Following the faint resonance of the Primordial Magnetic Demon-Sealing Seal within his body, Han Li cautiously passed through a stretch of jagged rocks and deep fissures. The terrain ahead gradually leveled out, revealing a narrow pass. Steep, dark rock walls with a metallic sheen rose on either side. The pass was dim, and faint fluctuations of spiritual qi drifted out from within-the very source of the restriction-like presence he had sensed earlier.
Han Li did not rashly enter. Concealing his aura, he hid in the shadow of a weathered boulder outside the pass, condensed his spiritual sense into fine threads, and carefully extended them inside to investigate.
Beyond the pass lay a winding gorge several li long. The light within was dim, though slightly brighter than beneath the chaotic sky outside. Even the air seemed less cold and deathly still, with a faint current of thin yet relatively "peaceful" spiritual qi. Roughly excavated holes dotted the rock walls on either side, apparently carved by human hands. Scattered across the gorge floor were broken, crude stone implements and bone fragments that appeared to have belonged to tools or weapons, along with the remains of long-extinguished campfires, nothing but ashes left.
Most importantly, in a relatively open area near the middle of the gorge, Han Li sensed several... living auras! Their strength varied. The strongest was roughly equivalent to the Foundation Establishment late stage in the Human Realm, while the weakest were only at the Qi Refining stage. These auras belonged not to demon beasts, but to... human cultivators! Yet their auras were somewhat impure, as though their cultivation methods were crude, and carried a weakness born of prolonged malnutrition, tension, and exhaustion.
At that moment, these auras were gathered around a relatively flat, massive stone platform in the gorge. Someone seemed