Heaven-Ascension Ceremony

In an instant, "Guard B," who had been standing before Guard A with a fake smile on his face, vanished into thin air.

In his place was the headless corpse of the real Guard B.

"?!!"

Guard A froze for an instant, then cried out in terror, "I—!"

His heart pounding wildly, he hurriedly sprinted down a brightly lit passage to the left.

As he ran, he screamed inwardly, What the hell is going on?! What the fuck is going on?

How did Old Wu suddenly lose his head?! No, no! Something's wrong with this place—I need to notify the captain immediately!

In his eyes, the path he was running along was a safe corridor leading to the central hub of the underground palace's guard division.

But in the real world, this very route Zhang Sanxian had just taken was a road of death, bristling with traps and hidden crossbows.

Before he had run far, Guard A suddenly found nothing beneath his feet and plunged into a pitch-black pit.

Pshhk—

Amid the sounds of flesh being pierced and torn apart, he was impaled upon the iron spikes within the pit, transformed into a blood-soaked gourd.

The mind obscured by Demonic Rhythm, Eerie Sound finally broke free before his death, awakening to the real world.

"Ah..."

Within the deep pit, blood gushed continuously from Guard A's mouth and nose. Staring in terror at the sharp spikes piercing through his chest and abdomen, he groaned painfully and blankly, "Ah... ah... why? Why, exactly...?"

Before he could finish half the sentence, he died quietly, his eyes remaining open in death.

Elsewhere—

Following that decadent, eerie sound downward through several levels, Zhang Sanxian finally reached the core of the underground palace—the Nine Nether Truth-Realization Hall.

One could tell from its name that this architectural