"Hmm?" Suddenly, Yun Lintian stopped.
The stairs ended abruptly, opening into a cavernous hall so vast its edges vanished into darkness.
Tang Wei gasped. "This... this is the inner hall! But where are the artifacts? The divine counters?"
The grand chamber stood empty, its marble floors cracked and stained. Only the towering pillars remained, their surfaces etched with unfamiliar runes.
Long Chen frowned. "Something's wrong. This place feels..."
"Alive," Yun Lintian finished coldly.
Before anyone could react, shadows detached from the pillars—dozens of figures materializing from the darkness.
A familiar voice rang out:
Lan Huiqian stepped into view, her Celestial Pavilion robes pristine amidst the decay. Behind her stood Jian Kun, Jian Feng, and their disciples—all staring at Yun Lintian's group in shock.
Jian Kun's eyes gleamed with calculation. He could now confirm that what happened in the Garden of the Lost Souls was Yun Lintian's doing. Otherwise, he wouldn't have appeared here unscratched.
Moreover… Jian Kun glanced at the Golden Armor Saint Jin Wuyang, who tried to minimize his presence behind. From the fear in his eyes, it was clear that Jin Wuyang had met Yun Lintian and their encounter terrified him.
Meanwhile, Jian Feng clenched his fists. He was both afraid and angry when he saw Yun Lintian. He wished that Yun Lintian would die in the Garden of Lost Souls but now, it was just his wishful thinking.
Yun Lintian was surprised slightly and asked. "How long have you been here?"
"We don't know as well," Lan Huiqian's expression tightened. "Days? Weeks? Time flows differently in this hell."
She took out the compass and said further. "The compass doesn't work here as well."
Yun Lintian also took out his compass that was given by Lan Huiqian and discovered that it wasn't working.
Yun Lintian's gaze swept across the cavernous hall, taking in the scattered groups of cultivators. His frown deepened as he noted their ragged appearances—robes worn thin, faces gaunt from prolonged imprisonment in this timeless hell.
Lan Huiqian followed his line of sight. "They're survivors from past expeditions. Some have been trapped here for centuries."
A bitter chuckle escaped one wizened elder nearby. "Centuries? Try millennia, girl." His milky eyes fixed on Yun Lintian. "You're new meat. How fresh are your screams?"
Before Yun Lintian could respond, the crowd parted like wheat before a scythe.
A towering figure emerged—seven feet tall, his bare chest crisscrossed with scars that pulsed like living things. An archaic crown of blackened bone sat upon his brow, its spikes twisting like grasping fingers.
"Well, well." His voice rumbled like distant thunder. "What rare flowers bloom in this wasteland."
The man's gaze lingered on Long Qingxuan first—taking in her draconic majesty, then Yue Zhihe's icy beauty, before finally settling on Lan Huiqian's poised elegance. A predator's smile split his beard.
"Three peerless jades. The Temporal Palace finally offers worthy tribute."
Lan Huiqian's fingers twitched toward her sword, but a sound transmission from Jian Kun froze her:
"Don't move! That's the Blood Tyrant Meng Xuan—he slaughtered entire starfields during the Primordial Wars!"
Yun Lintian noted Lan Huiqian's tension, the way even the battle-hardened Celestial Pavilion disciples edged backward. Jian Feng's poorly concealed glee. Jin Wuyang's barely suppressed terror.
Lan Huiqian quickly told Yun Lintian about Meng Xuan's identity through a sound transmission.
At this moment, Meng Xuan took another step forward, his aura pressing down like a mountain. "Women like you belong on your knees before—"
Yun Lintian hadn't raised his voice. Hadn't even turned fully toward the so-called Blood Tyrant. Just two words, flat and final as a guillotine's drop.
Meng Xuan's smile shattered.
The laughter shook dust from the ceiling. Meng Xuan clutched his stomach, tears streaming down his face. "Oh, little ant! Do you know who you're—"
Yun Lintian's foot snapped forward—not a kick, just a casual step.
Space itself ruptured beneath Meng Xuan.
The Blood Tyrant's knees slammed into marble hard enough to spiderweb the indestructible stone. His crown splintered.
Jian Feng's glee turned to horror. Jin Wuyang whimpered.
Yun Lintian finally looked at the kneeling tyrant. "I said fuck off."
Meng Xuan's veins bulged as he strained against the invisible force pressing him down. His muscles tore. Bones creaked. Blood seeped from his pores—yet he couldn't rise an inch.
"You... what are you...?"
Yun Lintian walked past him as if he were furniture. "Lan Huiqian. Explain the situation here."
Lan Huiqian swallowed hard, her eyes darting between Yun Lintian and the immobilized Blood Tyrant. "They… they call this place the Waiting Hall. Time doesn't flow normally—some have been here decades while only hours pass outside."
She pointed to the far wall, where a massive hourglass stood embedded in the stone. Its sands were frozen mid-fall. "When the sands move, the trials begin. Most don't survive."
Long Qingxuan studied the trapped cultivators. "And these people?"
"Food reserves," croaked a skeletal woman chained to a pillar. Her eyes were missing, sockets filled with swirling darkness. "For when the real predators wake."
At that moment, the ground trembled.
The hourglass tilted.
One single grain of sand fell.
Every veteran prisoner screamed.
The chains binding the eyeless woman shattered. Her body contorted, bones snapping and reforming as the darkness in her sockets spread across her skin like ink.
"IT BEGINS!" she howled in a voice not her own.
Pillars cracked as more prisoners transformed—mouths splitting vertically, limbs elongating into barbed tentacles.
Jian Kun roared: "Defensive formation!"
Yun Lintian remained still, watching the chaos unfold. His voice cut through the pandemonium.
"Do you know anything about this?"
Tang Wei's form flickered slightly. "I'm not sure. My guess is that the palace... it purges the unworthy by turning them into temporal aberrations. But this speed... it's accelerating!"
Sure enough, the hourglass tilted further. Dozens of grains fell at once.
Meng Xuan laughed through the blood filling his mouth. "Fool! You've triggered the apocalypse protocol!"
The first transformed prisoner lunged—
Yun Lintian flicked his finger.
The creature disintegrated mid-air, its very existence erased.
All eyes turned to Yun Lintian.
He sighed, rolling up his sleeves. "Well… I guess a fist is the only way."
The Heaven Sunderer ignited as he strode toward the trembling artifact.
Behind him, the Blood Tyrant finally understood—and pissed himself in terror…