Rumble!
Amid rolling thunder, the marketplace on the northwestern border between the Jiang Kingdom and Qi Kingdom was utterly crushed. Cultivators who were a little too slow to escape screamed as they were flattened into bloody pancakes.
The earth shook violently, heaving in successive waves like a surging tide. A nearby mountain snapped in half, rapidly crumbling and sinking deep underground.
At the same time, an enormous cave abode slowly rose from the fissures in the earth.
The entire abode was emerald green, radiating a gentle, otherworldly luster beneath its brilliance. Spiritual light wreathed it, and white mist steamed upward as though soaring into the heavens.
Through the mist, terraces and pavilions, spiritual springs and cascading waterfalls were faintly visible, with exotic flowers and rare herbs scattered throughout, like an immortal paradise.
Its scale was so vast that it was less a cave abode than an immense palace complex.
The cultivators who had escaped the marketplace stared in stunned disbelief, still shaken. The Cold Mountain Brothers also gaped, abandoning their pursuit of the dark-skinned young man.
"Th-this... is an ancient cultivator's cave abode?"
"With phenomena like these, it must have been left by at least a late Golden Core stage Grand True Person. Perhaps... perhaps it's even a legendary nascent soul cave abode."
Burning desire appeared in the cultivators' eyes. Those gathered at this marketplace were either rogue cultivators or members of minor sects and families, but all of them understood that an opportunity as vast as the heavens had descended.
And they were the first to discover it!
"Eldest Brother, what do we do?" The Cold Mountain Brothers exchanged glances, leaving the decision to their eldest.
"Let's go inside!" Their eldest gritted his teeth.
"But we don't know what's happening. There could be danger..." One of the brothers hesitated.