In a high-level martial arts game, a wife is given to you at the start.

Lin Qiye did not resist falling.

He let himself fall, his gaze fixed on the dark area deep within the crevice. His senses formed an invisible shield around him, keeping out the scorching air and corrosive mist. His robes fluttered in the air currents, while the dark gold emblem on his palm warmed slightly, as if echoing something deep within the crevice.

After falling for about a hundred feet, the width of the crevice suddenly narrowed.

The rock walls on both sides were almost touching, leaving only a narrow crevice barely wide enough for one person to pass through. Lin Qiye slightly turned his body, touched the rock wall with his toes to slow his descent, and then slid sideways into the crevice, continuing downwards. The rock walls on both sides of the crevice were covered with fine patterns, which gleamed eerily under the dark red light, like remnants of some ancient script.

After falling another several dozen feet, the narrow crevice suddenly opened up.

He landed in a vast underground space.

This space was much wider than the basin above, with a dome tens of meters high, from which hung countless stalactite-like rock pillars, each gleaming with a dark red light, like inverted hearts slowly beating. The ground was a flat black rock platform, and in the center of the platform stood a completely black stone platform.

The air suddenly became quiet here.

There was no sound of wind, no gurgling of lava, and even his own breathing was exceptionally clear. Lin Qiye stood at the edge of the rock platform, his gaze slowly sweeping across the space. His senses spread out, and he encountered an extremely ancient restriction in this space—a restriction that was weak yet resilient, isolating the entire space from the outside world, like a city wall that had stood for countless years without collapsing.

On the stone platform, a desiccated corpse sat cross-legged.

The mummified corpse was dressed in extremely ancient clothing, the style of which belonged to the same era as the hieroglyphs Lin Qiye had seen on the ancient stele. Its skin was completely dry and shriveled, clinging tightly to the bones, exhibiting a dark brown, waxy texture. Its hands were folded on its knees, in a peaceful posture, as if it were asleep.

Lin Qiye walked to the stone platform and looked down to examine the dried corpse carefully.

Although the mummified corpse's clothing was ancient, its craftsmanship was extremely exquisite—the collar and cuffs of its robes were embroidered with dark gold patterns, identical to those on the rock pillars in this space. A jade pendant hung at its waist, and the symbol engraved on its surface was the same pattern on the emblem in its palm—two curved horns, crossed and guarding a sun disc.

Before his death, this person was a close confidant of that ancient being.

Lin Qiye's gaze fell on the wall behind the dried corpse.

The wall was densely covered with runes. Not the fluorescent blue runes of the altars in the Azure Bone Mountains, nor the hieroglyphs of the ancient steles, but a more ancient and obscure symbolism, like a direct expression of information beyond language. Layer upon layer of runes stretched from the base of the wall to the dome, gleaming faintly in the dark red light.

In the very center of the wall, all the runes converge into the same huge pattern—the same horns and sun disc as those on the jade pendant at his waist and the emblem on his palm.

Lin Qiye's pupils contracted slightly.

He looked again at the mummified corpse on the stone platform. The corpse's chest was slightly bulging, as if it were hiding something. He reached out and gently touched the corpse's robe with his fingertips. The moment the robe touched his fingertips, it shattered into dust like weathered leaves, revealing the corpse's chest.

Inside the mummified corpse's chest cavity lay a crystal the size of an infant's fist.

The crystal was dark gold.

Unlike the fluorescent blue crystal core in the altar of the Canggu Mountains, its color was closer to the blood demon power within Lin Qiye's body, closer to the light patterns sealed within the fragment, and closer to the light of the emblem in his palm. The crystal's surface showed no energy fluctuations, resembling an ordinary stone. However, Lin Qiye could sense that within this crystal, a very faint aura, of the same origin as his, lay dormant.

He reached out and gently picked up the crystal.

The moment he held the crystal, an extremely blurry image flashed through his mind—

A man dressed in ancient attire knelt in this underground space, dissecting his heart and placing the dark golden crystal into his chest cavity. He then sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and awaited death. Over the long years, his body gradually withered and weathered, eventually becoming a desiccated corpse. But the crystal in his chest cavity remained unchanged, as if protected by some force, transcending endless ages.

The image disappeared.

Lin Qiye held the crystal and looked down at the peaceful face of the dried corpse.

He suddenly understood.

This mummified corpse was not a victim of contamination.

He did it voluntarily.

He used his own life to seal something within this crystal, burying it deep within this underground space, waiting for someone who could bear it to arrive.

And Lin Qiye is that person.

His hand slowly clenched, feeling the faint warmth emanating from the crystal. That warmth seemed to linger across countless years, carrying a silent entrustment.

Just then, a violent tremor suddenly shook the dome of the underground space. Countless fragments of rock fell from the dome, crashing to the ground and sending sparks flying. Immediately afterward, a deep, guttural sound, like the groan of the earth, echoed from even deeper within—

That was the sound of something awakening.

Lin Qiye raised his head and looked in the direction from which the sound came.

The moment that low groan subsided, a crack slowly opened in the rock wall at the end of the underground space. Deep within the crack, a viscous, dark red light shone, like a giant eye slowly opening.

The black rock platform beneath Lin Qiye's feet began to tremble violently.

He quickly retreated several feet, his gaze fixed on the crevice in the rock wall. The crevice widened at a visible speed, and countless small pieces of stone peeled away from the edges, revealing a surging dark red ball of light inside.

Within the ball of light, one could vaguely see a massive outline writhing.

Its outline resembled a giant heart, its surface covered with dark red veins, each pulsating, each pulsation causing the entire underground space to tremble. Countless tentacles extended from the top of the heart, the ends of which were open mouthparts filled with fine teeth, like an open carnivorous flower.

The tentacles slowly unfurled in the air, as if they had been asleep for far too long and were rediscovering the world. They didn't stretch towards Lin Qiye; instead, they all leaned slightly towards the location of the crystal, as if paying homage to a familiar direction.

Lin Qiye felt a burning sensation from the crystal in his palm.

The crystal seemed to come alive, resisting something—or rather, calling out to something.

"You've finally arrived..."