The silver mask of that man came ripping off with the skin of his face, revealing a bloody appearance.

With his face torn off, the man hastily grabbed the mask, terrified. However, without hesitation, Long Chen slashed the mask.

The mask instantly exploded, and the man let out a mournful shriek. A black mark suddenly appeared on his forehead and spread throughout his entire body. Curse energy turned the space around him black.

Long Chen hastily retreated, feeling a chill. He didn’t want to be touched by that black light.

“A Deathsworn!” Long Chen’s heart shook. Although he didn’t know what was up with the mask, it was clear that it was used to control him. With the mask off, the curse erupted.

“AHH!” The man screamed as if millions of sinister ghosts were devouring his soul. It was a hair-raising scream.

A grand fourth step Netherpassage expert was actually being controlled by someone. That was a frightening thought.

When the black mark fully covered his body, he exploded.

Seeing that, Long Chen’s scalp turned numb. The Ye family was truly vicious. He had a new understanding of the Ye family.

Long Chen suddenly slashed Evilmoon again, sending a saber-image tearing toward the masked elder who had been about to flee.

“Speak, who sent you?” demanded Long Chen.

The masked elder detonated without hesitation. The power of his astral space exploded along with his physical body, sending a wave of death everywhere with him as the epicenter. This was different from the previous fellow whose curse had activated.

Mountains vanished without a trace, and a bottomless hole appeared in the area, with the laws of space in complete chaos. This single detonation was incredibly powerful.

After a while, Long Chen came crawling out of the mud and hacked up a few mouthfuls of blood. Just then, the detonation had been extremely sudden. He had expected the elder to still have a few trump cards and had been hoping to slowly grind them out and capture him alive. But the latter had simply killed himself.

The detonation of his astral space in particular had been extremely terrifying. Being caught at such a close range, Long Chen’s body had almost been blown apart. Anyone else would have been blasted out of existence.

“What a disaster of a day. I didn’t get anything.” Long Chen spat out some blood hatefully.

The Ye family had actually sent two Deathsworns to kill him. They were even stronger than he had thought, as well as vicious.

The first elder had definitely been bait. They had most likely calculated that he wouldn’t be a match for Long Chen and were using him as bait to get Long Chen closer. When Long Chen tried to kill him, the second one would then come out.

Furthermore, they had most likely not wanted to kill him but capture him alive. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have come one after another.

“Do they want my secrets?” Long Chen sneered inside. It seemed that after the alchemy competition, the Ye family had grown covetous. It was unknown if it was due to his alchemy techniques or the Moon and Star Refining Furnace.

Looking at the battlefield, Long Chen shook his head. Even after such an irritating battle, he hadn’t gained anything. After patting the dust off of himself, he sped off.

Once he left, two figures materialized in the air. One of them was Elder Long, while the other was the Elder that had sat beside Elder Long during the joint hearing. He was another Heaven Elder.

That Elder frowned. “What is the Ye family doing? They sent two silver maskers to chase Long Chen so brazenly?”

Elder Long waved his hand. Fragments of ice flew over from every direction. Those were the shattered fragments of the masked elder’s ice sword. He indifferently said, “Do you still not understand the Ye family? With the family head in seclusion, they have Ye Ziwei in charge. Ye Zhiqing is from her bloodline, and they have pretty much the same character. With Ye Zhiqing stirring up trouble and Ye Ziwei’s foolishness, do you think it’s possible for them to come up with any better of a plan?” When speaking of Ye Ziwei, Elder Long was clearly disdainful.

“Long Chen is quite powerful. He was able to settle things without us interfering,” said the other Elder.

“Both those fellows died aggrieved. They thought that their life and death domains would be enough to handle Long Chen since he has yet to reach that realm. That resulted in them trying to capture him alive. When Long Chen shattered the fellow’s domain, it left fragments of his energy in the surrounding space, so when he tried to use his life and death energy against Long Chen, he was affected by his own power that hung in the air. As a result, he only managed to unleash at most eighty percent of his power against Long Chen’s attack. His internal organs were shattered and came flying out of his mouth, causing his mask to fly off. He was definitely resentful about that as he died,” said Elder Long.

“That’s not right either. The masks of the silver maskers don’t come off just like that. How could coughing up blood make it fall?”

“Other than the actual person, it’s very difficult for anyone else to remove the mask. It was a sum of factors from when he was struck. His Blood Qi erupted, his mind received an impact, and the runes on his mask loosened. Adding on how hard he coughed up the blood, it resulted in the mask flying off. That’s why I said he was definitely vexed upon dying. His luck was truly bad. Otherwise, Long Chen would have had to pay a price to handle him and might not have been able to kill him at all,” explained Elder Long.

Looking around and not seeing anything else that they needed to handle, the two of them faded back into the void.

…

Long Chen found a nearby river. He washed his clothes and cleaned himself up.

After killing two fourth step Netherpassage experts, Long Chen didn’t feel the slightest bit of happiness. Instead, he was solemn.

The first masked expert had just reached the fourth step and was only there to test him. The second one was the true killer.

The only reason he had managed to kill him was because his mask had fallen off, resulting in the curse activating. Otherwise, even if Long Chen could beat him, his chances of killing him were extremely low.

However, the High Priest had said that a matured Blood Wing Demon King was on the same power level, and Feng Fei was able to kill one easily. That showed the difference between them.

“It seems that I really do need to get stronger. Perhaps only once the sixth star is fully condensed and my realm rises will I be able to match the Sovereign sprouts. But first, I need to go to the Mo family. I need to know what’s up with Mo Nian.”

Thinking of Mo Nian, Long Chen helplessly sighed. As others were cultivating, he was rushing around. The difference between them was starting to grow.

However, complaining only led to resentment. He had certains burdens he had to carry. He quickly set off for the Mo family’s ancestral land.

When he arrived, he saw that they were on high alert. The grand formation was active as if powerful enemies might arrive at any moment. When they saw Long Chen, they jumped.

“Old fellow, what’s going on?”

The one to receive Long Chen was Mo Nian’s grandfather, Mo Yi. Mo Yi’s cultivation base had reached the Sea Expansion realm, but due to his age, even with great medicinal pills and resources, he had essentially reached his limit.

The branches of the Mo family had gathered once more. This place was filled with experts, and with Mo Yi’s cultivation base, he was unable to reach the higher ranks.

However, despite his low cultivation base, everyone in the Mo family respected him. He was the only one capable of giving Mo Nian a beating and scolding him.

“It’s probably those cowards from the ancient family alliance. I don’t know what’s gotten into them, but they’ve been surveilling us. We have no choice but to be on guard,” answered Mo Yi. “Let’s not talk about that. Child, it’s been a long time. When we get a chance, we should have a proper drink.”

Mo Yi was delighted to see Long Chen. It could be said that he had watched Long Chen and Mo Nian grow up. When Long Chen had shared the Celestial inheritance with Mo Nian, he had essentially allowed Mo Nian to become a mutated Celestial capable of reaching the peak.

It could be said that Mo Nian owed some thanks to Long Chen, but as brothers, his thanks were not expressed through words. Otherwise, that would be diminishing their relationship.

“The drinks will have to wait. I came to see Mo Nian. Has he woken up yet?” asked Long Chen.

“I don’t know what happened to Nian-er. Even after so long, he’s still in the Netherworld. But his soulstar is still present,” said Mo Yi worriedly.

Mo Nian was currently the pillar of the Mo family. He was needed to take charge. Although Mo Yi was able to temporarily take his place as his elder, as time passed, that would become unacceptable. Although the current Mo family looked unified and calmly ready to face their enemies, they were all anxious.

“I’ll bring you over and see if you can help him at all.” Mo Yi quickly led Long Chen to the rear mountains.