Immortality Through Array Formations Chapter 2000 Chapter 963: Dragon Vein

This fair-skinned cultivator, possessing the appearance of a child despite his snowy hair, is Xuan Sanren—the figure feared as the "Mystery Demon Ancestor" of the Mystic Demon Sect.

Ever since a Mystery Demon Foetus was destroyed during the Ten Thousand Demons Gathering years ago, Xuan Sanren has lived in seclusion to recover from a massive drain on his vitality.

However, as the threads of fate shift, ominous portents have begun to manifest. Xuan Sanren senses them deeply, his brow furrowing in concentration.

"Where is the source of this cause and effect...?"

Throughout his long life, Xuan Sanren has walked the Mystic Demon Path, slaying countless victims and earning an endless list of enemies. In this moment, he found it impossible to determine which specific grudge was causing his current agitation.

"I have never allowed a survivor to escape; every thread of cause and effect should have been severed... Could a single fish have truly slipped through the net?"

A sense of dread washes over him.

To Xuan Sanren, killing requires uprooting the very source; he would not even spare an unborn infant to ensure his safety was absolute.

Such is his personal code of conduct.

It is for this reason that, although his Cultivation might not be the most powerful among the demon lords, his terrifying reputation is unmatched. The mere mention of the "Mystery Demon Ancestor" strikes paralyzing fear into the hearts of others.

"At what point in time and in what location was this cause and effect born...?"

He attempts to trace the origins of these omens, yet his mind remains a void, offering no clues.

Though he initially considered abandoning the search, Xuan Sanren could not shake the feeling. After a moment of deliberation, he steeled his nerves and retrieved a compass from a crimson box protected by heavy seals.

The compass was crafted from bleached white bone.

A lock sat within it, saturated by dark blood and etched with ancient, primitive formation patterns. Embedded at the center was a demonic eye that blinked incessantly with a fierce light.

This was the Demonic Path Treasure known as the Nether Heavenly Mechanism Seal.

It had been a long time since he last called upon this artifact.

Biting his fingertip, Xuan Sanren smeared a trail of blood across his own forehead. As the blood mark began to writhe of its own accord, his divine sense sharpened to a razor's edge.

He formed a hand seal to trigger the Nether Heavenly Mechanism Seal, hoping the artifact could deduce the secrets of the past.

Suddenly, the mechanism seal began to vibrate violently. The demonic eye within the lock snapped wide, becoming bloodshot as it trembled in visible terror.

Stunned, Xuan Sanren froze as his pupils shrank to pinpricks.

"The mechanism seal... it refuses to calculate?"

"Is it... afraid?"

"What could a treasure of the demonic path possibly fear? And who is the target of that fear?"

Memories of the siege outside Li Mountain City flashed through his mind; he remembered the mechanism seal trembling in this exact manner when they faced that person.

The anxiety in his chest began to intensify.

As if in a trance, Xuan Sanren recalled a fleeting, ominous sign he had glimpsed while deducing fate outside Li Mountain City.

That dark premonition began to resurface in his consciousness.

It was as if he had accidentally released a school of small fry into a great river.

But hidden among those tiny fish, there seemed to be a young and predatory "crocodile."

When he tried to look closer, the river appeared vast and blurry, the shimmering waves hiding everything from his sight.

Xuan Sanren’s frown deepened.

"That man is dead. The Back Ruins Heaven Burial occurred. Those connected to him are either deceased or scattered. The chaos has ended, and there is no one left worth watching..."

"Who could this survivor be?"

"Does this person pose a threat to my Mystic Demon Sect?"

Though he hoped he was merely paranoid, a weight remained on his heart—a feeling that somewhere in the vast void, a small monster was slowly rising, growing stronger with every passing second...

"A decade has passed, and the ripples of the Back Ruins Heaven Burial are finally starting to manifest."

"Danger and calamity are beginning to spread."

"The weaving of heavenly secrets and the intertwining of cause and effect... in this Great Dao game of seeking immortality, who was the one who placed this chess piece...?"

Xuan Sanren remained motionless for a long time, consumed by unease.

Eventually, his eyes turned dark and unreadable as he solemnly pulled a weathered book from his Bone Ring.

His pale, bone-colored hand brushed against the ancient tome as he whispered:

"The very survival of the Mystic Demon Sect may depend on this from now on..."

It was a fragmented scroll with yellowed, waxen pages that bore the scars of fire and water. On the damaged title page, six bold, ancient characters were written:

"Planting Devil in Taoist Heart Great Technique."

...

Inside the Divine Temple of Solitary Mountain City.

Young Master Xuan also felt a flicker of apprehension. However, because his divine thought was not as advanced as Xuan Sanren’s, he merely felt a brief moment of confusion before brushing it aside.

He had the formidable Shen Tuao to deal with, after all.

He needed to wrest the Great Wilderness Heritage away from Shen Tuao, as well as secure the other vital component for his Mystery Demon Foetus—

The physical remains of the Fourth Prince of the Great Wilderness.

While the Great Wilderness Dragon Vein was a prize, it possessed a significant flaw: as a royal legacy, its Taoist skills, Cultivation techniques, formations, bone talismans, and sacrificial arts could only be activated by those of the royal bloodline.

Without that specific blood, the Great Wilderness Heritage was essentially a "useless appendage."

Neither Shen Tuao nor the Second Elder had mentioned this fact, but Young Master Xuan was well aware of it.

To truly claim the Heritage, one required the Great Wilderness Bloodline.

Lacking that, all efforts were in vain.

The royal lineage of the Great Wilderness was nearly extinct, leaving almost no intact bodies to be found.

Shen Tuao stood before him as a living example, but he was far too powerful, ambitious, and strong-willed to be manipulated.

Even a partnership with him offered very little actual gain.

Therefore, his only option was to locate the deceased but preserved "Fourth Prince" and refine the body into his own "Mystery Demon Foetus."

To transform the Mystery Demon Foetus was a Supreme Demon Skill.

Two foetuses in one body, making it impossible to tell the real from the substitute.

Once the refinement was complete, he would become the Prince of the Great Wilderness, moving through the world in his name.

When his ultimate plan finally reached fruition, the entirety of the Great Wilderness would fall under his control.