A translucent linking realm seemed to appear through the mountain gate. A huge amount of ghost Qi was pouring out of the realm and sweeping toward the sect. Suddenly, the temperatures became icy. They heard an ear-piercing, ghostly scream coming from inside the translucent linking realm. Ghost Qi from Hades was different from regular ghost Qi. A place that only housed ghouls naturally contained an aura that would crush any soul.

Naturally, cultivators without an immortal body were not able to withstand the pressure. Almost immediately, all the cultivators apart from Shen Ying, Lonemoon and Yi Qing began to sway. Their faces drained of all color. Some of the Golden Core cultivators looked like their souls had left their bodies.

Lonemoon’s expression darkened. He immediately flew over and raised his hand, conjuring an array to seal the mountain gate. The ear-piercing screams finally stopped. All of their eyes cleared up, but their souls were visibly still unstable. Those with Nascent Souls were still holding up well, but the Golden Core cultivators were all spitting out blood.

“El… Elder?” Lu Lin forced her primordial spirit to stabilize. She looked up at the three of them in confusion. The other cultivators looked equally perplexed. “What just happened?”

Lonemoon lowered his gaze and scanned the entire group. “This is not something that you can deal with. Leave here at once!” He raised a single hand and conjured yet another seal, causing all the jade tokens on the cultivators’ bodies to raise up. He clenched his fist. Immediately, the jade tokens were reduced to powder. The great array that lay outside the Corroding Vacant Valley was activated.

“El-” Lu Lin called out, but did not make it in time to get the entire word out of her mouth. All the cultivators from the Dawning Pill Sect were sent out at once. Not one of them remained.

Yi Qing held Shen Ying close and flew over to join Lonemoon. He looked at the mountain gate that was still emitting ghost Qi. Frowning, he said, “This is… a realm gate!”

“Mm.” Lonemoon nodded. Of course, he had noticed the problem as well. “This should be the realm gate that leads to the Underworld.” And it looked like it had already been around for a long time.

“The mortal world naturally has the ability to attract ghouls. Why did someone bother to open a gate to the Underworld here?” This would seem even weirder if the person had set up this gate in the immortal realm or divine realm. But this was the mortal realm. Living things in the mortal realm would not be able to withstand the ghost Qi from the Underworld. What’s more, after mortals died, they would naturally go there. What was the point of setting up a gate to the Underworld here? And hiding it so purposefully up to using a Spatial Li as well?

“It looks like we’ll only find our answer by entering the Underworld,” Lonemoon said as he pointed to the mountain gate.

Yi Qing did not hesitate. He raised his hand and set up a defensive array around the three of them before walking right through the gate. The next thing they knew, they were in a whole other place. The darkness seemed to have deepened around them. It was almost as if they could feel it – it was icy and sharp and caused them to feel like something was possessing them.

Wait! This was not an illusion. There were indeed things sliding past them and trying to get into their bodies.

“Chef!” Lonemoon exclaimed. Both of them mounted their swords and flew out. Yet, that feeling continued to follow them. The darkness was formless and boundless. No matter where they went, they could not seem to shake that feeling off. What’s more, the God Power in their bodies felt like it was being attacked – a chill was piercing them right through to the bones.

“Let’s head upwards,” Shen Ying suddenly said.

Both Lonemoon and Yi QIng paused for one second before following her directions. They flew upward. The higher they got, the more darkness seemed to lift. The sky turned a certain shade of green, and the temperature rose slightly.

They looked down and saw a huge icy territory beneath them, that looked like it stretched on for eons. Everything below was black as far as they could see. And where they had emerged from was the center of that darkness.

This deep darkness seemed to cover the entire Underworld. Somehow, they felt like it was stretching toward the various small worlds as well. It was like…

“The plane’s source!” Lonemoon exclaimed, finally having figured out what this darkness was. He pondered for a moment. This couldn’t be right. “Why is it black?” They had seen the plane tree before – it was a huge, green tree. The source’s color should be the same as that of the plane tree. Like Chef’s gold, or his purple. This plane’s source should be green.

Unless…

“Someone changed the source!” Yi Qing finished his thought.

Lonemoon’s heart sank. Suddenly, he recalled the plane tree that seemed to have been consumed by blackness, and the realm gate from earlier on, and the so-called “Dark Night”. He finally understood what was going on. The invader had changed the plane’s source in the Underworld and went through the realm gate to direct the source to each of the small worlds. Step by step, the invader is trying to swallow up this entire plane. He was going to cause it to break down!

It was no wonder that Chao Kun was getting so weak. This was akin to invading the plane by poisoning it. He was starting right from the source and causing change surely but subtly.

The more troublesome thing was the source was already this contaminated. Lonemoon did not even know if it was possible to restore it.

“You’re the help that Chao Kun called for?” Suddenly, a cold female voice spoke up from behind them.

Lonemoon started. Then, he retreated several steps and created some distance between them and her. It was then that he found out that there had been a womanly figure following behind them the entire time. There was a black aura from the source surrounding her body. At the same time, she emanated an icy cold Yin aura. What was more important was that she carried with her the air of a manager – just not as thick as theirs.

“You’re the one who invaded this plane?” Lonemoon asked. His heart skipped a beat. Not daring to take her lightly, he summoned his sword.

“Invader?” The woman grinned. Her gaze turned hateful. “That’s what Chao Kun told you? Hmph, to me, you are the real invaders.”

She raised her hand and caused the still streams to turn violent. Immediately, coursing streams of the plane’s source charged toward them, as if to attack them. It was like there were hundreds of thousands of formless arms reaching out to attack them.

Lonemoon activated his divine perception and dodged the attacks coming from all directions. He waved his sword around and was just about to deal a counter-attack when the God Power inside him seemed to be suppressed by an unknown force. Suddenly, he could not activate it anymore. No! Not just his God Power – even the manager powers in his body had been sealed.

It was that thing that tried to enter their bodies earlier. Suddenly, he realized that the thing that had been following them around and trying to enter their bodies earlier was the aura from the source below. It was now suppressing their powers.

“All you invaders deserve to die!” The woman’s voice turned even colder. A formidable force exploded from her body and caused the streams underneath them to turn even more aggressive. Huge waves formed, threatening to drown the three of them.

Lonemoon tightened his grip on his own sword. Turning around, he said, “The source here is suppressing my powers. Chef, use your sword Qi!”

“Mm.” Chef nodded. He activated his earth-shaking sword Qi. Countless beams of light shone forth from his sword, forming a huge net that held the waves down.

There was a flash of white light. A familiar figure cut through the void and appeared on top of the waves. He conjured a spell that they had never seen before, and a burst of green light filled the place, causing the darkness to dissipate.

“Chao Kun?” Lonemoon paused. The man who just showed up was the same man who had passed out under the plane tree – the manager, Chao Kun.

He was just in time!