Inside the hidden passage, the stench of rotting earth mingled with a faint trace of blood and rushed toward him.
The torchlight was limited, illuminating only the few feet of ground ahead. In the deeper darkness, it seemed a ferocious beast was lying in wait, ready to devour anyone who came near. The silence was enough to make one's heart pound.
Lu Chen's figure drifted down soundlessly, like a weightless fallen leaf.
The instant his feet touched the ground, his Shadow Demon Trace Steps, mastered to the minor level, activated on their own, dissolving every sound and impact without a trace.
At that moment, he was a true specter, perfectly fused with the deep darkness around him.
The passage was irregular, clearly dug in haste. Its walls were slick, and cold drops of groundwater fell now and then, striking the earth with crisp little plinks that sounded especially grating in the deathly silence.
Lu Chen didn't hurry after him.
He stuck the torch into the muddy wall at his side and lowered his eyelids. His Eye of Delusion Breaking quietly opened.
Deep in his eyes, a glimmer of light that no ordinary person could detect flowed past.
In an instant, the passage looked entirely different to him.
In the air, a faint trace of Foreman Wang's muddled qi and blood flickered like intermittent fireflies, leading deeper into the darkness.
And on the ground and walls ahead, several energy fluctuations that clashed with their surroundings appeared clearly in his vision.
"Crude tripwires, connected to poisoned crossbow bolts... and in the gaps in the walls, needles coated with a poison that kills at a touch..."
A cold, mocking smile curled Lu Chen's lips.
How laughable, the struggles of a trapped beast.
His figure swayed, turning into a wisp of green smoke slipping through the gaps between light and shadow. With an unbelievable angle and speed, he glided effortlessly past the crude yet deadly traps.
The vicious snares could have sent any martial artist of the same rank to their grave, yet they didn't even brush the hem of his clothes.
The passage wound downward. After roughly a hundred zhang, it suddenly opened up.
A crude stone chamber, carved from the heart of the mountain, appeared before Lu Chen.
The chamber was small, only seven or eight zhang across. Gold, silver, and jewels were piled in one corner, gleaming with vulgar brilliance.
On a wooden rack on the other side sat a few low-grade pills and Demon Materials, evidently all ill-gotten gains Foreman Wang had skimmed over the years.
At the very center of the chamber, Foreman Wang knelt before a crude stone altar with his back to the entrance. His body trembled violently as he muttered something, apparently performing some kind of sinister ritual.
His voice was hoarse and frenzied, full of venom.
"Lord Ghost Face... Lord Ghost Face, save me! I offer you everything I have. I'll be your most loyal dog! Just... just grant me power, so I can kill that little bastard! Kill him!"
On the stone altar before him lay a half-face mask, hideous in design and made of an unknown black metal!
Its shape was identical to the one Lu Chen had seen in Fu An's memories. Even now, it gave off a faint, chilling aura that made his heart tremble.
Lu Chen stopped at the entrance to the chamber.
He made no attempt to hide, simply standing there in silence, torch in hand. His shadow stretched thin and long across the cold stone wall.
"Were you... calling me?"
His calm voice rang out abruptly in the deathly silent chamber, like a funeral bell from the depths of hell.
Foreman Wang's frantic prayer cut off. His body stiffened, as though he'd been frozen in place.
He slowly turned his head, inch by inch. When he saw the black-clad youth who had appeared behind him as silently as a specter, his triangular eyes filled with terror and disbelief!
"You... you..." Foreman Wang's lips trembled, his teeth clattering. "Those traps..."
"You mean the mousetraps you set on the ground?" Lu Chen asked with an amused smile. He walked slowly toward Foreman Wang, one step at a time. "They're a little childish for dealing with people."
Each step landed like a heavy hammer, pounding Foreman Wang's heart.
The invisible pressure nearly crushed his spirit!
"No! Impossible! How did you find this place so quickly? How could you..." Foreman Wang screamed incoherently, scrambling backward on his hands and feet until his back hit the cold stone altar. There was nowhere left to retreat.
A look of utter madness and venom flashed across his eyes.
"Little bastard! You forced me to do this! You forced me!"
Foreman Wang snatched up the half Ghost Face Mask from the altar and pressed it to his own face without hesitation!
"If you won't let me live, then we'll die together!"
"SSS—!"
A shrill sound rang out, like a red-hot iron searing into flesh!
The instant the half-mask touched Foreman Wang's face, it seemed to come alive. Countless tiny black tendrils sprouted from its edges and stabbed viciously into his flesh!
"GAAAH—!!!"
Foreman Wang let out a bloodcurdling scream that sounded nothing like a human voice. His body convulsed violently, the veins all over him writhing beneath his skin like earthworms.
A surge of yin Baleful Intent, far beyond his own cultivation and brimming with savagery and chaos, exploded from within him!
His once slightly plump body shriveled at a visible speed. In its place, a terrifying aura climbed higher and higher, enough to make one's heart tremble!
In the space of a few breaths, he had become less than human. A hideous ghost mask covered half his face, while the veins bulged on the other half. His eyes were swallowed by a blood-red glow.
"Power... so this is... what power feels like!"
Sensing the unprecedented strength within him, Foreman Wang let out a crazed, raspy laugh like a night owl.
He jerked his head up, his scarlet eyes locking onto Lu Chen. His voice brimmed with boundless venom and glee.
"Lu Chen! Didn't you want to kill me? Come on! Let's see which of us dies today!"
Before the words had even left his mouth, the ground beneath him exploded. He shot toward Lu Chen like a blood-red arrow loosed from a bow, bringing with him a stinking, foul wind!
His five fingers had turned black and sharp, like ghostly claws. They reached straight for Lu Chen's heart!
The speed and force of this blow had far surpassed the bounds of a Yellow-rank martial artist. It had even faintly reached the level of a Ranked Demon!
Yet, in the face of this thunderous, deadly attack, Lu Chen remained standing where he was, not dodging or retreating.
He didn't even draw his Hundred Refinements Saber.
He merely watched the blood-red figure closing in, his gaze as calm as a frozen pool untouched by the ages. The faintest trace of... pity even lingered at the corner of his mouth.
Just as the black ghost claw was about to touch his chest,
a layer of profound black Protective Qi, thin as a cicada's wing and almost invisible to the naked eye, flashed across Lu Chen's body and vanished.
His Ten Thousand Year Black Tortoise Art had reached major mastery. Immovable as a Mountain!