With the Nine Heavens Honored dead, the remaining Dou Zuns instantly lost their backbone.
The three Honored Elders who had been evenly matched against the Wind Honored One and the Puppet were instantly thrown into disarray, unconsciously revealing openings in their attacks.
Only the Soul Hall Honored Elder, entangled with the Sword Venerable on the other side, couldn't spare any attention to the events surrounding the Nine Heavens Honored.
He and the Sword Venerable were already fighting with bloodshot eyes, both of them frighteningly wounded, relying solely on their last breath to hold on.
"No time to play around, let's finish this quickly!"
Chen Xiao stored the Storage Ring left behind by the Nine Heavens Honored, and reminded them in a deep voice.
Before his words could fade, he had already flashed behind the Soul Hall Honored Elder who was fighting the Wind Honored One. Caught off guard, the opponent was directly killed by a single palm strike.
Previously, when the Nine Heavens Honored was still alive, as long as this space was sealed, the movements inside would never be transmitted to the outside world.
But now that the Nine Heavens Honored was dead, the Soul Hall must also have something similar to the Wind and Lightning Pavilion's Soul Thunder Stele, capable of immediately detecting that something had gone wrong with this branch hall.
Therefore, from this moment on, every second counted!
Chen Xiao casually stowed away the spoils, and was about to help the Sword Venerable deal with his opponent, but the latter spoke first: "Deal with the other two first!"
He glanced at the Sword Venerable's determined appearance, and immediately stopped hesitating, rushing towards the two Honored Elders who were entangled with the Puppet.
By the time he had dealt with these two and turned back, he happened to see a dazzling and sharp sword light tear through the sky.
This sword seemed to be the ultimate bloom of the Sword Venerable's lifelong cultivation, almost exhausting all of his strength, energy, and spirit.
The moment the sword light was unleashed, the Sword Venerable seemed to have been drained of all his strength, his figure suddenly hunched over, and a deathly aura permeated his body.
Looking at the Soul Hall Honored Elder, he had already become alert when the Sword Venerable spoke. Chen Xiao and the Wind Honored One were watching intently from the side.
This caused his fighting spirit to be instantly swallowed by despair. The last breath he had been holding on to completely dissipated, and he could no longer withstand the Sword Venerable's desperate attack. He was instantly cut into pieces, leaving only a panicked soul body trying to escape, but Chen Xiao waved his sleeve and swept it into the Jade Bottle.
"Let's go, save Yao Chen!"
Chen Xiao tossed a Life Returning Pill to the Sword Venerable, and he himself took the lead, flying towards the riddled giant hall.
Now that the Protector Honored Elders in the hall were all dead, the entire giant hall was deathly silent. The three of them went deep inside, unimpeded all the way.
Passing through the dark corridor to the end, a dark iron door was tightly closed, with a faint and strange aura emanating from it, clearly perceived by the three of them.
The most anxious Wind Honored One quietly circulated the Dou Qi in his body, his eyes surging with coldness, and with a sudden wave of his sleeve, he heavily bombarded the iron door.
"Bang!"
Under the attack of a Dou Zun powerhouse, even the toughest iron door burst open, and the scene behind the door immediately came into view.
It was an extremely vast square, with hundred-zhang stone pillars standing tall like a forest, and black chains spreading like spider webs, with countless light clusters floating at the end of the chains.
Within the light clusters were all illusory soul bodies!
Hiss—
Even though he was mentally prepared, Chen Xiao couldn't help but take a slight breath of cold air when he saw this scalp-numbing scene.
Shocking!
Only these four words could describe everything before them.
This Soul Hall truly did inhumane things!
"Yao Chen is there!"
Quickly walking into this square filled with strange and deathly aura, the Wind Honored One's eyes quickly swept over, and finally settled on the towering stone platform in the depths of the square.
There was an exceptionally bright light cluster there, and an extremely familiar aura was quietly emanating from it.
The three of them flew over and instantly stood on the stone platform.
Looking at the weak old man in the light cluster, whose limbs were entangled by four huge chains and who was sitting cross-legged, Chen Xiao and the Sword Venerable were fine, but the Wind Honored One couldn't help but redden his eyes.
"Old man, we're here to save you!"
Sensing the aura of his close friend, Yao Chen's eyelids trembled slightly, and he slowly opened his eyes.
When his cloudy gaze fell on the three of them, he couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, seemingly not understanding why they would appear here.
"Fortunately, these Soul Hall bastards didn't pay attention to you, otherwise, if they dragged you down with them, we would have been wasting our time today."
The Wind Honored One said with lingering fear while pondering how to rescue Yao Chen.
What he didn't know was that even if a Soul Hall Honored Elder or Protector had such thoughts, they wouldn't be able to threaten Yao Chen at all.
After all, there was still an Eight-Star Dou Zun monitoring the entire scene in secret.
"This is a Soul-Locking Chain, specially used to restrain souls. It's extremely tough and not easy to destroy. These Soul Hall guys really think highly of me, actually using such thick ones. To break it, you need to..."
Noticing the Wind Honored One's actions, Yao Chen glanced at the chains wrapped around his limbs and was about to explain, but saw Chen Xiao on the other side, without saying a word, already summoning the Bone Spirit Cold Flame.
The terrifying high temperature instantly enveloped the Soul-Locking Chain. As soon as the flames came into contact with the iron chain, puffs of white smoke rose, and some strange runes appeared from it at the same time.
Unfortunately, under the power of the Heavenly Flame, these runes couldn't hold on at all, and disappeared after only a few breaths.
Crack!
As the runes dissipated, Chen Xiao casually pinched, and the iron chain cracked crisply.
Repeating this, he quickly broke the other three giant python-like chains as well.
"Chen Xiao, is that you?!"
Having escaped his restraints, Yao Chen finally saw the light of day again.
From that incomparably familiar Heavenly Flame, he instantly recognized the identity of this mysterious black-robed Dou Zun.
The Bone Spirit Cold Flame, originally, only he and Chen Xiao each controlled a wisp.
However, his wisp had been given to Xiao Yan long ago when he was captured.
Obviously, Xiao Yan didn't yet have the ability to storm the Soul Hall and rescue him from his predicament.
Therefore, the identity of the person before him was self-evident.
Chen Xiao nodded, not saying much, and with a wave of his palm, a terrifying gale swept across like a hurricane.
In an instant, the chains on the remaining stone pillars all burst open.
The souls within the light spheres opened their eyes one after another, weakly and blankly looking around, and then suddenly, waves of extremely ecstatic soul fluctuations emanated.
Although they didn't know what had happened, they truly felt the taste of freedom.
For so many years, they had been locked up here like prisoners, even death had become a luxury.
"Leave quickly, the Soul Hall will be here soon, don't get caught again."
Looking at these souls who were so overjoyed that they were almost shedding tears, Chen Xiao reminded them, his gaze turning to the underground where the chains were connected.
The countless souls entrenched in the sky heard the reminder and reacted, immediately kneeling down towards Chen Xiao, giving a great salute, and then whistling out of the space barrier, frantically flying towards the free world outside.
Chen Xiao ignored those soul bodies, slowly descending, and with a wave of his sleeve, the terrifying gale directly flung the hundreds-of-feet-high stone pillars out by their roots.
As the stone pillars were uprooted, one deep pit after another was revealed.
He circulated his Dou Qi, and piles and piles of soil were thrown out of the pits.
Although the Wind Honored One and the other two were full of doubts, they didn't step forward to disturb him.
"This friend's aura seems somewhat familiar."
Yao Chen looked at the Iron Sword Venerable, guessing the identity of this black-robed, tattered, and scarred Dou Zun who was almost half-dead.
To save him, this person had suffered such heavy injuries, this favor was really too great.
Hearing Yao Chen's question, the Iron Sword Venerable directly tore off his tattered black robe, revealing a usually serious and rigid face.
"Yao Chen, you once did me a favor. If it weren't for your help back then, I would never have been able to complete my revenge against the Jade Sword Sect. But today, I repay you with my life, and my foundation has been greatly damaged. From now on, the favor between you and me is written off."
What he didn't say was that if he hadn't just taken the Life Returning Pill given by Chen Xiao, even if he could go back alive this time, he probably wouldn't last long before he fell, it wasn't just a matter of being half-dead.
This was the longest speech the Iron Sword Venerable had given since his appearance, even Chen Xiao, who was busy below, couldn't help but take another look at him.
Gratitude is gratitude, resentment is resentment, clearly distinguished, this kind of temperament is not bad.
Yao Chen opened his mouth, but in the end, he just nodded in silence.
If he were at his peak, he would naturally be able to refine Elixir for the Iron Sword Venerable to eliminate hidden dangers.
But now, he was already a clay Bodhisattva crossing the river, barely able to protect himself.
Although he was rescued this time, the Soul Hall would definitely not let it go.
Waiting for him and Starfall Pavilion would be countless dangerous challenges, how could he have the energy to take care of the Iron Sword Venerable?
What's more, his soul was greatly damaged now, and he still needed to make up for it himself, he simply didn't have the ability to refine Elixir that could eradicate the Iron Sword Venerable's hidden dangers.
Not dwelling on this matter for too long, the three people's attention was quickly attracted by Chen Xiao below.
They saw that on the originally vast square, Chen Xiao had dug a huge pit.
And at the bottom of the pit, there floated a transparent light sphere about one meter in diameter, the periphery of the light sphere was also connected to countless broken black chains.
The ends of these chains were originally connected to those souls who had just escaped.
Obviously, the thing in this light sphere was extracted from those souls!
"Soul Origin!!"
Yao Chen flew down from the high platform, looking at the transparent light sphere at the bottom of the pit, the light in his eyes was uncertain.
"Soul Origin…" The Wind Honored One and the Iron Sword Venerable followed closely behind, the former murmured, his expression also particularly complicated.
With their level of cultivation, they naturally knew what Soul Origin meant.
The soul is the foundation of living beings, all things in the world have souls, and deep within the soul, there is a trace of Soul Origin, which is the foundation of the soul's birth, and can be called the purest and most peculiar energy in the world.
Seeing this ball of Soul Origin, the three people present instantly understood the Soul Hall's true purpose in capturing soul bodies.
What they wanted was to extract these Soul Origins!
As for the deeper plans, it was not something they could speculate on at the moment.
But it was certain that there must be a bigger conspiracy hidden behind this!
"So much Soul Origin, at least condensed from hundreds of thousands of souls, one sub-hall is like this, then all the sub-halls added together…"
Yao Chen's expression was solemn, "We have probably touched the Soul Hall's core secret, once this secret is made public, the entire continent will surely set off a great uproar."
Knowing too much is often not a good thing, it can easily lead to death.
But Yao Chen didn't care anymore; he was already in too deep. They and the Soul Hall were already locked in a mortal, unending feud.
He was currently pondering how to use this secret to cause some trouble for the Soul Hall.
As an Alchemist, he was more aware than the Wind Honored One and the Sword Venerable of the chain reactions that a soul origin could trigger.
With the Soul Hall's size, having collected them for hundreds or even thousands of years, what they were plotting was probably not just Heavenly Realm souls, or even Paragon souls…
Perhaps, it was the legendary Emperor Realm soul!
"This Soul Hall is truly a scourge!"
The Sword Venerable's words resonated deeply with everyone present.
"Indeed a scourge, but to eradicate it completely is as difficult as ascending to heaven." Yao Chen's face was filled with undisguised disgust.
The Soul Hall used any means necessary to achieve its goals. This behavior was almost no different from taking human blood and flesh alive, and even the method of extracting soul origins was even more cruel and ruthless!
"Do as much as your ability allows, just do our best."
After giving them a moment to recover, Chen Xiao chuckled.
When poor, one should care for oneself alone; when prosperous, one should bring benefit to all.
This famous saying also applied to the Dou Qi Continent.
Without saying more, Chen Xiao unhesitatingly put away the ball of soul light.
This was his goal for this trip, so there was no reason to be modest.
"Xiao, hurry! I sense an aura no weaker than mine is rapidly approaching!"
Little Fairy Doctor's voice transmission suddenly sounded in his ear.
Chen Xiao's heart stirred. If the realm was no weaker than Little Fairy Doctor's, then the opponent must have the strength of an eight-star Dou Zun or higher.
He just didn't know which of the Nine Heavens Honored from the Soul Hall was coming.
"Let's go, the Soul Hall's powerhouse is almost here, let's leave the Mountain Range of Lost Souls first."
The Wind Honored One and the others immediately nodded upon hearing this.
If Chen Xiao hadn't wanted to excavate the soul origin, they would have wanted to retreat long ago.
Thanks to Little Fairy Doctor's reminder, the group retreated very smoothly.
It wasn't until they were hundreds of miles away from the Mountain Range of Lost Souls that they sensed bursts of terrifying energy fluctuations coming from that direction, as if someone was raging in fury.
Chen Xiao chuckled and turned to look at the three people beside him: "The rescue plan has been successfully completed, and I won't be traveling with you from now on."
The Wind Honored One nodded in agreement. He also had to take Yao Chen back to Starfall Pavilion as soon as possible to deal with the aftermath, and then discuss a plan.
After all, rescuing Yao Chen was not the end; on the contrary, it was the beginning of the chaos.
The Sword Venerable also spoke in a hoarse voice: "Medicine Venerable, Pavilion Masters, I am used to being alone, I will take my leave first."
After saying that, he cupped his fist in salute, and his figure disappeared from the spot.
Chen Xiao also cupped his hands to the Wind Honored One and Yao Chen, and went straight towards the Northwest.
The Soul Hall's soul origin still needed to be processed simply, and the refining also had to find a safe place.
Just right, after Zi Yan started digesting the Dragon Phoenix Origin Fruit, Chen Xiao hadn't gone to see her yet, so he simply chose the Ancient Emperor Cave space as the refining place.
In the entire Dou Qi Continent, there was no place more suitable for working in peace.
Of course, the main thing was that with his current strength, it wouldn't take much time to travel back and forth.
With no one else around, Little Fairy Doctor no longer concealed herself, and with a sway of her figure, she appeared charmingly beside Chen Xiao.
She glanced behind her and said with a delicate smile: "That Sword Venerable is following behind, it seems he has something to say to you."
Chen Xiao nodded slightly, he had actually noticed it, but didn't take it to heart.
"Should we wait for him?" Little Fairy Doctor said, "This person's character is good, I think we can win him over."
She had watched the entire process of rescuing Yao Chen.
This Sword Venerable was not bad.
"See if he is willing."
Chen Xiao responded and slowed down.
With the current size of Purple Firmament Pavilion, having one more two-star Dou Zun at most would be the icing on the cake.
But then again, who would dislike their strength becoming stronger and stronger?
Not long after the two slowed down, the Sword Venerable caught up.
"Pavilion Master, please stop!"
This title couldn't be called casually.
Chen Xiao muttered in his heart, hesitated for a moment, and still stopped and turned around.
The Sword Venerable quickly approached, and although he was a little surprised when he saw Little Fairy Doctor beside Chen Xiao, he didn't ask much.
"Iron Sword, do you need something from me?"
Sword Venerable shook his head, "I just wanted to thank the Pavilion Master for the Elixir he gave me earlier. I'm ashamed to say, since the Jade Sword Sect incident, I've used up all such life-saving medicines."
As he spoke, he took out a jade slip and handed it to Chen Xiao, "My strength is mediocre, and the Pavilion Master may not think much of it, but if you need manpower in the future, Iron Sword will definitely come to your aid!"
Looking at Sword Venerable's appearance, he wasn't one to make empty promises. If you really needed him to do something, he would truly risk his life.
Chen Xiao took the jade slip and played with it in his hand, looking at the solemn Sword Venerable. He suddenly changed the subject to something seemingly unrelated, and said with a smile, "Where do you plan to go next?"
Sword Venerable was stunned when he heard this, and a trace of confusion appeared on his face.
Before the destruction of the Jade Sword Sect, his only goal in life was revenge.
Now that the Jade Sword Sect had been destroyed, and he himself had suffered heavy injuries in this operation, he suddenly lost his direction in life and didn't know where to go.
Seeing his appearance, Chen Xiao directly threw the jade slip back to him.
"Since you have nowhere to go, if you don't mind, come to my Purple Firmament Pavilion. When I return, I can help you solve your foundation problems."
Finding a force to settle down and retire was also a good home.
Chen Xiao's words gave Sword Venerable a new idea.
And the Purple Firmament Pavilion was indeed a good place to go.
Judging from the strength Chen Xiao had shown today, he was probably not much different from the Three Valleys, not to mention those trump cards that he didn't know about but might exist.
For example, the Little Fairy Doctor standing beside Chen Xiao at the moment.
And most importantly, the fact that the foundation problem could be solved was undoubtedly a huge temptation.
He had only temporarily lost his life goal, but he had never thought of stagnating forever.
Plus, he still owed Chen Xiao a favor…
After a little consideration, Sword Venerable no longer hesitated and immediately cupped his hands and replied, "Thank you, Pavilion Master, for taking me in!"
Chen Xiao smiled with satisfaction, took out a token from his Storage Ring and threw it to him, "Go to the Purple Firmament Pavilion first. When you get there, let Old Hai and Qiu Cheng arrange a place for you to live. Just wait for me to come back."
Sword Venerable cupped his hands, as if he had instantly adapted to his new identity.
"Yes!"
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