At the boundary between the outer and middle reaches of the Cangwu Mountain Range, a valley lay hidden deep within a dense forest.
A clear pool nestled at the bottom of the valley.
Huge boulders surrounded it on all sides, and vines hung from the cliffs, screening the pool completely from view.
Unless someone deliberately searched for it, this place would be difficult to discover.
Chu Yunfei stood beside the pool and looked down at himself.
His robes were soaked in the blood of a second-tier demonic beast. The dark red stains had already half dried, sticking to his body, their bloody stench rushing into his nostrils.
His hair, too, was matted into clumps with blood.
Anyone who knew no better would have thought he had just crawled out of a pile of corpses.
Chu Yunfei tore off his tattered outer robe and leaped into the pool.
Splash!
The icy water submerged his entire body.
Much of the heat and exhaustion accumulated over two days of continuous fighting was washed away with it.
Chu Yunfei surfaced, tilted his head back to look at the sunlight filtering through the gaps in the foliage, and let out a long breath.
He had gained quite a lot on this trip.
He had brought Heaven-Severing Slash to major accomplishment, broken through to the first layer of Qi Condensation, and slain a demonic beast comparable to mid-stage Qi Condensation.
But a victory was a victory, and its price had been no less steep.
Three wounds remained on his shoulder, the web of his hand was still numb, and the spiritual power in his dantian had been all but drained by that final sword strike.
Second-tier demonic beasts truly were beyond comparison with first-tier ones.
Chu Yunfei scrubbed the blood from his arms.
Dark red swiftly spread through the water before being diluted by the current.
Just as he was about to climb out, he suddenly caught a flash of silver from the corner of his eye.
About twenty feet beneath the surface, a silvery-white shadow slipped through the aquatic plants and vanished in an instant.
"Hmm?"
Chu Yunfei stopped moving and focused on the bottom of the pool.
A moment later, that silver gleam appeared again.
It was a fish about a foot long.
Its entire body was silvery white, its scales shone with a soft luminescence, and its slender tail fin spread through the water like gauze.
Chu Yunfei's gaze sharpened.
"A Silver Marrow Spirit Fish?"
Xiaoxiao Dragon's voice also sounded in his sea of consciousness.
"You're not mistaken. It really is a Silver Marrow Spirit Fish."
There was a hint of surprise in her tone.
"Spirit creatures like this aren't common. To think a mere Cangwu Mountain Range could nurture one."
Silver Marrow Spirit Fish naturally fed on the Spiritual Qi in water.
Their flesh and blood contained an exceptionally gentle essence of spiritual power, with an extremely potent nourishing effect on the bones, sinews, and meridians.
If one could catch it, consuming it directly would have an effect comparable to a thousand-year-old spirit herb.
More importantly, the power within a Silver Marrow Spirit Fish was very gentle. There was no need to worry about backlash, nor was there any pill toxin.
Such a spirit creature was priceless and unavailable in Qingyang City.
On the rare occasion one appeared, it could fetch at least tens of thousands of low-grade spirit stones.
Without another word, Chu Yunfei took a deep breath and dove back into the pool.
How could he let an opportunity delivered to his doorstep slip away?
After entering the Qi Condensation Realm, he could already protect his mouth and nose with spiritual power. Lasting half a cup of tea on a single breath was no difficulty.
With a kick of his legs, Chu Yunfei swiftly pursued that silver gleam.
Yet although the Silver Marrow Spirit Fish looked small, it swam absurdly fast.
He tried grabbing it several times, falling just short each time. Before his fingertips could touch its scales, the little fish would flick its tail lightly and slip past his palm.
In the end, it even swam a circle around him.
Chu Yunfei's expression darkened slightly.
"Is this little thing making fun of me?"
"Have some confidence. Drop the 'seems like.'"
Xiaoxiao Dragon gave a gloating laugh.
"You can't even catch a fish. You've thoroughly disgraced yourself as the Azure Mystic Sect's former heavenly prodigy today."
"Shut up."
Chu Yunfei continued chasing it.
The Silver Marrow Spirit Fish swam all the way toward the bottom of the pool.
The aquatic plants around him grew increasingly dense, and the light rapidly dimmed.
After half a cup of tea's pursuit, the spirit fish suddenly darted into a thick patch of aquatic plants and vanished without a trace.
Chu Yunfei parted the plants and was just about to continue searching when he stopped moving.
A pitch-black opening lay hidden beneath the plants.
It was small, only wide enough for one person to pass through.
The stone around its edges had been worn exceptionally smooth by the current, yet fine lines still remained on its surface.
Those lines were far too regular to have formed naturally.
Chu Yunfei swam beside the opening and pressed his hand against the stone.
The moment his fingertips touched it, a cold vibration traveled up his arm.
Power was still flowing within the stone.
Though faint, it had not completely dissipated.
"Array markings."
Something stirred in Chu Yunfei's mind.
Someone had set up an array at the bottom of the pool. That Silver Marrow Spirit Fish had most likely been drawn here by the Spiritual Qi leaking from this place.
He had failed to catch the fish, only to stumble upon a hidden location first.
Rather than rush inside, he first probed the opening with the Abyss-Devouring Sword.
Only after confirming that no killing array had been triggered did he swim into the passage.
The passage was deeper than he had imagined.
After he swam several hundred feet, the water level gradually lowered, and an invisible barrier that kept out the pool water appeared overhead.
Chu Yunfei passed through the barrier and surfaced.
A natural stone passage lay ahead.
Several dim luminous pearls were embedded in the walls, their pallid light barely illuminating the surroundings.
An icy presence lingered within the cave.
It was not the cold of the pool water.
That chill seemed capable of seeping into his sea of consciousness and freezing even his soul.
At the end of the stone passage, an entire wall was covered in array markings.
Layer upon layer of markings interlocked, weaving into nine circular chains. Each chain extended deep into the stone wall, as though suppressing something.
But after the passage of untold years, nearly ninety percent of the array markings had broken.
Dim, eerie light darted chaotically between the breaks, occasionally spitting out tiny sparks.
Xiaoxiao Dragon fell silent for a moment, and for the first time, her tone grew somewhat serious.
"The Nine Nether Soul-Suppressing Array."
"This array draws on the Yin Qi of an underground water vein to form nine layers of soul shackles. What it suppresses isn't the body, but the soul."
"The cultivation of whoever laid this array was far beyond yours. Even with only a damaged array left, forcing your way through would be enough to kill you several times over."
Chu Yunfei did not argue. He stared at the nine layers of array markings on the wall.
"Since it's a soul-suppressing array, what exactly is being suppressed inside?"
"Why not go in and see?"
Xiaoxiao Dragon's tone shifted.
"Of course, you can also turn around now. This king won't stop you."
Chu Yunfei did not respond.
Having come this far, returning empty-handed was not his habit.
He crouched before the wall, tracing the flow of the remaining power along the nine soul shackles.
In his previous life, he had not been an array master, but he had seen plenty of high-level arrays. Naturally, basic array principles posed no difficulty for him.
With his current cultivation, merely touching an intact Nine Nether Soul-Suppressing Array could shatter his soul on the spot.
But the array before him was already incomplete.
He did not need to break it.
He only needed to disrupt one node in the returning flow of spiritual power, temporarily revealing the originally hidden gate of life.
Half a cup of tea later, Chu Yunfei pinpointed a broken marking in the lower right corner.
It was not the main array core, but it was the only point where a pause occurred each time the power of the nine soul shackles flowed back.
The opportunity would last only an instant.
Chu Yunfei held two fingers together and slowly fed a wisp of spiritual power into the broken marking.
Hum!
The entire stone wall shuddered violently.
The nine circular array markings lit up in succession, and the icy presence instantly surged.
Pain struck Chu Yunfei's sea of consciousness as though a heavy hammer had slammed into it, and he staggered half a step backward.
"Now!"
Enduring the stabbing pain, he injected spiritual power into the node once more.
The nine soul shackles, which had originally circulated in an orderly fashion, immediately fell into disarray.
A dull grinding sound came from the center of the stone wall.
Crack, crack, crack...
A fissure slowly opened, eventually forming a narrow stone doorway barely wide enough for one person to pass through.
A cold, stale presence poured out from behind the door.
Chu Yunfei withdrew his fingers. A sheen of cold sweat had already formed on his forehead.
This did not count as breaking the array.
At most, he had merely taken advantage of its deterioration to jam it for a moment.
Had the Nine Nether Soul-Suppressing Array been intact, he would not even have been qualified to approach the stone wall.
The stone door could close at any moment.
Chu Yunfei delayed no longer and darted inside.
After passing through a corridor a dozen or so paces long, his view suddenly opened up.
Inside was an enclosed space fifty or sixty feet across.
The four stone walls were smooth as mirrors. A fist-sized luminous pearl was embedded overhead, bathing the entire space in pallid light.
The floor was laid with a single slab of blue stone.
Circles of ancient runes surrounded the center. Though their luster was dim, they still emitted soul fluctuations that made the heart tremble.
There was no pill furnace here, nor any meditation cushion or herb rack used for cultivation.
Only a grayish-white stone coffin stood in the very center.
This was not a cultivation abode. It was more like a burial chamber.
Gripping the Abyss-Devouring Sword, Chu Yunfei slowly approached.
The stone coffin's surface was covered in ancient runes that resonated with the Nine Nether Soul-Suppressing Array outside.
The lid was not fully closed, leaving a gap two fingers wide.
A faint, delicate fragrance drifted out.
It was like flowers, like medicine, and like a woman's natural fragrance.
After inhaling a breath of it, he seemed to feel a slight sting in his soul, though it was not pronounced.
Chu Yunfei grew somewhat wary.
He braced the Abyss-Devouring Sword against the coffin lid and slowly pushed it open.
Then his pupils abruptly contracted.
There was actually a person lying inside the stone coffin.
A woman lay quietly on her back within it, her hands folded over her lower abdomen.
A plain white dress covered her body. He could not identify the fabric, but it emitted a faint luminescence. Her ink-black hair cascaded like a waterfall, spread beside her, with a few strands hanging over the edge of the coffin.
Her face...
Chu Yunfei's breathing stopped for an instant.
He had seen Wen Jiao's cool, peerless beauty, Yan Guining's radiant loveliness, and Situ Shuang'er's unrivaled icy pride.
But the appearance of the woman before him.
Surpassed everything he had ever seen.
It was a beauty that bordered on the unreal.
Her features were so exquisite that they seemed to have been carved by a deity's own hand. Every contour was just right; a fraction more would be excessive, a fraction less would be lacking.
Her skin was so fair it was almost translucent, faintly revealing blood vessels as fine as spider silk beneath it.
Her long eyelashes rested downward, casting a small patch of shadow beneath her eyes.
Quiet, peaceful.
As though she were asleep.
Chu Yunfei's heart involuntarily skipped half a beat.
He forcibly suppressed that inexplicable stirring and extended a finger toward the woman's nostrils.
No breath.
Two fingers then settled against the side of her neck.
No pulse. Her skin was as cold as ice, and he could sense not the slightest fluctuation of spiritual power.
At least judging by her physical body, she was no different from a corpse.
"What a pity."
Chu Yunfei withdrew his hand, but his brow remained furrowed.
"The Nine Nether Soul-Suppressing Array suppresses the soul."
"If she was already well and truly dead, why go to such lengths to seal her here?"
"Xiaoxiao Dragon, can you tell where she came from?"
His sea of consciousness remained silent for a long time.
So long that Chu Yunfei thought she had fallen asleep again.
"...I can't tell."
After a long while, Xiaoxiao Dragon's indifferent reply came.
Chu Yunfei was somewhat puzzled, but he did not dwell on it.
He pondered inwardly.
Someone capable of opening an independent space underwater and setting up the Nine Nether Soul-Suppressing Array was no ordinary expert.
And this woman was clearly the reason the entire burial chamber existed.
He simply did not know who she really was.
Or who had placed her here.
Chu Yunfei carefully searched the burial chamber.
There were no storage artifacts, no cultivation technique inheritances-not even a single spare spirit stone.
He found no treasures.
There was, however, a coffin.
He returned to the stone coffin and took one last look at the woman.
"Miss, forgive my intrusion."
Chu Yunfei cupped his hands and prepared to leave.
At the very instant he turned around.
A searing heat suddenly surged from deep within his lower abdomen, rushing straight along his meridians into his dantian!
Chu Yunfei's body went rigid.
That was not his Qi and blood stirring.
It was an unfamiliar force.
One that had already slipped into his body at some unknown point.