Open to the sky!

Everyone gazed up at the sky above, suddenly overcome with a long-forgotten sense of nostalgia—though in truth, not even a full night had passed yet.

But judging by the color of the sky, dawn would arrive soon!

Li Qinqin and Guardian Feng could no longer even express their shock—no, at this moment, they felt no shock at all, only fear.

The two of them stood frozen like wooden statues, utterly stunned!

Ziqing didn’t even bother sparing Li Qinqin a glance—everything that had happened today was entirely her own doing. In truth, Ziqing had already decided to stop concerning herself with the matter between Li Qinqin and her son—but this woman had dared to kidnap Yaotiao!

Then she couldn’t blame Ziqing for showing no mercy!

These two—one had lost her coffin entirely, and the other’s coffin was now in enemy hands, with no way to escape. Nor would they even try.

Everyone else felt the same way as Ziqing, no longer bothering to pay them any mind. Jun Buli had been inside the main coffin for quite some time now—surely he’d resolved things by now.

“Let’s open the coffin,” Jun Beiyue said flatly.

But suddenly, Li Qinqin let out a wailing cry, breaking down into loud sobs. “Prince Yao, Princess Consort, it was my fault—I shouldn’t have been so greedy. I beg you, please give me back my coffin. I promise I’ll never do evil again, never bother you again!”

Given how things stood, with the entire vampire burial ground possibly beyond saving, the coffin was now her very life!

What she was begging for was, quite literally, her life!

Seeing this, Guardian Feng spat contemptuously at her, snarling furiously, “Traitor, everything that’s happened to the clan today is because of you, and yet you still dare…”

“It was the Left Envoy’s own delusional ambition to swallow up the Xijing desert—what does that have to do with me?” Li Qinqin immediately protested. All she wanted now was to get her coffin back and escape this cursed place before dawn broke.

Ziqing glanced at Guardian Feng, feeling a flicker of grudging respect for him—but she had no time to spare for such matters now.

She nodded toward the others. “Let’s open the coffin.”

But just as she spoke, a deep, cold voice suddenly resonated through the air. “This one has waited a very long time for the undying blood.”

That voice!

Everyone present, save for Jun Yaotiao, was struck with shock.

“Blood Master!” Guardian Feng cried out in alarm, immediately prostrating himself on the ground in reverent submission.

“Blood Master… Blood Master… how could this be… wasn’t it the Left Envoy inside?” Li Qinqin’s face drained of color in terror, and without even realizing it, she too dropped to the ground beside Guardian Feng, prostrating herself completely.

That voice belonged to the Blood Master!

The Master was the Master—that voice alone was enough to make every vampire bow in submission. Not just Guardian Feng and Li Qinqin, but even the vampires crawling out of the rubble all around them dropped to the ground one after another, performing the highest ritual of obeisance.

Yet to Ziqing and her group, that voice carried an entirely different meaning altogether!

“Ali!”

Ziqing nearly screamed it out. She slammed both hands against the coffin and threw the lid open with tremendous force, only to discover the inside was enormous—like a pocket dimension, similar to a universe-in-a-bag storage pouch!

A cold, beautiful woman’s corpse lay discarded to one side, still in deep slumber. And at the very bottom, Jun Buli stared, dumbstruck, at another slumbering corpse!

It was too dim to make out clearly, and Ziqing, unable to hold back any longer, leapt down directly, and everyone else followed suit right after!

Only then did Jun Buli snap out of his daze, turning to look at everyone, his gaze landing on Ziqing’s face. “Mother, it’s him! Xuanyuan Lige!”

Ziqing froze in place, her heart pounding so hard it felt ready to burst from her chest. Watching from a distance, she suddenly felt afraid, unable to bring herself closer!

“The moment I entered the coffin, I broke through the Left Envoy’s corpse and fell down here! And that’s when I saw… saw him!” Jun Buli had actually been stunned, utterly stunned, for a long while now—stunned enough to forget his fang addiction entirely.

He simply couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Beneath the main coffin lay a hidden secret—a man who looked exactly, identically like Xuanyuan Lige, lying there asleep!

Almost completely identical, with only one difference—this man’s lip color was three shades more blood-red than Xuanyuan Lige’s!

He stood frozen, until the man suddenly made a sound.

Ziqing froze too, and so did everyone else. Baili Weisheng shook his head repeatedly. “Impossible! Impossible!”

Meng Duo’er shook her head even more emphatically—she had witnessed with her own eyes, all those years ago, Xuanyuan Lige’s Realm of the Five Elements being destroyed alongside Meng Wanyue!

And Ziqing and the others had said as much themselves—within the Lishang illusion realm, Xuanyuan Lige’s soul had also been annihilated along with the collapse of that illusion!

That man could be said to have long since turned to dust and scattered to the wind.

Yet here, right now, before their very eyes, this sleeping man—wasn’t he exactly Xuanyuan Lige?

So similar, right down to the cool, aloof air about his brow, right down to his voice—all completely identical!

The undying blood was, quite literally, the blood flowing through Xuanyuan Lige’s body—yet this man claimed to have been waiting for the undying blood?

Was he Xuanyuan Lige or not? If so, why? If not, then why this?

“Boy, hand over the undying blood—it belongs to me!” the cold voice spoke again.

Everyone snapped back to attention at once. Jun Buli turned to look at the group, and everyone looked back at him in turn!

What should they do?

Jun Buli hesitated a moment, then tossed the porcelain vial in his hand to Ziqing. “Mother, you decide!”

Ziqing caught the vial, but turned instead to look at Jun Beiyue.

Jun Beiyue was somewhat surprised by her questioning gaze—he’d always assumed that when it came to matters concerning Xuanyuan Lige, she would never ask his opinion on anything.

Yet right now, Ziqing was looking straight at him!

“Go ahead,” Jun Beiyue said without hesitation, pressing a hand to Ziqing’s shoulder, giving her strength.

Ziqing didn’t hesitate any longer. She turned and walked toward the man, gazing at that achingly familiar face, slowly opening the porcelain vial.

The scent of the undying blood wafted out, and the body seemed remarkably sensitive to it, sensing it immediately.

“The undying blood… it’s finally back!” the cold voice rang out again—so, so familiar, and yet utterly foreign at the same time.

Ziqing gripped the vial tightly and, gritting her teeth, poured the undying blood directly onto the man’s brow!

At that moment, something extraordinary happened.

The undying blood, which had never once merged with any medium, upon touching the Blood Master, was completely absorbed, vanishing entirely.

Ziqing, standing closest to him, saw it clearly—the man’s pale face gained just the faintest hint of color, but only for an instant before it faded again, and his eyes snapped open!

Cool, clear, untouched by a single trace of impurity—like the waters of a lake atop a snow-covered highland.

So, so familiar!

So familiar that Ziqing blurted out without thinking, “Ali, you’re Ali, aren’t you!”

The Blood Master stared blankly at the woman before him, feeling an inexplicable sensation—as if he knew this woman, yet couldn’t recall her at all!

For a moment, their eyes met, and all around fell utterly silent, still in every direction.

“Ali? Who’s that?”

Jun Yaotiao had no idea who this person was at all. At some point she’d slipped over to Jun Buli’s side, tugging at his sleeve, whispering, “Brother, go bite him, quick!”

Jun Buli’s addiction hadn’t actually subsided—he’d simply been stunned by this man’s appearance. At Yaotiao’s words, his eyes suddenly flared red, and he lost control, baring his fangs…