They wanted others to go first as fodder, to check for any dangers, while also fearing that opportunities might be snatched away.
After exchanging glances, the man in green robes spoke, "How about we all go down together? If we encounter danger, we can look out for each other.
If there’s really an opportunity, it’ll be up to each person’s abilities, right?"
"Good," the burly man beside him nodded.
"I agree," the rest of them also consented.
"Then let’s go down and take a look," Xu Zimei said.
"This young master, you’ll have to protect me when we go down," the enchanting woman approached Xu Zimei, her bright red lips exuding fragrance as she looked at Xu Zimei seductively.
"Then you follow me," Xu Zimei replied.
"What if the young master decides to devour me?" the woman giggled, her ribbon fluttering in the wind.
She passed by Xu Zimei, leaving behind a trail of fragrance.
The group arrived at the edge of the naturally formed pit, where they saw dense Demonic Qi below that transformed into fierce faces roaring within it.
Xu Zimei didn’t bother with too much thought and was the first to jump down.
A gleam of surprise flashed in the others’ eyes as they promptly followed suit.
Mid-fall, Xu Zimei realized that there was a special gravitational force at the bottom of the pit.
In its grip, he could no longer tread in the air; the gravity pulled him down, forcing him to continuously sink.
If one resisted, the gravitational force would grow even stronger.
The others appeared somewhat panicked.
Once Xu Zimei’s body fully sank into the Demonic Qi, the endless Qi surged towards him ferociously.
However, after sensing the Demonic Qi within Xu Zimei, the surrounding Qi seemed to be influenced and gradually calmed down.
Xu Zimei felt quite at ease, his body and mind extremely comfortable within this Demonic Qi.
The others, however, were not so fortunate; they hurriedly erected protective barriers around themselves, enveloping their entire bodies.
The Demonic Qi clashed continuously with their protective shields.
"What should we do next?" the white-haired elder asked with a frown.
"The consumption of Spiritual Energy in my body is considerable here and cannot be replenished on time. Let’s hurry."
The rest nodded in agreement.
Xu Zimei’s gaze fixed on something straight ahead. At the bottom of the pit, amid the thick Demonic Qi, stood a bridge.
On either side of the bridge rolled rivers, dark as ink, the water truly pitch black.
The black water churned endlessly, covered in foam.
And at one end of the bridge lay a corpse leaning against the Bridge Stele.
As for what was at the other end of the bridge, the Demonic Qi was too thick to see clearly.
"This place is not simple," the man in green robes murmured softly.
Everyone approached the Bridge Stele, a huge stone monument towering before them.
The monument was riddled with dense cracks, looking very ancient.
On the ancient stele were characters as black as pitch.
"Boundless skies above, netherworlds below, atop White Bone Mountain resides the White Bone Demon."
"Isn’t that Elder Han?" they exclaimed, discovering the body in front of the stele.
The corpse lay at the foot of the bridge, its robes torn and tattered, and its flesh and blood seemingly drained by something.
On that gaunt face, one could still barely make out his identity.
"Indeed, it is Elder Han," the white-haired elder inhaled sharply and said, "Elder Han was no weaker than us; how could he have died here silently, no wonder he never came back up."
"Do you understand the meaning of this verse?" the burly man asked, scratching the back of his head.
"The White Bone Demon of White Bone Mountain," the refined scholar said, squinting his eyes.
"Is the White Bone Demon the master of this mausoleum?"
"Do we still need to go there?" the alluring woman asked.
"Now that we’re already here, what else can we do if we don’t go over?" the man in the green robe said, "I just tried, and the space at the bottom of this pit has gravity.
We couldn’t get up there with our power."
"Doesn’t that mean we’re all trapped here?" the burly man said.
"You could say that, so before the spiritual energy inside our bodies is exhausted, we can only move forward. The demonic qi here is too strong," the man in the green robe said.
The group could only tread step by step onto the head of the bridge.
The corpse of Elder Han continuously alerted them, each with a focused and cautious mind, carefully watching their surroundings.
Just as they reached the middle of the bridge, there was suddenly a loud "boom" of an explosion.
They saw the lakewater erupting in splashes, and the dark depths of the lake began to stir.
Ripples formed layer upon layer, as if something terrifying was about to emerge.
"Puff," before the group could react, a scream suddenly sounded from beside them.
The group hurriedly turned their heads to look, only to see the burly man pierced through the chest by a black tentacle.
In just a few breaths’ time, the tentacle had sucked dry all the flesh and blood from the burly man’s body.
The burly man’s corpse became exactly like Elder Han’s.
And that tentacle had clearly grown a few sizes thicker.
Then there were several more exploding sounds as dozens of the same tentacles appeared in the lake.
"Run quickly to the other side of the bridge," the refined scholar shouted, with an imposing aura, he hurriedly ran across the void.
Several tentacles also headed toward Xu Zimei to attack.
Xu Zimei’s eyes surged with demonic qi, and he glared fiercely at the epicenter of the ripples on the lakebed below.
The thing inside seemed to sense something and quickly moved its tentacles aside, protecting Xu Zimei as he crossed the bridge.
Countless tentacles, like whips, intertwined mid-air.
Moreover, apart from the tentacles, the depths of the lake would suddenly spew out giant fish.
The refined scholar, caught off guard, was bitten by a demonic fish, losing half of his arm.
Luckily, all the people present were battle-hardened, dodging rapidly.
Even if they were occasionally hit, they dared not stop and just sprinted desperately toward the other end of the bridge.
The distance of the bridge wasn’t very long, roughly less than a hundred meters.
The refined scholar was the first to rush to the shore, while the man in the green robe and the alluring woman were close behind.
It seemed that seeing their prey escape, the creatures at the bottom of the lake grew enraged, with only the white-haired elder at the very back.
Countless tentacles wrapped around him, forming a dense net, blocking his path.
The elder’s expression turned fierce, and his semi-saintly might surged like a tide, continuously billowing.
"Misty Illusion Step," the elder uttered softly.
His blood flowed in reverse, his eyes turned blood-red, and his figure multiplied into dozens of afterimages in mid-air, charging toward the net of tentacles.
Explosions of "bang, bang, bang" sounded around him.
In front of the massive net, the afterimages were annihilated one by one, but the explosions tore a hole in the net.
The elder, covered in blood, rushed out.