Chapter 403: He Was Not Telling the Truth

"Lord Shen, do you really want to go in?"

Standing at the cave entrance, hearing Shen Yu's words about wanting to enter, Bai Jincong's heart suddenly trembled.

For some reason, when he heard they were about to step inside, the sense of urgency in his heart to flee immediately grew even stronger.

At this very moment, he even had the urge to turn around and run away.

"You can stay outside for now!" Watching Bai Jincong's nervous appearance, Shen Yu patted him on the shoulder, then strode into the cave.

In reality, he had long since used the Mountain and River Map to shroud the surroundings, sealing off the space. If Bai Jincong were to act suspiciously, he wouldn't be able to get out.

Then again, how could he possibly let his true self go in and take risks? This kind of bitter, exhausting, and dangerous work was always done by his clones.

The real Shen Yu had long been hiding outside; he hadn't even entered Qishan at all.

One clone followed Bai Jincong to the outside of this cave in Qishan, while another clone remained in the city, monitoring the people of the Baicao Sect and that problematic sect leader, Bai Tu.

If Bai Tu, the Baicao Sect leader in the city, made any unusual moves, he would be able to react in an instant.

"It really is pitch black in here!"

Stepping inside, Shen Yu walked forward quickly while carefully observing his surroundings. His Super Perception enveloped the area, but the pitch-black environment severely limited his perception.

It felt as if there were a layer of thick, indescribable fog obscuring one's vision.

This also caused his perception to seem limited to just a few meters in front of him; he couldn't probe any further, so walking here felt like looking at flowers through a mist.

The cave seemed bottomless, and he just kept walking forward; even he couldn't help but feel a bit irritable after a long time.

Suddenly, he felt something was wrong; it seemed as if the surrounding environment kept repeating itself, a feeling like experiencing a loop.

At his speed, even if this cave were a thousand or eight hundred zhang long, he should have finished walking it by now; how could he have not seen the end after such a long time?

"It's a Suspended Soul Ladder!" The term suddenly flashed in his mind, and then, to verify his guess, he specifically turned in a circle, confirming it.

No wonder it always felt a bit off; it really was a loop. He had been honestly guarding against things like Arrays, yet he had overlooked some common Mechanism layouts.

He had previously obtained quite a few rewards related to Mechanism Arts through check-ins, so he could be considered a Master of Mechanisms of some standing.

Once he realized where the problem lay, breaking the situation became much easier; soon, he walked straight out of the loop, and the view before him suddenly opened up.

The figures of several people appeared before his eyes; these people were covered in vines, and their flesh and blood had been drained dry. However, they still maintained the struggle they had in life, clearly having experienced torment before they died.

Looking at their attire, they should be those Elders of the Baicao Sect. Only the sect leader, Bai Tu, had come out; the rest had indeed all died here.

Further ahead, a great hall appeared before his eyes; the hall was empty, yet it gave people a feeling of palpitations.

In Shen Yu's perception, countless skeletons were buried beneath this great hall, dense and packed, one layer stacked upon another. The entire hall seemed to be built upon layers of skeletons.

The walls around the hall were covered in some kind of vine, hanging with countless bright red fruits that seemed to sway in the wind, a bewitching, fresh red, like the color of blood.

Shen Yu could tell that these vines were the plants he had seen earlier. And those bright red fruits should be the fruits obtained after blooming and bearing fruit on people.

Looking at everything around him, Shen Yu suddenly had an illusion that those bright red fruits were grown from the layers of skeletons beneath the great hall.

And in the very center of the great hall, several people stood scattered; judging by their movements, they seemed to have been resisting something, but in the end, they must have failed.

They were all pierced through by vines, with the roots of the vines embedded in their chests and hearts, yet they had not completely turned into white bones.

Even the heavy aura on their bodies had not yet dissipated; although only a little remained, one could fully deduce that they must have been top-tier experts in their lifetimes.

And for them to be considered experts by the current Shen Yu, their cultivation realm and strength must have been very high.

One of them was half-kneeling on the ground with a sword blade inserted into the floor, and a huge fissure spread outward along the place where the blade was inserted.

This person's body had remained uncorrupted after so many years, and the residual Sword Intent on their body seemed not to have faded; that final sword strike felt like a roar before death.

A vine had grown out of each of their bodies, with roots embedded in their flesh and blood, seemingly providing a constant supply to the vines on the entire great hall so that they would not wither or fade.

In other words, the reason the vines here were still alive was likely entirely due to the nourishment provided by these few experts.

Except for that swordsman, the remaining few seemed to have faces full of panic, and their expressions were frozen at that moment.

When approaching these people, Shen Yu could still feel the faint unwillingness and terror within their bodies.

Could this be a trap, luring these experts here just to use them as soil for a constant supply of nutrients?

Shen Yu's mind even conjured up some melodramatic plots where a group of top experts, harboring a sense of chivalry, came here to punish evil and promote good.

As a result, the enemy set up such a massive trap, tricked them into coming, and turned them into endless nourishment.

They were all experts, and the energy within their bodies could supply the surrounding vines for thousands of years without decaying.

Just then, a buzzing sword hum sounded, and the Sword Intent in front of the half-kneeling swordsman suddenly surged upward.

The residual Sword Intent, accompanied by an inexplicable Mental Power, emerged from the swordsman, instantly shrouding Shen Yu and drilling into his body.

However, as soon as this Mental Power surged into his body, it was scattered by Shen Yu.

Never mind just residual Mental Power; even if the opponent were in their prime, Shen Yu would not be afraid at all if they were to clash head-on.

Only then did Shen Yu realize that this power was not trying to possess him, but was the opponent's inheritance—it was the unwillingness and struggle from before their death.

They hoped that later generations would walk in here, take away their last remaining power and all they had learned, so that these Martial Learnings would not be completely extinguished and lost in the long river of history.

In a trance, Shen Yu saw several Martial Learning memories from these residual Mental Powers, and at the same time, layers of images appeared before his eyes.

He seemed to see these people agreeing to come here out of a surge of passion, only to be surrounded in the end. They were all caught in the trap and had seeds planted in them by someone.

It was just that, at the very moment the opponent planted the seed in them, the swordsman used his final strength to thrust his sword into the ground.

Using his body as an Array base and his own nearly total strength as the price, he sealed the opponent beneath this great hall.

Immediately following was endless darkness; after an unknown amount of time, Shen Yu seemed to see several figures falling into this place in a sorry state.

As soon as these people appeared, they were wrapped by the bloodthirsty vines, and the roots were inserted into their bodies, devouring their flesh and blood completely.

The only one left who was not devoured was the Baicao Sect leader, Bai Tu.

In a trance, Shen Yu saw that figure, who had been sealed to death beneath the great hall by the swordsman, crawl out from the ground and into Bai Tu's body, after which Bai Tu slowly stood up.

Bai Tu's aura changed drastically, as if he had completely become a different person.

Upon sensing this person's aura, the Sword Intent on the swordsman flickered unsteadily; unfortunately, this Sword Intent was but a mere remnant, no longer possessing its former glory, and could only watch the other party leave, helpless.