never be my enemy in this lifetime, and the Old Ancestor will let you go."

Lie Huo immediately became anxious upon hearing this, and said: "Fellow Daoists, Gui Xie has just recovered; his soul and spirit are not yet fully coalesced, and he has no physical body for him to possess. At present his strength is less than one-tenth—this is the perfect opportunity for us to strike and exterminate the demons; we must not fall for his scheme to sow discord!"