The moment Ye Wuji stepped through the gates, a wave of thick, metallic scent hit his nose.
It was the scent of blood—heavy, clotted, and soaked into the very stones beneath his feet.
Even after who knew how long, the aura of blood cultivation still lingered here like a curse that refused to fade.
Just standing inside, Ye Wuji could feel it… countless mortals and cultivators had met their end within these walls.
The inner hall was vast. Cracked stone pillars lined the sides, and tattered banners hung from the high ceiling like flayed skins swaying in the stale air. At the far end stood a grand altar made of obsidian, and in front of it lay a skeleton—its bones still radiating a faint oppressive force. It looked like, in its final moments, it had either been placing something on the altar… or trying to take it away.
Ye Wuji narrowed his eyes.
"A Foundation Establishment corpse," he muttered. "Shame it's been dead for so long. If I got to it earlier, I might've been able to refine it into a Rank 2 corpse soldier."
He sighed, then slowly approached, his two corpse soldiers flanking him from two sides, guarding him.
He glanced at the altar, but it was completely empty. So, he instead turned his attention back to the corpse, crouched without any remorse and began searching the robes and bone body with precision.
After a careful inspection, he managed to found two items.
First, a jade slip tucked inside the inner robes.
Second, a strange artifact in the shape of a ring on one of the skeletal fingers.
Ye Wuji held up the ring and studied it closely. His eyes lit up with interest.
"This… this is just like a storage bag, but it's in the form of a ring. Much more convenient." He turned the ring in his fingers, marveling. "Though I'm not sure how much space it holds compared to my bag… But even if it's smaller, the design alone makes it much superior for constant wearing on me."
A thoughtful smile crept onto his lips.
"From now on, I'll store my most important items in this. And if I ever get forced to surrender all of my belongings… there's a good chance I could keep this hidden. After all, no one back in my world uses storage rings or at least I don't know about it."
He paused. "Though… maybe cultivators at higher realms like Golden Core, Origin Spirit or higher might have access to stuff like this. Who knows. I'm just a Qi Refining cultivator right now."
Shrugging, he slipped the ring into his robe.
"Anyway, this storage ring still has the spiritual imprint of its previous owner. I'll leave it for later and deal with once I'll be somewhere safe." He sighed.
With that, he turned his attention to the jade slip.
"Let's see what information is recorded inside."
Without hesitation, he placed it against his forehead and a wave of information surged into his mind.
His eyes widened.
"No way…" he breathed, eyes widening. "This jade slip holds the location of the sect's treasure vault… and the method to unlock it."
A grin slowly spread across his face.
"Am I really the blessed one now? Hahaha!"
He grinned, excitement bubbling in his chest.
"Looks like this trip around the city and this sect's grounds is about to pay off way more than I expected."
According to the jade slip, the treasure vault was hidden right beneath the obsidian altar he was standing before. And this jade slip was one of the few existing keys that unlocks the path beneath the altar.
"That explains the corpse's position… He probably tried to access it before he died. Maybe he wanted to hide inside." A shiver ran down Ye Wuji's spine as he imagined what kind of horror had killed someone at the Foundation Establishment level.
He stepped over the bones and inserted the jade slip into the shallow gap on the altar.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then, with a low rumble, the obsidian altar slowly began to slide aside, revealing a staircase spiraling downward into darkness.
Once the passage was fully revealed, Ye Wuji retrieved the jade slip and began his descent.
Behind him, the altar slid back into place, sealing the entrance once again. And he continued forward, surrounded by pitch-black silence.
But darkness wasn't a problem.
"Good thing I always had a torch prepared for such situations in my storage bag," he muttered, relieved.
He rummaged through his storage bag, pulled out the torch, lit it, and handed it to one of the corpse soldiers.
"When I'll reach the Foundation Establishment, I'll get a crude form of spiritual perception. And when that happens, I will not need any torches anymore. But for now… I have to endure this."
The soldier held the torch high, casting flickering light over the rough stone walls as they moved deeper underground.
Eventually, the stairs ended and right before him appeared a spacious underground chamber.
Long stone tables filled the space, covered in blood essence crystals, spirit crystals, and even a few scattered artifacts. But what truly caught Ye Wuji's eye was a single, ornate table at the center of the room—larger, sturdier, and far more extravagant than the rest.
Though on that table lay only three items in total.
Ye Wuji's heart pounded with anticipation as he slowly started approaching, eager to see what treasures had been placed there.
But then—he froze.
From behind the ornate table, a figure suddenly started emerging.
It was another zombie cultivator, but this one was clearly different compared to the others he had seen until now the fortress.
He wore robes far more refined than the others, with gold-embroidered shoulders and a pitch-black fabric patterned with red spots like droplets of blood.
He wasn't just any zombie cultivator.
He was likely an elder of this Heaven Blood Sect… maybe even the sect master himself.
And most importantly… Ye Wuji could feel it clearly.
This one was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, not the Qi Refining one like him and other zombie cultivators he had seen until now.