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

He opened his eyes and jumped down.

A black mist enveloped him, cold and damp. He descended along the rock face, his fingertips gripping protruding rocks, and with a few leaps, he landed at the bottom of the valley.

The valley floor was more expansive than what was seen from above. An underground river flowed from between the rock walls, its water black with a faint, dark blue glow, silently flowing deeper into the valley. Scattered along the riverbanks were even more skeletons—some ancient, already turned to ash; others still bearing traces of dried blood, suggesting they hadn't been there long.

Lin Qiye walked downstream along the underground river.

After walking for about half an hour, the river ended in front of a huge stone wall. In the center of the wall was a stone door—carved from a single piece of black stone, more than two zhang high, its surface covered with densely packed runes. He didn't recognize all the runes, but several of them were exactly the same as the patterns in the notes of the Gu family's ancestors.

The stone gate was open.

It wasn't pushed open, but pried open from the outside—there was a deep pry mark on the right side of the door, and the rock at the edge was broken, as if someone had used brute force to force a crack open.

Lin Qiye stood in front of the door, his gaze falling on the pry mark.

The pry marks are very fresh.

He turned sideways and squeezed through the crack in the door.

Behind the door was a huge stone chamber. In the center of the chamber stood a stone pillar as thick as two people could hug, its shaft also covered with runes, stretching from bottom to top. At the base of the pillar was a fist-sized groove—the shape of which he recognized.

Zhenyuan Seal.

Someone took the object embedded in the stone pillar.

Lin Qiye crouched down to examine the groove. The runes on the edge of the groove had faded, but a faint, fluorescent blue light still remained—exactly the same faint light he had seen in the crevice and in the Dry Bone Ridge.

He stood up and glanced around the stone chamber.

In the corner of the stone chamber lay a tattered leather bag. He picked it up and opened it—inside were several pieces of bone, a broken token, and a roll of paper wrapped in oilcloth.

The scroll unfolds to reveal a letter.

The letter was addressed to "Crow," and it was signed without a name, only with a symbol—a sun disc with a vertical pupil in the center.

The emblem of the temple.

The letter contained only two lines: "The seventh location is in hand. The seal has been retrieved from Old Dragon Abyss, the Valley of No Return has been sealed, and we will meet at the Holy Temple after this is accomplished."

Lin Qiye held the letter, his gaze darkening.

The seventh location is already in hand.

The valley is sealed off.

We will meet at the temple.

The person behind Blood Raven, the one who wrote the letter, used the emblem of the Holy Temple. And they were already taking the seal of Old Dragon Abyss and sealing the entrance to No Return Valley—of the seven sealing points, they had already pried them open to the last few.

He put the letter away, then picked up the tattered token from his leather bag and glanced at it—the front of the token was engraved with "Purification," and the back with the horned symbol.

It was the same set of items as the iron plaque that Gu Chen gave him.

He held the two tokens and stood in front of the stone pillar with its runes dimmed, remaining silent for a long time.

The earliest members of the Purification Division were the guardians of the seal. Why are their tokens and keepsakes here, along with those who broke the seal?

Either there's a traitor in the Purification Department.

Alternatively, the person who broke the seal was originally from the Purification Division.

He carefully put away the token and letter, and without lingering, retreated from Old Dragon Abyss along the same route.

By the time we got back to the valley entrance, it was already dark.

He stood at the edge of the black mist at the valley entrance, glancing back at the valley floor. The pry mark, the groove, the letter—they all told him one thing: Blood Raven's movements were much faster than he had imagined.

The seventh location is already in hand.

If all seven sealing points are breached...

He recalled a sentence from the Gu family ancestor's notes: "Once that thing is released, there will be no living beings left in the entire Lost Land, or even further afield."

He did not return to the holy city.

He went to the Valley of No Return.

The Valley of No Return is located west of the Holy City, closer than the Old Dragon Abyss. As its name suggests, very few who enter return.

When Lin Qiye arrived at Wuhui Valley, it was already evening of the third day.

The valley entrance was equally narrow, with rock walls on both sides even higher than those of the Old Dragon Abyss, almost completely obscuring the sky. The black fog at the bottom of the valley was even thicker, making it impossible to see the bottom; only the sound of the wind echoing through the canyon like a sob.

There was no one guarding the entrance to the valley.

He was about to go in when he suddenly stopped.

On the gravelly ground outside the valley entrance lay a dozen or so corpses—not weathered skeletons, but fresh bodies, the blood still wet. They wore dark short coats made of blood crows, each with a different manner of death: some had their necks snapped by something, some had caved-in chests, and some had their faces rotten.

It was as if something had killed them in a very short time.

Lin Qiye squatted down and examined a corpse.

He recognized the aura emanating from the wound—a cold, metallic aura. It was exactly the same as the aura emanating from the wounds of the beast corpses in the underground passages of Dry Bone Ridge.

He stood up, his gaze fixed on the valley entrance.

In the Valley of No Return, besides the Blood Ravens, there are other things.

Moreover, that thing had just killed someone and hadn't gone far.

Without hesitation, he stepped inside.

The bottom of the Valley of No Return is deeper and darker than the Old Dragon Abyss.

The black fog was as thick as ink, obscuring any figure beyond three zhang (approximately 10 meters). Lin Qiye moved forward along the rock wall, his feet treading on slippery gravel, occasionally stepping on a broken bone with a soft cracking sound. The deeper he went, the stronger the cold, metallic aura became, as if something awaited him ahead.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, the road ahead suddenly lit up.

It was neither firelight nor primordial energy—it was a pale, cold light that shone up from the depths of the valley, making the black mist appear bluish.

Lin Qiye slowed his pace, pressed himself against the last section of the rock wall, and peered down.

At the deepest part of the valley, there was a wide open space. In the center of the open space stood a runic stone pillar exactly like the one in the old Dragon Abyss—the pillar was covered with runes, and there was a fist-sized groove at the bottom.

The groove is empty. The Zhenyuan Seal has been removed.

But what caught Lin Qiye's attention was not that pillar.

It's the person next to the pillar.

A figure dressed in a greyish-white robe stood with his back to him in front of the pillar. The man was thin, with long greyish-white hair falling over his shoulders, making it impossible to tell his age. He was raising his hand and pressing it against the runes on the stone pillar, his fingertips glowing with a very faint, fluorescent blue light.

That cold, metallic aura emanated from him.

"Come out," the man suddenly spoke, his voice low but clear enough to pierce the black mist. "I smelled your scent the moment you entered the valley."

Lin Qiye did not move.

"You smell clean," the man said. "Unlike the Blood Ravens, who reek of blood. Nor like the Temple. Which side are you on?"

"Neither way," Lin Qiye said, stepping out from behind the rock wall and standing at the edge of the clearing. "I'm here to look for something. What about you?"