Chapter 988: Alliance Secret. Qing Lin, You Deceived Me.

Tashan approached the woman, his eyes still icy cold. As an Immortal Guard, although he still possessed sentience, all emotions had dissipated, leaving only indifference.

The woman raised her hand and gently placed it on Tashan's glabella. Instantly, a massive force surged into Tashan's glabella, shattering the Immortal Guard mark on his body with unstoppable momentum.

Furthermore, as Tashan trembled, a large amount of golden liquid oozed from his body. Every drop of this golden liquid contained all the Magic Treasure Materials used during his refinement back then.

In just a moment, all traces of the Immortal Guard, both inside and outside Tashan's body, completely vanished. This method of forcibly breaking the Immortal Guard Seal made Wang Lin's scalp tingle. Fortunately, his connection with the Immortal Guard was merely one of powerful control; if the Immortal Guard were destroyed, he would not be implicated.

Having lost the Immortal Guard mark, the sentience in Tashan's eyes gradually faded. He had been on the verge of death back then; had Wang Lin not refined him into an Immortal Guard, he would have perished long ago.

Now without the Immortal Guard mark, Death Qi immediately permeated him. But how could the woman allow Tashan to die in front of her? She slowly raised her right hand, dragging her fingertip lightly across Tashan's glabella, stroke by stroke, stroke by stroke!

A complicated Rune gradually emerged beneath the woman's fingertip, deeply imprinted upon Tashan's glabella.

"In the name of the Talisman Tribe's Holy Ancestor, I activate your Ancestral Spirit, granting you the Talisman Tribe's Holy Mark…" The woman's voice carried a hint of exhaustion. The moment the final stroke fell, the Rune on Tashan's glabella immediately flickered with faint light. Gradually, his body stopped trembling and calmed down. He looked at the woman before him, his gaze filled with confusion.

As the woman carved the Rune anew onto Tashan, all of Tashan's memories from this life were also known to her without reservation. She saw Tashan's tribe living inside the Nether Beast, saw the scenes of sacrifice offered to the Immortals, saw the Slave Marks the Immortals placed upon them, and further saw Wang Lin's appearance and how he led them away from the Netherworld to find a new dwelling place.

She saw all of it.

Especially upon seeing the Slave Marks carried by the Talisman Tribe members for generations, more black blood flowed from the woman's empty eye sockets!

"Qing Lin… You deceived me!!!!" As the woman looked up, she let out a piercing shriek filled with heaven-shaking resentment. Amidst this utterly venomous sound, the Burial Immortal Vortex beneath her immediately roared into motion, spinning violently. Countless souls were swept out from within, letting out mournful cries.

As the vortex spun rapidly, endless Evil Qi diffused out, stirring the vortex as if it were about to collapse. The woman's face twisted into a ferocious expression; the depth of her resentment was unimaginable, as if the grievances suppressed for countless millennia were about to erupt at this moment.

As the woman's sharp cry echoed, the vortex beneath her seemed about to be pulled out. But right then, the Crimson Tendons locking her feet suddenly emitted a red light. This red light surged onto the woman's body, forming red halos that tightly bound her.

However, the unimaginable resentment, the accumulation of being Sealed here for countless millennia, and the rage from realizing she had been deceived by Qing Lin, caused the halos on her body to instantly shatter the moment she moved!

She raised her right hand and fiercely grabbed toward the vortex below!

With this grab, the earth immediately trembled, and the vortex shook violently. Even the Immortal Emperor's Immortal Cave seemed about to collapse, shaking the mountains and ground!

The vortex formed by the Burial Immortal Pond suffered widespread disintegration amidst its trembling due to the woman's grab. The souls inside were miserably torn to shreds, and the entire vortex rapidly shrank at a visible pace, continuously rising toward the woman's right hand.

It was as if, at this moment, the woman was preparing to forcibly extract the vortex, which was the manifestation of the Burial Immortal Pond, right out of the ground!

This drastic change immediately caused alarm in the surroundings. Heavenly Fate Child silently watched everything, his expression slightly grim. Void Realm Child smiled bitterly and shook his head. Through some Immortal Realm ancient texts, he had some knowledge of the events of that year. Seeing this woman, who was rumored to have died, still alive, and connecting it with the texts he had read, he managed to guess some of the truth about the past events.

"You deceived me! You promised me you wouldn't harm my tribesmen, but instead open up another Star Domain as a dwelling place for my people! From then on, your Immortal Realm and my Talisman Realm would coexist! These are all the things you promised me back then, Qing Lin! Why did you deceive me!!"

The woman's mournful cry echoed, filled with deep resentment. As she continuously grabbed with her right hand, the vortex formed by the Burial Immortal Pond collapsed once more. As it shrank, it revealed the surrounding pitch-black abyssal pit. The vortex sped upward, gathering toward the woman's right hand.

Countless souls whistled out. The vast majority of these souls were Immortals killed by Qing Lin over countless years. They now permeated the area, creating an astonishing sight.

The Crimson Tendons beneath the woman flashed with even more intense red light. Layer after layer of halos continuously enveloped the woman, but every single one shattered instantly upon wrapping around her!

Just then, countless marks suddenly appeared on the Crimson Tendons. The moment these marks emerged, they immediately emitted bursts of crystal light, simultaneously floating up from the Crimson Tendons and rapidly condensing together. In an instant, as the crystal light gathered, the countless beams formed a flickering figure in front of the woman!

This person was semi-transparent, but clearly a middle-aged man. He wore golden robes, and his long hair was tied back with a yellow ribbon, flowing freely behind his head. His appearance was extremely handsome, and an air of Immortal elegance pervaded him.

His eyes revealed cold indifference, devoid of any vitality.

The moment his figure materialized, an aura of supreme dominance, as if he alone was sovereign between heaven and earth, shot toward the sky. At this moment, even someone as powerful as Heavenly Fate Child had a drastic change in expression! Countless illusory Clones suddenly materialized around him from within his body. This was not something he actively performed, but rather the result of the impact from an aura that profoundly shook his mind!

"He is indeed stronger than he was back then!!" Heavenly Fate Child gasped, his eyes revealing deep apprehension. In his entire life, Heavenly Fate Child had only been this shocked in front of one person: the person he was back then!

The moment he saw this person, Wang Lin immediately gasped, his pupils sharply contracting. He recognized him instantly: this person was identical to the statue of Qing Lin he had seen in the Concubine Hua Palace!

"Qing Lin!"

"This is not the real Qing Lin. This is merely the Restriction Divided Soul he left within the Burial Immortal Pond to Seal the Talisman Tribe's Holy Ancestor. It has no consciousness, no memory, and none of his true body's Divine Abilities. Its only instinct is to prevent Qiu Yao, the Talisman Tribe's Holy Ancestor, from escaping!" Void Realm Child's mind also shook. His cultivation had reached a level where he could slightly alter the rules of his location, but seeing this figure now, he felt as if he had returned to the past, to the weakness he felt when he was still a Mortal, the kind that could be extinguished with a single breath.

At this very moment, far outside the Demon Spirit Land in the East Sea, beyond the scope of Tian Yun Star, within an incinerating Star Domain in the Alliance Star Domain —a place even the Cultivation Alliance could not control —the Awakening of Wang Lin's Vermilion Bird, the moment he stepped out of the Bottle Realm, triggered a cataclysm that shook the entire Vermilion Bird Holy Sect!

Everything was due to the Vermilion Bird's Awakening!