Before the Transmission Pavilion, Strange Corpses

Compared to the Hunyuan Dao Palace, the ancient sect Duxuan Sect was obviously much smaller in scale, but after walking around, Lin Yu could also feel that Duxuan Sect must have been a large sect at its peak.

He and Jian Cunyi had been walking for a while, and had only just passed the main hall of the Duxuan Sect.

The entire structure of the Duxuan Sect is not a well-connected network; the buildings are distributed and oriented irregularly, and the internal roads of the sect are somewhat winding.

There were even specially built courtyard walls, bamboo groves, and ponds, making the structure within this sect even more complex.

The reason why the Duxuan Sect's interior was designed and arranged in this way was intentional—these various designs that increased the complexity of the terrain also subtly corresponded to the Duxuan Sect's protective mountain Formation and other Formation of various sizes.

This Duxuan Sect is known for its "Formation," so it would be strange if there weren't many Formation operating within its gates!

Fortunately, they had Jian Cunyi, who inherited the "Orthodoxy" lineage of the Duxuan Sect. Although the sect had many buildings, winding paths, and even some maze-like Formation that were still in effect, at least the two of them wouldn't get lost or take too many detours.

The fact that the Formation within the Duxuan Sect wouldn't affect the two of them already saved them a lot of trouble.

Of course, the inheritance Jian Cunyi received did not include the internal structure and floor Map of the Duxuan Sect, but with the vague Memory fragments mixed in with the inheritance and the reverse deduction of the Formation, Jian Cunyi could roughly deduce the location of the Transmission Pavilion and the Treasure Pavilion they were going to.

"Brother Lin, if we go around that bamboo grove ahead, we should reach the 'Transmission Pavilion.' There should be quite a few Duxuan Sect texts on the Cultivation Method methods and Daoist arts and techniques of the Transmission Sect preserved there. We can borrow and read them then."

"I will also consult the oracle at that time. If the predecessors of the Duxuan Sect permit it, we may be able to take some with us."

Jian Cunyi spoke, Lin Yu asked with some curiosity, "Brother Jian, is your divination... reliable?"

"I don't know if any of the predecessors of the Duxuan Sect participated in the 'Ascension and Dao Integration' in person... but if they did, the responses obtained by using divination techniques and consulting the heavens in the Prison Mountain Realm could very well be feedback from the will of the ancestors of the Duxuan Sect themselves."

"But even if the predecessors who achieved Dao back then didn't come from the Duxuan Sect, if Heaven's will permitted it and the Dao Ancestor agreed, then it wouldn't be impossible."

Jian Cunyi spoke, Lin Yu said solemnly, "That's very good, Brother Jian. After all, this cultivation method is not like Magical Artifacts. It's enough to just flip through it and Memory it... If you really want to practice it for a long time, and there's even a possibility of passing it on to others in the future, it's indeed better to consult a divination master."

As they talked, they had already passed the dense bamboo grove—although most of the bamboo had withered and died, even the dead bamboo still stood there, its yellowish color unyielding.

Beyond the bamboo grove, Lin Yu and Jian Cunyi also saw a three-story hexagonal Wooden Pavilion, and...

Two corpses.

Behind the bamboo grove, the bodies of two men lay on the steps of the three-story Wooden Pavilion.

The two men were dressed in black, close-fitting clothes, and wore headscarves. They didn't look like Daoist Sect; instead, they seemed to be two martial arts practitioners.

They lay face down on the steps, with large pools of blood beneath them. They had huge, penetrating wounds in their chest and abdomen, almost emptying their entire abdominal cavity and most of their chest cavity.

However, no fragments of the two people's organs could be seen inside the wounds, and even the broken ribs had disappeared.

Furthermore, although the outline of the wound Rule, the cut was extremely neat and smooth, making it look very strange and unimaginable how the two people died.

Most importantly...

The blood beneath them had not yet dried or congealed, so much so that the smell of blood still lingered in the air.

Aside from the smell of blood, Lin Yu and Jian Cunyi did not detect any other foul odor.

This means that these two bodies... showed absolutely no signs of decay or decomposition; in fact, one could say they were... somewhat "fresh"!

Within the Duxuan Sect Xuan Sect, a place that should have remained untouched for centuries, two corpses appeared, seemingly having died only recently... Even disregarding the cause of their deaths, this in itself was quite unusual and bizarre.

Moreover, their causes of death are usually very strange.

This made Jian Cunyi and Lin Yu, who were initially somewhat relaxed, perk up again.

"Brother Jian, the appearance of these two corpses here is far too strange—what's going on? Do you have any clues?"

Lin Yu looked at Jian Cunyi and asked this expert from the Prison Mountain Realm.

Jian Cunyi also looked very solemn. He took out a folding fan from his pocket, opened it, and gently waved the white paper fan.

"I don't have any clues yet... When I broke through the Sect-Protecting Grand Formation just now, I could feel that the Formation had been operating normally and completely, and the flow of spiritual energy was quite stable, even somewhat rigid. In other words, this Formation hadn't been broken for at least five hundred years," Jian Cunyi paused here, not making any definitive statements, "Of course, if a master with higher attainments in Formation Dao than me, or a master who understands this Duxuan Sect Mountain-Guarding Grand Formation better than me, had tampered with this Formation, then that would be a different story... but the probability of such a thing happening is not high."

"And to enter the Duxuan Sect without disturbing this Formation... is impossible."

Lin Yu looked at the two corpses. "If we're going by the 'Formation' standard, then that means these two corpses... entered the Duxuan Sect at least five hundred years ago, right?"

Jian Cunyi: "Yes."

But they looked... like they had just died not long ago.

Lin Yu raised his own question.

Jian Cunyi gently shook his folding fan and pondered, "I know that too... However, compared to the possibility that my judgment of the Formation was flawed, it's more likely that they entered this Duxuan Sect hundreds of years ago, and due to some special reason, they have maintained this 'lifelike' state even hundreds of years after their deaths."

"It sounds counterintuitive, but my judgment is correct—these two corpses must have died within the Duxuan Sect hundreds of years ago, but the flow of time has slowed down on these two bodies."

Lin Yu said, "But the flow of time within the Duxuan Sect should be normal, right? Although the buildings here haven't collapsed, it's mostly because they were built using special wood and stone materials imbued with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and they've also been enhanced by Formation."

"The withered grass and bamboo growing in the cracks between the bricks and stones already show that... life will still pass away normally within this Formation."

Upon hearing this, Jian Cunyi nodded slightly. "That's true, so... there might be some other strange things about them."

As they spoke, the two men walked to the two corpses.

Jian Cunyi squatted down, and a blue light emerged from his hand, quickly covering the two bodies, as if he were scanning the two corpses.

Then, Jian Cunyi frowned and shook his head again.

"There's absolutely nothing unusual... it seems like they really did die less than half an hour ago."

"What exactly is going on?"

Jian Cunyi stood up and turned the two corpses over so that they were facing up from face down, allowing him to see their faces clearly.

They were indeed two ordinary-looking men.

During this time, Lin Yu also used his Mental Power and Soul Power to scan the two corpses, but found nothing—the two corpses only had slight traces of Mental Power and Soul Power remaining, indicating that they were indeed completely dead.

Furthermore, since the remaining Mental Power and Soul Power was too weak, and these two deceased individuals were probably not superhumans with unwavering willpower, it was impossible for them to use this Mental Power and Soul Power to do anything.

Lin Yu could only tell from the surging energy and blood in their bodies that these two guys should indeed be martial arts practitioners and martial artists.

"It seems that looking at these two corpses alone... won't give us any clues," Jian Cunyi said, looking at Lin Yu. "Brother Lin, why don't we continue with what we were originally going to do? If these two corpses only survived because of some coincidence, then they won't affect anything we do."

"If these two corpses truly indicate something strange and unusual, something we can't ignore... then it's not too late to investigate further once we have more information and other strange occurrences happen."

Lin Yu nodded in agreement after hearing Jian Cunyi's words.

"Since you put it that way, Brother Jian... it does seem to be the best method."

Lin Yu spoke.

The appearance of these two corpses out of nowhere is indeed somewhat puzzling.

However... these two corpses haven't had any "substantial" impact for the time being.

Although the appearance of a corpse often signifies the presence of some kind of "danger," the two dead individuals, judging from the residual energy and vitality in their bodies, were not particularly powerful beings.

The reasons that could have killed them might not have had any effect on Jian Cunyi and Lin Yu.

"However, Brother Jian... I thought you were the type to get to the bottom of these two deaths."

Lin Yu spoke.

After all, Jian Cunyi treats people from the Prison Mountain Realm and people from the Real World equally.

And he was clearly a very enthusiastic and responsible guy.

Jian Cunyi understood why Lin Yu had this question, and he said, "I do want to investigate why these two people died, and I don't want them to die in vain... but I can still distinguish between priorities."

"Moreover, these two martial arts practitioners, dressed in black like night clothes, died within the walls of the Daoist Sect... Although there's no evidence, this doesn't seem like the behavior of Righteous Path sect."

"So... although they may have died accidentally here, I don't think they are 'innocent'."

"Furthermore, judging from the chaotic and turbid state of their qi and blood, I think it's highly likely... these two cultivated some demonic or evil arts in their lifetime."