My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting-Chapter 623 – First Ancient Hall - Part 2

“Stay close,” Li Yuan said simply.

With that, he tightened his grip on the lifespan severing blade, then stepped forward, hands behind his back, and darted toward the ancient hall.

The others followed close behind.

As he soared through the air, Li Yuan could feel the pull grow stronger with every step closer. It was like a great beast lay ahead, mouth agape, sucking in anything that dared approach.

That monstrous black structure wasn’t a building. It was a predator.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Streams of light shot across the air. One by one, nine figures slipped through the narrow crack of the colossal doors, which had opened just a sliver.

Bai Xinxuan moved in close to Li Yuan’s side. The others, no strangers to this place, immediately withdrew their presence, tightening their auras, eyes scanning every direction with caution.

Meanwhile, the puppets brought by the Puppetry Dean and the clones sent in by Ping'an formed a perimeter, acting as scouts for the group. These constructs didn’t suppress their presence, in fact, quite the opposite. They let their auras flare.

The idea wasn’t to avoid the blood fiends, but to ensure that if one did show up, the group wouldn't have to fight head-on.

The group moved in silence, footsteps barely audible as they advanced.

Li Yuan remained alert, scanning every corner of the ancient hall’s interior.

At first glance, the layout didn’t seem overly complicated, just a single, massive corridor stretching deep into the hall.

But along this main passage were clusters of blackened stone, many of which had weathered and eroded into smaller tunnel-like openings. These side passages twisted and turned in all directions, forming a complex, interwoven maze that rose and dipped like some ancient hive.

Calling them small was only relative to the towering main corridor. Each of these offshoots was wide enough to accommodate five or six horse-drawn carriages side by side.

The hall itself was bathed in a cold, dim light. The atmosphere was muted, like a gloomy overcast day, utterly lacking the blinding brilliance that had burst forth when the ancient hall had first emerged.

The stone that made up the inner passageways was the same as the exterior, black, cold, and lifeless to the touch. Not the slightest hint of warmth lingered in this place.

But it was the air that felt truly strange.

There was something oddly invigorating about it, as if it stirred the soul. And yet, beneath that rush was a deeper undercurrent, a stench of rot. Not the rot of flesh, but something older and more profound, something that grated against the soul.

It reminded Li Yuan of the scorched scent he'd once encountered within the grey fog.

Both sensations seemed to speak to the same part of the being: the soul.

And the soul, when stripped down to its essence, was the most fragile part of a person. Muscles might be powerful, capable of feats of destruction, but they were just the outer shell. Yin and Yang energies could swirl through the Inner World, vast and mysterious. But even those were just layers.

When all of it is peeled away, all that’s left of the soul...was a thought.

The group pressed forward, eyes keen, senses sharp. No one spoke.

Then suddenly, from deeper within the passage, a bizarre pounding sound echoed.

Thump! Thump! Thump! It resembled drums beaten by an unseen hand, coming faster and faster.

From the gloom emerged a blood-slicked creature, hurtling toward them on all fours. It used its massive fists like forelegs, sprinting at full speed in a manner more beast than human.

One of Ping'an’s clones intercepted, slashing down with a sword. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The strike connected with a sharp crack, cleaving into the creature’s flesh.

Whether it felt pain was unclear, but the blow caught its attention. The creature instantly veered, lunging at the clone instead, chasing it as it lured the monster away into the dark.

So that’s what a blood fiend looks like, Li Yuan thought.

It was his first time seeing one up close.

The thing was grotesque, huge, skinless, muscles overdeveloped to the point of grotesquery, its entire body a pulsing mass of exposed tissue.

Its head hung at an unnatural angle, or in some cases, was missing altogether. Strange objects jutted from its body like foreign growths.

Beside it floated a shimmering number, just under a million, confirming that it was, without doubt, a peak third rank entity.

With no skin to hold it back, blood flowed freely through the ridges of muscle, sometimes dripping down onto the cold floor of the hall. Each drop landed like a ruby, gleaming and clear on the pitch-black stone, like dew glistening on a lotus leaf.

But that blood, to a human, was pure poison.

The Five Spirits Institute and Arcane Supreme Sect had once tried collecting some of that blood. But the moment it was brought out of the ancient hall, it evaporated into a cloud of crimson mist.

Wherever it spread, everything was corroded. Even a fifth rank cultivator who accidentally touched the blood mist was rapidly dissolved, reduced to nothing but powdery bone dust in mere moments.

As Li Yuan watched the blood fiend being lured away, a name surfaced in his mind, a blood walker.

The blood walker was a monster that had first appeared in the Outer Region after the fall of the ancient gods.

And this blood fiend, aside from some additional anatomical details, matched the description of a blood walkeri almost perfectly.

A chill crept down Li Yuan’s spine.

Because he’d just thought of a terrifying possibility:

What if the creatures known as blood walkers...were actually the missing ancient gods?

But those ancient gods, the ones who once commanded the heavens, who were likely second rank beings at their peak...how could they end up as bloodthirsty beasts? And if that were the case, why were these creatures scattered across the ancient hall and Outer Region? What happened to twist them into this?

As these questions churned in his mind, the group made their way through a series of sharp, winding turns, finally arriving at a wide, open chamber.

The space was about the size of a soccer field from Li Yuan’s past life. The floor was smooth as glass, the walls polished to a sheen. The ceiling curved like a natural cavern, minus any stalactites. Everything in the space seemed to follow one consistent theme, smoothness. Even the lighting was oddly gentle, suffused with a cold, bluish tone.

What puzzled Li Yuan most was the source of the light.

There were no torches, no glowing stones, not even a hint of spiritual fire, yet the room was clearly lit.

Bai Xinxuan let out a soft sigh, some of the tension fading from her face.

“Husband, this clearing is a safe zone we used for cultivation in the past. There’s only one entrance, and the winding corridors leading here do a good job of muffling sound and hiding our presence. Unless a blood fiend stumbles in by sheer chance, we won’t be detected.

“And even if one gets close, Ping’an is outside and can draw it away. If anything goes wrong, we evacuate immediately. And if Ping’an can’t manage it, we still have the puppets. They’re more than enough to act as decoys and keep the blood fiends off us.”

As she spoke, the others who had entered with them were already looking around with eager expressions. Clearly, they were itching to resume their cultivation. The appearance of the Primordial Emperor had disrupted their training for far too long, and now they were desperate to make up for lost time.

Li Yuan nodded in approval.

The Gold Hall master, Wood Hall Master, Puppetry Dean, along with the heads of the three hidden clans, quickly picked spots around the clearing and sat down to meditate. Yet without a word, they all left the central position, by far the most ideal, for Li Yuan.

Soon, only Li Yuan, Sheng’er, Ping’an, and Bai Xinxuan remained at the center.

Bai Xinxuan followed Li Yuan’s lead, waiting for him to settle before drawing closer herself.

This was Li Yuan’s first time entering the ancient hall.

And contrary to all the tales of bloodshed and danger, he had arrived at this chamber with almost no resistance.

The reason was simple. The path had already been thoroughly explored.

How high the price was to chart this route, no one knew. Perhaps no one wanted to.

After all, this twisting, secluded clearing was a double-edged sword. While it effectively masked their presence, it was also a true dead end. If enough blood fiends blocked the entrance, they wouldn’t be able to escape even if they wanted to.

Fortunately, Ping'an’s clones and the Puppetry Dean’s puppets were stationed to ensure that such a scenario would never happen.

Li Yuan gave his son a pat on the shoulder.

Though Ping’an was long accustomed to this role, Li Yuan knew that each time a clone was destroyed, it sent a sharp pain straight to the soul. A pain deep enough to drive ordinary cultivators mad.

Ping’an responded with a smile, as if to say it was nothing.

With that reassurance, Li Yuan turned his focus to the aura of the space around him.

And almost immediately, he noticed something strange.

“Xinxuan,” he said, “there’s no spiritual energy here. No trace of Yin or Yang either.”

Bai Xinxuan responded calmly, “Husband, we’re not sure what kind of energy this place holds. But after testing it out, we found that cultivation here does yield results. We’ve all reached the end of our current paths. If we’re to grow stronger, we have to start moving toward the second rank. So...are you sensing something off about this place?”

Li Yuan, hearing that she and the others had already cultivated here before, didn’t press further.

“Nothing wrong,” he said. “Go ahead and train. I’ll take a look around.”

She nodded and sat down cross-legged, entering her meditative state.