"It seems the elders of Desolate Spirit Grotto-Heaven have all been alarmed. They're arriving one after another," said Ye Fan.
By now, night had fallen. The sky was dotted with stars.
The two of them continued forward for several more miles, unknowingly entering a desolate area. Not a single blade of grass grew here, it was completely scorched earth, filled only with cracked foundations and broken rubble. There was nothing else.
In the darkness, this place exuded a mysterious aura. Faint black mist lingered in the air.
"It's been thousands, tens of thousands, of years, and still no vegetation has grown here? That's just weird. It's like a cursed, barren land where not even birds bother to crap," Pang Bo muttered discontentedly. He was starting to feel hungry and thirsty, hoping to find some wild fruit, but to no avail.
No sooner had he spoken than a tremendous force suddenly slammed into his body. He staggered and fell with a loud thud into the darkness. Ye Fan stared, dumbfounded, almost unable to believe his eyes. Pang Bo sprang up, looking behind him, and immediately felt his scalp go numb as he stumbled back.
Just ahead lay a cold corpse, lying silently on the ground. Its skin was dried and stuck tightly to its bones, like brittle firewood, a desiccated mummy.
"What the... where did this corpse come from?" Pang Bo shuddered. Getting smacked by a mummy out of nowhere would spook anyone.
Ye Fan was also full of doubt. He hadn't seen how the corpse appeared. The two of them scanned their surroundings. The scorched ruins were empty, aside from broken rubble, there was nothing in sight. And yet the very emptiness of the place made it all the more unnerving. This was an ancient site, abandoned for countless years. It truly felt like something unclean lurked here.
The night deepened. The stars grew dim. Around the ruins, darkness engulfed everything. Mist coiled faintly around them.
"Why does it feel so gloomy? And it's getting colder…" Pang Bo said uneasily, chilled to the bone. "Where the hell did that corpse fall from?"
"We should get out of here," Ye Fan said, clearly sensing danger. "This place doesn't feel right."
"What kind of cursed place is this?!" Pang Bo muttered, his spine tingling.
"Bang!"
Just then, Pang Bo was knocked over again. He scrambled to his feet, only to find another mummy lying beside him.
"Who… who the hell is so inconsiderate? Tossing corpses everywhere…" His attempt at a joke fell flat. Both of them were getting chills. Goosebumps rose all over their skin as they kept scanning the darkness.
Two dried corpses now lay there, with tattered clothing that turned to dust at the slightest touch. Who knew how many years they had been here?
"What the hell is it? Come out!"
"Bang!"
Yet another corpse fell from nowhere and knocked Pang Bo flying again.
"Damn it! Do I look like I'm easy to bully?!" Pang Bo was equal parts scared and indignant. Ye Fan stood right beside him and hadn't been hit once.
"What is this ghostly crap?! Show yourself!" Ye Fan shouted.
"Boom!"
Suddenly, the ancient ruins trembled violently. Ye Fan was flung into the air. Pang Bo was sent tumbling far away.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
This time, not just Pang Bo, but even Ye Fan was repeatedly struck. Mummies fell from above like rain, smashing into them. If they had ordinary bodies, their bones would've already shattered. Thankfully, their enhanced physiques allowed them to endure.
Dozens of corpses now littered the ground. The area was chilling to the bone, like a massive ice cellar. They were both shivering, not understanding what was going on.
"Swoosh!"
At that moment, Ye Fan's back prickled, all the hairs stood on end. Something was rushing toward him at great speed. Without looking back, he dashed forward, then darted sideways in a flash.
Two ghostly green lights swept past him and stopped dozens of meters away. They flickered like ghost flames.
Simultaneously, the entire ruin went pitch black, darker than ink. Not even stars could be seen. The sky itself seemed swallowed.
"It's haunted!" Pang Bo instinctively reached to his side, only to remember he hadn't brought the Grand Thunderclap Temple's bronze plaque.
Now, besides those two green glows, they couldn't see anything. Black mist enveloped the entire ruin. The green lights were each the size of a washbasin, hovering in the darkness like twin ghostly flames, or perhaps a pair of giant eyes.
"There really is something evil here!" Ye Fan and Pang Bo were both fully alert.
"Swoosh!"
This time, the green lights moved with terrifying speed, instantly closing in, again targeting Ye Fan. Pang Bo tried to help, but four or five mummies slammed into him, knocking him away.
The green lights danced faster and faster, locked onto Ye Fan, darting erratically around him. Finally, with a sudden flash, both lights vanished, entering his body.
"Ye Fan!" Pang Bo shouted, but there was nothing he could do.
At that moment, Ye Fan felt an icy coldness within his Bitter Sea, as if it were freezing solid. He quickly activated the mystical techniques recorded in the Dao Scripture. A speck of golden light instantly burst forth.
Rumble!
Like a tsunami, the Bitter Sea became a golden ocean, surging and raging. The two green lights were swept up high into the sky.
"Boom!"
With a loud explosion, the green lights shrieked and flew out from Ye Fan's Bitter Sea, fleeing into the distance. At the same time, his Sea calmed instantly. A bean-sized point of golden light hovered there, like a divine lamp.
"Swoosh!"
The green lights then shot toward Pang Bo, entering his body before he could even react. He only had time to curse before collapsing stiffly to the ground.
Ye Fan was stunned and rushed over.
"Pang Bo! Are you okay?"
Before he could get close, Pang Bo suddenly sat up. His eyes now glowed green. He stood up and let out a deep, beast-like growl. He stared coldly at Ye Fan for a long minute before finally looking away.
"What are you?! Get out of his body!" Ye Fan yelled.
"Boom!"
A fierce wind whipped through the ruins. Dust and sand flew everywhere as black mist surged. Pang Bo stood amid the chaos, hair wildly tousled, then suddenly marched away.
Dozens of ancient corpses floated up, following him deeper into the ruins.
In an instant, the area returned to normal. The stars reappeared above. Far off, Ye Fan saw Pang Bo streaking away like a blur, wrapped in black mist and trailing the undead.
"Pang Bo!" Ye Fan shouted, sprinting after him.
But Pang Bo was too fast, moving like someone riding a divine rainbow. In mere moments, he vanished from sight.
Pang Bo's body had been possessed. His life hung by a thread. Ye Fan was filled with dread but could do nothing to catch up.
Before him stretched only emptiness. He had no choice but to head deeper into the ruins. There was no time to consider the danger.
By midnight, Ye Fan had no idea how far he'd gone. At last, he neared the deepest part of the ruins. Here, the strange pounding sounds were louder, more forceful. They struck like fists against the heart.
Ye Fan's face turned pale. Despite his exceptional body, even he could barely stand it. An ordinary person's heart would've burst long ago.
The trees thinned. Ruined structures grew more common. Spiritual energy intensified, more vibrant than even in Desolate Spirit Grotto-Heaven. This place was bursting with life, like a sacred land.
Thud!
Another dull thump. Ye Fan climbed a tall mountain to get a better look. Ahead lay the so-called "deepest part", a massive cluster of ancient buildings, densely packed together. Most were half-collapsed ruins, but their scale revealed their past grandeur.
Most shocking of all, the endless ruins encircled a volcano. Flames roared from within, and lava boiled inside the crater. Though it hadn't overflowed, it illuminated half the sky in red.
An endless complex of buildings surrounding a volcano, an eerie sight.
What stunned Ye Fan even more was the sight of a crystal-clear, magnificent ancient temple rising and falling in the lava. It shimmered with light and floated up from the magma from time to time.
Thud!
That deep, pounding sound came from within the volcano, or more precisely, from the temple submerged in lava. The temple sparkled, exuding the aura of ancient years, with divine radiance swirling around it.
In the surrounding ruins, a five-meter-long divine bird crackled with electricity, its entire body golden and wreathed in lightning. It was the same lightning bird that had fought the Scaled Ape King two days ago, completely unharmed. The Scaled Ape King's fate was obvious.
The lightning bird was a true apex predator. Elder Wu Qingfeng once said that even he would avoid it. Now it ruled the ruins, and no creature dared approach.
But it wasn't alone. Scattered among the other buildings were nearly twenty other terrifying beasts, many of them unknown or unheard of, each one extraordinary.
For example: a silver-winged centipede, as thick as a human arm and two meters long, gleaming like it was cast in silver, lay coiled silently. No other creature dared get close.
Another beast, shaped like a wild ox but with a lion's head and blue scales, stood over ten meters tall, like a small mountain.
Nearly twenty such terrifying beings surrounded the volcano, all staring tensely at the temple rising and sinking in the lava.
And then, Ye Fan spotted Pang Bo. He stood among the ruins below the volcano.
Ye Fan breathed a sigh of relief. Elder Wu Qingfeng and several other elders had surrounded Pang Bo. Though they hadn't attacked, they were clearly keeping him from leaving.
Desolate Spirit Grotto-Heaven had sent nearly twenty elders, the same number as the beasts. Both sides were evenly matched in strength.
Then,
"What's that…?" Ye Fan froze.
He had miscounted. On the volcano itself were other beings.
One was a two-meter-tall man with arms covered in glimmering scales, reflecting the lava's glow.
Beside him stood a girl, she had no arms, only golden wings. Her hair shimmered like golden silk.
And with them was a giant serpent, horned and clawed beneath the belly. It had already surpassed the form of a snake. It was a Flood Dragon, a legendary draconic-beast.
Ye Fan's heart trembled. These were ancient demonic beings capable of taking human form.
And there were more! On the other side of the volcano stood three more suspected demon lords. One of them, a towering brute over three meters tall, had two bull horns on his head, despite otherwise having a human body.
Ye Fan also saw four or five real humans, including one he recognized: the sect master of Desolate Spirit Grotto-Heaven, whom he had glimpsed from afar before. Beside him were four elderly white-haired men, all positioned close to the crater.
The scene was clearly organized by power level. The area below the volcano held vicious beasts and Desolate Spirit's elders. The volcano's summit was reserved for even higher beings, all focused on one thing: the ancient temple rising and falling in the lava.
All of them watched the crater intently. The temple shimmered with divine light and ancient power. Time itself seemed to swirl around it, emanating a breath of antiquity.