317: Chapter 314 Why not just smash it open and find out?

Boot soles stepped on the cracked cyan jade slabs, making a dull, crisp sound.

The light at the bottom of this abyss appeared exceptionally eerie; a pale blue glow flowed slowly across the ground like water ripples, casting a deathly white sheen on the scattered withered bones around.

The air was thick with the smell of old copper rust that hadn't seen daylight for years, mixed with the sour, pungent scent of unknown plants fermenting in decay, forcing its way into one's nostrils.

Su Lin withdrew the compass used for pathfinding back into his sleeve and rubbed his aching temples.

This experience of leading a team through a dungeon was truly atrocious.

He had originally thought that coming to the Taihuang Immortal Domain would allow him to escape the suffocating feeling of being surrounded on all sides by his disciples, but as it turned out, the eccentrics by his side were each more troublesome than the last.

In this godforsaken place where every step held a killing intent, they somehow managed to walk with the relaxed air of being on a spring outing.

"Revered Master, the wind here feels nice and cool on the body; it's much more fun than that foul, smoggy town above."

A crisp, tender voice rang in his ear. Chu Weiwei clung tightly to Su Lin's left arm, a sweet smile on her pure and harmless little face. A scent of crushed green herbs mixed with the fragrance of earth after a morning rain drifted from her sleeves, curiously neutralizing the foul smell of decay around them.

As the girl spoke, she reached out with a fair finger and nonchalantly poked a clump of dark purple moss emitting a faint fluorescence by the roadside.

With a faint "sizzle," the moss instantly turned into a pool of poisonous water emitting green smoke, even corroding a hole into the cyan jade slab beneath it.

Su Lin's eyelids twitched.

The ground was covered in lethal toxins, yet only this girl could treat them like roadside wildflowers to be toyed with. He even had reason to suspect that if she were left to roam free in this abyss for a few days, she would completely collapse the ecosystem here.

"Old Man, what on earth is that big glowing lump up ahead?"

On the other side, Su Hongling strode forward with her broad black great sword shouldered. She turned her head, her face full of an unsatisfied irritability.

"That big loach just now ran way too fast; it slipped away right after I finished warming up, how boring. What are we eating for lunch? This dump doesn't even have any meat fit for the pot."

Su Lin couldn't help but roll his eyes internally.

With nothing but fighting and eating meat in her head, this disciple had likely long since forgotten the common knowledge of fasting. That abyss beast, with a body as large as a mountain, was a nightmare in others' eyes, but to this red-haired brute, it was merely a dish of steamed loach that had gotten away.

Yan Rusi, following at the very back, was shivering.

She carefully stepped in the footprints of those ahead, terrified of accidentally triggering some horrific mechanism. This former Hehuan Sect Saintess emitted a faint fragrance of fermented Western Region Night Orchid mixed with the damp, cold underground vapor. At this moment, her mind was filled with deep awe for the three people before her.

What kind of monsters are these!

This was the Forbidden Demon Abyss, a place where even a Xuantian Earth Immortal wouldn't dare tread lightly! Yet among this Revered Master and his two disciples, one was thinking about how to extract lethal poisons, one was complaining about having no monsters to grind, and the last had a face full of the helplessness of "parenting is so tiring." Was she really the only one seriously trembling in fear?

At the edge of their vision, the silhouette of a pale blue building gradually became clearer as they drew closer.

It was an ancient hall with an exceptionally rugged style, built entirely from some unknown deep-sea megaliths. Dense, dark vines climbed the walls, their leaves a sickly pale white that, under the blue light, looked like countless ghastly hands swaying in the wind.

There were no ornate eaves or the Auspicious Beast statues common in Immortal dwellings; the entire building exuded a sense of primitive power from wild growth.

The massive double stone doors were tightly shut, their surfaces carved with a multitude of twisted and bizarre runes. These runes didn't look like they were chiseled with tools, but rather branded directly onto the stone by some high-temperature substance, with traces of melting and resolidification still visible at the edges.

"Senior Su, these patterns... they're unsettling to look at." Yan Rusi bolstered her courage and stepped forward two paces, her voice trembling noticeably. "When I was perusing ancient texts in the Lower Realm, I once happened upon a similar rubbing; this seems to be some ancient incantation from the Taihuang Immortal Domain used to seal away extremely malevolent entities."

Su Lin stopped, his gaze carefully scanning the two towering stone doors.

The twisted runes were arranged in a peculiar spiral trajectory, eventually converging at the center where the two doors met. There was a circular indentation there, its interior polished exceptionally smooth, with even a faint flow of energy forming a small spiritual power vortex.

"Who cares what's sealed inside? Won't we know if we just smash it open!"

Su Hongling rubbed her hands together excitedly and slammed the great sword she was carrying onto the ground. With a dull thud, a large web of cracks immediately spread across the cyan jade slabs on the floor.

She rolled up her sleeves, looking fully prepared to swing her great sword and break through the door.

"Stand down."

Su Lin irritably stopped this disciple whose head was filled with nothing but violent demolition. He really didn't want to invite a heap of unnecessary trouble in this unknown Upper Realm ruin by blindly destroying things.

"The flow of the Formation on this door hasn't been exhausted yet; forcing it open will only trigger a backlash mechanism." As Su Lin spoke, he fished out the constantly humming void spirit crystal from his sleeve.

The crystal's light had reached its peak brightness, and the peculiar frequency resonance within it was surprisingly consistent with the energy fluctuations emanating from the indentation in the center of the stone door.

Su Lin pondered to himself, then slowly walked to the stone door and steadily pressed the glowing crystal in his hand into the circular indentation.

"Hum."

A low, long drone echoed from within the stone door.

Immediately after, the twisted and bizarre runes lit up with a dazzling blue glow one by one, like a fuse being ignited. The light raced along the spiral trajectory, and under the drive of this energy, the massive stone door began to rumble and vibrate.

Amidst a shower of falling dust, the two heavy stone doors slowly swung inward, and a gust of stale air, sealed away for untold ages, rushed out.

"Cough, cough... This smell is really choking."

Chu Weiwei fanned the air in front of her nose, her tender face showing unmasked disgust.

The space behind the door was even more vast than imagined. No torches were lit inside, but the ceiling was embedded with numerous fist-sized glowing Ores, illuminating the entire hall as if it were broad daylight.

Su Lin led the three into the hall, and as his gaze swept across the front, he couldn't hide the look of astonishment in his eyes.

The internal structure of this great hall actually resembled a massive circular lecture theater. Tiers of circular corridors spiraled up along the walls, while in the very center of the hall stood dozens of thick, transparent crystal cylinders.

Each crystal cylinder was filled with that pale blue viscous liquid. What was even more shocking were the things suspended within that liquid.

They were specimens of bizarre-looking creatures.

There were headless monkeys with six arms, strange birds covered in metallic scales, and even some odd Yao Beasts that were only half-bodies, yet their cuts still retained a fresh color.

This place was practically a mad scholar's private laboratory.

"Whoa!"

Chu Weiwei's eyes instantly lit up, as if stars were twinkling in her two purple pupils. Like a child who had received a novel toy, she ran with light steps to the nearest crystal pillar, practically pressing herself against the cold surface.

"Revered Master, look at this!"

She pointed excitedly at a tiny creature inside the crystal pillar that had three heads and resembled a gecko.

"This little thing's poison glands are developed so perfectly! If you add a bit of Hundred-Soul Grass juice to its saliva and brew an ointment to apply to someone, it would definitely make them itch all over until they claw their own flesh to shreds."

The girl spoke with a beaming smile, but her words were hair-raising.

Su Lin sighed helplessly and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Weiwei, besides poisoning people, can you think about anything else?"

This girl's yandere traits combined with such terrifying poison-making talent made her a walking biochemical arsenal. If she were allowed to run wild in a place like this, heaven only knew what world-destroying thing she might concoct.

"But Weiwei develops these things just to better protect Revered Master." Chu Weiwei turned her head and pouted her tender red lips, her face full of grievance.

"Senior Su, this seems to be an abandoned Immortal Cave used for researching void species."

Yan Rusi followed tremblingly, carefully examining the surrounding furnishings in an attempt to show her value as a guide.

"The Taihuang Immortal Domain is vast and boundless, and many powerful Immortals have a hobby of collecting rare and exotic beasts. However, to build an Immortal Cave of this scale at the bottom of the Forbidden Demon Abyss, that Immortal's cultivation must be terrifyingly high."

Su Lin stood at the entrance of the hall, one hand supporting his forehead.

He felt his cerebral blood vessels throbbing at a very cheerful frequency.

He had originally hoped that coming to this Upper Realm ruin would lead to some proper cultivation Opportunities, like a Jade Slip left by an ancient powerhouse or some fragment of a world-defying Immortal Artifact.

Instead, the scene before him was practically like an underground black workshop used for illegal experiments by some unreliable biological madman.

This heavy sense of incongruity left him unsure of what expression to make for a moment.

Chu Weiwei, however, adapted very quickly.

She was already almost pressed against the crystal pillar containing the headless, multi-armed monkey.

The girl cupped her cheeks with both hands, her amethyst-like eyes filled with a feverish light of thirst for knowledge, her pink tongue subconsciously licking her lips.

"Revered Master, look! This monkey's Meridian pathways are so unique."

Chu Weiwei turned her head excitedly, pointing at the specimen soaked in the unknown liquid inside the crystal pillar.

"Its poison sac is actually located next to its heart; that way, as soon as its heart rate increases, the venom will instantly spread through its entire body. If I could dig out its poison sac and brew it with Withered Bone Grass from the bottom of the River Styx for three days and three nights, the resulting poisonous smoke would surely let those high-and-mighty Immortals taste the feeling of their intestines rotting away."

The girl's pure and sweet face wore the most innocent smile, but the words coming out of her mouth were bone-chilling.

Yan Rusi shrank back at the very end, shivering in fear.

She silently backed away two steps, trying to distance herself as much as possible from this Medicine Immortal, fearing the other might, on a whim, stuff her into one of those pillars filled with blue liquid too.

"You'd better stay away from those jars."

Su Lin warned irritably.

"This place has been abandoned for untold years; the things soaking inside might have undergone some horrific mutations long ago. If you accidentally break a jar and let out something incredible, I won't be responsible for collecting your corpse."

"I won't."

Chu Weiwei stomped her foot coquettishly and sidled back to Su Lin's side with a face full of grievance, naturally hugging his arm.

"Weiwei is the most powerful Medicine Cultivator; ordinary toxins can't harm me. Besides, even if I really get poisoned, there's still Revered Master. As long as we use that life-sharing gu method and have a 'good exchange,' what poison can't be cured?"

"Old Man, ignore that nympho whose head is full of dirty thoughts and come take a look at this."

Su Hongling's rough voice came from the other side of the hall.

She was carrying her door-sized great sword, circling a massive square metal table.

The metal table was entirely black, its surface covered with dense grooves and dark red stains, looking like a giant cutting board that had been used repeatedly countless times.

Su Lin walked over toward her voice, his gaze falling on the metal table, and his brow couldn't help but furrow.

The material of this metal table was neither metal nor stone, exuding a bone-chilling aura of deathly silence.

At the four corners of the metal table stood a short bronze pillar carved with a hideous ghost face.

"The residual smell of blood on this is heavier than a slaughterhouse."

Su Hongling rubbed her finger on the metal table, sniffed it, and made a face of total disgust.

"And this smell doesn't seem like a beast's; it's more like... a human's."

"Don't scare yourself."

Su Lin carefully examined the grooves on the surface of the metal table, his fingers lightly brushing over the dried dark red stains.

"The owner of this place seems to have been conducting a massive extraction project. Come, let's see what's behind that door."

Su Hongling perked up immediately upon hearing about opening the door.

She took the great sword off her shoulder, gripped the hilt with both hands, and shouted, about to smash it against the stone door.

"Out of the way, let this old lady pick the lock."

"Stop right there."

Su Lin was quick to react, slapping the back of Su Hongling's head and forcefully stifling her reckless impulse.

"Can't you have anything in your head besides smashing doors? This place is full of mechanisms and Restrictions; if you strike with your sword and trigger some self-destruct Formation, we'll all be buried in this sunless underground."

Su Hongling rubbed the back of her head aggrievedly and muttered under her breath.

"Fine, I won't smash it. Why hit me? I'll get stupid."