Cultivation of immortality begins with an eighty-year-old eunuch.

Chapter 499 Ancestor, I'm convinced! Let's talk!

"Seven places... He repaired seven places..." The patriarch of the Soul Refining Sect slowly stood up, his withered body casting a distorted shadow in the blood-red hall. "This boy's comprehension of formations is truly terrifying."

His eyes flashed with a bloodshot light, and it was unclear what he was thinking.

In another part of the ruins, the five remaining Nascent Soul cultivators, including Qinglian Daoist and Zhou Shan, sat slumped in a relatively intact side hall, their faces ashen and their breaths shallow.

Just now, two more companions collapsed due to exhaustion of spiritual energy and the activation of the restriction, and were absorbed by the ancestor from afar, becoming his food. Now, besides Qinglian Daoist and Zhou Shan, only the Tian Sha Ancestor of Fu Sect, the Hong Yun Fairy of Zixia Mountain, and Wang Tiangang, the ancestor of the Wang family with the highest cultivation among the eight major families, remain alive.

The five people looked at each other, their eyes filled with despair.

"The seal is being repaired... that old eunuch is repairing the seal..." Fairy Hongyun murmured, her voice filled with inexplicable emotions.

The Heavenly Fiend Ancestor gave a bitter laugh: "If only we had known this would happen, we wouldn't have done it in the first place. We were trying to get something from a tiger, and now we're the ones who suffer the consequences. It's truly retribution."

"What's the use of saying all this now?" The Wang family patriarch's face was gloomy. "That old eunuch repaired the seal, and the patriarch is trapped, but the restrictions on us won't be lifted on their own. If this continues, we'll end up like those people, drained dry by the patriarch."

The Azure Lotus Daoist remained silent, only watching the four-colored light net slowly descending outside the hall, a complex look flashing in his eyes.

His hatred for Chen Fan ran deepest, from the loss of the Qingyun Sect's sword tomb inheritance to the sect being sealed by an array for a year, and now... He knew that the old eunuch was no saint.

But right now, that old eunuch has become their only hope.

Just then, Daoist Qinglian suddenly stood up and called out loudly to the empty hall, "Fellow Daoist Chen Fan! I am Qinglian, and I have something to say!"

The other four were taken aback, but then understood his intention and nervously looked around.

After a moment of silence, a calm voice came from the void:

"explain."

The voice was devoid of any emotion, yet it sent a chill down the spines of all five of them.

The Azure Lotus Daoist took a deep breath, cupped his hands, and said, "Fellow Daoist Chen, I know my sins are grave and dare not ask for your forgiveness. But we are currently under the Ancestor's restrictions, our lives hanging by a thread. If you are willing to help us and remove the restrictions, we are willing to acknowledge you as our master and atone for our sins!"

"Recognize a master?" Chen Fan's voice remained calm. "Do you think we'd believe that?"

The Daoist Qinglian gritted his teeth and knelt on one knee: "This humble Daoist swears by his Daoist heart that if he breaks this oath, his Daoist foundation will crumble, and he will never be reborn!"

Upon seeing this, the other four also knelt down and swore an oath.

For a moment, the side hall was filled with the solemn oaths made by the five people with their Daoist hearts.

However, Chen Fan's answer was like a bucket of ice water, extinguishing the last glimmer of hope in their hearts.

"Tianxiangzi died because of you."

The voice remained calm, yet it carried a chill that penetrated to the bone.

"All of you must be buried with her."

After he finished speaking, the side hall fell into a deathly silence.

The five men knelt on the ground, their faces ashen and their bodies trembling. They finally understood that from the moment Wang Xuan forced Tian Xiangzi to her death, their fate had been sealed.

This old eunuch never intended to let anyone go.

Fairy Hongyun suddenly choked up, "But...we were forced into this situation..."

"Helpless?" Chen Fan's voice finally showed a slight fluctuation, but it was a cold sneer. "Back then, at the core of the Qingyun Sect's formation, when the fourteen of you joined forces to besiege us, were you helpless? When Wang Xuan threatened us with Tian Xiangzi's life to force us to submit, were you helpless? When Tian Xiangzi was forced to destroy his own soul, did even one of you stand up and speak up?"

Every word was sharp and incisive.

Fairy Hongyun was speechless, and tears silently streamed down her face.

The Green Lotus Daoist closed his eyes and sighed deeply. He knew that further words would be of no use.

The side hall fell silent once again.

In the void, inside the golden bowl, Chen Fan sat cross-legged, looking expressionlessly at the five people outside.

He truly felt no pity whatsoever.

These people kept saying they were forced into this situation, but when they attacked him, they all used every deadly move they could muster, without holding back at all. When Wang Xuan threatened him with Tianxiangzi, these people stood by and watched coldly, and not one of them said a word to dissuade him.

Now that you're in dire straits, you're thinking of begging for mercy?

late.

Chen Fan withdrew his gaze, ignoring the five people, and turned his attention to the direction of the blood-red hall.

Just then, the voice of the Soul Refining Sect's patriarch suddenly rang out in the void:

"Chen Fan, let's talk."

This time, the voice lacked the previous rage and threat; instead, it contained a hint of weariness, and even a faint trace of sincerity.

Chen Fan did not respond.

The patriarch of the Soul Refining Sect seemed to have anticipated this, and said to himself, "You have repaired seven nodes, and the seal has been mostly restored. My range of movement has been compressed to within a thousand feet. At this rate, after repairing two more nodes at most, I will be trapped in this hall again and completely lose control of the outside world."

He paused, a hint of self-mockery in his voice.

"I admit you've won. From the moment you repaired the third node, I was already at a disadvantage. I underestimated your mastery of formations, and I also underestimated your unwavering will."

Chen Fan remained silent.

The ancestor took a deep breath and suddenly raised his hand and waved.

A beam of spiritual light suddenly shone on the altar in the center of the crimson hall. When the light dissipated, a pile of objects had appeared on the altar!

Tens of thousands of top-grade spirit stones, each one crystal clear, with spiritual energy so rich that they are almost tangible!

The three bottles of elixirs, with their ancient inscriptions and the faint fragrance of medicine seeping through the jade bottles, were clearly not ordinary items!

The two magical artifacts were an ancient bronze bell covered with mysterious runes and a black short blade with a faint glow of blood flowing through it, exuding a chillingly sharp aura.

In addition, there were several jade slips, two spiritual herbs sealed in a jade box, and a broken yet still radiant protective mirror.

Any one of these items, if placed in the outside world, would be enough to cause a frenzy of competition among Nascent Soul cultivators.

"These things are what I secretly kept ten thousand years ago, and have been sealed beneath this altar ever since," the patriarch of the Soul Refining Sect said slowly. "I have been trapped for ten thousand years, and most of the things on my body have been sealed and destroyed, leaving only these."

He gazed into the void, his eyes swirling with bloodlust, yet his voice remained calm: "If you help me escape, all these things are yours. I can even swear a great oath to my inner demons, promising never to harm you after my release. Instead, I will take you to the Cultivation Alliance to help you resurrect your Daoist companion. What do you say?"

Chen Fan looked at the treasures, his eyes calm and still.

After a long silence, he finally spoke, his voice calm: "Is the ancestor going to make empty promises to our family again?"

The patriarch of the Soul Refining Sect remained expressionless: "My sincerity has been shown. These treasures serve as a deposit."

"Oh?" Chen Fan's voice seemed to hold a hint of amusement. "Then we'll see if this sincerity is genuine."

Not long after he finished speaking, a figure walked over from the direction of the side hall in the distance.

The figure moved with a slow gait, dressed in a gray-blue eunuch's robe, and had a face exactly like Chen Fan's. It was the clone he created using the paper doll technique.

The paper doll stopped outside the blood-red hall.

"We've arrived," the clone spoke, its voice identical to Chen Fan's. "Where is the treasure?"