Shrouded Sky

Chapter 123 - Bronze Immortal Palace

“Don’t ask questions, let’s get out of here first,” the purple-clad girl said, her eyes filled with fear.

The bottom of the lake was dim and shrouded in darkness. Ye Fan’s body emitted faint glimmers of light, like a beacon fixed in the water.

Ahead, the massive bronze palace, covered in mottled green rust and rivaling the size of a city, stirred unease in his heart. A peculiar fluctuation emanated from it.

Carrying the purple-clad girl, Ye Fan retreated. Dark currents swirled, and from the ruins behind, seven or eight wax corpses floated up, eerily unsettling. “Hurry!” The purple-clad girl, tears in her eyes, looked at him pitifully, her face ashen.

Ye Fan was not reckless. In such an unknown and perilous environment, he wouldn’t take risks. He surged upward through the water, aiming to escape the lake bottom.

But above, a terrifying, heart-palpitating aura descended, overwhelming and chilling both of them. A massive shadow, like a cloud blotting out the sky, slowly drifted overhead.

Ye Fan couldn’t withstand it. The radiant glow around his body extinguished instantly, and the purple-clad girl nearly suffocated. An immense force pressed them down, sending them crashing back to the lake bottom. “What was that?” Ye Fan asked, shocked and uncertain. His powerful divine sense reached out but vanished like a stone in the sea. Above, a gray haze loomed, as if a colossal creature had passed by.

Unwilling to give up, he lifted the purple-clad girl and swam in another direction, attempting to break the surface again. But the same thing happened, a dim, oppressive force surged outward like a terrifying black hole, or a mountain bearing down.

The weight was crushing, suffocating. Ye Fan felt as if struck by a thunder god’s hammer, his body trembling as he plummeted back down, unable to rise. “What is that? Is it a living creature?” His expression grew grave, sensing things were dire.

The purple-clad girl, her godpower sealed, had endured successive waves of terrifying pressure and was now on the verge of fainting, limply leaning against Ye Fan. “Wake up,” Ye Fan said, shaking her.

“It’s over. We can’t escape,” she said, her face bloodless, her once-lively eyes filled with dread, devoid of their former playfulness.

A massive shadow, like an ancient beast from the dawn of creation, loomed endlessly above the lake, blocking any chance of breaking through. Ye Fan tried to find the underground river to retrace their path, but it was nowhere to be found. “Stop looking. That’s a rootless river, also called the Nether River. Once you leave it, it vanishes without a trace, impossible to find,” the purple-clad girl said, her voice trembling with despair.

Trapped on all sides with no way out, Ye Fan stopped trying. Calming himself, he asked in detail, “What’s going on? What is this place? What’s the origin of the Bronze Immortal Palace?”

The purple-clad girl, her face etched with worry, blinked her large eyes. “Wah… I don’t want to die. I’m so clever and beautiful, unmatched in the world. I haven’t even shone brightly or become renowned across the Eastern Wilderness. How could I end up in a place like this?”

“Enough with the narcissism. Talk,” Ye Fan said, unceremoniously tapping her smooth forehead.

“The Bronze Immortal Palace has appeared only a few times in ancient history. Its origins are mysterious, and no one knows its past. Once you enter, there’s no way out…” The purple-clad girl sighed heavily.

“Are we really going to die here?” Ye Fan felt uneasy.

“It’s a tomb for peerless powerhouses. Every time it appears, it shakes the Eastern Wilderness, and supreme figures rush to it like moths to a flame, heedless of the consequences.”

“Why?” Ye Fan asked, puzzled.

“Legend says this grand bronze palace was forged by an immortal. Over countless ages, almost no one in the Eastern Wilderness has achieved immortality. Those standing at the pinnacle of the martial path naturally can’t resist the temptation.”

Ye Fan sucked in a breath. The Bronze Immortal Palace seemed to have an extraordinary origin.

“Tell me more.”

Though still shaken, the purple-clad girl’s emotions had steadied somewhat, but her expression remained forlorn. Wrinkling her delicate nose, she said, “It appeared even before the Desolate Era…”

“So ancient…” Ye Fan’s heart grew heavy. If true, the Bronze Immortal Palace spanned half the ancient history of the Eastern Wilderness. “It’s said to be forged by an immortal, but there’s no evidence. Over countless ages, it’s appeared only four or five times, burying many peerless figures.”

According to the purple-clad girl, the Bronze Immortal Palace was profoundly mysterious. Its ruins could move beneath the Eastern Wilderness, drifting with the rootless Nether River to different regions. “Legends may not be true. There must be a way to escape,” Ye Fan said, furrowing his brow in thought. He pressed further, “Think carefully. Is there anything you’ve overlooked?”

“What I know comes from ancient texts, with only a few brief records,” the purple-clad girl said. Then, as if recalling something, she added, “There’s one thing…”

She had once heard a legend from an era when the Eastern Wilderness was at its peak, with many astonishingly talented figures. When the Immortal Palace reappeared, the era’s supreme powerhouses joined forces and retrieved a corpse from the palace.

“It’s said to be the corpse of an immortal…”

Ye Fan was stunned. “A true immortal?!”

The purple-clad girl shook her head. “This wasn’t recorded in ancient texts, just a rumor in the Eastern Wilderness. Its truth is uncertain.”

“Where did that immortal’s corpse end up?”

“It seems… it was divided among the Sacred Grounds and Ancient Clans.”

“Something like that happened…” Ye Fan’s mind reeled. No wonder it was called the Bronze Immortal Palace, it seemed truly tied to immortals. He thought of the Ji Clan. “So, your Ji Clan must have gotten part of the immortal’s corpse?”

“It’s said that countless ages ago, our Clan obtained an immortal’s arm, but the Clan elders all denied it. I’ve never seen it,” she said.

“If it’s true, they’d definitely deny it. They wouldn’t let a little girl like you know.”

“Hey, little brother, don’t act so worldly!” The purple-clad girl shot him an annoyed glance.

Ye Fan chuckled, pinching her delicate nose. “This old man has lived over a hundred thousand years. How can a little girl like you compare?”

The grand bronze palace, city-like in scale, exuded a majestic aura, its green rust etched with the breath of ages. Ye Fan circled it several times but didn’t dare venture inside.

Having appeared in the Eastern Wilderness a few times, it had buried the peerless corpses of several eras. Its true origins remained unknown, and no one had ever walked out alive, making it all the more enigmatic. Ye Fan turned his gaze to the wax corpses in the ruins, hoping to find clues from them. “These corpses might be the peerless powerhouses of ancient times…” The purple-clad girl squirmed. “Let me go. I’ll help look for clues.”

Ye Fan’s heart stirred. If these were indeed ancient supreme overlords, they might carry priceless treasures. He peeled the waxy layer from one corpse, revealing a lifelike figure, a beautiful Daoist priestess, as if sleeping, vivid and serene.

But in an instant, the rosy-cheeked nun shriveled, her flesh decayed, turning into a skeleton. As the water stirred, the bones crumbled to dust, leaving nothing behind.

Ye Fan stripped several more wax corpses, each revealing a lifelike ancient figure upon removal of the wax. But within moments, they turned to ash, leaving nothing.

He found scraps of rusted metal, once powerful spiritual treasures of the ancients, but under the grind of endless time, they too had disintegrated. “These are people from before the Desolate Era, who knows how many tens of thousands of years old. Nothing could remain…” The purple-clad girl called out again, “Let me go! I might find valuable clues.”

Ye Fan stripped dozens of wax corpses, but the result was the same, once exposed, they turned to ash in an instant.

At that moment, he felt another strange fluctuation emanating from the massive bronze palace. His voice grew heavy. “This is bad. We need to leave now!”

Lifting the purple-clad girl, he surged upward, attempting to force his way out. But a tremendous force pulled at them. “Oh no, escape!” the purple-clad girl screamed, seeing them being dragged backward toward the palace, about to be swallowed inside.

Ye Fan was shocked. His Sea of Bitterness churned, his Life Spring surged, and he unleashed all his godpower, but he couldn’t break free. The palace seemed to possess a strange magical force, drawing them in.

Bang!

They crashed heavily to the ground, now inside the palace. The vast emptiness was deathly silent, dim and hazy.

No entrance could be found. It was as if they’d entered a barren desert, devoid of life, where time seemed frozen, like the end of the world. “I don’t want to die! I, Ji Ziyue, peerless and radiant, destined to become an immortal, how can I perish here?”

“Can you stop being so narcissistic?” Ye Fan was exasperated.

A faint mist swirled, shrouding the vast palace in haze. It stretched endlessly, like the dawn of creation.

Crack.

A shattering sound echoed, and the purple-clad girl yelped, “What did my foot touch?”

On the ground lay a snow-white skeleton, cracked in many places, silently sprawled. A slight touch turned it to bone dust. “This person must have been incredibly powerful in life. Without being wrapped in mysterious energy, their bones still endured,” Ye Fan said, astonished, crouching to examine it.

On the ground were a few dried, dark-red blood characters, faint but imbued with an indescribable charm. They seemed to condense the entirety of this powerhouse’s spirit, etched here, conveying a profound emotion.

“I ask the heavens, do Immortals exist?”

Only these few words remained, as if this person, in their final moments, was filled with regret and unwillingness.

For someone whose bones endured, they must have been a peerless powerhouse from countless ages ago. Yet, at their death, they were lost in doubt, their regret palpable, a longing to pierce the fog and see the clear sky.