Chapter 241: The ninth palace

Just after Cao Yun jumped into the darkness engulfing the entire ravine, Can Mouye was observing. He had absolutely no desire to jump in there as well. But he needed to confirm Cao Yun's death. He had several seals from his master in his body, in his blood and even in his soul. Losing a demonic beast was one thing. But if he were to fail in this mission, Xiong Nixie would get humiliated by Mo Tian.

Although his master wanted to keep Can Mouye alive to then boast about having trained another Spirit Warrior, if he failed that specific mission, he would die. Whether in a fit of rage or not, Xiong Nixie would never forgive him and no amount of punishment could help him get over the humiliation, especially when it related to Mo Tian. Not only was this mission an order from Mo Tian, it had been agreed upon by the Demon King.

And with all the seals on him, Can Mouye had no alternative. He could not run away. He could not even hide. With a mere thought, Xiong Nixie would kill him. Unless he became a Spirit Warrior stronger than his own master, he would have no way to get rid of those seals. In secret, he had obviously tried to find several ways to erase them, but to no avail. If only his master had been Mo Tian, the situation would have been different. But who had asked him to be abducted by this crazy master of his?

Apart from blaming his fate, Can Mouye had only one thing to do. Hopefully, Cao Yun had died. But Can Mouye did not dare be optimistic, not after what had already happened. This young boy should have been dead a long time ago, but he had survived again and again. And this wasn't just because of the Spirit Condensation Barrier. Can Mouye was sure that the boy and the Mountain Fenghuang should have been poisoned by his Evil Qi. Yet, they had both survived until now. Obviously, he had some kind of treasure, maybe a pill, to help him fight off Evil Qi. This was interesting!

Without spiritual senses, Can Mouye still tried to use his ability to detect Qi. However, absolutely nothing could leave this darkness below. Not even light or sound seemed to leave it. As such, he had no way to determine whether Cao Yun had died down there or not. And he did not want to go after him himself. However, he had little to no choice if he wanted to stay alive. Maybe he would die in that darkness. But if he didn't go, he would die with absolute certainty. An uncertain death seemed more appealing than a certain one, especially at the hands of Xiong Nixie. In the best case scenario, his rage would take over and he would kill him fast, but he could also decide to give him to some of his most detestable demonic beasts. Some insects loved to burrow deep in the flesh of cultivators and slowly digest them while they were alive and kicking.

Can Mouye had witnessed many horrendous deaths that had never affected him in any way. But the prospect of turning from the witness to the victim was not to his liking at all.

With the same permanent smile on his face, Can Mouye took out several pills from his spatial ring, just in case. After all, he wasn't even sure if he could use his spatial ring down there. Immediately, he swallowed one of the pills. Without any more hesitation, Can Mouye literally dived into the unknown darkness.

Just like Cao Yun, what he experienced was pure darkness and silence. As he was a Mortal Warrior, he was theoretically able to feel Qi all around him. Yet, there was absolutely nothing, only air. He had even been prepared to stop breathing, but he had a nice surprise with this air.

For several hours, Can Mouye fell and slowly he understood what was going on. Most likely, Cao Yun was alive. Unlike Huang Liyue, he had not that much experience with other dimensions. But while they had been preparing for their grand plan, the demonic cultivators had worked on spatial array formations. Clearly, this was some kind of transition between two dimensions. Hopefully, he could try and find a way to exit that unknown dimension later on.

But for now, he had to be extremely wary of his environment. In another dimension, he had absolutely no idea what could await him, or even how the natural laws would behave.

Suddenly, he felt space around him act out. Even with his senses, he met the same fate as Cao Yun and lost all kind of sense of orientation. With intense force, he was thrown in every direction again and again.

When finally something new appeared, he saw the same black sky scarred by many purple lacerations. High in the sky, there were also eight palaces in a desolate state. And below him, there was not a wide black plain. Instead, there was a rocky and sharp mountain. It was made of thousands upon thousands of black rocks sharp as blades pointed toward the sky. Compared with Cao Yun, he had way less chance.

Immediately, he reinforced his Wei Qi and sent several powerful palms to try and destroy the rocks before landing on them.

'Shadow Heart Palm'!

Below him the rocks exploded into a heavy cloud of dust. Although the rocks had been pure black, there were traces of white dust within the cloud. Not prepared for it, Can Mouye inhaled some particles from the cloud and realized what it was at once. As a demonic cultivator, he was deeply aware of what Evil Qi and Death Energy were. And he also knew how terrifying they could be.

Even as a middle Mortal Warrior ready to break through to the Spirit Warrior realm, he was worried by this cloud. Demonic cultivators were used to working with Evil Qi, but that didn't mean they were complacent with it. In fact, those who were always ended up consumed by it at some point and died, just like Luduo Bu.

As soon as some dust entered his body, he stopped breathing and intensified his Wei Qi to resist Evil Qi. Thankfully, he was knowledgeable about this kind of corrosive force. The tiny amount he had breathed in was quickly maneuvered thanks to his 'Tianfomo's Compassion'. This was a martial art using Evil Qi as fuel. Of course, it could also be used with Qi, but Evil Qi truly brought out its full force. Like he had done against Cao Yun, his attacks could poison any cultivator with Evil Qi and slowly shave off their very life.

But this technique could also be used to circulate Evil Qi and contain it within one's body. For that very purpose, Can Mouye had ingested many poisons who had cause immeasurable pain. But that way, he had forged a small part of his Lower Dantian so that it could contain Evil Qi. Even his meridians could resist its corrosion with more ease. As such, they could bear the pain of the technique long enough for it to be fully manifested.

However, he had been a bit too violent with his attacks. He had not only broken the sharp peaks he had been about to be skewered upon, he had also dug some kind of well. What he realized while falling was that there were a few galleries dug under the mountain. Most likely, he had struck right where those galleries connected. And he found himself deep underground.

With his powerful body, the fall did not cause any damage. But he wasn't sure whether this was a good idea to get out or instead stay below the ground.

Looking at the galleries, Can Mouye was convinced of two things. They were not natural at all, but they had not been dug by demonic beasts. Not only was Can Mouye a beast tamer, but he was also fascinated by insects and arachnids. Thus, he knew a lot about tunnels. And those galleries had not been dug by any kind of demonic beast he knew. Moreover, there was no trace of any beast at all on the walls of the tunnel. Instead, there were strange markings here and there. Some had already faded away, but clearly they were not from any language Can Mouye knew.

Unlike Huang Liyue, he did not realize that those markings were Insight Writings. In his mind, they were either nonsensical or from another language he had no way of understanding. Thus, he did not pay them any mind.

After a bit of hesitation, he still decided to follow the galleries. Maybe Cao Yun had also fallen down there. But for now, he had to gather some information to understand what was going on.

-

He walked for several hours until he met something unexpected.

From all around the tunnel, below his feet, above his head, on both sides, the walls started to shake. Then, several skeletons broke through the rocky walls. They were the Bone Warriors Cao Yun had met in the black plain. But they were also buried deep under the mountain apparently.

Instantly, Can Mouye used his senses to feel what those creatures were. What he felt was an intense Death Energy deep in their bones. And circulating all around their body was Evil Qi. Can Mouye had never met any creature like those.

But he was used to dealing with unknown creatures as a beast tamer, so he stayed calm. Thanks to his understanding of Evil Qi, he could vaguely guess the strength of those skeletons. They were barely strong enough to equal a 1st-grade Mortal Warrior. Observing their movement, he also quickly guessed that they lacked any real form of intelligence. Most likely, they should not be able to manifest their Qi. In a word, they were not a threat at all for him.

Can Mouye didn't want to cause a ruckus. Yet, he was fascinated by those creatures. If they could control Death Energy and Evil Qi, studying them could help him get a better control over it as well. This could be the push he needed to finally break through to the Spirit Warrior realm. Maybe this mission would finally give him some benefits. Until now, he had failed again and again and he was getting tired of it.

The Bone Warriors started to fight among themselves. But they were brutally interrupted by one of them. It stood out from the other ones because it was covered in the same markings that could be seen on the walls of the tunnels. But unlike the walls, those markings were shining with a terrifying yellow light. That peculiar light reminded Can Mouye of death itself.

Trying to use his senses to analyze those markings, he realized that his senses could not penetrate them at all. He could see them but if he closed his eyes, he could doubt that they had ever existed. From the skeleton, he could feel Evil Qi and Death Energy but no marking at all. Maybe there were other markings inside the skeletons but he simply couldn't feel them.

Can Mouye felt compelled to break down those things and analyze their bones. As such, he took out his whip and was ready to attack. However, he was not ready for what happened next. After subduing his companions, the marked skeleton engraved a few runes in them. Then, they all stood aside and quite literally opened up a path for the human. From both sides of the tunnel, they were simply standing still and the marked Bone Warrior showed the way to Can Mouye, inviting him to go further into the tunnels.

Obviously, the first thought that came to Can Mouye's mind was that this was a trap. But those skeletons, even all of them together, were not a threat to him. At any moment, he knew he could destroy them. The real question was where they wanted to bring him to. There, he might be faced with a more powerful enemy. But again, if he was faced with an enemy on par with a Spirit Warrior, he could not really escape. Clearly this marked skeleton had come for him, so someone or something had sensed his presence.

As long as he had no clue of what was going on in this world, following those creatures might not be a bad idea. They were brimming with Evil Qi. As a demonic cultivator himself, he wasn't particularly reticent to follow them. If he had been an orthodox cultivator, that would have been another story, but he wasn't. Since he had no other lead, he decided to go with them. If worse came to worst, he still had some trump cards in his spatial ring. And he had made sure that it was indeed working properly even in this other dimension.

Hence, Can Mouye followed the marked skeleton and walked between the rows lines of Bone Warriors on each side of the tunnel. He still had his whip in hand though. A large part of his mind was focused on his senses while a fraction of his attention was inside his spatial ring, ready to take a certain something out at any time.

Contrary to his expectations, his travel was very short. In less than ten minutes, he literally found himself in front of a giant cave underground. The only light visible came from a small stream of yellow water. It was the exact same yellow color that he could see shining through the engravings on the skeleton. And just like those engravings, this yellow stream gave him a sensation of death. He wasn't able to feel any Evil Qi or Death Energy from the water, but there was indeed something ominous in it.

With his senses, this tiny bit of light allowed him to see as though it was broad daylight. In the giant cave, there was a partially destroyed palace. It looked precisely the same way as the eight palaces floating in the sky he had seen while falling down. But it was way more destroyed. The roof was mostly gone and all the walls had a few holes in them. Here and there, some columns had even fallen down and crushed those walls in some places. All around the destroyed palace, a dozen of humanoid skeletons were walking around. They all had the engravings the one guiding Can Mouye had.

In front of the palace, there was a giant cauldron but Can Mouye could not see it properly because he had arrived from the back. However, what he saw was a young man in chains. The chains were coming from the walls of the cave and completely trapped the young man in the air. Apparently he was unconscious. Obviously, Can Mouye wondered whether that would be his fate or not.

However, a voice answered his doubts. But it created new ones as it echoed in his very mind.

"Do not worry. Your fate will not be his. Come on, get closer."