Yao Yao’s deer-like eyes showed an unusual determination, telling him, “Don’t look, Chong Yan. It’s all fake.”

That dragon relied on Chong Yan’s body organs to become a “divine being,” falsely absorbing merit here.

Apart from being unethical, they were still unethical.

Just like their parents, a family of unethical beings.

Only a clean and pure Chong Yan remained.

Yao Yao held his hand, walking side by side with him in the narrow deep stairs.

The glow gradually brightened on both sides, but they didn’t look.

Chong Yan’s stiff and icy figure finally relaxed slightly.

It’s alright, Yao Yao thought. She wanted to see how they would fly without their hearts and spines once they got them back.

The wandering souls behind them kept pestering, their speed not fast, but they had completely blocked the way for the others.

At this moment, Chong Yan’s palm tightened slightly.

The sword in Ji Rong’s hand also hummed softly.

The voice of the Sword Spirit was calm. “There’s something ahead.”

“It’s still the wandering souls, but they’re different.”

The tip of the Black Snake’s tail also swept around. “There’s a stench.”

At this moment, they were deep in the nine layers of deep stairs, and they encountered unknown circumstances ahead, while behind them were the frenzied “people.”

They were trapped in the middle.

Countless figures with lowered heads emerged from the dark depths of the stone stairs.

Indeed, they were still human-shaped wandering souls, but they came from underground, different from the wandering souls outside.

These wandering souls had already withered and shriveled, their gazes hollow and fixed.

Judging from their attire and the pickaxes they held, these wandering souls were probably the craftsmen who built the deep stairs. However, after they finished carving the murals praising the golden dragon of the divine race, they became trapped within these nine layers of deep stairs.

For thousands of years, they could only go up or down, along this one dark vertical path.

Unable to live, unable to die, only able to pray.

Their prayers manifested as the gradually brightening glow they had encountered along the way.

To them, all the vitality from the outside world was nutrients they had been waiting for too long.

Countless souls from their previous lives surged forward, with those in front being pushed down onto the stone stairs and trampled into mud by the souls behind, forming a pile.

Soon, this narrow space was filled with densely packed heads, from top to bottom. Each face showed a painful longing, a desire for survival, and a desire for death.

Yao Yao attempted to conjure the spiritual flow in her palms but couldn’t expel them. Because even though these wandering souls had been trapped here for thousands of years and had undergone transformation, they were still ordinary human bodies, not demonic or evil.

The ice flames in Chong Yan’s palm flickered to life again. He could directly incinerate these wandering souls, but in that case, they would never be able to reincarnate.

In this situation, the group could only resort to physical combat, becoming increasingly passive and soon being squeezed into a tight cluster.

Countless hollow faces pressed against them. The oxygen in the deep stairs was quickly being depleted, making it stifling and terrifying.

The Black Snake was the first to be bitten and let out a howl. “It’s going to scar!”

Yao Yao quickly sent her spiritual power over, covering the wound where he was bitten, and it visibly healed at a rapid pace.

Touched, the Black Snake looked up. “Little Pearl.” she really was the one who cared the most for his beauty.

Yao Yao conscientiously took on this role. “Don’t be afraid, everyone.”

In this situation, Yao Yao’s bloodline spiritual power was stimulated to a higher potential. Although she couldn’t expel these insane wandering souls, she could simultaneously control multiple golden “jellyfish,” gently landing on the heads of the group, forming a light golden shield, and immediately healing their wounds.

Ji Rong had never seen her display such strength before. He stared in astonishment and felt immense relief.

However, Yao Yao’s spiritual power was ultimately derived from her blood. As the group struggled downward for a while, her small face gradually turned pale.

Breathing became increasingly difficult.

Too many, too many people.

They were almost clinging to her arms, her back. Countless souls were crazily expressing their pain.

“I beg you.”

“Please, I beg you.”

“I don’t want to.”

Yao Yao’s face turned pale, feeling that with every step they took, the air they inhaled seemed to be their souls.

Just then.

In the densely packed corridor, a massive ice-silver tail suddenly appeared.

All the wandering souls were squeezed to the sides in an instant, compressed into a mass, but not obliterated.

And there it was, that tattered, scarred, and menacing tail, displayed before everyone’s eyes.

Chong Yan stood in front, blocking Yao Yao, without turning back, and said to the others, “Hurry, let’s go.”

The Black Snake, who had just praised the golden dragon physique on the murals and was always fond of comparing with beasts, looked at the tail but strangely remained silent.

Yao Yao raised her pale face and saw the tense jawline of Chong Yan.

“Let’s go, Chong Yan,” she said. “We need to hurry.”

Just hold on a little longer, and we will retrieve your heart.

The tail of the divine being hadn’t completely transformed, but it was long enough to reach the depths of the deep stairs.

With this tail leading the way, their descent finally quickened.

The wandering souls behind them trampled each other, but still reached out to chase after them, as if only this obsession remained.

The Black Snake couldn’t bear it any longer and groaned, “I can’t take it.”

Even a deep-sea creature like him was struggling to breathe.

Ji Rong had been holding his breath the whole time, while Yao Yao was led by Chong Yan.

Finally, the stone steps of the nine layers of deep stairs came to an end, and the ice-silver tail carried them, dropping them onto the ground from the stairwell.

Here, it was a vast space.

The wandering souls behind couldn’t leave the nine layers of deep stairs, with countless heads squeezed there.

At this moment, Yao Yao looked at the space beneath the Emperor’s tomb but remained silent.

There was an endless expanse of water here, the deepest and most natural spiritual water hidden within the mountain, all concentrated in this place, supporting…

The enormous, pulsating, ice-blue heart floating above the water’s surface.

Perhaps it was no longer recognizable as a heart.

It was entirely enveloped in icy-blue flames, with countless souls flickering within each flame, displaying fleeting and vague expressions.

Chong Yan’s heart was hidden here, buried beneath the hundred thousand mountains, carrying the cries, pain, and prayers of countless souls over thousands of years.

So, the prayers of those wandering souls could come true because of the power from the heart of the divine being.

They used Chong Yan’s heart as a cornerstone, using his divine power to immerse all the wandering souls in the illusory happiness of fulfilled prayers, absorbing all the merit they contributed, and forming golden bodies.

While the ancient demons were dissected and frozen in the icy abyss for thirty thousand years, all they received was fear and curses.

The Black Snake didn’t understand, and Ji Rong didn’t understand either. However, the Sword Spirit understood the reason behind the Emperor’s tomb, and Ji Rong also came to understand.

He looked at the ancient demon, his emotions becoming complex.

Perhaps, the world had truly misunderstood him.

Chong Yan, on the other hand, remained expressionless.

From the moment he saw the carvings on the coiling dragon pillar, he had already understood everything. But he didn’t like others pitying him.

The Black Snake received a quiet reprimand from Ji Rong and finally understood. His eyes widened in shock.

Oh my, this white fur looks so miserable.

How could there be such a pitiful creature with a long tail in the world?

Yao Yao looked at their gazes, then looked at Chong Yan’s tense profile, mixed with the emotions from passing through the wandering souls, gradually turning into a sense of grievance.

Yes, why?

Why should her little demon bear all of this?

On the endless water’s surface, a gradual vaporization began. The golden light of the entire Emperor’s tomb converged and gathered, faintly outlining a colossal golden dragon that seemed to reach the sky.

His golden body was almost complete.

Yao Yao clenched her fist and lifted her skirt, ready to go forward.

However, just then, a voice timely appeared.

As if having seen enough of their misery, it emerged at the right moment to reap the rewards.

“Haha, everyone is here. It seems we have quite a fate.”

Li Cangyan.

Yao Yao looked up at him as he flew in on his sword, accompanied by Su Yilin, through some unknown special entrance.

Filled with a sense of superiority as the male and female leads.

Li Cangyan’s gaze swept over everyone, knowing that these people present had all witnessed his miserable state when he was blasted out by the demonic ice flames in the Eastern Sea.

And today, Li Cangyan was here to take everything back.

He looked first at Ji Rong, with his aura dominating the surroundings, as Ji Rong probably still had no idea that he had already broken through two realms.

His perfect Deity Transformation Stage as a genius sword cultivator was no match for Li Cangyan’s Great Perfection stage.

Ji Rong gripped the Yu Ji Sword, his expression not looking good.

To break through realms so quickly was obviously due to outside influences, which he had always despised.