Chapter 55

In the hidden stone cave far from the Five Elements Demon-Sealing Basin, Lin Xuan slowly opened his eyes and spat out a turbid breath. The elixir power melted, the consumed spiritual energy had been restored by seven or eight, and the slight shock brought by the battle with Elder Youquan also subsided.

He did not act immediately, but sank his mind into the system space and took out the Youming Soul-Suppressing Token (fragment) that triggered the abnormal movement.

The token was still dim, but holding it in his hand, he could clearly feel that it was continuously transmitting a weak, longing-like palpitation toward the basin direction.

"System, deep analysis of the energy connection and information interaction between the Soul-Suppressing Token and the basin seal."

【Ding! Command confirmed, consuming 5% energy for deep traceability analysis...】

【Analyzing... Detected same-origin law fluctuations. The law fragments contained within the Youming Soul-Suppressing Token have a high degree of connection with the basin core seal, suspected to be different components of the same system, or one of the key tokens for controlling/reinforcing the seal.】

【Information interaction analysis: The Soul-Suppressing Token is passively receiving some kind of 'call' or 'status information' from the seal core, the information is extremely incomplete, unable to be fully interpreted. Keyword fragments captured: '... suppress... imbalance... supplement...'】

Suppress? Imbalance? Supplement?

Lin Xuan's gaze sharpened. Combining these few key phrases, the information revealed was thought-provoking. This Youming Soul-Suppressing Token, could it be that it was not a magic treasure used by the Youming Sect to do evil, but... an orthodox token used to suppress that ancient demon? Just because it was incomplete, it fell outside and was obtained by the Youming Sect?

And the "imbalance" of the basin seal, was it because it lacked key components like the Soul-Suppressing Token? Did the Youming Sect and the demonic race attack the stone pillars to aggravate this imbalance, thereby releasing the demon?

If this were true, then the importance of this Youming Soul-Suppressing Token would far exceed his imagination! It might not be a key, but a lock core! It was the key to maintaining the stability of the seal!

"Must go to the seal core area to take a look!" Lin Xuan made up his mind. Speculation on the periphery was useless; only by visiting the scene could he figure out the truth. But now the edge of the basin was surrounded by experts, and the Youming Sect and the demonic race hated him to the bone; going directly was no different from throwing himself into a net.

He needed a new identity, or a chaotic timing.

He put away the Soul-Suppressing Token and took out the jade slip obtained from the Five Elements Loose Cultivator's cave again, carefully studying the fragmentary map about the "Five Elements Demon-Sealing Land" again.

The map marked several relatively safe paths and several Five Elements attribute opportunity points that might exist. His gaze fell on one of the winding paths that seemed to detour extremely far; the end of this path pointed to... below the basin core area? There was also a blurred mark on the edge of the map, annotated with small characters beside it: "Eye of Earth Vein Intersection, Gap of Five Elements Flow, may lead to the nether."

"Eye of Earth Vein Intersection? Gap of Five Elements Flow?" Lin Xuan's heart stirred, and the "Eye of Truth" coordinated with the system to perform 3D deduction on the map.

【Deduction complete: According to the map information and energy flow model, this place should be one of the foundation energy nodes of the basin seal array. The Five Elements power flows and intersects here, and due to the long years or the loosening of the seal, there may be subtle energy gaps. Theoretically, there is a possibility of sneaking into the bottom of the seal core through this place, but the risk is extremely high, and it is extremely easy to be strangled by the chaotic Five Elements power or trigger the array.】

High risk, high return! This might be the only way to avoid frontal conflict and reach the core directly!

Having made up his mind, Lin Xuan no longer hesitated. He did not go directly to that mark point, but first went toward another direction marked on the map—a mineral vein point that might breed "Geng Metal Spirit Essence."

He wanted to build a new "disguise" for himself.

Relying on "Shrinking the Earth into an Inch" and "Shadow Step," he avoided some wandering Mystical Realm demonic beasts and scattered cultivators, and soon arrived at that area. This was a valley with strange rocks, and the air was filled with sharp metal baleful aura.

He didn't bother to mine the mineral vein, but directly used Chaos spiritual energy to forcibly strip and refine several strands of the purest Geng Metal aura from the depths of the mountain. The process consumed a little spiritual energy, but for him now, it was nothing.

After obtaining the Geng Metal aura, he found a hidden place and began to operate the "Nine Transformations Chaos Scripture," carefully guiding the Chaos spiritual energy to simulate and fuse this strand of Geng Metal aura.

This time, what he had to do was not simple aura simulation, but a deeper level of "attribute disguise"!

Chaos gives birth to all things, and can also transform into all things. He wanted to temporarily disguise himself as a sword cultivator who mainly practiced metal-attribute techniques and was full of baleful aura!

This was an extremely delicate process, requiring the perfect integration of Geng Metal aura into his own spiritual energy field and even spiritual sense fluctuations. He was fully focused, adjusting bit by bit, failing several times, and spending most of the day.

Finally, when he stood up again, his aura had changed drastically!

The original profound obscurity disappeared, replaced by a sharp edge that seemed to be able to cut everything! The spiritual energy fluctuation carried the sharpness and baleful aura of the metal attribute, and when his eyes opened and closed, sword light seemed to flicker. At this moment, he looked like a late-stage Golden Core sword cultivator who had been immersed in killing and sword path for many years, with a lonely and cold personality!

He took out the Mystic Heavy Ruler, injected spiritual energy, the ruler hummed, the gray Chaos airflow on the ruler body retracted, and instead radiated a sharp dark golden light, looking like a heavy sword with a strange shape.

"Not bad." Lin Xuan felt his own changes and nodded with satisfaction. As long as he didn't use the fundamental characteristics of Chaos spiritual energy, relying only on aura and appearance, no one below the Nascent Soul stage could see through his disguise.

"From now on, I am the rogue cultivator 'Jin Shisan'." He randomly gave himself a code name.

Having prepared the disguise, he no longer delayed and, according to the map's guidance, sneaked toward the direction marked "Eye of Earth Vein Intersection."

The journey was uneventful; he deliberately avoided crowded places and chose steep and remote paths. During this time, he encountered several waves of cultivators, and feeling the sharp baleful aura he didn't bother to hide, most chose to avoid him, and no one came to provoke him.

A few days later, he arrived at his destination.

This was a huge, colorful swamp. Bubbles kept popping up in the swamp, emitting poisonous miasma containing Five Elements power. In the center of the swamp, there was a five-colored vortex that kept rotating; the vortex was not big, only allowing one person to pass, but it radiated terrifying energy fluctuations, as if connecting to the depths of the ground. That was the "Gap of Five Elements Flow" marked on the map!

Lin Xuan could clearly feel that after the Youming Soul-Suppressing Token arrived here, the palpitation became more obvious, and even a faint pulling force came, pointing to the five-colored vortex!

"This is it!" He took a deep breath and did not rush in immediately. He carefully observed the rotation law and energy fluctuation of the vortex, and the "Eye of Truth" fully analyzed the moment when it was relatively stable.

【Analysis complete: The vortex energy operation has periodicity, and a low energy period of about 0.5 seconds will appear every thirty breaths, with the most gentle fluctuation. This is the best time to enter.】

Now! Lin Xuan looked at the moment of a low energy period, spread the disguised metal-attribute spiritual energy all over his body, and at the same time secretly mobilized a strand of Chaos spiritual energy to protect his core, his figure turned into a sharp golden light, and without hesitation, shot into the five-colored vortex!

Boom!

Once in the vortex, it was as if he had fallen into a boiling Five Elements ocean! Violent and chaotic Five Elements power pressed from all directions, metal spears and iron horses, flames burning the body, giant trees entangling, floods flooding the sky, earth overturning... attack intentions of various attributes impacted his mind and protective spiritual light in turn!

He fully maintained the stability of the metal-attribute disguise, and at the same time relied on the inclusiveness of Chaos spiritual energy and the strong defense of the "Nine Transformations Lei Gang Body" to resist hard. The Mystic Heavy Ruler waved, cutting open strands of condensed energy turbulence.

This channel was not long, but extremely dangerous. In just a few breaths, his protective spiritual light flickered violently, consuming greatly.

Swish!

Light appeared ahead, the exit was in sight!

Lin Xuan's spirit shook, and he accelerated violently to rush out!

Plop!

He fell on the hard and cold ground, and the pressure around his body suddenly lightened. He immediately sprang up and looked around vigilantly.

This was a huge underground tunnel, wide enough for dozens of people to walk side by side, and the walls and dome were cast from some kind of pitch-black metal, engraved with dense, extremely complex runes; these runes were currently radiating faint spiritual light of various colors, clearly operating continuously. The air was filled with pure but extremely chaotic Five Elements spiritual energy, and a... ancient and evil pressure that made the soul tremble!

He was currently located at an inconspicuous fork in this giant rune tunnel. And the Youming Soul-Suppressing Token in his arms was vibrating more violently than ever, pointing to the depths of the tunnel!

He successfully sneaked into the interior of the seal array!

However, before he could investigate carefully, a burst of intense fighting sounds and angry roars came from ahead of the tunnel!

"Stop them! Must not let them approach the core!"

"Hehehe... just relying on you few remnants, you want to stop our Holy Sect's great event?"

"Guarding the seal is our duty! No regrets even in death!"

Lin Xuan's heart tightened, he restrained all his aura, and like a shadow, stuck to the wall, sneaking forward silently.

Turning a corner, the scene ahead made him gasp!

Only to see a tragic slaughter going on in the wide tunnel!

One side was seven or eight... puppets? No, more like ancient cultivator spirits with residual war souls, wearing ancient standard armor, but the armor was damaged in many places and their auras were declining! They held broken weapons, formed a battle array, and guarded a giant metal door covered in runes behind them to the death. These spirits had varying cultivation bases, ranging from early to late-stage Golden Core, but each had a firm gaze, carrying a tragic momentum of being ready to die!

And attacking them were Youming Sect cultivators! There were more than ten people, and the leaders were two peak Golden Core Elders, one of whom was Youquan! They drove various ghost objects, Yin thunder, and bone banners, attacking the battle array crazily. Several spirits and two Youming Sect disciples' corpses were already lying on the ground.

Clearly, the Youming Sect didn't know what method they used, but they also found the path, attacked into the interior of this seal, and were trying to break through the defense of these ancient guardians to enter behind that door!

And behind that door, it was probably the true core of the seal, where the ancient demon was suppressed!

Lin Xuan hid in the shadows, his eyes flickering. The situation was more complex and dangerous than he expected!

Should he sneak in during the chaos and find the mystery of the Soul-Suppressing Token? Or... help these guardian spirits and stop the Youming Sect?

He looked at the Soul-Suppressing Token vibrating non-stop in his arms, and then looked at those ancient spirits who were fighting to the death without retreating even though their bodies were broken, and instantly made a decision in his heart.

The demon must not be released! For public and private reasons, the Youming Sect must be stopped!

But he wouldn't be stupid enough to rush out and fight hard. His gaze fell on the flank of the battlefield, on several Youming Sect disciples who were controlling the array and trying to weaken the spirit battle array.

He circled around like a hunting leopard in the dark night, silently.

"Geng Metal Sword Qi, slash!"

He lowered his voice, simulated the hoarse voice of a metal-attribute sword cultivator, fingers together like a sword, and a dark golden sword qi condensed to the extreme and radiating sharp baleful aura shot toward those unsuspecting Youming Sect disciples like a poisonous snake coming out of a hole!

(End of Chapter 55)