Chapter 887: The Secret of the Xuantian Sect

"Heretic!" the young Dharma Transmittee cursed, looking at the wicked smile on the other's face, feeling a mix of shock, fear, and anger.

However, his actions betrayed his true intentions. Dark, eerie light swirled, engulfing his body. The space seemed to rip apart, and the young man slowly sank into nothingness, his form gradually dimming.

"I can feel the fear in your heart," the Dharma King of the Profound Heaven Sect whispered, gazing at the young man before him. "Why do you run? What are you so afraid of? Face your true self... Let you... return to your true essence..."

The Dharma King's words seemed to contain a strange power. As he softly chanted, a transparent dividing line suddenly appeared between him and the young Dharma Transmittee. Both sides of the line were like a world inside and outside a mirror, corresponding to each other perfectly.

The figures of the Dharma King and the young Dharma Transmittee instantly overlapped. At that moment, the exact same dark, eerie light that the young Dharma Transmittee had conjured also appeared around the Dharma King! It was as if he were truly the young man's mirror image! What's more, when the young man saw this and his expression grew even more terrified, the Dharma King's face showed the exact same look!

The dividing line between them brightened slightly. A moment later, the space between them seemed to be cut away. The Dharma King and the young Dharma Transmittee drew much closer.

"You forced my hand!" An unspeakable terror surged in the young man's heart. He gritted his teeth and said hatefully. Then, a thin golden thread emerged from his glabella. This thread seemed to possess a unique power. It could not be replicated by the Dharma King. The mirrored world that had formed did not show an image of the golden thread, creating a slight disharmony. The mirrored world trembled slightly, on the verge of collapse. Even the Dharma King's figure became somewhat blurry.

"You and I are one," the Dharma King whispered. "Do you truly hate yourself so much? Enough to use such a treasure? Why go to such lengths?"

At this critical moment, the Dharma King's whispered words once again echoed in the young man's ears. The young man's expression shifted from ferocity to confusion, then slowly settled into calmness. And the golden thread, surprisingly, retracted back into his glabella. His distance from the Dharma King narrowed further.

"Living for so long with no hope for the future. I can feel the hesitation and resentment in your heart..." the Dharma King continued softly. "Once you reclaim your true self, you will unleash your hidden, supreme potential. The Grand Dao will be within reach..."

As the Dharma King continued to whisper, the young man and he grew ever closer. Finally, only a dividing line separated them. Their four eyes met, their expressions perfectly identical. There was no longer fear or confusion, only the joy of realization. The dividing line erupted with a burst of bright light. The next moment, it vanished without a trace. The mirrored world had descended into reality!

The figures of the young man and the Dharma King completely overlapped. Only the young Dharma Transmittee remained in the field!

The young Dharma Transmittee, now complete after the fusion, stood still in the air with his eyes closed. He seemed to be processing the vast amount of information in his mind.

"Dharma Transmitting Celestial Lord? Myriad Immortals Alliance?" he muttered. Soon after, he abruptly opened his eyes, his expression somewhat puzzled.

"I didn't expect that even in this era, they would still be wary of our Profound Heaven Sect," the "young Dharma Transmittee" said, then added with a cold snort, "The Secret Art of Executing Xuan... I wonder who gave them the confidence. Thousands of years have passed, and the secret art's content remains unchanged. They truly underestimate us."

As the young man spoke, a subtle change occurred in his aura. "This should allow me to pass unnoticed, as long as I don't use the sect's secret arts." The young man nodded with some satisfaction.

Then, a trace of doubt appeared on his face. "I wasn't merely discovered by chance; I was led here... Using the name of our Profound Heaven Sect to recruit followers, and even knowing my location... Then, after being exposed, immediately deflecting the blame. The Congyun Mutual Aid Society, Red Dust Benevolent Immortal?"

In an instant, based on the information he now possessed, he pieced together the truth of the matter. The young man, having been manipulated, did not get angry. Instead, his expression was solemn as he recalled the faceless Profound Heaven divine statue mentioned in the intelligence. He made a quick calculation with his fingers, then his face showed surprise: "I can't even sense its location? But it is indeed a Profound Heaven divine statue."

The look of doubt in the young man's eyes deepened. "Could it be the work of one of our brethren within the sect? Speaking of which, this style of action does indeed resemble what our Profound Heaven Sect members would do." Possible faces flashed through the young man's mind. "Knowing the truth would come out and the situation was beyond control, so they thought of using me to quell the matter? It seems this brother might also have only recently awakened."

As for why the other party didn't choose to meet, the young man had no doubts. Back then, the Ten Immortal Sects launched a sudden assault at the crucial moment when the Profound Heaven King was in seclusion. They broke through the Profound Heaven Sect in one fell swoop. The timing they chose was incredibly coincidental. They even knew the distribution of the sect's defenses and the flaws in its protective arrays with perfect clarity. The defensive system was rendered useless. Caught off guard, the Profound Heaven Sect suffered a crushing defeat. Casualties were severe. The whereabouts of the Profound Heaven King and the supreme treasure, the Profound Heaven Treasure Mirror, were unknown. As for the Dharma Kings, some died, and others were injured.

It was clear that such a decisive defeat meant there must have been traitors within the sect, and perhaps even more than one. Therefore, all the surviving Dharma Kings were extremely cautious. They trusted no one except the Profound Heaven King. This included the young man himself.

"Before the King disappeared back then, he sent out a message via a secret art, telling us to first lie low and preserve our lives, and await his summons," the young man thought. "Unfortunately, all these years have passed, and there's still no news."

Even so, the young man had no doubts whatsoever about whether the Profound Heaven King was still alive. After the Profound Heaven Sect's battle with Tiandu back then, although the Profound Heaven King suffered significant injuries, he forcibly stole some of the opponent's immortal spiritual energy, holding hope of achieving the body of a True Immortal. The Profound Heaven King's seclusion at that time was precisely for this reason.

"As long as I can reshape my immortal body in the lower realm, I can lead our brethren out of this Abyssal Star Sea." The young man vaguely remembered the Profound Heaven King's bold words before his seclusion. This was also why, after so many years, the young man had still not chosen to betray the sect. Thousands of years were, to him, merely a slightly longer sleep. But if he were to be trapped here for the rest of eternity, that would be true despair.

That's why he couldn't comprehend why some would have chosen to betray the sect back then. For so many years, the only plausible explanation he could come up with was that the Ten Immortal Sects had also promised a way to escape the Abyssal Star Sea, and that their method was more reliable than the Profound Heaven King's.

Originally, the young man didn't believe this. But after receiving the full memories of this Dharma Transmittee, he began to waver in his judgment. Because he learned that when the Great Calamity of Incompatible Cultivation Laws descended, some high-ranking cultivators from the Ten Immortal Sects had collectively disappeared. They had even taken a significant portion of the Xuanhuang Realm's resources with them. This group of people had never appeared in the Xuanhuang Realm since.

"If that's truly the case, then those traitors are probably living freely." A hint of killing intent flashed in the young man's eyes. "Without the power of a True Immortal, escaping the Abyssal Star Sea would require an extremely painful price. It's likely irreversible now. So my only hope of escape still rests with the Profound Heaven King."

The young man wasn't worried that the Profound Heaven King might have already escaped without him. The Profound Heaven King cultivated the Dao of Unity of Words and Deeds; he did not easily make promises. Once a promise was made, it had to be fulfilled. Otherwise, it would destroy his Dao, risking even a True Immortal falling back to mortal status. Therefore, as long as he was alive, he would surely reassemble the Dharma Kings and fulfill his promise from back then. If not for this reason, the Profound Heaven King would not have been able to easily secure the allegiance of twelve top cultivators back then with just his eloquent tongue.

"If I can find that faceless Profound Heaven statue, perhaps I can determine the Profound Heaven King's location," the young man suddenly thought.

The Profound Heaven divine statue was not modeled after the Profound Heaven King himself. Instead, it was based on the image of a True Immortal whom the Profound Heaven King encountered in the Ascension Channel. According to the Profound Heaven King, the aura exuded by that True Immortal was as vast as mountains and seas. Compared to that True Immortal, he, a newly ascended immortal, was as tiny as an ant.

At that time, he had just torn open the void and entered the Ascension Channel. Before he could fly to the long-desired Immortal Realm, a terrifying roar came from afar. The Profound Heaven King then witnessed a scene he would never forget. From distant to near, the Ascension Channel progressively shattered. Countless figures scrambled to escape, yet were sucked into the horrifying black ruins. Countless corpses fell from the cracks in the Ascension Channel. A truly terrifying disaster must have occurred in the Immortal Realm!

The Profound Heaven King turned and fled, not forgetting to casually loot the corpses of immortals he encountered along the way. However, the speed at which the Ascension Channel was collapsing clearly exceeded his imagination. Just as he was about to plunge into the black abyss like other ascenders, a figure flashed past him and casually gave him a hand. It pulled him out of the crumbling spatial channel.

After the Profound Heaven King had slightly composed himself, he reacted and thanked the figure for saving his life. That figure was clearly an existence of extremely high cultivation among immortals; the Profound Heaven King was actually unable to discern their face.

"Hurry and escape; if you're any slower, it'll be too late," the Faceless True Immortal shook their head, left these words, and then disappeared, leaving behind only the bewildered Profound Heaven King.

It wasn't until much later that the Profound Heaven King understood what the Faceless True Immortal meant by "escape." The Ascension Channel had shattered, and the path to immortality was severed. All that remained was an existence known as the Immortal Ruins. And the impact of the Immortal Ruins on the lower realms was only just beginning to manifest.