With each completed hand seal, they released a treasure, each one crafted from rare spiritual materials—precious, invaluable, and nearly impossible to find. Only the three great merchant alliances possessed the wealth to gather so many at once.

As the hand seals merged with the treasures, they descended like goddesses scattering flowers, one by one landing around the stone stele. In the end, a highly intricate spiritual array gradually took shape, encircling the stele.

The devilish shadow behind them stepped into the array with thunderous strides.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The devilish shadow roared wildly, gathering the power of the array and hammering his fists against the stele.

The blows shook the heavens like thunder in unison. Furious winds howled within the mountain col, and devilish qi surged like a tidal wave.

Yet, to their surprise, the seemingly ordinary stone stele, despite such an onslaught, neither shattered nor cracked; it stood firm and unyielding.

A faint ghostly radiance shimmered across its surface, the light of a mysterious seal that easily dissolved the force of the strikes. The stele itself was the core of the seal.

Even with the combined strength of three peak middle-stage Spiritual Infant cultivators and a grand array prepared meticulously over many years, the seal remained unmoved. But this was only the beginning.

The devilish shadow raged in frenzy. Countless fist shadows bombarded the stele in relentless succession.

From deep within the stele came the ancient devil’s voice, murmuring an archaic incantation in a language obscure and unintelligible.

Bang! After another thunderous explosion, every fist shadow suddenly dispersed.

The seal remained intact, yet an inexplicable power began to gather upon the stele’s surface. The power of the array converged, forming a black talismanic script unlike anything ever seen before. The talismanic script clung tightly to the stele, as though fusing into the seal itself.

"True Devilish Malevolent Talisman! Open!" The ancient devil roared in fury, battering the seal with all his might, his monstrous face twisted in rage.

Boom! The black talismanic script detonated violently, shattering into countless fragments like a storm of devilish needles. Some were annihilated by the seal’s counterforce, yet others pierced through, embedding themselves deep within it.

The power of the True Devilish Malevolent Talisman clashed fiercely against the seal. Ghostly light flashed across the stele’s surface, the outcome uncertain.

Meanwhile, disturbances erupted elsewhere.

***

Inside Seven-Kill Hall, mysterious fluctuations suddenly burst forth without warning from hidden locations.

Some were deep within secret realms, others buried in forbidden abysses where no living soul had tread.

Cliffs collapsed, the ground split open. The tremors grew in intensity, rumbling with faint thunder. At their centers, golden light flared as one ancient altar after another emerged into view.

Each altar spanned roughly a zhang across its top, with four iron chains hanging from its corners, their ends buried in the earth, covered in intricate runes.

The barriers around them flared to life. The chains tightened, the runes blazed, and silvery light erupted forth.

In an instant, the rust vanished. Silver serpents danced along the surface, and the iron chains transformed into lightning chains, radiating pure yang and strong energy. Lightning roared and thunder raged.

Boom! Boom! One altar after another revealed itself, their arrangement forming a celestial pattern that mirrored the stars.

Cultivators exploring the outer hall sensed the disturbance. Alarmed, they abandoned their tasks, soaring into the air to scan the horizon, their faces filled with unease and disbelief.

Then, three main altars emerged. One lay within the trial realm, and the other two were hidden deep within the inner hall's forbidden grounds, all secretly tampered with by the three alliance leaders.

The three main altars surfaced simultaneously; they were the core of the seal, connected to countless auxiliary altars, grander in scale and stronger in power. In that instant, the entire sealing array was activated.

From its deepest core, the stele began to transform, its stone surface turning silver-white. Countless threads of lightning surged within, striking mercilessly toward the ancient devil sealed below.

The ancient devil shrieked in agony, writhing beneath unbearable torment, yet he continued to assault the seal without pause.

A strange fluctuation rippled in reverse through the seal, spreading outward toward the peripheral altars.

Upon those altars lay the True Devilish Malevolent Talismans, which until now had lain dormant. But the wave stirred them; without any human intervention, their power awakened.

Whoosh! Pure devilish qi condensed into a monstrous face that laughed maniacally, hurling himself at the lightning chains.

The lightning chains were engulfed by devilish qi, their power greatly diminished. The sealing force weakened to an alarming degree, and the altars’ golden light dimmed, nearly extinguished.

***

At the same time...

Inside an ancient hall hidden within a sheer cliff, three descendants of the Four Saints stood solemnly.

The place resembled a shrine. Before them stood an offering table bearing only three spirit tablets. Yet, if outsiders saw the names carved upon them, they would have been utterly shocked, for they belonged to three of the legendary Four Saints.

The human race had named the Four Sacred Mountains on Tianshing Island to honor those ancient heroes, but their spirit tablets[1] were here.

"...These are the ancestral teachings. You must remember them well!" The elder lit incense, bowing in reverence as he recited the ancestral teachings, passing them on to the next generation.

"We shall keep them in mind," replied the young boy and girl, bowing deeply before the tablets with perfect solemnity.

Suddenly, a muffled ringing echoed through the hall. The black bell hanging from the elder’s waist quivered violently. When he looked down and saw it, his expression changed drastically.

In the next instant, he vanished from the hall in a flash. The two juniors exchanged confused looks, not knowing what had happened.

The elder soared out from the cliff, his face grave. His gaze swept the landscape before he shot upward toward the summit of Yitian Peak. From the cliff’s crest, he could already see the distant mountain col.

Within it, devilish qi raged in torrents, and the barrier laid by the three alliance leaders could no longer suppress the phenomenon.

"The ancient devil has broken free!" The elder’s face turned pale with horror. He was just about to fly toward the mountain col when a sudden realization struck him. He froze for a brief moment, then wheeled around and sped back toward the ancient hall.

"Grandmaster..." The young boy and girl stood frozen in confusion.

"You two stay here. Don’t wander off!" The old man gave a quick command and strode hurriedly to the offering table.

"Ancestors, please forgive my offense!" He shifted the offering table aside, revealing a stele beneath it.

It was smaller than the one in the mountain col, only about knee-high, yet its entire surface gleamed with a jade-green luster, clear and translucent. It was a jade stele.

The old man sat cross-legged before it and began to form a series of intricate hand seals. Runes flickered around the jade stele, and an ancient barrier emerged.

Bang! The old man activated a secret technique, attempting to remove the stele.

A thunderous sound followed as the jade stele, heavy as ten thousand jun, lifted a few cun off the ground before slamming down again.

His face flushed red as he pushed his true essence to the limit, then performed another secret technique. At last, he managed to lift the jade stele. Without pausing, and under the worried gazes of his two juniors, he flew straight out of the hall.

The old woman, another descendant of the Four Saints, had just entered Dark Valley after examining the celestial barrier at the entrance of Seven-Kill Hall.

The bell hanging from her waist was also trembling. A cold gleam flashed through her eyes, and her speed surged dramatically.

***

At the summit of Yitian Peak, Qin Sang and Ning Wuhui were jolted from their meditation. They exchanged a glance, rose abruptly, and stood before the hall doors, gazing downward.

At the very edge of their visible range, within a mountain col surrounded by a forest of stone pillars, thick black mist was surging, rippling with strange fluctuations.

"Has Senior Qingzhu arrived?" Qin Sang’s eyes were fixed on the mountain col. Confined within the hall, he had no way of knowing what was happening there.

"You stay here for now. I’ll go take a look nearby." Ning Wuhui observed the scene for a moment but found nothing conclusive. His figure flickered once and vanished from sight.

"Be careful, Daoist!" A sudden unease rose in Qin Sang’s chest. The black mist before him looked familiar. It was very much like true devilish qi!

1. A spirit tablet, memorial tablet, or ancestral tablet is a placard that people used to designate the seat of a deity or past ancestor as well as to enclose it. ☜