They took a circuitous route into the center of the ruins. A few hours later, when it was afternoon, Meng Hao suddenly stopped in place and looked off into the distance. There, in the middle of some wreckage, was a jade slip that emanated a bright blue light. It was floating above the ground, surrounding by countless streams of magical symbols.
At first glance, it was extremely beautiful.
Surrounding it for dozens of meters in all directions was the glow of a restrictive spell.
“Don’t even think about it,” said Fang Yu. “From the Fang Clan’s very first records of the Primordial Demon Immortal Plane down until now no one has been able to get past that restrictive spell. If you pay attention closely, you can sense that the Daoist magic contained in that jade slip is definitely in the top one thousand legacies and divine abilities.” She sounded as if she viewed this to be quite a pity.
“See all the corpses around the glowing light? Quite a few of those are people from past generations who got greedy and tried to break through the restrictive spell….” When Meng Hao heard this, he nodded calmly. He had long since noticed that some of the corpses in the area looked different than the corpses of the members of the Demon Immortal Sect.
“How many times has the Primordial Demon Immortal Plane opened?” he asked suddenly. “Is it possible that there are still members of the Sect left alive in here?”
“Impossible,” replied Fang Yu, shaking her head. “Everyone is dead. Other than a few people who managed to escape before the calamity struck, everyone died. Although everything happened long, long ago, the ancient records offer clear proof that the entire Sect was wiped out.”
“If it opens every thousand years, isn’t it possible that people returned and then stayed?” he followed up, his eyes flickering.
Fang Yu didn’t seem to be the least bit fazed by Meng Hao’s question. “The only people who can stay behind are the dead. Anyone else who enters gets expelled when the plane closes. It’s no coincidence that I happen to know this. I was curious about the very same thing, and the person who answered my question happened to be the only remaining elderly member of the Clan who had been to this place.”
Meng Hao asked no more questions. He turned back and followed Fang Yu as she proceeded forward. This time, they walked for about two hours before they finally reached one particular house that was only half collapsed. After looking around for a moment, Fang Yu produced a jade slip which she then crushed. Immediately, a blurriness surrounded the house. When the blurriness faded into clarity, the house was gone. In its place was an enormous crater.
This didn’t surprise Meng Hao at all. During the course of their journey, he had watched Fang Yu do this same thing about seven or eight times. She had also done other things to ensure that they weren’t being followed.
In the middle of the crater was a corpse. Upon nearing, it became clear that the muscles and blood had long since faded away. What remained was essentially a mummified corpse, with its head turned to look up into the air. It seemed that before it died, it had been looking up into the sky. Despite the long passage of time, the look of fear and aloneness on its face was still clear to Meng Hao.
“His name was Xu Long, and he was a member of the Demon Immortal Sect for a long time. He started in the Outer Sect to eventually be promoted to the Inner Sect. He ended up sacrificing his life during the calamity.
“Were it not for the calamity, he may have eventually become a Conclave disciple.” Fang Yu held out her hand, in which could be seen eight jade slips, all of which contained information regarding the Primordial Demon Immortal Plane. One by one, she handed them over to Meng Hao.
“It won’t be much longer now,” she said. “You should be safe here. I’m going to go find a corpse in a different location.” Fang Yu gave Meng Hao a deep look, making no attempt to hide the thoughtfulness in her eyes.
Meng Hao looked at the jade slips and then watched as Fang Yu turned and made her way off.
After a long moment, he took some time to examine his surroundings. Clearly… there were no real dangers in the immediate vicinity. Obviously, this was a place that few people came to in search of a host body.