Too late.
The Yin-Form Azure Dragon Soul was called a will of the rules for good reason. Once it resolved to destroy itself, no one present could stop it.
"Bzz, bzzzz—!"
The blue-black orb swelled and contracted violently in midair. Then it abandoned its struggle against the Yang-Form Azure Dragon Soul and plummeted like a black meteor, smashing into the dark green mineral rock below.
"BOOOOM!!!"
At that moment, the inner cavern of the Azure Dragon Cavern began to collapse as though the end of the world had come.
Under the Yin-Form Azure Dragon Soul's impact, the impossibly hard rock floor shattered inch by inch like fragile ice.
A vast, bottomless black abyss split open with a thunderous crash between the six of them and Tian Yan.
As the abyss opened, an indescribably terrifying presence surged from the deepest reaches underground, like an ancient demon awakened after sleeping for hundreds of millions of years.
It carried a sickening stench of blood and rot, along with the shrill cries of countless dead souls struggling and wailing in the Yellow Springs.
"Crack... crack..."
Deep in the abyss, amid a teeth-grating scrape, two enormous stone gates a hundred zhang tall slowly rose from underground. They were formed entirely from countless bleached bones and dark-red flesh.
Countless hideous demons and yakshas were carved across the gates. On either side stood a stone statue of Ox-Head and Horse-Face, each with a steel fork, a blue face, and jutting fangs.
Above the gates, a plaque wreathed in endless death qi bore three characters written in dripping blood-red Ancient Seal Script:
[Ghost Gate Pass]
"Is that the gate to the Netherworld?!"
Li Xiang stared at the enormous bone gates slowly opening. His scalp prickled, and the extreme cold nearly froze the blood in his veins.
At last,