Chapter 53

"Is it you? How could it be here?" Yuan Ming looked at the silver cat's agile and slender figure, his mind in a mess.

In a daze, Yuan Ming saw the silver cat stop not far in front of him and turn to look at him.

Despite the illusory scene, Yuan Ming clearly saw the silver cat's two differently colored eyes. His muddled mind suddenly became a bit clearer.

For some reason, he felt that the silver cat seemed to be waiting for him.

Without thinking, Yuan Ming took a step toward the direction where the silver cat was, but his steps were still unsteady.

As soon as he got close, the silver cat ran forward, circled around a black protruding rock, and disappeared.

Yuan Ming stumbled as he chased after it, running to the back of the black rock. He only saw a pitch-black hole as wide as a bucket on the wall, but there was no sign of the silver cat.

He looked around but could not find any trace of the silver cat.

At this moment, a chaotic noise came from behind, as if someone was fighting and approaching.

Yuan Ming's body swayed, and he plunged into the black hole. After his upper body entered, he fell backward, and his whole body tumbled down.

After his figure fell in, a layer of yellowish light suddenly appeared on the black hole, covering it.

When the light dissipated, the hole disappeared.

...

After an unknown amount of time, Yuan Ming gradually woke up, but he still felt dizzy and disoriented.

The burning pain on his shoulder made him half-open his mouth, and he couldn't help but let out a few "sighs."

Yuan Ming instinctively reached out to touch the ground, and his palm immediately felt a sticky sensation.

At the same time, a mix of blood and decayed odor rushed into his nostrils, making him gag.

He tried to open his eyes wide to see the surroundings, but the darkness was as thick as ink, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't see anything.

As time passed, the dizziness in his head gradually subsided. He tried to stand up, but his hands and knees rubbed against the uneven surroundings.

Yuan Ming stopped moving and began to explore his surroundings. To his shock, he found that everything around him was made up of severed limbs and body parts, both human and animal.

Some were already decayed into white bones, some were rotten into mud, and some seemed to have died recently, with blood still fresh.

On some of the corpses, Yuan Ming felt animal skins and silk clothing, and he guessed that these were the bodies of fur-clad slaves and disciples of the Bi Luo Cave.

"This seems to be a pit of corpses," Yuan Ming thought, but he couldn't help shivering.

It wasn't fear, but the temperature was indeed very low, and the air was heavy with a complex and foul smell, making it hard to breathe.

Yuan Ming gently touched his shoulder and found that the wound was still swollen, but the pain had lessened, and his mind was no longer as confused as before, giving him some comfort.

He knew this place was not safe and was about to get up when he suddenly heard a voice, as if it came from his mind:

"I..."

The moment he heard the voice, Yuan Ming's whole body stiffened, and he immediately held his breath, listening intently.

"I... it's you, don't... don't move."

"What do you mean, 'I am you, don't move'?" The voice was intermittent, leaving Yuan Ming puzzled.

Just as he was about to ask, "Who is speaking?" the voice suddenly sounded again in his mind, this time more coherent.

"I... if you are... me, then... don't move, or you will die."

Yuan Ming was even more shocked and uncertain.

Reason made him suppress the urge to speak and stop his movement.

Yuan Ming slightly raised his head, his line of sight slightly above the rotten bones, and he cautiously looked around, but it was still pitch black, and he couldn't see anything.

At this moment, a faint red light suddenly appeared, illuminating the area around him in a blood-red, dark glow, making it look like a ghostly den.

Yuan Ming, using the dim light, carefully looked around, trying to find who had warned him, but he saw nothing.

When his gaze focused on the source of the red light, he couldn't help but shudder.

"Rexiao Wang..."

He saw a six-foot-wide blood pool against the uneven stone wall, with blood churning and emitting a red glow, turning the wall behind it blood-red.

In the blood pool, the Rexiao Wang, with two horns, sat with its eyes closed, head slightly tilted back, and mouth wide open.

Above its mouth, about three inches away, a pitch-black, round bead, as large as a lychee, floated, enveloped in dark red mist, gently swirling like morning fog.

Suddenly, vague human-shaped shadows began to emerge from the blood pool, pulled by an invisible force, and were absorbed into the black bead.

Yuan Ming, with his neck stiff, dared not breathe, his eyes fixed on the Rexiao Wang, his heart pounding.

After a long wait, just as his neck began to ache, the Rexiao Wang's eyes suddenly opened, filled with blood, with no trace of pupils.

It opened its mouth and inhaled, and the black bead sank and entered its mouth.

Yuan Ming watched closely and saw that the bead did not sink into the Rexiao Wang's stomach but hung in its throat, neither up nor down, like a throat knot.

As the black bead entered its throat, a layer of black mist condensed on its face, then flowed into its eyes, being completely absorbed.

The Rexiao Wang's eyes' blood color slightly faded, and its pupils turned dark, its aura suddenly surging, transforming from a living corpse into a demon.

It bent its fingers into a claw and reached into the blood pool below.

The blood pool suddenly bubbled, and a crude, stone-like long knife, supported by the rising blood, was delivered into the Rexiao Wang's hand.

The Rexiao Wang gripped the long knife, leaped out of the blood pool, and rushed into the cave passage, disappearing in an instant.

As it left, the surface of the blood pool gradually calmed, and about a dozen vague shadows began to emerge, all heading toward the pit of corpses where Yuan Ming was.

Before he could see clearly, the light from the blood pool went out, and the surroundings fell back into darkness.

Yuan Ming, who had just relaxed a bit, suddenly tensed up again, breathing rapidly, struggling to get up.

However, when he tried to support himself, he found that his arms had become stiff and numb, and he could no longer feel them.

Upon closer inspection, he was horrified to find that not only his arms but also his legs had completely lost sensation, and although his upper body still had some feeling, it could not move.

"Damn, the poison is taking effect," Yuan Ming thought.

During the fight with Kuntu and others, he had been accidentally poisoned, and now it seemed to be fully taking effect.

Yuan Ming was extremely anxious, but he couldn't move, and he couldn't save himself.

Although he couldn't see the ghostly shadows, he could feel the temperature around him drop again, his hair standing on end, as if something was coming...

Before Yuan Ming could react, he suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck, as if something had touched him.

Immediately, the chill spread throughout his body, making him stiff.

"Is it a ghost or a spirit?" Yuan Ming wondered.

At this moment, the chill on his neck intensified, and the ghosts seemed to be entering his body.

Just as Yuan Ming felt like he was falling into an ice cellar, getting colder and colder, a warm sensation suddenly emerged from his right arm, spreading to his back.

This warmth instantly dispelled the chill that felt like a ghost had entered his body.

Yuan Ming couldn't see, but he could feel the temperature around him rise slightly, returning to its original state, but he still couldn't move.

Although the ghosts no longer bothered him, if he couldn't escape, he would likely die, either from the poison or when the Rexiao Wang returned.

Yuan Ming carefully thought through his options in his mind but found no solution.

The Fur Technique was useless, and forcibly using the Nine Yuan Technique would not only fail to resist the poison but might also accelerate the poison's spread to his brain, leading to a quicker death.

As for the incense burner on his arm, it had helped him resist spiritual damage before, but it had never shown any detoxifying ability. He didn't know if it would work.

But with no other options, Yuan Ming could only try to communicate with the incense burner, hoping for a miracle.

As he directed a bit of his magical power to the incense burner on his arm, it began to glow, and an incense burner mark appeared, gradually becoming more solid, with one leg already formed.

At this moment, a strong numbness suddenly intensified, forcing Yuan Ming to stop his magical power, and the incense burner on his arm disappeared.

His last hope was gone.

Yuan Ming cursed inwardly, but a flash of inspiration suddenly came to him.

"Sir, I am deeply grateful for your warning. Could