The Sect Leader Has Taken in a New Female Disciple

Her voice suddenly choked, and her whole body froze in place as if struck by lightning.

Li Changhong followed her gaze and saw, at the breach, a bronze mask slowly drifting down...

It was Zhou Qing’s mask.

"I... I couldn’t again..." Ji Yunluo’s voice trembled uncontrollably, tears rolling down her wrinkle-covered cheeks, "A thousand years ago... Elder Weng was also... right in front of my eyes, taken by the Void Beast..."

Li Changhong’s heart jolted, his hands clenched tightly, filled with anger and unwillingness as he looked towards that endless darkness.

"He is not Elder Weng." Li Changhong firmly pressed Ji Yunluo’s shoulder, his voice low.

Ji Yunluo’s struggles gradually weakened, but the despair in her eyes grew more intense: "The void is where it’s easiest to lose oneself... no coordinates... no direction..."

Li Changhong could feel the trembling of the emaciated body beneath his palm.

Taking a deep breath, he applied more force: "I know, he’s here to help us. How could we possibly ignore him?"

His gaze shifted to the breach that was self-repairing, his voice suddenly firm: "You and I, let’s stabilize the breach’s self-repair first. He... he will definitely come out safely..."

Ji Yunluo stared blankly at Li Changhong, then nodded heavily.

At this moment, the entire Teleportation Array was nearly fully repaired, the Array rapidly self-repairing.

The breach was visibly shrinking, from the width of a person to half a person’s height, and was on the verge of closing completely.

"Take action!" Ji Yunluo suddenly shouted, as thirty thousand dim Spirit Seals surged from within her.

This time, she didn’t use them to repair but frantically infused them into the Array’s core, attempting to disrupt its self-repair mechanism.

Li Changhong didn’t hesitate either, his azure sword tracing a profound trajectory in the air.

Nine ancient runes detached from the sword, nailing directly into the critical nodes of the Array’s operation.

Their forces clashed fiercely within the Array, stalling the originally smooth repair process for a moment.

The speed of the breach’s closure noticeably slowed, but it continued to shrink irresistibly...

"Hold on a bit longer..." Ji Yunluo’s seven apertures began seeping blood again, but she didn’t notice, her eyes firmly fixed on the depths of the breach.

Yet as time ticked away, the breach continued to close unstoppably.

From half a person’s height to knee level, then to where only an arm could pass through...

Ji Yunluo’s thirty thousand Spirit Seals dimmed like a candle in the wind, but she persisted in her last struggle.

She was giving Zhou Qing hope, and also redeeming the obsession in her heart.

"No... can’t..." Her voice was so faint it was almost inaudible, praying incessantly for Zhou Qing to break free in the next moment.

Once this glimmer of light vanished, what awaited Zhou Qing would be endless darkness without time, without direction.

Li Changhong’s sword also emitted a mournful tremor, with over half of the nine runes extinguished.

His lips began seeping blood too, yet he relentlessly maintained the last output of spiritual power.

The breach shrank to the size of a fist...

Then to the thickness of a finger...

Finally, only a thin line of light remained...

"Bang!"

With a slight sound, the breach closed completely.

The entire passageway returned to tranquility in an instant, as if nothing had ever happened.

Ji Yunluo’s body shook violently, and the thirty thousand Spirit Seals extinguished simultaneously.

She stared blankly at the scene before her, her expression shifting from shock to despair, and finally to utter bleakness.

Li Changhong staggered back two steps, his eyes bloodshot.

"It’s over..."

...

Zhou Qing only felt a darkness before him, his body dragged by two irresistable forces into endless darkness.

The howling chaotic space roared in his ears, his skin feeling as if pierced by thousands of steel needles at once.

He instinctively clamped his eyes shut, yet he could still sense the savage power of the void madly tearing at his body.

"Damn it!"

Zhou Qing bit down hard on his tongue, the intense pain snapping him awake.

He forcibly circulated his Spiritual Power to protect himself, but he couldn’t see anything in front of him. Suddenly, his pupils split — blood-red double pupils blazed with a bizarre glow in the darkness.

Only then could he barely see in the absolute darkness.

What he saw was a twisted chaos.

Fuzzy outlines appeared in the blood-colored view, as if through a layer of blood mist.

Zhou Qing saw numerous scarlet tongues still wrapped tightly around him, connected on the other end to the grotesque Void Beast.

"Boom!"

Purple Gold Thunder Light exploded from his palm, transforming into a Thunder Blade once more.

Zhou Qing, without hesitation, slashed at his waist and wrist, the moment the Thunder Blade met the tongues, dazzling sparks erupted.

"Roar—!"

The Void Beast let out a painful howl, the tongues recoiling as if shocked.

Taking advantage of this brief moment, Zhou Qing swiftly formed a seal, his aura retracting to the extreme.

A massive meteor happened to drift by, and Zhou Qing darted into its shadow like lightning.

The cold rock pressed against his back, as he held his breath, his blood-red double pupils vigilantly scanning his surroundings.

What he saw made his heart pound.

Three gigantic creatures were roaming not far away.

What he had seen at the breach was only a part of its body, covered in pitch-black scale armor, its body bristling with bone spikes, and its scarlet eyes resembling two blood lamps.

The most chilling detail was the rusted iron chain embedded in their foreheads, the other end extending into the depths of the void.

Following the direction of the chain, Zhou Qing’s blood-red pupils shrank abruptly—

In the deeper darkness, a dilapidated chariot could be faintly seen, silently floating.

The entire chariot was pitch-black, forged from some unknown metal, its surface etched with eerie runes.