Before arriving at the eighteenth layer of hell, every cultivator participating in the cauldron competition had once envisioned its appearance in their hearts, especially after experiencing the previous seventeen layers.

Sima Languan was no exception.

But he had never imagined it would be the scene before his eyes.

Passing through the wellhead that rippled with mercury-like waves of light, swept by that familiar yet mysterious spatial fluctuation, his figure disappeared at the wellhead and reappeared amidst ripples on the other side.

The picturesque mountains and waters of the seventeenth layer vanished without a trace.

Gone were the verdant peaks, the emerald rivers, the milky white mists, and even the azure sky had disappeared.

What appeared before his eyes was actually an ancient, majestic wilderness!

Where he stood was an ancient altar.

Facing forward, a deep gray wilderness plain spread out before his eyes.

Countless towering ancient trees pierced straight into the blue-gray firmament, the tall ones so high their tops couldn’t be seen, the thick ones requiring nearly a hundred people to encircle them. But every single one was rotting wood, with only some withered yellow vines winding upward.

Behind him, endless desolate ruins stood in silent vigil.

As if it had once been a prosperous city, but was buried beneath the dust of years. The tall city walls were broken, the rows of buildings had collapsed.

Only the heaven-piercing stone pillars in various places still stood in corners of the ruins and wasteland, carved with patterns of coiling dragons and crouching tigers.

At a glance, there was only a vast expanse of gray haziness and pale desolation.

What struck him was nothing but majestic and ancient atmosphere.

Even someone like Sima Languan, when his feet touched the ground, was so shocked by this magnificent scene that burst into his vision that he couldn’t speak.

Beneath his feet was an ancient altar.

Deep gray stone blocks, each six feet in size, were piled into a circular platform that was larger at the top and smaller at the bottom, standing a full ten zhang high. He now stood on the flat platform at the top of this altar, with a diameter of about six or seven zhang.

Around the platform were drawn many dark brown ancient crude patterns – various walking beasts and flying birds, all of shapes that Sima Languan had never seen before. The platform surface was uneven, as if something had originally been embedded here but had been pried open and removed.

In the air floated an ancient, bloody scent.

He looked around in a circle, his gaze falling on those dark brown patterns. Having peeled various human and beast skins for a long time, he was very familiar with this smell.

It was the scent of beast blood.

Just like…

A very, very long time ago, it seemed someone had killed beasts to take their blood, drawing these patterns here as an array formation.

On the ground were also some broken stones and rotting wood that looked like tools.

But they were all so decayed they were unrecognizable. When he touched them, they would turn into black ash and dissipate with the wind.

His brows immediately furrowed tightly.

Standing on this circular platform, Sima Languan felt something was quite wrong—

In everyone’s impression, the eighteen layers of hell in the Extreme Domain should be a purgatory where souls suffered.

But this eighteenth layer didn’t seem to be located in the Extreme Domain at all.

Apart from the superficial things like the altar and city, Sima Languan wouldn’t forget the smell of fresh blood at the altar’s edge. That wasn’t the scent of pale white blood, but of bright red blood…

The blood scent of living things.

It was hard to imagine that something had actually lived here?

Shouldn’t the Extreme Domain originally be a place devoid of all life?

Was this place from ancient times, or primordial times?

His released divine sense did not withdraw.

Sima Languan tried to probe for more information, but aside from what he could see, not even half a trace of other auras came through.

“Where are the people…”

He had pursued Jian Chou into this eighteenth layer of hell, but now only he stood here alone, while the main target he pursued was nowhere to be found.

Looking far in all directions, in the distance beneath the wilderness seemed to be a silent swamp that made no sound. The blue-gray firmament covered above, yet always gave one a feeling of being shrouded in gloom, blocking the most brilliant and pure colors.

The entire world was gray and hazy.

Even someone like Sima Languan, who had grown accustomed to the deep cold tones of the Extreme Domain, felt extremely uncomfortable upon seeing this realm, though he didn’t know why.

It seemed that this layer concealed enormous danger.

His tightly furrowed brows didn’t relax, he only gently shook the lantern in his hand.

The peeled human skin, or rather soul skin, had been refined through special methods and presented an alluring snow-white color, turning the dim yellow light from the wick into a ghostly cold light.

The cultivation method he practiced was among the most mysterious and special of the ten great ghost clans, even in the entire Extreme Domain. Just as Jian Chou hadn’t guessed earlier that he would emerge from the lamplight to launch a surprise attack, others in the Extreme Domain couldn’t think of it either.

Who said ghost cultivators couldn’t hide within light?

Originally, that strike just now was one he was determined to succeed with.

Jian Chou had just experienced an intense battle with Shang Lu, entered the relatively safe Prison Bureau, and with the protection of array formations, logically should have been completely unprepared.

But her reaction…

Was really too fast.

This was clearly a female cultivator who had only Soul Pearl Realm before entering the cauldron competition, and previously couldn’t possibly have experienced many battles to develop so-called “qi perception” and “battle instincts.”

Yet she had directly blocked his attack without any warning.

“Getting more and more curious…”

Sima Languan’s voice carried a hoarse, enchanting quality, the kind of joy one feels when encountering prey beyond their expectations slowly welling up, making him begin to anticipate—

Just what secrets did this female cultivator harbor?

What kind of effect would her beautiful skin bring to his lantern?

However, everything depended on finding this female cultivator first.

In the previous seventeen layers, the locations where each Prison Bureau teleported people were fixed and the same for everyone. There was no reason for this to change upon entering the eighteenth layer.

Jian Chou must have just hidden herself.

In front of the altar was the ancient wilderness in the distance, with an open plain in between. Sima Languan estimated that no matter how fast Jian Chou was, she couldn’t possibly have fled to the front in such a tiny time difference.

Then…

Only the ruins behind.

Withered seasonal grass one or two people tall covered the ground and concealed human tracks; further ahead was that stretch of collapsed ruins.

The perfect hiding place.

A smile of interest hung at the corner of Sima Languan’s mouth, the grotesque half of his face becoming even more grotesque, while the handsome half became even more handsome. He maintained his spreading divine sense, leaped down from the altar, and flew close to the ground toward the front.

“Rustle…”

From the dense grass came faint sounds.

Sima Languan’s figure immediately paused.

He had been soundless while flying through the air, and now stopping was equally quiet, but his gaze had already turned toward the direction from which the sound came.

After flying down from the altar, that ancient bloody scent had faded. In its place was the smell of fresh blood.

The withered seasonal grass was a grayish-white color.

But on several of the leaf blades, there were actually a few pale white traces.

Tsk.

Injured.

Sima Languan immediately laughed, letting out a cold laugh: “Bearing heavy injuries, a dying body—what harm is there in gifting me this beautiful skin!”

As his words fell, the ghostly cold light on that human skin lantern suddenly blazed intensely!

A deep blue smoke actually emerged from the lantern, then condensed into a suffering beauty’s face, as if about to fly out from the human skin wrapping the lantern.

But it remained bound there.

Only that ghostly cold light was grasped by Sima Languan’s slender five fingers, actually pulling out layers of vast smoke like pulling out star-scattered particles, throwing them toward the direction of the blood traces!

“Swish swish swish!”

The light smoke fell like rain!

But when it hit the ground, it was like exploding star streams, bombarding chaotically!

From this blood trace backward, in a fan-shaped radiation covering a full thirty-plus zhang width of ground, everything immediately became a mess. All the seasonal grass turned to flying ash the moment it touched this light smoke.

The entire ground surface immediately became bare.

A figure in a light blue robe finally had nowhere to hide.

“Jian Chou!”

Sima Languan didn’t need to identify her to clearly know the other party’s identity. He immediately gave a hearty laugh and without hesitation raised his hand to draw, actually directly extracting a light blue sword with ghostly cold radiance from the human skin lantern!

“This sword of mine matches you perfectly!”

Jian Chou didn’t speak.

Because when passing through the seventeenth layer’s Prison Bureau, she had suffered Sima Languan’s surprise attack. Although the Six Meridians Spirit Dividing Mirror had blocked most of the attack for her, she had still been affected and suffered internal injuries, so her complexion appeared pale.

But the corners of her eyes and brows became increasingly cold and condensed, as if harboring a trace of frost and snow.

Seeing Sima Languan attacking, she who had originally been sitting cross-legged only remained expressionless, slapping the ground with one hand and directly springing up.

At that moment, she was actually soundless as well.

A faint milky white light began to circle around her, carrying a lustrous feeling.

But how could Sima Languan be a mediocre person?

She retreated quickly, but he pursued just as fast!

A ghostly light blue sword was already three inches from Jian Chou’s forehead in the blink of an eye.

But at that very instant, the expressionless Jian Chou actually smiled at him, a smile that seemed quite benevolent…

Something seemed wrong?

Sima Languan’s sensitivity to crisis had always been good. Almost immediately, various scenes from after entering the eighteenth layer flashed through his mind—

Analyzing Jian Chou’s whereabouts, discovering the pale white blood after descending from the altar, thus finding Jian Chou’s trail…

Was it that easy?

Or rather, was this female cultivator who had safely lived through to the seventeenth layer and very likely to contend for the cauldron competition really so simple?

There’s a trap!

This thought shot through Sima Languan’s mind like lightning!

“Clang!”

His speed in withdrawing the sword and retreating was even faster than when he came!

But he had barely retreated less than six zhang when Jian Chou in front had already directly formed a hand seal!

“Array, come forth!”

Accompanying this light shout, behind Sima Languan, which was Jian Chou’s previous resting place, suddenly erupted with a loud explosion, stone fragments flying! Thirty to fifty dark lights suddenly shot up from the ground!

Sharp killing intent almost immediately emerged from this array formation.

A killing array!

Sima Languan’s heart turned ice-cold, and his killing intent also suddenly blazed. Before that array formation activated, he actually forcibly stopped his retreating momentum and instead charged forward without warning!

This ability to forcibly change direction was almost enough to make the cultivators outside the eighteenth layer of hell break out in cold sweat.

But here, what greeted Sima Languan was not any expression of terror, only the smile at the corner of Jian Chou’s mouth that suddenly deepened, and the even more piercing coldness in her pupils!

Again, a clear, sharp shout—

“Array, come forth!”

This time, Sima Languan had only moved forward three feet!

“Boom!”

The array disk that had been buried underground for a long time finally exploded violently under Jian Chou’s another hand seal. A hundred zhang of deep blue light roared upward!

No killing intent, just a binding array, but it solidly and irrefutably trapped Sima Languan, who had no way to avoid it!

“Bang!”

Unable to stop his momentum in time, his body crashed into the edge of the array formation, immediately causing dizziness and disorientation. From all sides came infinite gravity, like a heavy hammer smashing into his body!

Even his entire head rang thunderously!

Jian Chou’s figure hovered at the edge of this array formation. The sword that Sima Languan had drawn from light was only one foot away from her.

But…

This was as far as it would go.

She had already secured enough time for herself. Now remaining calm and composed, she returned his words with a smile: “This earthbound array also matches Young Master Sima quite perfectly.”

Sima Languan’s expression turned dark, and immediately he spat out a mouthful of pale white blood.

Both arms couldn’t be raised, and movement was extremely difficult. The soul power throughout his body seemed to encounter tremendous resistance, operating extremely slowly…

“You—”

Just an earthbound array.

Jian Chou had also experienced the feeling of being trapped within it, so she naturally understood the towering rage in Sima Languan’s heart, but it was useless.

Xie Buchen was truly a genius of extraordinary talent. The array formation he had improved was already ruthlessly effective.

Combined with the few key insights she had gained from that old house’s master, further modifications had given it ghost-like, unpredictable power.

Moreover…

As if Jian Chou couldn’t see Sima Languan’s various miserable states, she merely walked around this array formation and actually bent down at her previous sitting place, directly prying up a piece of dark jade from the ground that served as the killing array’s core.

Stepping on the Eight Trigrams positions, walking the Nine Palaces steps,

With a turn of her figure, Jian Chou had already placed the dark jade beside the binding array under Sima Languan’s horrified gaze!

As the array core moved, the killing array that originally hadn’t trapped Sima Languan also moved accordingly, covering the entire binding array with precise accuracy!

Binding and killing momentarily overlapped, and hundreds of thousands of sharp spikes emerged from the ground!

Within the array formation, rolling thunder sounded repeatedly. Deep purple lightning drew upon the earth force and yin essence from all directions, madly striking toward Sima Languan trapped within the binding array!

At this moment, above the Eight Directions Yama Palace, several Yama Kings could no longer hide the horror on their faces—

King Song Di’s eyes blazed with killing intent: “This female cultivator is wrong! Our Extreme Domain cultivators absolutely cannot possess such transcendent array formation mastery!”