Ding Rou couldn’t help but feel a lingering fear. Just the thought of having walked moments ago through a hall packed with corpses, those countless cold, ghostly eyes watching her from the darkness made her scalp go numb. She had nearly been trapped inside that nightmarish death realm! Thinking of this, Ding Rou instinctively cast a grateful glance at Li Yanchu. Only to find that he was eyeing her with a rather strange expression. Li Yanchu said, “Ding, now look, I’m not someone who likes poking around in other people’s business, but tell me honestly... what’s going on with this death tribulation of yours?” Ding... The corner of Ding Rou’s mouth twitched involuntarily. “Fellow Daoist Li... My master said it has to do with my previous life. If I can make it through this death tribulation, my Dao heart will become clear, and I’ll be able to break open the hidden mysteries of the human body. As for what exactly that means... I’m not too sure myself,” Ding Rou explained. That was already quite a revealing statement. Previous life... Li Yanchu paused in surprise. You’ve got that kind of backstory!? He fell silent for a moment. He’d thought she was just some unlucky tag-along, but it turned out she was entangled with some kind of reincarnation and unlocking the body’s hidden secrets. Ding Rou asked, “Fellow Daoist Li, you’re clearly a true Daoist disciple with profound techniques. Do you know what this death tribulation really entails?” You’re asking me? I wanted to ask you! Li Yanchu glanced at Ding Rou. “No idea.” After a pause, he added, “Ding, I really think you’d best get out of here. This so-called ‘immortal fortune’ is too dangerous for you, you won’t be able to handle it.” Ding Rou fell silent, and she could clearly feel the disdain in Li Yanchu’s eyes. Ding Rou was a striking beauty, delicate yet cool in temperament. If she weren’t, that Mount Mao brat Hong Baiwei wouldn’t have been thinking about playing with women even after entering the perilous Mount Jinting. And yet, Li Yanchu actually gave her a look of disdain!? Ding Rou fell silent for a moment, but had to admit that Li Yanchu did have a point. Upon stepping into the side hall, they had immediately encountered a dense cluster of corpses. If they had gone any deeper, who knew what terrifying entity they might have run into? “Very well, then I’ll take my leave. This Immortal temple is extremely dangerous. Do be careful,” Ding Rou said softly. Li Yanchu gave a slight nod. Ding Rou was a good woman and rather sensible too. But... she simply wasn’t a suitable teammate. Her luck was just far too terrible. If she continued deeper, it was highly likely she’d be killed by some death tribulation. It was better for her to withdraw, and her chances of survival would be higher that way. Inside the side hall, the corpses remained utterly still, as if frozen in time. Aside from that one malevolent spirit at the beginning, nothing else had attacked them. Li Yanchu and Ding Rou turned to leave. But as they did, countless cold and wicked gazes quietly locked onto their retreating backs. Those faces wore expressions that were stiff, strange, and unsettling. After seeing Ding Rou safely out of the hall, Li Yanchu resumed his exploration of the Daoist temple hall ruins alone. “If I keep searching and still find no treasure and only more danger, then I’m done with this damned place!” he muttered to himself. This Blissful Land that others fought over, bloodied and desperate to enter, was now just a “damned place” in his eyes. Passing through the tall corridors, Li Yanchu soon arrived at another temple hall. And the moment he stepped inside, his expression darkened. The spirit qi in his body became sluggish and muddled, and his every step became as heavy as lead, as if molten copper had been poured into his limbs. Even his internal organs seemed to be hammered and rattled. Just then, the Daoist temple hall divine artifact at his waist, and the octagonal bronze bell suddenly lit up, emitting a soft divine glow. The heaviness in his body vanished at once. Though it only lasted an instant, Li Yanchu felt deeply unsettled by it. He then focused his gaze. Inside the dust-laden hall, there were many scattered footprints. It was clear that this temple had already been explored by others. Inside the hall stood many large bells, each about the height of two men. It was hard to tell what sort of arrangement they had followed originally, and all of them were toppled over in disarray now. Whatever divine essence they once held had completely faded, and now they were nothing more than ordinary objects. Li Yanchu frowned slightly. As he stepped forward to examine them, he discovered that the bells had all completely weathered away. He could snap them with just a light twist of his fingers. The outer structures of the temple hadn’t decayed nearly this badly... So how had these bells, stored deep within the temple, become so fragile? He carefully inspected them again and found that the ground beneath was covered in a thick layer of dust, just like the rest of the surroundings. The source of this content ɪs NoveI-Fire.ɴet Clearly, these bells had toppled a long time ago. They hadn’t been knocked over by later explorers. Too much time had passed, and the damage to the bells was so extensive and uniform that it was impossible to discern any specific cause. The footprints on the ground, however, were relatively fresh. They were scattered all throughout the temple hall. Li Yanchu focused his attention. Amid the disorderly tracks, he spotted a pair of smaller footprints. They didn’t seem to belong to a man, more likely, they were a woman’s. His brows rose slightly. He noticed that these smaller footprints seemed to have paused and lingered in front of one particular bell. In modern forensic science, footprints can reveal all kinds of information about a suspect, such as height, gender, weight, and more. As supporting evidence, that was quite useful. But in a world where gods and ghosts existed, such things weren’t so reliable, as people here could fly at will. A single step might take them several zhang across, and they were hardly bound by gravity or common physics. And then there were those with strange and inhuman forms. So many things that would be considered common sense in the modern world simply didn’t apply here. Li Yanchu couldn’t be certain the prints were made by a woman, but it was because of these footprints that he noticed something interesting: the dust beneath this particular bell was noticeably lighter and thinner. Compared to the surrounding area, it looked... a little too new. “This bell... seems to have fallen at a different time than the others.” Li Yanchu frowned slightly. If it weren’t for the fact that he had taken immortal's fruit, greatly enhancing his senses, he likely wouldn’t have noticed anything unusual. After all, the lighting in the Daoist temple hall wasn’t very good. He stepped forward to examine the ancient bell, and discovered that its level of weathering and damage was far less severe than the others. “So many bells are arranged in this temple... what were they for? Could it be some kind of formation?” Li Yanchu pondered to himself. Although he was a properly trained disciple of the Daoist sect, and his fighting style resembled that of a ruthless martial artist, he still knew how to draw talismans, refine pills, and set up formations. He simply hadn’t studied those arts in depth. There were countless kinds of Daoist formations, for example, the Golden Astral Formation, the Seven Stars Eight Trigrams Formation, the Five Elements Eight Trigrams Formation, the Six Harmony Formation, the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Formation[1], and the Four Symbols Formation. They were endlessly complex and ever-changing. There were also more unorthodox, or even sinister, formations, such as the Seven Fiends Soul-Locking Formation or the Fear Formation. Strictly speaking, the offensive methods used by fengshui masters resembled formation techniques, though their underlying principles were different. Fengshui relied on leveraging the geography of mountains, rivers, and terrain to create deadly traps, life-saving setups, or death-bound layouts. Formations, on the other hand, embodied the celestial cycles, the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams, the Two Principles and Four Symbols[2]. The reason Li Yanchu suspected this might be a formation was because although the bells were placed in seemingly random positions, there was an underlying order, which was a faint, elusive pattern. His gaze took on a contemplative look. Moments later, he began propping up the ancient bells. Each bell was nearly two zhang tall and incredibly heavy, and combined with the severe weathering, lifting them upright was almost impossible. 1. The Nine Palaces (九宫) refer to a system used by ancient Chinese astronomers who divided the celestial realm into nine sections: Qian, Kan, Gen, Zhen, Center, Xun, Li, Kun, and Dui, using a grid pattern resembling the Chinese character for “well” (井). By observing the movement of the seven classical celestial bodies (sun, moon, and five visible planets) and constellations across these divisions at night, they could determine directions, seasons, and other vital information. ☜ 2. The "Two Principles and Four Symbols" (二仪四象) are key cosmological concepts in traditional Chinese philosophy. The Two Principles refer to Yin and Yang, the fundamental dual forces of the universe representing opposing yet complementary aspects like darkness and light, passivity and activity. From the dynamic interaction of Yin and Yang emerge the Four Symbols: the Azure Dragon (east, spring, yang within yang), White Tiger (west, autumn, yin within yang), Vermilion Bird (south, summer, yang within yin), and Black Tortoise (north, winter, yin within yin). These Four Symbols represent phases of transformation in nature, directions, seasons, and are also tied to mythological creatures. Together, the Two Principles and Four Symbols form the basis of deeper metaphysical systems like the Eight Trigrams and the Five Elements, describing the structure and movement of the cosmos. ☜