Although their eyes burned with greed as they gazed at the countless treasures behind the gate, the crowd managed to maintain a shred of sanity. Wary, none of them made a move.
But when one figure flashed and charged toward the gate, it was like throwing a ladle of cold water into a pot of boiling oil. Instantly, the crowd erupted into chaos.
“Someone's going in!”
“Quick, follow them!”
Unable to hold back any longer, a swarm of cultivators surged forward, scrambling to leap through the gap in the gate to seize the initiative and claim the treasures left behind by the immortal.
Shi Yu narrowed her eyes. The leading cultivator executed a movement technique and darted ahead, taking the lead as he charged toward the gap. His face was filled with greed, and he reached out to grab the treasure behind the gate—
However, the gap was only half an arm's length wide—far too narrow for a person to fit through. Seeing this, the leading cultivator executed a bone-shrinking technique, instantly shrinking his body to barely an inch wide. With a triumphant grin, he prepared to slip through the gap.
But right at that moment, the silk-like stream of moonlight began to fade, and the ancient source runes glowing on the gate slowly fell dormant. The gap, which had widened to half an arm's length, stopped expanding and slowly began to close again under the frustrated, unwilling gazes of the onlookers.
“Ahhh!!” The cultivator who had used the bone-shrinking technique shrieked in agony. For some unknown reason, he failed to back out in time. His body seemed glued to the gate, leaving him completely immobilized as the closing doors slowly crushed him, grinding his body into a bloody pulp. Blood and bone splinters splattered in all directions in a gruesome spectacle.
Another female cultivator, slightly slower, reached the gate just as it was about to shut completely. Unwilling to leave empty-handed, she whipped out a long silk ribbon artifact and thrust it through the gap, attempting to wrap it around a few treasures and pull them out.
Unexpectedly, the moment the ribbon entered the doorway, it was instantly sliced into two. She let out a cry of distress and tried to retrieve the severed ribbon, but the moment her fingers reached forward, they were sliced clean through as well. Fortunately, her quick reflexes allowed her to retreat in time, keeping her distance from the gate and saving her life.
The terrifying scene stunned everyone.
...
Fear hung thick in the air. The cultivators who had been surging forward in a frenzy froze as if awakened from a nightmare, hastily halting their steps as they slowly snapped back to reality.
By now, the gate had shut completely.
After a prolonged silence, a Foundation Establishment Realm Master frowned and said, “It seems we must wait until the gate opens fully before we can enter.”
At those words, the snapped-out cultivators sighed one after another and nodded in agreement. “That seems to be the case.”
Another person added, “This gate is drawn open by the power of moonlight. As the moon grows fuller over these few days, the gate opens a bit wider each day. Most likely, on the night of the full moon, the gate to the secret treasure will open completely.”
Everyone chimed in with their own speculations, though no definitive conclusion was reached.
Seeing this, Shi Yu noticed that the nearby empty spirits were still being continuously drawn into the gate, turning this spot into a rare haven of safety in the ancient desert. She decided to resume her cultivation and convert her dual Yin-Yang Qi.
The four exchanged glances and quietly retreated to their previous cultivation spot.
Once away from the crowd, Mo Tong scanned their surroundings and spoke up. “Regardless of what secrets lie behind that gate, we have no way to investigate right now. It's better for Ah Yu to focus on her cultivation for now.”
Ji Yu muttered from the side, “What's behind that door is really... whew... breathtakingly tempting.”
Shi Yu gave a slight smile and sat cross-legged. Nodding gently toward Qingzhou, she said, “Whether it's a breathtaking treasure trove or a place riddled with hidden dangers, we'll find out on the night of the full moon.”
As usual, Qingzhou cast Water Curtain Celestial Canopy, carving out a small sanctuary with a barrier while holding the clay Buddha statue as he guarded her side. Although the moonlight activated the secret treasure gate and sucked up empty spirits as soon as they appeared, there was no guarantee a few wouldn't slip through the cracks.
Ji Yu babbled at Mo Tong for a while before quiet fell, and the two took up positions on her left and right to join the guard.
With her companions standing guard, Shi Yu didn't need to waste focus on hidden threats from all sides. She gradually immersed herself deep into her cultivation.
Empowered by the moonlight at night, the Yin energy was even denser and purer. Feeling the flow of dual Yin-Yang Qi inside her, her internal spiritual Qi surged like waves, channeling powerful currents through her body that poured into her dantian and flowed over the shimmering spirit lake. Under the washing of these two air currents, her Yellow Sprout Dao Foundation grew ever more translucent and tender green.
Time slipped by quietly. Enveloped by such pure and heavy Yin energy, 《Fate-Tapping Record》 ran without pause. The conversion speed of Yin Qi was even faster than expected. After four days and nights of uninterrupted cultivation, her Yin Qi was gradually catching up to the Yang Qi within her body.
...
That night, as the sun dipped below the horizon, a silver curve gradually emerged in the sky.
The incomplete moon finally filled its last sliver, becoming a perfect, radiant disc that shone far brighter than on previous nights.
As moonlight streamed down, the ancient, intricate source runes on the gate flickered back to life. At the same time, the scattered beams were drawn together, gradually condensing into a solid, brilliantly shining silver beam. It tenderly connected to the gate like a bridge through the sky, leading straight to a celestial palace above.
In stark contrast, everywhere outside this single beam of moonlight was stripped of all illumination, plunged into an unprecedented, suffocating darkness.
The tightly closed gap of the gate began to loosen, slowly pulling open.
“The gate to the secret treasure is opening!!”
“Tonight is the full moon! The gate will definitely open completely!”
With burning gazes, the crowd watched the slowly opening gate in wild excitement, noticing nothing else around them.
Black energy billowed from the sand dunes in thick clouds, condensing into ghostly empty spirits.
However, tonight these empty spirits were not sucked into the gate and turned to nothingness as before. In the deep darkness, they roared and bellowed with a ferocity far surpassing normal empty spirits in the ancient desert. Sniffing the aura of living humans with ravenous greed, the ethereal phantoms charged forward in a frenzy.
“Ah!”
As the first bloodcurdling scream rang out, it was as if a switch had been flipped; shrieks of terror and agony erupted from all directions.
“Help! Urgh—help—”
Only then did the cultivators, whose attention had been entirely consumed by the slowly opening gate, notice the horror unfolding around them.
“What's going on?! Why are these empty spirits...”
In a panic, the cultivators scrambled to cast spells, desperately trying to survive against the surging tide of empty spirits.
Yet even now, few were willing to flee. Instead, they gritted their teeth and endured, staring fixedly at the slowly opening gate to the secret treasure behind them.
“Hold on a little longer... Once the gate opens and we get inside, we'll be safe!”
“I've waited so many days for this! How could I possibly back down now?!”
Determined to hold out until the gate opened, no one fled. In an instant, the area surrounding the Cave of Ten Thousand Ghosts turned into a living hell. Endless empty spirits spawned and converged, overflowing with Yin energy. The sickening crunch of tearing flesh and gnawing bone echoed endlessly, making one's hair stand on end. In mere moments, hundreds of cultivators collapsed under the onslaught, devoured down to the bone until not a speck of flesh remained.
Rate on N.U.
