Start from the God of Death and break through the world.

Chapter 1120 Hometown, Sinkhole

Seeing that Lu Li was not lost, Lu Xueqing breathed a sigh of relief. "Can you still move?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Li tried it out and found that he could only slightly wriggle in place, but he couldn't move. He sighed inwardly.

His previous strenuous exercise and the aftereffects of being pierced by the spear have taken their toll. He is now in worse condition than when he first awoke in the ruins, and he can't move at all.

"It's good that you're awake. We can slowly... cultivate together. There will be a time when you recover. It's better not to go out and explore."

Lu Xueqing said, still somewhat stunned after she finished speaking, hardly believing that she could say such a thing.

After all, she herself was a person with a very strong enterprising spirit. She knew that conservatively exchanging origins in this place was not the way out. Without spiritual energy and life-giving medicine, it was basically impossible for them to heal and revive by exchanging origins alone. At most, it could only turn them into slimes that could run more nimbly.

Moreover, even if you don't go out to explore, the patrolling guards might still come looking for you, so in essence, there is no safe place in these ruins.

But for some reason, she felt a real sense of panic whenever she thought about what had happened before.

"Hmm, let me calm down first. By the way, how long was I unconscious?"

Lu Li now agreed with Lu Xueqing's idea, since he himself was now unable to move.

“I don’t know, but it felt like a long time. I moved you to a smaller room, thinking that if something happened, we could use the rotation of the ruins to escape.”

Lu Xueqing said that she wasn't completely unable to move. Over the years, she had dragged Lu Li along, moving him inch by inch, and they had walked through several rooms before finally stopping in a room called "Yi Shou".

"You didn't abandon me, did you?"

Lu Li said with a smile.

"You...you always have such strange focuses. I'm talking to you about survival right now!"

Lu Xueqing felt a little awkward.

"Alright, alright, let's start by exchanging our origins. I need to replenish myself, otherwise I won't be able to walk."

Seeing that Lu Xueqing was inexplicably anxious, Lu Li stopped talking.

Next, the two began to cultivate in silence. After an unknown amount of time and countless exchanges of their essence, Lu Li finally felt that his condition had improved and he was able to pupate on the ground again.

At the same time, Lu Xueqing also melted another thread by exchanging origins, and this time she could also become a pupa like Lu Li. The two of them could probably move at a speed of two meters per second.

This time, they didn't rush to go out and explore again. After what had happened before, they realized that there were still terrible guards in the ruins, and that the place was far more terrifying than Lu Li had initially estimated.

Lu Xueqing told Lu Li about the situation at the time and showed him the broken bronze spear. This thing should have been made of chaotic-level material. As the ruins moved, the spear was broken, but the wall did not leave a trace. This can explain a lot.

Lu Li hadn't tried it before to prevent the depletion of his source power, but this time he tried it and found that his source power couldn't shake the ground and walls of the ruins at all. This meant that the basic structure of the ruins was made of at least Chaos-level materials. Thinking about it in a terrifying way, the materials of the ruins might even be at the Great Dao level.

In the past, if Lu Li had known that the materials used in these ruins were so precious, he would probably have wanted to dig up the whole place and take everything, and he would have been overjoyed.

But now he no longer had that thought; he just felt a little depressed because it meant they were truly trapped in a cage.

If this ruin is indeed constructed from materials of the Great Dao level, let alone his and Lu Xueqing's current half-dead state, even if they were at their peak, they wouldn't be able to break through it by brute force.

Their essence cannot corrupt or destroy the buildings here. If they want to get out, they can only explore honestly. But the ruins themselves are very large, like a maze, and are constantly turning and changing. They are running too slowly now, so how could they possibly get out?

Upon reflection, Lu Li realized that the complete absence of spiritual energy here was already quite strange, and he should have realized earlier that the materials used in these ruins were extraordinary.

He didn't believe that this ruin was the whole picture of the world he had descended into. As long as he could get out, he believed that a civilized world with such a magnificent ruin must be a high-end world, with no shortage of spiritual energy. At that time, he would have a chance to turn things around with Lu Xueqing.

But now they are trapped inside the ruins, like two rats, in complete darkness, which is truly depressing.

Feeling distressed but unable to express it, the two could only channel their emotions into motivation and continue their dual cultivation.

Over the years, even the optimistic Lu Li has become much less talkative; they have simply been exchanging their origins in a numb, almost monotonous way.

Just as they had initially predicted, after most of the threads in their bodies were melted off, simply exchanging their essence was no longer enough to shake the remaining threads.

The threads at the front were weaker and thinner, so they were processed first. The threads at the back were as thick as steel bars. In the absence of spiritual energy, their exchange of essence was like the absence of a catalyst. It was like hydrogen and oxygen colliding but there was no spark to ignite it.

The two had no idea how many years had passed in the outside world. They only knew that they had reached their limit in using this method to recuperate their bodies, and they had to find a way out, otherwise they would be trapped in this ruin forever.

"Xueqing, I want to go for a walk. There might be a risk of death..."

On this day, Lu Li began to speak, but before he could finish, he was interrupted.

"I'll go as well."

Lu Xueqing said, "Don't look at me like that. I'm not someone who's willing to wait to die and sink into despair, just like you. If I can't get out and encounter monsters and die here, that's my choice too."

"Okay, then let's go out and explore."

Lu Li didn't say anything more. After years of recuperation, they had completely adapted to their slime-like bodies, and the pain when moving had been greatly reduced. Moreover, they had long since adapted.

At this moment, both of them could move at relatively high speeds, their slime-like bodies allowing them to run more than ten meters per second without any problem. Furthermore, in order to deal with those Black Iron Guards, the two of them had practiced the technique of deliberately creating openings in their bodies to dodge into the cave entrance. In this way, they could both run and hide, so if they encountered those Black Iron Guards again, they wouldn't have to worry about getting into trouble.

However, the two felt that this ruin was not simple, and that the danger probably wasn't just limited to the black iron guards.

After making up their minds, the two went out to explore the ruins. According to the rules of the maze, as long as they kept their hands on the left wall, they would definitely be able to get out.

However, this relic can move, so this rule naturally doesn't apply in a moving maze. But Lu Li couldn't think of a better way, so he and Lu Xueqing decided to use this exploration method to move around.

Perhaps they chose the right day to go out, because they encountered something unusual after visiting only five or six rooms.

"Squeaky-"

The two heard a strange squeaking sound. Their first thought was that it was a rat, but then they realized that in this ghostly place devoid of any spiritual energy, how could there be rats?

Even if there were some back then, what did these rats eat to survive?

Curiosity drove the two to cautiously search for the source of the sound. Lu Li perked up, quietly approached the corner, and then extended a small part of his tentacles to sense the situation on the other side.

He actually saw several mice huddled in the corner, squeaking and squeaking, seemingly fighting over something.

Having learned from past mistakes, Lu Li dared not assume these rats were ordinary. He and Lu Xueqing secretly observed them for a long time before discovering that these rats were indeed unusual.

First of all, they were huge. These rats were bigger than a normal cat, about the size of a small dog. Their fur was black, and each hair was as hard as a needle, reminding Lu Li of the Black Iron Guards.

The Black Iron Guardians also have a lot of black rust on their exteriors, but you can see from some places under their mottled bodies that they were not originally this color.

The rats in front of me were black and large. They were circling around fighting over something. They moved very fast. When a fight broke out, they would jump back and forth on the wall repeatedly, using their claws and teeth to attack their own kind in a very ferocious manner.

No wonder the black iron guards in the ruins didn't eliminate the rats; these rats were very fast, and the old, stiff black iron guards simply couldn't catch up with them.

However, after observing for a while, Lu Li realized that these rats couldn't possibly harm the Black Iron Guardian. They seemed to be rats that had mutated for some reason, not powerful spirit beasts. He estimated that even a second-tier explorer could easily kill these rats.

What really intrigued Lu Li was what these rats ate, given how big they were.
He and Lu Xueqing exchanged a glance, seemingly understanding each other's thoughts. They hoped to catch one of these rats to see what was going on.

Without hesitation, the two men flanked the road from both sides, blocking it completely. The rats, who were startled to find two unidentified creatures on the inner wall, were taken aback.

After all, they had never seen anything like this before, at most they had only seen ruins guards. Now, seeing two slime-like things opening their source energy and blocking the road like torn balloons, the rats panicked.

Animals are animals. These unintelligent rats are just ferocious, but they don't have much intelligence. One of the rats, after becoming frightened, took the initiative to attack and rushed towards Lu Li's black slime.

As a result, a hole was opened in Lu Li's body. The moment the rat passed through, the hole was closed again, and a trace of his essence overflowed, directly touching the rat.

In an instant, the rat was completely obliterated, leaving no trace of its body. Lu Li couldn't help but lament that he hadn't quite controlled his strength.

Meanwhile, Lu Xueqing used her tentacles to entangle the rats and caught one alive. The remaining two rats, seeing that one of their kind had died and the other had been caught, took the opportunity to crawl away from both sides of the wall.

Lu Li kept a watchful eye on the direction the rats fled, then looked at the pool of blood beneath him.

In the center of the blood, he discovered a black substance slowly condensing, eventually separating from the normal blood, just like plasma separated by a centrifuge.

To Lu Li's surprise, he discovered that this black substance was the same black mist that he had been able to produce before. Even though he felt strange, he couldn't help but feel that the place he had descended into was his hometown. Otherwise, how could there be so many coincidences in the world?
At the same time, he also guessed where he was. This was probably the sinkhole that the group that had surrounded and killed his master had mentioned.

However, Lu Li never imagined that the so-called sinkhole would be such a high-end place. Those who came in to plunder and seek opportunities probably didn't know that ordinary martial arts manuals were not real treasures. The corners and edges of the ruins themselves were much more precious than those.

After all, Lu Li had also seen the 'martial arts manuals' that his master had obtained, and most of them were just novels, like the books he saw in that room, which seemed to be entertainment and leisure items for people of that era.

Some of the cultivation concepts mentioned in it are not unworthy of reference, but you cannot understand them without a certain level of attainment. You can only treat it as a novel and it cannot be considered a real treasure.

Even when Master told those people that he had only taken some novels, they didn't believe him and thought Master was just fooling them.

On the contrary, the cultivation manual that Lu Li found in that room was a true cultivation method, but it seems that his master was not so lucky and did not find such a book.

Lu Li sighed inwardly and inhaled the black substance on the ground, but there was no reaction.

After all, the black substance is a trigger for the origin, not the origin itself. His origin is not actually weakened, but his power is restricted by the threads in his body. This amount of substance is less than one ten-millionth of what he used to exhale with a casual breath.

The fact that these rats were found in the ruins suggests something else: that there might be a power in the ruins that is the same as the one in my body. Otherwise, how could these rats have been passed down or mutated like this?

Upon thinking of this, Lu Li became excited, because he instinctively felt that this might be an opportunity for them to escape their predicament.

"Lu Li, come and take a look!"

At this moment, Lu Xueqing's voice rang out from the side, pulling Lu Li back to reality.

Curious, Lu Li crawled over and saw that Lu Xueqing had already suppressed the rat. After the rat exhausted its strength, it stopped struggling. At this moment, Lu Xueqing used her red essence to transform into tentacles and flipped the rat over and over.

As a result, Lu Li discovered that this rat actually had a pouch on its belly, so it turned out to be a kangaroo.
The key point is that, after Lu Xueqing turned the rat's pocket inside out, a drop of black substance that looked like liquid metal fell to the ground.

It resembled a large drop of mercury that had condensed, except that the substance was black. It bounced twice on the ground without breaking apart, and instead, due to gravity, it became a somewhat flattened oval-shaped black bead.

(End of this chapter)