Chapter 124: Dare to Ask the Heavens, Is There an Immortal?
“Don’t ask. Let’s leave this place first,” the purple-clad girl said, her eyes filled with terror.
The lake bottom was murky and dark. Ye Fan’s body radiated faint specks of light, like a bright lamp suspended in the water. The massive bronze hall ahead, mottled with green rust and as vast as a city, unsettled his heart. An extraordinarily peculiar fluctuation emanated from it.
Ye Fan pulled the purple-clad girl back as they retreated. The undercurrent surged, and among the broken walls and ruins behind them, seven or eight wax-like corpses floated up, appearing eerily strange. “Faster!” the purple-clad girl said, her eyes brimming with tears as she looked at him pitifully, her face pale as snow.
Ye Fan was not a reckless man. In such an unknown situation, he naturally wouldn’t take risks. He broke through the water, intending to leave the lake bottom. But above them, a terrifying, heart-stopping aura descended, covering the sky and earth, sending chills through both of them. A massive shadow, like clouds blotting out the sun, drifted slowly overhead.
Ye Fan couldn’t bear it. The precious light flowing around his body extinguished instantly. The purple-clad girl nearly suffocated. Both were crushed down by a powerful force, heavily crashing onto the lake bottom. “What is that thing?” Ye Fan asked, alarmed and uncertain. He extended his powerful divine sense, but it vanished like a clay ox sinking into the sea. Above, everything was gray and hazy, as if a colossal creature had swum past.
Unwilling to give up, he lifted the purple-clad girl and swam in another direction, then broke through the water again. But the same thing happened. Above, it was dim and murky, like a terrifying black hole spewing strange demonic energy outward, or like a great mountain pressing down on them. The oppressive weight, like a mountain, was suffocating. Ye Fan felt as if struck by a thunder god’s giant hammer. His body shook, and he fell again, unable to rise.
“What exactly is that? Is it a living being?” he asked, his expression grave, sensing something was terribly wrong.
The purple-clad girl’s divine power was sealed. After enduring the terrifying pressure repeatedly, she was nearly unconscious, weakly leaning against Ye Fan. “Wake up,” Ye Fan said, shaking her. “It’s over. We can’t escape,” the purple-clad girl said, her face bloodless. Her lively, large eyes were filled with fear, all traces of her former playfulness gone.
The massive shadow, like an ancient beast from the dawn of creation, was boundless, covering the lake’s surface, making it impossible to break through. Ye Fan tried to find the underground river to return the way they came, but he could no longer locate it. “Don’t bother looking. That was a rootless river, also called a river to the netherworld. Once you leave it, there’s no trace, and you can never find it again,” the purple-clad girl said, her voice choked with tears, her expression dejected.
Now trapped on all sides with no way out, Ye Fan stopped trying. He calmed himself and asked in detail, “What exactly is going on? What kind of place is this? What’s the origin of the Bronze Immortal Hall?”
The purple-clad girl frowned, her big eyes darting around. “Wuwu… I don’t want to die. I’m so clever and beautiful, unparalleled in the world. I haven’t even made my mark and become famous across the Eastern Wasteland yet. How could I end up in a place like this?” “Stop being so narcissistic and talk,” Ye Fan said, tapping her smooth, jade-like forehead without ceremony. “The Bronze Immortal Hall has only appeared a few times in ancient history. Its origin is mysterious, and no one knows its past. Once you mistakenly enter, there’s no way out…” the purple-clad girl sighed.
“Are we really going to die here?” Ye Fan felt uneasy.
“It’s a tomb for supreme experts. Every time it appears, it shakes the Eastern Wasteland. Peerless figures rush toward it like moths to a flame, heedless of everything.”
“Why?” Ye Fan asked, puzzled.
“Legend says this grand bronze hall was forged by immortals. Over endless ages, almost no one in the Eastern Wasteland has become an immortal. Those figures standing at the peak of the immortal path naturally couldn’t resist the temptation.”
“Hiss—” Ye Fan sucked in a cold breath. The Bronze Immortal Hall seemed to have an enormous background.
“Tell me in detail.”
After her initial terror subsided, the purple-clad girl’s emotions stabilized somewhat, though she still looked dejected. She wrinkled her delicate nose and said, “It appeared as early as before the Primordial Era…” “That ancient…” Ye Fan’s heart tightened. If that were the case, the Bronze Immortal Hall spanned half of the Eastern Wasteland’s ancient history. “Legend says it was forged by immortals, but there’s no evidence. Over endless ages, it has only appeared four or five times, burying many supreme figures.”
According to the purple-clad girl, the Bronze Immortal Hall was very mysterious. This ruin could move beneath the Eastern Wasteland, appearing in different regions each time, drifting along with the rootless river to the netherworld. “Legends may not be true. There must be a way to escape,” Ye Fan said, frowning in thought. Then he asked, “Think carefully. Is there anything else you’ve missed?”
“What I know comes from ancient texts, only a few brief records.” At this point, the purple-clad girl seemed to recall something. “There might be one thing…”
The purple-clad girl had once heard a legend. In a certain era, the Eastern Wasteland was extremely prosperous, producing many astonishingly talented great figures. When the Immortal Hall reappeared, the peerless figures of that time joined forces and retrieved a corpse from the bronze hall.
“It was said to be the corpse of an immortal…” Ye Fan was shocked. “Is there really an immortal?!”
The purple-clad girl shook her head. “This event wasn’t recorded in ancient texts. It’s just a rumor circulating in the Eastern Wasteland. No one knows if it’s true.” “Where did that immortal corpse end up?”
“It seems… it was divided among the Holy Lands and Primordial Aristocratic Clans.”
“Such a thing happened…” Ye Fan couldn’t calm down. No wonder it was called the Bronze Immortal Hall—it seemed truly connected to immortals. He suddenly thought of the Ji Family. “So, your Ji Family must have gotten a share of the immortal’s body?” “It’s said that, countless ages ago, my family obtained an immortal’s arm. But the clan’s elders all deny it. I’ve never seen it myself.” “Even if it’s true, they’d deny it. They wouldn’t let a little girl like you know.” “Hey, hey, hey, little brother, don’t act so old and wise. You’re not older than me,” the purple-clad girl said, glancing at him with dissatisfaction.
Ye Fan chuckled and pinched her delicate nose. “I’m over a hundred thousand years old. How can a little girl like you compare to me?”
This grand bronze hall, as vast as a city, was majestic, mottled with green rust, and engraved with the marks of time. Ye Fan circled it several times but dared not venture inside. It had appeared in the Eastern Wasteland several times, burying supreme figures from multiple eras. No one truly understood its origin, and no one had ever walked out alive, making it all the more mysterious and unfathomable. Ye Fan’s gaze fixed on the wax corpses among the ruins, hoping to find clues from them. “These corpses might be former peerless experts…” the purple-clad girl said, squirming. “Let me go. Let me search for clues too.”
Ye Fan’s heart was unsettled. If these were truly supreme experts from ancient history, he might find treasures on them. He peeled off the grease from one wax corpse, revealing a lifelike human form. It was a Daoist nun, beautiful as a flower, as if sleeping soundly, vivid and real. But in an instant, the ruddy-faced nun withered, her flesh decaying into a skeleton. The water rippled, and the white bones crumbled, leaving nothing behind. “This is…”
“The power of time is the most terrifying. Unless one becomes an immortal, no one can resist it,” the purple-clad girl said, showing a look of shock. “This corpse has existed for endless ages, preserved by mysterious energy. Once exposed, it naturally cannot last.”
Ye Fan peeled open several more wax corpses. Each time the grease fell away, it revealed lifelike ancient figures, but in an instant, they turned to ash, leaving nothing. He found some scrap metal and broken iron at the site—powerful spiritual treasures of the ancients—but under the erosion of endless time, they too had completely crumbled. “These are people from before the Primordial Era, existing for who knows how many tens of thousands of years. Nothing can remain…” the purple-clad girl called out again. “Let me go. Maybe I can find valuable clues.”
Ye Fan peeled open dozens of wax corpses, but the result was always the same. As soon as they were exposed, they turned to dust in an instant.
Just then, Ye Fan felt the strange fluctuation again, coming from the massive bronze hall. He said gravely, “Not good. We must leave immediately!”
He lifted the purple-clad girl and surged upward, trying to force their way out. But a tremendous force pulled at them. “Ah! Run!” the purple-clad girl screamed. She saw them being dragged backward toward the bronze hall, about to sink into it.
Ye Fan was startled. His Sea of Suffering boiled, his Life Spring surged, and he exerted all his divine power, but he couldn’t break free. The bronze hall seemed to have a strange magic, drawing them inside.
“Bang!”
They crashed heavily to the ground. Now inside the bronze hall, it was endlessly empty, indescribably silent. Inside, it was dim and hazy, barely visible. No hall entrance could be found. It felt like they had arrived in a Gobi desert, devoid of life. Time seemed to have stopped here, as if at the end of the world. “I don’t want to die! I, Ji Ziyue, am peerlessly beautiful, unmatched under heaven. I haven’t become an immortal yet. How can I fall here…” “Can you stop being so narcissistic?” Ye Fan was truly exasperated with her.
Thin mist swirled, very hazy. The empty bronze hall stretched endlessly, as if they had come to the dawn of creation. “Crack!” A breaking sound came, and the purple-clad girl screamed. “My foot hit something!”
On the ground lay a snow-white skeleton, broken in many places, lying quietly. At the slightest touch, it turned to bone dust. “This person must have been incredibly powerful in life. Without being wrapped in mysterious energy, the bones still remained,” Ye Fan said, very surprised. He crouched down to examine it closely.
On the ground were several dried blood characters, dark red and blurry, with an indescribable charm. It seemed the person had condensed all their essence, energy, and spirit to imprint them here, giving an extremely special feeling, as if conveying an emotion. “Dare to ask the heavens, is there an immortal?” Only these few words. This person, at the moment of death, seemed filled with regret and unwillingness.
Someone whose bones could survive was undoubtedly a peerless expert from endless ages past. Yet at death, they were still confused. One could imagine their loss and regret at not being able to part the clouds and see the clear sky.