"Heh, not dead?"

The lingering white figure observed Nie Biao's fragmented body as he struggled to free himself from the vicious dragon head's attack.

Given his miserable state, he must have suffered severe injuries. And the critical thing was, that suit of golden armor on him was gone.

"As expected of a Blood-Stained Peak expert, a quasi-great power with nine lives. Hard to kill, indeed very hard to kill."

Leaning against a wall, Qi Xiu folded his arms. Within his Spinal Palace, an Immortal Blood Body was quickly regenerating under the influence of the Divine Marvel's powers.

Using Nie Biao as bait, he had temporarily shaken off the pursuit of the vicious dragon head.

Qi Xiu dispersed numerous little white figures to explore the surroundings, while he himself arrived at a corner where several passages met, intending to rapidly restore his damaged Immortal Blood Body.

As it stands, in this Dragon Prison, aside from the intricate maze, there are also many extremely dangerous remnants. Similar to that Dragon Head Hall... If one isn't careful and touches these remnants, one will face pursuits like the one from that vicious dragon head. But without a widespread search, finding that Dragon-Slaying Banner would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

Rubbing the Golden Cry Jade Beads on his wrist, Qi Xiu silently pondered.

Just as his thoughts hit a dead end and he was unsure how to break the impasse, the little white figure left at the previous location brought new information.

"Hmm? What is that...?"

With a flicker in his eyes, a hint of surprise showed on Qi Xiu's face. He immediately set off, following the little white figure's guidance, and returned to the spot where Nie Biao had been besieged by a group of vicious dragon heads.

In a corner littered with mangled flesh and bloodstains, a gruesome sight, lay a shattered vicious dragon head. Its head was split open, revealing a gaping hole. Deep within the empty cranium, a tiny, glittering crystal was concealed.

"This is..."

Retrieving the glittering crystal from within the vicious dragon head, Qi Xiu squinted, pinching it and lifting it up.

"A Dragon Ball?"

It was rough and uneven, pockmarked and turbid, like an ordinary pebble from the ground.

But having once consumed Dragon Origin, Qi Xiu sensed an aura on it identical to that of Dragon Origin.

Dragon Origin was the pure power of Dragon Balls, preserved in the Dragon Pool over long ages. After these vicious dragons were beheaded, their skulls were piled up to form the monument, their resentment soaring to the heavens. The Dragon Ball within the skull, eroded by this resentment over a long period, had transformed into this state.

This Dragon Ball has been tainted by resentment and is utterly useless. If consumed, the body will immediately be corroded by the foul power within, and not even the Immortal Blood Body could repair it.

As Qi Xiu turned the tainted Dragon Ball in his hand, his brows furrowed. Suddenly, a signal of intense longing came from the Ancestral Aperture between his eyebrows.

Hmm?

Startled, Qi Xiu touched his forehead and chuckled lightly. My apologies, I actually forgot about you.

With a light tap on the space between his eyebrows, his frontal bone glowed brightly. A furtive, grayish-black figure cautiously emerged, slithering out from Qi Xiu's Ancestral Aperture.

Mo Jiao!

One of the two great esoteric principles of the Hunyuan Dragon and Tiger Scripture.

During the early phase of the Dao-Entering Realm, Qi Xiu had repeatedly slain powerful foes by relying on the power of Mo Jiao and the Purple Tiger. It was the essence of these two esoteric principles that allowed him to command Yin and Yang, transform into Hunyuan, and steadily advance to his current state.

However, after joining the Shenxiao Sect, his arsenal of techniques had grown considerably, and he seldom used Mo Jiao and the Purple Tiger. After all, these two esoteric principles were the foundation of his Hunyuan True Scripture. Should they be damaged, his power would sharply decline at best. At worst, his cultivation might be completely lost, rendering decades of arduous training void and forcing him to start anew.

Mo Jiao, born from the apex of Yin, inherently feeds on foul and obscure things. This Dragon Ball is utterly filthy and unusable for me, but it's exactly to Mo Jiao's taste. Moreover, the Dragon Energy and Dragon Origin within it are highly beneficial to Mo Jiao.

Having obtained Qi Xiu's consent, Mo Jiao let out a joyous cry and lunged at the tainted Dragon Ball, opening its great mouth and swallowing it whole.

GULP!

As the Dragon Ball entered its belly, Mo Jiao's ghastly green eyes suddenly erupted with several feet of Divine Light. Its body instantly emitted billowing black mist, and its dense scales rustled, then began to flake off piece by piece, dissipating into specks of light.

Fortunately, this Dragon Ball has been eroded over so many years that its contained power is less than one ten-thousandth of the original. Otherwise, Mo Jiao really wouldn't have been able to digest it.

Watching Mo Jiao silently devour the tainted Dragon Ball, Qi Xiu lifted his finger, and the Hunyuan Palace descended with a rumble.

The power of the Dragon Ball was gradually digested. Mo Jiao's body grew increasingly larger. It went from being the length of a person and as thick as an arm, to nearly five meters long and as thick as a thigh. The scales that had fallen off regrew, each shimmering with a precious light.

After absorbing the power of the Dragon Ball, Mo Jiao converted the surplus energy into Soul Force, which it then used to nourish Qi Xiu.

At the same time, a fragmented, incomplete memory was transmitted. And it was this very fragment of memory that provided Qi Xiu with the key to breaking the current deadlock.

So that's how it is. The most dangerous place is the safest place.

A glint in his eyes, Qi Xiu willed Mo Jiao back into the Ancestral Aperture between his eyebrows, dispelled the Hunyuan Palace, and then his form blurred into a fleeting shadow as he sped down a path.

「A few minutes later.」

Having found the location of the Dragon Head Hall, Qi Xiu returned. Previously, the intimidation from the Dragon Head Hall and the strong sense of crisis it exuded had prevented him from examining this place closely.

Indeed, the Mystical Mechanism lies here.

Arriving at the original site of the Dragon Head Hall, Qi Xiu looked down at the ground beneath his feet.

There, an incredibly intricate stone-carved map was etched into the floor. With extremely skillful carving, a map of the labyrinth's routes was embedded into this section of the floor, concealed and suppressed by the Dragon Head Hall that had once stood above it.

Qi Xiu's gaze swept over the entire map, a tremor passing through him.

Judging by the markings on this map, the Dragon Prison maze wasn't actually very large; at most, it spanned about a thousand miles in radius. But this was precisely where things felt off.

If this maze were really only about a thousand miles in radius, the corridors and passages would be a few miles long at most. At my speed, I could reach the end in an instant. But that wasn't the case. If there's no mistake in this map, then the real situation might be... everyone who fell into this Dragon Prison maze has been shrunk!

Looking up at the semi-circular dome above, Qi Xiu's expression grew solemn.

Essentially, this maze is indeed only about a thousand miles in size. But their bodies have been proportionally shrunk, which is why the maze felt so massive.

Coupled with the strange pulling and adhesive sensation from the maze floor, Qi Xiu became even more certain. Within this Dragon Prison maze, there must be a Divine Marvel Dharma Gate set up. It shrinks everyone who enters. How bizarre.

If he hadn't seen this map, Qi Xiu would never have realized his body had been unknowingly shrunk.

As expected of a prison constructed by the True Dragon Clan. Even after countless years, it still maintains a terrifying power.

Sighing inwardly, Qi Xiu quickly memorized all the routes on the map. Then, he sat down cross-legged, summoned the Hunyuan Palace, and his mind raced, trying to find a way out according to the labyrinth's map.

A maze of about a thousand miles in radius—not particularly large, yet not small either. The pathways within, with over a hundred thousand branches and forks, made finding the correct exit from such a vast network a daunting task.

Inside the Hunyuan Palace, Qi Xiu entered a state of unity between spirit and flesh, enhancing his Soul Force to deduce the correct path out of the Dragon Prison maze.

But these hundreds of thousands of routes were like an impossibly tangled skein of yarn.

Before long, fine beads of sweat appeared on Qi Xiu's forehead. This was clearly due to excessive mental exertion and overtaxing his mind.

After this matter is resolved, I should probably learn a method of divination.

Lacking skills in Mystical Mechanism divination, Qi Xiu could only rely on raw mental power to forcibly calculate the path. Though time-consuming and exhausting, it was his only way.

「Two days of external world time later.」

Steam rose from Qi Xiu's head, his back already soaked with sweat. He slowly opened his eyes, the deep weariness within them so profound it couldn't be dispelled.

Fortunately, I found it.

Gently rubbing his throbbing temples, Qi Xiu casually materialized several mind-soothing talismans to alleviate his splitting headache.

Moreover, there's an additional gain.

Despite the overwhelming weariness in his eyes, a faint trace of joy emerged. After reviewing the entire map of the Dragon Prison maze in his mind, Qi Xiu had not only found the correct path to leave the maze but had also discovered a place of treasure.

Supporting himself on his knees, he slowly stood up. His body's True Origin surged, and the sweat on his wide Taoist robe instantly evaporated, leaving him feeling refreshed.

Qi Xiu's gaze flickered, and a bird's-eye view of the maze automatically surfaced in his mind.

It should be this way.

With the complete maze path, Qi Xiu walked directly in one direction. He encountered forks in the path without a trace of hesitation, always choosing the most direct route.

After proceeding like this for about a quarter of an hour, Qi Xiu paused. He stopped before an ancient grand hall, shrouded in deep shadows. The grand hall stood atop a colossal rock shaped like a vicious dragon, seemingly placed there for suppression.

Tall!

Majestic!

Cold!

The doors of the hall were firmly shut, engraved with various mysterious and complex patterns that converged to form a solemn, indifferent dragon head. The doors, seemingly cast from immensely thick black iron, were covered with rust-eaten chains and bizarrely shaped locks. When the wind blew, they emitted mournful sounds that chilled one to the bone.

This is it. Dragon Prison... if it's a prison for vicious dragons, how could it not have prison guards?

Folding his sleeves, Qi Xiu gazed at the hall before him, his eyes narrowed. This grand hall, steeped in the solemnity and vicissitudes of countless ages, emanated an indescribable aura of dread even as it stood silently.

Endless ages have passed. There are no more living beings within the Dragon Prison. This was true for the vicious dragons, and also for the prison guards. But aside from living beings, there should still be some things preserved within this grand hall. If I can get my hands on them... the value would be immeasurable.

With this thought, Qi Xiu strode towards the grand hall. The heavy black iron chains on the door, long corroded and hollowed out, crumbled to dust at the slightest touch.

BOOM!

Pushing open the doors, a gust of cold wind swept out, making Qi Xiu shiver involuntarily, from his body to his soul.

And this very shiver made him certain in his heart.

That thing... it must still be here!

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