Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“Am I dead? Is this the netherworld? Why is the netherworld so bright?”

Jiang Yi gradually woke up and couldn’t open his eyes due to the glaring light. He shook his head in a daze and felt his abnormally parched mouth. He swallowed his saliva and licked his lips; he was only able to open his eyes after a short moment of rest.

“Eh?”

The scene before his eyes made him perplexed. He was lying within a grand hall, and he was surrounded by totems that had mysterious carvings on it. The ceiling was at least a hundred feet high and had similar carvings of complex diagrams. It was even embedded with precious stones that glittered with white lights, giving out a dignified, simple, and unadorned feeling.

He stared for a moment before he struggled to twist his neck and look around. He realized that this grand hall was confined by green-colored walls. There wasn’t even a single window—not to mention doors, and yet he didn’t feel stuffy. He felt mystical instead.

Finally, his eyes landed on the stone wall straight ahead. On it was a giant floating sculpture that looked like a man: an elderly clothed in black robes.

“This black-robed elderly is truly formidable. It is just a sculpture, but it is making me feel suffocated. Could it be a master of the Heaven Monarch class?”

Jiang Yi looked into the eyes of the sculpture, and his body suddenly shivered like he was struck by lightning. He promptly closed his eyes and didn’t dare to look any longer. He recalled the sculpture of the Heaven Monarch of Massacre that was within the Hall of Divine Monuments. It had the similar kind of terror that intrigued one’s curiosity.

He remembered clearly that when he entered the Death Trap, a powerful force was about to turn him into dust. At that moment, he fainted from the imposing pressure. But why wasn’t he dead but stranded in this strange place instead?

“Black essence force!”

Jiang Yi’s eyes suddenly widened when he remembered the weird behavior from his black essence force before he fainted. The information from Qian Wanguan was extremely clear: anyone who touches the Death Trap was certainly going to die—even for experts at the peak stage of the Purple Mansion Realm. Jiang Yi, who was only at the sixth stage of the Cast Tripod Realm, was certainly supposed to die, too. The only explanation for this current situation was that his black essence force saved him!

“What exactly is this black essence force? It is not only mysterious, but it also has the ability to blend with other essence forces, reinforce the power of essence force and elixir’s effects, enhance all human senses, and even make contact with the restrictions of the Heaven Monarch of Massacre? Right now, the black essence force even saved me from the Death Trap… by turning it into a Teleportation Trap and sending me to this strange place?”

Jiang Yi muttered with a confused mind, thinking about where did this nameless art come from. Jiang Yunhai once mentioned that it probably wasn’t left by his mother. So who was the one who bestowed this nameless art to him? And who was it that sealed him?

There were too many doubts, and Jiang Yi couldn’t find any answers. He threw all those thoughts aside and struggled to sit up. He took out a recuperation elixir to begin recovery in meditation.

This was a confined space that had no ways out. He had to quickly recover his body and find a way out. If not, he would die from starvation in here.

As for… the outside matters, Jiang Yi didn’t dare to go think about it. He was afraid that once he thought about it, his heart would ache. Su Ruoxue was not in an unknown predicament. If she was to land in the hands of Jiang Yiliu… Jiang Yi didn’t want to imagine what would happen next!

“Eh?”

When Jiang Yi began his meditation, he felt something weird. He didn’t consume any Earth Essence Elixir for this meditation because he didn’t have any black essence force left in his dantian and had no way to enhance the elixir’s effect. But right now, his cultivation speed was actually five folds faster!

“What exactly is this place? Why is there such a dense amount of heaven and earth essence force?”

The cultivation room within the Mt. Spirit Beast College was already at three folds the normal speed, and that was one of the three major colleges of the continent. But the heaven and earth spirit qi within the grand hall had a higher density than at the cultivation room in the college. It was apparent that the spirit concentration array was ridiculously effective!

“It doesn’t matter. Recuperation comes first!”

Jiang Yi expelled all distractions from his mind and cultivated in peace. Once his black essence force was refilled, he channeled it to enhance the elixir’s effects and used his essence force to complement the recuperation effects.

Two hours later, Jiang Yi opened his eyes. His injuries were barely recovered, but he couldn’t sit any longer as he prepared to find a way out.

But after exploring the entire grand hall and using his black-essence-force-enhanced vision to look for mechanisms, Jiang Yi fell into despair. He searched for two hours and couldn’t find anything in the grand hall. This was a place of death—a sealed up prison!

“There is no way out…”

Jiang Yi sat on the icy ground with an expressionless face as he stared blankly at the empty grand hall. He escaped death with great difficulty and entered a natural tomb, giving him both hope and despair.

“I wonder how Su Ruoxue is doing now.”

Jiang Yi’s imagination began to run amok. He recalled the blurry scene in his mind and felt his heart being slashed by a knife when he thought how Su Ruoxue’s body curled up and spasmed while her charming face twisted in pain.

After getting along for a few months, Su Ruoxue was no longer a mentor in Jiang Yi’s heart anymore. She was more like a sister—like a friend. Jiang Yi was especially touched and didn’t know how to repay the debt: Su Ruoxue knew that she would die if she came along into the tomb, and yet she was still so stubborn. He had always suffered humiliation since a young age; except for Jiang Yunhai and Jiang Xiaonu, no one treated him so nicely before. What’s more, the person treating him with such kindness was actually from the opposite gender and a beauty who had an esteemed status and looks that could bring down kingdoms and cities.

“I cannot give up. Su Ruoxue is still waiting for me to save her. How can I admit to my fate here?”

Jiang Yi pulled himself up and began to search for a mechanism to exit. He spun around the grand hall at a high speed and used his fist to hit everything, attempting to activate the mechanism and unlocking a restriction.

However, Jiang Yi searched for another two hours. He had almost searched through every inch of the grand hall, but he couldn’t even find any peculiar object—let alone a mechanism.

Finally, he cast his sights on the floating sculpture at the stone wall straight ahead. This human sculpture was the only thing that he didn’t dare to touch. He was afraid of some formidable restriction which would kill him immediately. But he couldn’t bother anymore!

He stood several feet away from the sculpture and withstood the pressure that came from the sculpture while observing it in detail. He soon realized something bizarre about the sculpture. The eyes of the sculpture weren’t made of stone but were embedded with precious stones instead!

“I’ll just do it!”

Jiang Yi clenched his teeth and jumped, using both hands to push onto the eyes of the floating sculpture.

“Buzz!”

When Jiang Yi’s hands touched the eyes, something abnormal happened. A powerful prowess was suddenly released from the sculpture, which sent Jiang Yi several feet away and crashing into one of the totems.

“Pfff…”

Jiang Yi climbed back up and spurt a mouthful of blood. His injuries weren’t fully recovered yet, and it was now even worse. He didn’t bother about his injuries and looked straight at the sculpture with this disappointed expression.

He did actually touch the restriction of the sculpture. Apart from being blasted away by the invisible force, there were no changes within the grand hall. This place was still a prison of death.

He looked around and confirmed there was nothing that changed before sitting down with disappointment and began to recuperate. He channeled a wisp of black essence force and prepared to use it for enhancing the medicinal effects of the recuperation elixir. When he was channeling the black essence force, his eyes suddenly opened. He then exclaimed, “That’s right! Black essence force! Since the black essence force could alter the Death Trap, it might probably be able to make contact with the restriction on the eyes of the sculpture?”

“He!”

Jiang Yi didn’t bother about his injuries and acted immediately on his thoughts. His body shot forward as he circulated the black essence force onto his palm. He then fiercely slammed his hands onto the eyes of the sculpture.

“Bang!”

A powerful prowess was released from the floating sculpture once again, which sent Jiang Yi flying in response.

“Ouch!”

Jiang Yi tumbled for a few rounds before climbing back up with a coarse smirk. The first thing he did was to look towards the sculpture which brought ecstasy to his face. The eyes of the sculpture actually lit up, followed by the entire sculpture. That blinding glare was just like the sun, causing Jiang Yi to tremble.