Before going down, Lu Ming took out several talismans and slapped them onto himself and Fu Chen.
These included Stealth Talismans and Protection Talismans...
He felt this place was far from simple. After all, such a long passage was lined with spirit stones.
It was clearly a massive undertaking!
And any massive undertaking was bound to involve major events, big secrets, grand conspiracies, and extreme danger...
Afterward, Lu Ming and Fu Chen cautiously walked down the descending stairs.
A moment later, a glaring, faint light spilled out from the end of the path.
Lu Ming and Fu Chen arrived at a massive space.
The scene before them made them freeze in their tracks.
This was an incredibly vast underground chamber.
The dome overhead was dozens of feet high, and the rocky walls were embedded with faintly glowing crystals that illuminated the entire area as bright as day.
Around the perimeter of the chamber, there were seven other passages identical to the one they had just entered from.
Right in the center of the ceiling above was a complex array.
The array patterns, woven in dark gold and blood-red, spiraled in overlapping layers, and the base of the array actually took root in the soil above...
At the very core of the array perched a fist-sized insect, its entire body a mix of black and gold.
Its wings were as thin as glass, the patterns on its head and abdomen were densely layered, and its six legs were slightly curled as it hovered steadily over the array eye.
“Why is there a cicada monkey here?”
Lu Ming muttered to himself as he sized up the cicada monkey before him.
Fu Chen also looked astonished.
At that moment, streams of faint golden threads converged from all directions, continuously pouring into the cicada monkey's body through the array patterns.
Below the cicada monkey, there was an altar about ten meters in diameter.
In the center of the altar lay a strange hexagonal black coffin.
“Sigh... I can't let Wang Defa take any more leaves of absence in the future...”
Lu Ming muttered as he took in the scene before him.
He realized that ever since Wang Defa took his leave, whenever they encountered a problem, let alone solving it...
Damn it, they didn't even know what they were looking at...
The sect was still sorely lacking in these knowledgeable, intellectual talents.
“Great Sect Master, what should we do?”
Fu Chen turned to ask Lu Ming.
When encountering things he didn't understand, he just had to ask the Great Sect Master.
He didn't need to understand them himself...
“Let's go in and take a look...”
Lu Ming said, stepping forward.
The moment he entered the chamber, a blood-red beam of light shot straight toward him.
Swish...
Before Lu Ming could even register it, it had already entered his body.
“What on earth is this?”
Startled, Lu Ming sensed an intense wave of danger.
He quickly scanned his body and saw a thin line of blood invading his system.
Knowing how unique his dantian was, Lu Ming did not dare to delay and immediately circulated his cultivation technique.
As his technique began to run, the bloody streak that had entered his body hadn't even had a chance to act.
It was directly sucked into his vortex dantian and converted into a surge of pure energy.
Swish! Swish!
Several more blood gu flew into Lu Ming's body.
All of them were absorbed by him.
Lu Ming blinked. Are there any more of these things?
If a few more came, he felt like he might actually break through.
The blood gu was also incredibly depressed. To think that it was one of the top ten Gu insects of the Southern Frontier!
A Gu insect capable of devouring even Soul Transformation experts!
Yet, upon entering the body of a mere Golden Core cultivator, before it could even do anything, it was sucked away and digested!
Where was the justice in this?
Was a Gu insect not even allowed to show off its power?
“Don't come in!”
Lu Ming turned and warned Fu Chen.
Fu Chen had already stopped alertly when Lu Ming cried out in surprise earlier.
Now, hearing Lu Ming's warning, he nodded and took a few steps back.
“Great Sect Master, please be careful...”
Lu Ming nodded and cautiously approached the coffin beneath the cicada monkey.
This was the first time Lu Ming had seen such a uniquely shaped coffin; it was even rarer than Grandfather's great gold coffin.
It instantly piqued Lu Ming's curiosity.
Stepping up to the coffin, he pulled out a crowbar.
Creak...
With swift and practiced movements, he pried open the coffin lid.
Inside, Lu Ming saw an old man lying down, his face painted so colorfully and elaborately that his original features were completely unrecognizable.
If not for his beard and hair, Lu Ming wouldn't have even been able to tell he was an old man.
The old man also wore an exaggerated hat.
Black energy was drifting off his entire body...
Lu Ming leaned in for a closer look. With just one glance, he could tell that the old man in the coffin was not a local.
He had never seen the clothes the man was wearing before.
Not in the Eastern Province, the Northern Province, or even among the demon race.
As for why he was lying here, that was a mystery.
Perhaps he was practicing some sort of sinister, heretical art.
After all, everything around here looked deeply unsettling.
Besides, given his status as a protagonist, he was destined never to meet ordinary people.
There was definitely something major going on here.
Lu Ming looked around again, a flicker of doubt crossing his eyes.
This doesn't look like some random, unprotected place!
How is there not a single defensive measure? Are they not afraid of someone barging in and disturbing them?
Are they really that careless?
Or could it be that this place was actually prepared specifically for me, the protagonist?
In truth, it wasn't that there were no defenses. The people of Miaojiang had set up arrays specifically targeted at the demon race.
Who could have anticipated that a couple of humans would wander in?
Thus, Lu Ming and Fu Chen had slipped right through the loophole.
Furthermore, even if humans did enter, they had prepared the blood gu as a safeguard.
But who would have thought that these Gu insects would turn out to be nothing more than nourishing snacks for Lu Ming?
“Oh? This place actually looks pretty good.”
Although he didn't know what purpose this setup served, he felt it had to be useful for something.
With that thought in mind, Lu Ming reached in, grabbed the old man in the coffin, and tossed him out.
Swish...
The moment he grabbed the old man, a tiny golden Gu burrowed straight into Lu Ming's body.
Lu Ming didn't stand on ceremony either, immediately digging into his feast.
As he absorbed the golden Gu, Lu Ming felt like he was right on the verge of a breakthrough.
After dumping the old man's corpse onto the ground, Lu Ming carefully retrieved Grandfather's corpse.
“Grandfather, I think this place is quite nice. Why don't you get a massage and do some therapy here!”
Lu Ming suspected that this was a corpse-nurturing ground, so giving Grandfather's body some routine maintenance here seemed like a great idea.
After placing Grandfather's corpse inside the coffin,
Lu Ming slapped several Teleportation Talismans onto Grandfather's body.
The destination for all of them was set to his own body.
This way, once the timer ran out or if anyone tampered with the coffin, Grandfather's corpse would automatically teleport right back to Lu Ming's side.
Having arranged everything for Grandfather, Lu Ming looked down at the old man's corpse on the ground.
Nice clothes, nice hat...
Immediately after, he went to work stripping him completely bare.
Leaving him with only his large boxers.
Lu Ming had originally planned to go all the way and completely destroy the corpse to wipe away any trace of his presence.
However, no matter what method he used, he couldn't seem to destroy the body.
Left with no other choice, Lu Ming dug a hole in the nearby empty ground and buried the old man's body.
Then, he packed the soil down firmly with a sledgehammer, concealing the traces to prevent anyone from noticing anything unusual.
“May your corpse rot swiftly. Amitabha...”
“May your corpse rot swiftly. Amitabha...”
Standing not too far away, Fu Chen heard Lu Ming's chanting.
Although he didn't know what kind of incantation this was, he chanted along with him.
At the same time, he silently noted that he had learned a valuable new trick!
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