The 500,000-strong army of the Yue Kingdom was stationed here, personally led by the Empress of Yue, with three marshals commanding the left, center, and right flanks.
As soon as Empress Si Ruo gave the order to retreat, the three marshals almost simultaneously summoned teleportation gates from their storage treasures, leading their troops to withdraw in an orderly and rapid fashion.
At this moment, Yue was beset by internal and external troubles.
Compared to the threat of the drought demon in the Archaic Mountains, the threats from Yue’s borders were the real danger.
The Yue army couldn’t afford to be wiped out in the Archaic Mountains and leave the nation’s gates wide open for other powers to invade and destroy Yue.
Preserving their strength to deal with the enemies lurking at the borders was the key.
For Yue, with its vast territory, the Archaic Mountains, though expansive, only occupied a small part of the kingdom.
Even if the entire mountain range became a dead zone, or the disaster spread to surrounding areas, the territorial loss would be less than a tenth.
But if other powers entered Yue, the entire nation would be at risk.
Yue couldn’t control the various powers entering the Archaic Mountains, but ever since Yue had named Xuantian Sect as the Supreme Sect and granted them the Archaic Mountains, it was destined that Yue couldn’t just stand by while the other powers targeted Bao Gu.
This wasn’t just about saving face or national prestige—it was a long-term strategy.
If they abandoned Xuantian Sect now, all their previous efforts would be wasted, and internal strife would remain unresolved while external threats persisted.
With the mountain’s formation broken and its terrain revealed to the cultivation world, everyone now knew that breaking the seal might unleash a catastrophic disaster, but with disaster comes opportunity, and a golden age of cultivation was on the horizon.
For the various cultivation powers, even if not for the sacred artifacts, they had to break the seal for the coming era.
Even if Yue threw everything they had at it, they couldn’t stop the cultivation world from breaking the seal.
Recognizing this, they stopped struggling pointlessly and chose to conserve their strength for the coming age.
For them, Xuantian Sect was far more valuable than the sacred artifacts in the Archaic Mountains.
When another Earth Immortal appeared in this world, the value of the sacred artifacts would be no more than a Void Tearing stage treasure.
Securing a foothold in the upper realm was what really mattered.
Whoever got there first would become the leading sect in the cultivation world! Bao Gu and Xuantian Sect had always been plotting for the upper realm, and they had a huge advantage in this regard.
So what if Yue was beset by internal and external troubles? The Ascension Map was in Yue’s hands.
As long as they stayed tightly bound to Xuantian Sect and Bao Gu, even if other powers produced an Earth Immortal first, they wouldn’t be able to ascend.
Even if all the powers joined forces to attack Yue, Yue’s national strength wasn’t something they could swallow easily.
As for Xuantian Sect and Bao Gu, Si Ruo was even less worried.
Xuantian Sect might be weak, but the demon emperor’s eldest princess from the upper realm in Xuantian Sect was anything but.
If it really came down to life and death, she would never just stand by.
Right now, Yue was betting everything on Xuantian Sect, so Bao Gu, the Demon Saint, and Zi Yunshu were naturally given special attention.
After giving the order to retreat, Si Ruo returned to her imperial carriage, preparing to break through the void and rush back to Cangdu City, but saw the Demon Saint suddenly rise and walk to the front of the carriage, gazing into the distance at the Archaic Mountains, with Bao Gu following close behind.
Neither of them looked the least bit panicked.
A trace of doubt flashed in Si Ruo’s eyes.
She steadied the carriage, making it speed through the air toward Cangdu City, and also came to the railing outside, looking toward the Archaic Mountains.
Above the depths of the Archaic Mountains, blood clouds pressed down, the world shrouded in a bloody mist.
The once lush land was rapidly turning yellow and withered, death and decay spreading everywhere.
In an instant, dozens of sacred artifacts erupted with powerful auras.
Even from a great distance, one could faintly see the light and feel the heart-stopping power of their eruption.
The auras of the sacred artifacts burst out one after another, forming a terrifying and magnificent spectacle unseen in the cultivation world for tens of thousands of years.
The auras of hundreds of sacred artifacts, compared to the blood-drenched death energy filling the world, were as weak as tiny waves in the vast sea, so feeble they seemed about to be swallowed up at any moment.
Seeing this, Si Ruo’s heart sank.
The situation was far, far worse than she had expected.
She asked in a low voice, “Demon Saint, Bao Gu, what do you make of this situation?”
The Demon Saint replied coolly, “What’s suppressing the drought demon isn’t the sacred artifacts in the Archaic Mountains, but the feng shui power gathered by the Nine Dragons Ascension Array.
This was achieved at the cost of tens of thousands of years without immortals in the cultivation world, and at the cost of more than half the world’s spiritual energy!” She turned to Si Ruo and asked, “How do you think the power of the sacred artifacts compares to the feng shui power gathered by the Archaic Mountains?”
Si Ruo said gravely, “Like a single grain in the ocean, not worth mentioning.”
The Demon Saint said, “This is a catastrophe for the cultivation world, a disaster for this entire land.
The greed and selfishness of the human heart is more terrifying than the drought demon.
Medicine can’t save the dead, and even a divine doctor can’t save someone beyond hope.
The hearts of cultivators in this world are rotten to the core—no immortal could save them.
Cultivators have long forgotten what it means to care for the world.
When they destroy others for their own gain, they plant the seeds of their own destruction.
When they point their swords at others, they’re really pointing them at themselves.
The cultivation world is on a path of mutual destruction and self-annihilation.
If you can’t achieve the Dao, even occupying the dragon vein treasure of the Nine Dragons Ascension Array won’t make you immortal.
That’s what happened to Rong Ruyu.” She looked at Si Ruo and asked, “When the spiritual energy gathered by the Nine Dragons Ascension Array disperses, do you think you’ll get more spiritual energy and luck than Rong Ruyu, who occupied the dragon vein treasure? Why did Rong Ruyu die?”
All throughout the Archaic Mountains, shrouded in blood and death, sacred artifacts erupted everywhere.
Their auras were like scattered torches in the night—eye-catching, but unable to illuminate the darkness.
The Demon Saint fixed her gaze on Si Ruo and said, “Think carefully about who you should really be saving!” With that, she stopped looking at Si Ruo and turned her eyes back to the depths of the Archaic Mountains.
Bao Gu also stared unblinkingly into the depths of the mountains.
In this endless blood mist, she felt a vast power awakening.
That power made her heart race, made her want to rush toward it, but also filled her with fear.
It was so strong that she had no doubt if she charged in, she’d be torn apart.
The Demon Saint’s divine sense probed the situation in the Archaic Mountains, and she shook her head.
“Even now, they’re still trying to use the sacred artifacts to draw as much power from the dragon veins as possible.”
Si Ruo saw that the blood mist was so thick it had become a dense red fog.
Even with her peak Void Tearing stage divine sense, she could only probe a little over a mile.
She said, “The carriage isn’t fast enough—we need to leave through the void.” Luckily, they had the carriage’s formation for protection.
If a Nascent Soul or Soul Formation cultivator were here, the blood mist would have already claimed their lives.
When her divine sense could still reach the ground, she saw that everywhere the blood mist touched had become a land of decay.
Trees withered into dead wood, flowers and grass rotted into mulch, small animals, mortals, and low-level cultivators—Golden Core, Nascent Soul—were all corroded, their flesh turning to blood.
The blood mist clung to their bones, finally gathering into two points of light like flickering flames in their eye sockets.
The bones that should have been dead, under the swirling blood mist and those two flickering flames, seemed to come alive and crawled up again…
Suddenly, an incredibly powerful force erupted from the Archaic Mountains, as if it was filling the entire world, as if it was about to cover everything.
That power tore through the blood mist in the mountains, making the world tremble, turning the bloody sky a deep blood-purple.
The power transformed into nine giant dragons of pure spiritual energy, soaring into the sky—
Those nine dragons seemed infinite.
As they shot up from the Archaic Mountains, the entire range seemed hollowed out.
The mountains were still there, but they’d lost their spirit and vitality.
They no longer felt majestic or mysterious, no longer seemed to hide endless treasures.
In an instant, they were barren and small, like a corpse—this was a dead mountain.
People live on spirit; when their spirit is gone, they die.
When a mountain’s spirit is gone, it dies too.
The nine dragons of pure power shot into the heavens.
When their tails left the mountains and their heads reached the clouds, they suddenly burst apart, turning into incredibly strong, pure energy that scattered in all directions.
Everyone on the carriage could clearly feel a wave of comfortable, familiar power brush past them, then dissipate into the world.
The Demon Saint said softly, “The dragon energy of the Nine Dragons Ascension Array is gone.
This place has become the Nine Dragons Corpse Prison.”
Si Ruo said, “Hm?” and asked, “Nine Dragons Corpse Prison?”
The Demon Saint replied, “Life has turned to death.
The nine dragon veins that once had the power of ascension have become nine dragon corpses guarding the drought demon’s coffin.
The nine divine gold chains that once locked the drought demon have become the drought demon locking the nine dragons! Do you know what this is called? This is the Nine Dragons Dragging the Coffin! The dragons are corpse dragons, the drought demon is a corpse demon.
Fortune and misfortune have swapped—however strong the feng shui here once was, that’s how deadly it is now.”
Hearing this, Si Ruo’s heart sank even further.
Then she suddenly said, “Wait—why haven’t the people from all the powers in the Archaic Mountains come out? Even with sacred artifacts, are they still trapped?”
The Demon Saint laughed and asked, “Back in the Sealed Heaven Domain, how effective were the sacred artifacts for protection? Even when the seal wasn’t broken, sacred artifacts could only temporarily help, not completely block the domain’s power.
Now, with the seal fully broken…” She didn’t finish, suddenly sensing a powerful and uncomfortable aura rising again, startling her into looking toward the mountains.
The Demon Saint, Bao Gu, Si Ruo, and Zi Yunshu all gasped at the same time!
The Archaic Mountains, said to stretch a hundred thousand miles, now seemed tiny even through the thick blood mist.
The very center, where the ascension ground had been, now seemed infinitely vast.
In the middle, a huge blood-red coffin floated in midair.
The nine divine gold chains that had once wrapped around the drought demon’s coffin were pulled taut, making it look like the coffin was dragging the chains upward, not the other way around.
It was as if the nine dragon veins had once held the coffin down, but now the coffin was pulling the nine dragon veins.
Most terrifying of all, a woman wreathed in blood-red flames stood atop the coffin.
Her body was curvy and graceful, with a slender waist, proud chest, and perky hips—stunningly beautiful.
Her eyes weren’t eyes, but burning flames, yet it felt like she was staring right at the Demon Saint.
Her features were sharp and striking, her beauty wild and seductive.
By looks alone, she was a breathtakingly gorgeous woman.
But she radiated evil, her lips curled in a cruel smile, revealing two long fangs.
Her waist-length fiery red hair flicked like tongues of flame, not loose but half-tied with a blood-red lotus.
The lotus was in full bloom, glistening like a treasure, with drops of blood on its petals, as if the blood lotus was weeping.
The Demon Saint stared at the woman on the coffin, trembling all over, her face pale with fear.
Her eyes were fixed on the blood lotus in the woman’s hair, and she cried out in a trembling voice, “The Prison-Breaking Blood Lotus—it’s really the Prison-Breaking Blood Lotus! She actually picked it and wears it on her head, my god!” The Demon Saint saw that the drought demon, which had been a dried corpse, was now full of vitality, and the Prison-Breaking Blood Lotus was on her head—she was scared out of her wits.
The Prison-Breaking Blood Lotus was born in hell, able to break through hell’s sins, suppress all evil, and burn away all karma with its red lotus fire.
No evil could stand against it.
But the drought demon wasn’t afraid of the lotus’s suppression or its karmic fire.
She wore the Prison-Breaking Blood Lotus on her head!
The Demon Saint saw the drought demon staring at her, and had no doubt the demon bore a grudge for being pinned to the coffin and wanted to swap for a different color lotus!
