Chapter 54: Ancient Hall
"It seems the elders of Spirit Ruins Cave Heaven have been alerted and are gradually making their way here."
At this moment, the sky had already darkened, with stars dotting the heavens.
The two pressed forward for several more li, unknowingly arriving at a desolate area. Here, not a single blade of grass grew—the ground was nothing but scorched earth, with only cracked foundation stones and shattered rubble, nothing else.
In the night, this place exuded a mysterious aura, with faint black mist swirling about.
"Several thousand or even ten thousand years have passed, yet no plants have grown in these ruins. It's really strange—a barren land where even birds wouldn't shit." Pang Bo muttered discontentedly, feeling hungry and thirsty, unable to pick any wild fruit to satisfy himself.
No sooner had he spoken than a tremendous force slammed into him, sending him stumbling and crashing to the ground in the darkness with a thud. Ye Fan was dumbfounded, hardly believing his eyes. Pang Bo scrambled to his feet with a whoosh, turned to look, and immediately felt his scalp go numb as he quickly retreated.
Right in front of them, a cold corpse lay silently, its withered skin wrapped around bones like dried firewood—it was a mummified corpse.
"What the... where did this corpse come from?" Pang Bo felt a chill run down his spine. Being struck by a mummy for no reason would unsettle anyone.
Ye Fan was also alarmed; he hadn't seen how the corpse had appeared. They kept scanning their surroundings, but the scorched ruins were completely empty, nothing but rubble on the ground. Yet the more this was the case, the more uneasy they felt. This was an ancient land abandoned for endless ages—perhaps it truly harbored some unclean things.
The sky grew darker, starlight dimmed, and pitch-blackness surrounded the ruins, with faint mist swirling.
"Why does it feel so eerie and cold..." Pang Bo's heart wavered as chills ran down his spine. "Where did this corpse fall from?"
"We need to leave here quickly," Ye Fan said, sensing something was wrong. This place was not safe to linger.
"What kind of godforsaken place is this? Why is it so cursed!" Pang Bo muttered under his breath, a chill creeping up his back.
"Thud"
Just then, Pang Bo was knocked to the ground again. He rolled over and got up, only to find another mummy beside him.
"Who... who has no sense of decency, throwing corpses around like this?" The joke wasn't funny at all. Both of them felt cold all over, goosebumps rising as they kept scanning their surroundings.
Two withered corpses lay on the ground, scraps of clothing clinging to them. A light touch turned them to powder—who knew how many years they had been there.
"What are you? Come out!"
"Thud"
Another corpse appeared, knocking Pang Bo over.
"Damn it! Do you think I'm easy to bully?" Pang Bo shouted in fear and indignation. Ye Fan was right beside him but hadn't been hit once.
"What the hell is this? Show yourself!" Ye Fan growled.
"Boom"
A violent tremor shook the ancient ruins, sending Ye Fan flying, while Pang Bo tumbled awkwardly far away.
"Thud," "Thud," "Thud"...
This time, not only Pang Bo but Ye Fan as well was repeatedly struck as ancient corpses fell from the sky, knocking them both over. If they had ordinary flesh and blood, their bones would have been broken by now. Only their extraordinary physiques kept them safe.
Dozens of corpses now littered the ground. The place was filled with a chilling, bone-piercing yin energy, as if they had fallen into an ice cellar. Both felt a creeping dread, unable to understand why this was happening.
"Swish"
At that moment, Ye Fan felt every hair on his back stand on end, as if something was rapidly approaching. Without turning his head, he dashed forward, then quickly sidestepped, moving like lightning.
Two green, ghostly lights brushed past him, stopping dozens of meters away, flickering like will-o'-the-wisps. At the same time, the ruins became pitch-black, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. The stars in the sky were blotted out, no longer visible.
"Ghosts!" Pang Bo instinctively reached for his side, but unfortunately, he hadn't brought the Great Thunderclap Monastery copper plaque.
Now, aside from the two green lights, they could see nothing. A black fog had completely covered the ruins. The two green glows were each as large as a washbasin, like twin will-o'-the-wisps or a pair of enormous eyes, eerie and sinister within the black mist.
"There really are unclean things!" Ye Fan and Pang Bo tensed up immediately.
"Swish"
This time, the two green lights moved incredibly fast, reaching them in the blink of an eye. They lunged at Ye Fan again. Pang Bo tried to help, but was sent flying by four or five corpses.
The green lights accelerated, completely locking onto Ye Fan, darting left and right around him. Finally, with a flash, the two green lights vanished, sinking into his body.
"Ye Fan!" Pang Bo cried out, but there was no way to stop it.
At the same time, Ye Fan felt his Sea of Suffering turn icy cold, as if frozen solid. He quickly activated the mystical method recorded in the Dao Scripture, and a glimmer of golden light burst forth.
"Rumble"
The sound of a tsunami erupted. Ye Fan's Sea of Suffering transformed into a golden ocean, surging and churning, sweeping the two green lights up into the high heavens.
"Boom"
With a violent shock, the two green lights, as if startled, shot out of Ye Fan's Sea of Suffering and fled far away. At the same time, Ye Fan's Sea of Suffering instantly returned to calm, a golden light the size of a soybean fixed there like a divine lamp.
"Swish"
The green lights moved with incredible speed. After leaving Ye Fan's Sea of Suffering, they shot straight toward Pang Bo and vanished into his body in an instant. Pang Bo only had time to curse once before collapsing stiffly to the ground. Ye Fan was horrified and rushed over.
"Pang Bo, what's wrong?"
But before he could reach him, Pang Bo sat up, his eyes turning a ghastly green. He stood up instantly, letting out a low, beast-like roar, and stared coldly at Ye Fan for a full several minutes before looking away.
"What are you? Get out of his body!" Ye Fan shouted.
"Boom"
At that moment, a fierce wind arose, whipping up sand and rocks across the ruins. The black mist surged. Pang Bo stood there, his disheveled hair flying, then suddenly strode away. Dozens of ancient corpses around him floated up and followed him into the depths of the ruins.
In an instant, clarity returned. The starry sky reappeared overhead. From a distance, Ye Fan could see Pang Bo flying away, surrounded by black mist and swirling dust, carrying dozens of ancient corpses as he gradually disappeared.
"Pang Bo!" Ye Fan shouted, giving chase.
But Pang Bo's speed was now too fast, rivaling the elders who rode divine rainbows. He vanished from Ye Fan's sight in the blink of an eye.
With Pang Bo's body taken over, his life hung in the balance. Ye Fan was frantic but couldn't catch up.
Ahead lay emptiness. With no other choice, Ye Fan pressed deeper into the ruins, no longer caring how dangerous it might be.
By late night, Ye Fan had traveled who knows how many li, finally approaching the deepest part of the ruins. Here, the dull thumping sound was even more powerful, echoing at regular intervals. Each thump felt like a hammer striking his heart. Ye Fan's face turned pale, and he staggered. Even with his physique, he could barely endure here. An ordinary person's heart would have already burst.
Trees grew sparse here, while broken ancient buildings became more numerous. The spiritual energy grew richer, brimming with vitality—even more of a treasure land than Spirit Ruins Cave Heaven.
"Thud"
Another dull sound. Ye Fan climbed a high mountain and looked ahead. The so-called "deepest part of the ruins" lay before him. Dense clusters of ancient buildings, though half-collapsed into ruins, hinted at their former grandeur.
But what was most astonishing was that this endless stretch of ancient buildings surrounded a volcano. Flames shot into the sky, and within the ring-shaped crater, rolling magma boiled. Though it hadn't overflowed, it was already terrifying, reddening half the sky.
The magnificent ancient buildings encircling the volcano struck Ye Fan as incredibly strange.
In that moment, Ye Fan was shocked to see an unbelievable sight. As the magma surged, a crystalline ancient hall rose and fell within the crater, occasionally emerging.
"Thud"
The dull sound came from within the volcano—or more precisely, from the ancient hall floating in the magma. It was radiant and crystalline, exuding a sense of age, with divine rays flowing around it.
Among the ancient buildings at the volcano's base, a five-meter-long divine bird shone with golden light, arcs of electricity crackling around it. This was the Lightning Bird that had fought the Scaled Ape King two days ago. It appeared here unscathed, so the Scaled Ape King's fate was clear.
The Lightning Bird was a true super-grade ferocious fowl. Elder Wu Qingfeng had said that even he would have to take a detour if he encountered it. It dominated that area, and no other creature dared approach.
But it wasn't alone. In other building clusters, nearly twenty ferocious birds and savage beasts were scattered, all of them rare species, most never seen or heard of before, each incredibly strange.
For example: a silver-winged centipede, as thick as an arm and two meters long, gleaming all over like cast silver, lay quietly among the ruins. No other creature dared cross its territory.
There was also a beast with a body like a wild ox, a lion's head, and cyan scales covering its body, over ten meters tall, standing like a small mountain in the ruins, also claiming its own area.
Nearly twenty such terrifying creatures showed how dangerous the depths of the ruins were. They surrounded the volcano, intently watching the ancient hall rising and falling in the magma.
Just then, Ye Fan finally spotted Pang Bo, standing among the ruins at the volcano's base. He breathed a sigh of relief. Elder Wu Qingfeng and several other old men had surrounded him, not attacking but trapping him.
Nearly twenty elders from Spirit Ruins Cave Heaven had come, roughly matching the number of ferocious birds and beasts. The two sides were evenly matched.
"That is..."
Suddenly, Ye Fan realized he had missed a few. On the volcano itself, there were also beings. A two-meter-tall man, his arms covered in scales that gleamed in the magma's glow. Beside him was a young woman without arms, only a pair of golden wings, and hair like golden silk, shining brightly. On equal footing with them was a giant snake with horns on its head and claws under its belly, far beyond a snake's form—it was already a legendary flood dragon.
Ye Fan's heart tightened. He immediately thought of the legendary great demons, who could already take human form.
"And..." Ye Fan was startled again. On the other side of the volcano, he spotted three more suspected great demons. One was a massive man, extremely burly, three meters tall, with a complete human body but two ox horns on his head.
At the same time, Ye Fan also noticed four or five true humans. One seemed to be the sect master of Spirit Ruins Cave Heaven, whom he had glimpsed once before. Beside him were four white-haired, white-bearded old men. They were also not far from the crater.
Positions were chosen entirely based on strength. At the volcano's base were dozens of ferocious birds and beasts, along with a group of elders from Spirit Ruins Cave Heaven. On the volcano itself were higher-level beings. Their goal was the same: the ancient hall in the magma.
All the powerful beings watched the crater intently. The magma boiled, and the divine hall, shimmering with sacred light, rose and fell, as if the power of time flowed within it, carrying an aura of the ancient era.
The second chapter has arrived. There will be another chapter, but it will likely be very late. Dear readers, you can read it tomorrow morning.