C598 The First Person to Escape

At the entrance shrouded in mist, Lee Yuchan stood in solitude, her demeanor icy. Her gaze often drifted to the fog-enshrouded expanse, betraying an inner restlessness.

Tan Yuan had vanished, never to reappear.

No newcomers had arrived to join the assembly waiting for Tan Yuan's summons to lead them.

Three women in vibrant attire, their beauty extraordinary, stood guard at the entrance, their faces adorned with insincere smiles. Despite the palpable fluctuations of Qi, the presence of souls, and the circulation of spiritual energy, and even the occasional exchange of words, Lee Yuchan couldn't shake a sense of eeriness whenever she looked at them.

The Qiao family members and the Dragon Servitors, too, had begun to sense the oddity in the trio. Their expressions were unnaturally rigid, as if devoid of any subtle change for an uncomfortably long time. They seemed more like lifeless objects than living beings.

The night was deep, starless, and moonless, the Great Swamp lay in profound silence.

"Whoosh!"

Out of nowhere, a gray crow burst through, wings beating, leading five young men and women in its wake.

"We should be close now."

A crisp voice floated through the air.

Lee Yuchan's heart jolted, and she sharply turned to the newcomers, calling out, "Zhao Yafu!"

The Dragon Servitors from the Qiao family, hailing from Hidden Dragon Lake, detected the refined essence of dragon soul and breath, and were instantly startled, their gaze snapping to the speaker.

Zhao Yafu of Darkmoon City's Zhao family, once bound by a secret pact with Hidden Dragon Lake, had been marked by a dragon soul. After the Zhao family's successful assimilation of the dragon, she was chosen by the White Divine Tiger of the Demon Palace as a direct disciple!

A Sixth Level gray raven, leading five individuals from the Demon Palace, made a dramatic entrance.

The raven's eyes gleamed with a sharp, haughty light, surveying its surroundings with the air of a sovereign over their domain, utterly devoid of the reverence one might expect for the Desolate God in the Great Swamp.

Zhao Yafu, at the vanguard, was a cultivator at the Penetrating Stage. Behind her, Zhan Tianxiang had inherited the legacy of the Golden Elephant Ancient God and was in the late period of the Profound Break Stage.

Following them were three more human cultivators, practitioners of the Demon Palace's secret arts. Two men and a woman, all natives of the Quietus Continent, were venturing out for the first time, accompanying Zhao Yafu and Zhan Tianxiang to the Desolate Swamp for a trial by fire.

"General Lee!"

After more than two years, Zhao Yafu, no longer the green youth but now a vision of grace and beauty, couldn't contain her exclamation upon laying eyes on Lee Yuchan.

"General Lee!"

With a small grin, Zhan Tianxiang offered her a modest bow.

Times had changed, and the Lee family, once royalty within the Empire, had crumbled like a great edifice.

Branded as malevolent by the Demon Palace and the Demon Palace, the Lee family was nearly wiped from the annals of the Boundless Land. The once-revered female general had been stripped of her former dignity.

Zhan Tianxiang's Zhan family was now soaring high in the Devil Moon Empire, rivaling the might of the Su family.

He himself had become a formal disciple of the Demon Palace, advancing to the late stages of the Profound Break Stage.

His prospects shone brightly. He might follow in the footsteps of Python Queen Xu Zixi, employing the Demon Spell to forge his path into the Soul Wandering Stage, and perhaps even refine a Yang God to ascend beyond the mortal realm.

For these reasons, he offered the female general before him only a cursory nod—a mere acknowledgment.

The Lee family, and Lee Yuchan herself, no longer commanded his reverence.

"Move along."

Lee Yuchan didn't even glance at him, focusing solely on Zhao Yafu as he murmured, "Return to whence you came."

"Darkmoon City, Zhao family, you're that girl!"

A Dragon Servitor from Hidden Dragon Lake, face twisted with malice, strode towards Zhao Yafu.

Members of the Qiao family, including Qiao Xu, along with other Dragon Servitors from Hidden Dragon Lake, quickly converged.

"Do you dare to mess with the direct disciple of Lord Sky Tiger?" The sixth-level gray crow rebuked the Qiao family and Hidden Dragon Lake in a piercing tone, "You despicable lot. Come one step closer, and I'll ensure your extinction!"

"White Divine Tiger!"

The Qiao family members' faces paled, and they halted at the mention of that name.

Yet the Dragon Servitors remained undaunted, pressing forward relentlessly.

One of them sneered with a cold laugh, "Have you even considered where you are? The Desolate God of the Great Swamp is a Demon God on par with the Sky Tiger. You're in the Desolate God's domain!"

"Really? Even the Desolate God wouldn't lay a finger on her, much less you lot!" the sixth-level gray crow screeched in fury.

Suddenly, the eyes of the three vibrantly dressed women glimmered with a deep light.

It was as though someone was gazing through them, watching the scene with an icy stare.

Lee Yuchan felt a shiver of cold dread.

Before long, Tan Yuan reemerged with a beaming smile. She gestured for the group from Hidden Dragon Lake to keep their composure, then turned and extended an inviting hand, saying, "Please, come inside."

"Invite whom?" Zhao Yafu asked, taken aback.

"The five of you," Tan Yuan clarified, pointing to include her, Zhan Tianxiang, and the three other young members of the Demon Palace. "Little Crow, if your esteemed ancestor were here, I'd welcome him in. But you, not so much."

The gray crow erupted in a shrill tirade, "What do you think you are? How dare you speak to Grandpa Crow that way?"

Tan Yuan paid it no mind, her gaze fixed on Zhao Yafu. "You're here for Loong Tianxiao's dragon breath, aren't you?"

Zhao Yafu nodded in confirmation.

"Indeed, you've tracked him down quite precisely," Tan Yuan said with a smile. "Not only is Loong Tianxiao here, but Yu Yuan is also present."

Zhao Yafu's eyes sparkled with excitement. "I came as soon as I heard from Xu Zixi that Yu Yuan was dispatched by the Demon Palace to the Great Swamp. I've just arrived from the Quietus Continent via the space teleportation array to the Absence Relic."

The Absence Relic was under the Demon Palace's control. Zhao Yafu and Zhan Tianxiang had used the Spirit Void Sect's teleportation array to get there, intending to make a trip back to their family in the Devil Moon Empire.

Their three senior brothers had joined them on the journey to the Absence Relic for the experience.

Upon meeting the Python Queen Xu Zixi at the Absence Relic and learning of Yu Yuan's venture into the Desolate Swamp, they recklessly decided to follow suit.

Shortly after their arrival, Zhao Yafu picked up on Loong Tianxiao's presence and followed the trail to find him.

"Go ahead," Tan Yuan gestured toward the shrouded depths, her gaze shifting to Lee Yuchan. "This time, you're allowed to enter as well."

Lee Yuchan's heart skipped a beat.

"You may choose for yourself," Tan Yuan added.

"I'm in!"

...

Deep within the Sword Prison, Yu Yuan, gently prompted by Zhan Yun, sank back into his sword comprehension trance. The sword intent and light that lingered on the small hilltop stirred to life once more.

As the sword intent and beams darted forth, the Big Devil amassed in the cave had no choice but to disperse.

They spread out widely, intentionally clearing a broad avenue for the passage of the sword energies.

This time, the incoming sword intent and light didn't scatter chaotically but instead homed in on their targets—the sword sheaths—vanishing into them one after another.

The sword light, ensconced within the sword intent, seemed sentient, intuitively knowing its purpose.

Several hours passed.

When the sword light finally zipped into Yu Yuan's sheaths like streaks of lightning...

"It's time," declared the rotund elder, wine flask in one hand and horsetail whisk in the other. Sensing the moment, he announced to those gathered, "I'll give it a go first."

With a flick of his whisk, he vanished from sight.

A second later, he materialized at the mouth of a cave, nearly emptied of sword intent and light. One step further, and he'd be free.

Between the intersecting beams of sword light, there was a fist-sized crack.

The fat old man chuckled, his form condensing into a walnut-sized orb of light, and slipped through the fissure.

In the blink of an eye, he was gone.

"Hahaha! Ahahaha!"

The first to emerge, the old man guzzled the fiery liquor from his flask, his booming laughter causing the now-stable space to quake once more.

"Master!"

The elder, alongside Yan Qiling, tasked with anchoring the space, called out with fervor.

"You're still alive?"

With moist eyes, the fat old man expressed his deep emotion. "After my mishap, I feared the Babel Chamber of Commerce would have hunted you to death. How did you manage to survive?"

Trembling, the old man who had assisted in fortifying the space looked at his mentor, who had led him through countless adventures since his youth. "Master's teachings in the Space Formation Technique proved invaluable to many, and that's what saved me."

While speaking, he turned to the man in white robes and said, "Master, this gentleman is the Master."

The portly elder flicked his horsetail whisk and offered a respectful bow to the figure in white robes suspended in the air. "Regardless of your intentions for noting my apprentice, I am grateful for this favor."

"No need for formalities. He's been of great assistance to me," the host responded.

"Demon Palace! Zhao Yafu!"

Perched atop the hovering palanquin, Loong Yang twitched her nostrils and burst into a coquettish giggle. "Zhao Yafu was already chosen by us. She's mine now!"

Without waiting for the host's consent, Loong Yang's palanquin soared into the air and darted toward Zhao Yafu.

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