Before Feng Lou could go outside, a message came from the chaos bell asking whether he wanted to absorb the wand of the skeleton mage.
As Feng Lou recalled the wand, curiosity, and excitement bubbled up in him at the possibility of becoming even stronger by absorbing its power. With a thoughtful nod, he asked, "Will absorbing that wand really make me more powerful?"
To which the Chaos Bell responded, "It all depends on you, I helped you in forming the first immortal aperture last time, but this time, I won't be there to assist."
Hearing that, Feng Lou felt a twinge of nervousness, but he remained optimistic and believed in his own powers. Despite lacking a proper cultivation technique, because goddess Nuwa didn't give humanity one for some reason.
Feng Lou told the chaos bell to start absorbing the wand and soon, the wand that was lying on the ground turned into a mass of death qi and shot up straight into his body, surprising him.
Startled, he quickly sat down and began refining the death qi. As he did, he felt the formation of a second aperture, then a third, and soon he reached the double digits and that didn't stop until the 30th immortal aperture.
Feng Lou exclaimed with surprise, "Oh my god, 30th immortal aperture, does that mean I'm mid-rank profound immortal now"
Feng Lou recalled the hierarchy of the Profound Immortal realm, From the first immortal aperture to the 29th is called a low-rank profound immortal and from the 30th to the 59th is called a mid-rank profound immortal, and from 60 to 119 is called a high-rank profound immortal, and 120th immortal aperture means you have reached the peak of the profound immortal.
Feng Lou couldn't believe how much stronger he had become in just a few days. Before, he was just a low-rank Human Immortal, but now he was in the mid-rank of profound immortal, stronger than most humans in the prehistoric world.
However he still was an ant in front of other races that have billions of profound immortals as their foot soldiers, he has heard stories that to become a foot soldier of the monster race you need to be at least a heavenly immortal.
He wanted to test his new powers but for some reason, he felt if he tried to do that, something bad might happen and The Chaos Bell soon explained why: his strength had surpassed the limits of this world, and it was beginning to reject him.
Chaos Bell even told him that the length of this trip needs to be shortened by one week, which means he only has 4 days left until he goes back to the prehistoric realm
Hearing that Feng Lou quickly got up and went outside with hesitation.
...
An Hour Ago
Right after Feng Lou went inside the castle, Everyone that was in the group became nervous mainly because they had no means to go back to their home if Feng Lou does not win. Jack was also pacing around the area, his agitation apparent to everyone.
Jiang Xiaoyan for some reason was even more nervous, sat trembling, her head jerking like a rattlesnake.
Right as Feng Lou started fighting the Skeleton mage, Jiang Xiaoyan's head suddenly jerked up, her eyes black like the night and she started muttering with anger "Nobody in this group deserves to live, my mother and my sister died protecting me from other humans, not zombies, they were ravaged by the animal natural of humans, NOBODY SPARED THEM, SO WHY SHOULD I?" slowly her voice started to get louder and louder until everyone in the group could hear her.
"Jiang Xiaoyan, are you okay?" Jack asked, his tone filled with concern. But as he looked into her eyes, he saw something unsettling—a deep darkness that seemed to consume her. Concern turning to alarm, Jack quickly directed his soldiers, "Quickly, tie her! She's possessed."
Despite their hesitation and fear, the soldiers cautiously moved to subdue Jiang Xiaoyan. However, to their astonishment, the petite Jiang Xiaoyan, who appeared too frail to lift even a bag of wheat, effortlessly overpowered all of the soldiers who approached her.
Recognizing the severity of the situation, Jack weighed his options. Shooting Jiang Xiaoyan was out of the question due to her relationship with Feng Lou. So the only thing he could do was to just try to calm her down.
"Jiang Xiaoyan, please, talk to me. Tell me what's wrong, and I'll do everything I can to help," Jack pleaded, his voice calm and reassuring as he tried to defuse the situation.
Jiang Xiaoyan just ignored Jack's voice and started attacking the army soldiers.
Seeing that Jack with a heavy heart and a sense of urgency, Jack muttered "Damn it" and quickly took out a pistol from the holster and shot Jiang Xiaoyan in the legs.
*BAM* *BAM*
Two shots, right in the legs
With Jiang Xiaoyan immobilized by the gunshot, the soldiers quickly moved in to restrain her, binding her securely to prevent any further outbursts.
Right as they were tying Jiang Xiaoyan up, Feng Lou came out of the palace.
"What's going on here?" Feng Lou said with some anger seeing the wounds on Jiang xiaoyan's legs and soldiers binding her.
Hearing Feng Lou's voice, Jack became extremely happy because he realized if Feng Lou was here that meant he defeated whatever was inside, but soon hearing Feng Lou's question he started sweating bullets.
"Feng Lou, thank the heavens you're here! We're not sure what happened, but Jiang Xiaoyan suddenly turned violent and attacked us. I had to do what was necessary to restrain her," Jack explained urgently.
Hearing that, Feng Lou rushed to Jiang Xiaoyan's side to inspect her injuries. After examining the bullet wounds, he began chanting softly under his breath, and soon the bullet wound on Jiang Xiaoyan started to heal, Feng Lou used a healing spell, using the knowledge he had absorbed from the memories of the skeleton mage.
Feng Lou started to inspect the reason as for why Jiang Xiaoyan suddenly became so violent and soon he was able to find the reason, the presence of death qi, which had infiltrated her thoughts and amplified her negative emotions, driving her to aggression.
Feng Lou quickly told the group the reason for Jiang Xiaoyan's sudden outburst. "It seems she was exposed to death qi, likely during our time at the research center," he informed them, shedding light on the cause of her violent behavior.
Feng Lou absorbed the death qi from Jiang Xiaoyan's mind. Within moments, she regained consciousness, her memory returning in fragments. "Why am I here? I remember being at the research center just moments ago," she exclaimed, confusion evident in her voice.
As memories flooded back into Jiang Xiaoyan's mind, tears streamed down her face, and she began to apologize profusely. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," she repeated.
Jack and the others gathered around Jiang Xiaoyan, offering words of comfort and support. They understood that she was just a fragile 15-year-old girl.
After ensuring Jiang Xiaoyan was stable, Feng Lou proceeded to recount the events that happened within the ice palace, he obviously hid anything related to the chaos bell but he told everything else.