Chapter 1544: Hellsoul (Part Two)
More than two years later, the Second Ancestor finally returned, but he came back to the clan bearing heavy injuries.
The Second Ancestor had not found his biological brother on his journey. As soon as he returned, ignoring his own wounds, he went to find the Third Ancestor, who was still recuperating.
He argued with him once more, believing that if the third brother hadn’t instigated it, their eldest brother would never have gone out, and they would have long since returned to the Desolate Moon Continent.
The two of them went out together, and now the eldest brother’s fate was unknown while the third brother came back alone. What kind of sworn brotherhood was that?
There was nothing more to be said between them now. The only reason he didn’t attack the Third Ancestor was out of respect for their sworn oath.
After his injuries healed, he would take his men and continue to search for their eldest brother, but he didn’t want to see the third brother again, as it would make him unable to contain his rage.
The Third Ancestor was helpless. In that situation, he too had insisted on staying behind to cover the retreat, but their eldest brother had sternly ordered him to lead a portion of the disciples away first.
After some consideration, he felt that leading a breakout could also draw away a significant number of enemies from his brother. He repeatedly urged his eldest brother to flee the moment he had a chance and not to get entangled in the fight.
In that situation, no one could have predicted the outcome…
The Third Ancestor knew that his second brother was stubborn. No matter how patiently he explained, the Second Ancestor’s anger would not subside. In the end, the Second Ancestor declared that he would take the remaining disciples and leave this place.
Furthermore, he forbade the Third Ancestor from ever using the name of the Hellsoul Clan again. He was not worthy; it was he who had harmed their eldest brother.
Otherwise, why was it that he managed to survive, while their eldest brother’s fate remained unknown! He was fixated on this one point and would no longer listen to any explanation.
Seeing this, the Third Ancestor’s face was streaked with tears. He finally said that he would choose to leave the Hellsoul Clan.
Then, after much pleading, he took with him two statues carved by his eldest brother, as well as several of his own personal disciples and their successors.
The Third Ancestor said he was taking his eldest brother’s statues so that if he could not find him in this life, all his future disciples would always remember to search for him, no matter what.
The Second Ancestor finally agreed to his request and also promised the Third Ancestor that as long as he could find their eldest brother, they could return to the Hellsoul Clan, and he would acknowledge him as his third brother again.
At that time, the First Ancestor’s two disciples also remained in the Hellsoul Clan, awaiting their master’s return.
In the endless years that followed, the Third Ancestor left and began to search for the First Ancestor with his disciples. He entered the Forsaken Continent time and time again but was never able to find him.
For a time, he also tried to gain the Second Ancestor’s forgiveness and would occasionally return to the Hellsoul Clan.
At first, the Second Ancestor would still see him. But after a few times, seeing that he couldn’t find their eldest brother and was shamelessly coming to see him again and again, he finally sealed off the Hellsoul Clan.
With his powerful mastery of the Dao of formations, he made the entire Hellsoul Clan disappear. Even when the Third Ancestor returned, he could no longer find the entrance to their former clan.
The Second Ancestor only left him one message: he himself was also going to search for their eldest brother, and the Third Ancestor should not come and disturb the clan members unless he had a reason.
Afterward, seeing that his second brother had completely cut ties with him, the Third Ancestor was utterly heartbroken.
But he still continued to search for his eldest brother. He even went to the former battlefield, repeatedly using life-draining forbidden arts at the cost of his own lifespan to search for his brother’s soul.
He believed that these resentful souls either had heavy wishes unfulfilled or were filled with overwhelming resentment, which was why they were unwilling to enter the Great Dao.
His eldest brother had many matters unsettled. If he had died, his soul should be among them.
After repeatedly using the forbidden art, he eventually tracked the soul based on some unknown principle. He concluded that his eldest brother had most likely perished, and his soul had entered the cycle of reincarnation.
After reaching this conclusion, the Third Ancestor took his disciples and left the Verdant Continent. Following a faint sense in the dark, he wanted to find his eldest brother’s reincarnated self.
It had to be said that a Soul Cultivator’s mastery of the laws of life had already surpassed many limitations in the Lower Realm.
Ultimately, they settled on the North Ice Continent.
Elder Hao’s lineage was descended from the man they called the Third Ancestor.
After arriving on the North Ice Continent, the Third Ancestor’s lifespan rapidly dwindled due to the constant use of forbidden arts.
Furthermore, those forbidden arts had also caused great damage to his soul.
More than four hundred years after entering the North Ice Continent, he still hadn’t found his reincarnated brother. Filled with a deep, lingering regret, he passed away in meditation in his own courtyard, gazing at the starry sky with infinite remorse and reminiscence in his eyes…
And the sect he established had always remained nameless!
At the same time, during his first few years on the North Ice Continent, the Third Ancestor personally modified the original Hellsoul Clan’s cultivation method and had his disciples cultivate the version he provided.
From then on, he no longer allowed his disciples to inherit the complete Hellsoul Clan cultivation method, only permitting it to be studied as a soul cultivation art.
The inherited part of this cultivation method only contained the three huns and two pos researched by the Third and First Ancestors, which was the partial version of the “Saintly Soul Transformation Art.”
Moreover, the subsequent parts of the cultivation method that the three brothers had jointly deduced when they were at the Nascent Soul Realm were also not recorded by the Third Ancestor.
He said that to obtain the complete method, they would need the Second Ancestor’s permission, or they would have to find the First Ancestor and awaken his memories.
Before passing away, the Third Ancestor also told his two disciples that they must continue to search for the First Ancestor, using the statue as a guide.
No matter how many times the First Ancestor reincarnated, he should feel a sense of familiarity with the special statue he had carved with his own hands. This was the main reason he had brought the statue out.
After the Third Ancestor passed away, his two disciples discussed the matter and established the Soul-Suppression Palace, becoming its Sect Master and Vice Sect Master.
Unfortunately, the Vice Sect Master perished in a fierce battle during an outing.
The first-generation Sect Master, at the Late-stage Nascent Soul Realm and with no hope of breaking through to Spirit Transformation, had only over six hundred years of lifespan left.
After searching for the First Ancestor in vain, he went to the Verdant Continent alone, saying he was going to look for the Second Ancestor. But from then on, the first-generation Sect Master disappeared without a trace.
It was unknown whether he had an accident or, knowing his end was near, chose a place to ascend to the Immortal Spirit Realm.
Later, after several generations, the Soul-Suppression Palace was jointly suppressed by many forces on the North Ice Continent who were wary of the terrifying power of Soul Cultivators. Thus, before the sect could truly grow strong, it began to wither.
Finally, the Sect Master of that generation, after arranging for the succession, told his disciples that he would go to the Immortal Spirit Realm to find a better foothold.
He instructed them to completely hide themselves, to interact with the world as little as possible, and to focus on cultivation so they could one day find the Soul-Suppression Palace in the Immortal Spirit Realm.
At the same time, the recruitment conditions for the Soul-Suppression Palace were made extremely strict. Under such conditions, they might not recruit more than a few people in a hundred years. This was to avoid attracting the attention of other forces.
Afterward, that Sect Master took some of the sect’s heirlooms and went in search of an ascension node.
That generation’s Sect Master was the first-generation old Sect Master of the “Earth-True Domain” that Li Yan knew of!
With that, Elder Hao had given a relatively detailed account of the origins of the Soul-Suppression Palace.
Throughout the process, Li Yan’s expression changed, but it was all within Elder Hao and Great Master Lan’s expectations.
After all, the relationship between the Soul-Suppression Palace and the Hellsoul Clan was only known to the Soul-Suppression Palace itself. Anyone hearing it for the first time would be deeply moved.
But what the two of them didn’t know was that these events had set off a monstrous storm in Li Yan’s heart.
Because by connecting these events, he found answers to many questions that had long troubled him.
‘The Hellsoul Clan was indeed founded by three people. The information Gui Qu Lai Xi obtained was correct. This also shows that the faction behind Gui Qu Lai Xi is unfathomably deep. And the three founders of the Hellsoul Clan were indeed from the Desolate Moon Continent. Some of my previous questions can now be explained.
First, the issue of the three statues. The three statues I saw were all made by the First Ancestor of the Hellsoul Clan; this person must have been skilled in carving. The martial general statue on the Verdant Continent and the one I saw in the Soul-Suppression Palace were not of the same person, but of a pair of twin brothers. Elder Hao has already made it clear that the two statues in the Soul-Suppression Palace are of the First and Third Ancestors, brought from the Lower Realm by the old Sect Master.
Then, the martial general statue I saw by the cliffside pool within the Hellsoul Clan’s ruins, if there are no major surprises, must be the statue of the Second Ancestor. As for why that statue ended up in such a dilapidated state, seemingly useless and just tossed aside, leading to no one paying it any mind… this question is explained by another matter Elder Hao mentioned.
This Second Ancestor, when he was still a mortal, was skilled in military strategy. After entering the path of immortality, he became even more obsessed with the Dao of formations. When he no longer wanted to see the Third Ancestor, he directly used a formation to conceal the original Hellsoul Clan sect, so that even the Third Ancestor could no longer find it. This shows that his attainment in formations reached an extremely high level. Thus, the sealed Hellsoul Clan should have been trapped within a grand formation!
And after the Second Ancestor concealed the formation, he left a message for the Third Ancestor, saying that he, too, would go search for the First Ancestor… Could this be understood as the Second Ancestor later went out again to search for the First Ancestor and also disappeared, or perhaps had an accident? In that situation, the Hellsoul Clan, trapped in the grand formation, slowly declined.
However, there might be another possibility here. The entire Hellsoul Clan that remained on the Verdant Continent might have undergone some kind of drastic change. An accident that even the Second Ancestor couldn’t resolve, leading to the demise of the entire clan. Thus, it was only after an unknown number of years that the Hellsoul Clan was discovered by others.
The martial general statue by the cliffside pool… outside cultivators saw no use for it. It couldn’t be used for artifact refining, nor was it a magical treasure, so it was just left there. However, since many people had discovered it, some were unwilling to give up. They even broke off the statue’s arms and legs and took the long spear from its hand to further test the statue or its material. In the end, they found nothing of value, and the statue was left alone, which is why it remained there for so long!
This, in turn, explains another question: why the underground long alley of the Hellsoul Clan could facilitate cross-realm teleportation. Because the Second Ancestor was most skilled in the Dao of formations. And Elder Hao said that when the three of them were searching for immortality, they were teleported away from a valley, which completely changed their destiny. Although Elder Hao didn’t explicitly say they were teleported to the Verdant Continent from there, it was for the Verdant Continent that the First Ancestor and his brothers fought against the Demon Clan’s invasion. The valley should be referring to the place where Strategist Ji established the Strategist’s Manor…
If the Hellsoul Clan’s base was built at the other end of the teleportation formation, with the Third Ancestor’s attainments in formations, even if he couldn’t build a cross-realm grand teleportation formation, how difficult would it be to change the entrance of one? He could have directly modified it to be within the underground long alley…’
A thousand thoughts raced through Li Yan’s mind. Ideas rose and fell continuously…
And these answers were all formed during Elder Hao’s narrative, pondered upon as he spoke.
Many questions that had once troubled him were either clearly answered or speculatively resolved today.
“Li Yan, are you satisfied with my explanation?”
After Elder Hao finished speaking, he looked at Li Yan. He saw that Li Yan was silent for a moment, as if still weighing the truth of his words.
Hearing the question, Li Yan paused for a moment before nodding.
“It seems we are indeed of the same sect and origin. I only knew a small part of what senior has said, but I can find no issues with it!”
Elder Hao and Great Master Lan showed no particular surprise at Li Yan’s answer.
Li Yan was right. Other matters could be set aside for now. At the very least, Li Yan was certainly not aware of the history of the Soul-Suppression Palace.
And in their hearts, they felt that if Li Yan wasn’t a core disciple in the Hellsoul Clan, he likely wouldn’t know much about the clan’s distant past.
Li Yan’s answer further confirmed their speculation. Li Yan was just an ordinary ascended elder from the Hellsoul Clan, which was why he himself said he didn’t know much.
Afterward, the two of them fell silent, just looking at Li Yan.
“I am from the First Ancestor’s lineage!”
Li Yan said faintly.
“Wh-what? You are… a successor of the First… First Ancestor?”
“The First Ancestor’s lineage!”
The moment Li Yan’s words fell, after a brief pause, Elder Hao and Great Master Lan exclaimed almost simultaneously, their expressions changing dramatically.
Although they had asked Li Yan which lineage he belonged to, in their hearts, they had already concluded his origin. He must have come from the Second Ancestor’s lineage.
After all, the ancestor of their own sect had searched for so long without finding the First Ancestor. He had also declared that the First Ancestor had already perished and entered the cycle of reincarnation.
If the First Ancestor were alive, why hadn’t he returned to the clan after such a long time? There was only one explanation for all of this: the First Ancestor had fallen!
So when Li Yan said this, they were both so shocked that they cried out.
Of course, Li Yan had his own considerations for this.
He couldn’t impersonate someone from the Second Ancestor’s lineage. No one knew if those people from the Second Ancestor’s lineage had truly all met with an accident and died, or if they were just lying low in some corner.
Even if Li Yan didn’t want to have too much involvement with the Soul-Suppression Palace in the future, he certainly couldn’t make an enemy of them.
These people could now leave and were no longer trapped in the “Earth-True Domain.” Who knew when they might encounter a successor of the Second Ancestor.
His own past couldn’t withstand scrutiny. If the Soul-Suppression Palace discovered that he had deceived them time and time again, even a soul incantation might not be able to stop them from wanting to kill him.
On the other hand, the First Ancestor… after hearing their description, Li Yan was once again reminded of the vast stretches of yin tombs in the back mountains of the Feng family on the Forsaken Continent.
And the strange blood pool next to where he found the broken earthen jar. At that time, there were no yin souls or vicious ghosts in the blood pool. With his cultivation at the time, he didn’t dare investigate the blood pool, but he felt that it must have been left by a powerful ghost creature.
Li Yan felt that the First Ancestor had likely truly perished. And the birthplace of a powerful ghost creature was often related to a powerful soul and the environment.
When a powerful expert falls, even if their soul is scattered, the place where their essence blood is spilled, or a remaining trace of their soul, could very likely give birth to an unusually powerful ghost creature in that area.
“Yes, I am a successor of the First Ancestor. I have also been to the Verdant Continent to look for our clan members! But that place has already become a ruin!”