The footsteps came closer and closer. Qing Qianxue’s expression hardened. She quickly sent a voice transmission, “Senior, please hide. We’ll handle the patrol guards...”

Lin Xun only smiled. “Just some guards. There’s no need to panic.”

Qing Qianxue stiffened. He hadn’t lowered his voice at all. Anyone with a shred of perception could hear him clearly!

Sure enough, from the distant dark came a cold voice dripping with contempt. “Which lowly slave dares slander us? Do you not want to live anymore?”

A squad of figures stormed into view, each clad in immaculate, brightly colored robes, their eyes brimming with naked cruelty and arrogance. At their head strode a man with a steely, expressionless face and a pair of eerie golden eyes that shone wickedly in the dark.

The moment Qing Qianxue and the middle-aged man saw him, their hearts plummeted.

Ju Mang! He was one of the nine patrol guard commanders of Star Forbidden Mountain, a supreme Emperor Ancestor renowned for his ruthlessness and thirst for blood. In just the last ten years alone, hundreds of slaves had perished under his command. Every death at his hands was unspeakably horrific.

“Huh?”

Ju Mang’s gaze lingered on the now radiant and beautiful Qing Qianxue after her injuries had been restored and every trace of grime vanished. His eyes widened slightly before gleaming with greedy delight. “I didn’t expect you to look this good.”

Under the oppressive chill of those golden eyes, Qing Qianxue shuddered uncontrollably.

“Who was bad-mouthing Lord Ju Mang just now? Step forward!” A guard at Ju Mang’s side barked coldly, his voice like a blade scraping bone. Even as he spoke, his gaze had already locked onto Lin Xun.

Lin Xun’s clean appearance and unfamiliar face made him stand out like a beacon.

“Are these all from the Yang Clan?” Lin Xun asked lightly.

Qing Qianxue clenched her teeth, as though ready to stake everything. “Senior, they were captured slaves like us, but they chose to grovel before the Yang Clan and were made patrol guards. Every day, they watch us, torment us, and if we fail to meet the mining quota, they beat us without hesitation. Over the years, countless have been killed by their hands.”

Ju Mang and the others looked genuinely taken aback. Clearly, they had never imagined that a lowly slave like Qing Qianxue would dare to condemn them to their faces.

“Bitch! Courting death!” A guard snarled, lashing out with his whip. A streak of blazing dao light tore through the air toward her.

Bang!

The whip detonated mid-strike, bursting apart before it even came close to Qing Qianxue. A heartbeat later, the guard crumpled to the ground, his cultivation collapsing like a deflated balloon, and his body left limp and ruined.

Lin Xun had simply glanced his way, without even lifting a finger. The scene was so chilling that everyone stood frozen.

“Run!” Ju Mang reacted first, panic flashing across his face as he turned to flee. However, the moment he moved, his legs buckled beneath him and he crashed to the ground with a dull thud, his bones and tendons rupturing inch by inch, leaving him sprawled like a heap of formless mud, unable to rise again.

He screamed hoarsely, “Are you rebelling?! This is the Yang Clan’s territory, you...”

Before he could finish, Lin Xun simply reached out, and Ju Mang’s spirit was torn from his body and drawn into Lin Xun’s palm. Within seconds, he sifted through every one of Ju Mang’s memories. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Bang!

Then, with a casual squeeze, Ju Mang’s spirit shattered, and the rest of the guards stood frozen, their faces twisting with shock and terror. Even Qing Qianxue and the middle-aged man were shaken to their core by the effortless, domineering power Lin Xun had just displayed.

With a series of dull thuds, the remaining patrol guards collapsed to their knees, pale with terror. “Senior, spare us! Senior, please spare us!”

Lin Xun didn’t bother to look at them. “Come, little girl. We’re leaving.”

He had already gleaned everything he needed from Ju Mang’s memories. There was no reason to remain in this dark mine.

“But...”

Before Qing Qianxue could finish her question about the kneeling guards, she saw Lin Xun take a step and the patrol guards silently crumbled into ash. She froze, then hurried after him, but no matter how she tried, her heart simply wouldn’t calm.

Just how powerful is this senior?

Only once Lin Xun and Qing Qianxue were completely out of sight did the others snap from their trance, shaking uncontrollably.

“Fellow Daoists, should we also beg that senior to take us away too?” someone couldn’t help but ask.

“Yes! Ju Mang was a supreme Emperor Ancestor, yet he was killed like an insect. Based on this, that senior must have at least set foot on the Immortal Path. With his power, we might really escape this hell.”

The others began speaking as well, one after another. The middle-aged man wore a conflicted expression, but in the end he shook his head in defeat. “Everyone...don’t forget where we are. This is Star Forbidden Mountain, the Yang Clan’s territory! Since ancient times, not a single being in the Eternal True Realm has ever contended with the Yang Clan!”

His words struck like a bucket of ice water, freezing every spark of hope on the spot. Eternal Divine Clan! Just that title alone was enough to crush anyone into despair!

......

In the dark tunnels, Qing Qianxue couldn’t help but ask, “Senior, are we...just going to walk out like this?”

Throughout, Lin Xun walked openly and calmly. He didn’t bother to conceal himself in the slightest, as if the patrol guards stationed throughout Star Forbidden Mountain were beneath his notice.

“Don’t worry, whatever happens, just watch,” Lin Xun said with a smile.

How could Qing Qianxue possibly not worry? Of course, very soon, Lin Xun showed her exactly why she didn’t need to.

One patrol squad after another collapsed silently the moment they caught sight of them, their bodies turning to ash and scattering in the wind. Regardless of their cultivation, they were wiped out before a single sound could escape their lips!

Qing Qianxue also noticed that Lin Xun never made any visible move. He simply walked forward at a leisurely pace, yet any enemy who dared block his path was erased in an instant...

Those deaths weren’t bloody, nor did they make a sound, but that was what made them all the more terrifying. At last, they stepped out of the suffocating mine tunnels and onto open ground. A vast blue sky stretched overhead, and warm sunlight poured over the world.

Qing Qianxue stopped where she stood, dazed. She couldn’t remember the last time she had seen the open sky. Ever since she had been dragged into this cold, damp Star Forbidden Mountain, she had lived like a burrowing rat, digging through endless darkness, constantly fearing the filthy qi would corrode her cultivation at any moment, and always watching for fellow slaves who were eager to rob or kill for survival...

She had long since given up on ever walking out of those tunnels alive. Now, in this very moment, sunlight touched her skin again! It felt as if she had risen from the darkness of hell into the world of the living...

Before she could even take it in, her expression shifted sharply. Near the mine’s exit stretched a vast canyon basin, ringed by densely packed palace-like structures. This was one of the patrol guard encampments. Each camp housed over a thousand guards, and throughout the entire Star Forbidden Mountain, there were a total of thirteen such encampments!

Yang Shuohong, a Nirvana Spirit Immortal elder of Eternal Divine Yang Clan was stationed at the first camp. Apart from him, each of the remaining camps was overseen by a Heavenly Longevity Immortal expert.

As soon as Qing Qianxue and Lin Xun emerged stepped out of the mine, dozens of patrol guards spotted them and instantly erupted into furious shouts,

“How dare you! Who allowed you to leave?”

“Get back inside now!”

A squad of guards surged forward like a pack of wolves.

“Senior, run!” Qing Qianxue’s voice trembled. She wasn’t worried about the lowly guards chasing them, but the Immortal from the Yang Clan stationed in this camp noticing their escape.

Lin Xun lightly patted her shoulder. “I still need answers. No need to panic.”

Boom!

The dozen guards rushing toward them erupted mid-stride, reduced to drifting ash without even a scream. The canyon fell deathly silent. Then the entire canyon camp erupted as countless guards surged out from the surrounding palace buildings like a raging black tide.

A thunderous shout cracked across the canyon, “Who dares run wild on the Yang Clan’s territory?”

Shua! A towering figure shrouded in Immortal light tore through the air. Clad in golden robes, he was as dazzling as a blazing sun, his features sharp and heroic.

Qing Qianxue’s heart clenched and her pretty face was drained of all color. Yang Wenqi! He was a Heavenly Longevity Immortal of an Eternal Divine Yang Clan, and his very name made every slave in Star Forbidden Mountain turn pale with terror and despair!

Lin Xun simply smiled. “At last...a figure with a little weight.”

As he spoke, he stepped forward. Boom!

The tide of guards flooding out from the canyon froze mid-charge, then, all at once, they disintegrated into showers of ash and scattered like dust. At the same moment, Lin Xun lifted a hand and grasped at the empty air.

Yang Wenqi, the mighty figure who had driven hopeless terror into Qing Qianxue’s heart was seized like a fly, dragged from afar, and hurled to the ground before Lin Xun with a dull thud. In a single breath, thousands of guards were annihilated, and even a high-ranking Immortal of the Eternal Divine Yang Clan now lay suppressed before Lin Xun!

This sight shattered Qing Qianxue’s understanding of the world. Her mind went utterly blank as she stood there, unable to react at all. Senior...what kind of unimaginable existence are you?!

Yang Wenqi was equally stupefied, his face twisting with both fury and fear. He could never have imagined that the young man who’d walked out of a mine tunnel was such a terrifying existence. Taking a slow breath, he spoke coldly, “Who are you? You dare strike at me? Are you not afraid of invoking the wrath of the Yang Clan?”

Bang!

His immortal dao body burst apart in an instant, scattering into dust. With a casual motion, Lin Xun seized his primordial spirit and began rifling through his memories. From beginning to end, he didn’t spare Yang Wenqi a proper glance, let alone waste words on him.

After all, when it came to uncovering the truth, nothing was faster or more efficient than searching the soul!