"Senior, why is there so much Demonic Qi here?" Yuan Ming asked knowingly.

"This... I do not know either. What I am looking for is something hidden behind this door, and I am unaware of the exact situation beyond it," the Water Spirit Saint Mother said.

Her words contained many holes, but Yuan Ming had no time to scrutinize them at the moment.

Without regard for how the other two would react, he waved his hand, and a red ancient scroll flew out. It unfolded in mid-air, revealing a red vortex that began to rapidly absorb the Demonic Qi from the Underground Palace.

Now, to continue practicing the Demon Image Prison Suppression Skill, he needed a large amount of Demonic Qi, the purer the better.

"Map of Ten Thousand Realms..."

The Water Spirit Saint Mother recognized the red ancient scroll, her eyes flashing with surprise as the hazy mist around her body trembled. She was obviously astonished that Yuan Ming possessed such a treasure.

Yuan Ming quickly gathered all the Demonic Qi and retracted the Map of Ten Thousand Realms.

With the Demonic Qi in the Underground Palace swept clean, the area became clear and bright, and the inside was fully revealed.

Yuan Ming was well aware that besides the Demon Eye, which was sealed by the Thirty-Six Star Constellation Sealing Array, there was nothing else here. Thus, he was even more curious about what the Water Spirit Saint Mother was searching for.

Seeing the two of them heading straight for the Thirty-Six Star Constellation Sealing Array, Yuan Ming's figure flashed, blocking their path.

"Senior, Fellow Daoist Luo Zhu. Although I do not know what is peculiar about this place, I can tell that something extraordinary must be sealed beneath this Great Array. If both of you are here to break this seal, you must tell me what it is exactly," Yuan Ming said seriously, making up a story on the spot.

Upon hearing this, the Water Spirit Saint Mother paused, sighed, and said:

"I had no intention of keeping Fellow Daoist Yuan in the dark. I am not a human soul body, but a Water Spirit born from the East Sea Spirit Vein after countless years. Though nurtured naturally and containing the essence of heaven and earth, I lack a body to truly begin my cultivation and achieve the Dao."

Hearing this, Yuan Ming gave the Water Spirit Saint Mother a closer look, and some of his initial doubts were immediately resolved.

"To achieve the Dao, I spared no effort over thousands of years to collect the Canghai Essence and sculpt a Water Spirit Body for myself within the East Sea Spirit Vein. Unfortunately, before I could inhabit it, a very powerful and skilled expert snatched it away. Bound by the East Sea Spirit Vein, I could not pursue it and was filled with regret and hatred," the Water Spirit Saint Mother said with a tinge of resentment.

"What does this have to do with the Sealing Array?" Yuan Ming asked.

"Hundreds of years ago, I finally managed to break free from the East Sea Spirit Vein's restraint. With the help of Pan Si Island's power, I searched far and wide until over a hundred years ago when I finally sensed the location of my Water Spirit Body, which is within that Sealing Array," the Water Spirit Saint Mother said, looking towards the position of the Demon Eye in the center of the array.

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Despite hearing this, Yuan Ming still harbored a skeptical look.

With his perception, he could only feel the rich and pulsating Demonic Qi inside the Demon Eye. How could the Water Spirit Saint Mother sense that the Crystal Body was hidden within it?

"Fellow Daoist Yuan need not be surprised. When refining the Crystal Body, I merged part of my essence into it, so when I am within a certain range, I can sense its presence," the Water Spirit Saint Mother explained, as if guessing Yuan Ming's thoughts.

This explanation made sense, and Yuan Ming nodded his head.

Seeing his reaction, the Water Spirit Saint Mother, along with Luo Zhu, approached the Demon Eye next to the altar and began to carefully investigate.

With the Thirty-Six Star Constellation Sealing Array in place, Yuan Ming wasn't too worried, but he contemplated whether he should inform the two about the Demon Eye.

If extracting her Water Spirit Body required destroying the Sealing Array, Yuan Ming might have to stop them.

After all, if the seal were destroyed, and the crack leading to the Demon World within the Demon Eye were opened, all their efforts against the Wu Yue Sect would have been in vain.

As Yuan Ming pondered, he suddenly heard an exclamation.

He quickly turned his head and saw that from the well on the altar, waves of black light were spewing forth, emitting intense waves of Demonic Qi that enveloped the entire altar in an instant, and the figures of Luo Zhu and the Water Spirit Saint Mother disappeared without a trace.

"Save me..."

The voice of Luo Zhu came from within the Demonic Qi, filled with utter urgency and sheer horror.

Yuan Ming couldn't see what was happening within the black light and Demonic Qi, but his Divine Thought perceived that the aura of Luo Zhu and the Water Spirit Saint Mother had vanished.

In just a few breaths, they had disappeared into thin air.

Before Yuan Ming could recover from his shock, the Demonic Qi surging out of the well began to assault the Thirty-Six Star Constellation Sealing Array, attempting to break through the seal.

Around the altar, one after another, star-like lights lit up from the thirty-six Array Eyes, immediately bursting forth with dazzling starlight, connecting to form a curtain of stars that covered the entire well, trying to block it off.

Under the pressure of the starlight, a large amount of Demonic Qi was forced back, but still, some escaped through the gaps, drifting about the entire Underground Palace.

It was only then that Yuan Ming finally understood how the Demonic Qi had originated here.

Looking at the curtain of stars, a deep concern filled his eyes as the Array's power seemed even weaker.

Just as he was about to bring out the Map of Ten Thousand Realms to collect the escaping Demonic Qi, the black light within the altar surged once more, and the billowing Demonic Qi erupted from the well like a geyser, instantly inflating the layer of starlight into a bulge that protruded outside the well, forming a large blister.

Yuan Ming's pupils suddenly contracted at the sight.

What he saw was a massive black iron coffin suspended within the swollen bulge, its surface uneven as if it were carved from meteorite iron from beyond the heavens, covered with dense and strange patterns.

Just by glancing at the iron coffin, Yuan Ming suddenly felt a heavy thud in his mind, as if he had been struck by something.

He started to circulate the Moonlight Technique almost instinctively, just stabilizing his Divine Soul when his heart suddenly tightened again.

It was because he sensed an extremely sinister Divine Thought locking onto him, feeling as if a primordial Fierce Beast were staring at him from behind, a chilling terror crawling up his back.

Immediately after, a horrifying surge of Divine Soul Power shot out from the black iron coffin, aiming precisely at Yuan Ming as if it were the noose of the grim reaper slung over his neck.

In the void, a streak of gray light shot towards Yuan Ming's head like an arrow.

"That feeling again..." Yuan Ming was shocked, snapping back to his senses.

This sensation was eerily similar to the one he experienced when he and Xi Ying destroyed the Breaking Realm Transfer Array, with the gray shadow that came through the blood-red eye's crack, even more fierce and overpowering than before.

But Yuan Ming had changed since then.

In a flash, the Divine Soul Power within Yuan Ming's Sea of Consciousness boiled over. The Divine Skills of the Realm of Word Witch, nearly without need for invocation, started rotating rapidly under the compulsion of crisis.

In front of his glabella, a pitch-black light condensed, and a black vortex emerged out of nowhere, emitting a tremendously powerful tearing force that directly swallowed the gray light.

The next instant, a loud "bang" erupted.

The black vortex before Yuan Ming's glabella exploded, dissipating into countless specks of black light.

Yuan Ming stumbled as if struck by a great force, his head thrown back violently, his body uncontrollably flung backward.

His Sea of Consciousness felt as if it were about to be ripped apart, his head filled with excruciatingly sharp pain.

But promptly, his abundant Soul Power soothed the pain, and he was not seriously harmed.

Yuan Ming, having just propped himself up from the ground, saw the thirty-six Star Constellation Sealing Array, bulging as if about to burst, suddenly light up around the Array Eyes with dazzling starlight as bright as pillars, exceptionally strong.

The starlight screen covering the black iron coffin suddenly shone brightly, the intense and blinding starlight enveloping the coffin, firmly locking it in place.

"Xia Jie, you old ghost, it's you again..."

The black iron coffin shook violently, an utterly wrathful voice emanating from within.

To Yuan Ming's astonishment, a figure emerged suddenly from a corner of the Underground Palace, and it was indeed the blind old man.

"Heh heh, Reincarnation Demon Lord, you finally couldn't endure any longer. All my years of planning were not in vain; this time, I'll make sure you roll back to the Demon World for good," Xia Jie said, looking at the black iron coffin and laughing coldly.

With that, his hands suddenly moved, creating a series of afterimages as he rapidly cast spells towards the thirty-six Star Constellation Sealing Array.

"Yuan, I originally thought it would be some time before I could make use of you, but now that you are here, do me a favor," Xia Jie shouted at Yuan Ming while casting his spells.

"Senior, what do you want me to do?" Yuan Ming asked with furrowed brows.

"Don't worry, when I tell you, just use your Sky-reaching Demon Pillar to widen the spatial rift within this Demon Eye," Xia Jie said with a chuckle, his demeanor utterly composed as if everything were under his control.

Afterward, he cast seven or eight more spells towards the thirty-six Star Constellation Sealing Array.

As his spells continued to fly, the light pillars emanating from the thirty-six Array Eyes began to twist, exploding one after another, scattering large swathes of starlight vortices.

Although these vortices scattered explosively, they were all restricted by the Great Array and did not spread beyond it.

A glance would make one think they were witnessing clusters of radiant fireworks blooming in succession.

When all thirty-six Array Eyes were detonated and all the starlight vortices merged, an enormous bird's phantom emerged within the dazzling starlight, its wings shimmering with light as it flew low towards the black iron coffin.

"Now is the time, do it," Xia Jie bellowed.

Yuan Ming, already prepared, immediately motivated the Sky-reaching Demon Pillar towards the altar's well opening.

The thick, black stone pillar crashed into the well, its demon patterns lighting up, and mighty, twisting forces of space burst forth from the pillar.

In an instant, the entire altar began to collapse inward, and the space along with it started to distort.

Soon after, a narrow, black crack appeared beneath the Sky-reaching Demon Pillar. It was only two to three zhang long but gave the impression of an unfathomable and bottomless rift.

This crack wasn't splintered on the ground but hovered in the void above.