Chapter 1162: Death Thought Yin-Yang Pearl

As the commander of the Qingxuan Army, Shang Shaojun had suppressed the Roaring Abyss for a century. Even when facing the terrifying, world-ending demonic sound waves, he remained calm and composed.

But now, he truly felt a bone-chilling fear he hadn't experienced in a long time.

There were simply too many deceased cultivators in this frozen sea.

Shang Shaojun found it hard to imagine where these cultivators had come from. The number of cultivators buried here was likely more than in the entire Xuanhuang Realm!

The Sacred Embryo Li Fan also pretended to be frightened by the scene before him, his body trembling slightly and a look of horror on his face.

“Shaojun, don’t act rashly; caution is key.” After a moment, he seemed to come to his senses and tried to calm Shang Shaojun.

Shang Shaojun’s expression remained grim. He continuously scanned his surroundings, as if an unknown enemy lurked nearby.

“Something’s… off here. Did you hear anything?” Shang Shaojun asked via telepathy.

“Sound? What sound?” The Sacred Embryo Li Fan was genuinely startled.

Shang Shaojun’s face was grim: “Perhaps it’s because I’ve spent too long in the Roaring Abyss, making me sensitive to all sounds. Ever since I arrived in this mysterious domain, I’ve been faintly hearing a kind of whisper. It comes and goes. Didn’t you hear it?”

The Sacred Embryo Li Fan narrowed his eyes. This wasn’t his first time here, and he had even guided various cultivators to this place before. Yet, no one like Shang Shaojun had ever been able to hear inexplicable sounds in the utterly silent frozen sea.

A different thought crossed his mind, and the Sacred Embryo Li Fan solemnly asked: “Shaojun, what do you think? This place certainly involves a great secret. However, investigating it thoroughly would also entail immense risk. Should we leave before we are discovered, or should we explore further?”

Shang Shaojun did not immediately answer Li Fan. Instead, his ears twitched slightly, as if discerning the sounds he was hearing. After a moment, he transmitted, “Brother Li, follow me. I have a hunch that tracing the source of this sound might unravel some of the mysteries of this place.”

The Sacred Embryo Li Fan nodded slightly, and a sword shadow appeared, guarding them both.

“Be careful.”

The two traversed through the endless frozen sea. Li Fan, in truth, already had a complete understanding of the overall structure of the Array of Reversing Life and Death. However, since he was pretending it was his first visit, he just quietly followed behind, not exposing Shang Shaojun even as he watched him seemingly wander aimlessly within the array.

But as Shang Shaojun stubbornly continued to advance in a certain direction, the Sacred Embryo Li Fan noticed subtle changes in their surroundings. These changes had even evaded the analysis of the Disc of Final Disintegration, and he had overlooked them until now!

“There’s actually a hidden variation within this grand array? As expected of an array capable of achieving immortality,” Li Fan thought, secretly startled.

They continued forward. It was as if they were treading water, except the frozen coffins in the surrounding dead sea spun continuously around them. The deeper they went, the faster the surrounding scenery rotated.

“Brother Li, be careful. It seems the source of the sound is ahead!” Shang Shaojun’s voice also held a hint of tension.

Like passing through a narrow space-time tunnel, the surrounding scenery, due to their rapid movement, transformed into overlapping circles of lines. Upon breaking through the end of the tunnel, countless circles converged into a single point, then burst open violently in their vision. The view suddenly opened up.

However, the air around them grew increasingly cold. It was so cold that both the Sacred Embryo Li Fan and Shang Shaojun felt their bodies stiffen from the chill.

“Hoo…” They activated their internal spiritual energy, attempting to dispel the biting cold.

The two carefully surveyed their surroundings. They appeared to be inside a silvery-white orb of light. Other than some blurry boundaries, the place was empty. When they looked back in the direction they came from, what they saw made their pupils suddenly contract.

Like constantly rotating Yin-Yang fish, a small orb quietly floated in the air. From its darker part, the Sacred Embryo Li Fan could vaguely sense the aura of the previously silent, frozen sea. And inside this white orb of light, there were actually eight more such Yin-Yang orbs! A total of nine, forming a peculiar configuration.

Shang Shaojun swallowed with difficulty. The number of deceased within just one of these Yin-Yang orbs was countless. If that number was multiplied by nine…

The two exchanged glances, both seeing the terror in the other’s heart. Even their telepathic communication became cautious, lest they disturb the nine Yin-Yang orbs here.

“Shaojun, the sound you heard earlier…”

“It’s gone. It stopped abruptly and vanished inexplicably as soon as we entered here. Wait…” Shang Shaojun suddenly froze, turning his head to look in the opposite direction from the Yin-Yang orbs.

The Sacred Embryo Li Fan followed his gaze but saw nothing.

“Be careful.” Shang Shaojun only gave a cautious reminder, then fell silent. His body stiffened, and he stopped moving. His aura also instantly became incredibly faint.

It was then that the Sacred Embryo Li Fan noticed an invisible presence seeming to descend upon this space.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Although there was no concrete sound, the heavy footsteps undeniably echoed in Li Fan’s heart. The distance grew shorter and shorter. It paid no attention to the two sudden intruders, heading directly towards the vicinity of the nine Yin-Yang orbs.

Whoosh… A soft exhalation sound echoed. The space around the Yin-Yang orbs consequently showed ripples of distortion. As if being boiled in water, the Yin and Yang parts of the nine small orbs rotated around each other, becoming more distinct. Shang Shaojun and Li Fan clearly saw wisps of frozen corpses seemingly entering the nine Yin-Yang orbs as this unknown entity exhaled.

The entire bizarre process did not last too long. The oppressive footsteps gradually faded into the distance, and only then did the silvery-white space slowly return to normal. The nine Yin-Yang orbs also slowly settled, becoming calm once more.

After a long while, the two dared to resume their telepathic communication.

“What was that just now?”

“A sense of crisis pierced through my entire body like needles, and my spiritual perception was screaming warnings. It felt as if disaster could strike at any moment… Even an Immortal Heavenly Venerate might not be able to evoke such a feeling, could they?”

After just a few short sentences, the two fell into an extremely oppressive silence.

“The sound I heard earlier must have been the echo of that unknown entity’s footsteps here,” Shang Shaojun speculated. “Even though it has departed, the echoes still linger.”

“The countless frozen corpses within the Yin-Yang orbs seem to be its doing. But I still can’t understand where so many bodies came from. And what lies beyond this silvery-white space?”

The Sacred Embryo Li Fan also had no answers to these questions. He had originally thought this was merely the Daoist ground of the Heavenly Venerate of Samsara. He never expected that, in this lifetime, he would stumble upon a deeper secret hidden behind it.