Chapter 848: One Year

In the holy hall, all the Crimson Cloud elders were present.

At this moment, the hall was deathly silent; none of them knew how to begin.

Too many things had happened today, and they had yet to digest them all.

Finally, it was Tu You who spoke first.

"Everyone, in recent years, I have been forced by circumstances to drag out my existence until now. But I never expected that Ye Yuan would be able to invite such a great power to specially refine the Nine Yang Return Spring Pill for me. To be honest, I don't know what to say right now."

Tu You's heart was indeed very conflicted. His original intention was to groom Ye Yuan as his successor.

But he never expected that Ye Yuan would privately entrust that existence to refine the Nine Yang Return Spring Pill, a heaven-defying pill, for him.

This favor was far too great.

Even the entire Crimson Cloud Holy Land could not match the value of this pill!

Ye Yuan was clearly just a lower-realm martial artist who had recently ascended, with a realm of only the Immeasurable Stage, yet he had enemies like Haori City and friends like the mysterious man.

This level of connection was simply not something that a ninth-grade holy land like Crimson Cloud could meddle in.

Let alone Zhou Yan bringing Zhou Yu along; even if Zhou Yan had come alone, it would have been more than enough to destroy the Crimson Cloud Holy Land.

Dao Xuan against Wu Xiang was indeed an overwhelming advantage.

But this advantage was not absolute.

For a genius like Zhou Yan, he could rely on his powerful comprehension of artistic conception to defy heaven and defeat a Dao Xuan First Layer.

Moreover, the Haori Sun Blazing Pupil was a type of eye technique with extremely strong lethality, and fighting above one's level was commonplace.

All of this made Ye Yuan's identity even more mysterious.

Making Ye Yuan the young master of Crimson Cloud seemed to have become a joke, because Ye Yuan and they were not on the same level at all.

Seeing this, Shen Qin quickly explained the reason for Tu You's severe loss of lifespan. After hearing it, everyone felt a lingering fear.

But after Wu Siyuan heard it, his expression changed drastically and he said, "Holy Disciples! We encountered two very strong opponents in the Burial Ground, and they called themselves Holy Disciples!"

Tu You's expression changed; he hadn't expected that such a thing had happened in the Burial Ground.

After Wu Siyuan returned, he had always been tight-lipped about the Burial Ground. This was the first time he mentioned the underground matters.

But Tu You hadn't expected that Wu Siyuan had encountered Holy Disciples in the Burial Ground, and two at that!

"What! You encountered two Holy Disciples? No wonder the casualties were so heavy! But... those Holy Disciples are all extremely powerful. How... how did you escape?" Tu You asked in surprise.

He himself had fought with Holy Disciples, so he naturally knew how formidable they were.

If it weren't for Crimson Cloud's forbidden techniques, he would have been killed by them long ago. Even so, Tu You had to give up Crimson Cloud's supreme treasure to buy his way out of trouble.

"This... they... they were killed by Ye Yuan!" Wu Siyuan said after a moment of thought.

"What did you say! Two... two Holy Disciples were killed by Ye Yuan? How is that possible?" Tu You said in disbelief.

"Holy Lord, I can't tell you the specifics, or else the entire Crimson Cloud might face a catastrophic disaster," Wu Siyuan said with a frown.

He had seen with his own eyes how powerful that black-clad man was. A single pagoda had suppressed and killed two Holy Disciple-level experts—too strong!

Long Teng's warning was still ringing in his ears. If this matter were leaked, Long Teng would probably really kill to silence them, even if it meant the Crimson Cloud Holy Land!

Tu You's expression turned serious. The events in the Burial Ground were clearly more complicated than he had imagined. He nodded and said, "Forget it, I won't press you. I hope Ye Yuan is blessed by heaven and can return safely."

...

A year passed in the blink of an eye, but for Ye Yuan, it was an extremely long process.

He felt as if he had had a very, very long dream, walking and walking in the darkness, yet never reaching the end.

"Where am I? It seems... my soul is imprisoned? Clearly, my soul was shattered by the Demon God Garuda, so why is it still intact? Could it be... that I'm dead?" Ye Yuan muttered to himself.

He had thought about this question for a long time in this dark space, but he could never find an answer.

Ye Yuan still couldn't tell whether he was alive or dead.

"Hmm... finally here! This willpower pressure seems to be getting stronger!"

In this darkness, the only thing that made Ye Yuan feel his existence was this willpower pressure.

Every so often, he would be ravaged by this willpower pressure. This torment almost drove him to collapse.

But in this hopeless darkness, his collapse was meaningless. Because Ye Yuan still didn't know whether he was alive or dead.

This inexplicable willpower pressure was many times stronger than the will of the azure dragon he had slain before.

Each time, it would torment him until he was utterly exhausted, and then suddenly disappear, as if it had never existed.

From the initial hundred breaths, to a quarter-hour, half an hour, an hour, and now half a day, Ye Yuan felt that he was continuously growing stronger.

That willpower was like waves sifting sand, constantly scouring Ye Yuan's nerves, making his life worse than death.

That feeling was truly exquisite.

But now, Ye Yuan had become completely numb to this feeling; his endurance was many times greater than at the beginning.

"Hoo... finally over! Am I a bit masochistic now? Why do I feel uncomfortable all over when this willpower pressure doesn't come? But after being tormented for so long, it seems my own willpower pressure has also grown a lot!"

Ye Yuan laughed self-deprecatingly and released his own willpower pressure. He could clearly feel that he had grown a lot in this dark space.

Suddenly, Ye Yuan's vision blurred, and the scene changed!

"Master, you're finally awake! This year, Heifeng has been worried to death!"

Opening his eyes, the first thing Ye Yuan heard was Heifeng's voice.

Ye Yuan blinked a couple of times, still looking somewhat dazed.

"Uh... Heifeng? I... I'm out?" Ye Yuan said woodenly.

"Out? Out of where? Master, you've been underground this whole time; you haven't gone out!" Heifeng said, baffled.

"Hmm? Underground?" Ye Yuan frowned, and memories instantly flooded his mind.

He still remembered that at that time, the Demon God Garuda had suddenly attacked, directly rushing into his sea of consciousness and shattering his soul.

Then, he knew nothing more.

Just then, a mysterious force had struck Garuda's demonic consciousness, startling him out of Ye Yuan's sea of consciousness.

Then, darkness descended, enveloping Ye Yuan's shattered soul entirely.

And then came the endless torment.