1019: Chapter 1018 The Broken Altar, the Mysterious Broken Sword

A massive underground cavern appeared before her eyes. In the center of the cavern, instead of the expected jagged rocks or underground river, there was... a broken altar.

The altar was constructed from the same Black Jade material. It was circular and divided into three tiers, most of which had collapsed. Only the base and a few stone pillars covered in eerie patterns still stood upright.

Those patterns were different from any script of any Star Domain she knew; they were more ancient, concise, yet contained an indescribable rhythm.

Scattered on the ground around the altar were some larger glowing crystals. Their light was slightly stronger, illuminating the altar area relatively clearly.

And in the very center of the altar, the most eye-catching thing was a... Skeleton leaning against a half-broken pillar.

The Skeleton was a warm, jade-white color. Even after countless years, it remained completely intact, even faintly flowing with a weak luster.

It maintained a cross-legged sitting posture, its head slightly bowed. One skeletal hand was spread out in front of its body, palm facing up, as if it had originally been holding something.

The Skeleton was draped in a tattered robe whose original color and material were no longer discernable. However, at the collar and cuffs of the robe, extremely complex and exquisite traces of gold embroidery could still be faintly seen; the pattern of the embroidery looked like a star map she had never seen before.

Galan's heart skipped a beat. To be able to leave behind such an immortal jade skeleton in the deepest part of this Sealed Abyss, what kind of cultivation level must they have had in life?

Fifth Rank?

Or even... higher?

She approached cautiously, stopping a few meters from the altar, her gaze falling on the jade skeleton's open palm.

It wasn't empty; instead, a fingernail-sized, irregularly shaped dark red crystal lay there quietly. Inside the crystal, extremely fine glimmers of light seemed to be slowly rotating; looking at it for too long actually made one feel a bit dizzy.

Besides that, on the ground next to the jade skeleton, something else was thrust into the earth.

It was a sword—or more accurately, the remains of a broken saber.

The blade was only about a foot long, with a jagged break as if it had been shattered by immense force.

The hilt was pitch black, neither metal nor wood, wrapped in dried and broken dark silk threads.

The remaining blade was covered in cracks, dull and lifeless, as if all its spirituality had perished along with the break.

Only near the tsuba (the junction between the hilt and the blade) could two extremely blurry ancient characters be faintly seen. The script was ancient and strange; Galan could not recognize it.

The altar, the jade skeleton, the mysterious crystal, the broken saber... all of it exuded an indescribable eeriness and desolation.

Galan's gaze shifted between the crystal and the blade.

That dark red crystal gave her an extremely dangerous feeling, while the broken saber, though damaged, seemed to have a deep connection with the owner of this jade skeleton.

She hesitated: should she investigate the crystal first, or touch the broken sword?

At the very moment she was concentrating on her thoughts, a sudden change occurred!

That seemingly lifeless dark red crystal erupted with a demonic light without any warning!

Red light instantly filled the entire cavern, completely overpowering the light of the Silver Crystals.

At the same time, the jade skeleton's open palm jerked violently, as if it were about to clench shut!

A cold, deathly, yet incredibly majestic Divine Thought, like a Vicious Beast that had been sleeping for eons suddenly awakening, crashed brutally into Galan's Sea of Consciousness!

This Divine Thought wasn't targeted at her consciousness; it was more like an unconscious, residual shock, filled with resentment, rage, and a sense of 'pollution' that made her Soul tremble.

“Pfft—!”

Galan felt as if she had been struck by a heavy blow. Her already heavily injured body simply couldn't withstand it. She spat out a large mouthful of blood, her vision went black in waves, and her Divine Soul felt as if it were about to be torn apart.

She staggered backward, wanting to escape the range of the red light.

In the instant her mind was reeling and her body lost its balance, her left hand accidentally touched the broken saber thrust into the ground nearby.

It felt ice-cold to the touch.

Immediately after, an indescribable suction force came from the broken sword. It wasn't absorbing her Qi or blood, but was... directly targeting her Divine Soul consciousness, which was currently in violent turmoil and even developing cracks due to the impact of the crystal's Divine Thought!

“Buzz—!”

Among the dense cracks on the broken saber, the tiniest one briefly lit up with a trace of gray light, thousands of times finer than a strand of hair. It flashed and vanished, so fast it seemed like an illusion.

Galan only felt as if her consciousness had been violently 'tugged' by something, and a sense of spinning dizziness washed over her.

This feeling was different from the violence of the Divine Thought impact just now; it was deeper, more secretive, as if something was quietly seeping through the gaps in her Divine Soul.

She let out a muffled groan, nearly unable to stand, and only avoided falling by leaning against the nearby rock wall.

After gasping for a good while, the light of the dark red crystal finally gradually receded, returning to its original state. The jade skeleton also returned to silence, as if everything just now had been a mere hallucination.

But Galan knew it wasn't. The residual stinging pain and the strange sense of floating in her Sea of Consciousness, as well as the still ice-cold touch of the broken saber in her hand, all reminded her of the bizarre event that had just occurred.

She looked down at the broken saber in her hand.

It was still broken and dull, without any change.

That trace of gray light and the strange suction never appeared again.

Was it an illusion?

Or did this broken saber... hide some other secret?

She lightly swung the broken saber; it was as light as nothing, and there was no reaction from any Qi, just like a piece of ordinary iron.

However, when she tried to probe the broken sword slightly with her Divine Sense, she found that the moment her Divine Sense touched the blade, it was swallowed by a deeper 'nothingness,' even more thorough than the suppression of Divine Sense in this cave.

Galan's heart sank. This cave was indeed bizarre and unpredictable. Whether it was that dangerous crystal or this seemingly ordinary yet strange broken saber, none of them were benevolent things.

Pursuers were outside, she was heavily injured, trapped in this desperate place, and encountering one bizarre thing after another... the crisis seemed to be linked one after the other.

She wiped away the blood from the corner of her mouth, her gaze scanning the altar and the jade skeleton once more, finally landing on the broken saber in her hand.

Perhaps this broken sword, left by the side of the jade skeleton's owner, was the only thing that might bring a variable at this moment.

Whether it was a blessing or a curse, she could no longer weigh the odds.

She gripped the cold hilt and completely pulled the broken saber from the ground.

The moment the blade left the ground, an extremely faint sigh, as if dust had settled, seemed to brush through her heart, so quiet it was almost inaudible.

The cavern returned to silence, with only the Silver Crystals glowing faintly.

Holding the broken saber and dragging her injured body, Galan cast her gaze toward the deeper darkness behind the altar.

There seemed to be a narrow passage half-covered by collapsed stones, leading to who knows where.

But things had come to this; currently, the only way was to keep moving forward.

Galan tightly gripped the broken saber in her hand. Although it was currently as light as nothing and devoid of all spirituality, for some reason, in this deathly silent and heart-pounding desperate place, holding onto something hard and cold actually gave her an indescribable, almost absurd sense of security.

Perhaps it was simply because it once belonged to that mysterious powerhouse who left behind the jade skeleton.

Under the effect of the Spirit Medicine, the wound on her shoulder temporarily stopped worsening, but the tremors in her internal organs and the dull pain in her Divine Soul still persisted.

She didn't dare to linger. With the saber in one hand and the other supporting herself against the cold Black Jade rock wall, she walked toward the passage half-covered by rubble behind the altar.