Chapter 1794: A Great Surprise

Ming Yu and Ming Qi stood up simultaneously. The light ahead reflected off their faces, giving their skin a textured, ethereal glow. Throughout the process, Ming Qi had not acted; she was the backup, which was exactly why the Underworld Phoenix clan had sent the two of them together.

“Senior, please follow us inside!” Ming Qi turned back. Li Yan’s Divine Sense detected no danger, and he didn’t hesitate. With a shift of his body, he was right behind her.

Seeing his arrival, the two women walked toward the light gate, their expressions a mix of tension and excitement. Li Yan stepped through the gate. An eerie blue light instantly filled his vision. He immediately summoned a defensive treasure and several protective talismans.

However, nothing happened. Li Yan felt his body lighten and then firm up as his feet landed on solid ground. Though his eyes hadn’t yet adjusted to the light, his Divine Sense scanned the area instantly.

It was a cavern about fifty fathoms wide. Soft white light drifted down from the ceiling. The cavern was empty, but it was incredibly cold. Even with his protective barrier, Li Yan felt the biting chill seeping into his body. It even spread along his Divine Sense. However, he managed to resist it.

The interior was simple. Opposite the light gate stood a high platform made of massive stones. The cavern was filled with thick mist and bone-chilling cold, but it didn’t hinder his Divine Sense. Li Yan quickly determined that the platform was the source of the cold.

The cavern was filled with soft white light, but the platform emitted an even stronger silver radiance. Aside from that, a jade slip lay at the edge of the platform. The rest of the cavern was empty.

Li Yan’s gaze pierced through the mist and fixed on the platform. Suddenly, his body shuddered. He finally realized where his earlier, vague sensing had come from. It originated from the platform.

On the platform lay a small patch of silver sand. It wasn’t much, spread thinly over a small area. When his Divine Sense swept over it, he felt a sense of familiarity. This was the silver sand he had exchanged for with Donglin Tingyue years ago! He had later refined it into his Fuxi Disk. The amount of sand here was significantly more than the small bottle he had previously obtained.

‘This silver sand is here too… it is…’

“Don’t… don’t use your Divine Sense to scan the silver sand!”

As his thoughts raced, two muffled groans came from the mist ahead. Ming Qi’s voice, filled with pain, drifted through the cave. Actually, she didn’t need to warn him; Ming Yu was also letting out a pained sound.

Li Yan’s expression remained unchanged. He felt the needle-like, icy pain in his Divine Sense as it swept over the sand. It reminded him of the time he first probed the sand as a Nascent Soul cultivator and was attacked by that sudden, extreme chill. But now, he could withstand it. Back then, he was only at the Nascent Soul realm; now, he was at the late-stage Spirit Transformation, with Divine Sense reaching the Void Refining level. He felt some pain, so it was understandable that the Ming sisters couldn’t handle it.

But for now, that wasn’t important. Why was there so much of this sand here? That was his primary concern. His Divine Sense scanned the area again, finding nothing else.

‘Is this the inheritance ground? Why are there no drops of essence blood or cultivation manuals?’ Li Yan calculated rapidly.

“Senior, may we look at that jade slip first?” Ming Qi’s face had just begun to recover. Her gaze toward the silver sand was incredibly fervent. She used her eyes to stop Ming Yu from stepping forward, suppressing her own excitement. She bowed to Li Yan.

Li Yan could see that they knew what the sand was, but they didn’t dare collect it while he was there. Aside from the slip and the sand, there was nothing else. Not a single storage artifact was in sight. Everything felt incredibly strange—it didn’t look like a place where a cultivator had lived. Even a Qi Condensation cultivator in the Immortal Spirit Realm would have at least a storage pouch, let alone a Body Integration expert.

“Of course,” Li Yan said, standing by the light gate without moving. Hearing this, Ming Qi bowed again through the mist. She didn’t approach the platform but reached out and summoned the jade slip into her hand.

She didn’t read it immediately. Instead, she and Ming Yu meticulously inspected it for traps. Li Yan remained at the entrance, seemingly lost in thought. After dozens of breaths, Ming Qi finally sank her Divine Sense into the slip. Three breaths later, Li Yan did the same. Since she was fine, he wouldn’t be polite.

Had he been alone, he would have checked the surroundings and the slip repeatedly before probing. But since someone else was willing to go first, he just had to time it right. He wouldn’t wait for her to tell him what was inside; she might omit or erase content. Ming Yu remained on guard, a wise move to ensure one of them could fight if the slip was a trap.

The moment Li Yan’s Divine Sense entered, a clear and elegant voice appeared in his mind.

“Since you have entered here and the jade slip is intact, it means you are a member of my Immortal Underworld Phoenix lineage. It is truly good to meet a kinsman across space…”

It was a woman’s voice, pleasant and melodious. Li Yan soon realized that this was a recording left by an expert before her death. The woman was named “Erya,” an Underworld Phoenix who had reached the late-stage Body Integration realm. This matched the sisters’ deductions, which put Li Yan at ease.

Erya’s bloodline was exceptionally pure, dating back to ancient times. She was the Fourth Elder of a certain branch of the Underworld Phoenixes. Her clan had only about thirty members, but each was incredibly powerful, making them a top-tier existence of that era.

However, many powerful races and sects existed in that era. A Daoist sect named the “Chaos Sect” had long coveted their lineage. That sect excelled in the Path of Yin and Yang and was highly proficient in alchemy—a typical Daoist tradition. The Phoenix races were representatives of the ultimate Yang in the world, usually ruling with fire. But the Immortal Underworld Phoenix was the most powerful branch, where the physical body could manifest “Yin from extreme Yang.” This wasn’t a result of cultivation but a natural law.

The “Chaos Sect” wanted to obtain the Underworld Phoenix’s natural law to reach the ultimate Yin-Yang balance. They would even capture phoenixes to study them or refine their essence blood and bodies into pills, seeking a breakthrough in alchemy.

Erya’s branch was targeted, and a war of attrition began. The “Chaos Sect” was powerful and had many disciples. Even though the phoenixes were formidable, they couldn’t withstand the constant losses. Eventually, the race that struggled to reproduce was down to only seven members.

Driven to fury, the Great Elder performed a “Spatial Overlap Technique,” vowing to perish together with the Chaos Sect. One night, he overlapped the Underworld Phoenix’s secret realm with the Chaos Sect’s main headquarters. The technique left the Great Elder heavily wounded, but the spatial repulsion cast both the realm and the sect into the Endless Void.

The terrifying spatial damage of the void killed over half of the Chaos Sect’s disciples instantly, leaving only the strongest. A final battle ensued. In the end, only three phoenixes remained: the protected Great Elder, the brave Fourth Elder Erya, and a disciple at the Void Refining realm. On the Chaos Sect’s side, there was still a mid-stage Tribulation expert, two Body Integration experts, and over a hundred disciples…