Daoist Mude nodded, then shook his head, growing a little nervous as well.
Su Mo stared at a wall. He kept feeling that the white wall looked out of place here, as though it did not belong in that spot...
Su Mo pointed at the white wall ahead. "Let's go take a look. Something's wrong with that wall."
Mude and Zhixuan nodded, pressing close to one another as they edged cautiously toward the white wall.
When the three reached it, the white wall slid aside on its own, revealing what lay beyond...
The white wall was indeed a concealed mechanical door.
A deep, dark passage appeared before them, and a thick stench of blood hit them in the face.
"This concentration of blood energy..." Mude and Zhixuan exchanged a glance as a strange mixture of shock and unease crept into their hearts.
The passage led downward, its bottom lost from sight... Only a faint, cool breeze carrying the scent of blood drifted out.
The eerie voice beside Su Mo's ear seemed to grow clearer...
That uncanny sound, neither quite weeping nor quite laughter.
"Do you hear anything?" Su Mo turned to ask the other two.
"What sound?" the monk asked in confusion.
Su Mo turned back toward the dim passage. Scattered candles lined its sides, leading straight underground.
"A woman's voice. It sounds like weeping, but not quite, and laughter, but not quite," Su Mo said.
Mude's scalp prickled. "Are you sure?"
Su Mo nodded.
Mude and Zhixuan exchanged a glance.
"Why can't we hear it?" Monk Zhixuan asked, puzzled.
Daoist Mude gave a couple of dry chuckles. "Our yang energy is too strong? Unclean things don't dare come near us?"
Zhixuan looked at Su Mo's delicate face and found himself agreeing somewhat... My Buddhist faith shines with boundless radiance, so naturally my yang energy is abundant. Su Mo looks far too delicate. One glance tells you his yang energy isn't strong.
"Why do I feel that sense of foreboding getting stronger and stronger?" Zhixuan said uneasily as he watched the passage.
"Agreed!" Daoist Mude concurred.
Su Mo stepped into the passage and said to the two behind him, "You two retreat first. I'll go down and take a look."
The passage sloped steadily underground. The smell of blood mingled with the damp subterranean breeze, carrying a hint of decay.
Su Mo advanced cautiously through the dim passage, the eerie voice beside his ear guiding him downward like a demonic thrall...
Watching Su Mo disappear into the passage, Monk Zhixuan glanced at Mude. "Amitabha... Are you afraid?"
"Of course I'm not!" Mude flatly refused to admit it.
Gripping his staff, Zhixuan headed into the passage as well. "If you're afraid, retreat first. This humble monk will follow Benefactor Su down for a look."
"You're the one who's afraid! If a mortal and a damned bald donkey aren't afraid, how could this humble Daoist be?" Mude followed them down, seething.
A sinister gust blew out of the passage, and Mude could not help shivering, grief and indignation churning within him... This damned rat race!
The passage continued underground. The farther down they went, the colder it became.
The eerie voice beside Su Mo's ear grew clearer too. Ethereal and elusive, distant and profound, it sounded as though it came from beyond the world.
At last, Su Mo emerged from the underground passage, and an enormous subterranean cavern came into view.
"Amitabha." The monk and the Daoist emerged from the passage too. The sight before them left them momentarily dazed.
"Immeasurable... goddamned Heavenly Venerable!" Mude closed his eyes in mourning.
Corpses hung along all four walls of the vast cavern, their blood, whether fresh or dried, trailing down toward a pool in the center.
The human blood running down the walls had gathered into a pool of blood...
Red blood churned in the pool. Sinister underground winds swept past, stirring wisps of bloody mist that lingered in the air.
A massive bronze cauldron stood on an isolated island above the blood pool.
A suspended single-log bridge led from the passage straight to the island in the blood pool.
Dark red light surged over the bronze cauldron on the island. A red pill floated in midair, constantly rotating as it absorbed bloody mist from the pool...
Looking at the countless corpses on the walls, all three men's eyes reddened.
Among those corpses...
There were decrepit old men...
There were innocent, unknowing children...
There were strong, vigorous adults...
There were young girls in the springtime of their lives...
There were even infants still wrapped in swaddling clothes...
Each had been a living, breathing person, murdered and hung like livestock upon the surrounding stone walls!
"That's..." the monk murmured, staring at the red pill suspended above the blood pool.
"A blood pill!" Mude gritted his teeth, the corners of his eyes crimson.
Su Mo turned back numbly and looked at the monk and the Daoist. "What does a blood pill do?" he asked in a low voice.
"A blood pill can restore a person's blood energy and vitality, as well as the power of their soul. Most importantly... a blood pill can allow an ordinary person to break straight through to Foundation Establishment and reach Entering the Dao!" the Daoist said after a moment of silence.
The Daoist surveyed their surroundings before continuing. "For some reason, the yin energy here is extremely dense. This is a place of Great Calamity. Someone discovered it and used its extreme yin energy to refine a blood pill."
"To... reach Entering the Dao."
Entering the Dao...
Again, Entering the Dao...
"Hahahaha..." Su Mo began to laugh, his expression wild. "To reach Entering the Dao and cultivate? So they use mortal lives to refine a blood pill!"
"Immortal cultivation, immortal cultivation... Always immortal cultivation! Are human lives truly nothing but grass and weeds?" As Su Mo laughed, tears began streaming down his face.
His grief-stricken voice echoed through the empty underground cavern, stirring its wronged souls.
Monk Zhixuan and Daoist Mude fell silent.
They themselves came from immortal cultivation sects. Though they would never resort to such bloody methods, they had seen plenty of other atrocities.
Immortal cultivation... was, by its very nature, a struggle with the world for resources.
This was the sickness of this world!
"With a Foundation Establishment cultivator providing protection, they still need to refine a blood pill to reach Entering the Dao and cultivate," Daoist Mude said. "It seems we're dealing with a scion of an aristocratic clan who wants to cultivate but cannot reach Entering the Dao!"
"Cultivate... Entering the Dao..." Su Mo looked around blankly, his expression listless. "Why does everyone want to reach Entering the Dao and cultivate?"
Monk Zhixuan seemed to notice that something was wrong with Su Mo's state of mind, but he barely knew him and had no idea what he was thinking.
How could he have known that Su Mo was grieving for the dead strewn all around them? How could he have understood the shock someone from that civilized nation would feel upon witnessing this scene?
"When one person attains the Dao, even their chickens and dogs ascend to heaven..." Mude said. "Only through immortal cultivation can you have a voice. Only through immortal cultivation can you attain longevity. Only through immortal cultivation can you see the true face of this world."
Su Mo remained silent. A raging fire ignited deep in his heart, and something seemed to be taking root.
The eerie voice beside his ear, half weeping and half laughing, was no longer distant and elusive. It seemed to draw closer, becoming distinct words that rang inside Su Mo's mind, as though an invisible person lay draped over his shoulder, whispering softly into his ear...
"Hehehe... Hehehe..." An eerily haunting woman's voice reached into Su Mo's mind. "Little brat... You seem very angry!"
"What are you angry about?"
"Can't stand such beautiful scenery?"
"Want to avenge these wronged souls?"
"Beg me... Beg me, and I can help you..."
Before you continue