The Dragon Palace's coral forest loomed like a petrified army, their crimson branches clawing at the bioluminescent haze. Zhao Rui kept his qi suppressed to a flicker, shadows clinging to him like loyal hounds. Beside him, Dun Che's bulk proved surprisingly adept at stealth—the fox demon's fur rippling in chromatic mimicry of their surroundings.
"They stopped," Zhao Rui breathed through water-transferrence talismans. A hundred meters ahead, six figures vanished mid-current, their spiritual signatures snuffed like candles.
Dun Che's whiskers twitched. "Dead end?"
"Ward." Zhao Rui's fingertips brushed ancient coral etched with serpentine patterns. "Fifth Era dragon script. The locking array requires—"
A thunderous grind interrupted him. The seabed shuddered as a megalithic slab slid aside, revealing an abyssal throat swallowing light itself. Before they could react, inverse tides seized them—nature's laws inverted by forgotten sorcery.
"Brother!" Dun Che's bellow warped through crushing pressure gradients. "This feels like being eaten!"
Zhao Rui's retort died as his boots met glass-smooth obsidian. Bioluminescent fungi revealed their prison: a coral labyrinth stretching beyond sight, its vaulted ceiling a crystalline dome holding back Pacific tons. Through distorted refraction, leviathan shadows circled.
"Not eating," Zhao Rui corrected grimly. "Digesting."
The ambush came as they breached a fungal clearing. Six figures materialized from chromatic camouflage—their leader's silver hair floating like Medusan locks. Zhao Rui noted tactical placements: two Unity Stage flanking four Splitting Body adepts, formation echoing Six Harmonies principles.
"Travelers from the sunlit realm," the silver-haired cultivator intoned. "This one is Li Yongzhe of Demon Sect's Six Paths." His companion—a bull-necked brute with scarred jowls—snarled wordlessly.
Dun Che's claws unsheathed with meaty schunks. "Six Paths Demonic Masters? Brother, these are—"
"—precisely why we came," Zhao Rui finished smoothly. His second spirit stirred, golden motes reacting to Li's probing qi tendrils. "Zhao Rui of nowhere particular. My associate, Dun Che."
Li's eyebrows climbed. "Unaffiliated Unity Stage cultivators? How novel." His smile didn't reach eyes scanning for sect insignias. "The Dragon Palace's treasures merit... collaboration."
The bull-necked demon master lunged before negotiations progressed. "ZHAO RUI!" The roar sent fungal stalks exploding into phosphorescent mist. "Ancestral tablets weep your name! My bloodline's bane!"
Recognition struck like lightning. The jowls mirrored faded police sketches from Dong'an City—wider, crueler, but unmistakably Cha.
"Seventeen generations purified," the demon master spat. "My seed reduced to ash in your petty squabbles!" Cha Feixiong's hands blurred through clan vengeance seals. "The Cha Dynasty's fall demands blood interest!"
Zhao Rui's mind raced. A Unity Stage ancestor explained the Cha Clan's uncanny resurgence, their political tentacles defying mortal constraints. Yet why hadn't this walking blood feud intervened sooner? The answer chilled—Demon Sect's hierarchy bound even vengeance.
Li Yongzhe sighed. "Brother Cha, sect protocols—"
"Silence!" Cha's qi erupted, transforming surrounding fungi into screaming homunculi. "The Codex of Six Damnations permits kin-blood retribution!"
Dun Che barked laughter. "Kin-blood? You'd need kinship!" His claw bisected a fungal homunculus mid-leap. "This one's mother was a dockside whore! His father—"
Zhao Rui's elbow silenced the fox demon. Golden motes swirled aggressively as he met Cha's glare. "Your descendants chose their path. I merely ended it."
The confession hung between them—a gambit thrown. Cha's nostrils flared, scenting weakness.
"Then choose yours," the demon master rumbled. Coral shrieked as his boots left the ground. "Dragon Palace becomes your mausoleum!"
Li Yongzhe's sigh carried millennia of bureaucratic suffering. "Regrettable." His fingers flickered—not attack seals, but observational arrays. The remaining Six Paths adepts mirrored their leader, content to spectate.
Cha Feixiong's opening strike embodied his philosophy: a sledgehammer fist wrapped in Soul-Devouring Frostfire. Zhao Rui pivoted, allowing the blow to graze his ribs. Frost crystallized across his robe as he analyzed—Cha's style fused Northern Glacier Crush with Southern Ghost Hand techniques, yet...
Hesitation on the seventh pulse. The golden motes whispered. Old damage to dantian meridians.
Zhao Rui's counter flowed like ink on parchment—a fingertip brushstroke across Cha's energy channels. The demon master bellowed as his own frostfire rebounded, icicles spearing his forearm.
"Parlor tricks!" Cha spat bloodied phlegm. His next assault came via tsunami—a pressurized water blade honed through seventeen generations of hatred.
Dun Che whooped, shredding homunculi with glee. "Brother! Let me play with—"
"Stay clear!" Zhao Rui's warning came late. Cha's water blade detonated mid-air, transforming into million razor-edged droplets.
Pain blossomed across Zhao Rui's cheek. His blood swirled in arabesque patterns—Cha's lineage curse activating. The golden motes flared in response, their song harmonizing with the God-Sealing Tome's distant hum.
Fifth page resonance, Zhao Rui realized. The Dragon Palace's secret...
Cha pressed his advantage, mistaking distraction for weakness. "Your corpse will fertilize Cha resurrection!"
The killing blow came as a glacial comet—Cha's entire mass weaponized. Zhao Rui's lips moved in silent apology as golden motes coalesced into a microsingularity.
Space itself screamed. Cha's charge curved impossibly, his fist plunging into his own abdomen. For three heartbeats, the demon master stared at the limb protruding from his spine.
"Im...possible..." Blood bubbles burst as he sank. "The Codex promised..."
Li Yongzhe finally stirred. "Ah. The Codex neglected mention of God-Sealing artifacts." His smile turned acquisitive. "Fascinating."
As Cha's corpse dissolved into ancestral tablets, the coral labyrinth shuddered. The crystalline dome above cracked, revealing tiered pagodas of drowned jade—the true Dragon Palace emerging from dimensional folds.
Dun Che whooped. "Now that's a proper treasure vault!"
Zhao Rui's gaze remained on Li. The Six Paths Master's earlier passivity evaporated, his qi coiling like a hunting constrictor. Behind them, the four Splitting Body adepts completed a sealing array—their true purpose revealed.
"Regrettably," Li purred, "Demon Sect requires your... collaboration." His sleeves billowed with escaping shadows. "The hard way."
Above, something vast uncoiled within the jade pagodas. The God-Sealing Tome pages vibrated in ecstatic terror.