Chapter 1793: The Final Decision

Li Yan’s eyes flickered imperceptibly. Since the Ming sisters didn’t dare use their Divine Sense on him, they didn’t notice.

“Oh? How do you know the person perished? Perhaps they are in deep seclusion? And do you know how to enter this place?” Li Yan looked down at the ground again.

Ming Qi and Ming Yu were still swept up in their emotions. They had finally found their potential kinsman, and their feelings were hard to restrain. For a moment, even with their intelligence, they didn’t notice the potential trap in Li Yan’s words.

“It is impossible for them to be in seclusion. This is the ‘Netherworld Cleansing Nirvana’ technique. No one who performs this technique can remain in the world!”

“Netherworld Cleansing Nirvana? An innate ability of the Immortal Underworld Phoenix?” Li Yan recalled Ming Qi mentioning those words earlier. He keenly caught the meaning. It reminded him of the legendary “Phoenix Nirvana” of the phoenix species. If that was the case, did it mean a new Underworld Phoenix might appear here?

And if so, how was the cultivation of a newborn phoenix calculated? Could it be that when he was nearly killed by the demonic cultivators at Wind-Cooling Mountain, his survival was thanks to this innate ability?

Before he could ponder further, Ming Qi’s response gave him more information. However, she had also gathered a new piece of information from his question. ‘Although this man has refined our clan’s essence blood, he clearly hasn’t obtained the Netherworld Cleansing Nirvana technique…’

Ming Qi made a further judgment about Li Yan. As if reading his thoughts, she explained quickly.

“…This is an innate ability of our clan, but it is not the same thing as the ultimate ‘Nirvana Rebirth.’ The conditions for Nirvana Rebirth are extremely harsh; it requires truly walking through purgatory once, and very few actually succeed. The Netherworld Cleansing Nirvana is a final measure used by our clan’s experts when they realize their limit has reached. It is done solely to leave an inheritance for future generations. This technique creates a powerful restriction. For our kin, it can be easily opened once the method is mastered. For outsiders, it is a lethal restriction meant for mutual destruction; that entire area becomes a dead zone. If an outsider tries to break in by force, everything inside will instantly dissipate. And once an Underworld Phoenix performs this technique, they will undoubtedly die. In this world, there is rarely such a thing as true immortality…”

Ming Qi’s voice trailed off into a murmur toward the end. There were no truly immortal beings. Only by reaching a certain realm of cultivation could one potentially walk the path of the immortals forever. Even Body Integration or Tribulation Transcendence phoenixes eventually faced death; it was merely a matter of time.

“Is the Netherworld Cleansing Nirvana solely for the purpose of inheritance?” Li Yan pressed, his gaze carefully analyzing the sisters’ expressions.

“Indeed, the purpose is inheritance. Everything within is sealed. No living beings can be present, as that would interfere with the technique’s judgment of intruders. Every demon beast race has its own way of passing down heritage, but for my clan, this technique is the final flare of light!”

Ming Qi’s voice was ethereal. She didn’t go into specifics, but the subtle changes in her expression reflected a complex, difficult-to-read state of mind. Nearby, Ming Yu’s face was a mixture of joy and grief. Her eyes were fixed on the seam as if she feared it would vanish in the next heartbeat.

‘What exactly is the inheritance here? Those silver pages I found before were the essence blood condensed by that Underworld Phoenix named Tatian after he was heavily wounded. According to Ming Qi, it means Tatian was unable to perform this technique to seal his inheritance at that time and could only condense his entire essence blood…’

Li Yan had learned some secrets of the Immortal Underworld Phoenix from her answers. Based on his experience, the sisters weren’t lying. Although he didn’t possess the secret to opening the technique, he now knew that the Underworld Phoenix here was likely dead. He finally felt somewhat at ease. His main goal was the grass; everything else was a bonus. It would be a tragedy to obtain the grass only to be killed.

However, Li Yan now faced a decision: should he strike at the sisters now, or trust their words and see what followed?

“Oh? So you have the ability to enter this restricted ground below?” A sharp light flashed in Li Yan’s eyes.

Hearing this, Ming Qi and Ming Yu shuddered slightly. This time, they fell silent and didn’t answer immediately. Although everything had been anticipated, and they knew they would have remained trapped in the courtyard forever without the gray-robed elder, they still felt a wave of hesitation now that they had found the place.

However, their expressions were somewhat transparent; they didn’t hide their conflict. Li Yan didn’t speak further, and the atmosphere became incredibly eerie.

“Let us go in!” After ten breaths, Ming Qi took a deep breath. This elder was far more powerful than them. Every decision had to be carefully weighed. She had realized that even if they couldn’t defeat him, the Blood Covenant offered some protection. Without him, they would have already died at Yan Qingchen’s hands. They would take what inheritance they could get! But at the same time, they had to prevent the elder from making any moves at the very end.

Once the “Netherworld Cleansing Nirvana” was opened, they would have half an hour. That was their final trump card. If the elder went back on his word, they would detonate the seal. This was the final protection of the inheritance. If a seal left by at least a Body Integration expert were detonated, there was no telling if this entire secret realm would be destroyed. Of course, in that case, the sisters would also be reduced to ash, and all the hopes of their clan would be extinguished.

Li Yan did not know this. While he was calculating against them, they were calculating against him. It was only after seeing the seal that the sisters had confirmed their ultimate lethal move.

The two sisters sat cross-legged before the wall. This time, Ming Yu took the lead. Her snow-white hands danced as she began to form hand seals. Ming Qi sat quietly to the side, perhaps ready to assist or deliver the final strike.

Li Yan stood nearby, the light on his body flickering slightly. He positioned himself in a straight line with Ming Yu and the inch-long seam, but he was shielded by Ming Yu’s body. If an attack were to erupt from the seam, she would be the first to take the hit. Simultaneously, Li Yan watched his rear, sides, and above. Sometimes, restrictions attacked from any direction.

His Divine Sense far surpassed theirs, so he kept a lock on every movement. If they showed any anomaly, he would strike. Unbeknownst to them, he had already communicated with the Earth Mottle and prepared his soul arts. Although the Blood Covenant prevented him from killing them, he needed to gauge the timing. If both parties used the environment to bait the other into acting, it would depend on the covenant’s judgment of who betrayed the contract first.

As Ming Yu’s seals formed, clumps of silver fire flew from her hands and landed in various directions. The silver flames hovered in the air, rearranging themselves according to a strange pattern, soon forming an ancient, bizarre rune.

When the last clump of fire entered the rune, a ripple appeared. Li Yan felt an extreme chill from that ripple. Watching the rising silver flames reminded him of the bridge of fire he had encountered when Teng Wuji nearly killed him; the flames there had been just as bone-chilling. But the rune formed by these silver flames possessed an even more ancient and distant aura. It felt as if this rune had existed here for countless ages, struggling to maintain its final glow while waiting for descendants to take it away…

At this moment, Li Yan’s guard reached its peak.

“Transmute Heaven and Earth!”

Suddenly, Ming Yu let out a low cry and tapped a slender finger between her brows.

“Whoosh!”

The moment her finger landed, a semi-transparent silver wing, about a foot long, appeared abruptly above her head. The wing spun once, rapidly shrinking, and then slammed into the center of the strange rune.

The rune seemed to take a heavy blow and shot straight down like a falling star! The transparent, shrunken wing had embedded itself into the center of the rune, becoming a silver wing emblem. The rune flashed and vanished into the ground at the very spot Li Yan had discovered.

“Buzz!”

A breath after the rune entered the earth, light erupted from the junction of the mountain and the ground. A pale blue light gate, half the height of a person, appeared.