Soon, Hun Changqing followed Xingxiu down to the very bottom of the swamp. It was pitch-black there, with strange rocks forming a stone forest. The densely packed rocks were twisted and hideous, lending the place an eerie air.
Then Hun Changqing watched Xingxiu land lightly on the ground. After surveying the strange stone forest, she stopped before a very ordinary-looking rock, one without the bizarre shapes or menacing appearance of the others. Xingxiu extended her slender, pale fingers and formed a strange hand seal before it.
Streams of Dou Qi rose and swirled around her fingertips, then slowly seeped into the rock.
Hun Changqing watched Xingxiu work on the rock, his face expressionless. A deep, dark gleam flickered in his eyes, making it impossible to guess what he was thinking.
As Xingxiu's fingers rapidly shifted, the swamp floor began to tremble violently, releasing a thunderous roar. The densely packed, jagged rocks around them began to crumble and break apart, turning into grains of stone and dust that dissolved into the swamp.
Watching the violent changes around him, Hun Changqing instantly circulated his Supreme Yin True Qi, filling his entire body. His hands, hidden inside his sleeves, tightened slightly, and his gaze grew grave. Wariness rose in his heart; at the first sign of anything amiss, he would strike without hesitation.
However, the mishap Hun Changqing had anticipated never occurred. As Xingxiu finished her movements, the disturbances around them ceased. After a brief silence, the ordinary-looking rock before her suddenly began to melt. Yet its crumbled fragments did not scatter. Instead, they whirled and circled before Xingxiu, then coalesced into a pitch-black hole.
The black hole was utterly dark and unfathomably deep. An ancient, desolate aura, like that of a primordial wilderness, slowly drifted out from its depths, carrying a faint