Start from Panlong and kill through the heavens

Deep within Tianluo Valley, mist, like gauze, clung to the withered, dark branches.

The ghost following behind Luo Tianwu floated silently, its form resembling a wisp of smoke about to die, sometimes coalescing into a blurry human shape, and sometimes dispersing into thousands of gray-white strands.

Its face remained obscured, with only two faint blue lights flickering in its eye sockets, like flickering candles in the dead of night.

The wind swept through the valley, causing the ghost's clothes to flutter gently without making a sound.

As Rean and his companions continued deeper into the valley, it suddenly stopped.

It hovered on the edge of the cliff, its toes barely touching the ground, each step seeming as if it were treading on invisible steps. Occasionally, a night bird would be startled and fly through its body, leaving a layer of fine frost on its feathers.

It gazed for a long time at a spot in the valley where a rusted sword lay buried.

Whenever moonlight pierced through the clouds, the blade would glow with a faint blood-red light, and the ghostly blue flames would tremble violently, as if roaring silently. The mist was stirred by its emotions, churning like boiling water, only to return to deathly silence in an instant.

A stray hare suddenly froze and collapsed, ice crystals forming on its fur—the ghost had just been withdrawn from its body. The two points of blue fire flickered contentedly for a moment, then dimmed, continuing their eternal lingering wait for the next living creature.

Rean certainly detected the ghost, but since it didn't make a move, he was too lazy to do so either. After all, the ghost's strength was at most at the Dou Wang level, posing no threat to him whatsoever.

As they ventured deeper into the valley, Rean detected more and more ghosts, including even blood-red ghosts.

The blood mist condensed into a semi-transparent humanoid shape deep within the rift valley, with its skeletal right hand dripping thick blood plasma.

As the thing drifted past the withered ghost claw tree, the bark instantly burst into bloody blisters, the cracking sound startling Luo Tianwu into taking a half-step back. His knuckles gripping the sword turned white, and the soul-suppressing talisman on the scabbard spontaneously combusted without wind, oozing charred blood beads from the ashes.

The ghost's chest cavity suddenly collapsed into a vortex, and hundreds of human faces rose and fell beneath the blood-red membrane.

Luo Tianwu seemed to hear his mother's dying cough coming from the vortex, and a metallic taste suddenly welled up in his throat.

He bit his tongue to force himself to stay awake, only to find fine beads of blood seeping from the blue rock beneath his feet, reflecting the distorted starry sky above.

As the ghost raised its skeletal left arm, the mist in the entire valley began to boil.

When Luo Tianwu's clothes were stained with splattered blood, the fabric immediately turned to ash, but his skin felt as if it were being pierced by ice needles.

He spun around and unleashed seven sword beams. As the sword energy cleaved the ghost's waist and abdomen, the scattered blood droplets condensed in the air into barbs that shot back and embedded themselves into the stone wall with a hissing sound like a venomous snake spitting its tongue.

The ghost's neck suddenly stretched three zhang (approximately 10 meters), its jawbone split into four pieces, and its gushing blood was filled with teeth that looked like shattered jade.

The clinking of those jade teeth produced a clear, melodious sound, and Luo Tianwu's mind was instantly filled with images of a valley full of blooming red spider lilies. He staggered, using his sword as a crevice, the blood flowing from his ear leaving scorch marks on the hilt—only then did he realize that the fragrance of flowers was mixed with the pungent, sweet smell of rotting corpses.

Only then did Luo Tianwu realize that he and Li En had been separated. He didn't know if it was due to the power in the valley or if the two of them wanted to get rid of him and go to find the Douluo Temple first.

"Hmph! Without me, even if you find the temple, you won't be able to get in!" Luo Tianwu sneered inwardly. He was a descendant of the Douluo God-King, and although his current strength was only a three-star Dou Wang, as a noble descendant of a God-King, he was naturally filled with arrogance.

Of course, in this terrifying place, his arrogance quickly turned into fear. Every ghost here possessed the strength of a Battle King, so he couldn't help but be afraid. At this moment, Rean and Yunluo had already entered the depths of the valley, but in reality, they had separated. However, Rean did this on purpose. With his strong will and temperament, no illusion could affect him. But Yunluo seemed to have been affected and was now trapped in a cave at the bottom of the valley.

Rean checked on Luo Tianwu and Yunluo through the detector, and then walked straight toward a dilapidated temple in the detector.

The temple was located at the deepest part of Tianluo Valley, where the valley floor was filled with the stench of decaying leaves, and nine broken dragon pillars were stuck diagonally in the gray-blue floor tiles.

Moss climbed up the bronze statue with half of its face remaining, its dark, deep-set eyes still gazing at the light filtering through the cracks in the dome.

The glazed tiles scattered around the statue's feet were covered in ochre rust, reflecting a ghostly glow in the darkness.

Behind the collapsed altar, half of a silk painting rustled in the draft. The sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes of the halberd-wielding celestial general in the painting were mottled by wormholes, yet they still exuded a piercing sharpness.

Vines hang from the broken dome, entwining the caisson ceiling that was originally painted with the twenty-eight constellations. Withered violet flowers hang like dried blood drops in front of the sorrowful eyes of the goddess in the mural.

The bronze lamps at the corner of the palace collapsed to the ground, the luminous pearl held in the mouth of the serpentine candlestick long since covered in dust. The sound of intermittent dripping water came from the underground drain, mixed with the faint sound of some kind of rodent gnawing on rotten wood, startling the gray-feathered falcon perched among the broken beams, which opened its bright yellow eyes.

As it swept across the statue's broken, gilded crown, it lifted a few pieces of gold foil clinging to the eyebrows, revealing the dark brown, decayed wood grain beneath.

Dark red lichen sprouted from the cracks in the stone steps, spreading along the grooves worn smooth by believers kneeling in worship, like scabs forming on ancient wounds.

As dusk seeps through the holes in the west wall's diamond pattern, the stone carvings of the tomb guardian beasts, covered in moss, open their empty eye sockets in the slanting sunlight, and shadows weave spiderwebs between their cracked fangs.

Rean quickly arrived in front of the temple. Through the temple, he could see inside and there was a terrifying Blood Ghost King. The Blood Ghost King's strength was probably at least at the peak of the Dou Huang realm.

Rean's strength is currently being suppressed too much, and he may not be able to defeat the Blood Ghost King, so he decided to wait for Yunluo to arrive.

Yunluo was, after all, a peak Douhuang expert. Even though she was briefly trapped in the illusion, those ghosts were no match for her and naturally could not harm her life.

After some time of searching, Yunluo finally found the ancient and dilapidated temple by following the map, and of course, she also saw Rean waiting outside the temple.

Yunluo looked surprised. She never expected that Li En would arrive before her. Moreover, Li En was dressed in white and showed no signs of fighting, which meant that he had arrived here very smoothly.

In comparison, she looked rather disheveled.

"Master Chen is indeed very capable." Yunluo said with a charming smile, and instantly appeared beside Li En.

Rean glanced politely at the other person's chest before looking at their face. "How's your skill? Senior Yunluo, would you like to give it a try?"

"I'd like to try, but this place might not be suitable," Yunluo chuckled, her eyes radiating an astonishing allure.

"Isn't it even more exciting here?" Rean chuckled, his eyes gleaming with amusement. (End of Chapter)