Chapter 124: Behind the Abyss Gate

Li Xuan hadn't heard of the Killing Treasure Vault, but having stayed in the City of Slaughter for so long, Li Xuan had heard a rumor.

In the City of Slaughter, whatever a dead person carries is taken away by a mysterious force, leaving only a worthless corpse.

Combining that rumor with the Slaughter King's description of the Killing Treasure Vault, Li Xuan believes the rumor is real, and the ability to collect corpse treasures must belong to the Killing Treasure Vault.

In other words, over the years all the relics left by dead Evil Soul Masters in the City of Slaughter have been stored in the Killing Treasure Vault; as time accumulates, whatever treasures the City of Slaughter has are in the Killing Treasure Vault!

Li Xuan thinks it's an astronomical number.

The Spirit Hall's annual capture count of Evil Soul Masters determines how many treasures are inside.

Although those who come here are all Evil Soul Masters, their Soul Guide Devices are not confiscated by the Spirit Hall.

The Spirit Hall suspects that these Soul Guide Devices may contain Evil Soul Masters' inheritances, and fears that someone inside might be learning their methods, so together with the Evil Soul Masters they toss the devices into the City of Slaughter; those devices are the wealth generated by the Evil Soul Masters, an unimaginably huge fortune.

When those Evil Soul Masters die, all valuable items on their bodies are absorbed by the Killing Treasure Vault and stored there.

Of course, the valuable items on those Evil Soul Masters aren't limited to Soul Guide Devices; they also have soul bones! An Evil Soul Master's power exceeds that of a regular soul master of the same rank, so the chance of obtaining a soul bone is high.

After the owners of those soul bones die, the bones are also collected by the Killing Treasure Vault and kept there.

Li Xuan becomes intrigued by the Killing Treasure Vault.

Naturally, Li Xuan also knows the danger of the Killing Treasure Vault; even the Slaughter King dares not enter, so the internal peril must be severe.

Although the Slaughter King says there is only toxin, Li Xuan doesn't trust him; besides toxin, the Killing Treasure Vault must contain even more terrifying things, perhaps beyond the Slaughter King's knowledge.

Even if the Killing Treasure Vault is extremely dangerous, Li Xuan currently has no choice; if Li Xuan guesses correctly, merely uttering half a "no" would let the Slaughter King remove his own great vertebra.

Since Li Xuan has already entered the City of Slaughter, he lacks the strength to bargain with the Slaughter King, so he must first submit, wait for a chance, and then escape from the City of Slaughter.

After all, for the Slaughter King, killing Li Xuan is no different from killing an ant.

"Since you agree, I will open the Abyss Gate for you; behind the Abyss Gate lies the Killing Treasure Vault. I hope you can find that sword inside and live to bring it out." The Slaughter King's voice was full of excitement.

All these years, Li Xuan is the most likely to bring that thing out of the Killing Treasure Vault.

Although the Slaughter King himself doesn't know why he wants that sword, he knows it's his long‑held wish! Suddenly, a blood‑red pillar of light materialized out of nowhere, instantly illuminating the whole space.

Li Xuan also saw the surroundings clearly: it was a simple palace, its dome made of red crystal, the floor of blood‑jade tiles, the supporting columns polished from blood‑red stone; the entire palace was blood‑red, looking unusually bewitching and eerie.

In the distance, before the throne, stood a figure cloaked entirely in a black robe.

Under that black robe was the former head of the Clear Sky Sect, one of the world's three great Limit Douluo, Tang Chen! At that moment, the blood‑colored soul power in Tang Chen's body continuously poured into the pillar of light, and the massive flow of soul power gave Li Xuan a sudden shock.

By calculation, the soul power Tang Chen injects into the pillar every three seconds equals the total soul power Li Xuan possesses, meaning every three seconds Tang Chen contributes a version of himself.

"Is this the power of a Limit Douluo? The soul power of physical strength is indeed vast." Li Xuan's eyes were full of yearning; such overwhelming power was utterly captivating.

Half an hour later, the blood‑red pillar stopped drawing blood‑colored energy from Tang Chen's body.

The next second, the pillar slowly turned into soul power that dissipated into the air.

At the same time, where the pillar had been, a wide stone gate appeared; its center was pitch black, looking like a teleportation gate.

"6013, hurry and go, I hope you can find a way back!" the Slaughter King urged Li Xuan.

Keeping the gate open must have consumed a great deal of the Slaughter King's energy.

Li Xuan didn't hesitate and stepped straight into the teleportation gate.

As Li Xuan leapt into the gate, he felt a violent whirlwind and an especially intense sense of weightlessness.

The surreal sensation lasted for over ten minutes, and only after those minutes did it gradually fade.

Li Xuan slowly opened his eyes; his complexion was so pale it lacked any hue. The teleportation gate indeed felt extremely uncomfortable, and Li Xuan, caring little about his appearance, sat on the ground, took out a bottle of water, and gulped it down.

After resting a few minutes, Li Xuan recovered enough to rise from the ground and began scanning the surroundings.

This place was an utterly desolate land, a blood‑red moon hanging in the sky, its crimson light bathing the ground, which was littered with severed limbs and broken arms.

It seemed like the ruins of an ancient battlefield.

Li Xuan took a gentle breath, sensing the toxin in the air; the toxin was so concentrated it seemed ready to liquefy, and Li Xuan could distinctly feel its viscous cling.

"At this toxin concentration, even an elephant couldn't endure more than a few minutes; if I didn't have Burning Heart Divine Flame, I'd barely survive." Li Xuan said helplessly, and with a thought, the Burning Heart Divine Flame instantly adhered to every inch of his skin, forming a complete protective barrier.

Without his special ability, Li Xuan would soon perish here, becoming nourishment for the place.

Li Xuan looked around; only endless desolate land stretched as far as the eye, with no trace of any vault.

"Could that old guy Tang Chen be fooling me? This place doesn't look like it has a vault at all," Li Xuan muttered, frowning.

Then Li Xuan began to examine the surroundings carefully.

Li Xuan first inspected the soil beneath his feet; it wasn't ordinary earth but mud fully saturated with blood.

It felt sticky when squeezed, and Li Xuan, disgusted, tossed the mud away.

"It really is an ancient battlefield, but… what does an ancient battlefield have to do with the Killing Treasure Vault? Could this actually be the Killing Treasure Vault?" Li Xuan asked, puzzled.

The original work never mentioned anything about the Killing Treasure Vault.

However, Li Xuan quickly realized that Tang Hao and Tang San likely lacked any ability to resist the toxin; they must have suppressed it with their cultivation, allowing them to escape the Hell Slaughter Arena.

Besides the muddy ground, there were also some severed limbs.

Li Xuan approached a discarded limb, intending to dig it out, but the moment he touched it, he was surprised to see the limb twitch.

Puff!

The next second, in Li Xuan's shocked gaze, a rotting, unrecognizable humanoid burst from the mud, charging wildly at Li Xuan. "What is this?" Li Xuan stared, bewildered at the creature emerging from the ground.

At that moment.

Creak... Creak...

The rotting, unrecognizable corpse slowly pulled a rust‑stained long sword from the mud, then brandished the rust‑stained blade and launched an attack at Li Xuan.

"Huh? This thing can still get up? A zombie?" Li Xuan stared at the claw‑flailing corpse rushing at him, frozen in place.

He couldn't believe he was seeing something from his own home in a foreign land.

Li Xuan leapt, landing beside the zombie, and slammed the Eight Trigrams Wandering Dragon Palm onto its chest.

The strike drove a deep pit into the zombie's chest.

Yet the creature seemed to feel no pain, continuing its reckless charge at Li Xuan.

Li Xuan naturally would not put up with him, launching another palm‑strike barrage that snapped all of the zombie's limbs, yet the creature still tried to wrench itself free and bite Li Xuan.

Li Xuan, helpless, could only extend his hand and gather a ball of golden‑red fire.

"Swoosh!"

A fist‑sized, golden‑red sphere surged forward, landing directly on the corpse; the zombie's body seemed the perfect fuel for the Burning Heart Ming Shen Fire, and the flames instantly grew. In just a few breaths, the iron‑hard corpse was reduced to ash.

【Congratulations Host for killing the lingering will, you have earned *1 point】

"What? Killing zombies here actually gives points?" Li Xuan was also getting points for the first time through a non‑check‑in method, so he wore a puzzled expression.

【The system can absorb the soul power of the lingering will and return a point reward to the Host】

"I always feel you've swallowed my points, but I have no proof." Li Xuan stroked his chin and muttered.

However, killing these zombies yields points, which is a very welcome development for Li Xuan.

After all, the more points he has, the less likely Li Xuan will be short of resources when he needs something.

As Li Xuan burned the shattered corpse to ash, a Soul Device Ring fell into the pile of bone ash.

"Loot from monsters?" Li Xuan raised an eyebrow, watching the ring in the ash with interest.

Li Xuan didn't mind the dirt and simply picked the ring out of the ash.

Li Xuan examined the ring in his hand, then used his soul power to effortlessly open the space inside the Soul Guide Device.

Inside were packed full of Gold Soul Coins.

"Whoa, a windfall!" Li Xuan exclaimed, delighted at the Gold Soul Coins, which represented a sizable fortune for him.

However, Li Xuan didn't immediately store the Gold Soul Coins in his own space; instead he poured them onto the ground and extended his hand.

A sticky, dark Filthy Flame seeped from Li Xuan's hand, slowly enveloping the Gold Soul Coins.

Sure enough, Li Xuan found several Gold Soul Coins among them that contained special energy.

Li Xuan didn't risk his own body nor investigate what the special energy was; he simply used Filthy Flame to swallow and digest the odd energy.

After half an hour, tens of thousands of Gold Soul Coins on the ground were completely cleared by the Filthy Flame, leaving no trace of special energy.

Li Xuan took out a large box, began transferring the Gold Soul Coins into it, then retrieved a special Kongming Crystal to store these possibly impure items.

Besides the mountain of Gold Soul Coins, Li Xuan also discovered a diary inside the person's Soul Guide Device.

The individual turned out to be an Evil Soul Master of the Soul Saint Realm, extremely powerful, but hunted by the Spirit Hall and ultimately perished in the City of Slaughter.

Li Xuan snapped his fingers, and the diary was swiftly burned to ash.

Looking at the surrounding severed limbs and arms, Li Xuan suddenly understood something.

These severed limbs and arms all belonged to the Evil Soul Master; the dead from the City of Slaughter were likely all dumped here.

It follows that these corpses should all be killable.

Then Li Xuan opened the Soul Guide Device, found it empty, and without hesitation fed it to the Palm Sky Bottle to expand the bottle's internal space.

Since he had no use for the Soul Guide Device himself, increasing the Palm Sky Bottle's space was Li Xuan's best option.

After sorting all the loot from this round, Li Xuan turned his gaze to the other severed limbs, each a potential source of wealth.

Li Xuan began burning the corpses one by one until clean, and the number of Soul Guide Devices he harvested kept increasing.

What Li Xuan didn't notice was that as he burned more corpses, the toxins in the air gradually thinned.

……

Two hours later, everywhere Li Xuan's eyes fell, no severed limbs remained; all had been cleared by Li Xuan.

Li Xuan's haul was also considerably larger; the assorted items were hard to sort, so he stuffed them all into a Kongming Crystal in one go.

However, Li Xuan still felt these items weren't entirely safe, so he temporarily sealed them in an isolated Kongming Crystal, to use later when his strength grew.

After absorbing the space of hundreds of Soul Guide Devices, the Palm Sky Bottle's interior extended outward by over ten meters.

As long as Li Xuan keeps striving, the space inside the Palm Sky Bottle will keep expanding until it eventually forms a small world.

Looking around, no severed limbs remained, so Li Xuan began walking toward the distance, wanting to see what lay inside.

(End of Chapter)