Forbidden Ground, Stone Coffins

Boom...

The moment the tinder touched the oil, it caught fire. A thin line of flame raced along the oil grooves carved into the cave wall. As it traveled, lamps set into the stone lit one after another. In just a moment, the entire cave blazed with light.

Shen Zhou examined the oil grooves and lamps in the walls and couldn't help marveling. "This design is pretty clever. Saves us the trouble of lighting each lamp one by one."

Old Man Ji wasn't surprised. He put away the tinder and glanced down the seemingly endless cave. "This cave must run deep. Who knows if there are traps or anything else inside? Be careful when we go in."

The two of them headed into the cave.

After about five or six minutes, they finally reached the end.

The cave opened into a grotto. When they stepped inside, they found it was enormous.

The first thing to catch their eye was a massive stone pillar.

It stood seven or eight meters tall and was so wide that it would take three people joining hands to encircle it. Its entire surface was carved with densely packed writing. The characters were jumbled and had no discernible order; many even overlapped, one on top of another, leaving them completely baffled.

Looking around, they saw a huge crystal coffin every so often throughout the grotto. Each rested in its own stone alcove, and there were at least seventy or eighty of them. A faint energy radiated from every crystal coffin.

The energy felt much like the Spiritual Qi Shen Zhou had sensed when he first entered the Secret Realm, only denser than what he'd felt outside.

The moment they saw the room full of coffins, Shen Zhou and Old Man Ji felt a chill shoot from their heels straight to their crowns, raising goosebumps all over.

Anyone who didn't know better would have thought they'd walked into a graveyard.

It took Shen Zhou a long while to calm down. Then he clicked his tongue in confusion. "What's going on here? Why are there so many coffins? Could this so-called Forbidden Ground be a graveyard for the Fire Spring Sect instead of a treasure vault?"

Old Man Ji had seen more of the world. He studied the coffins before answering, "Not exactly. These aren't ordinary coffins. They're Soul-Sealing Coffins made entirely of Spirit Stones. Put a body inside, and it'll remain intact for a thousand years. So you wouldn't be wrong to call them treasures."

Shen Zhou stared at him. "These coffins really are treasures?"

The two of them had just started toward the nearest coffin to examine it when, as soon as they stepped within a short distance of the pillar, it suddenly lit up.

At the same time, faint, barely visible lines flared across the grotto floor. They crisscrossed in a dense web, spreading all the way up the surrounding walls.

By the time Shen Zhou and Old Man Ji realized something was wrong, the lines had woven together into a vast net that covered the entire grotto.

"Bad! There's a formation here. Back!"

Old Man Ji was startled, but by the time they tried to retreat, it was already too late.

With a resonant hum, the entire grotto shuddered. Then a terrifying pressure descended out of nowhere, like Mount Tai crashing down on them, smashing Shen Zhou and Old Man Ji to the ground.

Shen Zhou had been caught off guard and couldn't escape either. Fortunately, he reacted at the last moment. The power of his Entries burst forth, and a surge of vital energy exploded from within him, instantly meeting the mysterious force in the air.

Old Man Ji wasn't so lucky. The immense pressure struck him like a blow, slamming him into the ground. He looked like a giant frog, and blood sprayed from his mouth.

He struggled to summon the power within him and push himself up, but no matter how many times he tried, he couldn't manage it.

The terrifying pressure in the grotto continued, growing stronger by the moment.

Before long, Old Man Ji couldn't even struggle. He couldn't speak, and his face was crushed against the floor, almost distorted beyond recognition.

In that instant, Old Man Ji felt death closing in.

"Up!"

At that moment, Shen Zhou's power finally erupted in full.

Under the terrifying pressure, the power of his Entries surged to a new height. Bracing himself with the Taixuan Sword, he strained as if a mountain were bearing down on him. Slowly, he straightened his back, then rose to his feet.

The force in the grotto sensed his resistance and suddenly intensified, as if someone were controlling it.

Old Man Ji spat out another mouthful of blood. The floor beneath him had been pressed into a hollow, and he felt as if his bones were about to be crushed apart.

If he hadn't already reached the pinnacle of body refinement, anyone else would have been crushed into a pulp by that terrifying force in an instant.

Shen Zhou's body also sank under the pressure, but the power of his Entries soon surged again. This time, a strange field of force and power spilled from his body.

For a moment, he felt as if he could control the world around him. The pressure no longer affected him at all. He even mistook it for the force that had been pinning them down disappearing.

But when he turned to look, Old Man Ji was still pinned to the ground, and his situation was growing dire.

Shen Zhou seemed to understand something. Without hesitation, he raised the Taixuan Sword and swung it at the stone pillar before him.

A blade of light flashed like a silken ribbon.

The pillar shattered on the spot. The terrifying pressure in the cave vanished without a trace. If Old Man Ji hadn't still been coughing up blood, anyone might have thought it had all been an illusion.

Shen Zhou sheathed his sword and immediately looked over at Old Man Ji. "Old man, how are you?"

"Cough, cough... I'm fine. I'm not dead yet..."

Old Man Ji coughed up two more mouthfuls of blood. The pressure had left him badly injured, but after coughing up the stagnant blood, he felt somewhat better. Still, as he recalled what had just happened, he couldn't help feeling shaken. "As expected of an ancient sect from a thousand years ago. It was only a formation, and yet even after a thousand years, it still held such terrifying power. If you and the Taixuan Sword hadn't been here, I'd be dead by now."

As Old Man Ji spoke, he felt a surge of awe and longing for the power of ancient cultivators from a thousand years ago.

That had been only the power of a formation. He couldn't imagine what the scene would have looked like if an even more powerful cultivator from that era had unleashed their full strength.

Shen Zhou also found the recent ordeal harrowing, but now he was even more curious about the state he'd entered.

He looked down at his hands. For a moment, the surge of power from his Entries seemed to have pushed him past some kind of limit, into a new realm.

At that moment, he'd felt as if nothing was beyond his power.

Was that just my imagination, or had my Entries truly pushed my power to a new realm, bringing about some kind of transformation?

Shen Zhou looked at his hand, feeling a pang of regret.

Once the formation was destroyed, the power of his Entries receded. He couldn't find that feeling again, no matter how hard he tried.

Just as Old Man Ji was about to sit cross-legged and tend to his injuries, while Shen Zhou planned to inspect the writing on the pillar and see if it was made up of formation markings, a voice suddenly rang out in the silent grotto.

"Has the great calamity passed?"

The voice carried a trace of age and a low rumble, along with the bewilderment of someone who had just awakened from a long slumber.

The sudden sound in the cave made Shen Zhou and Old Man Ji freeze. Then the hair on their bodies stood on end.

The thought of a corpse coming back to life battered at their minds.

In an instant, the atmosphere in the grotto seemed to turn sinister.

Having learned his lesson, Old Man Ji feared another sudden attack. He immediately activated the Golden Body Art, and a golden "robe" quickly enveloped him. Only after securing his defenses did he sweep his gaze around and shout, "Who's there? Show yourself!"

Shen Zhou gripped the Taixuan Sword tighter and guarded against every direction, ready to strike at any moment.

The voice fell silent for a moment before speaking again, slow and deliberate. This time it carried an unquestionable authority. "Who are you two, and why have you trespassed into the Forbidden Ground of my Fire Spring Sect? What year is it now?"

Shen Zhou and Old Man Ji were both shaken.

This time, they could be certain the voice had come from one of the coffins. The speaker had used some secret art, though, so they couldn't tell which one.

But if the speaker was inside a coffin, were they dead and risen from the grave, or had they never died at all?

And... the speaker belonged to the Fire Spring Sect. Could there really still be someone from the sect alive?

A string of questions flashed through their minds.

Shen Zhou and Old Man Ji exchanged a silent glance, each seeing disbelief and alarm in the other's eyes.

Then Shen Zhou shifted the sword in his hand, intending to split open every coffin. Human or ghost, he wanted to see who he was dealing with.

He didn't like facing an opponent he couldn't see.

Fortunately, Old Man Ji was quick to notice. He broke out in a cold sweat and hurriedly stopped Shen Zhou, signaling for him not to act rashly.

Whether the speaker had risen from the dead or had survived until now, one thing was certain: if they were from a thousand years ago, they were undoubtedly a terrifyingly powerful being.

If Shen Zhou angered them, Old Man Ji didn't think the two of them stood a chance.

Most of all, he had no idea how strong Shen Zhou could become when his power fully erupted. He was simply being cautious and didn't think there was any need to take the risk.

After stopping Shen Zhou, Old Man Ji answered, "Senior, we trespassed into your sect's Forbidden Ground by accident. If we've offended you, please forgive us. We'll leave at once."

Old Man Ji gave Shen Zhou a look, signaling that they should leave the cave.

But the voice rang out again, accompanied this time by a terrifying pressure. "Did I say you could leave?"

The familiar sensation returned.

It wasn't as intense as before, but it was still difficult to resist.

Old Man Ji's knees slammed into the ground with a thud, and he immediately spat out another mouthful of blood.

Old Man Ji was numb with disbelief.

At this rate, he'd have to eat half a Two-Headed Lion just to replace all the blood he'd lost today.

Shen Zhou had already been feeling indignant, and now he couldn't hold back any longer.

He swung the Taixuan Sword at the nearest coffin and shouted, "What the hell are you putting on airs for? Come out and fight me one-on-one!"