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234: Thousand Desolation
🕑 Added 2025-04-22 14:21:48 +0000 UTCThe Thousand Desolation Divine Sect was located in the south of the Thousand Desolation Realm.
Ten thousand years ago, this realm had flourished under the Heavenly Handle Yun Clan's rule, bearing their proud name. But after losing the Mirror of Samsara, the clan faced the Burning Moon Realm's wrath. As punishment, the overlords stripped the Yun Clan of their sovereignty and installed the Thousand Desolation Divine Sect as the new ruling power.
The once-mighty Yun Clan were reduced to prisoners in their own homeland. Like sheep marked for slaughter, they endured systematic extermination at the hands of their usurpers, and waiting for their judgement in the 10 000 years deadline.
Not only did they have to watch their clansmen be slaughtered, but they were also forced to flatter and cater to the very ones who were killing them, all in the hopes that when the deadline came, their oppressors might show them mercy and not wipe them out completely.
As he drew closer to the Thousand Desolation Divine Sect, Yun Wuji's thoughts drifted to the Yun Clan's plight.
'Technically speaking... this Yun Clan branch is the ancestral root of the Illusory Demon Realm's Yun Clan. That makes them blood relatives of my disciple.'
'Which means this isn't unprovoked aggression, it's righteous retaliation for my disciples' kin! Truly, I'm defending the weak like a paragon of virtue!' A self-satisfied grin spread across his face.
'Ah... my compassion knows no bounds.' He sighed, as if burdened by the weight of his own generosity.
Once they were close to the Thousand Desolation Divine Sect, the duo dropped to the ground. Yun Wuji took out the black flower he had nurtured in the cave, carefully plucking a petal and handing it to Yan Yao. "Take this and keep it close to you. It's very fragile, so be careful not to destroy it."
Yan Yao carefully held the tiny petal in her palm, examining it. "What is this?"
"This is a Nethercloak Flower," Yun Wuji explained, looking at the tiny flower in his palm. "It has the ability to conceal one's aura and make the user invisible for a short time."
"Of course," he added, "this only works on low-level Divine Masters, like the Thousand Desolation Sect's master. If we were to encounter someone stronger, we'd be exposed."
"...!!!" Yan Yao's fingers trembled imperceptibly as she stared at the delicate dark petal in utter shock.
Such a thing actually exists?!
While there are many artifacts in the Primal Chaos that can hide a person's aura or make them invisible, what astonished her the most was that she had been secretly observing Yun Wuji when he was refining this flower. She knew that it wasn't an artifact, but the product of a profound art!
This meant that Yun Wuji could mass-produce these flowers! And what stunned her further was the possibility that in the future, he could enhance the flower's performance, perhaps at that time, even Peak Divine Masters might scan their surroundings blindly while he walked freely among them.
Yan Yao stared at Yun Wuji with burning eyes. This man had given her many surprises, to the point that she began to admire him. No wonder her master had paid so much attention to him, despite him being a man.
"With these, we can stroll right through the sect's grand gates," Yun Wuji said with a proud smile, then injected his profound energy into the petal.
As soon as his energy touched the petal, a faint black aura enveloped his body, and in the next moment, he disappeared from sight.
Yan Yao watched him closely, narrowing her eyes. She spread her senses and, after a moment, managed to detect his presence just as he had said. If it weren't for her prior knowledge of his location and her Late Stage Divine Master cultivation, she would have never been able to find him.
Silently, she followed his example, injecting her profound energy into the petal. In an instant, her body flashed with black light, and she, too, disappeared from view.
However, the strange thing was that the moment she activated her petal, Yan Yao was able to see Yun Wuji.
"Pretty neat, huh?" Yun Wuji grinned at her stunned expression. If both became fully invisible, they wouldn't be able to see each other either, making it impossible to coordinate or help one another.
Naturally, he wasn't dumb enough to overlook such an obvious flaw. Anyone who activated a petal from the same flower would be able to see the other person who held one as well.
"Yes, it is indeed ingenious," Yan Yao nodded. With the help of this peculiar flower, stealing what Jiao Heng wanted would be far simpler, and she wouldn't have to reveal her true power. After all, if she unleashed her full strength, it would completely blow her cover.
Because the power of the Nethercloak Flower was limited, the duo flew to the Thousand Desolation Divine Sect at their maximum speed.
When they reached the gate, both of them ignored the oblivious guards and casually flew past them.
"To open the treasury, other than the key, we also need the bloodline of the sect master," Yun Wuji explained to Yan Yao as he looked around. "For the bloodline, we can easily abduct any of his children or grandchildren and use their blood, but the key is a bit tricky."
"However, as far as I know, there is a secret passage that leads directly to the treasury in the Thousand Desolation Crown Prince's bedchambers."
Treasuries were the most important warehouse for a sect's resources, but they were also a place where one could hide during an emergency or unforeseen accident. As a result, one entrance to the treasury was located in the crown prince's bedchambers.
Yan Yao listened to him as she followed his steps, completely uninterested in this so-called treasury. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that she had to keep acting, one word from her would make the so-called Thousand Desolation Sect master grovel on his knees and present all his treasures to her.
It was nighttime, and aside from the guards, servants, and a few special disciples assigned night duties, everyone was in their resting places. This included the Sect Master and the Crown Prince as well.
The Thousand Desolation Crown Prince was close to six thousand years old. His harem of concubines had already passed the ten thousand mark, it was said that his palace contained every beauty the world had to offer.
"Over ten thousand concubines?" Yun Wuji muttered as they slipped past gossiping servants toward the prince's chambers. "How enviable... ahem, I mean, how utterly depraved! What a shameless man!"
'How did this guy even satisfy all his women?' Yun Wuji thought. Oh, wait, it wasn't his job to satisfy them; they were supposed to satisfy him. Who knew, maybe most of those women never even shared a bed with him beyond the first few months in the harem.
After all, back in his previous life, there were emperors with three thousand concubines, and plenty of them died in the palace without ever laying eyes on the emperor, let alone sleeping with him.
"..." Yan Yao shot him a look so flat it could have leveled mountains.
After walking past the guards and servants, Yun Wuji and Yan Yao reached the bedchamber.
At the door, two guards stood on either side. Both of them had Divine Spirit Realm cultivation. Without a word, Yun Wuji and Yan Yao quietly knocked out one each.
"What are we gonna do now, barge in?" Yan Yao glanced at the door and asked. If they barged in like this, it would expose them and alert everyone, maybe even the Sect Master. At that point, even if they didn't get caught, stealing the thing he wanted would be much harder.
"Are you stupid or pretending to be stupid? How could we do something so uncivilized like barging into someone else's room? Of course, we're going to knock on the door and ask for permission," Yun Wuji looked at her in disappointment and shook his head.
"..." Yan Yao.
"Ahn~ Your Highness, allow this concubine to serve you," came a sultry voice from within the Crown Prince's bedchamber. The prince reclined on his lavish bed, hands tucked behind his head, gazing at his newest concubine, whom he had taken a few days ago, as she skillfully pleasured him with her mouth.
This concubine was very young, only 180 years old. She had fair skin, an exquisite face, and her 'skills' were quite impressive. She was gifted to him by some random sect master; he couldn't remember the guy's name, nor did he care, but he did remember that this woman had been trained since birth for the sole purpose of serving him. Her father even put her through special training as a child, all just to offer her up and curry favor.
And honestly, the Crown Prince was disappointed with this woman. Her father wasn't the only one who came up with this trick, countless others had done the same over the years. In fact, a full tenth of his harem was like this: daughters raised from the cradle just to serve him, or sisters trained by their own brothers to please him.
They all wanted to curry his favor, but after enjoying the first few, he had grown bored with such gifts. He had seen every kind of beauty and lost interest. The only ones who could still stir a bit of excitement in him were proud women with relatively high status, like Realm Kings from Middle Star Realms or prominent female sect masters.
While he was still thinking about which "lucky" female sect master he should grace next by adding her to his harem, the Crown Prince suddenly heard one of his servants knocking on the door.
"Crown Prince! Something urgent has happened! The Sect Master has summoned you!"
He frowned in displeasure at first. "Go to sleep," but once he heard the reason, he pushed the woman aside, quickly threw on his robe, and opened the door.
The moment he opened the door, his entire body froze. The fine hairs on his skin stood on end, and everything before his eyes turned pitch-black. He stared into the darkness, teeth chattering, when suddenly a jaw, shaped oddly like a giant breast, emerged from within and swallowed him whole.
Next... There was no next.
The Crown Prince stood there, completely frozen, as if his soul had left him.
Which, quite literally, was true; his soul had left him.
Yan Yao glanced at Yun Wuji, then at the stiff Crown Prince, before slipping into the room without dropping her invisibility. She reached the bed and quickly knocked out the naked woman, then threw a quilt over her body.
Once she was done, Yun Wuji dragged the Crown Prince's body by the shoulder and closed the door behind them.
The two of them hurriedly scoured the chamber for the secret passage. Soon, they found a hidden room covered by layers of seals.
Yun Wuji grabbed the Crown Prince's body, pressed his hand against the seals, and squeezed out a drop of blood.
Clang!
With a soft ringing sound and a flash of profound light, an invisible barrier was opened, and a secret passage that led to an unknown location appeared.
