Chapter 104: The Last Remnant of the Elegant Immortal Sect

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He checked the communication formation stone. Every point of light and shadow was already occupied with its own affairs; none had time for him.

Just as he was beginning to think that the stone had been blown down by the wind, a voice came from the green bead in his earring. Houseguest frowned and deliberately said, “Some meteorites crash deep into the ground. Wouldn’t it be a pity not to dig them up?”

Yet half a day passed without the slightest reply.

Houseguest leaped once more into the deep pit he had dug. As he fell, he suddenly found himself suspended in midair, his hands and feet going limp.

Just as Cloudless had said, a human figure had appeared at the very bottom of the pit.

Houseguest’s hovering form clearly surprised the person below. Before Houseguest could voice his confusion or alarm, the communication formation stone, along with both his hands and his spiritual sense, was sealed in place.

Vines coiled around him. Only after he was sent crashing heavily to the ground did he clearly see the figure who had suddenly emerged.

It was the masked Daoist.

“Little brother, if you wish to live, tell me where those immortal-artifact fragments came from. If you refuse…”

Before the masked Daoist could finish threatening him, Houseguest flew into a rage.

“It’s all because I ran into you! I bought something and was cheated out of ten spirit stones, and in the end that blue-haired grasshopper tried to assassinate me with a scheme. Nothing good ever happens when I meet you!”

After hearing his account, the masked Daoist said unhappily, “Your petty affairs are a disgrace. You two are practically in league with one another. Yet you deceived me into coming here to search for…”

“Deceived you?” Houseguest’s voice rang out, utterly fearless. “You’re a mighty Profound Immortal, and you came all this way searching for a tiny fragment. Wouldn’t you be embarrassed if word got out? Honestly, I really didn’t deceive you. Otherwise, why would I risk my life like this?”

“Then why did you come here to dig?”

“I was digging because some meteorite must have pierced the surface and burrowed underground!”

As he lied, Houseguest began to believe his own story.

The masked Daoist found no reason to doubt him. With a sweep of immortal power, she carried him through layer after layer of earth, descending like a mole using earth-escape techniques, following the route he indicated.

Meanwhile, the points of light on the communication stone being used for patrol grew smaller and smaller. That was a sign they were penetrating deep underground. Since the stone had merged with his body and soul and could not be discarded, it was an endless source of irritation.

Still, skill brought courage. Relying on her earth-escape art, the masked Daoist took several turns and descended a thousand meters beneath the ground before being blocked by a layer of titanium-gold granite immortal rock.

Granite stretched across the entire underground expanse. To enter, one would also need to know metal- and stone-escape techniques. The masked Daoist plainly possessed such abilities—but what meteorite could possibly descend a thousand meters underground?

“Do you dare make a fool of me?”

The masked Daoist was about to erupt in fury. She revealed her form and forced open a space of nearly ten cubic meters in the surrounding earth. Suddenly, she triggered a formation beneath them, and a terrifying force surged forth.

Though she was at the Profound Immortal stage and wore a protective Daoist robe, she could not avoid coughing up blood. Worse, that force invaded her soul, transforming into countless soldiers and warhorses that clashed violently with the river of souls within her.

In her dazed state, her eyes suddenly trembled. Countless tiny flashes of golden light burst from them. She coughed three times, each cough wrung from the depths of her strength. Then a mass of black matter was coughed from the river of souls in her chest.

It was the soul force consumed during the brief clash. From that slight strike alone, she had suffered a moderate injury.

Suddenly, she summoned a shield-shaped immortal artifact. It was a fifth-grade high-tier treasure and her innate weapon of protection.

The shield expanded abruptly, revealing a Black Tortoise that pushed open even more space and formed a barrier several hundred meters wide, protecting them both.

Then an immortal sword descended from above. Accelerating through sheer momentum, it struck the shield-shaped artifact with a resounding clang, chipping off a piece before spinning back.

“Open!”

The masked Daoist was furious. If that earlier strike had arrived while she was still dazed by the formation, she would certainly have been gravely wounded.

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A vast hole thirty meters across had been blasted through the entire thousand-meter layer of earth. Before the shield could rise, the masked Daoist shot out and saw several figures in the distance.

Houseguest immediately recognized one of them and grew furious. It was the blue-haired young master, Grasshopper, who had tried to assassinate him. But Grasshopper was hardly faring well himself; he held a damaged immortal artifact against his chest.

“Houseguest, you have colluded with an outside enemy! Death is the only punishment you deserve!”

Grasshopper spoke first. The other two men accompanying him also wore hostile expressions as they summoned a colossal formation that enveloped the blasted opening.

The netlike immortal formation moved with the masked Daoist’s escaping artifact, specifically restraining defensive weapons.

“Who are you? Do you not know that opposing Hundred Flowers Valley leads only to death?”

The old man who had summoned the formation was in the late stage of the Great Immortal realm. Facing such a formidable opponent, he relied on the immortal artifacts upon his body to fight.

When the old man saw that the other party continued to remain silent, he added, “You have only just entered the Profound Immortal realm, yet your cultivation is hard-won. If you surrender peacefully, you will receive a fair trial.”

The masked Daoist hesitated repeatedly and was just about to reveal her true identity when Houseguest suddenly said, “Senior, beyond this point lies an ancient network of ruined formations. If you tunnel downward and slip away from somewhere else, who could ever find you?”

“Hmph!”

The masked Daoist’s snort shook Houseguest’s soul. Carrying him, she changed course and continued stealthily through the earth.

“You dragged me into the grudge between you and those people. If I hadn’t blocked that attack in time, you would already be dead!”

Houseguest dared not say another word and began pointing out the route. He acted as though he knew every ruined formation below.

“Do you study these underground formations whenever you have nothing to do while patrolling?”

When the masked Daoist heard him offer an explanation for the matter, Houseguest hurriedly nodded in agreement.

The two spoke little. When they reached a damaged section of the granite rock, they could clearly sense immortal power gathering on the surface above.

Hundreds of points of light had gathered on the communication formation stone, forming a combined formation capable of both attack and defense.

With such tremendous commotion, no one could pretend not to hear it. In her haste, the masked Daoist produced a branch.

It was also a fifth-grade immortal artifact.

The moment Houseguest saw it, he roughly guessed her identity.

“Turn the heavens and earth, wind of earth escape—enter!”

After she unleashed the attack, the ground trembled. Following the branch, the masked Daoist effortlessly burrowed downward.

The artifact belonged to the wood element and could easily pierce soil and shattered stone. It was a fifth-grade immortal artifact, and because wood-element immortal artifacts were exceedingly rare, it could be considered a supreme treasure.

“Wait!”

During their stealthy descent, Houseguest suddenly called out. Under the masked Daoist’s murderous glare, he pointed toward the rubble below.

“Senior, Senior! There’s a formation beneath us!”

“You dare toy with me? My artifact has already passed through, and nothing happened. Hmph. Then die here!”

Houseguest’s scalp prickled as the masked Daoist abandoned him within the rock layer. The tremendous pressure had only just been neutralized by his body when an exhilarating sensation suddenly surged through him.

It was the same feeling as being struck by the thunder of a heavenly tribulation!

In the next instant, the masked Daoist’s face was blackened, her beautiful hair flying wildly. Even the treasure covering her face had been shattered and stuck to her skin, yet it still concealed her features.

“Female senior, please spare me!”

With a sharp sword thrusting toward his chest, Houseguest repeatedly begged for mercy. As expected, the other party asked, “How did you know there was a formation here?”

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Following Old Bear Three’s instructions, Houseguest immediately revealed his identity as a descendant of the Drifting Immortal Sect. He continued, “Our ancestors passed down a detailed map of the formations. But too much time has passed, and this place lies in the heartland of Hundred Flowers Valley. Who would come here for no reason just to admire these ancient, obsolete formations?”

Seeing that his explanation made sense, the masked Daoist loosened her grip on the immortal sword.

Then, suddenly, the sword pierced into the immortal soul within his chest. Its surging tip stopped less than a millimeter from his soul, while an immense metallic aura poured into him—the power inherent in the sword’s very body.

Added to the earlier shock that had injured him, this second stab allowed the sword’s steel aura to invade his body. Houseguest immediately began spewing immortal blood.

Even the blood he spat carried the sword’s power, scraping across his mouth and throat like blades. The pain was unbearable.

“If you are concealing anything else, I will flay you alive and cast you into the Flood Dragon Abyss!”

The masked Daoist’s fury became impossible to withstand. Her overwhelming presence crushed down upon him.

Houseguest, by contrast, suddenly relaxed and fell to his knees, blurting out, “I’ll confess! I’ll tell you everything! I’ll obey whatever you command, Senior!”

After hearing Houseguest babble out the circumstances below, the masked Daoist’s eyes lit up.

“There is a formation platform beneath us? A formation platform left behind by the Drifting Immortal Sect?”

With this information, the masked Daoist pulled the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Spirit Tree forward and hooked Houseguest with it.

“Lead the way carefully. If anything goes wrong, bear the consequences yourself!”

This time, their stealthy journey proceeded with astonishing smoothness. They avoided everything that needed avoiding. At one point, they even encountered a spatial rift.

Spatial rifts in the immortal world were unlike those in the mortal realm. They were divided into dozens of grades, large and small. This particular one was a tearing rift. Even a Profound Immortal protected by a fourth- or fifth-grade immortal artifact would have their body ripped apart, leaving behind only the soul.

The masked Daoist still felt a lingering fear. She was highly satisfied with Houseguest, who hung from the tree as their guide.

Within the eye of the formation, Old Bear Three burst into laughter. Cloudless sighed sympathetically toward the sufferer.

“As I see it, you and that masked young woman are destined to become husband and wife. You’ll fly side by side, remain devoted until your hair turns white, and raise countless children. A true pair of immortals!”

Houseguest burst into tears. Having one peerlessly beautiful woman was already more than enough for him. Why would he marry a female senior whose face he had never even seen? And judging by that explosive temper…

After thinking it over, he suddenly felt that hanging from the tree branch was much more comfortable.

When they finally emerged from the earth’s surface and arrived at a cavern, they found even more spatial rifts within. From time to time, shadowy, unpurified ghosts drifted out, howling briefly before vanishing without a trace.

More than ten thousand meters underground, the masked Daoist’s breathing grew tense. She sensed an oppressive presence and stared fixedly into the space ahead.

This was the most dangerous passage Houseguest had mentioned—and the final one.

“At last, you have come. I have waited hundreds of thousands of years, through endless stretches of time. I waited until heaven and earth grew ancient, until the sect itself was destroyed, and you still arrived so late!”

The vast, distant voice drifted out from a spatial rift.

The masked Daoist flew into a rage and shouted, “You dare put on airs and act mysterious before me?”

She summoned a magical treasure. The immortal artifact looked like a book and was also fifth-grade. When it opened, seven little demons leaped from its pages like the children of a gourd spirit, each carrying a bizarre magical weapon, and ventured into the space ahead to investigate.

The seven little demons were tall, short, fat, thin, square, and round. Only the last one had ordinary, well-proportioned features.

After scouting the area and finding no danger, the well-proportioned little demon cried out, “Auntie, Auntie, there are no flood dragons!”

The masked Daoist glared, and the seven little demons began searching again.

When the voice emerged once more, the short little demon shouted, “Found it! Found it! It’s coming from inside this meat-eating great maw!”

A meat-eating great maw?

The masked Daoist’s expression turned ugly. She saw the short little demon reach its hand into the depths to retrieve the source of the voice, only for the spatial rift to twist the arm into fragments.

“What is inside?” The masked Daoist’s eyes brightened.

Like a scanning instrument, she stared at the rift, which stretched more than twenty meters in length. Hidden across its surface were lines of intricate patterns—the laws of an Immortal King sealed into the rift. There were more than twenty such seals in all, preventing the rift from expanding.

“What is inside? What is inside?”

Houseguest muttered to himself a few times. When no voice came from the bead in his earring, he was dumbfounded. Then he noticed the sharp gaze fixed upon him and hurriedly shouted, “They say there’s a treasure inside—the treasure of the Drifting Immortal Sect!”