Chapter 77: Void Illusion

As for Li Bucai, he had already entered this stone gate; after stepping through, the stone gate suddenly closed on its own, and everything outside the gate became completely imperceptible.

"Where have those Qingwolf Beasts gone? Why can't I see their shadows? Did they deliberately lead me here, perhaps escaping through another opening? No, if they truly wanted to harm me, at the waterfall, as soon as they act together, or if the Head Wolf launches another attack, I would find it hard to defeat them. There's no need to lure me here; could they be hinting at something? Is it this stone coffin?"

Li Bucai thought of this and walked toward that stone coffin; the coffin resembled white jade, emitting a bright white light from within. There was no other source of illumination, so the light emanating from the stone coffin made the cavern as bright as day.

"Who could be placed inside?"

Li Bucai tried to place his hand on the coffin lid, flexed his arms, and summoned War God Qi, attempting to push it open, but to his surprise, the Martial God Mantra could no longer be invoked; the distinct flow of Qi that had been in his body vanished without a trace. When he had just fought the Qingwolf Beasts, despite being poisoned, he could still exert a third of his strength, and he had even used it in the fire sea of the Refinement Realm, so why could he not manifest any power now?

Thinking it was the wolf poison, Li Bucai could only use his ordinary strength to push the lid, trying several times without success. Just as he was about to draw his sword to pry it, a sudden "Clack" sounded, and the stone coffin automatically split a seam, instantly blasting a dazzling white light outward. As the lid opened, a fragrant powdery scent wafted out. Li Bucai placed his hand on it, applied gentle pressure, and with a series of "Clack" sounds, he lifted the lid.

"A member of the Undead?" Li Bucai was startled.

Inside lay peacefully a girl who appeared to be only seventeen or eighteen, wearing a pink dress. Two ivory‑white horns sprouted from her head, strikingly conspicuous, and she had two pointed ears, a tiny mouth like a cherry, and her eyes were half‑closed. She looked like a sleeping Undead girl, and her features were almost identical to Yue Ji's; if Yue Ji were not currently under his command, left at the camp, he would surely mistake her for Yue Ji.

Actually, the girl in the coffin is the legendary ancestor of the Undead race. She was originally from Sky City, but due to tangled emotions she fell into misfortune and fled into the wilderness, stumbling into this place. Thirsty, she mistakenly drank the dew on the leaves of an ancient tree; that dew was the "Forbidden Dew", which, once a wicked thought arises, turns a person into a form that is neither human nor beast. As for how she became an Undead, even she does not know.

Everything seen here is the result of her rearranging things before her death, designating this place as her tomb. The Qingwolf Beasts were the ones she had tamed in life; at the moment of her death she brought them here to serve as Spirit Beasts guarding her Soul, and these eighteen Qingwolf Beasts are the descendants of those Spirit Beasts.

She lay in the coffin, her breath having ceased for tens of thousands of years. Her hands were crossed over her abdomen, and on her middle finger rested a Ring that glittered with golden light yet bore no ornamentation, only a few small runes etched onto it, appearing simple and hefty; all the radiance emanated from it.

Just as Li Bucai grew curious, perhaps because the corpse had long been deprived of air, the coffin lid swung wide open, and the figure inside gradually became insubstantial, turning into a wisp of pink air that drifted out of the coffin. After a short while it dissolved into the cavern's atmosphere, vanishing without a trace, leaving only the Ring, which fell onto the lid and emitted a crisp, tinkling sound.

"Could those Qingwolf Beasts have led me here just to have me take this Ring?" Li Bucai reached for the Ring; when his finger touched it, the Ring suddenly emitted an intensely dazzling light, the rays stabbing his eyes, and he hurriedly covered them with his hand.

After a while, Li Bucai felt as if the view suddenly turned black. He moved his hand away, and when he opened his eyes, the cavern that had been as bright as day now, with the Ring's light dimmed, resembled a world bathed in moonlight.

"No, why does it turn like this as soon as it's in my hand? Uh..." Li Bucai began, and after the Ring's light flickered a few times, it suddenly went completely dark, leaving not even a hint of illumination, plunging the surroundings into total darkness, like a blind person, so black that he could not tell the difference between opening and closing his eyes.

Li Bucai took out a spark, struck it to produce a flame, and lit the Torch; the Ring at that moment had become utterly ordinary, looking like a crudely cast bronze replica.

"Uh... how unlucky, just a touch and it instantly turned into scrap copper and rusted iron?" He thought that perhaps because he had trespassed into someone else's tomb and opened the spirit coffin, the person's Soul could not find peace, causing this.

"What a waste of such a beautiful cavern, never mind, I'll return it." Li Bucai tried to place the Ring back into the stone coffin; as soon as he let go, the Ring seemed to have a spirit of its own, leaping back into his hand the moment it left.

"What's going on?" Li Bucai thought it might be an illusion, and tried a few more times; each time he released it, it jumped back into his hand.

"It seems to recognize me as its master; in that case, I'll keep it for now and go back to ask others whether they know its function." The Ring's ability to jump automatically indicated it was not a divine artifact but possessed some spirit energy, so Li Bucai slipped the Ring onto the middle finger of his right hand, neither too tight nor too loose, just right; however, compared with the ring the administrator had given him on his ring finger for escape, this one looked rather unsightly.

There was nothing else here that could catch his eye; the ancient tree above continued to drip dew, and fearing the moisture would extinguish the Torch if he lingered, he turned to leave. At that moment, everything around had undergone a massive change: the various flowers and grasses, under the Torch's light, all turned into coarse rock, reverting the cavern to its original state. Only the ancient tree remained, its canopy covering most of the ceiling; the dew fell, forming a clear pool beneath the tree, constantly producing the sound of dripping water.

"Sure enough, this is the Void Illusion; everything here is illusory. Is it all caused by this Ring? Or was the Undead person in the coffin originally a deity who mastered transformation? But why does it revert to its original state when I wear it? Because I'm just a mortal?"

Just as he was about to leave, a Qingwolf Beast howl suddenly sounded nearby. It turned out that, just as at the entrance, a large cavern contained smaller openings hidden behind rocks. After the Head Wolf let out a howl, the eighteen Qingwolf Beasts emerged from the small openings, their gazes fixed, stepping toward Li Bucai. Behind each of them, swarms of Qingwolves poured out from the small holes, and the same occurred at other openings; within moments, the entire cavern was filled with Qingwolves.