But it seemed Li Xun's luck had just run out. The crevice wasn't very long after all — after only a few hundred steps, it came to a dead end. If he wanted to keep going, he'd have to climb up along the fissure.
He hesitated.
His injuries were still far from healed. If something went wrong halfway up, it could be a major setback.
The smart thing would be to rest here for a few days, wait for his bones to mend, and then try again.
But the crevice was barren — not a blade of grass, not a hint of life. Where was he supposed to find food in the meantime?
Worse still, in the chaos of the fight earlier, he had dropped the stone tablet he'd spent years inscribing. It was still on the platform. And if that short-tempered golden roc decided to vent its rage on it, or toss it off the cliff… just the thought made his heart ache.
After a long internal struggle, he finally chose to take the risk.
Climbing this crevice was actually not that difficult. Even an ordinary person without martial skills could manage a few dozen meters using the uneven rock faces for leverage.
Because of his cracked ribs, Li Xun was cautious not to use too much strength — but he still climbed rapidly, using well-practiced moves to scale the wall. After ascending several hundred meters, he paused on a protruding rock to rest.
That was when he saw the first living thing since he woke up.
A small gecko, slowly crawling up the opposite wall. Judging by its speed, it would take it at least another half hour to reach the top.
Li Xun found it amusing and watched it for a moment — but then something strange happened.
Right before his eyes, the gecko vanished.
It had been clinging to the rock just fine — but the moment it moved up another inch, it simply disappeared. Poof. Gone. The rock surface looked completely normal, no sign of any trickery.
Suspicion flared in his mind.
He narrowed his eyes, then scraped a chunk of stone from the wall and hurled it toward the spot. As he expected, the stone vanished without a sound, just like the gecko.
"An illusion!"
Li Xun's spirits lifted.
He spent a little time measuring the range of the illusion that masked the hidden entrance, then threw in over ten more stones to ensure there weren't any traps inside. Only when he was confident it was safe did he leap forward — passing straight through the illusory rock face.
Everything instantly went black.
The illusion had not only mimicked solid stone, it also blocked out all light. The cave beyond was pitch dark — not even a glimmer.
But this was nothing new for Li Xun. He reached into his robe and pulled out a small object, rubbed it between his palms — and the space around him lit up brightly.
It was the same round stone he'd found seven years ago. He had studied it carefully and found many strange things about it.
Most of the time, it looked like a smooth, featureless pebble — like one you'd find by the sea. But it was impossibly smooth and flawless, beyond anything nature should make.
Yet when rubbed, the stone would glow brightly. Its once-dull surface turned almost transparent, like priceless crystal.
Stranger still, when it glowed, a mysterious symbol would appear inside the stone. After much scrutiny, Li Xun had determined it was written in ancient seal script — a single character.
The carving looked almost naturally formed. Li Xun suspected the stone had other powers, but lacking knowledge, he'd only ever used it for light.
And when entering a place like this — likely a hidden dwelling — caution was everything.
The passage ahead was narrow and straight, like a corridor. He moved slowly, tossing stones ahead of him to test for traps or triggers.
The tunnel wasn't very long, and it was perfectly straight. The walls were unnaturally smooth, with almost no dust — clearly not natural. Someone had carved this with powerful techniques and sealed it against decay.
This had to be a cultivator's cave — a hidden residence left by some reclusive cultivator.
But why here? Why so secretive? It didn't feel like the work of anyone from the Mingxin Sword Sect — their style was never this sneaky.
As he pondered, the corridor abruptly ended.
The space opened up into a stone chamber, surprisingly large.
Li Xun stood at the entrance, eyes sharp, surveying the room. It was simple — just a carved stone bed, nothing else.
He didn't rush in. Tossed a dozen more stones first. When nothing happened, he finally stepped forward. The chamber was only about ten meters across — not large at all.
"Could this place have been abandoned long ago?"
Li Xun felt a twinge of disappointment. Holding the glowing stone, he looked around the chamber. It was completely bare — not a single item in sight — which also meant there was nothing of value to be found.
He shook his head and sighed. Then he chuckled quietly to himself — no gain was just no gain. He could take it in stride and didn't dwell on it further. He simply sat down on the stone bed — only to jump back up the next second in shock.
Something had poked him.
He quickly shined his light across the bed. There it was — a flat, stone-like shard, ash-gray and nearly the same color as the bed itself. It was thin, and easily overlooked at first glance.
"What is this thing?"
Picking it up and examining it under the light, he saw winding, intricate markings on its surface — clearly the result of careful carving.
The moment he held it, he realized it wasn't an ordinary stone. It was smooth to the touch, but a strange chill pulsed from within, cold and shifting. Within moments, the hair on his arms stood on end — deeply unsettling.
"Could this be… some kind of artifact?" he wondered.
Interest piqued, he sat back down. But again, something felt off. He reached out and brushed his hand across the bed — only to find his fingers covered in black ash.
That was odd. The chamber had been kept pristine by some dust-repelling spell, not a speck of dust anywhere. Why was there ash here?
A thought occurred to him.
He stood up and brought the light closer. Sure enough, he found it — a recessed corner at the back of the bed, barely visible, a small, dark hollow.
Climbing up for a better look, what he saw delighted him — nestled in the hollow were a pill bottle and a black pearl.
He exclaimed with joy, "This is the first decent haul I've had since that little cave two years ago!"
He eagerly reached for the items — but the moment his fingers closed around them, a sharp pain shot through his palm, like he'd grabbed fire. A searing agony no less severe than the Blood Nightmare Devouring Heart surged from his palm, racing straight toward his heart meridian.
Caught off guard, the parasitic Blood Nightmare lurking in his heart meridian was jolted into motion — appearing for the first time, it transformed into a wave of scorching heat and collided with the invading Yin (cold) fire.
Both forces were of a fiery nature — but the Blood Nightmare was yin outside and yang within, while this cold flame was yang outside and yin within. Polar opposites.
When they clashed, they didn't cancel out — instead, they merged. Yin and yang swirled into one, forming a dual-core rotation like a Taiji symbol, spinning wildly.
Li Xun felt his heart suddenly swell. A sharp explosion of pain burst in his chest. His vision went black. He collapsed onto the stone bed, choking on the black ash.
At that moment, the stone shard he'd placed casually beside him let out a hum, bursting into emerald light. Its glow mingled with the light from the round stone in his hand, filling the room with chaotic, flickering shadows—a scene straight out of the netherworld.
"How could I have been so careless today?!"
Regret overwhelmed him. His chest felt like it was being crushed by a mountain — he could barely breathe. Not even internal breathing techniques were helping.
This suffocating, strangling pain — it had been years since he'd felt something like this. He fought to stay conscious. Darkness was closing in fast.
Then — a sound like an explosion rang through his mind. In that instant, the suffocating pressure in his chest vanished, only to be replaced by a new torment: Yin flames now erupted from his heart, searing through his entire being.
Compared to the Blood Nightmare's torment, this was a different kind of suffering. His breath came out like frost — he could feel ice on his lips and in his nose.
The Yin flame and the Blood Nightmare alternated within him, freezing and burning. Even someone as used to pain as Li Xun couldn't help but moan aloud.
The light from the round stone dimmed with time, its glow fading from disuse. But the shard's green radiance only grew stronger, filling the room with a strange, eerie glow — everything looked slick and sickly green.
Gradually, the pain began to subside. Li Xun's limbs turned weak — completely drained by the torment. It had been years since he'd been pushed to this degree. That alone spoke to how terrifying the cold fire was.
He gasped for air, then slowly, painstakingly dragged himself upright and spat out the ash in his mouth. Cursing his luck, he was just about to move when—
He looked up… and froze.
Bathed in the eerie green light from the shard, golden characters began appearing across the four walls.
Lines and lines of script, glowing faintly.
No doubt about it—the key formulas and essential principles of a certain cultivation technique. Judging by the writing—dense, obscure, and deeply complex, filled with hidden layers of meaning—it was obviously no ordinary manual.
Li Xun stared, overwhelmed. There was no way he could memorize them all at once — he just stood there, dumbstruck, scanning every wall.
Then he saw it. On the eastern wall, in large, prominent characters — three words:
**The Netherworld Record**
With a thud, Li Xun collapsed back onto the bed, stunned.
This was actually The Netherworld Record!
At that moment, Li Xun couldn't help but feel thankful for that big-mouthed old Taoist on Lianxia Mountain. If it weren't for Elder Mingyan's habit of gossiping about everything under the sun and his encyclopedic knowledge of the three realms' strange tales—Li Xun would never have guessed just how insane the book in front of him really was.
The Netherworld Record—a notorious and legendary manual of the demonic path within the Tongxuan Realm.