Amid the peaks of the Cliffside Mountains.
Qingxu Zi, Grand Elder of the Teaching Academy, arrived at a cavern covered in vast swaths of mysterious runes, a longsword on his back.
The cavern had countless branching passages and interconnected openings, winding and looping in every direction.
Patches of crimson runes glimmered faintly on its walls.
But dense streams of black vapor suppressed their glow.
Wisps of black vapor filled every corner of the cavern, churning and billowing, dark and deep, radiating a piercing chill.
Countless grotesque, hideous demonic shadows lurked within.
They were baleful spirits born from the fusion of foul energy and baleful power, thirsting for the blood of living creatures and waiting to devour anyone they could.
Qingxu Zi paid them no heed, flying through the cavern along a familiar route.
Occasionally, a baleful spirit lunged at him, only to evaporate in an instant, dissolving into wisps of black vapor that dispersed between heaven and earth.
After a little less than half a quarter-hour, Qingxu Zi reached an enormous chamber within the cavern.
It measured two thousand zhang in both length and width, and a full hundred zhang in height.
The walls and ceiling seemed hewn by blades and axes, exceptionally smooth, making the whole chamber resemble an immense hall.
Below, however, lay a bottomless abyss, its boundless darkness leading no one knew where.
Demonic shadows could just be seen milling within, while thin streams of blood seeped from the cliffs, falling to gather into waterfalls of blood.
A closer look revealed countless bizarre things within those waterfalls.
There were tiny people no larger than thumbs, hideous, roaring demon heads, and young divine beasts wreathed in bloody flames.
They struggled and roared in the rivers of blood, letting out strange cries.
Some managed to struggle free and fly