Immortal Tomb

This gave him an extra way out. The struggle for the Crimson Cloud Purple Fruit was tied to his path of immortality; originally, there had been no retreat to speak of. His opponent was a Demon Core stage beast, and very likely not merely in the early Demon Core stage. Qin Sang had already prepared himself to fight with his life on the line. Unless his trump cards were completely exhausted and he was cornered, he would never back down! Now that he had a Nascent Soul reward to fall back on, if things proved truly impossible, he could withdraw at any time. A heavy weight lifted from Qin Sang's heart, and his whole body felt considerably lighter. While Qin Sang was lost in thought, Dongyang Bo and Chenyan were also conversing in secret. "Immortal Dongyun did not see through your true identity. Back when your master went missing, I had no interactions with him. Unless someone was familiar with you or your master, they wouldn't readily connect you with a little girl who was only in the Qi Refinement stage over two hundred years ago. After all, achieving Nascent Soul formation in a mere two hundred years is simply too shocking." Chenyan said, "Master traveled tens of thousands of li to the Lesser Cold Domain solely for Ziwei Palace. Originally, he intended to return to our sect as soon as we finished exploring Ziwei Palace, wishing to avoid entanglement with local factions. That was why he didn't introduce me to many people. At most, they might have caught a single glimpse of me." Dongyang Bo grunted in assent. "That's good. As long as your identity isn't exposed before the treasure hunt on Heavenly Mountain, our chances remain quite high. However, forgive me for asking... Before your master, others have been trapped on Heavenly Mountain, and without exception, every single one vanished completely. The depths of Heavenly Mountain surely hold dangers unknown to us. Even though your master's cultivation was supreme, being trapped inside for two hundred years... I fear..." "My master is a late-stage grand cultivator! Nothing could have happened to him!" Chenyan's tone suddenly grew agitated. Dongyang Bo hastily soothed her. "I am not saying your master has no chance of escaping, but you must prepare for the worst. "I never pried into your sect's affairs before. When you came to the Lesser Cold Domain, you were still young. By now, of your nearly three hundred years of life, you have spent more than two hundred on Shaohua Mountain, so there is some affection between us. "If we fail to rescue your master, what are your plans for the future? Do you intend to stay at Shaohua Mountain, or return to your sect?" Before Chenyan could answer, Dongyang Bo added, "You are already a Nascent Soul cultivator, and so young at that. Perhaps you even have a shot at the late Nascent Soul stage or the legendary Deity Transformation stage. Nowhere would treat you poorly. "If you are willing to remain on Shaohua Mountain, I welcome it with open arms and will gladly hand the mountain's foundation over to you. There is no promising talent among the younger generation of Shaohua Mountain; in the future, you would be Shaohua Mountain's ancestral founder. "If this trip yields no gains, I have less than a ten percent chance of surviving my next heavenly tribulation, and I doubt I will last until the next opening of Ziwei Palace. "Though great chaos approaches, opportunities lie hidden within crisis. "Still, I worry that people in your sect might care about you and have been searching for your whereabouts all along. "From your master's bearing, one could tell that your sect's power likely far exceeds our imagination. If they come knocking on our door demanding people, I won't have the strength to stop them." Chenyan fell silent for a moment, then said indifferently, "Rest assured. Though Master and I had few close acquaintances in the sect, we had no blood feuds either, so at least it won't implicate Shaohua Mountain. When Master and I vanished, they were too busy rejoicing to go searching for me. I cannot make a decision right now either. I will certainly have to return to the sect eventually, but not yet." ... The exit of the stone hall gave way to a sheer cliff. The entire mountain seemed to have been sheared through from top to bottom by a razor-sharp blade, smooth as a mirror. Ahead, grayish-white mist drifted between heaven and earth, limiting visibility to at most a few dozen feet. Deep within the mist, faint wisps of black qi flickered in and out of sight. Qin Sang was intimately familiar with these auras—yin baleful qi. Where the yin baleful qi tainted the air, the mist turned grayish-black, blending into a murky chaos where nothing could be clearly seen. Yet this grayish-white mist was not composed of yin baleful qi alone. Within it, a yin wind howled like the weeping of ghosts, and deep inside, shadowy apparitions seemed to flit about, intensely eerie. Could those shadowy figures be ghosts trapped here? Qin Sang grew intensely vigilant. The methods of ghosts were bizarre and difficult to handle. The place where he had encountered the most ghosts was Wuya Valley. However, those creatures had been born from blood qi, closer to wicked spirits, and differed greatly from true ghosts. For Ziwei Palace, a place named as an immortal palace, to harbor a region shrouded in ghostly fog meant the ghosts within were bound to be terrifying. Qin Sang noticed that Dongyang Bo, who had appeared completely relaxed until now, wore a visibly graver expression. Holding his sword in one hand, he raised a magic treasure shaped like a vajra ring with the other. Between this treasure and Dongyang Bo, the aura was noticeably more tightly bound—clear proof that the vajra ring was his life magic treasure, not the sword. "Go!" With a flick of Dongyang Bo's hand, the vajra ring flew over the heads of Qin Sang and the other four, radiating brilliant light and shielding them beneath it. Next, Dongyang Bo pointed toward the chains on the cliff face and said, "Descend by the chains, and you will enter an area known as the Immortal Tomb. It is blanketed in ghostly mist and teeming with countless evil ghosts and vengeful spirits. It was formidable to begin with, but after devouring many cultivators who trespassed into Ziwei Palace over the ages, it has become even harder to traverse. Some of the evil ghosts are extraordinarily powerful, beyond what even Nascent Soul cultivators can match. Do not let your guard down. These ghosts excel at beguiling the mind. Guard your minds firmly and follow the guidance of my magic treasure. If necessary, seal off your five senses." "Your disciples obey!" ... On the precipice, dozens of iron chains hung down into the depths of the ghostly mist, their ends nowhere in sight. Each chain was as thick as a thigh. Caught in the yin wind, they banged against the cliff with dull thuds. Climbing down while gripping the icy iron chains, Qin Sang could still feel a dreadful chill seep into the depths of his heart despite the protection of the vajra ring. No wonder it was said that the Outer Hall of Ziwei Palace was fraught with mortal peril; for Foundation Establishment cultivators, entering here was almost certain death. If not for Dongyang Bo and Chenyan, Qin Sang would not have even made it past the first trial with the corpse vultures. Thinking of this, Qin Sang grew even more worried about Yunyouzi. Yunyouzi was going to break through the trials alone to reach the Inner Hall. Hopefully his preparations were thorough enough. Qin Sang circulated his spiritual power with all his might to dispel the cold, but when his feet finally touched solid ground, he was still nearly frozen stiff. He retrieved a spirit pill for dispelling cold, swallowed it, and turned to look into the depths of the ghostly mist. Ahead lay a stretch of flat ground, completely devoid of vegetation. The soil was a dark brownish-black, leaving one to wonder whether it had been soaked in blood to end up like this. Qin Sang's gaze suddenly focused—he saw a grave! The grave was very low, resembling a small mound of earth. Before it stood a broken stele, the characters upon it thoroughly obscured, scratched away by countless claw marks. A single stele, a single grave, standing solitary in this ghostly realm for who knew how many tens of thousands of years. No, this wasn't the only solitary grave! Qin Sang quietly took a step forward, his field of vision broadening slightly. Behind this grave, three more graves appeared, neatly arranged. And behind those, there were more!