Life Beneath the Abyss

Darkness.

Endless darkness.

His body plummeted at breakneck speed, wind howling past his ears.

Chen Chen's consciousness teetered wildly on the brink between wakefulness and unconsciousness.

The violent energy brought by swallowing the Demonic Core still raged within him, but most of it had been vented in that desperate, life-or-death strike.

After he lost consciousness, the remaining energy merged with the system's lingering guiding force, slowly repairing and transforming his body in a gentler manner.

His nearly severed right hand was instantly frozen at the wound by icy demonic power, stopping the bleeding. Wrapped in a peculiar energy, the bones and meridians began to heal slowly.

His cultivation also quietly stabilized at the Fifth Level of Body Tempering during this process.

Who knew how long had passed? Perhaps only an instant, or perhaps several hours.

Splash!

With a dull impact, Chen Chen's body crashed heavily into a pool of freezing deep water.

The bone-piercing cold made him jolt violently, forcibly dragging back his consciousness, which had been on the verge of dissipating.

He desperately paddled with the limbs that could still move, struggling to lift his head from the water as he gulped down air.

Where was this...?

He looked around and discovered that he was inside an enormous underground karst cave.

Above him was a bottomless black fissure. Only a faint thread of light filtered down from an immense height, barely allowing him to make out his surroundings.

He was in an underground lake roughly a hundred meters across. The water was crystal clear to the bottom, yet it radiated a chilling aura that made his heart quail. It was clearly an underground yin spring.

The cave walls were covered in bizarre stalactites, along with mosses and fungi that gave off a faint glow. They adorned this underground world in strange, phantasmagoric colors, like a realm of ghosts.

The air was thick with dampness and chill, mixed with a faint scent of decay.

"Cough... cough, cough..."

Chen Chen struggled to swim to shore and crawled onto a slick rock. He collapsed there as though drained of all strength, coughing violently.

Every cough tugged at the wounds across his body, making him bare his teeth in pain.

He examined his condition and could not help letting out a bitter laugh.

Miserable.

Utterly miserable.

The bones in his right hand were fractured, his meridians were damaged in many places, and even his internal organs had suffered severe shock.

Though swallowing the Demonic Core had allowed him to luckily break through to the Fifth Level of Body Tempering and escape Wang Zhan with his life, the price he had paid was just as enormous.

In his current state, forget facing Wang Zhan again—even an ordinary First-Order Demonic Beast could easily take his life.

"Wang Zhan..."

Chen Chen gritted his teeth as he spoke the name, his eyes filled with undisguised, bone-deep hatred.

Ninth Level of Body Tempering!

This was the power of an expert at the peak of the Body Tempering Realm!

One man alone had driven him into such a desperate, dead-end plight.

"Just wait... As long as I'm alive, I'll definitely come back for you!"

He pulled out the bottle of Trauma Medicine from his clothes and carelessly sprinkled some over several of his more serious wounds. Then he tore strips from his robe and crudely bandaged his right hand.

Only after finishing all that did he have the energy to carefully observe this mysterious underground world.

Wang Zhan would definitely be waiting above.

There was no way he could return the way he had come anytime soon.

He had to find another way out.

And he also had to... survive here!

He rose to his feet, enduring the agonizing pain as he began exploring deeper into the cave along the lakeshore.

This cave was enormous, stretching beyond sight. Apart from the main cavern where he had fallen, there were countless branching passages of varying sizes all around, like a vast labyrinth.

Chen Chen did not choose one rashly. Instead, he first carefully studied the ground.

He needed clues.

Signs of animal activity, the direction of the airflow—any tiny difference could determine whether he lived or died.

Very soon, at the entrance to a passage on the left, he found something unusual.

Scattered across the ground were bones that had already turned grayish white...

Judging from their shapes, some belonged to humans, while others came from unknown demonic beasts.

Moreover, on the rock wall at the entrance, he found faint marks carved by a sharp weapon long ago.

They appeared to be... some sort of writing or symbols?

Chen Chen's heart stirred, and he immediately walked over.

Someone had traveled this path!

And it likely led somewhere unknown to the world!

Without the slightest hesitation, he chose this branch passage and cautiously entered.

The interior of the passage was much drier than the main cavern outside.

The farther he went, the stronger that decaying stench became.

After walking for roughly the time it took an incense stick to burn, the view ahead suddenly opened up.

A stone chamber somewhat smaller than the main cavern but far more orderly appeared before Chen Chen.

In the center of the chamber stood a stone coffin that had long since decayed.

Before the coffin sat a skeleton in tattered Daoist robes, cross-legged and still maintaining the posture it had held at death.

Several items lay scattered before it.

A bronze ancient sword broken into two pieces, a dust-covered Storage Bag, and... an ancient book made from some kind of beast hide, perfectly preserved.

This... was actually the resting place of an ancient cultivator!

Chen Chen's breathing instantly became rapid!

He forcefully suppressed the excitement in his heart and did not step forward immediately.

No one knew whether any restrictions or traps had been left behind here.

He observed warily for a long time. Only after confirming there was no danger did he slowly approach, one step at a time.

His gaze immediately fell upon that beast-hide book.

Four large characters were written on its cover in an ancient script.

Asura God Transformation Art!

A cultivation art!

This was actually a cultivation art!

Chen Chen's heart began pounding uncontrollably.

What did he lack most right now?

Not cultivation, not martial skills, but a true foundational cultivation art that could set him upon the path of cultivation!

With trembling hands, he picked up the Asura God Transformation Art.

Yet just as his fingers touched the book.

Another change occurred!

[ Ding! Unknown incomplete cultivation art detected...]

[ Matching against system database... Match failed!]

[ Would you like to consume 50 cultivation points to complete and optimize this cultivation art?]

The string of system prompts left Chen Chen standing there in a daze.

Complete... and optimize?

This system actually had a function like that?!