Chapter 190: Their Target... Is Qingwan!!

Three words, uttered with indifferent calm, carried no emotion, yet felt like an ice-cold key.

It suddenly pierced into the core of this forbidden land, sealed by layers of restrictions.

Lu Yuan closed his eyes and sank his entire spirit inward.

He dove into that faint yet tenacious strange connection that had become abruptly clear when the jade pendant shattered.

Normally, at the moment the pendant broke, Lu Yuan could clearly sense Gu Qingwan’s presence.

That cold, majestic, and utterly dominating will would cross the void like a tide and arrive in an instant.

Right after that came the signature black-red mist laced with destruction and ill omen, surging into being and quickly coalescing.

Then... she would walk out from that mist, like a sovereign entering her domain.

The whole process was as fast as lightning; from crushing the pendant to Gu Qingwan’s appearance never took more than ten breaths.

But this time—

it was different.

Lu Yuan’s spirit extended along the connection, only to feel as if it had slammed into one thick, heavy, viscous, impenetrable barrier after another.

The sensation was like sinking to the deepest ocean floor, surrounded by boundless, icy, crushing seawater.

Resistance enormous, light dim, every inch forward painfully hard.

The connection had not been severed; Gu Qingwan’s will was still clear and perceptible, even clearer than any time before.

Lu Yuan could “feel” her. He could “feel” that familiar power responding to the summons.

It was crossing boundless void, slowly heading toward the coordinates where he stood.

But the process of “coming” was—abnormally sluggish.

It was as if countless invisible tiny hands were desperately pulling, blocking, and delaying her arrival.

Suddenly Lu Yuan snapped his eyes open.

What met his gaze was a white-red fog spreading like a sky-blocking curtain.

Within it was that unfamiliar yet reassuring red figure.

But it was... punctuated.

Specks of light, extremely thin, extremely faint, as if they could go out at any second—white-red pinpricks.

Those light specks did not appear from nowhere; they seeped out like beads of blood oozing from leather pierced with countless tiny holes.

They painfully squeezed out from the voids of the cave, from cracks in the rock face, from microdust in the air.

Some even bled through the gray “spirit-locking” fog itself.

Little by little they were “extruded.”

They appeared very slowly, as if each filament that seeped forth cost minuscule but significant effort,

quietly pushing back against the faint sealing restriction that draped the entire cave.

The seeping specks did not, as before, rapidly gather and swell into a surging sea of mist.

Instead they hung motionless in the air, flickering faintly, their glow so weak it might be swallowed by the cave’s gloom.

Occasionally two specks drifted close together and would attempt to fuse, but the process was agonizingly slow,

stumbling and halting like two repelling drops of oil.

It would take many times longer than usual to barely merge into a slightly larger, still insignificant blot of light.

Coalescing... was excruciatingly difficult.

Lu Yuan stared at the scene before him.

This was completely beyond his expectations.

In his experience—indeed, in countless past occurrences—Gu Qingwan’s arrival was unstoppable and instantaneous.

The jade pendant was both beacon and gateway.

Once smashed, no matter where he was or what he faced, she would appear in the shortest time and sweep everything away with absolute force.

So why was this sluggish, seemingly jammed aggregation happening now?

Was it because of this “Spirit-Locking Forbidden Land”?

Lu Yuan immediately recognized the key.

This cave, this ultimate refuge the Liu Family and Hu Huxu relied on as their final barrier—

the spirit-locking ability at its core was not merely about sealing Daoist zhenran!

What it blocked seemed to be a deeper set of “rules” related to space and energy transmission.

The pendant shattered and opened the channel, marking the coordinates.

But for Gu Qingwan’s power to truly descend into this realm, cross the void, and materialize, it still had to obey certain fundamental rules.

It had to “pass through” this spatial barrier!

And the Spirit-Locking Forbidden Land was like an extremely resilient filter that inherently created “delay” and “attenuation” effects.

It tightly blanketed this space!

It wasn’t only preventing internal forces, like Lu Yuan’s zhenran, from interacting with the outside.

It was frantically obstructing, interfering with, and weakening any force trying to be “squeezed” in from the outside!

Gu Qingwan’s power level was too high—so high that this Forbidden Land couldn’t fully block it, couldn’t truly “seal” the channel that had been forced open.

Therefore, the black-red mist still seeped through.

But that seepage was greatly delayed, dispersed, and weakened.

It was like a raging river suddenly being diverted into a labyrinth of billions of ultra-fine capillary tubes.

The water continued to flow and press onward, but its speed slowed to a crawl.

The current dispersed into innumerable nearly imperceptible trickles, its force massively dissipated while traversing the maze.

So this was why the scene unfolded as it did!

Specks leaked out slowly, aggregation was agonizing. The oppressive presence still sent chills through the chest,

but it was nowhere near the instant, all-consuming might that once filled heaven and earth and bent all things to its will.

Lu Yuan’s heart sank slowly.

He had not expected the Spirit-Locking Forbidden Land to have such a profound effect on Gu Qingwan’s descent.

This completely disrupted his plan.

Originally, he had supposed that crushing the pendant would summon Gu Qingwan to appear instantly with absolute power!

Rescue the old man, crush the Liu Family and Hu Huxu’s conspiracy.

Simple, brutal, effective.

But now...

Judging from this slow coalescence, how long until Gu Qingwan fully manifested?

Tens of breaths?

Hundreds?

Longer?

And during that time, countless things could happen.

Hu Huxu was nearby, eyes like a tiger stalking its prey; who knew if he might act desperately and do something insane?

Deep in the cave, the old man still endured soul-refining torment; any delay increased danger a little more.

Not to mention the Liu Family’s core forces likely lay below, ready to be roused by any disturbance and swarm out...

Time suddenly became immensely precious and terribly lethal.

Lu Yuan watched those slowly increasing, painfully merging black-red specks, his mind racing through calculations.

Just then, a light laugh came from beside him.

Or rather,

a sneer.

Hu Huxu’s unmasked mockery cut especially harsh in the dead-calm cave.

Lu Yuan whirled his head toward the man wearing that grotesque smile; alarm bells rang in his mind.

Hu Huxu seemed pleased with Lu Yuan’s stunned reaction.

He stood at ease, even smoothing his dust- and blood-stained ragged clothes,

posture as casual as if he were in his own courtyard. He lifted his chin and looked at Lu Yuan,

a predatory, calculating smile on his face that betrayed how he had lured his prey deep into the trap.

“Weren’t you just asking why I led you here?” Hu Huxu drawled, each syllable like a poisoned needle.

“Materials are part of the reason.”

“But actually, that isn’t the most important reason.”

Lu Yuan felt his heart drop to his stomach. A cold dread shot up his spine.

He stared at Hu Huxu without speaking, but his tense body and abruptly contracted pupils already revealed the storm raging inside him.

Hu Huxu’s smile grew thicker, crueller.

He licked his slightly cracked lips, eyes flashing with an almost fanatical glee.

“And this second reason—the most important reason...” he prolonged, his gaze slowly sweeping over the feebly coalescing black-red specks,

as if admiring a masterpiece nearing completion.

“Is to make you, right here, summon that female vengeful ghost... to this place!”

Lu Yuan was struck like by lightning; his mind thundered.

Gu Qingwan!

Their target... was Gu Qingwan?!

They knew Qingwan existed?!

Hu Huxu watched Lu Yuan’s face go ashen as if savoring the climax of a grand drama.

He involuntarily threw back his head and let out a short, hoarse cackle like a night-owl’s cry.

“Haha... did you not expect that, Daoist Lu?”

“Did you really think we didn’t know of her existence just because you hid her?”

Hu Huxu’s laughter bristled with scorn and contempt.

“Have you forgotten what our Hu Family of Continuing the Lamp relies on to stand in the borderlands?”

“Who do we interact with?!”

He strode forward and pointed at the slowly seeping black-red specks around them.

His voice shot up, threaded with near-mad excitement:

“This land, this borderland’s mountains and rivers, every strand of earth-vein yin energy, every wandering ancient god-fragment are our eyes and ears!”

“Do you think Gu Qingwan’s every crossing of the void and descent into this realm—her terrifying pressure, that aura that supersedes rules—could be hidden from anyone?!”

“Hidden from those ancient gods who are linked by blood to our Hu family and constantly watch over this territory for any anomaly?!”

Lu Yuan’s heart hammered; suddenly everything clicked into place.

Why Hu Huxu, and behind him the Liu Family and even the Ten Families, knew so much about Gu Qingwan!

The Hu Family of Continuing the Lamp served, communicated with, and could even be said to “monitor” those ancient, chaotic existences tied to this land.

An existence like Gu Qingwan—completely beyond reason and with power levels that defied comprehension—

each time she descended, it was like tossing a stone into a still lake for the land itself and for those “gods” bound to it!

The ripples were obvious to anyone paying attention.

“Once might surprise them, twice will warn them....”

Hu Huxu’s voice returned to that bone-chilling calm, though the fanatic gleam in his eyes never dimmed.

“Whenever that terrifying presence descends tied to a young Daoist Celestial Master named Lu Yuan, do you think we would simply sit by?”

He stared at Lu Yuan and enunciated each word:

“A super-existence that towers above every god in the borderlands, tears open the void with ease, disregards most rules, and possesses an unprecedented force.”

“What does that mean for us Ten Families, for the gods we serve, for the balance we have maintained for centuries?”

“A threat!!”

“She is too powerful, so incomprehensible it’s like you becoming a Celestial Master at nine years old—unimaginable.”

“In any other place, if you lured her there, even the Commanding Ghosts Liu Family’s supreme malevolent deity all unleashed would likely cost you dearly.”

“That would not be worth it.”

“So...”

Hu Huxu spread his arms again, as if embracing the whole cave and this Spirit-Locking Forbidden Land.

“Now do you know what this place truly is?”

“This place, this Spirit-Locking Forbidden Land—did you think its purpose was merely to lock Daoist zhenran and trap you and Li Xiuye, Daoist priests like you?”

A cunning, merciless intelligence sparkled in his eyes—the sort that calculates every escape route of prey to absolute death.

“From the time our ancestors of the Liu Family discovered and perfected this array in ancient times, its deepest, core aim!”

“Was never to deal with the Dao!”

He paused and inhaled deeply, as though savoring an earth-shattering secret.

“Its core—its ultimate goal—is to... lock gods!”

Lock gods!

The two words struck Lu Yuan like thunder exploding in his ears!

“To sever inside from outside, to delay energy, to attenuate rules, to stabilize space...”

“You think those features exist only to counter Daoist methods that draw on the world’s spiritual qi?”

Hu Huxu’s voice took on an almost incantatory tone.

“No. It’s to oppose higher-tier forces involving godhood and the very sources of rules!”

“To create... a prison in which gods cannot easily wield power, and may even be weakened or trapped!”

Hu Huxu pointed to the slowly coalescing black-red specks, his face bare of restraint as greed and triumph shone through:

“See it? See it?! The effect is even better than we predicted! Even more perfect!”

“Everything happening now has occurred exactly as we foresaw—completely following our design!”

“She’s coming!”

“She really has responded to your summons!”

“And at the same time, her descent speed has been hugely retarded!”

“Her power’s coalescence is severely weakened!”

“In this Spirit-Locking Forbidden Land, she cannot, as she does outside, instantly unleash world-shattering might!”

“And here...”

Hu Huxu’s voice suddenly grew piercing and frenzied.

“Not only do we have the Spirit-Locking Forbidden Land!”

“Below us lies the Nine Nether God-Refining Array refined by the Liu Family over countless generations!”

“And at least three already-prepared, peak-state... super malevolent deities!”

“Waiting for her!”

Lu Yuan felt as if he had been thrown into an ice pit; his blood nearly froze.

He understood now—fully understood!

From the very beginning, from the moment he stepped into this scheme—or perhaps even earlier—

Gu Qingwan, having descended many times because of him, had been used as bait!

A deadly, concealed lure designed to hook the great fish that was Gu Qingwan!

Their target...

was Qingwan!!