The Saintly Ancestress of the Runes, too, perceived the faint shift in Wang Lin’s earth-born Vermillion Bird totem, but she dismissed it utterly. Though she could not see Qing Lin’s shimmering presence, she keenly felt his ethereal form.

For countless millennia, she had been aware of his wisp of a divided soul woven into the very fabric of the binding seals, its sole purpose to imprison her for eternity.

The knowledge of Qing Lin’s spectral shard ignited her hatred. Her vacant eyes locked onto the space where he lingered, and a torrent of forgotten memories flooded her mind.

“Qing Lin!” she spat, the name a venomous curse. The instant his essence materialized, a flash of obsidian light erupted from her brow, forming an intricate rune that swiftly transformed into a nightmarish, crimson bone. It hurtled towards Qing Lin’s ghostly fragment, unleashing a wave of chilling malice. The surrounding air plummeted into a glacial grip, and frost bloomed in jagged patterns, encasing the land in an icy tomb.

Within Wang Lin, his vital force surged, the Vermillion Bird’s sacred flame coursing through his veins, but his gaze remained fixed on the bone. A tide of realization crashed within him.

“The Seed of Decay?” His eyes flickered to the back of his right hand, where the grotesque visage of the Seed of Decay was etched. “The Saintly Ancestress’s power… it echoes the Seed of Decay, though its hue differs, and the sorcery it wields is not the same.”

Qing Lin’s crystalized fragment regarded the woman with cold serenity. He raised a hand and pointed, unleashing a cascade of luminescent shards that spiraled around the approaching bone in a glittering river.

As the light formed a ring, the points constricted inward, piercing the bone with incredible speed. Within, they gathered, and as they flooded into the skeletal structure, wisps of crimson essence bled from the bone, drawn out and absorbed by the invading light. As the red energy ebbed, the bone lost its luster, as though its very spirit was being drained away.

In moments, a fist-sized crystal of blinding brilliance manifested within the heart of the bone.

A wave of light erupted, each beam a razor-sharp blade cleaving through the air. The spectators gasped, recoiling from the searing radiance.

“Such masterful sealcraft! Without expending even a fraction of his own power, he steals the very essence of her magic, twisting it into his own prison. Not even my Senior Brother could achieve such effortless mastery!” Void Wanderer hissed, his pupils constricting, but a greedy hunger ignited within his eyes.

“Qing Lin may be powerful, but according to the Ascendant Alliance’s long-standing observations, he is on death’s door. If we can capture and control him with our special methods, the Alliance will know no equal!”

A deafening roar ripped through the air as the skeletal bone shattered into countless shards, scattering in all directions in a storm of radiant light.

Those caught in the path of the blast averted their eyes in pain.

Qing Lin met the Ancestress’s gaze with impassive indifference. He raised his hand once more, executing a complex sign that materialized into a shimmering glyph. The Rune floated above the woman’s head.

As the first sigil took form, the Immortal Burial Vortex, from which the Ancestress had already drawn herself, bellowed like a wounded beast.

From within the vortex, phantasmal souls emerged, initially a trickle, but soon a deluge of spectral forms.

The swirling vortex tore free from the Ancestress’s grasp, spinning with renewed fury, its cries like the fabric of reality being torn asunder. Within, the countless souls swirled in the maelstrom, their grotesque features and piercing wails like the opening of a gateway to the netherworld.

The sheer number of souls sent a chill down Wang Lin’s spine. Among them were Immortals, members of the Rune Clan, ancient Qi cultivators, and beasts of legend.

Each soul radiated an aura of dread, a testament to their power in life. Only those of significant power earned the right to be cast into Qing Lin’s Immortal Burial Pool. As the souls roared, the vortex rose like a tidal wave, engulfing the woman in its rage, drawing her downward with irresistible force.

Yet, strangely, the pull only affected the woman, leaving Wang Lin and the others untouched.

Without pause, Qing Lin executed another hand sign, and a second sigil formed to the woman’s left. Its appearance only intensified the vortex’s cries.

The black blood flowed freely from the woman’s eyes, like tears of pure anguish.

“Why did you deceive me…? Why? Why!” Her voice carried a chilling power that reverberated through the air, causing the two runes surrounding her to tremble, seemingly on the verge of collapse.

The very fabric of space around her cracked, threatening to unravel.

As her voice shattered the silence, shockwaves erupted, becoming a vortex that rushed toward Qing Lin.

Blood trickled from Wang Lin’s ears. Despite his constant flow of spiritual energy and the protection of his Ancient God flesh, he still suffered from the assault.

His ears rang with echoes of her tormented question.

“Why… Why?”

Wang Lin looked around, horrified to see the same affliction upon Situ Nan and the others. Only Sky Fortune, Void Wanderer, and the man in black stood firm, their faces grim but unaffected.

The vortex of sound crashed upon Qing Lin, but he raised his hand and pointed, halting it in its tracks. An unimaginable force descended upon the world, stripping the chaotic energy of its agency. Countless unseen tendrils wrapped around the storm of sound, binding it.

“Immobilization!” Wang Lin whispered, his eyes widened in astonishment, a surge of excitement coursing through him. Immobilization was vital to him.

Many times throughout his life he had been in dangerous situations, but because of this immortality, he was able to get through them safely. It could be said that this immobilization was an indispensable and important spell in his life.

But the Immobilization art he learned was self-taught from the jade scroll left behind by the Immortal Emperor Qing Lin back then, and in those years, he had never seen a second person use this art in the world. In this way, he could not improve it, and there was no chance to break through the origin of this art.

But now, this was the first time he had seen immortality displayed from someone else’s hands, and the person who displayed this immortality was Qing Lin!

To Wang Lin, the demonstration of immortality at that moment was very important.

It was like Qing Lin personally teaching, as if Qing Lin was a teacher and Wang Lin was a disciple. After the disciple mastered immortality, the teacher would personally display it in front of him, giving the disciple the opportunity to verify and adjust! This opportunity was something that Wang Lin dreamed of having, just like Bai Fan would come back to life and cast all the spells of calling wind and rain, scattering beans into soldiers, mountain collapse and earth cracking, and the yin moon would be clear in front of Wang Lin! It’s just that this is not the time to study in detail. Wang Lin can only firmly remember the memory of that moment and wait until he leaves this place before retreating to comprehend it.

Qing Lin did not stop. After stopping the sound storm, he pinched a spell and without hesitation, seven more glyphs flashed out one by one, instantly filling the woman’s surroundings.

Combined with the previous two rune sigils, they formed a nine-seal array! Surrounding the woman’s body, the nine sigils formed a ring, enveloping her and emitting bursts of strange light. At that moment, when all nine sigils appeared, the Immortal Burial Vortex exploded! The Immortal Burial Vortex roared to the sky, constantly expanding under rapid rotation, and in this moment, the countless souls in the vortex roared out and went straight to the woman.

Almost in the blink of an eye, the woman’s body was densely covered with souls, and these souls condensed together and turned into black chains, instantly covering the woman’s whole body and pulling her down into the vortex.