Between these two choices, Li Haowen leaned toward the latter.

After all, waiting for a cultivator from the upper three realms to come to the rescue was ultimately the safer option.

They had nearly been wiped out the moment they jumped into this cavern, and no one knew whether the abyss beneath the lake bed of South Yu Lake held even more difficult hidden dangers.

Using the flame burning at his fingertip to illuminate his surroundings, Li Haowen stepped over several corpses at his feet and walked forward.

The soil at the bottom of the cavern was extremely muddy. Presumably, the waters of South Yu Lake had all poured into this cavern, so there was nothing strange about that.

And besides, there was another problem.

Where had Bai Jinye gone?

Li Haowen was well aware that Bai Jinye would not die so easily.

Or rather, any cultivator at the Myriad Transformations Realm would have had ample reaction time in a situation like that.

Even if one suffered severe injuries, one could rely on innate true energy to rapidly repair the damage sustained within a short period.

But Li Haowen had not seen any sign of Bai Jinye at the bottom of this cavern.

About ten breaths of time.

Li Haowen made a rough calculation in his mind. This enormous cavern situated on the lake bed of South Yu Lake was approximately thirty-seven thousand zhang deep, and judging by the time it took to reach the bottom, Bai Jinye would have arrived at the bottom at most only about ten breaths earlier than himself.

But then, where was he?

"Elder Bai!"

Li Haowen called out loudly in the dead silence, and all that answered him was his own empty echo.

After taking a few more steps forward, the spiritual sense he had extended finally discovered some clues from the ground off to the side.

Footprints.

The footprints pressed into the muddy cavern floor were especially clear, and judging by their level of dampness, they had been left not long ago, still quite fresh.

It was Bai Jinye.

Apart from that, Li Haowen could not think of any other possibility.

And so, he began to explore along the direction of the footprints appearing in the mud at the bottom of the cavern.

First, regroup with Bai Jinye.

This enormous cavern located on the lake bed of South Yu Lake had a bottom that was far more expansive than Li Haowen had imagined. Its area felt like at least that of a large city.

As for the waters of South Yu Lake, they had possibly all seeped into the cavern floor, or perhaps flowed to areas of even lower elevation.

Li Haowen followed the footprints left by Bai Jinye, searching for the Offering Elder of the Nine Heavens Platform of Lingxiao Temple, all while cautiously surveying the surrounding environment.

In this manner, after following the footprints forward for roughly another several hundred zhang, his spiritual sense finally detected Bai Jinye's true qi signature.

"Elder Bai!"

Li Haowen shouted loudly.

But still, only his own voice echoed through the air, receiving no response from Bai Jinye whatsoever.

A grim suspicion had already begun to form in his heart.

Li Haowen's expression grew even darker than before, and he quickened his pace toward the direction from which Bai Jinye's true qi signature originated.

The flame burning at his fingertip illuminated the thick darkness ahead, and at last, Li Haowen beheld a scene he would never forget for the rest of his life.

It was a relatively broad open space.

And standing in the middle of that open space was a long spear that gave off an eerie gleam under the firelight.

The spear, planted upright in the ground, had completely pierced through a person's chest, impaling them upon its tip and suspending them high above the ground.

That person wore a pale golden daoist robe, and blood was slowly trickling down the shaft of the spear, making the already strange-looking weapon even more horrifying and sinister.

Li Haowen took a few more steps toward the spear.

"Elder Bai..."

The young man impaled on the spear, his entire body suspended in midair, wearing the daoist robe of Lingxiao Temple, slowly lowered his head. His face was pale and contorted, and blood still dripped from the corners of his mouth as he said:

"Run... quickly..."

Before Bai Jinye could even finish speaking, a sharp sound of a weapon piercing through a skull rang out.

A short blade had been driven straight into Bai Jinye's cranium and had come out through the back of his head.

The eyes of this Three Hero of Spirit Connection of Du Cang Mountain, this Offering Elder of the Nine Heavens Platform of Lingxiao Temple, lost the last traces of their spiritual light and vitality.

Li Haowen's pupils constricted at the sight.

Scenes flashed through his mind: the moment he had learned of Lin Xinyang's death, and the time he had witnessed his own master Wei Mian, with his Martial Spring and meridians sealed, being beheaded.

Then, his fingertips trembled for just an instant before he immediately clenched his fist. Forcing himself to remain calm, he also drew the Yuanji Sword and Xiaohua Sword from his waist.

The instant the Xiaohua Sword left its sheath, its blazing firelight made the bottom of the cavern as bright as day.

And it was in that very moment that Li Haowen finally saw clearly just what his current situation was.

Corpses.

One corpse, two corpses, three corpses...

Ten corpses, fifty corpses, one hundred corpses...

One thousand corpses, ten thousand corpses!

A mountain of piled-up corpses!

And atop that countless mountain of corpses sat a young man in a cool white daoist robe, lazily reclining with his eyelids lowered. As he looked toward Li Haowen, a faint, ambiguous smile curled at the corners of his mouth.

Li Haowen's heart sank.

Because as a cultivator at the peak of the Myriad Transformations Realm, he could not see through the cultivation level of the young man sitting atop the mountain of corpses in the cool white daoist robe.

But this was only to be expected.

If there had not been a gap of a major realm between them, Bai Jinye probably would not have died so miserably.

"May I ask who Senior is, and why would you kill the Guardian of the Dao of Du Cang Mountain?"

Li Haowen forced himself to remain composed and posed this question to the young man seated atop the mountain of corpses.

"Du Cang Mountain?"

The young man's voice rang out.

"Never heard of it. But you're not qualified to call me Senior, and you're even less qualified to question anything I do."

"..."

Li Haowen fell silent for the moment.

At this very moment, he desperately wanted to avenge Bai Jinye against the young man in the cool white daoist robe seated atop the mountain of corpses.

But he also knew very well that he had absolutely no chance of winning.

"What's your name?"

The young man in the cool white daoist robe asked.

"Guardian of the Dao of Du Cang Mountain, Offering Elder of Qingchan Peak of Kongshan Sect, Li Haowen!"

Li Haowen answered.

"So you're from the Kongshan Sect. In that case, you could be considered my junior."

The young man nodded.

"So, who exactly are you..."

"You may call me Sage Bai, but in this domain heavens, they might be more familiar with my other identity..."

The young man in the cool white daoist robe said with a smile.

"True Person Kongmiao, Yan Yunhe."

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