The two chatted and laughed as they entered the cave.
The interior was indescribably strange, seeming both man-made and naturally formed. A long tunnel stretched ahead, widening the farther down they went. After descending a full twenty or thirty li, the view suddenly opened up before them into an underground world.
There were even ruined walls not far away, though time had eroded them beyond recognition. There had once actually been a city here!
The air was murky and carried a rotten stench. Black clouds the size of water vats drifted everywhere overhead.
These were Prison Ghosts. According to sect legends, in ancient times, a special race had been cursed to death here, their entire clan exterminated. Their resentment did not disperse after death, and they became Prison Ghosts.
Prison Ghosts were peculiar—not ghosts, not spirits, but merely masses of cloud mist. Yet as long as someone drew near, they would latch onto them like a disease clinging to the bone, feeding on their blood and essence. Within only a few breaths, they could squeeze a person dry alive.
Only a cultivator's true essence could ward them off—but it was not really warding them off. It was Mutual Destruction. The true essence and Prison Ghosts would be consumed together, and the expended true essence could not be restored. It was just like having one's cultivation crippled outright.
This place was not underground. Even if one dug downward from the Azure Origin Sect, let alone twenty or thirty li—even two or three hundred li would not reach this place. Only the cave entrance the two had used could lead here.
This should have been a Special Space.
The Azure Origin Sect had stood for several thousand, perhaps nearly ten thousand years. Basically, all of its greatest enemies had been imprisoned within