643: Chapter 633 Senichi (8)

At the core of the Sacrificial Mountain, between the Nine Mountains.

"The Superior One" took a step onto the highest point of the sacrificial steps, and the crimson gold vault of heaven brightened slightly above his head.

All the tribespeople of the Chishan Tribe who had been named were now kneeling below the sacrificial steps.

The Life Patterns on their bodies were also glowing, resonating with those Life Pattern stones, as wisps of crimson gold power were gently drawn from within them, flowing along the paths toward the Nine Mountains.

Ah Lie knelt at the very front, the Life Pattern on his forehead glowing with a scorching light, his fingers gripping the stone slabs of the ground until his knuckles turned white.

Sangji and Wumu beside him were much the same, their expressions tight, their breathing kept very low.

They dared not relax.

Nor did they dare to move recklessly.

"The Superior One" stood at the highest point, slowly raising his hands, and those Life Pattern chains seemed to obey his will, piercing into the surface of the Nine Mountains one by one.

When the first chain was reconnected, the outermost mountain peak trembled slightly, then quieted down.

The second.

The third.

With each one reconnected, the tremors of the Sacrificial Mountain lessened by a fraction.

Elder Ji stood in the middle section of the sacrificial steps, his black wooden staff plunged into the ground, his entire body's Life Pattern channeling power outward.

His complexion was extremely poor, sweat rolling down his temples, but his hands remained steady.

"Steady." He said in a low voice to the few tribal elders behind him.

The tribal elders gritted their teeth, holding on as well.

The people of the Chishan Tribe watched this scene, the fear in their hearts from the beginning slowly turning into something else.

"It really is suppressing it." Someone whispered.

No one replied, but many were nodding.

As the chains were reconnected one by one, the restlessness of the Nine Mountains faded bit by bit.

That unease pressing down on everyone's heads was being stripped away layer by layer.

When the second phase began, "The Superior One" suddenly turned his head and looked at Chi Li.

"Come here."

Chi Li stood on the side of the sacrificial steps, surrounded by several tribal elders. Hearing these words, he did not move.

"The Superior One" said it again.

"Your Life Pattern is connected to the core Seal; I need you to stand in the center and connect that final layer of the link."

Chi Li raised his eyes and looked at him for a moment. Then he walked over.

He did not ask more, nor did he hesitate.

It was not trust.

It was indifference.

Chi Li walked to the core position of the sacrificial steps, and "The Superior One" reached out and tapped the space in front of his forehead.

That dim cyan-gold Life Pattern suddenly lit up.

Chi Li let out a muffled groan, his body swaying for a moment, but he remained standing.

Cyan-gold light spread from his forehead, along his neck and shoulders, flowing all the way to his arms, and finally shot out from the tips of his ten fingers, straight into the deepest part of the Nine Mountains.

The core of the Nine-Headed Phoenix's Seal was triggered.

The third phase arrived.

Boom.

The Nine Mountains trembled simultaneously.

The restlessness that had just been suppressed erupted again at this moment.

It was not just one mountain shaking. It was all Nine Mountains shaking.

"It is struggling!" Ah Lie shouted, turning back.

"The Superior One, the Phoenix is resisting!"

"The Superior One"'s expression did not change as he pressed his hands downward. The Life Pattern net tightened abruptly.

But the Nine-Headed Phoenix's resistance was stronger than anyone had anticipated.

A long cry came from deep within the mountain body; the sound did not resemble a bird's call, but rather the roar of something that had been trapped for too long. Piercing. Wailing.

Everyone on the sacrificial steps had their ears aching from the shock. Several younger tribespeople with weaker cultivation immediately collapsed to the ground, covering their ears, tears streaming down their faces.

"It has gone mad!"

"It is coming out!"

Fear spread rapidly.

Yet "The Superior One" still stood there, motionless. He watched the tremors deep within the Nine Mountains as if looking at a struggling trapped beast.

"There is no need to panic." His voice was not loud, yet it clearly reached everyone's ears.

"This is the final counterattack."

"Once it is suppressed, it will be over."

As his words fell, he exerted force with his hands again. The Life Pattern net tightened for the second time.

The screeching of the Nine-Headed Phoenix changed.

It was no longer violent rage. It was more like a mournful cry.

Qin Yun stood on the outermost edge of the sacrificial steps, not participating in any part of the process.

He watched as the Nine-Headed Phoenix crashed against the Life Pattern net time and again, only to be pressed back each time. His Heart Heavy Pupils remained active.

What others saw was a Vicious Beast resisting. What he saw was different.

Every time the Nine-Headed Phoenix struggled, it was not rushing outward. It was lunging deeper into the Sacrificial Mountain.

It was not trying to escape. It was protecting something.

It was as if something existed in the deeper parts that it did not want "The Superior One"'s power to touch.

But every time it lunged deeper, the Life Pattern net dragged it back. The more it struggled, the tighter the chains constricted.

In the end, even Qin Yun could feel the despair radiating from it. It was not hate. It was not anger. It was "I cannot hold it anymore."

Qin Yun furrowed his brows. He did not speak. But this judgment had already been set in his heart.

Below the sacrificial steps, the indigenous people saw a different picture.

"The Superior One" stabilized the Life Pattern net again and again, and the Nine-Headed Phoenix was pressed back each time. After each round of confrontation, "The Superior One"'s aura did not show a shred of disorder. It was as if he truly controlled everything.

Ah Lie knelt on the ground, his breathing becoming heavier, but the light in his eyes also grew brighter.

"The Superior One can really suppress it." He said in a low voice, his tone full of excitement.

Several tribespeople nearby also nodded in agreement.

"It really is being pressed back."

"It isn't spreading anymore."

"The Superior One has returned; we are saved."

This belief spread from one person to two, from two to ten.

By the time the fourth round of confrontation ended, the fear on the faces of all the Chishan Tribe members kneeling on the sacrificial steps had turned into another expression. Fanaticism.

Some began to recite the ancestral teachings in low voices. Others knocked their foreheads heavily against the stone slabs.

"The Superior One is eternal."

"Chishan will not die."

Ah Lie turned to look at Elder Ji. Elder Ji was not kneeling, but the expression on his face was extremely complex. He stared at "The Superior One"'s back, his lips moving as if he wanted to say something, but he did not speak it out. In the end, he only said in a low voice, "Perhaps we are truly saved."

Qin Yun stood in the distance, watching all of this. A brief moment of hesitation arose in his heart. Could he have overthought it? Could this person truly be The Superior One, truly capable of suppressing the Nine-Headed Phoenix? Could the Nine-Headed Phoenix's struggle be merely an instinctive resistance, and not protecting something?

But in the next instant, that scene flashed across his Heart Heavy Pupils again. The sorrow in those eyes when the Phoenix heads lunged into the depths.

Qin Yun suppressed the fluctuations in his heart and continued to watch.

The final round.

The screeching of the Nine-Headed Phoenix grew weaker and weaker.

The Life Pattern chains had already pierced in from all nine sides, sealing its nine Phoenix heads one by one into the cage formed by the mountain body and the Life Patterns.

The first Phoenix head closed its eyes. The second. The third.

With each one that closed, the tremors of the Sacrificial Mountain weakened by a fraction.

By the time the eighth Phoenix head sank into the Seal, the entire heaven and earth had almost quieted down.

The last one. That was the Phoenix head that had opened its eyes first. It was also the one directly connected to Chi Li's Life Pattern.

Its eyes were still half-open, and its cyan-gold pupils reflected a certain direction deep within the Sacrificial Mountain.

"The Superior One" raised his hand, and the final chain descended. The Phoenix head slowly closed its eyes.

In that moment, it took one last look. It was not looking at "The Superior One". It was not looking at Qin Yun. It was looking toward the deeper parts of the Sacrificial Mountain. In that glance, there was no hate. Only profound sorrow.

The Sacrificial Mountain was finally quiet.

"It is done!" Someone shouted first, and then everyone on the entire sacrificial steps erupted.

"It is done!"

"The Superior One has done it!"

"The Nine-Headed Phoenix has been pressed back!"

Some people wept loudly, lying on the ground and pounding the stone slabs. Some laughed, laughing until their whole bodies shook. Some slumped to the ground, supporting their bodies with both hands, as if they had just narrowly escaped death.

Ah Lie was trembling all over; he knelt down abruptly and kowtowed heavily in the direction of "The Superior One".

"Thank you, The Superior One!"

"The Chishan Tribe will never forget this!"

Others knelt as well. A dark, dense mass of people.

Elder Ji did not kneel, but he closed his eyes for a moment, as if he had let out a sigh of relief for the first time in a long while.

"The Superior One" stood at the highest point of the sacrificial steps, his aura steady, as if everything was in his grasp.

Qin Yun stood in the distance, watching the crowd's wild joy, but his heart still did not relax.

Just as the cheering of the crowd had not yet died down, Qin Yun noticed an extremely subtle change.

Inside the Sacrificial Mountain, those Life Pattern powers flowing toward the depths did not stop. They were still flowing.

And the direction had changed. It was no longer feeding the Seal from the outside in. It was continuously drawing from the core of the Seal toward a deeper place.

Qin Yun's heart sank. He had not yet had time to speak.

At the very edge of the sacrificial steps, a child with the weakest cultivation suddenly swayed.

That child was no more than seven or eight years old, the Life Pattern on his forehead was already faint, but at this moment, it was dimming bit by bit. Dimming until it was almost invisible.

Then, the child's eyes rolled back, and he fell straight backward.

"A-He!" A woman nearby screamed and lunged toward him.

Before she could catch the child, someone else on the other side collapsed.

"My Life Pattern..." The person looked down at their own wrist, their voice trembling.

The crimson gold patterns were peeling away from under his skin bit by bit, like silk threads being slowly pulled out. Slowly. Yet irreversibly.

"Me too!"

"My Life Pattern is escaping!"

"Someone help me, I cannot hold it down!"

One after another. Two. Five. Ten. More and more people discovered that the Life Patterns on their bodies were detaching outward.

The crimson gold light was pulled out from under their skin in wisps, following those chains, flowing toward the depths of the Sacrificial Mountain.

The moment those patterns left, the person's complexion rapidly withered.

Some people's hair turned half-white in an instant. Some people's skin looked as if it had been drained of moisture, wrinkles surfacing line by line. Others simply collapsed onto the ground, unable to let out even a whimper.

The crowd that had been cheering just a moment ago completely erupted in the next instant.

"What is happening!"

"Why is it still drawing!"

"Wasn't it a success!"

"The Superior One! The Superior One, help us!"

Wailing and shouting erupted all at once. Some crawled on their knees toward "The Superior One", reaching out to grab the hem of his garment. Some held their children, screaming their names at the top of their lungs.

Ah Lie's expression also changed. He looked down at the Life Pattern detaching from his wrist, his entire body frozen.

"This is not right." His voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible. "This is not right."

Elder Ji's black wooden staff dropped to the ground with a clatter. He watched the Life Pattern on the back of his hand leave in wisps, his face deathly pale.

"The Life Pattern... is the root." His lips trembled. "Without the Life Pattern, we are no longer human."

"We will die."

Once these two words were uttered, everyone was stunned. Everyone was dumbfounded. Immediately, an even greater chaos erupted.

Some rushed toward "The Superior One".

"What have you done!"

"You promised it was just to suppress it!"

"Why are you still extracting our Life Patterns!"

"The Superior One" stood at the highest point of the sacrificial steps, his expression without a hint of panic. He merely watched as those Life Patterns flowed along the chains toward the depths, his eyes even carrying a trace of satisfaction.

Qin Yun watched all of this and finally confirmed it completely.

The Nine-Headed Phoenix had been resisting with its life just now, constantly lunging toward the depths of the Sacrificial Mountain. It was not to escape. It was not to kill people. It was to block this step. What it had been guarding was never itself. It was these people.