The black iron ropes attached to each suit of armor in the City Lord's mansion were not short. Wen Shuangbai had measured them beforehand—they were easily a hundred stories long. But fearing the length might still be insufficient, she had deliberately cut the ropes from all the other armors and extended the ones attached to the four of them, making them as long as possible.
As it turned out, her caution was justified.
The four of them descended through the air for quite some time before finally reaching the depths below. Timing it carefully, they didn’t land recklessly. Instead, they halted their descent a short distance above the ground, locking the black iron ropes in place to suspend themselves midair.
The underground depths were stifling, the darkness around them as oppressive as the underworld. Even the bright glow of the night pearls from their spirit vessel dimmed to the flicker of a dying candle in the wind.
By the faint light of the pearls, Wen Shuangbai carefully surveyed the ground below.
Beneath them, the floor was covered in layers upon layers of bleached bones.
This place…
Frowning slightly, her gaze swept over the skeletal remains until, by chance, it landed on one particular skeleton.
In the dim glow, the skull twitched slightly, its hollow eye sockets locking onto hers.
Alarm bells rang in Wen Shuangbai’s mind. With a swift motion, she swung herself to the side using the black iron rope, lashing out with her Fire Plume Whip at the skeleton below.
Xie Ziyin, Yin Xuan, and Li Zhuohua had also noticed something amiss.
In no time, the four of them sprang into action, swiftly dispatching the reanimated corpses.
But the problem was—more and more of the bones were stirring to life.
The disturbance of spiritual energy had awakened them.
The underground depths were like a massive hive of bone spirits, and with the arrival of the four intruders, the swarm was rousing.
“Holy hell, let’s get out of here!” Wen Shuangbai’s eyelids twitched. Without hesitation, she retracted her whip and rope, embodying the age-old wisdom of retreat being the better part of valor.
Clearly, Xie Ziyin and Yin Xuan were of the same mind.
Only Li Zhuohua showed no intention of fleeing. Instead, she advanced, declaring, “You all go ahead. I’ll handle them!”
Wen Shuangbai: “Got it!”
And so, the other three promptly retracted their ropes and made their escape, leaving Zhuohua alone below to face the skeletal horde with her sword.
Of course, they didn’t go far.
Listening to the sounds of battle rising from below, Xie Ziyin glanced at Wen Shuangbai, who was busy fiddling with something, then at Yin Xuan, who clung motionless to the rock wall like a gecko.
“Why didn’t you stay to help Senior Sister Li?” he asked coolly.
Yin Xuan tilted her head slightly but didn’t open her eyes. “But you didn’t stay either?”
Xie Ziyin: “I’m a healer.” What was a healer supposed to do down there? Offer himself as a sacrifice?
“I know I’m a sword cultivator,” Yin Xuan replied with a soft smile. “But Zhuohua told us to leave first.”
Xie Ziyin: “…”
He shook his head and said nothing more, turning instead to Wen Shuangbai. “What did you notice down there earlier?”
She paused in her work and looked up. “How did you know I noticed anything?” She hadn’t said a word.
“Well…” In the dim glow of the night pearls, their locked gaze was subtle, almost intimate. Xie Ziyin’s voice was cool and quiet, like a mountain spring murmuring in the dark. “Isn’t it obvious?”
Her expressions were always easy to read.
Wen Shuangbai blinked and averted her eyes, continuing to craft something with her bare hands. “This mass grave… it’s actually a formation.”
“A formation?” Xie Ziyin’s expression darkened. “A killing array?”
“Most likely.” She nodded. “I saw remnants of array patterns down there. If I’m not mistaken, it’s a blood sacrifice formation.”
At this, even Yin Xuan opened her eyes. “A blood sacrifice formation… whatever lies beneath must be something truly sinister.”
It stood to reason—anything requiring the sacrifice of tens of thousands of lives couldn’t be ordinary.
Xie Ziyin: “I examined the bones earlier. They all belonged to men. It looks like an army was buried here.”
An army?
Wen Shuangbai wasn’t well-versed in Xuantian’s history. If only Lu Jiayao were here. After a moment’s thought, she asked, “Senior Brother, in your travels, have you heard any legends that might match this?”
Yin Xuan pondered before answering, “I vaguely recall a tale from a thousand years ago—three armies clashed, and none survived. But the details escape me.”
“Whatever. We’re already here—let’s see what’s being sacrificed!” Wen Shuangbai opened her palm, revealing ten small, pitch-black orbs. Though tiny, they radiated an aura of terrifying power.
These were rare treasures they’d scavenged from the City Lord’s vessel—Sky Thunder Pearls, of which there had only been five.
Now, after her modifications, there were ten—though each was half the original size.
“…” Xie Ziyin stared. “So you were just cutting the Sky Thunder Pearls in half?”
“What kind of phrasing is that?” Wen Shuangbai shot him a look. “I improved them. Improved, understand?”
Xie Ziyin: “Not really.”
Wen Shuangbai: “Then you’re a clueless puppy.”
Xie Ziyin: “?”
“No more, no more!” Li Zhuohua retreated from the battlefield, joining the group with a frustrated cry. “There are too many of them—I can’t handle it alone!”
“Don’t worry, Senior Sister.” Wen Shuangbai pocketed five of the pearls and pinched the remaining five between her fingers, her eyes gleaming with excitement. “My turn.”
With that, she dropped the pearls downward. As they fell, the four of them swiftly retracted their ropes, ascending to a safe distance.
Once they were clear, Wen Shuangbai activated the miniature trigger arrays she’d carved into the pearls.
A deafening explosion shook the entire burial site, as if divine wrath had descended upon it.
Meanwhile, deep within the labyrinthine underground tomb, the Violet Flame Sect had ventured far into the palace.
Their journey had taken a heavy toll—only Di Qi and Di Yanran remained.
The two moved cautiously down a stone staircase when, suddenly, a tremendous boom echoed from the depths. Rubble rained from above.
“Yanran, watch out!” Di Qi pulled his sister into his arms, shielding her as they pressed against the wall.
“Brother, what was that?” Di Yanran’s face was pale, her robes stained with blood. She clutched his sleeve anxiously.
“I don’t know.” Di Qi glanced toward the source of the noise, gently stroking her hair. “Don’t be afraid. I’m here. Let’s go see.”
---
Once the aftershocks of the Sky Thunder Pearls faded, Wen Shuangbai and the others immediately descended.
“Now that’s what I call legendary,” Wen Shuangbai remarked, admiring the now-vacant pit where the bone pile had been.
The skeletal remains had been utterly obliterated, revealing what lay beneath—a massive bronze disc, intricately carved with ancient, cryptic array patterns.
Peering through the hollow openings below, they saw an ancient palace beneath the bronze disk, with a massive blood pool constructed directly underneath it.
The pool had long dried up, its surface stained in dark crimson.
Wen Shuangbai briefly observed the scene below before turning her attention back to the bronze disk.
It bore signs of rust, and the patterns carved into it suggested that this blood sacrifice array had existed for centuries.
The more she examined it, the more she became convinced that this place was indeed connected to the ancient war her senior brother had mentioned—a conflict that had raged a thousand years ago.
The bronze disk was incredibly sturdy—even the famed Liumang Sword couldn’t cleave through it.
Even the explosive force of a Sky Thunder Pearl only managed to damage a portion of the inscribed array.
While the other three busied themselves scavenging anything of value, Wen Shuangbai crouched near the damaged section and channeled the Yaoling Heart Technique. After a long while, she finally melted a hole large enough for them to pass through.
One by one, the four of them dropped down, landing in the dried blood pool.
By now, the length of the black iron rope was no longer sufficient.
Without hesitation, they untied it and immediately stepped out of the pool, surveying their surroundings with caution.
No one spoke—not a single sound was made.
The palace was deathly silent, so quiet that the drop of a needle could be heard.
Wen Shuangbai’s gaze first fell upon the enormous blood pool.
Like the source of a spiritual spring, two channels extended from its left and right sides, curving in a loop before slowly flowing toward… the front hall?
She turned and looked ahead.
A bronze wall stood in their path, blocking the way forward except for two fist-sized openings where the channels passed through.
It seemed the builders of this place had intended to seal it off—preventing anything inside from escaping, and anything outside from entering.
Realization dawned on Wen Shuangbai.
They hadn’t entered through the underground palace’s true entrance.
The mass grave above wasn’t the gateway—it was merely the cauldron.
A vessel for boiling blood, meant to feed whatever lay in the front hall through sacrificial rites.
By sheer chance, they had slipped in through the "pot" instead.
Or perhaps… this was no accident.
Maybe the map left behind by the Yaoling ancestors was meant to guide descendants precisely here.
So, what exactly lay within this underground palace?
And what was the Holy Tower’s trial trying to make them do?
Lost in thought, Wen Shuangbai was about to step toward the narrow channel openings when her brows twitched—she abruptly halted.
Xie Ziyin, Li Zhuohua, and Yin Xuan reacted just as swiftly, all sensing movement in the distance.
The four exchanged glances but remained still, waiting.
Before long, familiar voices echoed from outside.
A woman’s voice, weak yet brimming with excitement: "Brother… is this really—?"
Di Yanran and Di Qi?
They had made it here too?!
Suppressing her shock, Wen Shuangbai strained to listen.
"Yes. Divine Bone." Di Qi’s voice was as composed as ever, though a faint note of relief could be detected. "Yanran, we’ve finally found it."
Divine Bone?
Wen Shuangbai shot a questioning look at her companions. What is that?
If it was something valuable, she should have known—yet she had never heard of such a thing, nor had any records mentioned it.
Xie Ziyin gave a slight shrug. No idea.
Yin Xuan’s weary eyes reflected pure confusion. Never heard of it.
Li Zhuohua, too, was clueless—she’d only ever known of Sword Bones. But whatever this "Divine Bone" was, she had only one thought. Her eyes gleamed. Do we steal it?!
