'All Spirits Hall is said to be the place where all Ancestral Spirits originated from …' Su Ming's gaze landed on the skeleton, and he frowned. There was an ancient air to it, a telling sign that it had been there for an unknown number of years.
All Spirits Hall was completely separated from the world outside. If it were not for the Sun Sinking Talisman, it would have been impossible for Su Ming to step into this place and be trapped there for four years. He stared at the skeleton, and the empty eyes on its head seemed to be staring back at him. There was a faint hint of mockery in those eyes. They were mocking Su Ming's futile attempt to leave this place, mocking Su Ming's future. Perhaps he would end up like him in this cave abode, waiting for his flesh and blood to disappear and turn into bones.
The black bones might have been caused by the time it died, but there was also a possibility … that it had devoured even more ferocious beast blood, just like Su Ming. Because of that, not only had its blood turned black, even its bones had turned black.
'Offering … Offering …' Su Ming sighed softly. He still remembered the buzzing sound that echoed in the air when the Sun Sinking Talisman had been activated for some unknown reason four years ago and sent him to this place.
'There was no offering, so the Offering Master offered himself … The Offering Master here should be me. Based on the situation at that time, I had unintentionally done something that fulfilled a certain requirement to activate the Sun Sinking Talisman over the course of countless years.
'However, my actions after that caused me to be unable to complete the activation of the Sun Sinking Talisman, which was why I was punished and sent here as an offering.' In truth, Su Ming had already figured out this problem a few years ago. There was only one possibility for the so-called offering — the soul of the clone that practiced the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole.
Only a will that had been independent from the Heavenly Incense Rune might have vaguely fulfilled the requirements for an offering and vaguely fit the description of the spirit in the All Spirits Hall.
However, the clone's soul had been taken away by Su Ming, which meant that once the Sun Sinking Talisman was activated, the offering was taken away and no longer offered, which was why everything that had happened after that had happened.
"Since these skeletons can appear here and I can be teleported here, then even if this place hasn't been opened for a very, very long time, there must still be many skeletons like this here. It's even highly possible that there are still living people here." A glint appeared in Su Ming's eyes. This was the answer he had been searching nonstop for four years. If he wanted to leave this place, he would have to search for the living. Even if he did not obtain the answer, he would be able to gain a better understanding of this so-called All Spirits Hall.
After a moment of silence, Su Ming looked at the white sky outside the cave abode. He knew that the white fog outside would last for seven days. After seven days, the color of the fog would change, and as it changed, different dangers would appear, until the red color would descend on the ground once again. This was like a cycle.
He turned his head around once again and cast a glance at the cave abode. A determined look appeared on Su Ming's face. He had already stayed in the cave abode for several years, and he had only been circling the area, rushing back to avoid the strange existences in the red fog before the red fog descended.
However, this was not a long-term plan. If he wanted to leave this place, he had to gain a better understanding of the world outside. At the very least, he had to know the origins of the figures in the red fog. At the very least … he had to step into the huge palace that had once appeared in the sky. Only then would he be able to find a way to leave this place.
Su Ming sucked in a deep breath. A glint appeared in his eyes, and immediately, his skin started aging rapidly. His body slowly became ancient, and his hair turned white. An aura of death gradually filled his body. This was a method he had come up with over the past four years to minimize the loss of his cultivation base. He wanted to preserve his precious cultivation base so that it would not be wasted.
Once he turned into an ancient old man, Su Ming got up and walked out of the cave abode. At the instant he did so, he cast his gaze across the area. White fog tumbled about on the ground, and the sky was enveloped by fog. It was a vast expanse of white that seemed to have no end.
Not a single sound could be heard. This place was as quiet as a gigantic tomb. Su Ming quietly descended the mountain and ignored the white fog. He walked swiftly towards the east. He did not use his cultivation base and only used his feet to walk forward. His speed might not be able to compare to when he used his cultivation base to charge forward, but he was still much faster than a mortal.
This was something that Su Ming had found incredibly difficult to adapt to when he had just entered the world of fog. His speed had also become much slower, and the feeling of weakness when he did not use his cultivation base was something that his body could not accept. However, as he devoured the blood of the ferocious beasts and his blood changed, his constitution also slowly changed.
Su Ming did not know whether this change was good or bad, but there was no doubt that he needed this sort of change in this place.
Su Ming was already incredibly familiar with his surroundings. He did not stop for even a single moment, and when the fourth day arrived, he stood at the top of a tall mountain in the east. When he turned his head around to look, even though his vision was covered by a vast amount of fog, he could still find the cave abode he had stayed in for several years.
Because at that moment, he was located at the furthest place he had ever been to in the east during his search of the area.
As he stared at the covered cave abode in the white fog, determination appeared on Su Ming's face. It was indeed much safer to hide there, but at the same time, it meant that he would be trapped there until he died. In the end, he would end up like the skeleton, and he would also end up as a skeleton.
If he wanted to leave this accursed All Spirits Hall, then he had to leave the safe cave abode. The world outside might be filled with danger, but at the same time, there was also a chance for him to leave this place.
This kind of decision was not easy to make. After all, if any living being found a safe place in a dangerous environment, if they were to leave, they would be placed in danger again. This was a kind of human nature, a kind of instinctive rejection as a living being.
Most of the lives would choose to stay in a safe place. Even if they knew that there would be no results and that they would still die in the end, it was still better to die later than to die earlier.
Su Ming had only become certain of this belief after remaining silent for several years. At that moment, he cast a deep glance at the place, then turned his head around and charged towards the fog beneath the mountain he had been to the furthest mountain. He stepped into a place he had never gone to during the four years he had been in this place.
The fog obscured his vision, and he could not see even a few inches in front of him. Every single time he spread out his divine sense, it meant that he would have to use up his cultivation base, which was why Su Ming rarely used his divine sense to cover the area. Besides using up his cultivation base, he would also bring unnecessary trouble to himself.
This was a lesson Su Ming had learned over the past four years. The main reason he had been chased by the living beings in the red fog in the past was because his divine sense had attracted the first figure in the red fog.
All the lives in this place seemed to be incredibly sensitive to divine senses. If he used even the slightest bit of divine sense, they would instantly notice it.
That was why unless it was absolutely necessary, Su Ming would not use the power of his divine sense. However, in the white fog, in the white light, which was the safest of all fog, Su Ming still tried to sweep his divine sense through the area.
His divine sense would be weakened and limited in the fog, which was why even if he used his full strength, he would not be able to travel too far. He only needed to Brand the terrain around him in his mind so that even if he could not see his surroundings, he would not get lost.
Days passed by. Su Ming continued moving forward. He did not have time to rest, and after seven days, when the fog around him gradually turned from white to blue, he had already traveled far into the distance. When he saw blue in the white fog, Su Ming clearly relaxed a little. His constantly vigilant heart also relaxed, and he sat down cross-legged to rest for a while.
Su Ming had been in this place for four years, but he still could not find the pattern of the fog. He only knew that white would definitely come after red, but he could not tell what would come after white. It might be blue, or it might be green, or it might even be purple. In fact, there was even a possibility that it would still be red.
That was why seven days was his limit. It was also a gamble. That was why the furthest Su Ming had traveled in the past was definitely not more than four days. He would leave enough time for himself to return to his cave abode.
Unless … he went out to hunt.
Caution and caution. This was the constant vigilance in Su Ming's heart after living in this place for four years. Even if the white fog had turned blue, Su Ming only relaxed for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before he immediately became alert again. He looked around warily and slowly walked forward.
Because besides the white and red fog, which would definitely last for seven days, the other colors of fog would only last for an indeterminate amount of time. It might last for one day, or it might last for seven days. In fact, it might even last for half a day or two hours. Su Ming had seen all of them before.
In the midst of his wariness, Su Ming continued running forward without any hesitation. With the full speed he could muster, he left into the distance …
'It's a pity that I can't take away the clone that practices the Art of Swallowing Hollow Shadows Whole, or else I would be much faster.' Su Ming sighed in his heart. During the four years, he had tried multiple times to bring out the clone and the clone's soul from his storage bag in an attempt to Possess and fuse with them, but every single time he opened his storage bag and the clone appeared, even the relatively safe white fog in the world outside would instantly turn red, and a large number of figures would appear in an instant.
There was simply no time for Su Ming to Possess the clone. If he persisted, then his body would be submerged in the red fog.
The blue fog lasted for three days before it turned orange, but when it lasted for five days, when Su Ming had already traveled for half a month, the orange fog turned purple.
The instant the purple fog appeared, an even greater wariness appeared on Su Ming's face. That purple fog was the fog he used to hunt during the past four years.
The ferocious beasts that could recover their cultivation bases after devouring others would only appear when the purple fog appeared. What made Su Ming wary was not just these ferocious beasts, but also a certain pattern he had concluded after observing them countless times over the past four years.
After purple, there would definitely be red!
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