Mortal: Starting with the Falling Cloud Sect, I proved my Dao through gacha pulls.

Su Mu withdrew his gaze from the petrified demon corpses, feeling both regret that the spirit herbs in the spirit herb garden had been completely destroyed and that these high-level demon corpses were now completely petrified and of no use whatsoever.

Jin Qing and Hu Yue showed no regret whatsoever. They walked straight to the pile of spirit stones, their eyes shining as they gazed at the mountain of stones.

"After searching for most of the day, we finally found some valuable items. I never expected that this demon's lair would contain so many spirit stones!"

Hu Yue held up a handful of spirit stones with both hands, grinned, and was overjoyed.

Jin Qing picked up a piece of barren stone devoid of spiritual energy, looked around the cave, and seemed to be deep in thought.

"I don't know if these spirit stones were collected by the demon beasts themselves, or if they were originally hidden here, which is why they attracted so many demons to linger. It's just a pity that most of them have had their spiritual energy drained and have become useless stones."

Su Mu casually picked up a few spirit stones and stroked them. Compared to ordinary spirit stones, he was more concerned about whether there were ancient treasures hidden in the ruins, and immediately made a suggestion.

"Let's divide these spirit stones first. There are still many places in this area that we haven't explored yet, and there may be some we've missed."

The three immediately used their magic to empty the entire Spirit Stone Mountain, each receiving over 50,000 low-grade spirit stones, and were all completely satisfied.

"This was a real windfall; hopefully, there will be more opportunities elsewhere!"

Hu Yue patted the bulging storage bag, her face full of excitement, eager to continue exploring immediately.

"In that case, let's set off immediately!"

The group immediately activated their escape lights and began a thorough search of the entire ruins.

Half an hour later.

When Su Mu and his companions arrived at the broken section of the ruins, they had already searched all the other areas of the ruins. Apart from the ruins and fragments of weapons scattered everywhere, they had not even found half a jade slip containing the inheritance.

After a thorough search, the group discovered something amiss. This place was not a complete sect ruin, but rather a fragment of an ancient sect that had broken off, with incomplete buildings and an incomplete layout.

The land before them, severed by supreme divine power, perfectly confirmed their suspicions: this was the last place they had never set foot in.

Before them stood a towering, entirely black pavilion, thirteen stories high, shaped like a pagoda, exuding a solemn aura.

The area behind the tower was completely severed by supreme divine power, with the severance extending all the way to the boundary of the ruins. However, the pavilion itself remained intact, with a smooth and spotless ground, standing out starkly against the surrounding devastated ruins.

As Su Mu and his companions traveled, they found traces of the mirage demons lurking everywhere in the ruins, but this particular area remained untouched by the demons, giving it an air of mystery and unpredictability.

"There's probably something strange about this place, so please be careful."

Upon seeing this, the group became wary, summoned their magical artifacts to protect themselves, and slowly stepped into this territory.

As soon as Su Mu stepped into the ten-zhang range of the tower, he felt his divine sense being strongly suppressed, only able to leave his body by half a zhang, and could no longer penetrate the building even a fraction of the way.

It was as if he was carrying a thousand-pound shackle. He tried to take off, but was pulled back to the ground by an invisible force, and his escape light could not be activated at all.

"This place actually has both a divine sense restriction and a flight restriction!"

The group exchanged glances, their expressions a mixture of solemnity and hidden joy. Such tight security indicated a highly dangerous place, but it also held immense opportunities.

Su Mu ordered his clone to clear the way, while he secretly held the Qiankun Disc in his palm, ready to teleport away immediately if he sensed any unusual activity.

Upon entering the main hall on the first floor of the pavilion, the first thing everyone saw was a giant stone platform standing in the hall, but the statues on the platform had long since disappeared.

Apart from that, the hall was empty except for a few prayer cushions, with nothing else inside.

The group went forward to examine the cushions closely, but found them to be ordinary objects with nothing mysterious about them. They circled the stone platform several times, but found nothing.

The group exchanged glances and immediately went up the stairs to explore the upper floors.

As soon as they turned the corner of the stairs and stepped onto the second floor, they saw a Taoist boy dressed in a black robe standing there quietly. He wore a jade hairpin in his hair, clasped his hands together, and had a strange smile on his face, staring straight at everyone.

Su Mu and the others were startled and took a half step back in unison, realizing that they had not noticed any living beings here.

"Who are you, sir?!"

Jin Qing's expression changed drastically, and he instantly suspended the golden seal above his head, almost smashing it down.

But the young Taoist priest remained motionless, standing frozen in place with a strange smile.

"Don't try to play tricks on me!"

Upon seeing this, Hu Yue's heart tightened, and she immediately activated her flying knife, which shot out. The moment the magic weapon touched the Daoist boy, his body disintegrated and turned into ashes.

"It's just a corpse?"

Everyone was stunned. Just now, when they were so close, the corpse was indistinguishable from a living person except for the lack of any cultivation aura. It was so lifelike that it was truly bizarre.

However, after confirming that there was no one else around, the group breathed a sigh of relief and quickly stepped into the second-floor hall.

The second floor was much smaller than the first floor. Inside the hall were three jade trays, all empty. Scattered around were many figures, some sitting cross-legged, others standing quietly, each with a smiling face, lifelike as if they were alive.

This time, instead of damaging the corpses, the group approached them for a closer examination. They found that the corpses were completely intact, without a single wound, but all of them had eerie smiles on their faces, and their deaths were extremely bizarre.

The group frowned, and seeing that there were no treasures left on the second floor, they immediately turned around and continued climbing the stairs.

As you ascend several floors, the scene remains identical. Each floor contains only three empty jade plates, surrounded by corpses with eerie smiles, and nothing else.

The view only changed after reaching the twelfth floor.

This floor was not littered with corpses, but only half of a black skeleton stood silently in the hall. In the center of the hall, on the left tray among the three jade plates, there was a jade-colored lingzhi mushroom the size of a human head.

Jin Qing and Hu Yue's eyes were immediately drawn to the Ganoderma lucidum, and their faces lit up with joy.

Only Su Mu's gaze remained wary as he fixed his eyes on the pitch-black skeleton. The skeleton was completely gone above the chest, the broken edges jagged and uneven, as if something had gnawed it away.

He raised his hand and activated the Azure Wave Mace, slamming it down heavily. It instantly shattered the black skeleton, and only when no remnant soul was seen dissipating did he feel slightly relieved.

Startled by the commotion, Jin Qing and Hu Yue quickly turned to look, asking in surprise, "Fellow Daoist Xiao, have you noticed anything amiss?"

Just as Su Mu was about to shake his head, his gaze suddenly froze. He saw countless black needle-like objects, as thin as hair, scattered among the broken bones.

His gaze sharpened, and he quickly stepped forward to examine it closely. He discovered that the skeleton was not actually black, but rather covered with strange black objects. He immediately activated his divine sense to investigate further.

"It looks more like... an insect corpse?"

Su Mu examined them for a moment and was surprised to find that these thread-like black things were actually the remains of some kind of spirit insect after it died.

Suddenly, as if struck by a thought, he swiftly retrieved the jade slip containing the ancient spirit insect from the Thousand Hearts Sect. Recalling the strange corpses in the building, his pupils constricted, and he exclaimed in shock:

"It's a Nether Dust Insect!"

"Netherworld Worm?"

Jin Qing and Hu Yue exchanged a glance, their faces blank, completely unaware of what kind of ferocious creature this insect was.

Instead of immediately answering their questions, Su Mu looked up at the entire black pavilion, and a horrifying thought suddenly surged into his mind.