Chapter 705 - 186: Zhang Tianhao’s Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner Refines a Soul and Devours a Demon

Chapter 705: Chapter 186: Zhang Tianhao’s Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner Refines a Soul and Devours a Demon

Deep underground, the cold was sharp as a knife.

This place was the darkest, most oppressive part of the Demon Suppression Bureau.

The air was thick with the intermingled stench of rust and despair, enough to make one retch.

In a cramped and eerie cell, Zhang Tianhao was suffering endless torment.

The cell was no more than ten feet across, its four walls made of no ordinary metal or stone.

Embedded within them were numerous Purifying Nightmare Spirit Crystals and Clear and Muddy Spirit Sources.

A faint, ethereal blue light pulsed across the crystals’ surfaces, like a person breathing.

Each flicker of light was accompanied by a low hum, as if suppressing a Fierce Beast about to break free from its cage.

In the center of the cell, Zhang Tianhao hung suspended in midair, his limbs spread-eagled, held by four black Profound Iron Chains as thick as a child’s arm.

Two of the chains, like vipers striking from a cave, had pierced straight through his collarbones.

Blood dripped down the chains, but before it could hit the ground, the ethereal light evaporated it into nothingness.

Zhang Tianhao’s eyes had turned a thick, blood-red.

With his hair disheveled and his face twisted in agony, a black mist as viscous as tar roiled around his body.

It was the forbidden Pollution Power...

The black mist tried to burst from his body, and every surge subjected him to the pain of ten thousand ants devouring his heart.

But the Pure Spirit Qi from the Purifying Nightmare Spirit Crystals and Clear and Muddy Spirit Sources pressed down like a celestial river, forcefully shoving the madness back into his body and leaving him much more lucid.

Trapped between this cycle of torment and lucidity, Zhang Tianhao’s demonic nature was held at a tipping point.

At that very moment.

TAP, TAP, TAP...

Rhythmic footsteps pierced through the heavy silence and the barrier formations, ringing out clearly.

The sound was unhurried, each step seeming to land on the strings of one’s heart.

The dead silence was broken as the cell’s massive portcullis slowly rose.

Two figures appeared in the backlight, standing outside the cold iron bars.

Zhang Tianhao gasped for breath, slowly lifting his heavy head.

Through strands of matted, blood-soaked hair, he saw who had arrived.

One was dressed in the uniform of a Demon Suppression Guard, his expression indifferent. It was Chu Fan.

The other had a face like frost. It was the Demon Suppression Envoy, Leng Qingqiu.

"Heh heh..."

Zhang Tianhao pulled at the corners of his chapped lips, a hoarse laugh like a broken bellows escaping his throat.

He revealed a set of bloodstained white teeth. "Lord Leng, Lord Chu... you’ve finally come."

Outside the iron gate, Chu Fan stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze as placid as an ancient well.

Leng Qingqiu’s beautiful eyes narrowed, scrutinizing the prisoner before her, who looked neither human nor ghost.

Neither of them spoke immediately.

Just as they had guessed, Zhang Tianhao’s demonic transformation on the tournament stage, while dangerous, had strong traces of being a performance.

It now seemed that his remaining sliver of clarity was the very chip he had bet everything on.

"Let’s be frank."

Chu Fan was the first to break the silence.

His voice was calm, yet it carried a soul-piercing power. "You deliberately provoked me with your words, forcing me to strike a heavy blow and damage your foundation."

"Then you went so far as to deliberately trigger the Evil Qi in your body, undergo a Demonic Transformation, and willingly allow yourself to be captured by my Demon Suppression Bureau..."

"Why go to such great lengths to land yourself in this sunless prison? Is it because of something in the Profound Origin Secret Realm that you fear, or is it because of the Zhang Family?"

Zhang Tianhao did not answer directly.

He struggled to turn his head toward Leng Qingqiu, the one who held the power of life and death, his voice weak but stubborn. "Lord Leng, although I’ve been tainted by pollution, the extent is still shallow, and my demonic nature is controllable."

"There’s no need to keep me strung up like a dead dog, is there?"

Leng Qingqiu remained expressionless, glancing at him dispassionately.

Her right hand seemed to casually flick through the empty air.

BUZZ!

The air trembled as an invisible ripple of Spiritual Power swept past in an instant.

With that single flick, the four supposedly indestructible Profound Iron Chains, like ice and snow meeting a scorching sun, dissolved into a cloud of fine, glittering motes and vanished without a trace!

Such an effortless display of power was breathtaking.

THUD!

Having lost his support, Zhang Tianhao fell heavily onto the cold floor.

The intense pain from his collarbones sent his whole body into convulsions, yet as if liberated, he greedily gulped down the blood-tinged air.

He struggled to prop up his upper body, leaning against the corner of the wall and weakly wiping the blood and grime from his face.

"Thank you..."

After his breathing steadied, a resolve that transcended life and death appeared in his eyes. "With the Demon Suppression Bureau’s all-pervasive intelligence network, and with your methods, my lords, you must have already uncovered the dealings between the Zhang Family and the Moon Worship Sect, haven’t you?"

"You must have also guessed that the Profound Origin Secret Realm is just a front. The real core of it is the Burial Immortal Valley deep inside, right?"

After speaking, he stared intently into Leng Qingqiu’s eyes, trying to detect a flicker of emotion.

Leng Qingqiu nodded slightly, her expression as cool as ever. "Correct."

"I knew it..."

Receiving confirmation, Zhang Tianhao showed no surprise. Instead, he let out a wretched, mournful laugh. "Heh heh... HAHAHAHA! They actually dared! To sacrifice the entire Zhang Family, to use a hundred years of their own flesh and blood as pawns..."

Overwhelmed by emotion, the blood-red that he had just suppressed in his eyes surged once more. The black Pollution Power around him rose violently like boiling water, threatening to spiral completely out of control!

But just a few breaths later, the corners of his mouth twitched violently, and with sheer force of will, he forcibly suppressed the rampaging killing intent, returning to an ashen calm.

He raised his head and dropped a bombshell. "Lord Leng, the Zhang Family Ancestor wants to enter the Burial Immortal Valley."

"What did you say?!"

Even Leng Qingqiu, who wouldn’t flinch if Mount Tai collapsed before her, now had a sharp glint explode in her beautiful eyes.

The aura around her abruptly turned frigid, and the very air within the cell seemed to freeze!

Although she had previously read the memories of the Zhang Family Ancestor’s Soul Division, that old monster was extremely cunning and had not revealed all his secrets.

The old monster’s Soul Division technique was derived from the ancient Forbidden Technique, the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique.

He had sliced his soul into several pieces as if cutting a melon. Each piece cultivated independently and had its own memories, none of them aware of the core plan until the very end, when they would perform All Rivers Return to the Source and merge into one.