“Stop asking. Let us leave first and talk later.” The young woman in purple’s eyes were filled with dread.
The bottom of the lake was dim and murky, extremely dark. Ye Fan’s body flowed with points of radiance, like a lamp set in the water.
The enormous bronze hall ahead — mottled with green rust, comparable in scale to a walled city — filled his heart with unease. A very peculiar ripple came drifting toward him.
Ye Fan pulled the young woman in purple back as he retreated. Beneath the shifting currents, seven or eight waxy corpses floated up from among the crumbling ruins behind them — an utterly eerie sight.
“Go faster!” The young woman in purple looked at him with tear-filled eyes — pathetic and pleading — her face a deathly white.
Ye Fan was not a reckless person. In a situation with so many unknowns, he naturally would not take risks. He broke through the water upward, trying to leave the bottom of the lake.
But just then, from above — a heart-trembling, terrifying presence descended, blanketing everything like a force that blotted out the sky and covered the earth. Both of them were gripped by a wave of shuddering dread. An enormous shadow, like a vast cloud blocking out the sun and the sky, drifted slowly past.
Ye Fan could not endure it. The precious radiance flowing around his body was extinguished in an instant. The young woman in purple nearly suffocated. A tremendous force pressed them both downward, and they plummeted heavily to the bottom of the lake.
“What is that thing?” Ye Fan was deeply shocked and uncertain. He extended his powerful divine sense, only for it to vanish like a clay ox entering the sea. Above them was a vast expanse of grey-blackness, as though some colossal creature were passing through.
Unwilling to give up, he lifted the young woman in purple and swam in another direction, then broke through the surface of the water again from a different angle. But the same thing happened again — the space above was dull and heavy, as though a terrifying black void were pouring out a strange, demonic energy, or as though a great mountain had been pressed down from above.
The weight of a mountain, crushing and suffocating. Ye Fan felt as though struck by the hammer of a thunder god. His body shook, and he was sent plunging down once more — there was simply no ascending.
“What on earth is that thing? Is it a living creature?” His expression was grave. He felt that things were going very badly.
The young woman in purple had her divine energy sealed, and after wave after wave of terrifying pressure, she was now on the verge of unconsciousness, slumping helplessly against Ye Fan’s body.
“Wake up.” Ye Fan shook her back to consciousness.
“It is over. We cannot escape.” The young woman in purple’s face was drained of color. The lively brightness that had filled her large eyes was gone, replaced by shock and terror — not a trace of her former playfulness remained.
The enormous shadow was like a primordial beast from the dawn of creation — boundless, without edge, covering everything above the lake. There was no breaking through. Ye Fan tried to find the underground river and trace back the way they had come, but it was nowhere to be found.
“Stop searching. That is a rootless river — also called the River of the Hidden Passage. Once you leave it, it leaves no trace. It cannot be found again.” The young woman in purple said in a weeping tone, her expression despondent.
Now that all four sides were sealed and there was no way to leave, Ye Fan stopped trying. He calmed himself and asked in detail: “What exactly is going on? What kind of place is this? What is the origin of the Bronze Immortal Palace?”
The young woman in purple knit her brows unhappily, her large eyes blinking. “Uwuu… I don’t want to die. I am so clever and beautiful, without equal in the world. I have not yet shone brilliantly or made my name known throughout the Eastern Desolation — how can I end up in a place like this?”
“Stop being so self-absorbed and start explaining.” Ye Fan rapped her on the smooth, jade-like forehead without any ceremony.
“The Bronze Immortal Palace has appeared only a few times in ancient records. Its origin is mysterious and no one knows its past. Once you wander in, there is no way out…” The young woman in purple heaved one sigh after another.
“Are we truly going to die here?” Unease rose in Ye Fan’s heart.
“It is the burial ground of supreme powerhouses. Every time it has appeared, it has shaken the Eastern Desolation, and the paramount figures of those ages have rushed to it like moths to a flame, heedless of everything.”
“Why?” Ye Fan could not understand.
“Legend holds that this magnificent bronze hall was forged by immortals. Throughout endless ages, almost no one in the Eastern Desolation has ascended to immortality. Those who stand at the very pinnacle of the immortal path naturally cannot resist the temptation.”
“Hiss!”
Ye Fan drew a sharp breath. This Bronze Immortal Palace seemed to have a very deep and significant background.
“Tell me in detail.”
After her initial terror, the young woman in purple’s emotions had settled somewhat, though her expression still carried some despondency. She wrinkled her delicate nose and said: “Long before the ancient era, it had already appeared…”
“That ancient…” Ye Fan’s heart turned solemn. If this were the case, then the Bronze Immortal Palace had practically spanned half the ancient history of the Eastern Desolation.
“Legend says it was forged by immortals — but there is no evidence for that. Throughout endless ages, it has appeared only four or five times, and it has buried countless supreme figures.”
According to the young woman in purple, the Bronze Immortal Palace was highly mysterious. These ruins could move beneath the Eastern Desolation, appearing in different regions each time, drifting along with the rootless River of the Hidden Passage.
“Legend is not necessarily true. There must be a way to escape.” Ye Fan furrowed his brow in thought, then asked again: “Think carefully — is there anything you left out?”
“Everything I know was read in ancient texts. There were only a few brief entries.” Saying this, the young woman in purple seemed to recall something. “It seems that there was once a time…”
The young woman in purple had occasionally heard a certain legend. In some era, when the Eastern Desolation flourished greatly and many extraordinary figures of stunning talent emerged, the Immortal Palace had reappeared, and the paramount figures of that time had joined forces to pull a corpse out from within the bronze hall.
“According to the tale, it was the corpse of an immortal…”
Ye Fan was shocked. “There are truly immortals?!”
The young woman in purple shook her head. “This account was not recorded in ancient texts — it is only a legend that has circulated through the Eastern Desolation. Its truth is unknown.”
“Where did that immortal’s corpse end up afterward?”
“It seems… the sacred grounds and ancient heritage clans divided it among themselves.”
“Such things have happened…” Ye Fan’s heart could not settle. No wonder this place was called the Bronze Immortal Palace — it truly seemed to have some connection to immortals. He immediately thought of the Ji Family. “In that case, does your Ji Family not have a portion of an immortal’s body?”
“Legend holds that in the past beyond counting, our family received an immortal’s arm — but the senior elders of our clan deny it entirely. In any case, I have never seen it.”
“Even if it is true, they would naturally deny it. There is no way they would let you, a little girl, know about something like that.”
“Hey, hey, hey — little brother, stop being so old and pompous. You are younger than me, you know.” The young woman in purple glared at him with dissatisfaction.
Ye Fan gave a light chuckle and pinched her delicate nose. “This old man has lived for more than ten thousand years — how can a little girl like you compare with me?”
The magnificent bronze hall, as vast as a walled city, was grand and sweeping in bearing, mottled green with rust, every inch of it saturated with the breath of the ages. Ye Fan circled it several times but dared not venture deeper inside.
It had appeared in the Eastern Desolation several times, burying supreme figures across multiple eras. Its true origins had never been clearly understood, and no one had ever truly walked out alive — which only made it more profoundly mysterious.
Ye Fan turned his gaze toward the waxy corpses in the ruins, hoping to find some clues from them.
“These bodies are very likely former paramount powerhouses of bygone ages…” The young woman in purple kept twisting her body and said: “Release me. Let me help search for clues too.”
Ye Fan’s heart was in considerable turmoil. If these truly were supreme powerhouses of ancient history, there might be powerful treasures to be found on them. He peeled the grease away from one of the waxy corpses, and beneath it was revealed a lifelike human form — a female Daoist practitioner, beautiful as a flower, appearing as though in peaceful slumber, vivid and realistic.
Yet in just an instant, the rosy color drained from her face, and she shriveled and collapsed — flesh and blood withering away — until she became a skeleton. The water stirred, the white bones crumbled, and nothing was left.
“This is…”
“The power of time is the most fearsome of all. Without ascending to immortality, no one can withstand it.” The young woman in purple showed an expression of shock. “This body has existed through endless ages, preserved all this time only because it was wrapped in mysterious energy. Now that its true form has been exposed, of course it cannot endure.”
Ye Fan peeled open several more waxy corpses. Each time the grease fell away, a lifelike figure of the ancients was revealed — yet within moments, every one turned to ash and smoke, leaving nothing behind.
Among the ruins, he found a few broken pieces of copper and worn shards of iron — the once-powerful spiritual treasures of the ancients, ground to powder by the long passage of time.
“These are people from before the ancient era. Who knows how many tens of thousands of years have passed — nothing could possibly remain…” The young woman in purple called out again: “Release me! I may be able to find something of value.”
Ye Fan peeled open dozens of waxy corpses, but the result was always the same. The moment they were exposed, they turned to flying ash in an instant.
Just then, Ye Fan felt that peculiar ripple again, drifting out from the enormous bronze hall. He said in a low voice: “This is bad — we must leave at once!”
He lifted the young woman in purple and rushed upward, intending to force his way through. But a massive force came tearing toward them both.
“Run — quickly!” The young woman in purple cried out. She realized the two of them were being pulled backward toward the bronze hall, about to be drawn inside.
Ye Fan was alarmed. His sea of bitterness began to churn, the spring of life gushing forth, every ounce of his divine power released — yet still he could not break free from the binding force. The bronze hall seemed to possess a strange and irresistible power that was drawing them in and swallowing them whole.
“Thud!”
The two of them landed heavily on the ground. They were now inside the bronze hall — boundlessly vast, utterly silent, dim and indistinct all around.
There was no palace gate to be found. It was as though they had arrived in an endless desert — not a trace of life, time seeming to have stopped here entirely, as though they had come to the very end of the world.
“I don’t want to die. I — Ji Ziyue — am of peerless elegance and beauty, unmatched under heaven. I have not yet ascended to immortality. How can I perish in a place like this…”
“Can you stop being so self-absorbed?” Ye Fan was thoroughly defeated by her.
Faint mist coiled and drifted all around, deeply hazy. Inside the vast bronze hall, the eye could find no end — it was as though one had arrived at the very beginning of creation.
“Crack!”
A sound of something breaking rang out. The young woman in purple immediately cried out: “My foot touched something!”
On the ground lay a snow-white skeleton, cracked and broken in many places, lying face-down in stillness. The merest touch caused it to crumble into bone powder.
“This person must have been enormously powerful in life. These bones were not wrapped in mysterious energy, and yet they have been preserved through the ages — that alone is remarkable.” Ye Fan was deeply surprised. He crouched down and examined the bones carefully.
On the ground were a few dried characters written in blood — dark red and blurred, yet carrying an indescribable quality. It seemed as though all the vital energy of this powerhouse had been concentrated here to leave these words behind, giving one an intensely peculiar feeling — as though some emotion were being conveyed.
“Dare I ask heaven — are there truly immortals?”
These few characters alone — in death, this person seemed filled with regret and unwillingness. Someone capable of leaving white bones behind must have been a paramount powerhouse of countless ages past, and yet at the moment of death, their heart had been filled with confusion. One could only imagine the depth of their loss — the regret of never being able to part the clouds and see the clear sky beyond.