Ancient Legacy

Consciousness floated in the abyss of darkness, like a leaf that could shatter at any moment. Cold and heat alternately tore at his soul, the insidious poison of curse power and the violent fury of Crimson Sun still waging a silent war within his body. After an unknown span of time, a faint, steady warmth pulled Li Yuan back from the brink of utter oblivion.

He snapped his eyes open, pupils contracting in the absolute darkness. It took a moment to adjust before he could make out his surroundings, relying on the faint, dim red light in the distance.

This was a massive underground cavern, its vaulted ceiling lost in the darkness above, its peak invisible. The air was hot and dry, thick with an overwhelming smell of sulfur that stung the lungs with every breath. In the distance came the muffled roar of an underground river, and the dim red glow seeped through cracks in the rock wall near the river's course, casting shifting shadows within the cave that only added to its strangeness.

He was lying on a relatively flat patch of ground covered in fine gravel. A peculiar warmth radiated up from beneath him—not from subterranean magma, but more like a... sediment of countless ages, an introverted yet pure masculine energy seeping thread by thread through the gravel and the skin of his back, infiltrating his nearly shattered body.

It was the aura of this very ruin itself!

Li Yuan struggled to sit up, but a tearing pain shot through his entire body, especially his arms and chest, as if they had been crushed and then barely glued back together. He grunted, managing only to prop himself up on his elbows, leaning against a cold, half-buried broken stone pillar.

He lowered his head to examine his body. It was covered in dried blood scabs and dust, his skin crisscrossed with wounds, some deep enough to show bone. The worst damage was internal—the consequences of forcibly devouring curse power and detonating his own strength had manifested. His meridians were damaged in multiple places, qi and blood circulation sluggish and obstructed, every breath accompanied by a burning pain.

He tried to circulate his Crimson Sun Qi and Blood. The dim sun in his Sea of Qi was faint and rotating slowly, as if exhausted. He could only barely separate a thin thread of airflow, struggling through the main meridians to repair the damage, at a pace so slow it was maddening.

At this rate, forget recovering his combat strength—just moving freely would take three to five days. And above, at the collapsed entrance, the Netherworld Cult people would never let this go. They could descend at any moment!

The dead end had not been lifted.

Li Yuan leaned against the stone pillar, breathing heavily. Sweat mixed with blood flowed into his eyes, stinging sharply. He looked around, using the dim red light to carefully observe the ruins.

Broken reliefs covered in moss depicted content long since blurred beyond recognition, only faintly revealing some seated human figures and flame totems. Broken stone pillars and collapsed architectural fragments were scattered everywhere, telling of past glory and present decay. The architectural style here was completely different from any school he knew in Black Mountain City, carrying an ancient and barbaric aura.

His gaze finally settled on the metal components embedded in the rock walls, long since tarnished and dull. Their arrangement seemed to imply some kind of pattern, forming incomplete designs. The lines of some of these patterns bore a striking resemblance to the markings on the talisman fragments in his bosom!

Could it be... that this ruin was connected to what the Netherworld Cult sought, or to that so-called "Sacred Sacrifice"?

Biting back the sharp pain, he reached into his bosom and pulled out the three talisman fragments and the several black fragments he had never been able to probe.

The talisman fragments were still cold and slippery, but upon contact with the introverted masculine energy of this ruin, the sinister markings on them seemed to dim slightly. As for the black fragments, they remained heavy and cold in his hand, but the moment he took them out and exposed them to the ruin's air, a change occurred!

The rough, seemingly natural textures on the surface of the fragments, under the reflection of the distant dim red light, faintly shimmered with an extremely weak, same dark red luster! And they transmitted an extremely subtle warmth, one that shared the same origin as the masculine energy in the air and beneath his feet!

Li Yuan's heart shook violently! He had always thought these fragments were some kind of useless mineral or Netherworld Cult tokens, never expecting them to be connected to this ancient ruin!

Enduring the pain, he brought a fragment close to his eyes and carefully sensed it. That thread of warmth, though faint, was exceptionally pure and ancient, carrying a majestic and righteous intent to suppress evil and smelt all things. It faintly resonated with the Crimson Sun within him!

A bold thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

He looked at the faintly glowing fragment in his hand, then felt the continuous warmth emanating from the earth beneath him, and finally turned his gaze to the metal components embedded in the rock wall, forming incomplete patterns.

What if... these fragments were keys? What if the ruin itself was a massive, broken formation or cultivation ground? And this sedimented masculine energy was its power source?

Then his own Crimson Sun Qi and Blood—could it... activate it?

This idea was extremely risky. This place was strange; one wrong move could bring disaster and a death without burial. But waiting to die was also a dead end!

A ruthless glint flashed in Li Yuan's eyes. He struggled, using all his strength, dragging his nearly disintegrating body toward the nearest rock wall where metal components were embedded and the pattern was relatively intact.

Every inch he moved brought piercing pain. Sweat soaked the blood scabs, only to be quickly evaporated by the hot air.

Finally, he crawled to the base of that rock wall. The metal components on the wall were long rusted and mottled, forming an incomplete shape resembling a cauldron, with a recess at its center.

Li Yuan panted heavily, looking at the recess, then at the black fragment in his hand. The size and shape seemed... to match perfectly?

He didn't hesitate. With trembling hands, he carefully pressed a black fragment into the recess.

The moment the fragment touched the recess—

"Hummm...!"

A low, prolonged vibration, as if rising from the depths of an age-old slumber, instantly spread throughout the entire cavern!

The black fragment in Li Yuan's hand suddenly blazed! No longer a faint light, but like a red-hot branding iron, emitting a dazzling dark red radiance! At the same time, the earth beneath him shook violently, and that introverted masculine energy, like a waking dragon, turned violent and scorching!

The incomplete cauldron pattern on the rock wall lit up, line by line, emitting the same dark red light! A surge of masculine energy, far purer, more vast, and countless times hotter than before, like a bursting flood, rushed along the rock wall's veins, crazily surging into Li Yuan's arm pressed against the recess, violently crashing into his body!

"Ahhh—!"

Li Yuan let out a miserable scream! This energy was too vast, too violent! It far exceeded any curse power he had devoured before, even far surpassing the endurance limit of his own Crimson Sun!

He felt as if his body had been thrown into a real furnace, every inch of flesh, every bone being burned and smelted! His meridians snapped inch by inch, then were forcibly reshaped under the energy's impact! The dim sun in his Sea of Qi, under the infusion of this external force, crazily expanded and spun, its light instantly becoming blinding!

Pain! Utmost pain!

But amidst this body-consuming, bone-gnawing agony, he could clearly feel his damaged meridians and internal organs being repaired and strengthened at an inconceivable speed! Broken bones reconnected under the energy's scouring, becoming denser and harder! The dried-up Sea of Qi was rapidly filled, the Crimson Sun's volume continuously expanding, its color deepening, the red-gold at its center almost turning into liquid flowing!

From the collapsed entrance above came the startled shouts of the Netherworld Cult Deacon, apparently shaken by this sudden anomaly and energy fluctuation, not daring to descend easily.

Li Yuan had no time to care. He gritted his teeth so hard his gums bled, relying on an unyielding will to forcibly guide the ancient energy, hot as magma, pouring into his body, merging it with his own Crimson Sun Qi and Blood, impacting the blocked injuries and the remnants of unrefined curse power within him.

On the surface of his body, dark red light and red-gold patterns intertwined. His muscles twisted and writhed unnaturally under the energy's impact, as if undergoing a transformative rebirth.

The ancient legacy, burning the body to extend life.

Would it be nirvanic rebirth, or turning to ashes?

The answer lay in the clash between this scorching torrent and an unyielding will.