Chapter 209: The netherworld armor and the roadblock! This soft rice really is traded with one’s life!

The heavy animal skin curtain fell, cutting off the sound of the wind and snow outside.

Inside the spacious and luxurious tent, death-like silence was restored once again.

Gu Lan collapsed on the soft couch like a puddle of mud, panting heavily.

He lay on the bed for a full half-cup of tea's time before feeling the bone-deep, extreme cold tingling sensation recede slightly.

"This Female Demon Lord really plays dirty…"

Gu Lan gritted his teeth and laboriously propped up his body.

He lowered his head to look at his body, which was covered in a layer of grayish-black filth. That was the very last bit of Impurities forced out from the depths of his bone marrow and Meridians under the repeated scouring of the extreme Devilish Qi last night.

At present, his Pure Yang Body had been tempered to an extremely freakish degree.

Although his exterior didn't show any knotted muscles, every inch of his skin and flesh contained explosive power.

He reached out to pick up the black Medicinal Pill that Ye Hongzhuang had thrown on the bed, bringing it to the tip of his nose to sniff.

Without hesitation, he threw his head back and swallowed it directly.

"Boom!"

The Medicinal Pill melted the moment it entered his mouth, instantly transforming into an extremely gentle yet massive warm current that surged along his withered Meridians.

This medicinal power was pure to the extreme, not only quickly soothing the tiny tear wounds on his Meridians, but also replenishing eighty percent of his depleted True Essence in one breath.

"Hoo… Consider that you still have a bit of conscience."

Gu Lan let out a long breath of foul air, feeling as if he had come back to life.

He then picked up the palm-sized black inner armor—the "netherworld armor".

This thing was as thin as a cicada's wing, and he could barely feel any weight when holding it in his hand.

With a thought, Gu Lan injected a trace of True Essence into it.

With a "swish", the netherworld armor instantly transformed into a streak of black light that clung directly to his skin, then disappeared from sight.

Gu Lan reached out to touch his chest; aside from feeling a trace of warmth and coolness on the surface of his skin, there was no foreign body sensation at all.

But he could clearly sense that if someone were to hack at him with a blade right now, this invisible inner armor could definitely withstand the full-strength blow of a Golden Core Late Stage Cultivator.

"Good stuff, my capital for preserving my life has increased by another fraction."

Gu Lan did not delay, pinching a Dust-Clearing Spell to clean away the filth on his body, changing into the black and gold Sword-Wielding Envoy robe, and securely hanging the soul-devouring sword at his waist.

The time of half an hour was almost up.

He took a deep breath, lifted the tent's curtain, and walked out in large strides.

The wind and snow of the Far North Ice Field were still ferocious.

But this time, as the wind and snow whipped across Gu Lan's face, he unexpectedly couldn't feel much chill at all.

The extremely restrained Pure Yang Qi and blood within his body, coupled with the dual protection of the netherworld armor, allowed him to walk on flat ground within this desperate land.

"Gu Lan!"

Not long after walking out of the main tent, a figure suddenly darted out from behind an ice pillar nearby and grabbed his arm.

Gu Lan didn't even need to turn his head; just smelling that familiar fragrance told him who it was.

"Shuanger?"

Saintess Ji Wushuang's condition looked terrible right now.

Her eye sockets were red, filled with bloodshot veins, and there were heavy dark circles under her eyes.

Her capable black martial attire was also covered in snowflakes, clearly indicating she had been freezing out here for a whole night.

She stared dead at Gu Lan, her gaze containing thirty percent anger and seventy percent heartache.

Like a vigilant little puppy, she leaned close to Gu Lan's collar and sniffed hard twice.

"You… you were with her last night…" Saintess Ji Wushuang's voice trembled slightly as she bit her lower lip, seeming terrified of hearing the answer that would make her break down.

"What are you thinking?"

Seeing her haggard appearance, Gu Lan's heart softened.

He didn't push her away, instead turning his hand to grasp her icy little hand, taking the opportunity to pull back a section of his own sleeve to reveal his shoulder and collarbone.

"Look for yourself."

Saintess Ji Wushuang looked closely.

On Gu Lan's skin, although it had already healed, one could still faintly see layers of bruised frostbite marks, and even the blood vessels in some places were slightly bulging, exuding an abnormal dark black color.

That was not at all the trace left by romantic pleasure; that was the miserable state resulting from experiencing life-and-death torture!

"She… she tortured you with Origin Devilish Qi empowerment?!"

Saintess Ji Wushuang drew a sharp breath, the jealousy in her eyes instantly vanishing like smoke, replaced by endless panic and lingering fear.

As a Demon Cult Saintess, she knew all too well how perilous this method was.

This was using one's life to widen the Meridians!

If there was the slightest carelessness, the Pure Yang Body would directly collapse, and the entire person would be frozen into a useless corpse by the extreme Yin Devilish Qi!

"That crazy woman! She truly doesn't take your life seriously!"

Saintess Ji Wushuang was so anxious that tears were almost falling; she reached out wanting to touch those frostbite marks, yet feared hurting him.

"Alright, stop crying; aren't I jumping around alive and well?"

Gu Lan helped her brush the snowflakes off her shoulders, his tone relaxed.

"This is 'special training'. Without suffering a bit, how can we survive entering Wanmo Cave today? You are also a member of the Demon Cult; you should know that there is no such thing as free soft rice in this world."

"Who cares to eat her soft rice!"

Saintess Ji Wushuang spat fiercely, and with a reverse movement stuffed a red jade stone carrying her body temperature into Gu Lan's arms. "This is 'Blood-Burning Jade'! Keep it close to your body! Once you enter Wanmo Cave, if you can't hold on, crush it! It can instantly stimulate three times your potential, enough for you to escape back to the entrance!"

Gu Lan grasped that scalding hot piece of jade without refusing.

"Remember, follow me closely and don't run around blindly!"

Saintess Ji Wushuang gave a fierce warning before finally letting go of her hand, turning around and walking quickly toward the assembly point.

Watching her retreating figure, Gu Lan smiled helplessly and quickly followed.

The assembly point was located at the end of the glacial canyon.

Here, two pitch-black mountain peaks standing thousands of zhang tall pierced straight into the clouds like two sharp swords, tightly wedging the canyon.

Between the two black mountains stood a bronze giant gate a hundred zhang tall.

The giant gate was covered with dark red verdigris and carved with countless grim-faced patterns of ancient devil gods.

Black iron chains as thick as water buckets extended from the mountain body, locking this bronze giant gate tightly.

Even with the gate tightly closed, wisps of sickening black-red mist still seeped out through the cracks of the gate, corroding the surrounding ice and snow into pitch-black sewage.

This place was the true Forbidden Land of the Heavenly Demon Palace—Wanmo Cave.

At this moment, in a large open space in front of the bronze gate, over a thousand elite members of the Demon Cult had already formed neat arrays.

The Grand Elder, leading several hall masters of the Golden Core Late Stage, stood at the very front of the formation.

Seeing Gu Lan walk over, a trace of undisguised malice and murderous intent flashed through the Grand Elder's remaining single eye.

But he hid it very well, quickly lowering his head to put on a respectful appearance.

"The Cult Master has arrived—!"

Accompanied by a sharp announcement.

Ye Hongzhuang's figure appeared like a phantom right in front of the bronze giant gate.

Today she had changed into an extremely form-fitting dark red soft armor, draped with that snow-fox cloak outside.

Gone was her usual lazy posture; it was replaced by an extreme aura of slaughter that made one feel short of breath at a single glance.

She was simply an peerless demonic saber drawn from its scabbard.

"Gu Lan, come over."

Ye Hongzhuang did not look at anyone, her gaze locking directly onto Gu Lan who was standing in the crowd.

Gu Lan walked quickly to a position half a step behind her and stood firm.

"Are you ready?" Ye Hongzhuang turned her head slightly, her voice lowered.

"This subordinate is always ready." Gu Lan pressed his hand against the sword hilt and answered expressionlessly.

"Very good."

Ye Hongzhuang stopped wasting words.

She slowly raised that fair right hand; in the center of her palm, a ball of demonic fire so black it could even swallow light suddenly ignited.

"Open the array!"

Accompanied by a cold shout, Ye Hongzhuang slammed a palm fiercely onto the bronze giant gate.

"Rumble—!!!"

The earth began to tremble violently.

The runes on those thick iron chains winding around the giant gate flashed frantically, emitting a teeth-aching sound of metal friction.

Immediately following this, with a loud "crack", the heavy bronze gate slowly opened a three-zhang-wide gap to both sides.

In an instant.

A thick Death Qi, corpse stench, and frantic resentment that seemed to have been bottled up for tens of millions of years gushed out from the crack in the gate like a breached flood!

"Wuwu—!"

The violent wind was mixed with the wails of countless fierce ghosts, and the piercing sound waves directly attacked the Divine Soul of everyone present.

Some Foundation Establishment Stage demonic Cultivators with weaker cultivation on the outer perimeter, even separated by over a hundred zhang, turned pale the instant they came into contact with this black mist; some even had their legs go weak and directly knelt on the ground, clutching their heads and screaming in agony.

"Keep your minds steady, all of you! Anyone who dares to take a step back will be executed without mercy!" The Grand Elder roared sternly from the rear, stabilizing the footing.

Meanwhile, Gu Lan, standing at the very front, bore the brunt of the most intense impact.

That strand of black demonic fiendish Qi seemed to have a life of its own, frantically drilling into his seven facial orifices.

But he did not retreat a single step.

The netherworld armor within his body emitted a layer of faint black light, blocking most of the physical corrosion outside his body.

As for the demonic fiendish Qi that drilled into his body, it was tightly suppressed by his Half-step Golden Core, which had already stabilized to the extreme.

Watching Gu Lan remain completely unchanged in complexion amidst the demonic fiendish impact, a glimmer of satisfied shrewdness flashed through the depths of Ye Hongzhuang's eyes.

"Let's go."

Ye Hongzhuang did not spare another glance at the people outside, nor did she bring any guards.

She grabbed Gu Lan's wrist, leaped up, and directly merged into that thick, impenetrable darkness.