Chapter 602

Chapter 602: Heaven Clan?

"Why is this happening?"

The sudden turn of events left Wu Qinyun utterly disconcerted.

"The Master truly has a way of predicting it so accurately," Mu Fanyin thought to herself.

"Ancestor Seven, save me!" Wu Shaoyang’s voice was filled with excruciating pain. Every drop of his blood, every wisp of his magical power, was being devoured by the primordial Qi of essence.

Within the vertical eye, mysterious light swirled thickly as an immensely ancient aura permeated the air.

"Shaoyang!"

Gritting his teeth, Wu Qinyun channeled his magic, attempting to forcibly separate Wu Shaoyang from the primordial Qi of essence.

Hum!

His fingertip pressed against Wu Shaoyang’s vertical eye, pouring his magic inward.

But the next instant,

Wu Qinyun’s expression drastically changed. The moment he touched the vertical eye, an overwhelming force of absorption surged through him, madly devouring his vital essence and magical energy.

He wanted to pull away, but it was already too late.

"This primordial Qi of essence seems specifically designed to counter the Witch Clan," Mu Fanyin stated.

"Is it possible that the Witch Master laid this trap to specifically target his own clan?" Bei Di Xuanwu spoke solemnly, a flicker of fear appearing in his eyes.

If true, it would be terrifying indeed.

"It’s less a trap and more of a contingency plan," the Eternal Celestial Lord remarked.

"Huh?"

A surprised exclamation sounded. Ye Li and Feng Wuji arrived at the Ancient Temple with others. Observing the bizarre scene, Ye Li’s gaze flickered, "It seems the hiding place of the Witch Master is about to reveal itself."

Feng Wuji’s heart clenched.

Boom!

At that precise moment,

Master Sixth of the Witch Clan and Wu Tianyue descended.

"Dao Ancestors of the Witch Clan?" The Eternal Celestial Lord’s eyes gleamed slightly, "This gets more interesting by the moment."

"Master Sixth!"

Wu Qinyun’s face twisted in agony. In just half an hour, his cultivation had plummeted to the Celestial realm and was still draining away.

Wu Shaoyang lay unconscious, his breath faint as a hair’s thread.

"Ancestor Seven, I’ll save you!" Wu Tianyue surged her magic power, summoning a treasure artifact. The Great Dao echoed resonantly, yet the moment it manifested, an inexplicable force wiped it away.

Against the power of the primordial Qi of essence, Wu Tianyue’s comprehension of the Great Dao was insufficient to resist.

"Tianyue, step back."

Master Sixth’s expression was grave. "We cannot save them."

"The essence origin primordial qi is the source of all vital essence, the Witch Master’s purest fundamental power. If the essence origin primordial qi malfunctions, the Witch Master must also be flawed."

"The master of Heaven’s Secret Pavilion once said, at the ancestral land’s end lies the third epoch of disaster soil."

"Thus, once the essence origin primordial qi absorbs sufficient power, the third epoch of disaster soil may reveal its traces."

"To solve the problem, we must find the source."

Master Sixth didn’t act recklessly. Steady as a mountain, he understood only by locating the Witch Master could he uncover the root cause of all these changes.

"Daoist friend Mu, you belong to Heaven’s Secret Pavilion. Could you reveal to me what exactly has befallen the Witch Master?" Master Sixth voiced his thoughts to Mu Fanyin.

Mu Fanyin replied with detachment, "Daoist friend, are you unfamiliar with the rules of Heaven’s Secret Pavilion?"

Hearing this, Master Sixth asked nothing further.

Bang!

Moments later, Wu Shaoyang’s physical body violently exploded. The mist of vital essence was completely engulfed by the essence origin primordial qi, and Wu Qinyun too was gradually drained into a desiccated husk.

That wisp of essence origin primordial qi shot towards the world above the ancestral land like a profound beam piercing the heavens.

Boom!

Vigilant eyes tracked its trajectory.

The ancestral land’s sky shattered. Space distorted as a bizarre yet vast aura cascaded down. Enveloped by this energy, the cultivation, physical bodies, and primordial spirits of those present began subtly, inexorably transforming.

"My cultivation… is fading?"

Celestial Lord Xinyuan cried out in alarm.

His aura rapidly diminished.

"It’s the power of the past!"

A cold dread gripped Eternal Celestial Lord. He instantly channeled his divine arts, mobilized his magic power, and summoned a divine palace. Power of the Great Dao surged violently around him as he sat cross-legged within the hall, resisting the encroaching past.

"Hahaha…"

Abruptly, loud laughter rang out.

Two men tore through the air, arriving instantly.

Qin Huangluo stood shoulder-to-shoulder with a man in a dark, mysterious Taoist robe. Gazing at the temporal rift, Qin Huangluo remarked calmly, "The third epoch of disaster soil finally manifests."

"The third epoch of disaster soil?"

These words echoed.

Utter confusion swept across the faces of many Celestial Lords.

Though powerful Celestial Lords, their level of insight remained restricted. Terms like "world of the Pure Land" or "Old Era of Disaster Soil" were utterly foreign to them.

"Xuan Ancestor?"

Master Sixth fixed his gaze on the man in the dark Taoist robe, his expression darkening. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Daoist friend, within the third epoch of disaster soil lies something I seek. I merely ask for your indulgence," Xuan Ancestor replied with a faint smile. "Rest assured, I desire only the Ancient Scrolls of Spring and Autumn."

"The Ancient Scrolls of Spring and Autumn?"

Master Sixth’s eyebrow raised sharply.

Whiz!

The spatial-temporal rift continued to expand.

For cultivators at the Great Celestial Lord and Celestial Lord Realms, they could only perceive swirling chaos, unable to glimpse anything clearer.

They didn’t dare set foot into the third epoch of disaster soil.

After all,

they hadn’t mastered the power of the past. Returning to bygone eras meant losing all their cultivation, likely vanishing into ashes without a trace.

"This is beyond our involvement," proclaimed Eternal Celestial Lord solemnly.

To step onto the Old Era of Disaster Soil required strength at least on par with a Dao Ancestor.

Rumble—!

Within the third epoch of disaster soil, chaos churned violently as threads of disaster power surged through the rift, flooding the Witch Clan’s ancestral land.

At this moment,

the Great Dao fell silent; all laws ceased to exist.

Both Eternal Celestial Lord and Bei Di Xuanwu thought of retreat.

"Go!"

Without hesitation, they soared away from the ancestral land.

"The Witch Master is in grave peril."

Master Sixth’s heart weighed heavily.

This strand of calamity annihilated myriad means, able to corrupt all Daos and divine powers—it was the very force corroding the Witch Clan’s ancestral land.

Even a single wisp could shatter it to ruins.

Yet the third epoch of disaster soil teemed with endless disaster power. One could imagine the terrifying crisis unfolding before the Witch Master.

Celestial Lords gathered their sect disciples one after another and fled.

Only East Sky Azure Dragon and South Emperor Vermilion Bird remained where they stood.

No one spared them a second glance.

Entering the third epoch at the Great Celestial Lord Realm spelled nothing but self-destruction.

"Junior brother, let us proceed!"

Xuan Ancestor laughed heartily as his Dao robe fluttered, enveloping Qin Huangluo beneath its protective aura and his treasures. Together they streaked toward the disaster epoch.

"Tianyue, depart now," Master Sixth commanded solemnly.

"As my master decrees."

Wu Tianyue understood her strength could offer no aid.

Whoosh—!

Master Sixth, too, vanished into the rift of the third epoch of disaster soil.

"Senior, could you bring us inside to take a look?" Ye Li said with a smile.

Mu Fanyin glanced at him coldly. "Aren’t you afraid to die?"

"I am."

Ye Li gave a hehe laugh. "But with you sheltering us, it definitely won’t be a problem."

"This is an existence at the Dao One realm. If it truly perished, that would be truly intriguing," Feng Wuji murmured, eyes blazing with fervor. "If I could unravel even a shred of its mysteries…"

Feng Wuji gradually sank into madness.

The Dao One realm meant immortality. Even the Heavenly Dao struggled to erase such beings.

Yet.

This very type of existence faced a major crisis—that alone was cause enough for Feng Wuji’s frenzy.

"Hide within my Purple Palace," Mu Fanyin ordered. "I will let you glimpse the state inside the disaster soil."

She activated her magic power, drawing the two into her Purple Palace, and flew into the disaster soil of the third epoch.

After Mu Fanyin departed, the East Sky Azure Dragon and the South Emperor Vermilion Bird exchanged a glance, then flew unhurriedly towards the spatial rift as well.

A mysterious light emanated from the two of them.

That power resembled neither the Great Dao nor magic power, nor did it feel like a spiritual ability. It seemed instead like a force born from the primordial spirit, solidified into tangible form.

"Spiritual power…"

Mu Fanyin’s brow furrowed slightly.

She had placed tracking marks on both of them, keenly sensing their every movement.

That particular power was a primal spiritual essence.

In the entire world, only one clan possessed cultivators capable of wielding such a primal spiritual essence, unaffected by disaster power or the forces of time and space, even while still in the Celestial Lord Realm.

The Heaven Clan!

‘Could it be that the East Sky Azure Dragon and the South Emperor Vermilion Bird have pledged allegiance to the Heaven Clan?’ The thought flitted through Mu Fanyin’s mind.

‘No…’

No sooner had the thought formed than she immediately dismissed it.

‘Their primal spiritual essence isn’t merely comparable to that of Heaven Clan cultivators—it matches perfectly. They are the Heaven Clan.’

‘If… if they are Heaven Clan members who annihilated the Azru Dragon and Vermilion Bird’s primordial spirits… who then took possession of their bodies…’

A shiver of profound cold ran down Mu Fanyin’s spine.