As for whether Old Chen would hold anything back, there was no need to worry about that. Having sworn upon his Martial Dao Heart, any attempt to deceive them would exact a price—if it caused a flaw to develop in his Martial Dao Heart, he would likely never stand a chance of reaching the Emperor Realm for the rest of his life.
It could be said that as long as they obtained this first-hand intelligence, all three of them would gain a sliver of advantage in the coming battle for the Grand Dao, improving their odds of claiming the Emperor Throne.
At the thought of this, whether it was the middle-aged woman or the other man, both stared at the Stone Demon with blazing eyes, as though the figure before them were not a loathed member of the Demon Race, but rather a platter of exquisite celestial delicacies.
Just then, Old Chen—who had been probing the secrets within the Stone Demon's sea of consciousness—suddenly changed expression. His aura erupted in a violent burst, and the middle-aged woman and the man, who had been wholly focused on suppressing the Stone Demon, were caught off guard and blasted backward.
"What are you doing?!" the man roared furiously, assuming that Old Chen had uncovered some extraordinary piece of information and refused to share it, and had turned on them instead.
If that were truly the case, it would only prove that Old Chen was short-sighted.
But upon looking more closely, he realized that was not what had happened. Old Chen's condition...
"Old Chen seems... not quite right." The middle-aged woman had noticed it too, her gaze fixed ahead as she spoke.
At this moment, two streams of bright red blood were flowing from beneath Old Chen's eyes. Not only that, his face had turned an alarming shade of crimson, and his wild spiritual sense was sweeping outward like a tidal wave, as though he had succumbed to Qi Deviation.
"Xue... Xue Li!" Old Chen ground out through clenched teeth, staggering backward as though driven by an uncontrollable force, before collapsing face-up onto the ground. Blood sprayed from his mouth in torrents, and his aura weakened rapidly.
"What?!" The middle-aged woman's beautiful face drained of color, and she instinctively scanned the surroundings. She knew full well what the name Xue Li meant—pseudo-emperors of the Star Boundary recognized it well. He was a Demon Saint of the Demon Realm, an existence equivalent to an Emperor.
But... could a Demon Saint even enter the Mystic Heaven Palace?
"Soul restriction!" The man, quicker on the uptake, arrived at the crux of the matter and exclaimed, "There's a soul restriction planted in this Stone Demon's sea of consciousness. We've been lured into a trap!"
The middle-aged woman's face cleared with sudden understanding. It was not that Xue Li had entered the Mystic Heaven Palace, but rather that he had left some kind of restriction within this Stone Demon's mind—and Old Chen had just fallen victim to it.
"Save... save me!" Blood continued to seep from Old Chen's seven orifices, and his voice was a desperate plea for help. Even the two pseudo-emperors beside him could clearly perceive that his spiritual sense was locked in a fierce clash with some other force.
And that force, needless to say, could only have come from the Demon Saint Xue Li!
The middle-aged woman and the man exchanged a glance, and both saw the struggle in each other's eyes. The Demon Saints commanded too fearsome a reputation—going up against one of them was beyond their courage and confidence. They would be fools to throw themselves in and risk becoming trapped alongside Old Chen.
Yet watching Old Chen suffer like this without lifting a finger was something neither of their hearts could stomach. Besides... Xue Li had presumably planted only a single soul restriction within the Stone Demon's sea of consciousness, so the power it could exert should be limited.
After only a brief moment of hesitation, both of them moved at once, appearing at Old Chen's side and each thrusting a finger toward his forehead—left and right.
Spiritual sense surged forth. At this point, the two could afford no further hesitation. Their spiritual bodies dove straight into Old Chen's sea of consciousness, and immediately, the expressions of both the middle-aged woman and the man began shifting wildly.
Half an hour passed in what felt like an instant. The middle-aged woman and the man suddenly opened their eyes, each gasping for breath, their faces having turned an ashen pallor.
They looked at each other and saw the same lingering dread reflected in both pairs of eyes.
"We let our guard down!" the middle-aged woman said through gritted teeth. But who could have predicted that Xue Li would leave a divided consciousness in a Half-Saint's mind? Even for a Demon Saint, doing so was not without cost.
And yet, that single divided consciousness had driven three pseudo-emperors into a desperate struggle. The power the fragment could wield was not necessarily greater than any one of them, but its mastery over that power was something all three could not hope to match. Moreover, the battlefield was Old Chen's sea of consciousness—both the middle-aged woman and the man found themselves constrained and hampered, while Xue Li's divided consciousness could act without restraint, wielding its strength to the fullest.
The bitter battle ended with the destruction of Xue Li's divided consciousness, but the price paid was far from negligible.
The man glanced at Old Chen, a look of pained sorrow crossing his face. "Old Chen, he..."
The middle-aged woman's expression was equally somber. "There's no threat to his life, but..." She trailed off, letting out a heavy sigh.
"Let's find somewhere to settle down first," the man suggested.
"We have no choice."
A short while later, in a hollowed-out cave, the middle-aged woman entered first. Only after confirming that there was nothing dangerous inside did she send out a pulse of spiritual sense to transmit a signal. Soon after, the man carried the unconscious Old Chen into the cavern, placed him on a clean patch of ground, and then turned back to make several arrangements outside the entrance.
Old Chen remained unconscious for a full three days this time. It was only after those three days had passed that he finally stirred back to consciousness.