Cultivating for a hundred lifetimes to ascension Chapter 1414: 759: Searching and Seeking (Part 2)

The pair, including Zhao Sheng, refused to delay. They hastily triggered their talismans and plunged into the planet's depths, vanishing right away.

…

A few days afterward.

Across an expansive barren wasteland, raging gusts whipped up ceaselessly, hurling sand blended with myriad skeletal remains high into the air.

Zhao Sheng hovered on a mist of lucky clouds, his eyes sweeping over the Death Desert that had emerged from a massive conflict.

Next to him, Xue Susu remained motionless, her face impassive, as Wu Yue lingered at their rear, idly fiddling with the Corpse Dissection Bag hanging from his belt.

“Was this the thriving Qifeng Domain on Demon Suppression Star in the past?” Zhao Sheng inquired, a bit taken aback.

“Hey, Senior Sister, check that spot!” Wu Yue's gaze brightened as he abruptly raised his arm, indicating a ridge half-covered by dunes, hundreds of miles distant.

Zhao Sheng traced his gesture and peered ahead, abruptly detecting an irregularity under that buried ridge!

Xue Susu's features brightened with delight, and she swiftly propelled the cloud toward it.

Moments later, the cloud settled onto the ridge and slowly faded away.

Xue Susu eagerly swept her slim palm, promptly shrouding the whole ridge in a transparent glow, then observing as countless tons of sand and debris lifted skyward, surging eighty miles off to pile into towering mounds.

Sans the sand, the ridge unveiled its actual form: a sprawling wasteland of ruins. Faint traces of former halls and spires still evoked echoes of bygone splendor.

“Back in ancient times, Demon Suppression Star ranked among the rare High Spirit Stars, surpassed only by Taiyi Star. Yet in mere tens of thousands of years, it has declined to this wretched condition. The Alien Demon Clan's sins are beyond pardon!” Wu Yue declared emotionally.

“Those Alien Demons are mere nuisances. Once their race is eradicated, Demon Suppression Star will undoubtedly reclaim its past magnificence,” Zhao Sheng responded upon hearing this.

“Maybe so!” Wu Yue replied, shaking his head in wry amusement.

Right then, Xue Susu exclaimed happily, “I found it—Wen Shifei wasn't deceiving us after all!”

“For real? Where?” Wu Yue queried, his face lighting up with excitement.

Xue Susu offered no reply. Rather, her fingers wove complex seals nonstop, dispatching bursts of Law Mysterious Light downward into the soil.

As beams of illumination blended into the wreckage, small luminous specks rose from scattered spots amid the ruins, and a subtle, unidentified pulse abruptly brushed against the Primordial Spirits of all three.

With a soft 'whoosh,' a gentle wind cleared the airborne dust,

and the demonic qi saturating the skies and lands was fully banished from the area, crafting a pristine and lucid domain.

Xue Susu gestured, calling forth the Demon Slaying Sword, which touched down softly on the earth before burrowing in.

Wu Yue darted after her without delay, Zhao Sheng trailing close.

Soon enough, the trio had burrowed thousands of miles through the crust, arriving at a subterranean palace that lay in devastation.

This palace had largely crumbled into disuse, save for a lone chamber of stone at its core. Within it rose carvings of females sculpted from White Jade.

Surveying the scene, the sculptures appeared vividly real, each portraying the identical woman.

She possessed refined and graceful traits, an alluring build, her contours displaying every allure of a ripened female, yet the countenances on the figures ranged from delight to fury to grief to mirth, and more.

Upon close count, there numbered fully fourteen such statues.

Zhao Sheng gazed at them briefly, and a surge of unrest stirred inside him, feelings and urges surging uncontrollably from his core.

Alarmed, he swiftly averted his view, only to notice Wu Yue nearby fixated on the figures, his stare revealing hints of fixation and inner conflict.

Just as Zhao Sheng prepared to alert him back to focus, Wu Yue snapped alert and promptly shifted his gaze, blurting, “Amazing!”

“It's rumored that Taiyi Spirit Palace pursues two primary cultivation routes, one termed the Emotional Dao, the other the Heartless Sect! Wen Shifei followed the Supreme Heartless Dao. Xue Susu's heritage probably stems from the Emotional Dao branch!” Zhao Sheng mused inwardly.

While lost in thought, he watched Xue Susu store the Demon Slaying Sword and produce an Extreme Emotion Immortal Mushroom, then stride briskly into the chamber.

The instant after, a vibrant barrier of light sprang up, obstructing Zhao Sheng and Wu Yue's vision and perception.

Within the chamber, Xue Susu passed by every statue, the Extreme Emotion Immortal Mushroom perched on her shoulder steadily emitting flows of brilliant radiance.

Upon arriving at the eighth Merciful Human Image, the statue at last responded. Its visage abruptly shimmered with soft luminescence, its eyes gleamed with a spark of vitality, and its arms and torso stirred, animating fully.

Xue Susu brimmed with elation, dropping to her knees before it at once, voice quivering, “Master, your disciple… has at last reunited with you!”

The Merciful Human Image emitted a faint glow, appearing utterly frail.

“Susu, you came anyway… Sigh, you ought not to have!” the statue's glow wavered as a weak thread of Divine Thought slipped into Xue Susu's consciousness.

“Master, I arrived too late,” Xue Susu insisted stubbornly, as though deaf to the words.

“Silly girl, in that war long ago, I made an irredeemable error! Thus, I chose to offer myself up, seeking atonement! Why endanger yourself to seek me out?” Yunqing Venerable uttered feebly with a sigh.

“Master, even if the odds stand at one in ten thousand, I will rescue you! Master Yang Jian supports my plan too, even granting me a Sword Spirit!”

At those words, she turned her palm, revealing the bloodied Demon Slaying Stone Sword anew, which then disappeared once more.

“Susu, you're wrong! Yang Jian holds no regard for my survival; he merely desires my Lifebound Magic Treasure, Ten Thousand Red Dust,” Yunqing Venerable directly revealed Master Yang Jian's hidden agenda.

Xue Susu let out a quiet sigh, “Disciple knows full well of Master's aims, but saving you is all that counts.”

Yunqing Venerable sighed again, “Yet I perished ages ago, leaving just faint remnants of my Divine Split. Revival demands convincing the Taiyi Immortal Monarch—nothing less will do.”

“Master, I—”

“Stop, hope is lost; speak no further! While a fragment of my Telekinesis endures, concentrate fully to absorb my final essence!”

As the statement concluded, an indistinct luminous form abruptly emerged from the statue's brow and fused into Xue Susu's forehead.

Xue Susu promptly assumed a meditative pose, a sheen of glowing Light Halo emerging over her features, her look one of deep reverence.

Simultaneously, a vivid ring formed behind her skull, displaying a turbulent mix of distinct pure and impure forces churning about, as though representing a profound concept.

…

No telling how long elapsed!

As Zhao Sheng and Wu Yue grew restless in their vigil outside, the vivid barrier encasing the chamber abruptly crumbled, and Xue Susu stepped out, her demeanor serene.

Zhao Sheng inwardly marveled at the change, feeling her presence now utterly refined, like it had undergone some fundamental shift.

“Senior Sister Xue, did you locate Yunqing Venerable?” Wu Yue inquired with subtle worry, his eyes betraying a flicker of astonishment.

Xue Susu softly shook her head, stating, “Not quite, but this visit yielded gains! We must hurry to Fallen Immortal Sea right away.”

Upon hearing, Wu Yue questioned in mild shock, “So… Yunqing Venerable resides in Fallen Immortal Sea?”

“Fallen Immortal Sea lies on Dome Sea Star, doesn't it?” Zhao Sheng chimed in unexpectedly.

Dome Sea Star, distant by twelve Constant Years, serves as the frontier bastion of the Demon Suppression Star Domain, a key point in the old Demon Suppression defenses.

In the Human Clan's catastrophic retreat, Dome Sea Star resisted till the last before falling to the Alien Demons.

Today, Dome Sea Star falls under the control of the savage Alien Demon Clan fiends, fortified sternly on the perimeter and secured rigorously within, rendering entry a perilous challenge.

“Onward! Time is short; we'll consult Wen Shifei first, then proceed straight to Dome Sea Star.”

Saying so, Xue Susu ascended swiftly, ascending toward the surface.

Seeing her lead, Zhao Sheng and Wu Yue reined in their musings and pursued her trail.