9: Chapter 9 Returning to the Corpse Cave, Refining the Soul with Malevolent Energy

The sticky dragging sound and faint groans outside the tunnel clawed at Lin Ye's heart like a hook.

Should he go, or not?

He looked down at his simply bandaged, still-bleeding shoulder, feeling waves of weakness and chill wash over him from within.

With no Medicinal Pill and no Spirit Stone, in this sunless underground, his injuries and blood loss alone could slowly claim his life.

The Storage Pouch of Outer Sect Deacon Zhou Yuan was his only hope right now.

"Hold on..." Lin Ye whispered hoarsely to himself, propping himself against the slick rock wall with his uninjured left arm, bit by bit, enduring the excruciating pain as he stood up.

Every step tugged at his wound, causing his vision to black out in waves.

He tore off more strips of cloth to tightly bind his right arm against his side, minimizing any movement.

Then, he picked up the Black Evil short blade from the ground—the one he had pulled from his own body, stained with his own blood—and gripped it in his left hand.

The blade was heavy, its edge shimmering with an ominous dark light, but at this moment, it was the only weapon he could find.

Taking a deep breath, Lin Ye dragged his heavy feet and shuffled back toward the tunnel entrance he had come from.

The closer he got to the cave entrance, the stronger the smell of blood and an indescribable, foul stench of decay became.

Lin Ye stopped at the edge of the cave entrance, held his breath, and listened intently.

The dragging sound had stopped.

The groaning had also vanished.

A deathly silence.

He slowly poked half his head out to look into the cave outside.

Under the light of the eerie blue moss, the sight was nauseating.

The once relatively clean cave floor was now covered in a layer of viscous, translucent gelatinous substance, mixed with fragments of torn clothing and undigested... bone remnants.

These were the digestive fluids secreted by the Ghost-faced Leech and the remains of their prey.

Hei Sha was gone.

Or rather, most of him was gone.

Only near the edge of the water pool remained a hand bone, gnawed clean until not a shred of flesh was left, still clutching a rock tightly as if recounting the despair before death.

And the skeleton of the Foundation Establishment Cultivator, Outer Sect Deacon Zhou Yuan, remained sitting cross-legged on the boulder, the grey Storage Pouch at his waist completely unharmed.

The soil within three feet of it was terrifyingly calm, as if the bloody feast that had just occurred had nothing to do with it.

What about the swarm of leeches?

Lin Ye's eyes scanned rapidly.

Not a single complete Ghost-faced Leech could be seen in the cave; there was only that layer of viscous gelatinous substance covering the ground, slowly writhing under the eerie light, suggesting they might be lurking underground, or... had already retreated to their nest to sleep and digest?

He couldn't be sure.

His gaze finally fixed on that grey Storage Pouch.

Separated by a distance of nearly ten meters, the space between was that disgusting "carpet."

How to get across?

Step directly across? Heaven knows if there were still lurking leeches under that layer of slime, or if it was corrosive.

He scanned his surroundings, his eyes finally landing on several particularly long stalactites hanging from the cave ceiling.

One of them pointed diagonally toward the skeleton, its tip hanging almost to the edge of the three-foot safety zone.

Got it!

Lin Ye retreated into the tunnel, enduring the pain, and used his short blade to laboriously chip off several stones of varying sizes from the rock wall.

Then, returning to the cave entrance, he aimed at the connection point between the stalactite and the ceiling, and with all his might, threw a stone!

"Snap!"

The stone struck the connection point, but the stalactite didn't budge.

Again! A second stone, a third!

Finally, after the fifth stone struck, the stalactite let out an unbearable "crack" sound, snapped at the base, and crashed down!

"Thud!"

The stalactite smashed diagonally onto the slime on the ground, splashing up a foul-smelling liquid.

It was three or four meters long; one end rested on the rock near the cave entrance, while the other end landed exactly on the outer edge of the skeleton's three-foot safety zone, forming a crude "stone bridge"!

Lin Ye's heart pounded wildly. It worked!

He hesitated no longer, and enduring the nausea and dizziness, he carefully climbed onto the stalactite.

The surface of the stalactite was slick; he was almost prone on it, moving forward bit by bit using his left hand and knees.

Beneath him was the terrifying slime that had devoured Hei Sha, the stench assaulting his nose.

The short three or four meters felt like hours.

When he finally crawled to the other end and rolled onto the dry ground of the three-foot safety zone, he was nearly collapsed from exhaustion.

His wound split open again, blood seeping out, but he couldn't care less, scrambling and crawling toward the skeleton.

"Senior, forgive me!" Whispering this, he reached out and grabbed the grey Storage Pouch.

It felt slightly heavy in his hand, the fabric tough and carrying the chill of the ages.

With a forceful tug, the Storage Pouch came loose from the skeleton's waist.

At the same time, perhaps due to the movement, the skeleton's hand bone, which had been clutching a Jade Slip, let out a "click," the finger bones scattered, and a ring—also grey and inconspicuous—rolled out from between the finger bones and fell at Lin Ye's feet.

There's something else?!

Lin Ye immediately picked up the ring. It was neither gold nor jade, cold to the touch, with extremely fine cloud patterns engraved on it.

There was no time to examine it closely; he shoved the ring into his chest pocket and then impatiently sank his consciousness into the Storage Pouch—in the original owner's memories, low-grade Storage Pouches only required a weak Mental Energy to probe.

The space inside was not large, about the size of half a room.

The contents were clear at a glance:

A small pile of faintly glowing stones, about twenty or thirty of them—these were Low-Grade Spirit Stones!

Two small jade bottles; one was labeled "bigu pill," and the other... was exactly the "fire flame pill"! There were three left in the bottle, the size of dragon eyes, crimson like fire.

A dim Jade Slip, which should be the "Qi Concealment Technique" he had seen earlier.

In addition, there were a few sets of spare clothes, some dry rations and a water skin (long since rotted), several unknown Ore pieces, and a small booklet with a beast-skin cover, on which was written "Zhou Yuan's Notes."

He was rich! Truly rich!

Lin Ye's spirits lifted. He immediately took out the bottle of fire flame pill and poured one out. The Medicinal Pill was crimson, emitting a warm aura. He swallowed it without hesitation, then poured out two bigu pills and took them as well.

As the pills entered his stomach, the fire flame pill immediately turned into a warm current, surging toward his limbs and bones, especially around his shoulder wound, where a tingling sensation emerged, and the bleeding seemed to slow down. The bigu pills provided a slight sense of fullness and weak energy.

He dared not linger, tying the Storage Pouch tightly against his body at his waist, and tucked the short blade within easy reach.

He was just about to crawl back along the stalactite.

Suddenly, the ground beneath his feet, that layer of viscous gelatinous substance covering the cave, began to surge violently without warning!

Gurgle... Gurgle...

Like boiling porridge.

Immediately after, deep within the slime, dozens of scarlet lights lit up! Those were the eyes of the Ghost-faced Leech!

They hadn't left at all; they were just digesting! And the smell of blood from Lin Ye's wound, along with the scent of a newly arrived living creature, had stimulated them once again!

"Hiss hiss hiss—!"

A hair-raising hissing sound erupted from all directions! The slime churned, and dozens, hundreds of Ghost-faced Leeches drilled out from under the "carpet," their bodies appearing thicker than before, their scarlet eyes all locked onto Lin Ye standing at the edge of the safety zone.

They didn't pounce immediately, but instead slithered slowly, surrounding him and blocking the retreat path along the stalactite.

The safety zone was only three feet in diameter; it was a dead end!

Lin Ye backed against the rock wall, his left hand gripping the short blade tightly, his right hand difficult to use due to his injuries. The medicinal power of the fire flame pill was dissolving, bringing warmth, but it was not enough to instantly heal his severe wounds.

The swarm of leeches gathered in greater numbers, the slime spreading up the stalactite, their scarlet eyes like the lights of Hell under the eerie blue moss light.

And the Storage Pouch in his bosom, along with that cold ring, felt so heavy at this moment.

Could it be that just after finding a glimmer of life, he was to be buried in the bellies of insects again?

At this moment of despair, the grey, inconspicuous ring in his bosom that had fallen from between the finger bones of Outer Sect Deacon Zhou Yuan, without warning, vibrated slightly.

An extremely faint, yet incomparably sharp chill seeped into his body from the place where the ring touched his skin.