"Do you know if anyone from the imperial family... managed to escape alive?" Yuan Ming hesitated for a while before asking again.

"I don't know... I only know that the Emperor didn't escape. He didn't escape when the Capital was broken through, nor when the Imperial City was taken, and he even led the palace guards to fight the enemy actively," the blind elder said, suddenly becoming somewhat agitated.

"Did he... die?" Yuan Ming asked.

"How could he still be alive? What are you laughing at?" the blind elder retorted.

After speaking, he couldn't help but mutter, "His Majesty was truly brave, and for that alone, I must recover his body. I won't leave until I find His Majesty's corpse."

"How can you, a blind man, discern which one is the Emperor?" Yuan Ming said with a bitter smile.

"I may be blind, but my nose isn't blind, and neither is my heart. If I can't tell which one is His Majesty, I will bury everyone in this Imperial Palace," the blind elder said with a smile.

Hearing this, Yuan Ming sighed, took out two porcelain vases, and placed them beside the blind elder's wooden cart.

Both were immortal elixirs for healing and nurturing the body. After taking them, the elder could eliminate all diseases and extend his lifespan.

Afterward, Yuan Ming transformed into a long rainbow and flew away.

...

Two days later, outside the gate of Chang Chun Temple.

A few cultivators dressed in the robes of the Wu Yue Sect disciples came out slowly, carrying a large brass vat.

The vat was murky inside, filled with round, bloody heads.

These people joked and laughed as they carried the vat to an empty space outside the temple gate where two half-constructed spires made of human heads stood.

They took the heads out of the vat one by one and placed them on the unfinished half-spires.

"It seems we're running out of heads in the temple; we can't build the last spire," a young man with a gaunt, sinister face said.

"What's the hurry? There're a dozen or so captives dying each day. Just save up for a few days, and it'll be enough," another plump, pale man with no beard said, laughing.

"That's too slow. How about we also go to the water prison to have some fun and get a few more?" a tall man busy stacking heads asked.

"Not a bad idea," the pale man, apparently their leader, thought for a moment and then nodded.

The Wu Yue Sect disciples guarding the temple gate looked at these people from afar, their eyes revealing a sense of disdain.

Just then, the middle-aged man who had just spoken suddenly stiffened, swung his comrades off, and walked towards the mountain's exterior.

"Hey, Senior Brother Yan, where are you going?" the sinister-faced young man frowned and shouted.

"Just a little nature's call. Want to come along?" the middle-aged man called back without turning his head.

Without waiting, he plunged into the dense forest outside and walked deeper into it.

He reached a sturdy ginkgo tree and suddenly stopped, standing still as if in a trance, swaying back and forth.

At that moment, a figure suddenly appeared from the side— it was Yuan Ming.

Before the man regained his senses, Yuan Ming had already reached out and touched his brow.

The middle-aged man, caught in an illusion, had no power to resist and was restrained by Yuan Ming, who began to search his soul.

After observing, Yuan Ming found that this man's cultivation was not high, only at the early stage of Core Formation. He was a minor leader among the Wu Yue Sect disciples, suitable for controlling and gathering intelligence.

After a short while, Yuan Ming quietly withdrew his hand and disappeared.

The disciple surnamed Yan shuddered and shivered, as if he had just finished relieving himself, subconsciously adjusting his trouser belt before turning to walk back.

After he left, Yuan Ming leaned against the tree trunk and slowly sat down.

From the man's Divine Soul memory, Yuan Ming learned that since the great battle at Chang Chun Temple concluded, the Wu Yue Sect had slowed their attack, seemingly planning to consolidate their gains before pushing forward again.

Perhaps because Yuan Ming had disrupted their base, the Wu Yue Sect had even dispatched a team to hurry back to their main temple at Northern Desert Black Witch Mountain overnight.

Furthermore, he learned that a batch of captives from the Cloud Desolate Alliance was now being held in the law cells of Chang Chun Temple.

However, this disciple surnamed Yan was ranked too low, knowing only the route to the Law Hall and the visible defenses. He was unaware of any hidden defensive forces.

Not to mention, the situation of higher-level cultivators stationed here.

Yuan Ming's action was just a small probe. If controlling this early-stage Core Formation disciple with illusion had not alerted the Nascent Soul and above cultivators stationed here, he was ready for a further attempt.

At night.

Inside and outside Chang Chun Temple was brightly lit, with the defense patrol's strength doubled compared to the daytime.

In the forest outside the temple, Yuan Ming's form transformed into an Undead Tree Demon, its roots and tendrils thrusting forward, immediately creating a ripple in the void as if about to open a teleportation gateway.

On the other side of the gateway was the disciple surnamed Yan, who had been deceived by his illusion during the day.

Yuan Ming had left a Divine Soul Mark on him and took control of him using the Divine Soul Secret Technique; at this moment, he intended to use him as an anchor, utilizing the ability of the Undying Tree to traverse the void and infiltrate Chang Chun Temple.

He planned to first locate the Law Hall of Chang Chun Temple and attempt to rescue those who were captured.

Regarding whether Liu Tianming was still alive, Yuan Ming still harbored an impractical fantasy deep in his heart.

After all, he had not found the other party's corpse.

However, just as he was about to break through the spatial ripples with his roots, a faint wave of mana suddenly emanated from behind him.

Yuan Ming immediately became alert; his body did not turn around, and his roots decisively pierced through the void.

However, the destination of the void traversal suddenly changed in an instant.

Behind him, a tall figure was suppressing the fluctuations on his body and cautiously approaching Yuan Ming, unaware of the vortex that had appeared in the void behind him. Thischapterwasuploadedbytheteamat*.

From within the vortex, an Undying Tree Vine suddenly thrust out, aiming straight for the back of his head.

At the critical moment, an alarm blared in the man's mind, and he abruptly tilted his head, narrowly avoiding the attack of the Undying Tree Vine.

But in front of him, the figure suddenly blurred and Yuan Ming had already closed the distance, raising his hand to reveal the Shura Blood Devouring Map, about to engulf him within.

"Yuan Ming, it's me..."

Just as the dense blood light from the Shura Blood Devouring Map was about to engulf the figure, a somewhat hoarse voice suddenly erupted.

Yuan Ming did not recognize this voice, so he did not stop his movements.

His gaze also concurrently swept over the man.

That was a creature eight feet tall, bulky and robust, with a human body but a head similar to that of a cow; reminiscent of a half-human, half-demon beast.

Its upper body was bare, covered in blood-red keratin, and it had extraordinarily large hands and feet. Its cow-horned face still vaguely resembled that of a human, but the flesh in the center of its forehead was parted, embedding a lychee-sized blood crystal.

The moment Yuan Ming saw the man's eyes, his attack abruptly stiffened, sensing a touch of familiarity.

Seeing no signs of aggression from the bull-headed beast, Yuan Ming forcefully stopped his actions, withdrew the Shura Blood Devouring Map, and stared at the other in surprise.

"Who are you?" Yuan Ming couldn't help but ask.

"It's me, Wulu." The hoarse voice emanated from the mouth of the half-human, half-demon beast.

Yuan Ming's expression immediately changed.

The person before him, whether it was his appearance, demeanor, voice, or the aura he emitted, was completely different from Wulu.

Only those eyes were exactly the same as his.

Seeing Yuan Ming seemingly incredulous, the half-demon beast quickly began to speak, "You and I met in Southern Border Biluo Cave, back then..."

Listening to his recounting of the past, Yuan Ming's expression gradually changed.

"Wulu, how did you become like this?" Yuan Ming couldn't help but frown as he asked.

"This is not the place to talk; follow me." Wulu did not answer but spoke thus.

With that, he quickly led Yuan Ming away from there and into a hidden cave concealed by a barrier.

Upon entering the cave, Yuan Ming couldn't help but ask, "What exactly happened? How did you turn into this? And it seems your cultivation has greatly progressed?"

"It was all done by the Blood Demon Ancestor. After he took me away, my body was forcibly infused with a massive amount of Demonic Qi. The puppet armor underwent a mutation, and its erosion of my physical body began to accelerate; I couldn't resist at all and ultimately ended up like this," Wulu said after a moment of silence.

"Was your cultivation also boosted because of this?" Yuan Ming asked.

"When the Blood Demon Ancestor left Three Immortals Island, he had already taken the corpse of a Late-stage Nascent Soul Cultivator with him. The residual power within the body was sealed in the puppet armor. After my body fused with the armor, this power also merged into my body, forcibly elevating my mana to Late-stage Nascent Soul," explained Wulu.

"That blood crystal on your forehead is..." Yuan Ming hesitated to ask.

"I seized it from the Blood Demon Ancestor's hands. When the puppet armor mutation was rampant, it embedded itself in my brow, and I can't remove it. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise; this blood crystal contains a very powerful Demonic Divine Skill," Wulu said as he touched the crystal stone at his brow.

"Seeing you in this state really takes some getting used to," Yuan Ming sighed.

"Let's not talk about me for now,— how did you come here? Aren't you aware that the Cloud Desolate Alliance has already been defeated?" Wulu asked.

"I know; I came looking for someone," Yuan Ming nodded.

"Looking for whom? Could it be that Daoist Xi Ying was also captured?" Wulu's expression slightly changed as he asked.

"Not her; it's the Emperor of Da Jin Country, we have been friends for many years," Yuan Ming shook his head as he spoke.

"Emperor of Da Jin Country... indeed some people from Da Jin Country were captured here, but the 'Emperor' you mentioned, I haven't seen during my days of investigation here," Wulu frowned as he pondered for a moment.

"Perhaps he is already dead; I have just come to try my luck..." Yuan Ming sighed.