71: Netherworld Passage

Di Qianjie and the other seven were very close to this energy fluctuation.

"Pfft!" Di Xingyun bore the brunt of it, suddenly spitting out a mouthful of blood. The starlight circulating around him instantly became chaotic and dim, like fireflies scattered by a gale.

His face was as pale as paper; he had clearly been injured by the energy shock!

Di Qingge let out a muffled groan, the Nine Nether Profound Darkness Fire at her fingertips flickering violently, nearly spiraling out of control.

The dragon fall spear in Di Lingxiao's hand let out an angry dragon's roar, its shaft trembling incessantly. His muscles bulged and veins popped as he used supreme Spear Intent to forcibly suppress his churning blood, his sharp gaze fixed intently on the direction the fluctuation came from.

Di Jintian's reaction was the most peculiar. The moment the fluctuation hit, the Divine Demon Transformation Cultivation Technique within him began to operate frantically on its own. His left eye turned into a pure, divine golden light, while his right eye transformed into a deep blood-red pupil!

A surge of palpitation and sky-toppling rage from the deepest part of his Bloodline erupted uncontrollably! The Void Realm behind him warped faintly, as a blurry yet terrifyingly oppressive and graceful phantom seemed about to break free from its shackles and manifest!

"Jintian!" Di Tianxiao shouted sharply. In a flash, he appeared beside Di Wushang, pressing a heavy palm onto his shoulder. As a surge of majestic power was injected, he forcibly helped him suppress the rampaging anomalies within his body. "Steady your mind!"

A cold female voice, carrying endless majesty and bone-deep hatred, exploded within Di Wushang's Sea of Consciousness. The voice pierced through eternal time and space, filled with sky-toppling Killing Intent toward a certain existence:

"The Netherworld Seal... has been forcibly torn open! And... the minions of the Netherworld Evil Lord! How dare they... how dare they lay hands on this realm again!"

This voice did not come from Di Wushang himself, but from a wisp of the will of Luo Houli, the Seventh Princess of the Shura Royal Clan, who resided within the asura god-slaying spear!

"Senior, what did you say?" Di Wushang asked urgently within his Sea of Consciousness, his mind reeling.

"Fool! What are you still standing there for?!" Luo Houli's voice carried unprecedented urgency and anger.

"This fluctuation is the sound of the core formation eye of the ancient Seal of the Netherworld Passage being forcibly destroyed! Someone has opened Pandora's box! That aura... there's no mistake! Those nauseating lackeys of cold order!"

Luo Houli's will was like a storm, forcibly pouring a blurry yet Soul-stirring scene into Di Wushang's Sea of Consciousness: it was a fragment of the ancient catastrophe! Countless powerful figures were fighting a bloody battle. There were Arhats and Bodhisattvas radiating Buddhist light, demon gods with sky-toppling Devilish Qi, and Human Race sword immortals with sweeping Sword Qi... Their enemies were the Netherworld demons, twisting forms that emitted endless death and filth, surging out from the shattered spatial passage like a tide!

The scene finally froze on a betraying figure enveloped in dark-gold blood-colored Buddhist light, thrusting a battle spear burning with Netherworld fire into the back of a Daweide Mingwang's golden body, and another figure floating at the entrance of the passage with eyes as cold as silver, commanding countless cold Puppets!

"Do you see?!" Luo Houli's voice sounded like it was weeping blood. "Back then, if that Blood Calamity Baldy hadn't turned traitor and used the 'Blood Calamity Buddha Seal' to defile the core of the Seal and heavily injure the Daweide Mingwang guarding the formation eye, how could the Netherworld Passage have spiraled out of control?!"

Countless great experts sacrificed themselves to temporarily repel those Netherworld foul things and exhausted their last strength to barely Seal the passage! The core formation eye of that Seal is exactly where that energy fluctuation is!

Now this fluctuation... someone is forcibly tearing open the Seal!"

Di Wushang abruptly opened his eyes, his blood-red pupils burning with sky-toppling rage. He informed everyone of everything Luo Houli had told him with the fastest speed and most concise language.

"What?!"

"The Netherworld Passage?!"

Di Lingxiao, Di Qingge, and Di Xingyun, including Di Tianxiao, were all pale with horror!

"Damn it!" The dragon fall spear in Di Lingxiao's hand erupted with blinding golden light, its Killing Intent soaring to the skies. "Who dares to commit such an act of world destruction?!"

Di Qianjie remained silent throughout. The Thousand Tribulations Sword in his hand was now emitting an unprecedentedly violent hum! The sword's body released a malevolent aura that was both excited and filled with an extreme desire for destruction!

Di Qianjie took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the Thousand Tribulations Sword's restlessness. Blood-red light surged in his eyes, but his voice was as cold as iron: "There's no time to hesitate."

He looked at Di Tianxiao. "Uncle Tianxiao?"

Di Tianxiao's gaze swept across everyone, finally landing on that soaring pillar of gray, deathly light that was becoming increasingly dense.

As the Di Clan War Lineage Master and bearer of the Legacy of the ancestor Di Jiu, he knew exactly what the return of the Netherworld Realm meant—it would be the sinking of the entire world and the end of all living beings! The ancestor Di Jiu was one of the supreme powerhouses who fought a bloody battle against the Netherworld and protected this realm back then!

He slowly stood up straight, and a vast, boundless, and terrifying aura that seemed to carry eternal Battle Intent exploded from within his body!

His Tongtian Realm Fifth Level cultivation was released without reservation, even showing faint signs of a Breakthrough! The war robe on his body moved without wind, snapping loudly as if countless ancestral heroic Souls were roaring upon it!

"Descendants of the Di Clan!" Di Tianxiao's voice was like a great bell, resonating deep within everyone's Soul, carrying an unquestionable determination and the will to protect.

"Ancestor Di Jiu once fought a bloody battle against the Netherworld in this realm to protect all living beings! His ambition has not ended, and his blood has not cooled! Now that the Netherworld's minions have returned, plotting to reopen the Netherworld and destroy this realm! This battle is not for the selfish interests of one clan, but for the survival of heaven and earth, and the life of all beings! Even if our bodies are crushed and we suffer Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, we shall charge forward! This place might be extremely dangerous. All of you, do you dare follow me—to fight?!"

"Why wouldn't we dare!"

Di Lingxiao's dragon fall spear pointed directly at the firmament, the dark-gold dragon patterns seemingly coming to life and letting out a heaven-shaking dragon roar! Sky-toppling Battle Intent mixed with sky-rending Spear Intent, piercing through the clouds!

Sky-toppling rage toward the traitors and the Netherworld burned in Di Wushang's blood-red pupils. Luo Houli's will resonated deeply with him, letting out a silent roar!

"Good!" A terrifying glint erupted in Di Tianxiao's eyes. "Wu Shang, lead the way!"

At the same time, everyone in the entire Secret Realm was shocked by this powerful energy fluctuation. People thought some powerful Legacy had appeared.

"Quick, go! If we're late, the Legacy will be gone."

Everyone who entered the Secret Realm was attracted by this commotion.

Somewhere, Yu Qingchen, holding a gray-white broken sword, stared at that terrifying energy fluctuation with hollow eyes, his face devoid of any expression.

"You should be going too... This time, I will personally take back the dignity that belongs to me."

The Netherworld Passage was not the dark, deep canyon one might imagine, but a stretch of shattered Void Realm that made one's Soul tremble.

Space here presented a sickly, gray-white hue, like a giant, dirty rag that had been forcibly torn to create an unhealable wound.

Deep within the wound was a darkness as thick as a physical substance, churning and slowly crawling, as if a giant beast that had been dormant for ages was breathing unconsciously in its sleep.

With every "breath," wisps of ink-thick, bone-chilling Nether Qi were spat out from the depths of that rift. Wherever they passed, even space itself let out an overburdened groan, leaving behind minute yet fatal cracks.

At the core of this Void Realm, seven majestic and vast energy pillars, like seven giant pillars supporting the heavens, rose from the depths of the endless void. They were interconnected, forming a massive light net that covered the entire rift—that was the ancient divine formation, the "Seven Luminaries Hell-Suppressing Sealing Array."