Chapter 34: A City As Grave Goods (1/2)

“What is it?” Lu Yun asked without thinking.

“None of your business! Keep your nose where it belongs!” Li Xing snapped.

The Dusk governor shrugged nonchalantly.

With a sigh, Qing Han faintly explained, “It’s of utmost importance to me. I have to find it.”

“The Formation Orb?” Lu Yun asked with brows furrowed. That was what he was here for.

“No.” Qing Han shook his head. “The Formation Orb is tempting, but a connate-grade treasure like that isn’t for a cultivator like me. Only dao immortals who’ve plucked a dao fruit have the right to possess such a heavenly treasure.” [1]

“Alright then.” Lu Yun nodded. “Things are only going to get more dangerous as we head further in, so all of you have to listen to me. Otherwise...”

He glanced at the formation of coffins behind them. Two immortals had already paid the price of ignoring him: their lives.

Li Xing shuddered, finally realizing how important Lu Yun was. That unassuming formation could claim even a golden immortal, since what the Dusk governor called a bloodcorpse was much more powerful. The time wasn’t right to kill Lu Yun. Not just yet, anyway.

As they left the formation behind them, the tunnel narrowed until only one person could pass at a time.

“Halt!” Lu Yun suddenly stopped in his tracks, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. ”Turn around!”

“What is it?” asked Qing Han.

“That thing is back! I relaxed my guard for just a second and almost fell into its trap,” he scoffed. “Turn back around!”

“Ai,” a faint sigh sounded in the air. The path beneath Lu Yun’s feet suddenly transformed, and another bottomless pit reared its ugly maw at them.

A dead end!

“An illusion?” Qing Han stared dully at the bottomless pit with a pale face.

“Remember the palace we saw when we entered? That’s an illusion created by something we can’t see.” Lu Yun narrowed his eyes. “Cut it out. Show yourself!”

“It’s gone, my lord,” Yueshen said faintly.

Scowling, Lu Yun turned around and retraced their footsteps, bringing the group to a three-way fork. There had only been one path when they came. Clearly, the other two paths had been hidden by whatever was creating the illusions.

“This way!” Lu Yun, pointing at the path on the right.

“Is that another illusion?” Li Xing asked hesitantly.

“You’re welcome to go the other way,” huffed Lu Yun.

The immortal swallowed his words with a scowl. He could crush Lu Yun as easily as he would an ant, but he needed the governor’s guidance here.

This tunnel didn’t narrow like the one before. Corpse flies covered both walls, casting the tunnel in a faint red glow. The number of flies further decreased as they went along, dimming the ambient light as well. However, a light came from ahead of them.

Everyone stopped. “This is…!” They gaped at the world before them, their breaths shallow and quick.

“It’s Truewater City!” Li Xing exclaimed in shock. “The ancient city destroyed by Myriad Formation Summit five thousand years ago!”

Yuying’s eyes glinted oddly. She’d once visited the mountain to search for Truewater’s ruins, but had mistakenly ended up climbing the mountain after being disoriented by the formations. That trip proved a failure, but who would’ve thought that the ancient city would really be buried underground?