131: Chapter 130 Discovery of the Soul-Devouring Life-Severing Array

Ling Mie released his Heavenly Realm Great Perfection Soul Power once again, like an invisible net, completely shrouding this stretch of heaven and earth, carefully searching for every unreasonable spot; nothing could escape his probing.

Ling Yuan was not idle either, helping with the search.

Ten or so minutes later, the father and son stopped their actions.

Ling Yuan looked puzzled: "This shouldn't be right. Since Soul Mie Sheng specifically came here and even sent everyone away, how could it be possible that he left nothing behind?"

The father and son had searched for over ten minutes, scouring the inside and outside of this Hall of Souls Branch Hall, every corner of the hall, and the area for several miles around the branch hall, yet they couldn't find a single suspicious thing.

There was no residual Qi or Soul fluctuation, and no hidden devices.

Could Soul Mie Sheng have really just come here for an inspection?

This thought had just risen in Ling Yuan's mind before he immediately dismissed it.

It's unlikely. A Five-Star Dou Sheng, the dignified Hall Master of the Soul Hall, having nothing better to do, running to such a remote branch hall for an inspection?

Also, that Elder Zun had said Soul Mie Sheng came eight days ago. Since he himself had waited for five days plus one day of travel back and forth, Soul Mie Sheng had stayed here for at least two days.

Two days was enough time for a Five-Star Dou Sheng to do many things.

"Dad, I still feel something is wrong. Let's go check other branch halls!"

Ling Yuan still didn't believe that Soul Mie Sheng had only come to this one branch hall; perhaps there would be clues at other branch halls.

The father and son first swept through this Hall of Souls Branch Hall.

Ling Yuan casually collected the Soul Essence; although the quantity wasn't much, it couldn't be wasted, so he gathered it all into his storage ring.

Ling Mie wiped away all traces and Soul fluctuations at the scene, ensuring there were no signs that anyone had been there.

After finishing this, the father and son headed toward the next Hall of Souls Branch Hall.

Ling Yuan knew he wouldn't get anything out of the Hall of Souls workers, so he didn't waste his breath.

They killed everyone from the Hall of Souls, then inspected the hall.

But the result was still the same; the second branch hall yielded nothing, and the third branch hall still had no discoveries.

Just when Ling Mie began to think his son was being too suspicious, they made a discovery at the fourth Hall of Souls Branch Hall.

The fourth Hall of Souls Branch Hall was located in the Eastern Region of the Central Plains, slightly larger than the previous few branch halls, but equally remote.

The father and son followed their old rules, first killing everyone inside the branch hall, then beginning a careful search.

Ling Mie keenly discovered some unusual fluctuations hidden several hundred meters deep beneath the Hall of Souls building.

His eyes narrowed, and he said: "I've found something!"

The space there seemed to be hiding something.

Ling Mie waved his hand, and a powerful surge of Qi blasted out, smashing straight into the ground.

"Boom!" With a loud noise, a huge deep pit was instantly smashed into the ground, gravel flew everywhere, and the pit extended straight down, reaching several hundred meters deep.

It was a black box the size of a palm; the box was pitch black, with no patterns on its surface, yet it emitted a dense Soul aura.

This was used to hide the box; it could perfectly conceal the box's fluctuations, and without careful probing, it would be impossible to discover.

Around the box, there were faint black markings, twisted and intertwined.

Ling Mie reached out, condensing a wisp of Soul Power at his fingertip, gently striking it onto the black box.

With a soft "click," the box, which had no locks, slowly opened upon being touched by the Soul Power.

Inside was a ball of black energy; this black energy was spherical, about an inch in diameter, its surface constantly wriggling, emitting a cold and eerie aura, and carrying a faint spatial fluctuation. Upon touching it, one could feel a powerful pulling force.

Ling Mie stared at the ball of black energy, his brows furrowed, his tone puzzled: "This is..."

He felt this energy was somewhat familiar, as if it were the eye of some kind of great array, but he couldn't immediately recall what specific great array it was.

If the complete array were placed in front of him, given his experience, he would certainly be able to recognize it at a glance.

But this was only a single array eye, and its form was different from the array eyes in the complete array, making it hard to identify for the moment.

Ling Mie frowned, trying hard to search his mind for relevant memories, recalling the various great arrays he had seen.

Just then, Ling Yuan leaned forward, staring at the black energy inside the box, and said: "Dad, I have seen similar records in ancient books. Is this thing the array eye of the Soul-Devouring Life-Extinguishing Array?"

Reminded by his own son, Ling Mie suddenly realized.

"That's right. It is a great array that was lost since the ancient times. I didn't expect the Hun Clan to still possess the array eyes of this array and to have secretly set it up!"

What does the Hun Clan want to do by setting up this great array in the Central Plains?

Rapidly collect Souls and obtain Soul Essence?

...

In the time that followed, the father and son swept through more than ten Hall of Souls Branch Halls.

Yet even so, they only found two array eyes.

According to the records in the ancient books, to cover the Central Plains with the array, at least a hundred array eyes would be needed.

Obviously, the Hun Clan had only just begun to set up this array.

Over these two days, the news that fifteen Hall of Souls Branch Halls had been massively slaughtered, without a single survivor left, had spread throughout the entire Central Plains, causing quite a sensation.

What kind of existence was the Hall of Souls?

It was a force with Dou Sheng experts presiding, cruel methods, and one that made people tremble with fear. To think that someone dared to wipe out fifteen of their branch halls at once; which force had such audacity?

The Pill Tower?

Almost everyone's first reaction was the Pill Tower.

After all, the Hall of Souls and the Pill Tower had been in constant friction over these years, with deep grievances.

The Hall of Souls specialized in capturing the Souls of Cultivators, and the more powerful the Soul, the more they valued it.

And which type of people had the strongest Souls?

Undoubtedly, it was the Alchemists.

Alchemists refined Medicinal Pills all year round, their Mental Energy far exceeding that of ordinary people, and their Souls were also much stronger than those of ordinary Cultivators.

Over these years, many Alchemists from the Pill Tower, and even some young Alchemists with outstanding talent, had fallen victim to the Hall of Souls, having their Souls extracted after being captured.

The Pill Tower had long hated the Hall of Souls to the bone, so wiping out fifteen Hall of Souls Branch Halls at once was indeed possible.

...

At this time, inside the Hall of Souls Main Hall.

Soul Mie Sheng sat on the main seat, his face so gloomy it seemed like water could drip from it, the Soul Power fluctuations around his body were extremely violent, and the entire main hall was shrouded in a cold, eerie aura.

He had already received the news of the branch halls being destroyed.

Fifteen branch halls, all wiped out in one fell swoop, without a single survivor; the losses were immense.

He didn't care about the life or death of those subordinates at all; the Hun Clan lacked nothing more than Cultivators. If one batch died, he could just replenish them with another.

What he truly cared about were the Soul-Devouring Life-Extinguishing Array array eyes he had secretly hidden.

Among the fifteen destroyed branch halls, the array eyes of two branch halls had been discovered and dismantled by someone.

This was even more serious than losing half of the Hall of Souls' experts.