Chương 168: Chapter 57: Dark Underground, Stone Bridge

"We have been dead for an eternity," the male corpse rasped, his voice sounding like dry parchment rubbing together in a drafty tomb.

"Our consciousness only persists because our Primordial Souls merged with these Corpse-Controlling Gu to subvert them from within. Without that, we would be nothing more than the mindless, rotting husks littering the tunnels outside." He shook his head with a bitter, hollow laugh that echoed off the damp walls.

"By devouring our own kind, we have evolved to a level comparable to Golden Core cultivators, but escaping this tomb requires more. We need to reach the late stage of the Golden Core realm to even stand a chance. Yet, every Gu in this first layer—aside from the pathetic Qi Condensation drones—has already been consumed. Our only hope lies in the second floor."

"The second floor!" The female corpse's decayed frame trembled violently, her jaundiced, clouded eyes wide with a deep-seated terror.

"The primal instincts of the Gu within me scream of the horrors there. There are Tier 4 Gu Kings in that darkness, entities at the Nascent Soul stage. If we dare enter, we will not be the hunters; we will be the prey, devoured in an instant." The male corpse fell into a grim silence, but then his body suddenly locked. A manic, predatory joy ignited in his dull eyes as he gasped, "Life! I smell the vibrant aura of the living! After a thousand years of silence, a cultivator has finally blundered into this grave!"

"A millennium ago, a female cultivator stumbled into our reach. I mated with her and then consumed her essence to break through to Tier 3," he hissed, his excitement palpable.

"If this new arrival is another woman, she could provide the catalyst for me to reach the late stage of the third tier!" The female corpse was equally agitated, her frame shaking as a feverish hunger filled her gaze. To her, a male cultivator was an equally exquisite treasure, a vessel of yang energy to be drained and discarded. Deep within the lightless subterranean cavern, the phantom image of an ancient cyan teleportation array flickered into existence.

Seconds later, a solitary figure solidified within the shimmering luminescence. The Azure Jade Plate Reyn had looted from the cyclopean beast at the lake bottom had contained a hidden, high-level teleportation mechanism. The moment he had touched it, the array had surged to life, whisking him across space before he could even register the threat. Reyn's expression was a mask of frigid hostility, his eyes narrowed into slits of dark suspicion.

With a sharp flick of his sleeve, he summoned the Heaven-Turning Seal and the soul-piercing cone-shaped artifact, letting them hover in a protective, humming orbit around him. He layered several shimmering defensive barriers of spiritual energy before cautiously surveying the surrounding gloom.

"Where has this jade plate flung me?" Reyn muttered, his previous satisfaction at claiming the Mu Jade Swords completely evaporated.

"The rules state that carrying a Mu Jade Sword prevents one from leaving the Trial Realm via teleportation. Since both swords are still in my possession, I must still be within the boundaries of this pocket dimension." This realization brought a cold sliver of relief. He had infiltrated the Mu Family specifically to secure a method for Foundation Establishment; if he were suddenly cast into some distant, unknown region and missed the opportunity, his entire plan would be ruined.

Reyn closed his eyes, projecting his Divine Sense outward. His brow furrowed instantly, a wave of shock crossing his features. Despite possessing a Primordial Soul at the Golden Core stage, his mental reach was severely constricted, barely covering a three-mile radius. The suppression here was ten times more oppressive than in the upper regions of the Trial Realm.

"This place reeks of ancient decay and malevolence. It is a deathtrap," Reyn warned himself, his heart hardening. Though the darkness was absolute to the naked eye, his Divine Sense provided a clear, monochromatic map of his surroundings. He stood within a massive, vaulted underground tunnel. The passage was several zhang high and wide, winding forward for over two hundred zhang before terminating at a foreboding stone bridge.

Whatever lay beyond that bridge remained hidden, swallowed by a darkness that even his current perception could not pierce. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"This is no natural cave; it was meticulously constructed by cultivators," Reyn mused, his mind racing.

"Is this some hidden trial or a sinister trap laid by the Mu Family?" Unable to find an answer, he gripped his artifacts and began to advance with the silent, measured gait of a predator. The two-hundred-zhang trek was eerily tranquil, yet the air grew increasingly frigid. At the foot of the stone bridge, his Divine Sense hit an invisible wall. The structure was shielded by a powerful restriction specifically designed to repel mental probes.

"Hmph." Reyn let out a low, dangerous snort. He channeled his will through the Golden Seal. Instantly, his soul power surged fivefold, peaking at the mid-Golden Core stage. Simultaneously, he activated one of the seal's most heaven-defying properties: the ability to ignore any Divine Sense restriction within a full major realm of his own power. His mental projection surged forward, momentarily feeling as if it had plunged into a thick, clinging mire.

There was a brief sensation of sluggish resistance, and then, he broke through the barrier. Reyn's face was a mask of stone, his gaze darkening into a shadowed abyss as a tidal wave of shock crashed through his mind. Even with the Golden Seal providing a five-fold amplification to his Primordial Soul—elevating his mental fortitude to the level of a Mid-Golden Core stage expert—and its heaven-defying trait of bypassing restrictions within a full major realm, his Divine Sense remained utterly impotent.

It could not penetrate even a hair's breadth into the ward guarding the stone bridge. The deduction hit him with the weight of a mountain: the one who had laid this restriction was, at the very least, a Mid-Nascent Soul True Monarch. Shadows of doubt and calculation flickered in Reyn's eyes. The presence of a ward forged by a Nascent Soul True Monarch cast a suffocating shroud of dread over his heart.

Such beings possessed unfathomable divine abilities and boundless magical power, standing on a plane of existence light-years beyond the Golden Core stage. With his current arsenal, Reyn could barely hold his own against a Mid-Golden Core cultivator if he burned every trump card, and he might have a sliver of a chance to escape a Late-Golden Core master. But against a legendary Nascent Soul stage entity? He would be erased from existence in a heartbeat.

"Even if a True Monarch built this place, there is no turning back," he rasped, his voice cold and hollow. He had been forcibly transported into this void; without a known exit, the only path was forward into the unknown.

"Though this place reeks of lethal mystery, danger and fortune are always twin shadows. I will not leave empty-handed." Within a few breaths, the hesitation in his eyes died, replaced by a steel-like resolve. He moved. He took a single, heavy step onto the stone bridge. In an instant, the world warped. Several ghastly, pitch-black skulls materialized from the void, trailing an aura of bone-chilling frost as they lunged for his throat. Reyn's pupils constricted into pinpricks, but he didn't flinch.

He stood like a statue as the shrieking phantoms closed the distance. In a fraction of a second, the lead skull was less than a zhang away, its maw wide and ready to tear into his flesh. But the moment it touched him, it dissolved like grey smoke. An illusion. More skulls followed, vanishing into nothingness as they struck. But as the final skull lunged with a piercing, soul-tearing howl, Reyn's hand blurred.

The cone-shaped artifact, already brimming with his latent magical power, hissed through the air like a bolt of black lightning, piercing the phantom's center. Skree! A shrill, agonizing scream tore through the silence. The skull didn't vanish; it shattered into jagged bone fragments that melted into a pool of foul, black liquid. Reyn reclaimed his treasure, his expression devoid of triumph. If anything, his wariness deepened into a cold paranoia. Then, the scenery shifted again.

The oppressive bridge vanished, replaced by a tranquil sanctuary. It was a secluded medicinal garden, roughly seven or eight mu in size. A clear, still lake sat at its heart, where several grass carp drifted lazily beneath the surface. Exotic flora and rare herbs lined the paths, their delicate, ethereal fragrance swirling around him—a jarring, floral mask over the scent of death.