After a while, he angrily said, "Have you seen enough! Can you... can you understand it!"
"This Tao Stele is different from the previous eight Tao Steles," Chen Ye concluded.
"Nonsense."
Bai Susu puffed up her cheeks. She realized she was overthinking; how could she have thought Chen Ye really had a solution?
This was a relic from the Songyang Sect over a thousand years ago...
"No. I wonder if True Inheritor Bai is aware that the previous eight Tao Steles once sealed Golden Core True Men."
As Chen Ye spoke, he attempted to probe a strand of Divine Sense to touch the chains.
As soon as the Divine Sense approached, the chains flickered slightly and devoured the Divine Sense entirely.
Bai Susu was affected, letting out a pained whimper, beads of cold sweat forming on her forehead.
At this time, she didn’t blame Chen Ye, and rasped, "I know. According to sect secrets, the Songyang Sect established a Grand Array within Songyang Cave Heaven, collected treasures from all over East Sea State, and slaughtered countless cultivators to sustain the array, attempting to resurrect an Ancient Divine Beast."
Chen Ye was thoughtful; what Bai Susu said matched the intelligence he had collected along the way.
He observed Bai Susu’s pale face, cold sweat pouring down like rain.
He turned to Zhiwei, "Zhiwei, do you have a handkerchief?"
The dark-haired little girl nodded, carefully taking out a small handkerchief from her pocket.
Chen Ye took it, intending to wipe Bai Susu’s sweat, but paused slightly upon unfolding it.
It was a plain white cotton handkerchief, washed cleanly, with a faint scent of soap.
In one corner of the handkerchief, slightly immature but exceptionally earnest stitches depicted three small figures — a tall man holding the hands of two little girls.
One big, two small, a picture of harmony.
Chen Ye felt warmth in his heart, knowing this was the embroidery Granny Li taught Zhiwei, and Zhiwei had learned seriously, with the three little figures vividly depicted.
"Master..."
Zhiwei watched her master’s expression, feeling slightly embarrassed but more eager to see his reaction.
Seeing her master intending to use it to wipe Bai Susu’s sweat, the complex emotions in her heart turned to grievance, and her fingers trembled slightly, almost wanting to snatch the handkerchief back.
She pouted and turned her head away.
Chen Ye, at this moment focused entirely on the restriction, had no time to fathom his disciple’s thoughts.
He folded the little handkerchief, which his disciple regarded as a treasure, and wiped the cold sweat from Bai Susu’s face under her ashamed and annoyed gaze, continuing:
"The reason I say this Tao Stele is different from the previous eight is because the previous eight steles had already drained the cultivation from the cultivators, and had nothing special about them. But this Divine Soul Tao Stele is different; its Divine Soul is strong enough to imprison your Divine Soul..."
"..."
Bai Susu was completely frozen.
She could feel the warm fingertips touching her skin through the thin cotton, but what was more unfamiliar than the physical contact was the man’s meticulous care.
She composed herself, "You mean... the Divine Soul Tao Stele isn’t for sustaining the array? So, the Divine Soul inside can remain intact? Yes... even after thousands of years, the Divine Soul Tao Stele remains so strong, which indicates a continuous supply of Spiritual Power."
"Hmm, it’s very likely that this so-called Divine Soul Tao Stele is what’s being nourished!"
Chen Ye concluded that the massive Return-to-One Grand Array was actually serving the Divine Soul Tao Stele, not the resurrection of an Ancient Divine Beast.
While the two conversed, Zhiwei, watching her master use her precious handkerchief on the bad woman, could bear it no longer and started to observe her surroundings.
"Hmm... the ninth stele is the end point?"
She stepped behind the stone stele and saw the end of the Divine Path.
Below it was an endlessly raging sea of clouds.
But what appeared to be a sea of clouds was, in reality, an endless chaotic void. Should anyone fall, even a Golden Core True Man would find no resting place.
"Wait... what’s this?"
Zhiwei squatted down, eyes focused.
Behind the stone stele, at the farthermost end of the Divine Path, lay an oval depression and near it, web-like cracks spread out.
This Divine Path had been smashed apart and then fell into Songyang Cave Heaven!
No wonder there’s just this lone segment of the Divine Path on the Ninth Layer Heaven...
She instinctively looked up, to the majestic Celestial Palace above the vast sky.
This also explained why the Celestial Palace couldn’t be approached. It was because the Divine Path and the Celestial Palace were now separated by layers of void.
"Could it be that something from the Celestial Palace fell and smashed the Divine Path? Then... did that thing roll into the void? No, this depression is quite deep; without an external force, it couldn’t have rolled out on its own."
Zhiwei reached out her small hand to carefully feel.
She possessed the Purity Glaze Body, her mind and body transparent, capable of discerning any aura even in the most complex conditions.
"There’s a faint, ancient scent... somewhat similar to Qing Jun’s aura."
She was shocked and confirmed it repeatedly, but the more she confirmed, the more it seemed like a little girl had curled up in the depression for a nap not long ago.
At this moment, she vaguely recalled her master mentioning that Qing Jun’s lineage was extraordinary, not a descendant of the Xu Family, but actually a True Dragon’s descendant.
With this thought, the dark-haired little girl looked at the depression again, increasingly convinced it was created by an egg smashing down.
"Could it be that after the Divine Path fell into Songyang Cave Heaven, the cultivators of Songyang Sect discovered a dragon egg and then established the nine Tao Steles around it in hopes of hatching Qing Jun? No... such an elaborate setup isn’t needed just to hatch a dragon egg."
"Besides, among the nine Tao Steles, the most important is the Divine Soul Tao Stele!"
Suddenly, Zhiwei turned towards the Divine Soul Tao Stele, realizing it instantly.
Inside the Tao Stele, a cultivator’s Divine Soul was inhabiting!
No wonder... the Songyang Sect went through so much trouble, plotting for over a thousand years, to hatch an unknown, unidentified Ancient Divine Beast.
It turned out they never intended to hatch it; they planned to seize the body!
And within the Divine Soul Tao Stele, there was likely a Nascent Soul-level cultivator of the highest rank from the Songyang Sect back then!
Yet this mighty cultivator was unaware that the so-called egg was a True Dragon Egg, only knowing this creature was unusual in origin.
And how could a mere Nascent Soul cultivator seize a True Dragon?
This led to the failure of the body-seizure, leaving it as a residual soul without consciousness, residing in the Divine Soul Tao Stele...
"Master!"
Connecting these thoughts, Zhiwei urgently called out.
Chen Ye noticed the urgency in his disciple’s tone and followed her gaze, "What is it, Zhiwei?"
Zhiwei glanced at the oblivious Bai Susu and said with pursed lips, "Master, come here. I want to tell you privately."
"Hmph... trying to hide from me? Who wants to listen to your secrets anyway."
Bai Susu was a bit unhappy and emphasized intentionally.
Chen Ye comfortingly patted her shoulder, and Bai Susu forced herself to turn her shoulder despite the pain.
Chen Ye: "..."
The little Golden Furred Ball sure was temperamental...
He shook his head and then walked to Zhiwei’s side.
Zhiwei immediately communicated her findings and deductions in detail to her master through sound transmission.
Upon hearing his disciple’s account, Chen Ye’s expression turned grim, his heart skipping as he connected all the dots.
No wonder Qing Jun had the so-called bloodline ailment...
It seemed it stemmed from the blood sacrifice of the Return-to-One Grand Array and the Nascent Soul True Monarch’s body-seizure attempt, leaving a lingering effect since the egg stage.
Chen Ye looked into the vast sea of clouds beneath the Divine Path.
It meant that after the body-seizure failed, the dragon egg fell into the void and eventually landed into Dragon Sleep Mountain?
Chen Ye remembered that Dragon Sleep Mountain was once the ancestral land of the Songyang Sect!
"Hm... No wonder the great East Sea Dominator vanished into the annals of history. Was the Songyang Sect destroyed by the dragon egg Qing Jun? Not to mention, the little girl held a grudge even in her egg days, deliberately crashing into the sect’s ancestral land."
Chen Ye’s mouth twitched.
That mischievous little girl, so powerful during her egg phase, why did she become so powerless after transforming into human form?
He suspected Qing Jun was putting on an act!
Though annoyed, Chen Ye understood that it made sense. No wonder the little girl, being a True Dragon, was so weak in her childhood... it seemed misfortune at birth made her overdraw her power early.
Although she was a True Dragon’s descendant, and couldn’t be seized,
the meticulous preparation of the Songyang Sect must have inevitably affected her development.
"Master, do you think... if we jump down from here, we’d reach Dragon Sleep Mountain directly?"
Zhiwei squatted at the edge of the Divine Path, suddenly said.
If it’s true, they could jump down directly, escaping the perilous vortex of Songyang Cave Heaven.
And indeed, Zhiwei’s words brightened Chen Ye’s eyes:
"Although the void is chaotic, since the dragon egg fell from here... it might have opened up a void passage, just like those teleportation arrays."