Chapter 104: The Great Pit

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As he felt his feet firmly stepping upward, Li Mu immediately activated the Ancient Spirit Lamp. Unaware of the internal conditions, he proceeded with utmost caution. The lamp replenished spiritual energy using medium-grade spirit crystals, which were not consumed excessively, and he had quite a few stored privately.

With the lamp’s glow, a dimly lit path appeared before him. Step by step, stairs stretched downward. Li Mu glanced at them and immediately discerned the material of the steps. The material was extremely hard; even with his cultivation strength, he could barely leave a scratch, not to mention the craftsmanship of the stairs. Judging by this, the cultivators here must have been exceptionally powerful.

After about a hundred meters, a large, tightly closed gate came into view. The gate was surprisingly well-preserved—smooth and without a hint of light. In the latch, there were several holes of varying sizes, which seemed to be part of the gate’s unlocking mechanism.

Li Mu, clad in golden armor, did not bother pondering how to open it. Instead, he acted forcefully, stretching out his fingers. The Sand Dust Blade unleashed a tremendously long blade of energy that swiftly slashed at the nearby wall. The strike was swift and precise, instantly creating a hole beside the gate.

He entered the interior, looking up as his eyes brightened. Ahead lay a hall tens of meters wide, filled with numerous shelves of different sizes. On them were placed various items—jade pieces, treasures, medicinal pills...

Without hesitation, Li Mu stepped forward joyfully, picking up a jade piece.

Snap!

Before he could use his true energy, the jade piece disintegrated into powder.

“Impossible?”

He examined another jade piece; it too crumbled in his hand.

After pondering, Li Mu understood the reason and shook his head in disbelief. “Indeed, this is an ancient cultivator’s relic, but it has been here for too long.”

Jade pieces, as spiritual objects, slowly lose their stored true energy over time. If unused for centuries, their energy dissipates, reducing them to mere powder. Even lower-grade treasure artifacts, from first to third grade, suffer the same fate if left uncharged. After hundreds of years, their spiritual energy fades, rendering them useless.

Li Mu turned his gaze to the treasures, inspecting them one by one. “Useless, useless, still useless...”

Setting aside the treasures, he looked at the medicinal pills with little hope. According to his knowledge, the spiritual energy within pills dissipates even faster than in treasures. Furthermore, their containers were all decayed and colorless, implying the pills inside must be utterly ruined.

Nevertheless, he patiently tested each vial, every jade piece, and every treasure item in the hall.

All proved disappointing; there was nothing of use here.

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“How could it be like this!”

Li Mu stood dazed for a moment, his gaze shifting to a statue.

“This can’t be. It’s impossible for the inner chamber to be in such a state. Anyone capable of building a cultivation site so deep underwater must have concealed some profound secrets.”

The golden armor on his body gradually faded, his spiritual senses fully awakened, and his mind cleared.

With determined will, Li Mu released his spiritual awareness and carefully scanned everything within the hall.

After a while, he noticed something different.

Though the spiritual energy in the hall was normal, one area showed anomaly.

Li Mu looked toward the northwest corner of the hall, stepping onto his flying shuttle and slowly leaping up, raising his hand to investigate.

Sure enough, there was a hidden formation concealing an area where no walls existed.

Li Mu flickered and entered.

After passing through a dark passage less than ten meters long, he found a small chamber.

The chamber was only a few meters wide and simply decorated, with just a painting placed at the far end.

The colors of the painting were still fresh, showing no signs of age, clearly a treasured artifact.

Li Mu’s eyes fixed on the figure in the painting—a woman. Unlike any other women he had seen, she wore formal attire with elegant colors, her face refined and her posture graceful. What shocked Li Mu most were her two crystal-clear eyes, radiant and sparkling. No matter where Li Mu looked from, those eyes seemed to always focus on him; no matter how he tried to avoid them, he could not.

Yet those eyes were difficult to interpret, seeming to hold a mixture of emotions—playfulness and resentment—all concealed within the gaze. Just that glance alone left an indelible mark, stirring an unshakable intuition in his mind.

Li Mu shook his head, refusing to dwell on it. His eyes then shifted downward. The woman wore a pale yellow robe, holding a long jade-green sword, standing in a poised stance ready to strike in all directions.

This posture was very distinctive; many swordsmen practiced in similar ways.

Following the sword’s tip, Li Mu was slightly shaken to discover a skeleton in an inconspicuous corner of the chamber.

The skeleton was white and pure like jade. Only cultivators beyond the Refining Veins stage could leave such remains after their time had ended.

Li Mu bowed slightly, thinking this skeleton was likely the owner of the cave. Yet, he had no idea who the woman in the painting was—painted beautifully and elegantly, she must have been a close friend or beloved of the cave’s master.

In front of the skeleton lay a dark black ring, beside which were carved several words: “To obtain my possession is fate.”

Li Mu was puzzled upon seeing these words.

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From his perspective, most cultivators’ treasures within their domains had certain conditions for successors. Yet the figure before him seemed to seek nothing, exuding the aura of a grand immortal master.

It was somewhat strange.

Li Mu could not imagine more, but the ring was clearly a storage ring, identical to those he had seen before.

The treasure must be inside.

He waved his hand to retrieve it; the storage ring floated slowly and was caught in his hand.

Just as he attempted to channel a thread of true energy into it, an unexpected event occurred!

A faint black mist silently emerged from the ring, climbing up his hand and instantly entering Li Mu’s spiritual sea.

The ring fell to the ground, and Li Mu’s entire body stiffened, unable to move.

“Spirit snatching?”

Upon this thought, all the surroundings seemed to vanish, yet he felt nothing.

“Ah, there is actually a spirit tower here!”

A voice with a sinister laugh echoed incessantly within Li Mu’s spirit sea.

“Who are you?”

Li Mu’s thoughts remained clear. Floating above the spirit tower was a faint gray spiritual soul.

He had never anticipated that this place was a huge trap! This was not the remains of a cultivator’s relic but a carefully set snare. The ring was no ordinary fourth-grade storage ring but a peerless treasure containing the imprisoned spiritual soul of a cultivator.

By touching the ring, he had released the soul, which now entered his spiritual sea, attempting to seize his spirit. Even the Ancient Spirit Lamp’s protection was powerless at such close range.

This was the gravest danger he had ever encountered. The spirit tower within his sea also became visible.

In front of him, a pale gray soul leisurely approached.

“Who am I? Heh heh, I am you. But you? From now on, you will no longer exist in this world!”