The Soul Hall's Western Regions Branch Hall was situated deep within a dark mountain range known as Nether Abyss Mountain.
The entire palace had been carved into the mountainside, with most of it embedded within the rock face. From afar, it resembled a massive black python coiled around the mountainside.
The hall doors stood over a hundred feet tall, forged from black iron. A huge skull emblem was carved above the lintel, emitting a faint ghostly glow.
The instant Lin Yao stepped through the doors, a dense, nearly tangible chill surged toward him like a tide, as though the entire hall were silently scrutinizing him.
His expression remained unchanged as he strode inside.
Behind him, the heavy black iron doors slammed shut, sealing off everything outside. The hall was dimly lit, with only the Formation patterns carved into the walls giving off a faint greenish glow, illuminating a corridor that led deeper within. The air was so stagnant it barely seemed to move. Every bluish-black stone tile beneath his feet radiated a bone-piercing chill, as if the hall itself were a living beast.
At the end of the corridor stood a half-opened massive door. Lin Yao had just approached it and had yet to raise a hand when thick black mist suddenly poured from the gap. Like a venomous snake that had lain in wait for ages before striking, it transformed into an enormous black hand several yards wide and seized his body. The mist was freezing to the touch and carried corrosive energy, like invisible chains winding around him, trying to lock down his entire body along with his Dou Qi.
Lin Yao did not resist and allowed the giant black mist hand to drag him into the space beyond the door. The massive doors burst open, and the