Chapter 691 — The Broken Stele of the Yin Realm

By the next day, the darkness was retreating at astonishing speed. From east and west alike, all of it surged toward the cliff, vanishing in one rush into the precipice at the source of the Yong River. Shen Mu immediately leaped forward.

Still more than two hundred zhang from the cliff, he began searching from south to north. Hum— The formation in his eyes activated, and two beams of light swept across the cliff face.

No crack, however small, could escape his gaze.

Checking against the glowing points marked on the paper, Shen Mu searched all the way north, then back from north to south. After a moment, he swept the entire cliff again.

The cliff was tall, its surface uneven and its terrain complex. Searching it was exhausting work, yet it remained the simplest and most effective method. He Yiyi and the others continued excavating Taihuang Heaven, trying to open a passage.

Because of her vast divine powers, Yan Jingjing had been invited by He Yiyi to help. She melted the rock in the tunnel, and He Yiyi transformed the magma into lava giants, greatly speeding up the excavation.

Yan Jingjing had always piloted the Xizhou; she had never used her divine powers to clear a path before. This sort of work was quite novel to her. He Yiyi had originally used formations to carve out a path. Though fast, it consumed a great deal of mana, and she could not keep it up for long before needing rest.

With Yan Jingjing's help, she only needed to transform the molten stone into lava giants and let them walk out of the cave on their own. The speed was now immeasurably greater than before.

More crucially, Yan Jingjing was a deity. Her flames not only melted the rock but also reinforced the tunnel. "At this rate, it won't take more than a few days to break through Taihuang Heaven. " He Yiyi was both astonished and delighted. She thought to herself: 'But if I drag her sweetheart off to a walking marriage, she'll fly into a rage, and I certainly can't beat her. What a pity.

When her sweetheart rode that white horse and let me lean against his back as we leaped out of the painting, I truly wished I could marry him then and there. In the Western Lands, you can't find a man that outstanding.

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. ' "Found it! " Shen Mu's eyes lit up. He had finally located a crack that had not glowed the night before. He had searched several times before finally finding this crack on the cliff.

It did not glow, and it lay between two other cracks, precisely hidden by a piece of rock between them. 'Jing-mei isn't here now, and Long Qilin is asleep.

Should I call them to come in and take a look? ' Shen Mu hesitated, then decided against bringing them. Though Yan Jingjing could resist the darkness, she did so by using her own divine light to repel it.

Long Qilin had no ability to contend with the darkness and still needed Yan Jingjing's protection. Only Shen Mu could merge with the darkness.

So whether he brought them or not made little difference. 'Fatty Long, when Jing-mei comes out, tell her to wait for me here. ' Shen Mu called out loudly, then leaped onto the stone before the crack. The stone resembled a stone door, though most of it was embedded in the mountain.

From a distance, it was impossible to spot this doorway, especially with other cracks on either side.

He examined the stone door carefully.

There were no characters or runes on it, nor anything like a door handle.

'Seventh Heaven of the Sacred Pupil! ' Divine light swirled in Shen Mu's brow as his gaze swept over the doorway, trying to see if there were any unique marks within. To his disappointment, it seemed to be an utterly ordinary stone door, with no trace of having been refined. Finding nothing unusual, he went to the crack behind the doorway.

Its depths were pitch-black, and he could see nothing out of the ordinary there either. He walked inside.

The crack was long, and the rock walls on either side were themselves lined with cracks.

Each crack was pitch-black, with no light visible within. The divine light in his eyes illuminated the cliff's cracks, but when it met the darkness, it seemed to be swallowed up, unable to reveal what lay within. He reached out and touched the darkness. A rustling sound reached his ears.

'These cracks are the fissures of other heavens buried here! ' His heart turned cold.

If the Wilderness Ruins were in daylight now, then the other heavens buried here were the darkness. 'The source of the darkness lies behind this crack. The sources of darkness from era after era are buried here.

I want to see for myself what caused the dark invasion of the Wilderness Ruins. . .

' He steadied himself and continued forward, his figure vanishing into the darkness.

Shen Mu pressed on.

He walked a long distance, and more than an hour passed, yet the crack still had no end. After walking so long, he grew anxious, doubts filling his mind.

With other cracks, entering them would bring one to another heaven, but this crack seemed far too long. 'Half an hour more. If I can't find the end, I'll turn back.

' Just as this thought crossed his mind, he suddenly saw a light ahead.

His heart stirred, and he quickened his pace. From afar, he saw a figure leaning against the rock wall, holding a lantern that emitted divine light. Shen Mu stopped and looked around. He activated the Seventh Heaven of the Sacred Pupil once more, using the Langxiao Sacred Pupil to illuminate the area. After scanning several times and finding no danger, he continued forward and came to the figure's side.

This was a deity who had long since died.

He leaned against the rock wall, his eye sockets empty, his face somewhat bewildered. Shen Mu examined his clothing carefully, discerning the patterns on the fabric. He thought: 'He's a deity from the Kaihuang Era!

' The lantern had not gone out. Its light fell upon the deity, making him seem almost transparent. Shen Mu was suspicious.

Summoning his courage, he pinched the deity's skin. Suddenly, the deity deflated like a punctured balloon, his clothing and human skin collapsing together.

Shen Mu shuddered, his hair standing on end. He stepped back several paces.

After a moment, the clothing rustled and floated up, and the deity's human skin gradually inflated as if being pumped with air. Before long, a deity was once again sitting against the rock wall.

'His flesh and blood are gone, his primordial spirit is gone. All his divine treasury and heavenly palace are empty. .

.

' Shen Mu boldly approached and examined him closely. He could not tell what had eaten the deity, leaving only a human skin. He murmured: 'The overturned cart ahead is a warning for the cart behind.

Knowing this deity's cause of death may benefit me. What's strange is, since he has no flesh or blood, why does he inflate again?

Is there something beneath the skin? ' He hesitated, then drew the Wuyou Sword and tried to cut open the deity's skin. Something writhed beneath the skin, resisting the Wuyou Sword, preventing him from piercing through. Shen Mu frowned. After thinking for a moment, he took out the Book of Life and Death and shone it on the deity. Just as a name surfaced on the book, the human skin suddenly opened its mouth and let out a shrill scream.

Streams of black smoke flew from its eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, and soon the whole figure deflated! The black smoke merged into the darkness and vanished. Shen Mu was alarmed and uncertain, his heart pounding violently.

The matter was truly too bizarre. Even in Fengdu, he had never encountered anything so strange. After a moment, his heartbeat returned to normal. He picked up the lantern and walked forward with it. Before he had taken two steps, he saw a massive stone stele towering high, blocking the path ahead.

He raised the lantern.

Its light fell quietly on the stele. The writing on it was a kind of script he had never seen before.