“From the moment we lost contact until now, I haven’t been able to reconnect with the Secret Realm at all. It’s as if the Secret Realm was directly shut off.”
“I was going to send someone to look for White Dew of the White Dragon Clan, but for some unknown reason, White Dew suddenly announced she’s gone into seclusion and won’t see anyone.”
Behind the hall, Chi Hong spoke to Wu Zhaohua with considerable distress, telling her everything and asking if she had any good ideas.
Before Wu Zhaohua arrived, Chi Hong honestly hadn’t dared tell Qin Qingyue that she was at her wit’s end.
Otherwise, if the powder keg in front of her exploded, things would get ugly.
Besides, according to the Soul Lamp, Chihuang and Chi Lian were both still alive, so Jiang Huai should be alive too.
“You shouldn’t have kept this from her. What if something really happened?”
“Call Qin Qingyue here too,” Wu Zhaohua said, frowning slightly.
Chi Hong had no choice but to ask Qin Qingyue to help in the core of the Secret Realm.
With Wu Zhaohua in charge this time, she felt much more at ease.
As long as Jiang Huai was alive, there shouldn’t be any major problems.
“I… I’m not the Yin-Yang Body you’re talking about.” Meihuai faced the dark flames burning within the skull’s eye sockets and spoke in a low voice.
“No, you are.” The Ancestor of the Red Dragon’s will was filled with an unquestionable certainty, echoing like muffled thunder within the minds of all three.
“This aura—I can’t possibly be mistaken. You are the Yin-Yang Body.”
“Besides, why do you have things belonging to White Dew on you? Why?” When its will mentioned “White Dew,” it seemed to become clear-headed for a moment, carrying a hint of confusion.
Clearly, in ancient times, she had seen White Dew and knew about White Dew’s connection with the previous generation’s Yin-Yang Body.
Jiang Huai fell silent for a moment, avoiding the question about White Dew, and instead spoke with deep sorrow:
“Senior, the Yin-Yang Body you’ve been waiting for… she already fell in battle.”
“She… never made it back.”
“She’s dead?” The skull trembled violently, chains clattering, the sorrow in that will surged like a tidal wave, nearly drowning the three of them.
Ten thousand years of waiting, and in the end, only news of her death.
“Then, are you her son?”
The inheritance of the Yin-Yang Body exists only through bloodline.
“I’m not, either.” Jiang Huai shook his head, denying her assumption, unable to admit to it.
“Senior, there are many things that can’t be explained in a short time. But please, can you tell us what exactly happened back then?”
“If possible, I am willing to try to fulfill the promise she left unfinished and help free you.”
His words were earnest, while his thoughts raced.
This ancient ancestor seemed to know many secrets, including the destiny and status of the Yin-Yang Body.
But he couldn’t speak openly just yet, since Chihuang and Chi Lian were by his side.
The karma entangled with the Yin-Yang Body was too great.
Qin Qingyue had solemnly warned him: before reaching the Unity stage, exposing himself too soon would only invite disaster.
Otherwise, he might end up bound to Qin Qingyue’s side at all times, or else attract too much attention from female cultivators.
“What happened, you ask?” The Ancestor of the Red Dragon’s will swept over Chihuang and Chi Lian.
In the next instant, the flames in its eye sockets suddenly flared violently.
Boom!
Light and shadow twisted—space and time seemed to invert.
A fragment of memory, sealed for ten thousand years, was forcefully poured into the minds of the three:
An ancient battlefield—the firmament weeping blood.
Endless Outworld Heavenly Demons swarmed like locusts, tearing apart the sky.
A colossal red dragon roared and charged amid the demonic tide, dragon scales shattering, dragon blood raining down.
The Ancestor of the Red Dragon revealed her true body, stretching tens of thousands of feet, Dragonflame scorching the heavens.
Yet a strange, mighty Divine Demon Remnant Soul seized the moment to invade her Soul.
The ancestor’s dragon pupils gradually turned pitch-black, her reason fading.
Her dragon body began to be corrupted by demonic energy, attacking her own clansmen without distinction.
Just as she was about to fall completely into the demonic path, leading her corrupted kin to bring calamity upon the world, the five great Dragon Clans on the verge of extinction—a figure descended.
It was a peerless woman, her form surrounded by the profound aura of Yin and Yang.
Looking at the agonized ancestor and the dragon souls consumed by resentment and demonic energy, her eyes were full of compassion and reluctance.
She couldn’t purify the Red Dragon’s Soul instantly, nor could she bear to annihilate the corrupted Red Dragon Clan entirely.
In the end, with supreme magic, she forcibly tore this brutal battlefield from the present world, refining it into an independent Secret Realm and Magic Prison, sealing the soon-to-be-corrupted ancestor and vengeful dragon souls within.
As her power was nearly spent and she was about to depart, she made a solemn Promise to the ancestor’s last trace of clarity:
“When I have dealt with the enemies from beyond, I will return to free you and your clan!”
The memory froze at this point—the image of that woman resolutely turning away, rushing to the Void Battlefield, became the final scene in the Ancestor of the Red Dragon’s mind.
Jiang Huai knew that this departure was for eternity.
Like all Yin-Yang Bodies of previous generations, she never returned, her blood spilled in the void, her soul perished far from home.
That Promise echoed through ten thousand years of time and space, an empty vow.
And Crimson Dragon Town, sealed away, under the constant erosion of the Divine Demon Remnant Soul and the passage of ages, eventually became the current place—strictly governed by rules, saturated with resentment, an inescapable hell.
The tide of memory faded away.
The three were left trembling in body and mind, unable to speak for a long time.
“Ancestor…” Chihuang gazed at the chained, pain-wracked skeleton.
She gripped her sword tightly and asked,
“Can we help you? Is there anything he can do to help you?!”
Chihuang had her own pride, but even more pride in the Red Dragon Clan.
She suddenly looked at Jiang Huai and declared, “Young Master Jiang, weren’t you going to marry me?”
“If you can help my clan’s ancestor, I will marry you!”
At this moment, her view of Jiang Huai changed considerably. If he truly could help revive their ancestor, she’d look up to Jiang Huai all the more.
“You… you all should leave.” The Ancestor of the Red Dragon’s will was filled with exhaustion and endless sorrow.
She seemed to give up, unwilling to drag her descendants into this hopeless fate.
“Protect the Yin-Yang Body, protect him. That is enough. If you need anything, there is nothing the Red Dragon Clan cannot do for you.”
Chihuang’s heart trembled. The ancestor’s meaning was clear.
As long as Jiang Huai wished it, the Red Dragon Clan would offer any help—even their own Saintess.
However, Jiang Huai suddenly stepped forward, his gaze burning like fire, fixed intently on the floating reverse scale and the chained skeleton, his voice resolute and unwavering:
“Senior, though I am not her, I have inherited her legacy and received her grace.”
“Roar!!!”
Just as Jiang Huai finished speaking, a sudden change erupted!
The skull’s head jerked fully upright, the dark flames in its eyes surging wildly, instantly transforming into two masses of pitch-black, pure malice and destructive desire—demonic flames.
The last traces of the Ancestor of the Red Dragon’s consciousness were completely suppressed.
The Outworld Heavenly Demon Remnant Soul seized absolute control.
A terrifying will, mixed with ten thousand years of Red Dragon resentment and the evil aura of the Outworld Heavenly Demon, awakened and exploded like a storm.
Rumble!!!
The entire ancestral hall shook violently, as if on the verge of collapse.
Outside the hall, the blood moon in the sky suddenly erupted in blinding, crimson light, dyeing the entire town of vengeful spirits as if it were Blood Sea Hell.
All the resentful spirits of the town, regardless of what they were doing, suddenly froze, turning in unison toward the ancestral hall.
The same blood-red flames ignited in their hollow eye sockets, emitting soundless howls as they surged madly toward the ancestral hall like a tide.
“This is bad.”