Chapter 300: Long Panzi, who possesses the ethereal realm

Huanglong Zhenren suddenly looked up, fear finally showing in his eyes. The Soul Corroding Powder was a forbidden drug of the Cultivation Alliance. Once it entered the body, the Nascent Soul would be gnawed away as if by ants.

It would melt away little by little from the inside out. The process was a hundred times more painful than the Soul Locking Needle, and it would cause a cultivator to completely lose his Dao foundation, without even a chance for reincarnation.

"You… you will all die horrible deaths…"

Huanglong Zhenren roared hoarsely, his voice filled with despair.

Qinglong Zi picked up the jade bottle, walked to him, pinched open his jaw, and was about to pour it down. Huanglong Zhenren struggled desperately, but he was firmly bound by iron chains, only able to watch helplessly as the dark green liquid approached his lips.

Just then, Huanglong Zhenren suddenly coughed violently, coughing so hard it seemed his internal organs would be torn out.

Mixed in with the bloody froth he coughed up was a small piece of bone, a molar he had just bitten through.

"Trying to commit suicide? Too late!"

Qinglong Zi's eyes sharpened, and he pressed his finger firmly on Huanglong Zhenren's throat, forcibly preventing him from biting his tongue, and shattering his teeth.

Blood seeped from the corner of Huanglong Zhenren's mouth, but his eyes suddenly became calm, even carrying a hint of a strange smile.

Looking at Qinglong Zi, he said in a voice only the two of them could hear, "Do you think… I, this old man, was truly just an ordinary Holy Lord during these years in the Vermillion Bird Holy Sect?"

Qinglong Zi was stunned. Before he could react, he suddenly noticed Huanglong Zhenren's body starting to heat up, with a faint golden light flowing beneath his skin.

"Not good! He's going to self-destruct his Nascent Soul!"

The grey-robed old man cried out in alarm, turning to run out.

Qinglong Zi's face also changed drastically. He hadn't expected that this person, who had been tortured for two years, still had the strength to self-destruct his Nascent Soul.

The two of them retreated sharply, wanting to lock Huanglong Zhenren's Nascent Soul with the iron chains, but it was already too late.

Before the golden light could break through his skin, an ancient voice, like a booming bell, crashed into the main hall: "You want to self-destruct your Nascent Soul? You really want to destroy the entire Cultivation Alliance!"

Before the words finished, the void suddenly twisted, and a middle-aged cultivator in grey robes appeared out of thin air.

The moment his eyes opened, the bloody smell in the entire hall melted away like ice meeting a raging fire, and even the cold gleam on the iron chains dimmed by three points.

It was Long Panzi.

Without even looking at the panicked Qinglong Zi and the grey-robed old man, he simply raised his hand and pressed it lightly towards Huanglong Zhenren.

The golden light that was about to explode seemed to be gripped by an invisible large hand, instantly shrinking back into Huanglong Zhenren's body, even causing the color of blood on his skin to fade slightly.

"Pfft—"

Huanglong Zhenren suddenly spat out a large mouthful of blood. The self-destruction was forcibly suppressed back into his body, his meridians snapped inch by inch, but he managed to preserve his last trace of Nascent Soul.

He looked up in disbelief at the old man before him, whose portrait he had only seen in ancient texts, his lips trembling, unable to speak.

Long Panzi slowly withdrew his hand, his wooden staff gently tapping the ground. Qinglong Zi and the grey-robed old man immediately felt as if struck by a heavy hammer.

They fell to their knees with a thud, their immortal power surging chaotically within them, unable to even lift their heads.

"When did it become your turn to use forbidden drugs for interrogation, according to the rules of the Cultivation Alliance?"

Long Panzi's voice was not loud, but it carried an undeniable majesty. He said indifferently, "I, this old man, slept for two years, and the realm has become like this?"

Qinglong Zi's face was pale, his forehead pressed to the ground as he stammered, "Senior, this villain colluded with the rebel Lin Che, hiding an Extreme Realm cultivator. He wouldn't confess without forbidden drugs…"

"Confess?"

Long Panzi sneered, his gaze falling on Huanglong Zhenren. A complex emotion flashed in his world-weary eyes.

"If he wanted to confess, why would you need to torture him? If he doesn't want to speak, even if I, this old man, personally acted, I might not be able to pry open his mouth."

Long Panzi leaned over to look at Huanglong Zhenren, his wooden staff gently tapping the iron chain on the other's collarbone.

With several crisp 'crack' sounds, the profound iron chains that had been wrapped around him for two years shattered like rotten wood, revealing the already festering wounds beneath.

"The people of the Vermillion Bird Holy Sect certainly have hard bones."

Long Panzi glanced at Huanglong Zhenren before him and said helplessly, "It's just a pity that he protected the wrong person."

Huanglong Zhenren coughed out a few mouthfuls of bloody froth, breathing weakly: "Senior Long… Lin Che is not a rebel…"

"Whether he is or not is not for you to say."

Long Panzi interrupted him, but he no longer harbored any killing intent. He simply said coldly to Qinglong Zi, "Take him away, seal his Nascent Soul with 'Soul Locking Jade', and no more torture is allowed."

Qinglong Zi dared not disobey. He quickly scrambled up and motioned to the grey-robed old man. The two of them supported the semi-conscious Huanglong Zhenren and walked out. As they passed Long Panzi, they didn't even dare to breathe loudly.

Only Long Panzi remained in the main hall. He gazed at the bloodstains and broken chains on the ground, his wooden staff gently drawing a line in the void, and a phantom appeared.

It was Lin Che as he looked two years ago when he leveled the Yao family, with the seven-colored Extreme Realm flowing around him, and the Kongming Sword cutting through the sky.

"Extreme Realm… Sky Treasure…" Long Panzi murmured to himself, a trace of solemnity flashing in his eyes. He said indifferently, "Could it be that what the Venerable couldn't achieve back then is destined to come true in this junior?"

The wooden staff tapped the ground again, the phantom dissipated, and the main hall returned to dead silence, leaving only his sigh of unknown meaning, which escaped through the window crack with the wind, drifting to unknown places… Suzaku Star, Hengyue Sect.

Inside the magnificent main hall of the sect.

Zhang Kuang, as the sect master, looked at the disciple before him and sighed deeply, saying, "Recently, the Cultivation Alliance has been sanctioning our Suzaku Star. If this continues, I'm afraid our Hengyue Sect will also face disaster."

Zhang Kuang gently stroked his forehead, looking at Li Qiqing, the sixteenth-generation Zhu Quezi, beside him, and whispered, "Brother Li, I wonder how you think this matter should be resolved, after all, our Cultivation Star is subordinate to the Cultivation Alliance…"

Upon hearing this, Li Qiqing tapped his finger heavily on the armrest of the sandalwood chair and said in a deep voice, "Brother Zhang, in terms of subordination, our Suzaku Star is indeed under the Alliance's jurisdiction, but their sanctions have long crossed the line."

"Last month they cut off Suzaku Star's spiritual energy, and this month they sealed the ore veins. They are clearly forcing us to take sides: either hand over Lin Che's whereabouts, or become sacrifices for them to strike at other Cultivation Stars."

Li Qiqing stood up and walked to the star map hanging in the hall, pointing his finger at the position of Suzaku Star:

"Now, the spiritual energy of our Suzaku Star is less than one-tenth of what it was before. If this continues, the cultivators of Suzaku Star will truly be unable to continue cultivating."

"Yes, but there's nothing we can do. After all, this was decided by the Cultivation Alliance, and the Cultivation Crystal is still in our hands. If it falls into the hands of the Cultivation Alliance, I'm afraid it will truly be completely destroyed…"

Zhang Kuang also sighed, knowing that there was no room for reversal in this matter. They could only wait for Senior Brother Lin Che to return to the Hengyue Sect to take charge of the overall situation.

Otherwise, with their strength, they would not be able to withstand the attacks of the Cultivation Alliance.