Gou Zai Fei Men made up myths

Just then, Su Xiao, who was leading the way, suddenly stopped and emerged from the shadows. His usually aloof face showed a rare hint of surprise and uncertainty.

"Sect Leader, there's light ahead..."

Everyone perked up and hurried forward. After passing through a sloping, dilapidated corridor, the view suddenly opened up before them.

They arrived at an extremely vast space. It seemed to be the lower level of a giant palace, or rather... the depths of ruins.

Above is a towering, hundreds-of-foots-high, cracked, arched dome that looks like it could collapse at any moment. The broken murals and reliefs are faintly visible, but they are too blurred to be discernible.

Beneath my feet were huge, broken floor tiles covered in dust and bone fragments, stretching to the horizon.

In the center of the main hall, a massive altar, though dilapidated, still reveals its former grandeur.

The altar was constructed of a strange stone, dark as blood yet faintly gleaming with a metallic sheen. It comprised nine layers, each carved with densely packed, chillingly eerie patterns and runes—

Those were struggling, twisted creatures, roaring demons, shattered mountains and rivers, and a bleeding sky... as if all the pain, despair, and destruction in the world had been imprinted on them.

Scattered around the altar were countless enormous chains, neither gold nor stone, of unknown material. Some were still attached to the altar, while others had broken and hung to the ground or embedded in the surrounding walls and floor.

The chains were incredibly thick, covered with rust and dark bloodstains.

But what is most striking is the top of the altar. There, instead of statues of gods or offerings, is... a huge, pitch-black, slowly rotating vortex!

The vortex was over ten zhang in diameter, with thick, ink-like darkness flowing along its edges, and its center was bottomless, as if connected to the deepest part of the Netherworld.

A deathly aura of reincarnation, ten or even a hundred times more concentrated and pure than that of the surrounding area, like a tangible black tide, surged continuously from the vortex, permeating the entire hall.

The deathly aura was so dense that it formed a visible black current that slowly swirled in the air, emitting a low, mournful howl like the wailing of millions of ghosts.

And directly above that dark vortex, something was suspended.

It was a strange crystal, about the size of a fist, irregularly shaped, crystal clear, and inside it seemed as if there were swirling galaxies and rising and falling clouds.

The crystal emitted a soft and pure white light, as if it could wash away all filth. In this hall filled with darkness and death, it was like a lone lamp in the night, weak but stubbornly illuminating a small area, making the terrifying black vortex seem unreal.

Where the white light reached, the dense aura of death and reincarnation was dispelled, forming a relatively "clean" area.

The crystal itself rotated slowly, and with each rotation, it scattered specks of shimmering light. These specks fell into the dark vortex below, just like water droplets falling into boiling oil, causing a violent reaction that made the vortex's rotation pause slightly and the surge of death energy also become slightly sluggish.

"What...is that?" Shi Tie stared wide-eyed at the floating crystal in disbelief.

In this desolate place filled with death and despair, there exists something so pure, so... full of vitality?

The stark contrast is so striking that it almost seems like a hallucination.

Zhao Qingyan held her breath, her beautiful eyes fixed on the crystal, and murmured, "Such pure power...it seems to be able to purify all evil...this...could this be a suppression artifact left behind by an ancient powerful being?"

Su Xiao remained silent, engrossed in reading countless excellent books, including "Gou Zai Fei Men Bian Shen Hua" (The Myth of Gou Zai's Abandoned Gate). However, her gaze was fixed intently on the crystal and the chilling black vortex beneath it, her body tense, on high alert.

The moment A-Yuan saw the crystal, she trembled violently, not with fear, but with an indescribable excitement and…longing? She pointed at the crystal, her voice trembling with tears, yet unusually clear:

"It's it! It's calling me! It smells... so sweet... so warm... but... it's so sad... so tired... it's crying... it's bleeding..."

Shen Mo remained silent. His entire attention was drawn to the altar, the vortex, and especially the suspended crystal radiating pure white light.

No, to be more precise, I was attracted by the slowly rotating starry cloud pattern inside the crystal.

That pattern...why does it look so familiar?

It was as if... as if the Daoist patterns on the surface of the Myriad Laws Source Pearl deep within his sea of ​​consciousness bore some kind of resemblance? No, not in form, but in a kind of... resonance at the source?

They seem to have originated from the same source, yet they exhibit completely different characteristics.

What shocked him even more was that when his gaze fell on the bottom of the altar, near the edge of the vortex, he saw...

A corner of clothing.

A tattered, dark, blood-stained corner of a Taoist robe, yet still recognizable as originally moon-white...

Shen Mo's pupils suddenly contracted to their maximum size.

That's... a standard Daoist robe that only inner sect elders and above of the Qingyun Sect are qualified to wear!

The tattered, blood-stained corner of the moon-white Taoist robe was like a red-hot branding iron, burning fiercely into Shen Mo's eyes and into his turbulent emotions.

Flowing cloud patterns... the standard for inner sect elders and above... how could they appear here?!

Deep within this ancient Palace of Reincarnation, beside this eerie altar that exudes an aura of ominous despair?!

Was this place once visited by a senior member of the Qingyun Sect? Or... is this all a trap? A meticulously planned scheme targeting him and the Qingyun Sect?

Countless chaotic, bewildered, and even chilling thoughts rushed into Shen Mo's mind in an instant, almost suffocating him.

But he forced himself to suppress it, his gaze sharp as a knife, fixed on the hem of clothing, trying to find more clues. The hem was half-hidden in the rubble and dust scattered at the bottom of the altar, its edges torn irregularly, as if ripped apart by a tremendous force.

The bloodstains had dried and turned black, creating a stark contrast with the moon-white of the Taoist robe.

Besides these, there was nothing else—no remains, no ornaments, and no items left to identify the person.

"Sect Leader, that is..." Zhao Qingyan also noticed the hem of her clothes. Her beautiful face drained of color instantly, and her voice trembled slightly.

She recognized the familiar flowing cloud pattern! This was even more terrifying than seeing the mural that resembled the patriarch's figure!

The murals are from a long time ago; they could be a coincidence or a legend.

But this hem of the robe... it's so new! Judging from the degree of damage and the color of the bloodstains, it's been there for no more than a hundred years! Maybe even less!

"Is...one of our people?" Shi Tie also saw it. Tong Ling's eyes flashed with ferocity, and the veins on the back of his axe-wielding hand bulged. "Who?! Who has been to this godforsaken place?! And..."

He looked at the horrific state of the hem of the garment, swallowed the rest of his words, and a surge of anger and chill welled up in his heart.