Volume 5, Chapter 74 – Worsening (Two-in-One)

The middle-aged man’s original name was “Li Ji.” Although he had come from Northern Yu, he was not one of that country’s native residents, but part of the population that had returned from an Illusory Realm fragment over the past ten years.

The tide of the age really was something vast and irresistible for people like him. He had originally lived quite well in that small world within the Illusory Realm. His family had been harmonious, his life happy and complete. But once the Void Tribulation arrived, the rules of that little world were shredded to pieces, and the common lands could only be described as a writhing chaos of demons.

His clan suffered devastating losses. His wife, with whom he had shared tied hair, and several of his sons died one after another in Demon Pools, dealing Li Ji a crushing blow.

There had been a time when he wanted to follow them in death. But faced with the remaining members of the clan, and faced with his daughter, who was only a few years old, he could only grit his teeth and hold on. After the fragment merged with the main world, he took the initiative to learn the culture of Northern Yu, and in less than a year he had solved the problem of communication.

The Li family had once been a great aristocratic house in that small world, but in Northern Yu they were nothing. So he led the family from the very bottom, starting with caravan trading. In the beginning, they relied on selling off certain specialties from the Illusory Realm to build up capital.

Those were nerve-racking days. They had no power and no backing, and the Illusory Realm specialties stored in their home could easily attract covetous eyes.

Northern Yu was not Eastern Xia. If you exposed wealth there, death was the only outcome.

Fortunately, Li Ji’s luck was not bad. During his first few trading runs, he did not run into trouble. He even happened to save a dying hunter. After Li Ji cared for him back to health, the hunter left without a word the very next day, leaving behind only a secret manual containing the first few layers of a Body Tribulation cultivation method.

In terms of efficiency, a method like that could not compare to those of the great sects and mighty schools, but to Li Ji, who was desperately short on strength, it was still precious. He and the Li family used that Body Tribulation method to gain enough power to establish themselves at the lowest levels. After that, they gradually expanded by selling specialties and doing business. By the tenth year, they could be considered modestly established, and their days had begun to grow more prosperous.

Li Ji could tell that many people in the family had breathed a sigh of relief at that change.

Northern Yu was vast, but it was not their homeland. They were drifters in a foreign land, with no deep feelings for the so-called “main world.” At first, hearing words like “Demon Pool” and “Void Demons” had terrified them beyond measure, but now they had managed to settle down and make a living. At last, they could sleep soundly.

But Li Ji was different. Although he had never shown it in front of his family, he knew very clearly in his own heart that he was still afraid, still uneasy.

Power.

He still longed to obtain greater power.

The main world was too vast, and too many things in it were terrifying and mysterious. The more Li Ji traveled north and south and broadened his horizons, the more deeply he felt how insignificant the Li family was. More than once, he had jolted awake in fear in the middle of the night, as though the great catastrophe had descended again, as though all living things were cast into misery, and his clan were once more dying in front of him one after another while he could do nothing.

He hated that feeling. That was why he had never dared to “settle down.” Over the years, besides upgrading from caravan trading to a mercenary band, he had also been careful to ask around about and collect all kinds of myths and legends. For a time, he had even set his sights on ruins.

The rumors really did exist. Some lucky souls, it was said, had discovered ancient inheritance sites, stumbled into them by accident, and obtained tremendous benefits, leaping from ordinary mortals into superhuman experts in an instant.

Li Ji knew that he was already old, and that he had no talent for cultivation. Competing with others by conventional means was impossible for him, so this route was the safest one.

Unfortunately, those bits of information were all baseless hearsay. They sounded fantastical enough, but every time he followed one up, he found nothing at all. It was pure wasted effort.

Li Ji did not lose heart. He was determined to gain power no matter what. Along the way, he even happened to run into a great clan similar to the Li family, one that had also survived another Illusory Realm fragment.

He led his men and slaughtered them to the last.

Those people did not bring him power. He gained only some rare treasures and unusual local products.

His restless heart should have been soothed for a while by the killing, but not long ago, Li Ji bought a ruin map on the black market.

The one selling the map was a cloaked freak. One had to know that even if most ruin-related news was false, a map like that was still extremely valuable, yet the man actually dared to set up a little stall in some corner and sell it, showing no fear at all that some major power might buy it to test it out, discover it was a fraud, and then come looking for him.

At first, Li Ji also thought the man was a swindler, but he still bought the map with the mentality of trying any remedy in a desperate situation.

“You long for power, don’t you?”

As he turned to leave, the cloaked freak suddenly called out to him.

Hm?

Li Ji turned back and saw the other party raise his face, revealing a shriveled chin and, spreading above it, a bizarre smile.

“As a mortal, you suffered immense pain in this catastrophe. In truth, you harbor a profound hatred toward everything, you just do not dare let it show.”

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“What is Senior trying to say?” Li Ji frowned. He glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention, then walked back and used his own body to shield the cloaked man from view.

He was not sure whether this counted as his destined opportunity.

“I have been observing you for a very long time,” the cloaked man said. “You have resolve… the resolve that belongs to a true powerhouse.”

“So many people, far too many of them, are taught from childhood that they must ‘become stronger.’ But why exactly must they ‘become stronger’? What meaning does ‘becoming stronger’ actually have? Ask them that, and most of them would have no answer.”

“But you are different. You know very clearly why you need power.”

The cloaked man let out a low, strange chuckle.

“Because of hatred, right?”

“Deep in your heart, you have sealed away a true self, and you still do not dare face him.”

“In fact, you know it yourself. Some of the things you have done over these years can be called extraordinarily reckless. You have put your clansmen and your whole band in danger. That can no longer be explained by ‘gaining strength to protect yourself.'”

“You are this impatient because you want revenge…”

“So long as you can obtain power and use it to cause enough destruction, you do not care in the slightest whether these things can continue to exist afterward…”

With each sentence the freak spoke, Li Ji’s expression darkened another shade. He was even considering whether he should find a chance to kill the man outright, but his vision blurred, and the other party vanished right in front of his eyes.

Just like that, the freak was gone.

He left behind a pile of junk and that ruin map.

Afterward, Li Ji spent two months poring over materials and finally determined that the ghostly scribbles on the map were a kind of ancient cuneiform.

He also found a legend: every form of ancient writing had its own special method of decipherment, but one method was the most direct and easiest to use, namely to “awaken” it with the blood of its descendants and directly obtain the knowledge within the inheritance.

Awaken… descendants…?

That cloaked man had clearly watched my every move for a long time without letting me notice, which proves his cultivation is far higher than mine. Someone like that could crush me to death with no effort at all. Yet he went to all the trouble of doing this and even delivered this map right into my hands.

Li Ji began to suspect that the other party believed he and the entire Li family were descendants of some ancient human bloodline.

That conjecture was swiftly confirmed. He really did use the awakening method to decipher the cuneiform on the map and learn information related to the “Liren clan” and the demon god “Jiuli.”

“Jiuli” was a super-great demon that had existed in the primordial ages, one of the earliest and most terrifying demon species.

At first it had neither existed nor taken shape. In the beginning, it had been a pair of demon birds named “Xuanli” and “Lifang.” Interfered with by the Void Tribulation, they suddenly discovered one day that they were merging with each other.

Their bodies fused together and became one, gaining a vaster body and stronger power.

That interference soon caused it to merge, amid the chaos, with more demon creatures. Some of those were extremely weak, while some, like “Xuanli” and “Lifang,” were great demons. In that catastrophe, they had all been muddled and dazed, but when they came to, they discovered that they had acquired an entirely new form.

It was a special kind of body between solid flesh and drifting smoke, nebulous and intangible, changing at every moment. When it unfurled its body, it could instantly stir up terrifying “divine power,” making wind and clouds change color. Across the vast heavens, all one could see were the illusory silhouettes of nine avian heads of different shapes.

The ancient human race devoutly worshiped that kind of power, calling it a “god” and offering it incense and faith, using the image of the “god” as the totem of their tribe.

So, that cloaked freak might be one of the Liren clan’s people.

Li Ji made the judgment immediately.

My blood can awaken these words and let me directly obtain this knowledge. That is enough to show that we truly are the present-day descendants of the Liren clan. Our ancestors must have been swept away by the Void Tribulation even earlier; that layer of earth then became an Illusory Realm fragment, and the bloodline continued from there.

Then the reason he gave me the map must be that he wants me to help open Jiuli’s ruins.

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And the thing this map ultimately points to must be the demon-god totem most revered by the Liren clan…

“Master, Master?”

Called back to himself, Li Ji blinked and saw that the surroundings were incomparably gloomy, while his nostrils were full of a decayed, ruined stench.

That smell was not unfamiliar to him. Over these years, as he led his team wandering everywhere, they had done more than their share of grave-robbing. Once those underground buildings were dug open, that was what the air inside smelled like. Sometimes they even had to worry about poison gas.

“Little Seven already checked,” the servant who leaned over said in a low voice. “The air in the tunnel is fine. It’s not poisonous. So now we…?”

“We’ve already come this far. Of course we’re going to keep going.” Li Ji narrowed his eyes and swept his gaze over every face in the team.

“This ruin shows very few traces of excavation, which means most people only explored the first level.”

“But we have already gone deep underground and are about to enter its third level!”

“I believe you all know what sort of opportunity that means.”

As he described it, everyone’s breathing quickened unconsciously.

Yes. A ruin temple like this obviously was no ordinary place. Although danger had to exist inside, compared with the legendary gains one might obtain, that risk was hardly worth mentioning.

This was the inheritance of a ruin.

Once they got it, the Li family would surely rise again and become a world-famous great clan!

What was more, these people had personally lived through Di Xiang’s northern campaign. They had seen that terrifying power with their own eyes, and they had also witnessed how Northern Yu had been torn apart under the ravages and caprice of that power, becoming the shattered thing it was today.

The Northern Yu of the present could no longer be called a complete country at all. Many great clans had begun to wage war against one another over territory, the Illusory Realm fragments within that territory, and the channels through which they could steadily acquire void refugees. Added to that were refugee uprisings, and the whole realm had been turned upside down.

In a game like that, the Li family had never been qualified to take part.

They could only survive in the cracks, scrambling in disgrace just to preserve themselves.

But if they could obtain the ruin inheritance, then perhaps the Li family would have a chance to enter the struggle for supremacy.

This was a great matter that would continue the legacy of the past and open the way to the future. For that, staking their lives was only natural.

Everyone’s enthusiasm was fully stirred. Under Li Ji’s command, they immediately checked their equipment, then went down into the tunnel one after another and began steadily advancing through the cramped terrain.

Only one person felt that something was not quite right.

“Father.”

Li Nanyun moved closer to her father and looked at Li Ji uneasily. “When Father first set out, you didn’t say… that this trip involved something this serious…”

He truly had not said so.

Li Ji glanced at his daughter.

The excuse used when they set out had been that they were taking on a commission. That was meant to mislead others. Most of the people in the team had not even known at first that they would have to cross Northern Yu’s national border and push all the way into Eastern Xia territory.

Li Nanyun felt uneasy. She thought Li Ji was not cherishing her anymore, because in the past, when doing dangerous missions like this, he would never bring her along. He would always leave her and the other dependents at their base while he took the team out alone.

“With your father here, do not be afraid.”

Li Ji stroked her cheek. When he saw features so strongly resembling his wife’s, his gaze flickered, but he quickly regained his calm.

“If I didn’t bring you, how would our rivals make a strategic misjudgment?”

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“They would surely think we only came out to enjoy the scenery. Your role is very important.”

Still only in her teens, Li Nanyun quickly accepted that explanation. She cast aside all her worry and plunged eagerly into what, in her eyes, was an outdoor adventure “game.”

“Master.”

At that moment, a young, sturdy man who had just climbed up and was resting came over to Li Ji. His gaze fell on Li Nanyun.

“If…”

“I mean, if there turns out to be some other method, then Young Miss…?”

“Little Seven, you’ve been with me for so many years. How is it that you still can’t tell what matters most?” Li Ji cut him off and said in a low voice. “I remember I explained it to you. Compared with the great enterprise of restoring the family, do you really think romantic entanglements are worth caring about?”

“Everything will be done as Master intends.” The young man fell silent. “I overstepped. I am willing to accept punishment.”

“You meant well.” Li Ji shook his head.

“Go help me watch her.”

“Don’t let her fool around.”

The process of exploring the ruin went smoothly.

Too smoothly… smoothly enough that many people began to feel uneasy.

How could it be such a coincidence? So many of the mechanisms, puzzle locks, and lethal traps here were things they had happened to be trained for before setting out?

There was even an antidote for the poison mist barrier at the end of the third level. Could it really be that fate was helping them, that heaven itself was watching over them?

At first, everyone could still restrain themselves, and they vaguely felt that something was off. But as one checkpoint after another was broken through, they plunged all the way down to the ninth underground level in a single burst, and the joy in them became utterly impossible to suppress. Every last one of them sincerely believed that they were certain to obtain the inheritance.

“We’re here.”

As he descended to the ninth level, Little Seven’s heart suddenly tightened.

As one of the very few people trusted by Li Ji, and one Li Ji had even shown the map to and described the plan to, he knew very well that the ninth level of the ruin… was the endpoint of this expedition.

“Why is there a bad smell here…?”

“Yeah, and it smells fishy too…”

“It’s just microbial fermentation from poor ventilation. Smells awful, but it’s harmless.”

“Be careful. Don’t get separated.”

The group filed into the ninth-level hall in orderly fashion, and there they found nine stone coffins arranged in a precise formation.

The searchlights revealed uneven carvings across the ground, radiating outward in all directions. The nine stone coffins stood at the ends of those carvings.

Four on the left.

Four on the right.

One in the center.

No one knew what it was meant for.

“Could the corpses of ancient gods actually be stored in these?”

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Li Nanyun curiously felt her way to the side of one coffin and used the light to study the cuneiform carved upon it, her eyes full of curiosity.

She truly feared nothing. She had completely forgotten that in a moment like this she should not touch anything at random. No one even knew what she had done, but she somehow triggered a mechanism, and the lids of all nine stone coffins slid open with grinding creaks, exposing what lay inside.

“Ugh…”

“It stinks…”

Before anyone could even take a look, the smell instantly intensified. Li Nanyun immediately covered her nose, but her curiosity kept her from retreating.

What was inside?

She already had a vague guess. She craned her neck to look, only to discover that the coffin was empty. There was nothing in it.

How could that be?

Li Nanyun stared, not understanding.

The smell had grown stronger. She had assumed there would be a rotting corpse or perhaps a zombie lying inside. How could there be nothing there? Was the bottom just flat?

“Are the other coffins empty too?”

She turned to ask Little Seven beside her.

“Mhm.” Little Seven frowned, and he looked deeply uneasy as well.

“They’re all empty.”

That was strange.

The inside of the coffin was flat and empty, and aside from the cuneiform and murals covering the ground and walls, there seemed to be nothing else here. Did that mean these were the only gains?

Was the so-called inheritance just nine empty stone coffins?

Li Nanyun was still turned toward Little Seven, talking to him, and failed to notice that with her back to the coffin, the smooth “bottom” inside it had quietly begun to distort and writhe.

It was not empty.

The source of the putrid stench was a mass of melted flesh. Like rotten mud, it had spread itself across the bottom of the coffin, disguising itself as the original base.

And now it had come back to life.

Of the nine stone coffins, the eight set out to either side all showed signs of rotten flesh writhing. The searchlights quickly caught this as well, and a burst of alarmed cries immediately rang through the hall.

“This… what is this thing…?”

“Flesh? The flesh is alive?”

“The smell is getting stronger and stronger… should we withdraw first?”

“Did you see the mural at the very front? The thing carved there looks like…”

“A sacrifice,” Li Ji said eerily.

“The time of harvest has finally come.”

The moment those words fell, before the others could react, he seized Li Nanyun with force, dragged her to the ninth coffin, and shoved her inside.