Chapter 707 - 186: Zhang Tianhao’s Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner Refines Souls and Devours Demons

Chapter 707: Chapter 186: Zhang Tianhao’s Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner Refines Souls and Devours Demons

Leng Qingqiu pondered for a moment before asking, "According to our intelligence, four members of the Zhang Family, including Zhang Tianyu, are entering the Profound Origin Secret Realm this time."

"Are you saying that Demon Seeds were planted in all four of them long ago, that they’re on the verge of transforming, and it’s only been temporarily suppressed by some means?"

"And after that old monster enters the Secret Realm, he will... devour them all?"

"Not just them!" Zhang Tianhao’s head snapped up, his eyes filled with terror and warning. "Sword Traceless, Ah Linglong, Princess Zhaohua, Wang Yiyi... and you, Lord Chu! None of you will escape!"

He shuffled on the ground. Though the chains were gone, he seemed bound by fear. "Whether you’ve fallen to the demonic path or not, you’re all his food! You can’t fight him..."

"That old monster’s horror is far beyond your imagination!"

"His modified Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique—do you think it’s as simple as cultivating with Soul Divisions?"

"The core secret lies in transference and filtration!"

"Ordinary cultivators fear the Pollution Power because it drives people into irreversible madness."

Zhang Tianhao pointed at himself and said miserably, "Just like me right now, my sanity is constantly on the verge of collapse. But if he uses a Soul Division to devour me, he can absorb all this immense Pollution Power I’m carrying."

"I, the ’vessel’ being devoured, would become a living filter!"

"The source of pollution, originally violent, chaotic, and madness-inducing, would be neutralized and borne by my soul and flesh."

"By the time it reaches him, the power will still be immense, but the ’will of madness’ within it will have been significantly purified!"

"This is why he went to such great lengths to lure the Zhang Family members onto the demonic path!"

"In his eyes, we’re nothing but cauldrons for refining and purifying the Pollution Power!"

"Such a thing is possible?!" This time, Leng Qingqiu was truly shocked, her expression finally changing.

The Pollution Power was a taboo that even a Demon Suppression Envoy of her caliber regarded with extreme apprehension.

Even the Demon Suppression Commander’s understanding of the pollution was largely limited to "suppression"; no one had ever found a true method of purification!

There were legends that the Immortal Demon Blood in the Burial Immortal Valley could purify the pollution, but they were only legends. No one knew if they were true.

Everyone’s expression changed at the mere mention of the pollution, and they avoided it like the plague.

Who could have imagined that the Zhang Family Ancestor was so deranged as to create a devouring Demon Dao of "using humans as cauldrons to filter madness"?!

This was a path to ascension... built on eating people!

The dim light of the cell flickered, illuminating Leng Qingqiu’s exquisitely beautiful yet ice-cold face.

Zhang Tianhao’s words had to be believed, if only to be safe.

’Something’s not right...’

Leng Qingqiu shook her head lightly, her voice as crisp and cool as jade beads falling onto a plate. "There’s a flaw in your logic. If the old monster intends to treat all twenty people entering the Profound Origin Secret Realm as ’food,’ how will the Zhang Family’s ’Burial Immortal Valley Plan,’ which they’ve plotted for a century, proceed?" ℯ

"Aren’t the Moon Worship Sect and the Zhang Family supposed to use the power of Zhang Tianyu, Sword Traceless, and the others to open the gate to the Burial Immortal Valley?"

"Could that old monster be so arrogant as to think he can forcibly blast open the gate to the Burial Immortal Valley just with the surge of power from devouring twenty juniors?"

Faced with the Demon Suppression Envoy’s questioning, Zhang Tianhao felt an invisible pressure bearing down on him.

He took a deep breath, suppressed the trembling in his heart, and said in a quavering voice, "Lord Leng... he doesn’t intend to force it open with power. He is absolutely certain that the ’key’ to opening the Burial Immortal Valley is among those twenty people!"

"What!"

Leng Qingqiu and Chu Fan were both instantly stunned!

Chu Fan stared at Zhang Tianhao, his eyes narrowing slightly. He cursed inwardly, ’That old bastard... he actually guessed right.’

The "key" was the Demon Suppression Stele, and it was hidden on his person right now!

This matter was extremely secret. He had never revealed the slightest hint of it—not even the Demon Suppression Bureau knew. How could the Zhang Family Ancestor have found out?

Chu Fan maintained his composure and asked as if it were a normal question, "Qing Province is vast, and cultivators are as numerous as clouds. How could he be so certain the ’key’ is among these twenty specific people? Could it be..."

Before he could finish, a flash of insight struck him, and he instantly understood.

He had forgotten something important!

Among the numerous sects and Noble Families in the Nine Commanderies of Qing Province, only the Zhang Family possessed the ancient legacy of the "Six Trigrams Celestial Divination Divine Skill"!

Back then, the Moon Worship Sect was able to accurately divine that the "key" was located in Cyan Yang Ancient City precisely because the Zhang Family was secretly providing them with intelligence!

It was also because of this divination skill, unparalleled in Qing Province, that the Zhang Family members developed their arrogant and self-important demeanor, as if the entire world were just a game board for them to play on.

The Moon Worship Sect’s Divine Sacrifice Envoy, Lingkong Jade, had even mocked the Zhang Family in front of his subordinates, saying that they thought they could divine the heavens and the earth, but in reality, they were nothing more than pawns themselves.

"Lord Chu has guessed it, hasn’t he? It is indeed the divination skill..."

Zhang Tianhao gave a bitter laugh, his voice laced with fear for his own family’s divine technique. "The Zhang Family has been scheming for the past few years. The Moon Worship Sect chose to emerge at this time only because the Zhang Family Ancestor divined that the ’ancient divine and demonic fortune’ was about to be revived."

"The Moon Worship Sect fixated on Cyan Yang Ancient City because a member of the Zhang Family spent a hundred years of his lifespan to divine that a thread of heavenly fate concerning the Burial Immortal Valley’s ’key’ had fallen upon Cyan Yang."

"After that, because the ’key’ showed signs of activity, they narrowed the location down to Cyan Yang Ancient City and Dragon Ridge Mountain."

As he spoke of this, a look of revulsion and pity flashed in Zhang Tianhao’s eyes. "This time, to ensure the accuracy of the divination, that old monster secretly captured over a thousand drifters for a Blood Sacrifice, using their living souls as a catalyst to forcibly peer into heavenly secrets."

"Only then did he divine that the person holding the ’key’ would definitely appear in the group entering the Profound Origin Secret Realm this time!"

"He even... divined with extreme confidence that the gate to the Burial Immortal Valley, sealed for a thousand years, would without a doubt be opened this time!"

Dead silence.

A brief, dead silence fell over the cell.

Chu Fan and Leng Qingqiu exchanged a look, each seeing the gravity in the other’s eyes.

If this was true, the situation had just become rather tricky.

As the leading figure of his generation in the Zhang Family, Zhang Tianyu was exceptionally talented. It was said he already had one foot across the threshold of the fifth level, the Ruyi Realm.

If the Zhang Family Ancestor’s Soul Division devoured him within the Secret Realm, their demonic might would stack. Not only would the ancestor’s power skyrocket, but he would also become bizarre and unpredictable.