“Let’s go,” Lou Mingyue said.
Someone helped up the man still dazed from Lou Mingyue’s spiritual attack. “My brother is just a bit glib, he meant no harm. I’ll have him apologize. Please forgive us.”
Lou Mingyue nodded slightly, waiting for them to go first.
Understanding her intention, the group gradually turned and moved on. At their age, reaching the eighth level was rare. Lou Mingyue’s strength was probably the highest among those in this trial. Respect for the strong was an unwritten rule among their kind.
After turning several corners in the narrow corridor, they found corresponding holes in each wall, growing larger towards the interior. By the eleventh wall, the collapse was three feet wide, allowing people to pass through directly.
Reaching the center, where the light was brightest, everyone finally saw how brutal the battle had been—
The people seemed to have exploded. The walls were so splattered with blood that their original color was barely visible. Fragments of flesh and entrails hung everywhere, and dismembered limbs littered the ground, making it impossible to discern how many people there had been.
The scene before them left everyone momentarily stunned.
Silence reigned, broken only by the slow gathering and sliding of blood from the stone walls, dyeing the light a crimson hue.
An Jiu bent down to pick up a piece of torn cloth near her foot. Holding it up to the light, she saw half of the character “Cui,” blackened with blood.
“The Cui family…” Even Lou Mingyue’s voice trembled slightly.
An Jiu dropped the cloth and looked around.
It was an oval-shaped room, about seventy feet at its longest diameter. Over a hundred candlesticks surrounded a stone-built Buddhist shrine in the center. On the central stone platform sat a transparent box, stained with blood, emitting an eerie glow in the warm light.
The Celestial Book remnant had vanished, yet the box remained.
According to the Crane-Controlling Army leader, the Celestial Book remnant could enhance inner force, while the box could refine spiritual power. It made no sense to take the remnant but leave the box.
“What exactly is this Celestial Book remnant?” An Jiu asked Lou Mingyue.
Lou Mingyue steadied herself and exhaled. “It’s said to be a sutra enlightened by a Buddhist master who meditated in a cave for forty years. Regular reading and contemplation benefit the spiritual apertures and meridians, helping martial artists easily overcome bottlenecks. Forty-nine remnants exist in the world. The Crane-Controlling Army has collected over thirty in recent years, so it’s not surprising they’d use twelve as bait.”
“What about this box? Why didn’t others take interest in it?” An Jiu pondered, wondering if spiritual power wasn’t important.
Lou Mingyue gave her an odd look.
Mei Tingzhu continued, “This item is even rarer than the remnant! There are plenty of people whose martial arts reach the ninth level while their spiritual power remains at the third or fourth level. This shows how difficult it is to cultivate spiritual power. If spiritual power can’t keep up, one can only reach the ninth level at best, destined to be a mere warrior for life, with no possibility of entering the transcendent realm!”
Martial arts could be improved through diligent practice, but spiritual power was a mysterious thing. The effort didn’t necessarily yield results.
“It’s strange,” Mei Tingzhu frowned.
If the Emperor was targeting the descendants of the four great families, why bother taking the Celestial Book remnant?
Lou Xiaowu suddenly choked up, “Second Sister, is Cui Yichen dead too?”
Lou Mingyue was silent for a moment. Just as she was about to raise her hand to pat Lou Xiaowu’s head, the room suddenly lit up as bright as day.
Qiu Yunran cried out, “Run!”