Cui Yan keenly noticed Yun Miao’s lapse. His brow creased slightly as he stepped forward, the black law-ordaining chains at his side clinking, faintly aiming at Su Ming.

“This treasure is strange, it gathers spirits and nourishes souls, unheard of. Besides, the murderous aura is so heavy, clearly something that has drunk countless people's blood. Su Ming is only a Qi Refining disciple; holding such a vicious object, no matter his intentions, will sooner or later be counterattacked by the murderous aura and become a puppet.”

Cui Yan’s voice grew colder and colder, murderous intent laid bare. “For the sect’s sake, this thing must be thoroughly investigated. If it cannot be purified, it should be sealed, or… destroyed.”

When she spoke the word “destroy,” she raised her hand and a black light condensed in her palm. A destructive energy instantly locked onto Su Ming’s left hand.

“Slow!”

One word.

Not loud, not piercing, yet it carried an unprecedented decisiveness and weight, like a great bell striking, detonating in everyone’s heart.

Yun Miao Zhenren moved.

He did not attack, merely lifted his sleeve and waved it downward.

Hum—

A soft, pale-green light curtain descended from above like a huge glazed bowl, completely covering Su Ming and the three-zhang-wide Heart-Questioning Platform.

The light curtain seemed as thin as a cicada’s wing, yet it was unbelievably tough. Cui Yan’s enraged black palm wind slammed into the curtain and vanished as if a mud ox plunged into the sea, disappearing without even a ripple.

Not only that, the curtain completely isolated inside from outside.

Outside divine senses, sight, and sound were all blocked.

On the Heart-Questioning Platform, only Yun Miao Zhenren, Cui Yan, and Su Ming lying prone on the ground remained.

Cui Yan’s pupils instantly shrank to pinpoints.

As the law-enforcing elder, her reflexes were lightning-fast. She violently retreated three zhang, her aura suddenly turning dangerous, her black hair moving though there was no wind.

“Yun Miao!”

For the first time she directly called the leader by name, her tone icy. “What do you mean by this? Activating the ‘Azure Void Absolute Domain’ to block investigation? Are you going to shelter this disciple of unknown origin? Or… are you, because of this unidentified object, willing to ignore the sect’s latent risks?”

At this moment, the iron-faced Punishment Peak master was truly enraged.

For the sake of a Qi Refining disciple, the sect leader had used the core authorization of the mountain-protecting array that was only activated in times of life-or-death for the sect!

Yun Miao Zhenren ignored Cui Yan’s interrogation.

He even turned his back to her, no longer looking at Cui Yan.

He walked step by step to Su Ming’s side and crouched down. His once lofty green robe was now smeared with dust from the floor, but he paid it no mind.

His gaze did not fall on Su Ming’s face, but instead stared almost greedily and tremblingly at the ring.

Looking at its mottled scratches, at the ugly dark-brown color, at the spiritual-energy vortex that was slowly dissipating.

“Too… similar…”

Yun Miao Zhenren’s voice trembled, choked with a trace of disbelief. He reached out to touch the ring, but his finger recoiled as though shocked the moment it was about to make contact.

A strange silence spread across the Heart-Questioning Platform.

After a long while, Yun Miao Zhenren drew a deep breath and stood.

He turned to face Cui Yan, who was on the verge of erupting.

At this moment Yun Miao’s face no longer bore his usual mild courtesy. In its place was a solemnity Cui Yan had never seen, and a depth of sorrow so profound it made him inscrutable.

“Sister Cui.”

Yun Miao Zhenren’s voice was soft, but each word carried immense weight. “This thing… must not be touched. Nor must it be investigated.”

“Give me a reason!” Cui Yan would not yield an inch, the law-ordaining chains behind her writhing like poisonous dragons. “A reason sufficient to convince Punishment Peak, to convince the sect’s code! Otherwise, even if you are the sect leader today, I will petition the Grand Elder Council to decide!”

Yun Miao Zhenren was silent for a full three breaths.

During those three breaths, the air inside the barrier seemed to congeal.

Then he raised a hand and pointed at the ring on Su Ming’s finger, speaking word by word, voice dry but as heavy as a thousand weights:

“Because, this ring…”

“Is the ‘Starfall Soul-Nurturing Ring.’”

He paused, his gaze seeming to pierce the barrier as if he saw the bloody winds of a thousand years ago. His tone soaked with the weariness and helplessness of time:

“It is the last hope left in this world by the Star River Shen family.”

“And the Shen family’s ancestral elder, the Star River Venerable…”

Yun Miao Zhenren looked at Cui Yan, his eyes reflecting emotions she could not comprehend:

“Was the life-and-death confidant of my Cloud Hidden Sect’s Grand Elder, Haoyuan Zhenjun.”

“Today, if you destroy this ring, harm this person—”

Yun Miao Zhenren’s voice suddenly became ice-cold and authoritative. His green robe rippled though there was no wind, and a terrifying aura slowly awakened around him, vast and profound, as if linked to the very fate of the Cloud Hidden Sect’s mountains:

“Then you force my Cloud Hidden Sect to sever its morals, to betray its blood oath, and to go to deathless war with Uncle Haoyuan!”

“Sister Cui,”

Yun Miao finished, his voice echoing through the dead silence of the Azure Void Absolute Domain:

“Is that reason enough?”

Inside the Azure Void Absolute Domain, the wind and snow beyond and the rumbling sea of clouds were all extinguished.

It felt as if a chunk had been torn out of heaven and earth, leaving only the translucent barrier radiating a faint cyan glow and the air inside, stifling and hard to breathe.

The law-ordaining chains behind Cui Yan writhed like frightened vipers. Though they had not struck, they hovered restlessly in the air, emitting a teeth-grinding metallic friction. She stared at Yun Miao with the stubbornness of a Punishment Peak master confronting sect principles, refusing to retreat even before the sect leader.

“Starfall Soul-Nurturing Ring?”

A cold sneer curved Cui Yan’s lips, the skepticism blatant. “Sect Leader, are you expecting me to believe ancient histories? The Star River Shen family— that millennia-old clan famed for ‘array mastery and spirit gathering’— has long since been erased from history. You point at this foul, ghostly, demon-bound scrap and tell me it’s a legacy of a top orthodox family?”

She stepped forward, the greenstone floor cracking silently underfoot, a spillover of restrained pressure from the Spirit Transformation realm.

“Even if you want to protect this youth, there’s no need to cook up such a bizarre excuse. This thing is clearly a blood-drinking demonic artifact. If not, where would that nauseating resentment and baleful energy come from?”

Yun Miao Zhenren did not respond to Cui Yan’s pressing questions.

He only quietly stared at the ring, the sadness in his eyes as deep as an autumn pond, impossible to dissipate.

“Sister, you know only part of it, not the whole.”

Yun Miao slowly extended his hand. A faint but exquisitely pure glimmer of spiritual light condensed at his fingertip. That light was not the common mist-like attribute of the Cloud Hidden Sect, but a silvery radiance with the chilly texture of starlight.

“The Shen family left behind a clan-securing secret formation, called the ‘Zhou Tian Star Array Spirit-Gathering Formation.’ This formation is neither offense nor defense, but it has one defiant auxiliary function—the last retreat left by the Shen family’s ancestral elder for the family’s core bloodline.”