122: Chapter 122 Internal Situation

The moment he passed through the light gate, Wu Li felt his vision blur. His body felt as if it had been violently yanked by an invisible hand, and he lost his balance completely.

The world spun, and he could not distinguish up from down. The wind whistling past his ears was as sharp as a knife, and the surrounding light twisted into countless colorful streaks that flashed past his eyes.

"Bang!"

His back slammed heavily into something. Wu Li let out a muffled groan, forced himself to crawl up from the ground, and scanned his surroundings vigilantly with his blood-red pupils.

"Uncomfortable..."

Wu Li quickly regained his composure.

Tiger Biao and the other demons were not by his side, nor were Black Feather and Bai Chi.

They must have been scattered upon entering. Falling over such a large area, he had no idea which corner of this space he had landed in.

Wu Li withdrew his gaze and began to examine his surroundings.

This was a gray, hazy space.

The sky had no sun, moon, or stars; there was only a thick layer of gray-white mist, like a giant curtain covering the sky above.

Beneath his feet was parched land, riddled with cracks. Some cracks were wide enough to fit an arm into, and they were pitch black, their depths impossible to discern.

The air was as dry as if it had been baked, feeling scalding in his lungs. It carried an indescribable, rotten stench, as if something had decayed here a long time ago—rotting for who knew how many years, until only the smell remained.

And most importantly...

The Spiritual Qi here was intense!

It seemed to be an extremely singular fire-attribute Spiritual Qi; absorbing it caused a burning sensation in his Meridians.

"What kind of place is this!"

Wu Li cast his gaze into the distance.

Scattered about were some broken walls and dilapidated ruins.

Some could no longer be identified by their original shape; they were just piles of rubble stacked chaotically, resembling grave mounds that had been abandoned for who knew how many years.

Further away, the silhouette of a mountain could be vaguely seen, pitch black, like a giant beast lying on the ground.

On the mountainside, there were tiny specks of light; he did not know what they were, but they were particularly striking in this gray, hazy space.

"Boom!"

Wu Li took a deep breath, his Demon Power surged within him, and his figure changed rapidly amidst the demonic light.

His ink-purple feathers retracted, his bones cracked and clicked, his sharp claws transformed into five fingers, and the wings on his back became even broader.

The Technique of Refining Form manifested instantly. His half-human, half-demon body stood in this gray, hazy space, his blood-red pupils emitting an eerie glow under the dim light.

He raised his right hand, formed a sword finger, and tapped it lightly against his forehead.

"Blood Pupil, open!"

"Hum!"

The blood-red marking on his forehead suddenly lit up, and crimson light surged out like a tide, instantly dispersing the gray-white mist around him.

The Blood Pupil slowly opened, its pupil as deep as an abyss, exuding a soul-stirring pressure.

Wherever the Blood Pupil looked, the mist retreated.

The gray-white mist seemed to be torn apart by something, rolling back to both sides to reveal the real ground beneath.

The parched cracks were no longer pitch black; Wu Li could clearly see the rubble and withered grass roots at the bottom of the cracks.

The distant broken walls and ruins were no longer blurry silhouettes; he could see the weathered patterns on the stones, the dried moss in the crevices, and the metallic luster that occasionally flashed amidst the piles of rubble.

Further away, that pitch-black mountain also became clear. The mountain's outline was no longer a blurry silhouette, and under the perspective of the Blood Pupil, it revealed its true form.

Those were Ore.

However, this was not ordinary Ore, but Ore containing rich fire-attribute Spiritual Qi. Some were embedded in the rock, some were scattered on the hillside, and some revealed a corner from the cracks, glowing with a crimson fluorescence under the light of the Blood Pupil.

The quality of those Ore was not low; at the very least, they were much better than the Spirit Stone Wu Li had used before.

"Hm?"

When the Blood Pupil swept over the hillside, Wu Li's gaze suddenly stopped.

On the right side of that pitch-black mountain, behind a pile of rubble, a corner of an overhanging eave was vaguely visible.

It was not a broken wall or ruin, but a complete palace building.

It was not large, covering only two or three mu, but in this desolate space, it was particularly striking.

The palace walls were gray-white, and he did not know what kind of stone they were built from. The surface was covered with weathered cracks, but the overall structure was still quite intact.

Most of the roof tiles had fallen off, revealing the pitch-black wooden beams beneath.

The palace doors were wide open.

The door panels hung crookedly on the frame, as if they had been knocked open by something, and Spiritual light flickered faintly inside the hall.

Wu Li crouched in place, staring at the palace for a moment. The Blood Pupil scanned the surroundings once more; there was no Demonic Qi, no fluctuations of Spiritual power, and no aura of living creatures.

It was like a dead zone, so quiet that it made one's heart creeped out.

"Let's go take a look."

Wu Li withdrew the Blood Pupil, flapped his wings, leaped from the ground, and flew toward the palace.

His half-human, half-demon body traced an arc in the air, and the wings behind him stirred up a gust of wind, blowing the rubble on the ground rolling everywhere.

The mountain drew closer, and the palace became clearer.

Upon flying close, Wu Li folded his wings and landed on the steps in front of the palace.

The steps were made of stone, nine in total.

Wu Li looked up at the top of the palace door, where a plaque hung. Half of the characters on the plaque were already illegible, but from what remained, he could vaguely discern something like '...Pavilion.'

"Hum~"

Wu Li tested it briefly, then sent a wave of Demon Power inside.

After a few breaths, seeing that there was nothing unusual inside, he stepped into the hall.

There was nothing particularly special inside.

The only thing was a stone platform in the very center of the hall.

Its surface was as smooth as a mirror, and in the center of the stone platform, a fist-sized bead was floating. It was pale blue, and inside it, a sea of clouds seemed to be churning.

Approaching this bead, he clearly felt the surrounding fire-attribute Spiritual Qi being suppressed.

"Good stuff."

Wu Li stared at the pale blue bead for a moment, his blood-red pupils flickering slightly, but he never made a move.

This item was clearly not an ordinary object, but his instinct told him that this bead was not so easy to take.

Wu Li's hand raised, then lowered.

Just then, a faint sound of footsteps came from the distance.

Wu Li turned his head to look, his blood-red pupils narrowing. Then, his figure flashed, and he retreated silently into the shadows deep within the hall, his whole body enveloped in Colorless Profound Light, his aura completely vanishing.

The footsteps drew closer. Two people walked in from outside the palace gate: a man and a woman, both young, looking to be in their early twenties.

The man wore a white brocade robe with a jade belt at his waist; he had a handsome face, and between his brows carried the arrogance peculiar to disciples of noble families.

The woman wore a pale cyan dress; she was beautiful, her long hair held up by a jade hairpin, a jade pendant hanging at her waist, and her steps were light.

Wu Li recognized them. From the fluctuations of their auras, Wu Li could perceive that they were likely not from those major Sects.

"Yue'er, stay close to me later; the feeling here is very wrong."