"Candied hawthorn skewers..."
Inside an ancient city.
Pavilions, terraces, and towers stood in dense rows, their roofs lined up like scales on a fish.
The streets teemed with carriages and horses, bustling crowds, and vendors calling out their wares.
The long-missed warmth of everyday life made Taiyi feel as though a lifetime had passed, stirring emotions he could hardly name.
Only after asking around did he learn that he had stumbled into the Qian Kingdom, more than ten thousand li from the Yan Kingdom.
This ancient city, called "Abyss City," was one of the Qian Kingdom's most renowned cities.
A blessed land that nurtured outstanding people, it boasted a long history and drew countless merchants and travelers from every direction. It was exceptionally prosperous, and even cultivators were no rare sight.
"Mmm, this really tastes good..."
Taiyi relaxed and began strolling through the ancient city.
With some loose silver he had once "borrowed" from a band of mountain brigands, he casually bought a few fragrant donkey-meat buns and savored them with delight.
He also spotted cultivators gathered in groups of three or five in the luxurious restaurants, engaged in spirited discussions.
Quite a few others transformed into divine rainbows.
They headed west.
"Have you heard?"
"A bloody calamity struck the Silver Mine Mountain Range, three hundred li to the west!"
"Someone dug into a mysterious passage while mining and unleashed a disaster..."
"All several hundred miners died, without a single exception!"
"They say sinister energy entered their bodies, and they died bleeding from all seven orifices. It was too gruesome to look at!"
"I heard there might be a great tomb there. Plenty of cultivators are heading over!"
Biting into a candied hawthorn.
Taiyi wandered aimlessly through the city.
He took in the customs of a different region and contemplated the mortal world.
Yet his strikingly handsome looks and imposing bearing still drew plenty of glances. From time to time, young women from wealthy families were drawn to him and approached, blushing, to strike up a conversation.
With a courteous smile, Taiyi politely declined each invitation from those noble young ladies.
His keen divine sense picked up a considerable amount of information from the cultivators' conversations.
"A great tomb?" His expression shifted, and he decisively set off for the Silver Mine Mountain Range they had mentioned.
Before long, he arrived before an endless mountain range that resembled a flood dragon lying dormant.
Many cultivators had already gathered there.
Some belonged to various sects, while others were unaffiliated cultivators.
To his surprise, wisps of black mist seeped from numerous mine shafts, filling people with an inexplicable dread that sent chills through them.
Every so often, a cultivator plucked up the courage to venture inside.
"Ah! No-"
Just then.
A cultivator drenched in blood.
Staggered out of a mine shaft.
But something seemed to have caught hold of him. He struggled there, screaming in terror, "No-"
The next instant, the spreading black mist engulfed him completely, and he let out a piercing scream.
His flesh was corroded away.
It dissolved into corpse fluid.
"What!?"
"What's going on?"
The sight made many faces pale.
Their hair stood on end, and they involuntarily backed away.
A vast tide of black mist surged out, swiftly swallowing an area several li across.
The thick, sinister aura made their scalps prickle.
Clang... clank...
Amid battle cries and the clamor of weapons and warhorses.
A bone-chilling, icy killing intent swept outward.
Hordes of Yin Soldiers in black armor, their faces deathly pale and brimming with murderous intent, suddenly charged out of the mine shafts in formation, rushing at the cultivators in every direction.
Deep within the shafts behind them, ranks of black-armored Yin Soldiers mounted on skeletal horses could be glimpsed flickering in and out of sight, their numbers staggering.
"Run..."
"Damn it, they're Yin Soldiers..."
"What on earth is buried in here?"
"Aaaah..."
Many cultivators paled.
They all retreated at full speed.
But some were too weak and too slow, and the Yin Soldiers caught them.
Screams rang out incessantly. Some low-level cultivators lacked the strength to escape at all; in the blink of an eye, their flesh was devoured, leaving only stark white bones.
Others, however, had the skill to match their courage and began fighting the Yin Soldiers.
Fortunately, the Yin Soldiers did not leave the vicinity of the mine shafts, and the black mist stopped spreading.
Boom... Not far away.
An enormous furnace abruptly expanded.
Great torrents of flame surged forth, burning toward the Yin Soldiers and dispersing vast swathes of black mist.
Every one of the Yin Soldiers let out a shrill, horrifying scream.
They were reduced straight to drifting ash.
"Mere Yin Soldiers are nothing to worry about..." A young cultivator at the Dao Palace Third Heaven stood proudly, his presence formidable, wearing sumptuous robes bearing the emblem of the Yaoguang Holy Land.
Holding the precious furnace in his hand, he called out, "Junior brothers and sisters, let's fight our way in..."
"Senior Brother Chen really is amazing!"
"As expected of an expert at the Dao Palace Fourth Heaven..."
"These Yin Soldiers can't stop Senior Brother Chen Feng's attacks at all!"
A group of capable young cultivators, also from the Yaoguang Holy Land, exclaimed in admiration.
They gazed at the young man leading them with reverence and respect, along with an envy they could not quite express.
Most of them were at the Divine Bridge Realm or the Other Shore Realm. Only two or three had just entered the Dao Palace Realm.
Their strength was clearly far inferior to that of the young cultivator.
"Kill-"
"Everyone, attack!"
"Suppress these sinister creatures!"
For a time.
Divine power seethed, and metallic clashes rang out without cease.
Flying swords, miniature pagodas, jade hairpins, folding fans...
Brilliant flashes of divine radiance appeared one after another.
All manner of magical artifacts flew through the air, repeatedly colliding with the Yin Soldiers in fierce exchanges.
Brimming with confidence and unwilling to be outdone, the Yaoguang disciples each unleashed their own methods, displaying their prowess as they battled the Yin Soldiers.
They soon halted the Yin Soldiers' advance and began steadily pushing toward the mine shafts.
They fought their way into the depths of the eerie mist.
Chapter 27: The Young Maiden Weiwei, the Mysterious Underground Palace
"Kill-"
Clang... clank...
Before the mines.
Black mist swirled, and baleful energy soared into the sky.
The clamor of weapons and warhorses mingled with ceaseless battle cries.
Ranks of Yin Soldiers clad in black armor poured out without end, clashing with the cultivators attempting to break into the mine shafts.
Every so often, a weak cultivator unwilling to retreat and miss this opportunity fell screaming into a pool of blood.
They were reduced to stark white bones, or even bloody fluid.
The sight made one's scalp crawl.
"Senior brothers and sisters, are we really going to rush in so recklessly?"
A blue-robed young maiden, graceful and lovely with an otherworldly air, swung her sword and slew several Yin Soldiers.