Ever since the Golden Thunder Sect incident, he's become increasingly aware of Sikong Yan's terrifying cunning beneath his mad exterior.

Dealing with such an old fox requires utmost caution.

After all, through their previous conversation, traps were laid everywhere in his words.

The seemingly casual inquiry about the Golden Thunder Sect was actually laced with hidden dangers.

If he answered along those lines, it would mean exposing himself as being in the Eastern Domain and fully participating in the Golden Thunder Sect battle.

Although the Taiqing Sect's forbidden zone matter was a secret, only a handful of people had access, which would instantly narrow down the scope of their identities.

Luckily, he claimed ignorance, after all, the forbidden zone affair might have been witnessed by others, like the Second Uncle.

"Heh..."

Sikong Yan's laugh was tinged with amusement upon hearing Zhou Qing's response.

Zhou Qing no longer paid attention, showing a disinterest in further inquiry, readying to enter his own forbidden zone for a look.

The mixture of truth and lies and reality and illusion is the way to survive in the Divine Ruins Celestial Palace.

"Number One," Sikong Yan suddenly spoke, his tone unusually serious, "Since you don't know about the Golden Thunder Sect, never mind, help a fellow countryman out."

He gestured towards the screen of his forbidden zone, issuing an invitation.

Zhou Qing's heart and spirit were slightly stirred.

To be honest, he was quite curious.

Sikong Yan's forbidden zone was likely hidden somewhere in the Eastern Domain.

Those jaw-dropping five-color and four-color arrays probably originated from there.

Maybe it conceals a relic of an array master akin to Situ Jiuyao.

Sikong Yan sighed, "There's a place inside where a Rebirth Lotus grows, I want to pick it to save a poor little girl; if I don't succeed this time, she may not survive?"

Zhou Qing's heart and spirit quivered, just about to inquire when he suddenly became alert.

This guy was setting him up again.

"Heh," he chuckled coldly, "Someone like you would risk yourself to save others?"

Zhou Qing pretended to be unaware of Nannan's existence.

After all, only Shen Yunzhou, Cao Zhengyang, Mo Xingjian, and he knew of it.

Last time when Gao Xuan Shibo was in seclusion, the imaging stone concerning Nannan was delivered, and only the three of them were involved.

Upon hearing this, Sikong Yan immediately lamented, "Prejudice in people's hearts is like a mountain, but I'm compassionate too, you know, I risked so much for that little girl before…"

"Alright, alright…" Zhou Qing replied impatiently.

Feigning disinterest in the "little girl," he said, "I'm a bit curious about your forbidden zone, so I might as well take a look."

The purple sphere around Sikong Yan flashed, clearly not expecting Zhou Qing to agree so readily.

But quickly, he warmly said, "Please!"

Subsequently, the two of them entered the purple forbidden zone image one after the other…

...

When Zhou Qing opened his eyes again, he was met with biting cold.

A boundless ice plain lay before him, with a pale sky and a crystalline expanse of ice meeting as one, the blinding glare making it almost impossible to keep his eyes open.

He instinctively channeled spiritual power to resist the cold, feeling somewhat better.

"Strange…" Zhou Qing wondered silently.

From the outside, Sikong Yan's forbidden zone looked like a different scene, yet it turned into an ice plain?

But then he considered that his own forbidden zone appeared from the outside as withered trees, a blood river, and a coffin, yet internally began with the Gravity Zone, and he was reassured.

Looking around, Sikong Yan's figure was shrouded in a hazy glow, just as when seen in Zone 6.

Including himself.

"Surprised, aren't you?" Sikong Yan's voice carried a hint of pride, "There are no such ice plains in the Eastern Domain."

Zhou Qing coolly replied, "It seems the noble Palace Master of Cangyan Daoist Palace has traveled quite extensively in his day."

"Naturally," Sikong Yan's tone turned nostalgic, "I've been wandering since the Golden Core Stage. Back then, I was quite naive, and I encountered so many…"

"I'm not interested in your past," Zhou Qing interrupted, "Let's get started."

Sikong Yan sighed, "I'm truly lonely; even finding someone to talk to is difficult…"

With that, he took a step forward.

"Crack—"

The ice surface suddenly cracked with a web-like pattern, countless ghostly blue ice shards rising from the fissures, coalescing into eerie runes in mid-air.

The entire ice plain's temperature plummeted further, even the exhaled breath instantly freezing into ice crystals that fell.

"You might not believe it," Sikong Yan said with a proud smile, "This forbidden zone, I'm the only one who can currently enter it."

He flipped his hand, taking out a giant white bone from his storage bag.

The bone, over two meters long, was covered in intricate carvings, glinting with a ghostly light under the ice crystal reflections.

Zhou Qing's brow twitched, "What is that…"

"A key." Sikong Yan said no more, directly throwing the giant bone toward the center of the rune array.

"Boom!"

A dazzling blue light shot skyward, and the space above the ice plain cracked like a shattered mirror.

Amidst the swirling ice crystals, a colossal whale-shaped apparition slowly emerged.

Its entire body was transparent, the skeleton clearly visible, each vertebra glowing with ancient runes.

As it moved, the entire sky undulated with ripples like water.

"Let's go!" Sikong Yan leapt into the whale apparition.

Zhou Qing looked up at the translucent whale that was singing to the heavens, deeply shocked.

Could Sikong Yan's forbidden zone actually be hidden inside some living creature?

Without time to ponder further, he followed close behind, diving into the whale apparition.

As the surroundings spun and shifted, when Zhou Qing opened his eyes again, the scene before him finally matched what was seen in the outside image.

The scarlet sky resembled torn flesh, numerous tumor-like clouds dangling and writhing, with viscous blood oozing from their surfaces, ready to drip at any moment.

The ground wasn't soil but a dense weave of overlapping pale arms.