Wei Zhang and the other members of his party approached it.
It was beautiful and charming, but it exuded an uncanny aura. It was on the stream and was surrounded by some rocks. On the surface were some tall trees with dark stems and roots; they all had purple leaves that looked corrupted. It was an island, an ancient one to be precise, and they could make out structures of houses on it even from far away.
"I can't believe it, it actually exists!" Long Xiaoqi, a girl from the Long Clan, exclaimed, her eyes shining with a faint smile from excitement.
"The Malignant Orifice Profane Island. It's beautiful," Xiang Ning noted as her eyes observed the island.
It was truly beautiful, but something about it was just so dark...
Wei Zhang led them, and after a while, they arrived at the shore of the island. They quickly flew down and walked into the small forest.
"Wei Zhang, how did you know that this island was in the realm?" Xiang Ning asked.
The eyes of the other party members glistened; they had also wondered how Wei Zhang knew about this island's location.
Wei Zhang replied to her, his mouth in a smirk and his eyes filled with pride. "Well, during one of my study sessions in my clan, I stumbled across a script that was made in the Qi Resurgence Era. It said that the Celestial Dao Sect had waged war against the former force in charge of this land and.
....."
"Wait, the Qi Resurgence Era?" one of the members of the Long Clan said.
"Wasn't that like several million years ago?" Long Xiaoqi commented, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.
Wei Zhang's eyes turned cold and gloomy. He didn't say anything else, seemingly angry at having been interrupted during his speech. He fell silent, and they all marched forward towards the heart of the forest.
After hours of walking, they found a ruin.
The ground the ruin was on was made with a special kind of rock, but it was dark as night. Various cracks and holes were seen in the floors, and they ran deep into the earth. There were various pieces and fragments of things on the floor, and some buildings stood there; they were charred and looked gloomy. The ruins were surrounded by a faint mist.
The party gazed at this bizarre place, but instead of calm and disbelief, their eyes burned like flames with ambition.8
"It's so ugly," Long Xiaoqi commented, grumbling as she crossed her arms, looking rather disappointed and breaking the silence that engulfed the group.
"You didn't expect it to look like a paradise, did you?" Xiang Ning replied as she turned to look at Long Xiaoqi. Is this girl dumb? she thought.
"I knew it'd be bad, but I didn't know it'd look so terrible," Long Xiaoqi mumbled, releasing her hands and pointing at it.
She was right. It looked terrible and exuded an aura that was palpably hostile.
"Forget about its appearance. We're here for the Heart of Malignance."
"Indeed, we shouldn't focus on how it looks. It's better we try to get that treasure fast so we can refine it and raise our strength quickly," the third girl, who was the second member of the Xiang Clan, said.
"Let's make a plan first before we enter," Wei Zhang uttered.
"Okay then, how do we go about it?" Long Xiaoqi asked.
Wei Zhang took a deep breath and said, "The ruins aren't big, and we only need to get into the secret ground of this ruin. There will be various traps on the way, and various animals might attack us. If anyone is too scared, now's the time to back out."
He looked at them with a piercing stare, trying to see if any one of them would choose to cower from exploring the ruin, but none of them said anything—a sign that they all wanted to proceed.
"Fine then. It seems no one is choosing to stay behind. Then let me say this once, and clearly: the mist is going to be the most difficult obstacle on our path. And remember, do not fly! Are we clear?"
They all nodded.
"Oh, stop all this drama and let's go," Xiang Ning said as she started moving towards the ruin.
The group followed behind her, and they all descended into the mist.
They all had high hopes and were excited at the chance to explore a new environment and gain a treasure, but they did not know that they had made a grave mistake.
They all walked into the mist and headed towards the north of the ruins. The deeper they went, the thicker the mist became. For a while, they could only see a few meters in front of them.
However as they progressed, their sight was completely blocked, and they couldn't see anything.
But they didn't stop. They were driven by greed and a hunger for a supreme treasure.
Wei Zuyi, a young boy and perhaps the youngest in the group, missed his step and fell. He quickly stood up but discovered he couldn't hear any sound. He didn't know where the party had gone, as his sense of direction had been distorted. He panicked and called out, "Hello!!! Guys, where are you?!" but no one responded.
He tried to move forward and called out again, "Guys!! Hello! Wei Zhang, where are you?? Hello!" But still, there was no response.
His body began to tremble. He quickly made a spell. "Shadow Fiend Eyes!" he muttered as he channeled his Qi to his eyes. He had been trying to avoid using this technique since it consumed too much energy, but now he had no choice. His eyes turned totally black, and a vertical slit appeared; it was pure white and looked disturbing.
Wei Zuyi quickly scanned his area with his enhanced eyes. He saw two glowing balls of light that seemed unaffected by the mist. The balls came closer and closer, and then he heard it: the sound of claws scraping against the ground and some rasping sounds coming from the direction of the glowing balls.
Then he saw the silhouette of a being and pieced together what he was seeing. He realized the glowing balls were actually eyes. As the monstrosity approached him, he wanted to scream or run, but he froze.
"It's this how it all ends ??, so I won't be able to find the heart of malignance and finally save my grandma and my darling wei rong ,I don't want to die " he thought internally as he wailed at his fate.
Then, the monstrosity snarled and leapt towards him.