This journey bodes ill.
The ominous premonition haunted Changsheng's heart, weighing heavily upon her.
Before departing, she looked back once more—perhaps for the last time—gazing at the cave dwelling she had managed for countless years.
Her gaze swept over the medical books and prescription scrolls on the shelves, arranged with meticulous care and holding infinite knowledge and painstaking effort, confirming they were all properly stored. She then sensed the colorful butterflies she had infused with adeptal power, currently resting quietly in various corners of the cave. The faint light flowing across their wings showed they were still guarding their posts.
Having done all this, she turned resolutely and walked out of the cave dwelling.
With a light wave of her hand, vigorous adeptal power surged forth, transforming into solid rock that layered up to block the entrance. Immediately following this, a complex sealing sigil flashed across the rock surface before vanishing, completely isolating the inside from the outside.
Columbina asked softly, "Do you not plan to come back?"
Changsheng did not look back. As she finished the seal, she said, "It is just... just in case."
She raised her hand again, her fingertips brushing over the seal she had just set. Only after feeling the stable fluctuation of elemental power and confirming it was foolproof did she take a deep breath.
"Let's go."
Changsheng led her two guests from a foreign land upstream along the Bishui River.
Before long, at the foot of the towering Mount Mingyuan, they found a massive, tightly closed double stone door.
The door panels were carved from some dark stone, covered in winding, intricate textures. The entire door was shrouded under a thin film of flowing elemental power, appearing quiet and mysterious.
Changsheng raised her right hand, pure adeptal power gathering between her knuckles, and knocked lightly on the stone door. The contact between the adeptal power and the film on the door made no substantial sound, yet the light film rippled like water disturbed by a stone. Clear, visible "ripples" spread out, turning into countless expanding and intertwining concentric circles, transmitting the signal of a visitor to the interior.
If the Lord were still inside, she would certainly sense the fluctuation of this power. However, moments passed, and the space behind the door remained dead silent, without any response.
Changsheng frowned and knocked again.
It was still like a stone sinking into the sea.
Coppelia spoke up, "Your Lord seems not to be in?"
Changsheng shook her head, a trace of worry flashing in her golden vertical pupils. "Perhaps... she does not wish to see us."
She hesitated no longer. The adeptal power in her right hand suddenly thickened, emitting a pure white light as she prepared to forcibly break the seal on the door. However, when her power truly touched the door leaves, the feedback she received made her pause slightly.
"There is no seal..." She was somewhat surprised, then explained to her two companions, "Meaning it is not 'locked'."
Just to be safe, Changsheng signaled for Coppelia and Columbina to retreat a distance to the right.
Seeing the two fly back as instructed, she extended her hands flat. Boundless adeptal power gathered in her palms, and she pushed forward violently!
"Boom..."
The heavy stone door let out a muffled sound and slowly opened inward. The instant Changsheng pushed the door, her figure dodged to the side like a phantom, moving away from the entrance.
After waiting quietly for a moment and confirming that no aggressive or abnormal divine power surged from within, she beckoned for Coppelia and the other to approach again.
Behind the door was not the deep cave they had expected, but a screen of flowing, iridescent light.
On the light screen, seven-colored radiance slowly rotated, forming a profound vortex. Its outer edges displayed a magnificent starry sky pattern. Even stranger was that these star patterns were not static; they shifted slightly with the observer's line of sight, as if the door connected to a boundless, real universe.
"My Lord's dwelling does not truly exist within the body of Mount Mingyuan," Changsheng explained while gazing at the light screen. "Instead, it is an independent realm carved out by 'Sub-Space Creation'. This door is the entrance to that space."
As she spoke, she circulated her adeptal power, constructing a solid barrier around herself. "Just in case, please deploy your own defensive measures as well."
Subsequently, Changsheng hesitated no more. Taking the lead, her figure submerged into the brilliant light screen and vanished.
Seeing this, Coppelia immediately invoked Geo elemental power. A sturdy amber shield instantly unfolded, enveloping both her and Columbina. At the same time, Columbina's body also emitted a cold, hazy moonlight resembling mercury.
Together, they stepped into the light screen.
In an instant, Coppelia felt a blinding light flash before her eyes, causing her to instinctively close them.
Her body experienced a brief sensation of weightlessness, as if she were plummeting rapidly, or perhaps being pulled by an invisible force. This sensation lasted for about a few seconds before her feet suddenly found purchase, stepping onto hard ground.
The sound of gurgling water reached her ears. She immediately opened her eyes, her gaze swiftly scanning the surroundings.
They were standing on a stone platform in the center of a modest-sized pool. The water was clear, and from the rock crevices in the center, a clear spring was bubbling up, flowing into the pool and stirring up clusters of fine bubbles; the pleasant sound of water originated from there.
A stone path extended from the platform, following a rather spacious passage leading deeper in, until the path was obscured by a protruding rock wall at a corner.
The entire ceiling and side walls of the cave were inlaid with a strange mineral that emitted a bright white light, illuminating the passage.
Columbina tilted her head slightly, sensing the pull from the depths of the realm, and whispered:
"I can sense them. My fragments of power are deep inside... they are attracting me."
Changsheng's expression grew increasingly grave.
"We should not delay. Let us go in."
Confirming there were no lurking dangers nearby for the moment, the three of them followed the stone path and moved forward again.
After passing through the passage and turning two corners, their vision suddenly opened up. The full view of this realm was finally presented to them without reservation.
This appeared to be a massive cavity excavated deep underground, truly magnificent in scale.
The shape of the cavity approximated a flattened sphere. Large areas of the ceiling were covered by that light-emitting mineral, illuminating the interior as brightly as daylight. The surrounding rock walls were a deep, inky black, yet within the jagged crevices grew clusters of emerald-green gems.
Looking around, several cave entrances of varying sizes were hewn into the inky rock walls.
Before each cave entrance stood stone statues of exotic beasts in ancient styles, and the surrounding stone walls were engraved with profound runes flowing with faint golden light.
Several stone paths connected the various caves like a spiderweb, eventually converging at a huge circular ground at the bottom of the cavity. In the center of this ground was a carefully constructed lotus pond, scattered with several strangely shaped rockeries and seven or eight exquisite pavilions, connected by stone bridges.
However, this scene, which should have appeared as a serene and elegant adeptal paradise, now brought the three of them a strong sense of unease and dissonance.
In one corner of the lotus pond, a mass of huge, undulating, wriggling black mud was shockingly soaked in the water!
It looked like a living, flat lump of flesh, emitting a foul, filthy aura.
And the fragments of power Columbina sought—those strange stones emitting soft moonlight—were at this moment "nailed" deeply into this mass of wriggling black mud like sharp blades!
Thick, ink-black aura constantly emanated from the interior of the black mud, forming a suffocating ring of black mist around it.
The black mud writhed frantically, attempting to completely swallow the strange stones emitting the light of purification; meanwhile, the strange stones continued to bloom with a clear, moonlight-like radiance, attempting to cleanse this ominous object.
Every contact between the moonlight and the black mist triggered a silent annihilation, causing both opposing forces to dissipate into nothingness.
The black mist that failed to be purified in time by the moonlight drifted over the lotus pond.
Wherever the black gas touched, the lotuses and water plants in the pool withered completely, covered in a layer of scorched black crust. The surrounding stone bridges and railings were also severely corroded, breaking and collapsing into puddles of pitch-black sludge that no longer emitted black mist, slowly sinking to the bottom of the pool and dyeing the clear water filthy and turbid.
The entire realm was permeated with an aura of silent destruction.
___
🔥 New stories are available now! 🔥
We're handing out that '25% bonus' that makes your wallet smile. 😄
✅ Access up to 40 advanced chapters of ALL stories!
✅ Receive exclusive content and updates!
Help us hit our community goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone
🚀 180 MEMBERS = +5 extra chapters of ALL STORIES!
👻 P - Walnutchan