Chapter 1277: Discovered

Entering the tall building, the first thing that met the eye was a dim, long corridor that spiraled downward, leading to a circular underground space divided into separate areas.

In the center of the space was a pool of blood-colored water, and within the partitioned areas were cages holding various souls.

Those soul-reapers were locking the souls they had captured into empty cages, while some other reapers stood motionless in the blood pool, doing something unknown.

"It seems this is a place to hold souls. Nothing interesting here. Let's go elsewhere and find a way out as soon as possible," said Ti Hun.

"What about the Yanluo Cauldron? Is it still pointing the way?" Han Li nodded and asked.

"The pulling force from the cauldron points to the black cloud behind us," Ti Hun hesitated before saying.

Han Li's eyes flickered, but he was not surprised. After a moment's thought, he said,

"Let's split up and search for a way out of this blood-colored space. No need to look outside the city; I already scanned with my divine sense and found no exit."

"This secret technique should last a day and a night. It should be fine during that time."

Ti Hun said, and the two of them returned along the same path, left the building, and then went in separate directions.

After most of a day, they met again at the cage building, both looking grim.

Neither had found a way out.

"If all else fails, let's try to break through by force and see if we can shatter this blood-colored space," Ti Hun said.

Han Li was about to say something when his expression changed. He led Ti Hun back down to the cage space below the building and looked at the souls imprisoned in the cages.

"What is it, Master?" Ti Hun asked, seeing Han Li's actions.

"I just thought of a way to leave this place," Han Li said with a smile.

"What way?" Ti Hun's eyes lit up.

"This place doesn't seem like the underworld. These souls won't be kept here forever; they should be sent to the true underworld from here. If we can find out how they transport souls, we might be able to leave," Han Li said.

"Makes sense. Why didn't I think of that?" Ti Hun realized.

"But we don't know when they will make their next move," Han Li said, his eyes flickering.

"That's simple. I'll ask someone," Ti Hun said, grabbing Han Li and quickly moving to a secluded cage area.

A soul-reaper threw a soul into a cage and turned to leave. As he passed a corner, an arm shot out from the darkness like lightning, grabbed him, and dragged him into the dark.

Another soul-reaper came by and thought he saw a companion suddenly flash into the corner and disappear.

When this soul-reaper passed the corner, he poked his head in to look.

At the end of the corner was a dead end. On the ground sat a dusty, dark red cauldron, looking as if someone had left it there.

There was nothing else except this small cauldron.

The soul-reaper muttered something and continued on, not giving it another thought.

Inside the Yanluo Cauldron space, the soul-reaper was bound by black light like chains and could not move.

"Zhi zhi ji ji, ji ji ji ji..." Though unable to move, the soul-reaper showed anger and made a series of strange sounds.

The sounds were like ghostly wails in the dead of night or crawling venomous insects, making one's heart numb and extremely uncomfortable.

"Can you understand what he's saying?" Han Li looked at Ti Hun.

Ti Hun smiled bitterly and shook his head.

"And you?" Han Li looked at Sun Chongshan beside him.

"I know a little underworld script, but not much, and I can't understand their speech," Sun Chongshan shook his head.

Then he looked at Han Li and Ti Hun with surprise.

These two were really something; in no time, they had captured a being from the underworld.

"No choice, I'll directly search his soul. Even if I can't understand his words, I can at least see his memories," Ti Hun said, placing his hand on the soul-reaper's head. Dark light flew from his palm and enveloped the reaper.

The soul-reaper showed pain and let out a miserable scream. Under the black light, his body quickly shriveled.

After a moment, Ti Hun released his hand.

"Any findings?" Han Li asked.

"As you guessed, every so often, the underworld sends a ghost general to take the souls from this city to the underworld. According to the timing, the next arrival from the underworld is in a few days," Ti Hun said happily.

"Good. How do the ghost generals come?" Han Li sighed with relief and then asked.

"From the black cloud behind. A spatial passage will open there and transport all the souls in the city at once," Ti Hun said.

Han Li's eyes lit up upon hearing this.

Just what he needed.

"By the way, will we be discovered for capturing a soul-reaper?" Han Li thought of something and asked.

"No need to worry. There are many soul-reapers, and they are only the outermost members of the underworld. They won't frequently count heads," Ti Hun said.

Han Li felt relieved at that.

Over the next few days, Han Li and Ti Hun did not leave. They stayed in the Yanluo Cauldron space and learned the underworld script from Sun Chongshan.

Ti Hun had gained a rough understanding of the underworld language from searching the soul-reaper's memories. Combining their knowledge, Han Li and the others soon became generally proficient in the underworld language.

Seven days later, the black cloud behind the blood-colored building roiled violently, emitting powerful energy fluctuations that made the entire blood-colored space tremble.

Countless black runes flew out of the black cloud, quickly forming a black vortex. At the center of the vortex was a black passage, looking extremely dark, as if leading to the darkest and most yin place in the world.

A black figure flew out of the passage. The figure was dressed in a black robe and held a pitch-black club. His features were relatively normal compared to the soul-reapers, looking much like an ordinary person.

The soul-reapers in the blood-colored city had already gathered in front of the black cloud, escorting the souls there.

"Set off!" The black ghost general waved his club and said in the underworld language.

Hearing this, the soul-reapers immediately threw the souls they were escorting forward.

A devouring force came from the black passage, and all the souls flew into it and disappeared into the passage.

The number of souls accumulated in the city was not large, so they were quickly all taken in by the black passage. The black ghost general flashed and flew into the passage.

The black passage flickered twice and quickly closed.

But just before the passage closed, two blurry shadows flew like lightning and vanished into it.

Han Li and Ti Hun felt themselves being torn by a tremendous force, the world spinning around them, but they gritted their teeth and endured, not making a sound.

After a while, the tremendous force disappeared.

Han Li and Ti Hun's vision cleared, and they appeared in a black space. A massive abyss lay before them.

The abyss was thousands of zhang wide, stretching endlessly to both sides. Its center was an unfathomable blackness, leading to an unknown place.

Rolling black qi continuously emerged from the abyss. Besides an extremely dense yin-cold aura, there was also a strange ghostly qi.

Unlike ordinary ghostly qi, the ghostly qi here was exceptionally pure, heavy, and viscous, almost like liquid.

"Is this the underworld? It doesn't look like it," Ti Hun murmured, then remembering something, she waved her hand and summoned the Yanluo Cauldron.

The dark red cauldron flickered with light, pointing toward the bottom of the abyss.

Ti Hun's eyes brightened, and she was about to act, but Han Li grabbed her.

"Wait," Han Li said calmly.

"Master, what's wrong?" Ti Hun asked in surprise.

Han Li did not look at her but stared at the abyss ahead, sneering, "Do you think you can hide from me? Come out."

Ti Hun was startled and looked where Han Li was looking, but sensed nothing.

"Oh, you can sense my presence? Your divine sense is strong," a voice like scraping metal came from ahead, speaking in the True Immortal Realm language.

A mass of black qi emerged from the void ahead, rapidly expanding into a black cloud thousands of zhang in size.

Countless terrifying ghostly shrieks came from the cloud, like countless arrows piercing the souls of Han Li and Ti Hun.

Ti Hun let out a soft cry of pain, and Han Li frowned. They quickly used their divine sense to protect their souls, shielding themselves from the ghostly shrieks.

Around the black cloud, yin winds howled and black qi billowed, obscuring the scene above.

Han Li's expression darkened. He waved his right hand, and a dazzling golden lightning storm swept out. The powerful sword aura, carrying the momentum to tear the void, instantly ripped apart the surrounding yin winds.

The situation on the black cloud was clearly revealed to Han Li and Ti Hun.

It was densely packed with ghostly beings, at least two to three thousand.

These ghosts were identical to the one Ti Hun had devoured, with similar auras. They uniformly held black three-pronged steel forks and stood in a neat square formation, like a disciplined army.

Han Li ignored the other ghosts and fixed his gaze on the figure at the front, a hint of caution in his eyes.

The figure was a middle-aged man with a slender build, looking no different from an ordinary person, except for his eyes, which flashed with a terrifying blood light as he grinned at Han Li and Ti Hun.

He wore a black robe that seemed both real and illusory, fluttering in the wind. Various terrifying ghostly shadows kept emerging from under the robe. On his back was a black war spear about a zhang long, shimmering with a black ferocious light and emitting a fierce aura that even Han Li found dangerous.

"Who are you, and why are you lying in ambush to attack us?" Han Li looked the man over and said slowly.