Starting as the heir of a marquis's mansion, I gained access to a summoning system.

Wan Wujiu's voice came from the back of his body, soft and effeminate like a snake shedding its skin, carrying thirty years of accumulated resentment and a hint of confident composure.

Wu Wudi was the first to turn around, his broken sword held horizontally in front of his chest. The cloth wrapped around the hilt was already soaked in blood, turning a dark reddish-black. He took a step back, his boot crushing a piece of charred bone.

"After hiding for thirty years, you've finally come in today." He spat out a mouthful of blood.

Wan Wujiu's voice was so close it seemed to be right next to everyone's ear: "I'm not here to kill you. I'm here to tell you that there's no way forward. The only one who knows how to get there is me."

The chamber was quiet for a moment, with only the sound of marrow fluid dripping from the bone wall.

Dongfang Wei did not turn around. The marrow fire on the dark gold longsword illuminated several feet in front of him, but the firelight could not penetrate the deep marrow passage behind him. He put his left hand behind his back and gestured to Lin Xiaoman to "lean against the wall".

Lin Xiaoman silently retreated to the bone wall. The wound on her left palm began to bleed again. She clenched her fist to prevent the blood from dripping onto the ground.

Yan Fei held his sword horizontally across his chest. The sword was dull, yet it forced the poisonous mist several feet behind him to swirl backward. Another layer of grayish-white powder settled around the edge of the crack between his brows, but his grip on the sword remained remarkably steady.

Chuan Ying stood at the very front, shoulder to shoulder with Wu Wudi. His palms hung slightly, and a faint blade aura emanated from his fingertips, causing strands of energy to flutter down from his sleeves.

"No way out?" Wu Wudi grinned, pointing his broken sword at the darkness behind him. "Wan Wujiu, when your leg was broken by Lu Moshen thirty years ago, did you also deceive people and clear a path for you like this?"

There was no response in the darkness.

A moment later, a small, snow-white beast emerged from the marrow passage. The creature landed silently, and where its four paws passed, the marrow fluid on the bone walls receded slightly. It stopped at the edge of the cavity and squeaked softly towards the east.

No one from Wan Wujiu appeared.

His voice resounded from deeper within: "Wu Wudi, the three drops of marrow fluid in your body haven't dissolved, and your meridians are in turmoil. Yan Fei's brow is already split, and his sword domain won't last more than a quarter of an hour. Chuan Ying has seven hidden injuries in his meridians, and his sword intent is exhausted. As for that little girl behind you—"

He paused, then lowered his voice: "Her blood smells wonderful; you can smell it throughout the entire corridor."

Lin Xiaoman's expression remained unchanged; she simply tucked her left hand further into her sleeve.

"And since I dared to chase after them alone," Wan Wujiu said, "I naturally have ways to prevent the marrow channel from recognizing me as an enemy. You think the marrow channel in this coccyx only recognizes the skeletons of gods and demons? You're wrong. It only recognizes 'sacrifices'."

The faces of everyone in the chamber darkened.

"Thirty years ago, I sent seventeen people to follow Demon God Lü into the corridor. They didn't return, but they weren't all dead either." Wan Wujiu's voice seemed to come from all directions. "What do you think those three corrupted beings you killed were? Those were the weakest three. There are fourteen more ahead of them, with higher realms and deeper corruption, already with Daoist Marrow. They won't attack me because I have the Lord's Seal of Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain on me; I am the one who controls the sacrifices."

Wu Wudi's expression changed slightly. He had indeed witnessed Wan Wujiu's methods of controlling ferocious beasts in the Myriad Star Domain.

Chuan Ying suddenly spoke up: "So you chased after me to avenge your sacrifices?"

"No." A hint of amusement crept into Wan Wujiu's voice. "I need one of you to clear a path for me. Those fourteen eroded beings aren't just blocking my way."

"The Bone Key," Dongfang Weiwo spoke. This was the first time he had spoken, and although his voice wasn't loud, everyone in the chamber heard him clearly. "You want the Bone Key."

Wan Wujiu was silent for a moment, then chuckled softly: "Young man, you're not stupid. The Bone Key is in your hands, and I don't know exactly who has it. But if you want to move forward, you'll definitely need it. I just need to follow you until you've cleaned up the fourteen layers of erosion before I take the key."

"On what grounds?" Yan Fei asked calmly.

"I know what lies beyond the fourteenth layer of erosion," Wan Wujiu said. "Back then, Demon God Lü divided the gate to the Ruins of Return into two parts. One part is in the Myriad Star Domain, and the other is in the Heavenly Martial Realm. The corridor is sandwiched in between. The Bone Key can only open the last section of the marrow cavity, but the last section of the marrow cavity has a 'Bone Core Lock,' which cannot be opened by anyone but the bloodline of the guardian. And next to the Bone Core Lock, there is a 'Bone-Eating Cavity' left by Demon God Lü himself. Anyone—including that kid with the divine and demonic skeleton of yours—whoever steps into it will have their bones and blood devoured, leaving not even a trace."

He paused. "I know the location of that cavity, the triggering conditions, and the only way to get around it. Thirty years ago, Demon God Lü didn't kill me because I explored that area for him. I survived, so I know."

"You're alive not because Lu Moshen is kind-hearted," Dongfang Weiwo said, "but because he needs someone to carry the message out."

Upon hearing this, Wan Wujiu fell silent.

Dongfang Weiwo turned around, his dark gold longsword stuck at his feet, the marrow fire slowly burning on the blade, casting an extremely long shadow.

"The reason you haven't dared to enter the corridor for thirty years isn't because you don't know the entrance. It's because once you step into the range of those fourteen layers of corrosive entities, the 'Master Seal of Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain' on your body won't be able to suppress them. The seventeen people you sent are no longer your sacrifices. What they've devoured is your seal."

Quiet.

Wan Wujiu did not refute.

"You just said they wouldn't attack you, that was a lie," Dongfang Weiwo said. "If they really wouldn't attack you, you would have already bypassed us and gotten to the Bone Core Lock. There's only one spinal cord passage in this coccyx; if you could pass through them, you wouldn't need to waste your breath talking to us here."

A very faint, cold laugh came from the darkness.

"You're not like Demon God Lü," Wan Wujiu said, his voice losing its usual confident composure for the first time. "Demon God Lü never talks much to people."

"He doesn't need to. He has the power to overturn the table," Dongfang Weiwo said. "I don't, so I need to make myself clear."

He drew his longsword, and the marrow fire surged forth. The dark golden flames swept away the poisonous mist in the chamber.

"Wu Wudi, lead the way. Yan Fei, cover the rear. Chuan Ying, protect Xiao Man. I'll take the Bone Key. Let's go forward."

"Wait a minute!" Wan Wujiu's voice suddenly became shrill. "That thing up ahead has woken up!"

The chamber shook violently.

Not from behind, but from the front. Deep within the marrow passage, a dense, almost tangible aura surged forth, carrying with it stardust from the Myriad Star Domain and the earthy smell of the Heavenly Martial Continent. The aura carried a low, bone-chilling rumble, as if something enormous had turned over in the deepest recesses of the marrow passage.

The marrow fluid on the bone walls suddenly began to seep out at an accelerated rate, making the entire cavity feel like the belly of an animal soaked in sweat, sticky and slippery. The charred bones on the ground cracked and split open, as if they had been stepped on by invisible feet.

Lin Xiaoman suddenly grabbed Dongfang Weiwo's sleeve, her lips moving, her voice soft and quick: "The blood on my left palm matches that thing in front of me. It recognizes the blood of the person guarding the sign."

Dongfang Weiwo's eyes narrowed: "How far?"

"Less than three hundred feet," Lin Xiaoman said, "still getting closer."

Three hundred zhang. Less than three hundred zhang ahead of the marrow passage.

Wu Wudi held the broken sword horizontally over his shoulder, a faint blood-red light gleaming on the blade: "Then we should move forward even more. Should we stand here and wait for that thing to come over so it can attack us from both sides with the snake behind us?"

"Not bad," Yan Fei said. His voice was calm, and grayish-white powder was falling from the crack between his brows, but he took a step forward, the tip of his sword pointing into the darkness, and his sword intent surged out like a tide.

Chuan Ying didn't speak, but simply clasped his hands together, and when he separated them, an extremely narrow and thin blade of air appeared between his palms, like a transparent line.

Dongfang Weiwo grabbed Lin Xiaoman, pulled her behind him, and followed closely behind.

Wan Wujiu's voice rang out from behind, carrying a strange urgency: "If you rush forward now, you'll be delivering food to that thing! I know its weakness—"

"You'd better speak quickly," Wu Wudi said, having already walked several feet away.

"Divine Demon Marrow Fluid," Wan Wujiu said. "It guards a piece of living marrow left behind by the Demon God Lü. The most effective treatment for it is bone marrow fire. But you only have marrow fire, not 'heart blood fire,' so you can't burn through its outer membrane. You need to lure it to a narrow spot first, forcing it to open its mouthparts so the marrow fire can—"

"Lead it to a narrow passage?" Dongfang Weiwo asked.

"Seventy feet ahead, there's a narrowing bone ring," Wan Wujiu said. "It will be stuck there for a moment. That's our chance."

Dongfang Wei didn't hesitate: "Xiaoman, give me the blood."

Lin Xiaoman offered her left hand; the wound on her palm had reopened, and a drop of blood, bluish-gold, seeped out. Dongfang Weiwo reached out his left hand and caught a drop, the blood landing in his palm. The Divine Demon Skeleton responded with a thunderous roar, a faint layer of blood-red light emanating from its dark gold surface.

He pressed it against the sword. The marrow fire contracted sharply, then surged three inches. The flame remained dark gold, but the core of the fire had gained a very faint blue hue.

"Walk."

The five rushed into the spinal canal ahead.

The darkness pressed in like a tangible force. The inner walls of the spinal canal, like the intestinal cavity of a living creature, contracted and expanded with each breath. Each contraction propelled them forward a short distance. The breath ahead grew stronger, and the low hum transformed into a clear "gurgling" sound, like a giant throat swallowing.

Seventy zhang, fifty zhang, thirty zhang.

A narrowing bone ring appeared ahead. The ring's walls bulged inward, allowing only two people to pass side by side. The edges of the bone ring were densely covered with inward-curving barbs, like rows of fangs.

And behind the bone ring, that thing came.

It resembled a giant python without skin, or a piece of "flesh" peeled from the inner wall of the spinal cord. Its entire body was grayish-white, covered by a translucent membrane beneath which one could see the outlines of countless human faces. Seventeen faces. Each one had a distorted mouth and eyes, its expression frozen in extreme fear and pain.

It had no eyes, no mouth or nose, but on its side facing east, a vertically slit-like mouth slowly opened. Inside the mouth were countless fine, interlocking rings of teeth, leading straight into its depths.

The moment its mouthparts opened, a nauseatingly sweet and pungent stench mixed with poisonous mist was expelled. Lin Xiaoman groaned and swayed. Chuan Ying reached out to support her, his other hand already wielding a blade of energy.

The air blade, like a streak of white light, struck the grayish-white outer membrane. The membrane dented and then bounced back, leaving only a very shallow mark.

"No, it's too thick," Chuan Ying said.

"Get out of the way."

Wu Wudi charged between the two men, raising his broken sword high above his head. His strike was devoid of any fancy moves; he poured all his strength, half a lifetime of martial arts, and the crushing power of three drops of marrow fluid into that broken sword.

The knife fell.

A deep tear, nearly halfway up the grayish-white membrane, appeared. The thing let out a sharp hiss, and its entire cavity vibrated. Its body writhed violently, sending Wu Wudi and his sword flying. The broken sword slipped from his hand, spun twice in the air, and embedded itself in the bone wall.

"Lure it over!" Dongfang Weiwo shouted. He stood in front of the bone ring, pushed Lin Xiaoman behind him, and held his dark gold longsword horizontally, the tip of the sword aimed at the center of the bone ring.

Enraged by Wu Wudi's strike, the creature charged forward at full speed. Its enormous body indeed got stuck when it squeezed into the bone ring. In that instant, its mandibles involuntarily opened to their maximum size, revealing a darker-colored "core" deep within.

Right now.

Dongfang Weiwo thrust out his longsword, its blade wreathed in the blue flames of marrow fire and Lin Xiaoman's blood. The tip of the sword precisely pierced the "core" deep within its mouthparts.

The thing suddenly froze.

Dark golden flames ignited from within. Like a pile of burning grease, it exploded with a "boom," its grayish-white outer membrane shattering into pieces. The outlines of the seventeen faces twisted and dissipated in the flames, like seventeen choked cries of anguish.

Flames engulfed the entire bone marrow passage. The marrow fluid on the bone walls evaporated, and the scalding air made it impossible to breathe.

A moment later, silence fell. Only a layer of grayish-white powder remained covering the spinal canal, like a snowfall.

The bone ring was mostly broken, but it was large enough for three people to stand side by side.

Wu Wudi got up from the ground and pulled the broken sword from the bone wall. He looked at the sword, then at Dongfang Weiwo, and grinned, "That sword of yours was quite interesting."

Dongfang Weiwo sheathed his sword and turned to look at Lin Xiaoman. Her lips were pale, but she was still conscious, haphazardly wiping the blood from her palm with the corner of her clothes.

"It's nothing," Lin Xiaoman said first. "It's just that when that thing opened its mouth, I felt like someone squeezed my chest."

Yan Fei stepped forward, took out a Divine Demon Marrow Bead from his robes, and handed it over: "Use this. Hold it in your palm; it will soothe you."

Lin Xiaoman took the bead, and as she held it, a dark golden liquid swirled around it, and her complexion noticeably improved.

Chuan Ying gazed ahead: "This road was guarded by it. It's dead. But what lies beyond?"

No one speaks.

Behind them, Wan Wujiu's voice rang out again, this time much closer, as if he were already standing in the chamber they had been in before.

"You've killed four of the fourteen layers of erosion. There are ten left," he said. "I advise you—to continue using the method we just used. The marrow fire combined with the blood of the guardian is specifically effective against these half-dead creatures."

"If you say that again, I'll cut out your tongue," Wu Wudi said.

"You'll need it." Wan Wujiu chuckled softly, his voice echoing through the marrow passage. "Because the road ahead will grow narrower and lower, like a throat. And these things will become more and more like people. Can you bring yourself to do it?"

Dongfang Weiwo suddenly said, "Lin Xiaoman."

"exist."

"How far is it from the cavity to the Ruins on the map?"

Lin Xiaoman took out the map from her bosom. The map was slightly warm inside her marrow passage, and the lines of the Myriad Star Domain section seemed to come alive, the dotted lines moving like snakes. She looked at it for a while, then frowned and said, "The map doesn't show the distance. But this section of the corridor only occupies this much space on the map—" She used her fingernail to trace less than an inch on the dotted line, "yet we've walked for so long and only covered a small section."

"Because the corridor is shrinking," Wan Wujiu's voice came. "It's like a living person's intestines, it wriggles. You feel like you've gone a long way, but you've probably only advanced a third of the way. And the closer you get to the Ruins of Return, the slower the wriggling becomes, and the more chaotic the space becomes. If you keep going like this, you'll never get there, even if you die."

Dongfang Weiwo looked into the darkness ahead: "So you have a way."

"I have one. But I need a guarantee." Wan Wujiu finally slowly walked out from behind.

He appeared at the junction of the cavity and the marrow passage, his dark green robes spotless, without a speck of dust. His young and handsome face appeared somewhat eerie in the dim golden firelight, his vertical pupils reflecting the marrow fire like the eyes of a snake.

A snow-white little beast perched on his shoulder.

"I will guide you through the remaining ten layers of erosion. Once you reach the Bone Core Lock, the Bone Key will be mine. After the door opens, the contents of the Ruins will be determined by our own abilities."

"I cannot give you the Bone Key," Dongfang Weiwo said.

"Then there's nothing to talk about." Wan Wujiu shrugged. "I'll leave myself. I'm just going to stay with you guys until you're almost all dead—"

"The bone key is in my possession; you guide the way," Dongfang Weiwo said. "Once we reach the bone core lock, you unlock yours, and I'll open mine."

Wan Wujiu narrowed his eyes.

"Are you afraid I'll lock you out?" Dongfang Weiwo asked. "Afraid I'll use the bone key to get in myself, leaving you with those ten things?"

Wan Wujiu remained silent.

"I am not like the Demon God Lü," Dongfang Weiwo said. "What I say goes."

Wu Wudi glanced back at him, seemingly wanting to say something, but then swallowed his words. Yan Fei remained silent, his sword hanging low. Chuan Ying merely twisted his wrist, the bones making a "crack" sound.

Lin Xiaoman looked up at Dongfang Weiwo, then at Wan Wujiu, and suddenly said, "I will swear an oath."

She raised her left hand, and the wound on her palm split open, a drop of blue-gold blood seeping from her fingertip, hovering above her palm.

"The blood of the guardian governs the oath," Lin Xiaoman said, her voice clear yet carrying an undeniable power. "Wan Wujiu, you swore in the name of the Lord of Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain that you would lead us through the Tenfold Corruption Body and not secretly attack us. Dongfang Weiwo swore on the skeleton of a god and demon that as long as the bone key remains before the Bone Core Lock, he will not abandon you or kill you before the lock. Whoever breaks the oath will suffer a blood backlash."

The drop of blood spun in mid-air, emitting a very faint bluish light.

Wan Wujiu stared at the drop of blood, his expression shifting. After a while, he slowly stretched out his hand, and a drop of dark green essence blood was forced from his fingertip, flying to the top of Lin Xiaoman's palm, where it collided with the drop of cyan-gold blood.

Two drops of blood mingled, exploding in mid-air into a fine mist that landed on everyone. A slight coolness washed over each person's skin before the mist vanished.

"Alright," Wan Wujiu said. "Let's set off now, without any more delay. The remaining ten ahead are far more powerful than the one you just killed. Moreover, they've already begun to devour each other."

He turned and walked deeper into the marrow passage. The snow-white little beast jumped off his shoulder and trotted a few feet ahead of the group. Wherever its four paws passed, the marrow fluid on the bone walls was completely avoided.

"This kid..." Wu Wudi snorted, his grip on the broken sword still tight.

Dongfang Weiwo said, "Follow."

The crowd began to walk.

Lin Xiaoman walked beside him and suddenly said very softly, "I didn't tamper with that drop of blood."

Dongfang Weiwo hummed in agreement.

"But there's something in Wan Wujiu's blood." Lin Xiaoman lowered her voice, almost touching his ear, "His blood essence has a very faint putrid smell, it's not human."

Dongfang Weiwo continued walking, his gaze slightly lowered.

The smell is rotten.

It wasn't the aura of the Lord of Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain.

He stared at Wan Wujiu's back in front of him. His dark green robes flowed like water in the dark gold firelight, showing no sign of anything unusual.

"And another thing," Lin Xiaoman said softly, "I just used my blood to sense the little beast on his shoulder. It has no bones."

Dongfang Weiwo paused in his steps.

There are no bones.

The snow-white little beast turned to look at him and squeaked. Its black bean-like eyes reflected the dark golden fire.

Something is moving in the fire.