"Is it? How could it be here?" Yuan Ming looked at the silver cat's agile and delicate figure, his mind a tangled mess.

In a daze, Yuan Ming saw the silver cat not far in front of him stop and look back at him.

Despite the bewildering scene, Yuan Ming clearly saw the silver cat's eyes with their differently colored pupils. His confused mind seemed to suddenly jolt, gaining a bit of clarity.

For some reason, he felt that the silver cat seemed to be waiting for him?

Yuan Ming instinctively took a step toward the direction where the silver cat had been, although his steps were still unsteady.

But as he approached, the silver cat ran off into the distance, skirting a protruding black stone and then vanishing from sight.

In a staggered pursuit, Yuan Ming reached the back of the black stone, only to find a pitch-black hole about the size of a bucket in the wall but no sign of the silver cat.

He looked around, but he couldn't find a single trace of the silver cat.

At that moment, there was a commotion behind him as if someone was approaching amidst a struggle.

Yuan Ming swayed and dived headfirst into the black hole; after his upper body entered, he toppled downward, and his entire being plummeted down.

As soon as his figure fell into it, a layer of murky yellow light suddenly appeared over the black hole, concealing its mouth.

When the light dispersed, the hole had disappeared as well.

...

Having lost track of time, Yuan Ming gradually came to, but still felt a throbbing headache.

The searing pain on his shoulder made him half-open his mouth, unable to hold back a few hissing noises from his throat.

Yuan Ming instinctively reached out to touch the ground beneath him, and immediately felt a sticky sensation in his palm.

At the same time, a mix of blood and rancid stench flooded his nostrils, provoking a bout of retching.

He desperately tried to open his eyes to see his surroundings, but the darkness was as thick as ink, no matter how hard he tried, he could see nothing.

As time passed, the sensation of dizziness in his head somewhat subsided, and he groped around, trying to stand up. The uneven terrain made any movement with his hands and knees awkward and collision-prone.

Yuan Ming stopped fumbling around and instead explored his vicinity, only to horrifically find that he was surrounded by severed limbs and broken bodies, indiscernible whether they were human or animal.

Some were decayed to chilling white bones, others had rotted away to mush, and there were those that seemed freshly dead, their blood not yet dry.

On some of the corpses, Yuan Ming felt the beast skin draped over their flesh and the silken texture of clothes, leading him to guess that these were the remains of Fur Beast Slaves and Biluo Cave Disciples. Part of a series hosted by My Virtual Library Empire (MV&LEMP&YR).

"This seems like a corpse pit?" Yuan Ming speculated, shivering involuntarily.

It was not fear that made him shiver but rather the genuinely low temperature around him. The heavy yin energy, combined with the complex and foul smell, made breathing difficult.

Yuan Ming gently caressed his shoulder, discovering the swelling had not subsided but the pain had lessened significantly, and his mind was not as muddled as before, which brought him some relief.

Knowing this was not a place of safety, he was about to get up when he suddenly heard a voice that seemed to emanate from within his mind:

"I..."

The moment he heard the voice, Yuan Ming tensed up, holding his breath and listening intently.

"I... am you, do... not move."

"I am you, do not move, what does that mean?" The intermittent voice came, leaving Yuan Ming utterly confused.

Just as he instinctively wanted to question "Who is speaking?" the voice echoed once more in his consciousness, this time a bit more coherent.

"I... am you... If that's the case, then... do not move, you will die."

Hearing this, Yuan Ming was filled with even greater suspicion and alarm.

Reason restrained him from speaking out and also made him halt his immediate movement to rise.

Yuan Ming slightly raised his head, his gaze raised just above the decayed remains beside him, and stealthily surveyed the area further away, but it remained pitch black, impossible to see anything clearly.

However, at that moment, a dim red light suddenly lit up, casting a bloody and gloomy glow within a radius of several meters, making it seem like a haunted cavern.

Yuan Ming took advantage of the faint light to carefully look around, searching for the source of the reminder, but found nothing.

But when his gaze settled on the source of the blood light, his heart couldn't help but tremble.

"Human Demon King..."

He saw that near the bottom of the uneven stone wall there was a six-foot-around Blood Pool, the churning blood within emitting a red glow that bathed the wall behind it in a bloody hue.

Inside the Blood Pool, the horned Human Demon King was sitting with his eyes closed, his head slightly tilted back and his mouth wide open.

Above his mouth, three inches into the void, hovered a pitch-black round orb the size of a lychee, shrouded with strands of dark red vapor, slowly swirling like early morning mist.

At this moment, from within the Blood Pool, one after another vague humanoid shadow began to drift out. They were being pulled by an invisible force and absorbed into that black Round Orb.

Yuan Ming stiffened his neck, not daring to let out a breath, his gaze fixed on the Human Demon King, his heart pounding frantically.

After a long while, just as his neck was starting to ache, the Human Demon King's eyes suddenly opened. His eyes were congealed with blood, devoid of any pupils to be seen.

With a single inhale, the black Round Orb sank down and entered his mouth.

Yuan Ming watched intently and discovered that the Round Orb had not sunk into the Human Demon King's stomach but was suspended between his throat, neither rising nor falling. It looked just like an Adam's apple.

As the black Round Orb was swallowed into the throat, a layer of black mist promptly condensed on his face, which then flowed into his eyes and was absorbed completely.

The blood color in the Human Demon King's eyes slightly receded, his pupils gleaming with a dark light. His aura surged violently as if he transformed from a living corpse into an Evil being.

He reached out with one hand, fingers bent into a claw, and grabbed at the empty space above the Blood Pool.

Bubbles suddenly burst forth from the churning Blood Pool as the blood seemed to boil, surging upward. A rough-hewn long knife, which looked as though it had been chiseled from stone slabs, was raised up by the blood and delivered into the hand of the Human Demon King.

The Human Demon King grasped the long knife and swept out of the Blood Pool, charging directly into a cave passageway nearby and disappeared in an instant.

As he left, the surface of the Blood Pool gradually calmed, but then about a dozen vague shadows began to emerge and gathered towards the Corpse Pit where Yuan Ming was located.

Before he could get a clear look, the light within the Blood Pool extinguished, and darkness enveloped the area once again.

Yuan Ming, who had just slightly relaxed, suddenly tensed up again, breathing rapidly, struggling to rise.

However, when he tried to push himself up, he realized that his arms had become stiff and numb without him noticing, and he couldn't even feel their presence.

Upon closer examination, he was horrified to find that not only his arms but also his legs had completely lost sensation. And although his upper body still had feeling, he couldn't move it at all.

"Damn it, the poison is acting up," Yuan Ming's heart sank.

He had been accidentally poisoned during his previous encounter with Kun Tu and the others, and now it seemed that the poison was taking full effect.

Yuan Ming was extremely anxious in his heart, but with struggle to even move, he couldn't self-administer any aid.

Although he couldn't see those ghostly shadows, he could feel the air temperature around him drop once again. His hairs stood on end—the thing was coming...

Before Yuan Ming could react, he suddenly felt a chill at the back of his neck, as if something had clung on to him.

Immediately after, the chill spread throughout his body, causing him to stiffen involuntarily.

"Is it a yin spirit or a ghost?" Yuan Ming wondered in alarm.

At that moment, the chill at his neck intensified, and it seemed as though those ghosts were burrowing into his body.

Just as Yuan Ming felt as though he was sinking into an ice cellar, getting colder and colder, a warm sensation suddenly blossomed on his right arm, instantly spreading to his back.

This warmth, flowing past for just a moment, dispelled the chilling sensation akin to ghostly possession.

Yuan Ming couldn't see, but could sense that the temperature around him had risen slightly, returning to its original state—yet, he still couldn't move.

Even though the ghosts no longer harassed him, being trapped like this wasn't a solution. Even if he didn't succumb to the poison, once the Human Demon King returned, he would most likely die.

Yuan Ming carefully considered his options in his mind but promptly realized he had none.

The Fur Cloak Technique was useless in this situation, and forcefully cultivating the Nine Elements Technique not only wouldn't resist the poison but might also hasten the poison's rush to his brain due to cultivation, leading to a swifter death.

As for the Incense Burner Mark on his arm, it had previously shielded him from Divine Soul harm but had never shown any detoxifying ability. Would it be of any use?

But since there were no other options, Yuan Ming could only try to communicate with the incense burner, hoping against hope.

As he directed a trickle of Mana toward the location of the incense burner on his arm, a faint glimmer of light emerged, and an Incense Burner Mark surfaced, gradually solidifying from ethereal to real, with one leg of the burner already materializing.

However, a surging sense of numbness suddenly overwhelmed him. The Mana he was channeling was forcibly interrupted, and the incense burner on his arm faded away, disappearing from sight.

The last hope was gone.

Yuan Ming cursed inwardly, yet suddenly, a spark of spirit light flashed in his mind.

"Earlier, your guidance was most kind. I am truly grateful. Can you lend me further assistance?" Yuan Ming was not sure if anyone would hear him but still pleaded aloud.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than silence reigned, with no response from any quarter.

"Since you spoke up, you surely don't wish for me to die like this," Yuan Ming continued to call out.

Still, the silence persisted, with not even a whisper of a reply.

"What am I supposed to do now if you don't speak up again? What should I do?" The poison spread further, numbing Yuan Ming's throat, warping his speech, and making his words slurred and unclear.

Just as Yuan Ming was on the verge of despair, that voice finally came again, sounding directly in his mind:

"Foolish... creature."