176: Falling into enemy hands

Time flowed like water, passing quietly.

Since the day the Saintess personally visited the Listening Bamboo Pavilion, Lin Feng had accompanied her to the depths of the Sect's Forbidden Ground for closed-door cultivation, a departure that lasted for a full three months.

When Lin Feng reappeared under the sunlight of the Listening Bamboo Pavilion, the aura around him had already changed.

It was not a surge in cultivation, but rather a restrained sense of completeness; his eyes shone with divine light, and his understanding of the Five Elements and Yin and Yang had clearly entered a brand-new Realm.

During these three months of closed-door cultivation and discussion of the Dao, he and the Saintess had compared notes, and the gains far exceeded his expectations. His own Foundation at the Late Foundation Establishment Stage had been polished to be incredibly solid; condensing a Golden Core and breaking through to the Core Formation Stage seemed within reach.

News of his exit from seclusion spread like wildfire.

Yun Qingyao, Shui Qingxue, Yun Zhi, Junior Sister Liu, and other familiar female Disciples came one after another to visit and offer congratulations, their words filled with admiration and curiosity.

Even the usually stern Elder Yan Jing nodded slightly when she saw him from afar.

On the day of his departure, the Saintess personally saw him off.

At the mountain gate, she handed a warm, moon-white jade talisman to Lin Feng: "Fellow Daoist Lin, take care on your journey. I hope you achieve your Golden Core soon and that your Dao is promising. The Illusory Moon Sect welcomes you to return and discuss the Dao at any time."

Lin Feng took the jade talisman and could feel a trace of pure moonlight energy and the Saintess's Divine Thought mark contained within it.

He bowed deeply with cupped hands: "I will keep Senior's teachings in my heart. Lin Feng will never forget this kindness."

Bidding farewell to everyone, Lin Feng transformed into a pale golden Escaping Light and left the Illusory Moon Sect.

His heart was filled with confidence, feeling that the world was vast, Core Formation was in sight, and his future was bright.

However, just as he had flown only a few hundred miles outside the territory of the Illusory Moon Sect and was passing over a desolate mountain range, two pitch-black chains wreathed in thick, sinister Evil Qi suddenly shot out from the Void Realm.

A terrifying Spiritual Pressure that made one's Soul tremble descended, completely freezing the space within a hundred-foot radius.

"Late Core Formation Stage! Two of them!"

Lin Feng's heart was shaken with horror; he would never mistake this aura—it was people from the Heavenly Demon Palace.

He tried to circulate his spiritual power, but found himself like an insect trapped in amber; his spiritual power was sluggish, and he could barely move a finger.

"Kid, surrender now!"

A hoarse, cold voice rang out.

The next moment, the space seemed to solidify, and a giant hand wreathed in pitch-black Devilish Qi appeared out of thin air, its five fingers like hooks, grabbing Lin Feng tightly.

A bone-chilling, cold force completely sealed the spiritual power he had cultivated for many years.

Lin Feng couldn't even let out a cry of surprise before everything went black, and he completely lost consciousness.

He did not know how much time had passed, but when he opened his eyes, he found himself in a gloomy and dim great hall.

"Awake?"

A hoarse, cold voice sounded from the front.

Lin Feng looked up and saw two old men dressed in black robes with auras as deep as the sea, gazing at him indifferently.

They were the two Late Core Formation Stage Cultivators who had captured him.

"Who are you? Why did you capture me?"

Lin Feng suppressed the horror in his heart and asked in a deep voice.

He tried to circulate his sword technique, but found his spiritual power suppressed by a powerful force.

One of the old men, with a withered face and deep-set eyes, let out a strange laugh: "Kid, you're quite calm. It doesn't hurt to tell you; this place is the 'Blood Demon Hall' of the Heavenly Demon Palace. As for why we captured you..."

The other pale-faced old man took over, his voice cold and devoid of any emotion: "Half a year ago, destroying the Profound Yin Rift Seal was an important part of our Holy Cult's plan."

"If not for someone interfering and stabilizing the Seal node, causing our Cult's efforts to fall short at the last moment, that pure Profound Yin Evil Qi would have already been used by our Cult!"

The withered old man stared at Lin Feng sinisterly: "For the past half year, we have been investigating. We know the Cultivation Technique paths of those women in the Illusory Moon Sect; they don't have the ability to correct the Seal so quickly. Someone from the outside must have intervened!"

The hawk-eyed old man stepped forward, his powerful Spiritual Pressure forcing Lin Feng to the point of suffocation: "We investigated from many sides and learned that around the time of the incident, a male Cultivator entered the Illusory Moon Sect, which is full of female Cultivators!"

The withered old man sneered: "The Illusory Moon Sect has been established for thousands of years, with strict Sect rules, and never accepts male guests. A male Cultivator appearing there during that time is very conspicuous! Kid, you tell me, besides you, who else could this person be?"

Lin Feng's heart was shaken violently; he never expected that the other party would lock onto him in such a simple and irrefutable way.

His expression changed slightly, and this subtle reaction undoubtedly confirmed the two demonic Cultivators' suspicions.

"It seems we were right."

The hawk-eyed old man's eyes flashed with a fierce look, and he signaled to the withered old man, "Take him down and guard him strictly. We will dispose of him after reporting to the Saintess."

The withered old man chuckled, flicked his sleeves, and a cold, frigid force wrapped around Lin Feng, completely imprisoning him.

Two low-level Cultivators entered in response, lifted the immobile Lin Feng from left and right, and dragged him out of this hall filled with an oppressive atmosphere.

Passing through a dark corridor, Lin Feng was finally thrown into a cold and damp stone cell.

The iron door slammed shut behind him, and the heavy sound of the lock cut off the outside world.

The dim phosphorus fire on the stone walls of the dungeon was the only light source, flickering and dancing, casting shadows that made it look like a ghost Realm.

Lin Feng leaned against the corner of the cold stone wall; his Dantian and Qi Sea were dead silent, and those two Seals were like two cold iron blocks, suppressing all his spiritual power tightly.

In his ears, he could faintly hear the monotonous footsteps of patrolling guards, as well as faint, intermittent sounds of painful moaning coming from somewhere.

Lin Feng closed his eyes and drove all distracting thoughts from his mind.

His cultivation was sealed, but his Divine Sense, due to the long-term nourishment from the soul nurturing wood pendant and the presence of that heaven-stealing vine in his Sea of Consciousness, still retained a trace of extremely weak sensing ability.

He condensed this trace of Divine Sense to the extreme and cautiously probed the Seals within his body.

These two Seals were bone-chillingly cold, and Lin Feng could only slowly permeate and perceive them.

However, in this extreme silence, a blurry map of the internal structure of the Seals was being outlined in his heart bit by bit.

Three days later.

Hum...

An almost inaudible vibration came from deep within his body.

The basic techniques of the "Nine Profound Sword Heart Art," which had long been ready to go, instantly began to circulate, and the long-suppressed spiritual power surged through his whole body like water breaking through a dam.

Although he had only broken through a portion of the Seals and the recovered spiritual power was only about the Early Foundation Establishment Stage, the long-lost sense of power returned to this almost numb body.

He immediately forcibly suppressed the fluctuations of his spiritual power, restrained his aura to the extreme, and his face became even paler than before, as if the sudden burst just now had been an illusion.

Just then, the iron door of the dungeon was pushed open again.

The old man with eyes as sharp as a hawk walked in, followed by two gloomy-looking attendants.

He stopped in front of Lin Feng, his gaze sweeping up and down like a cold blade.

"Kid, your bones are quite hard."

The hawk-eyed old man's voice was low, "But here, hard bones die the fastest."

Lin Feng curled up in the corner, his head hanging even lower, his body trembling slightly, his breathing rapid and weak, looking like he was in a state of exhaustion with his spiritual power sealed and his Divine Soul injured.

He carefully controlled the trace of spiritual power he had just recovered, letting it flicker like a candle in the wind.

The hawk-eyed old man frowned imperceptibly.

He vaguely felt that the aura on this kid seemed a little more alive than a few days ago, but that feeling was too weak.