Chapter 46: Chapter 46
"I was practicing in seclusion," Ethan said, flashing a sheepish smile as he saw Elder Azel approach.
"I’m sorry for troubling Elder, for searching for me so many times."
Azel’s look was equal parts amused and shrewd.
"And you erased the spiritual mark I had placed on you, didn’t you?"
Ethan hesitated for a moment, mind spinning.
"Actually, an old senior helped me erase it some time ago. I only realized later how useful it was... Mr. Burn himself did it for me."
He was careful—even with Azel, it didn’t pay to show all his cards.
Azel’s laughter was full-bodied. "Senior, Mr. Burn, right? Of course I recognize him. In fact, if I hadn’t spoken for you, would you have received this opportunity in the first place?"
Ethan blinked, piecing it together for real now.
"So Elder Azel is the reason I was noticed?"
"I just put your name forward, that’s all," Azel said, waving off the notion.
"If anything, you should thank your talent. But if you ever want to repay it, someday you can."
Ethan cupped his hands, bowing respectfully. "Many thanks to Elder Azel. If I can be of any use, give the order—no hesitation from me."
Azel smiled.
"A bold offer, but what I need today is only your company and obedience. Mr. Burn wants to see you. Let’s go quickly."
Ethan’s heart beat faster. Being summoned by the Mr. Burn ... even after his recent encounters and new strength, he felt a kind of excitement, and a sliver of tension.
He followed Azel, who led him toward the sprawling mountain range that loomed on the edge of the Azure Origin Sect—the legendary Demon Sealing Cave.
Ethan couldn’t help but ask quietly, "Elder Azel, is Elder Burn part of the Demon Sealing Cave too?"
Azel nodded. "He is, and his status is much higher than mine. He is my senior, your senior, the senior of anyone still breathing in this sect." He chuckled.
"Don’t ask about age. We who cultivate learn to let it fade. I can’t even recall my own age anymore."
Ethan smiled, picturing Mr. Burn’s ageless face.
He really is old enough to be my grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather, just like he joked.
The mountain peaks ahead were draped in black mist that rippled and churned.
When Ethan engaged his Heaven-piercing Mind Eyes, reality sharpened—a sea of dense, shape-shifting blackness boiled over every peak. Ghostly faces and beastly heads—skulls, wolves, dragons—fluttered within the fog, only to batter at the edge of golden, rune-inscribed barriers rising all around the mountain side.
On one blink, the golden barriers flared, and Ethan caught a glimpse of the esoteric formations—liked nested spinning wheels, complex and far beyond anything he’d ever set or used.
He’s sealed this place with at least eighteen distinct formation restrictions. No wonder the sect’s most terrifying secrets are safe here.
Azel turned, catching Ethan’s fixed gaze.
"What are you seeing?"
"Not much," Ethan replied smoothly. "It just struck me—this mountain’s cold is stronger than the Ancestral Tomb. And the howls..."
Azel smiled approvingly.
"You’ve sharp senses. Were you a spiritual cultivator, perhaps you’d see an even stranger world here."
With that, Azel drew out a single jade token, golden lettering glimmering beneath his hand. He pressed it to a stone arch; instantly one of the formation layers peeled open, revealing a tunnel yawning through marble and jade.
"Come," he said, and led the way.
The air inside the passage was different—thin, freezing yet stifling, crackling not just with cold but a suffocating mingling of demonic, spiritual, and elemental energies.
Not simply the chill that kills sunlight, but the shadow that feasts on dreams.
As they walked deeper, Ethan’s senses tracked every change. Spiritual energy tangled with traces of devilish miasma and coldness not found even in the heart of the deepest tomb.
Scattered amid the stench of rot were swirls of fiery heat—embers long banked against endless night.
Their steps echoed down a long corridor lined with two rows of bronze lamps.
The flames in the holders burned an eerie blue, but even their light could not fully eat away the thick gloom. The corridor stretched on, then opened up—
They entered the heart of the Demon Sealing Cave: a vast domed atrium hollowed from solid mountain. The inner space soared, so vast the ceiling arched beyond the reach of the lanterns’ pale radiance.
Above, the center of the dome was open to the air. Mist and vines spilled in, and only a careful eye would spot the hidden entrance, veiled from the outside world.
But dominating the entire chamber—floating near the roof—was a bell wrought of lustrous gold, barely large enough to cradle between two hands. It hovered motionless, emitting a pressure so profound Ethan found it hard to breathe. Its surface was etched with runes so fine they seemed to flow like springs of firelight, flickering with every passing second.
Yet not all the runes were whole. At a spot near the crown, a piece was missing—a mar on the perfect artifact, the golden light pausing in a dead spot.
Wounded but undefeated, Ethan thought, awed.
He could feel it, the weight of the immortal treasure pressing upon the bones of his body. Cultivation alone could not convey such magnitude; it was the breath of ages held in gold.
He turned to Azel.
"What is that bell?"
Azel’s eyes grew distant, reverent awe in his features.
"That, Ethan, is the Azure Origin Sect’s greatest inheritance. Even damaged, that immortal spiritual weapon could level armies—or contain anything this world could breed. The Demon Sealing Bell is our foundation, our last line against the chaos that dwells in these mountains and the night beyond."
"Within this mountain, every whisper, every shadow, is bound beneath that bell’s will. No demon, no monster, no fallen cultivator may pass while it holds vigil." He paused, gazing down into the chasm at the base of the cavern, lost in thought.
"And that is why this place is the Demon Sealing Cave," Azel said, voice echoing in the half-light. "The forbidden ground of our sect, where fate and history lie waiting for the next hand to shake the world."
Ethan felt a chill that was not just physical. This was the heart of the Azure Origin Dao Sect, the place that kept nightmares at bay.
He followed Azel quietly.