I, a cultivator, have ended up in the world of tomb raiding.

"ah--"

A piercing scream shattered the silence of the underground palace.

Li Yue and Hong Guniang paused their research on the centipede and immediately looked ahead.

One of the Xieling brothers had pus oozing from his exposed skin, as if he had been doused with scalding hot wax.

In the blink of an eye, the man's entire face rapidly festered and dissolved, and his hands and feet also melted, oozing a foul-smelling liquid, making him look utterly gruesome.

The change came too suddenly and unexpectedly. Before everyone could react, two more people screamed and fell to the ground, their bodies melting and decaying at a visible speed.

Those who were infected were terrified. Pus kept gushing from their mouths and noses. At first, they could still cry for help, but soon they could not make a sound and could only desperately grab onto their companions.

In the blink of an eye, his outstretched arm began to fester and rot, and he watched helplessly as his limbs, like wax heated to the touch, turned into pus inch by inch.

The bandits were terrified and stood frozen in place, completely at a loss for what to do.

In that brief moment of distraction, another person's head rotted away and shriveled up.

Before the headless corpse could fall to the ground, it too dissolved and disintegrated, leaving only a piece of empty clothing lying on the ground, with a pool of foul-smelling pus underneath.

A living person vanished without a trace in an instant, and no one could see what caused it.

Heart-wrenching wails and screams echoed throughout the hall.

In a panic, someone pulled the trigger in all directions, and gunfire erupted as bullets flew everywhere.

In an instant, several more people fell to the hail of bullets fired by their accomplices.

In the blink of an eye, the bandits who followed Chen Yulou down the cliff had suffered heavy casualties.

Just then, a series of soft rustling sounds suddenly came from inside the gloomy hall, the sounds eerie yet clear.

Li Yue looked in the direction of the sound.

Suddenly, many centipedes, spiders, and geckos emerged from the gaps in the beams and pillars of the palace.

The insect has bright red stripes on its back, clearly indicating that it carries a rare poison.

Especially those large centipedes with colorful patterns, the smaller ones are only a little over an inch long, while the larger ones are four or five inches long, crawling out and flowing downwards.

Some of the venomous insects, with clear saliva still dripping from their mouths, crawled rustlingly into the clothes stained with pus and sucked up the pus.

Upon seeing the overwhelming swarm of poisonous insects, the bandits were so terrified that their legs trembled and their minds went blank; they had no power to resist whatsoever.

"Don't fire indiscriminately! And don't touch any insects!" Li Yue shouted in a deep voice, his voice drowning out the chaos.

"Run towards the palace gate!"

As he spoke, he threw out the crumbling Yuan Blade in his hand.

He lifted a broken section of ladder from the ground with his toes and swept it out, swatting away a swarm of poisonous insects that rushed towards him.

The broken ladder was torn apart at some unknown time, which also snapped many of the rotten wooden rafters in the hall and brought down the lime between the bricks and tiles.

At this moment, Li Yue swept it away, and a fan-shaped white smoke instantly flew up.

These centipedes and venomous insects are still mortals after all. Their instincts and bodies are afraid of lime. When they are choked by the lime powder, they twist their bellies and die in no time.

The splashing lime caused the poisonous insects to scatter, clearing a space.

Chen Yulou, who was being protected by the burly, mute Kunlun Mole, immediately glanced towards the palace gate upon hearing this.

He immediately shouted, "All brothers! Charge towards the temple gate!"

The bandits were completely bewildered at this point. They had been somewhat tempted by Li Yue's commanding presence earlier, but...

But they were people from Changsheng Mountain after all, and they only recognized the orders of their own chief, so they simply surrounded and protected their leader.

Upon hearing Chen Yulou's words and seeing that there was indeed a safe gap in front of Li Yue, the bandits dared not hesitate and rushed towards the palace gate.

Unexpectedly, another "crashing" sound came from above.

It turned out that too many of the wooden rafters along the edge of the hole had fallen off and could no longer support the weight of the rafters, causing one of the crossbeams to collapse.

The roof of the palace, already weathered by time and constantly eroded by wind and rain, had been infested for many years by countless centipedes and venomous insects, leaving it riddled with holes and rotten inside.

Unable to hold on any longer, it snapped with a loud crash, carrying with it many broken tiles and rotten wood that slid down from beside the main beam and crashed straight down towards the bandits below.

Desperate to save lives, the mute Kunlun immediately adopted a horse stance, striking a pose reminiscent of Pangu creating the world.

With his arms reaching for the sky and his feet firmly planted on the ground, he managed to keep the falling wooden beam suspended in mid-air.

This beam is one of the nine horizontal and eight vertical beams on the roof of the palace. Although it is not the central beam, it is still several arm spans thick.

The mute Kunlun's body was slammed downwards by the force, and the lantern hanging on his chest was swept by the strong wind, causing the candlelight to flicker wildly and almost go out.

He was fighting so hard, risking his life, to create a way out for Chen Yulou.

Upon seeing this, the bandits immediately risked their lives to drag their leader away, smashed open the palace doors, and violently pulled him out.

The cracking and splintering sounds around us grew increasingly louder.

Someone's lantern was thrown to the ground. With a loud bang, the oil in the lantern exploded and caught fire, directly igniting the dry leaves and clothes on the ground.

The entire underground palace became even more chaotic.

Luo Laowai's two personal guards were so frightened that they were no longer as slick as when they complained. They just ran around with their heads in their hands.

In a panic, a man ran blindly and was crawled onto his trouser leg by several poisonous centipedes. In an instant, he covered his face and screamed in agony as his flesh rapidly festered and melted away.

The other person was so frightened that he collapsed to the ground, defecating and urinating, and dared not move an inch.

Ignoring these people, Li Yue charged through the lime smoke all the way to the side hall entrance.

Hong Guniang was originally running away behind him, but perhaps she noticed that Chen Yulou rushed straight back to the main hall.

In a moment of panic, he decided to turn back and save the person.

Li Yue glanced back and saw Chen Yulou shake off the two thieves who were dragging him away, use another fallen beam as a temporary support to brace against the crossbeam, and then take the opportunity to grab the mute Kunlun, freeing him from under the beam.

Seeing this, Li Yue knew that the two could handle it, so he tried to pull Hong Gu Niang away and let her go out first.

But Hong Guniang watched helplessly as the leader and the mute were in danger, and she refused to leave.

Fortunately, the two of them had already escaped, so they covered their mouths and noses and waited at the palace gate.

Li Yue was slightly surprised to see that none of them were willing to leave.

In his previous life, he lived in the dog-eat-dog world of cultivation. When faced with a crisis or a powerful enemy, it was common for him to push his companions out to shield them from harm or to act as bait.

So when he woke up in this world and found himself being used as bait, he wasn't particularly angry or surprised.

It's truly rare to see such "brotherhood" among these grave robbers.

However, upon further reflection, I realized that before I transmigrated to the cultivation world, I was a law-abiding citizen. Now that I've become like this, it really shows how unpredictable life can be.

But now is not the time for sentimentality.

Whether these people were genuinely acting out of loyalty or fearing that something might happen to their leader and the consequences would be unbearable, it had little to do with him.

A quick glance inside revealed a new notification on the panel:

[The devouring is complete]

[The requirements for the Devouring level have been met; progress is being updated.]

Current level: Tier 2 (8/100)

[System panel upgrade in progress...]

Upgrade successful! Unlocked the dedicated "Personal Information" page, basic attribute visualization enabled.

[Reward: One Spirit Edge Azure Sword, its blade imbued with pure and evil spiritual light, specifically designed to subdue demons]

The magical artifact is now bound to you; you can summon it with a mere thought.