Just hold on a little longer.

The smile on Su Ji's face was extremely glaring in Zhao Tianyang's eyes.

But he simply couldn't flare up.

"Let's go."

Zhao Tianyang squeezed the words through his teeth, then turned around with a gloomy face and took the lead to walk out of the courtyard.

Su Ji followed behind at a leisurely pace.

At the courtyard gate, the newcomer named Qin Feng was still standing there like a door god.

Seeing the two come out, his face first showed joy, but then he shrank his neck in fright at Zhao Tianyang's murderous dark face, not daring to step forward.

Zhao Tianyang ignored everyone and walked straight toward his own shack.

Su Ji followed him. The two walked one after the other, silently passing through the dead silent mining area.

In front of the shack's door.

The two heart-palpitating auras were not lingering there this time.

Zhao Tianyang paused at the door for a moment, as if to encourage himself, and then pushed the door open.

Inside, Zhao Wuji and the Pavilion Master of Tingfeng had been waiting for a long time.

There were no unnecessary pleasantries.

Zhao Wuji set down his teacup, his deep eyes sweeping over the two at the door, his voice flat.

"Let's go."

"It's time to hit the road."

Thus, this four-person team, each with their own ulterior motives, walked toward the depths of the mining area under Zhao Tianyang's lead.

The further they went, the more desolate and eerie the surroundings became.

The ground was no longer a cracked grayish-white, but rather a dull, dark brown.

The decaying aura of death in the air grew increasingly dense, even beginning to condense into a visible pale gray mist that lingered around them.

Mixed in the howling barren wind were faint whimpers, like a woman weeping, piercing their eardrums and disturbing their minds.

"Senior Brother, this aura..."

In Su Ji's mind, Su Jiu's voice carried a faintly imperceptible tremble.

"It belongs to that Immortal Venerable."

"So sad..."

Su Ji did not respond.

He could feel that as they went deeper, the half drop of Su Jiu's lifeblood essence within his body began to grow restless, as if drawn by some deep connection from the bloodline.

And the spiritual energy on his body became even more solid, gently isolating all the encroaching baleful aura on the outside.

Walking on this perilous land was like taking a stroll in his own backyard for him, incredibly relaxing.

But the three people beside him were not having such an easy time.

Walking at the very front, Zhao Tianyang's hunched body hunched even further. A layer of fine cold sweat had already seeped from his forehead. With every step, it was as if he were bearing a crushing weight, his footsteps becoming exceptionally heavy.

Zhao Wuji, who followed behind him, also started to pale.

Under the corrosion of the gray mist, the protective spiritual light around his body was dimming at a visible rate, even emitting a sizzling sound like melting ice and snow.

"Hmph!"

Zhao Wuji snorted coldly. Spiritual power surged within his dantian, and the already dimming protective spiritual light became solid once more, forcing the surrounding baleful aura back three feet.

But this, after all, only treated the symptoms and not the root cause.

The spiritual power in his body was being rapidly consumed.

Walking at the very back, the Pavilion Master of Tingfeng merely chuckled lightly as he looked at the sorry states of the two Soul Formation cultivators in front.

His long robes were spotless.

He simply flicked his sleeve casually.

An invisible ripple instantly spread out with him at the center.

The gray mist that had been frantically corroding Zhao Tianyang and Zhao Wuji actually retreated like mice seeing a cat the moment it came into contact with this ripple.

Zhao Tianyang and Zhao Wuji immediately felt the pressure on their bodies lighten. They simultaneously let out a sigh of relief, and when they looked at the Pavilion Master of Tingfeng, their faces showed a bit more heartfelt awe.

The might of a True Immortal was terrifying to this extent.

"Thank you, Pavilion Master!"

Zhao Wuji hurriedly bowed in thanks.

The Pavilion Master of Tingfeng just waved his hand impatiently.

"Hurry up and walk, do not waste my time."

He couldn't help but be anxious; the Tingfeng Pavilion was still waiting for him to return and take charge.

Of course...

It was more to conceal that the hands hidden beneath his wide sleeves had curled up almost imperceptibly a few times.

A faint, undetectable trace of gray flashed past the edge of his cuffs.

The baleful aura in this godforsaken place was even more bizarre than he had imagined.

It could actually faintly infect even him.

Although it couldn't cause him any substantial harm, dragging it out like this was not a solution.

The Pavilion Master of Tingfeng calculated secretly in his heart, his gaze inadvertently falling on Su Ji, who had remained silent the entire time in the team.

Then, his brow twitched uncontrollably and fiercely.

He saw Su Ji with his hands tucked in his sleeves, looking around like he was completely unaffected, his face even carrying a bit of curiosity.

That baleful aura, dense enough to make even Soul Formation cultivators struggle to move, would automatically dissipate when it came within three feet of his body, as if the baleful aura didn't exist at all.

This kid...

The bright eyes of the Pavilion Master of Tingfeng slowly narrowed.

Zhao Wuji and Zhao Tianyang naturally noticed Su Ji's anomaly as well.

The two exchanged a glance, both seeing the irrepressible ecstasy in each other's eyes.

He's fine!

This kid was actually completely unharmed!

They bet right!

This time, they had gambled completely right!

As long as they had this key, the inheritance within that Immortal Venerable's tomb was already in the bag for him and the Zhao family!

Zhao Wuji even started to fantasize about the glorious scene of him obtaining the inheritance, his cultivation greatly advancing, leading the Zhao family to soar into the sky, shaking off this lowly status of a slave mine overseer, and becoming a regional overlord of the Canghuang Realm.

Su Ji naturally also noticed these three gazes, each with different meanings, cast upon him.

He was blooming with joy inside, but his face wore a somewhat bewildered expression.

He even asked a question at just the right moment.

"Elder Zhao, how much... how much further do we have to go?"

"The baleful aura here, I feel it's getting a bit... a bit hard to bear."

Hearing this, Zhao Tianyang turned his head back, only feeling his temples throbbing violently.

Hard to bear?

You are strolling around here like you are shopping, and you tell me it's hard to bear?!

Zhao Tianyang really wanted to slap him across the face.

But he didn't dare.

"Soon, soon."

"Just... just hold on a little longer."

"We're almost there."

Su Ji let out an oh and then stopped talking.

The group of four continued to advance silently through this dead silent perilous land filled with gray mist.

Who knew how much longer they walked.

The scene ahead suddenly opened up.

The lingering gray mist here bizarrely became thin.

An unimaginably massive abyss appeared before the four of them without warning.

That abyss was like a hideous scar forcibly torn open on the earth by some supreme mighty power. It was bottomless and pitch-black, as if it could swallow all the light in the world.

Standing at the edge of the abyss, one could even hear bursts of muffled, thunderous heartbeats coming from its depths.

"Thump..."

"Thump..."

"Thump..."

Each heartbeat seemed to resonate with the heaven and earth, making the four standing at the edge of the abyss feel their own hearts beating violently out of control in tandem.

Zhao Tianyang stopped in his tracks before the abyss. As he gazed into the bottomless darkness, an incredibly complex expression surfaced on his old, weathered face.

He turned around to look at Zhao Wuji and the Pavilion Master of Tingfeng behind him, his voice hoarse.

"Patriarch, Pavilion Master."

"We have arrived."

"This is the place where... Immortal Venerable Haoyue fell."

As he spoke, he reached into his robes and brought out a yellowed, ancient beast-skin map with the utmost care, slowly unrolling it.

"According to the map, the entrance should be right on the cliff face of this abyss."

The Pavilion Master of Tingfeng cast his gaze upon the map.

Su Ji also leaned forward out of curiosity, craning his neck to see.

On the beast-skin map, twisting and winding lines drawn in cinnabar ultimately pointed to a completely inconspicuous depression on the cliff face of the abyss.

"It is right here."

Zhao Tianyang pointed at the depression, his tone absolute.

However, the moment his words faded.

The Pavilion Master of Tingfeng, who had maintained an air of breezy indifference from the very beginning, suddenly furrowed his brows.