653: Chapter 653 Senichi (18)

Qin Yun walked up the broken steps, and the further he went, the quieter it became.

The mountain wind poured down from the peak, swirling with broken leaves and dust, slapping against his face, carrying a very old scent.

When this peak had no name, it was like a stone that people had forgotten.

But after the three words "Burial Dao Peak" were recorded in the old records of the Jade Pool, it was no longer just a ruined peak.

Qin Yun stood outside the mountain gate and looked up.

The mountain gate was crooked, the gatepost was broken in half, and the plaque hung askew above it, its wood blackened as if scorched by fire or rotted by the passage of time.

The stone steps inside the gate extended upward layer by layer, with cold grass growing in the cracks, its leaves thin and hard, pressed against the ground by the wind like a layer of stubborn, unyielding frost.

There were no spiritual birds soaring through the air here, nor were there any Disciple coming and going.

Even the spiritual mist that the most ordinary immortal peak should have was pitifully sparse.

In the distance, those immortal peaks had light on their summits, bells in front of their halls, and people walking on their mountain paths.

Yet here, it was as if it had been severed at the edge of the world, with nothing at all.

Qin Yun stood at the entrance, not rushing to enter.

As soon as he stepped into the range of Burial Dao Peak, his chest felt a slight heaviness.

His Heart Heavy Pupils rotated on their own at this moment.

Qin Yun paused his steps.

He raised his hand to press against his chest, his gaze darkening slightly.

This place was not right.

Many ruined peaks were ruined in appearance, in incense, and in popularity.

But this place was ruined so thoroughly that it seemed as if something had been deliberately hidden.

Qin Yun did not rush forward again.

He first activated his Heart Heavy Pupils.

The ruined peak before his eyes changed immediately in his field of vision.

The stone steps were no longer just stone steps.

On the edge of the third step, there remained a segment of a guiding pattern; the pattern was already broken, but the break was very neat, not like natural collapse, but as if it had been snapped by someone's palm.

In the crack of the broken wall on the left, there was a thread of old dao rhyme, suppressed by dust for too long, which one would never discover without looking closely.

In the collapsed hall on the hillside, although the pillars were broken, a circle of ancient formation patterns was still pressed beneath the base of the pillars.

Those formation patterns were not for protecting the hall, but rather more like a seal.

Qin Yun's gaze flickered, and he continued to look upward.

In his eyes, this peak was not empty.

It had order.

It was just that this order had been torn to pieces by someone and then covered with a layer of ruins.

Even the roots had been severed.

Qin Yun looked down at the mountain path beneath his feet.

On the edge of the mountain path, there were several extremely faint cut marks, cut very flat, as if an extremely sharp instrument had swept across here, shaving off the entire section of the road once.

He activated his Void Method.

He discovered that there was a slight dislocation in space along the mountain path.

Qin Yun did not stop anymore and walked inward, following that slight dislocation.

Many of the plants along the road had withered.

But these withered grasses did not die naturally.

Their vitality was suppressed too low, as if some kind of power had been suppressing them for years, preventing them from growing even if they wanted to.

Upon touching them with his Life Technique, Qin Yun became even more certain.

On this mountain, there had once been something absorbing the surrounding vitality.

Or rather, it had compressed all the vitality back into the deepest depths.

He continued forward.

Not long after, the half-collapsed stone beast at the mountain gate came into view ahead.

There should have originally been a pair of stone beasts; the one on the left had already shattered halfway, and the one on the right only had its head and front paws remaining.

Qin Yun saw something unusual in the eyes of the stone beast on the right.

It was not a stone pattern.

It was an extremely fine gray speck.

He walked over, raised his hand to point, and his Void Method vibrated gently.

That gray speck flew out of the stone eye and landed in his palm; it was actually a small, sealed segment of a dao line.

It was very short.

It was very thin.

Yet, following this segment of the dao line, Qin Yun immediately found a deeper path.

He looked up toward the side of the mountain.

It was originally a slope of wild grass, where the grass grew in such disarray that it almost completely covered the path.

But in his Heart Heavy Pupils, there was a small path underneath the grass that had been flattened by someone.

The path was not wide, only enough for one person to pass through sideways.

Qin Yun followed it.

At the end of the small path was a ruined hall.

The hall door was long gone, the door frame had collapsed on one side, and broken tiles and stones were scattered on the ground.

The offering table in the hall was shattered, the spirit tablet was gone, and only a fallen stone platform remained, pressing down on half of an old pattern.

Qin Yun squatted down and placed his palm on the edge of the stone platform.

As he activated his Body Technique, the internal structure of the stone platform quickly emerged.

This was not an ordinary offering table.

Hidden underneath was an old stone disk that could rotate.

The stone disk was sealed by a very thin layer of dust and covered with another layer of broken stones on the outside, looking as if it were completely broken, but in reality, it was still alive inside.

Qin Yun lifted his fingertip, and the stone disk rotated slightly.

The moment the stone disk turned, no treasure light burst out, nor did any Immortal Qi leak out.

Only a wisp of extremely faint old dao rhyme overflowed from beneath the stone disk.

Qin Yun looked at that wisp of dao rhyme, his eyes darkening further.

Something had been deliberately hidden by someone.

He continued to search, following this wisp of dao rhyme.

Behind the hall was a slope, and an ancient stele was inserted at the top of the slope.

The body of the stele was inserted upside down into the cliff wall, with only half exposed.

The characters on the face of the stele had long been mostly destroyed, leaving only a few blurred strokes at the end.

Qin Yun stared at those few remaining characters for a long time.

It looked like a peak maxim.

Or perhaps an old order.

He managed to barely make out one of the characters.

"Burial."

Another looked like "Dao."

There was still half a character pressed by the cliff soil, which could not be seen clearly.

Qin Yun pressed his hand onto it and activated his Life Technique; a deeper layer of marks immediately appeared in the crack of the stele.

Beneath the stele was not stone root.

It was a downward crack.

It was very narrow.

And very deep.

Qin Yun stood at the edge of the cliff and looked down.

Below, it was pitch black.

He did not hesitate and leaped down.

This crack was very long.

Qin Yun walked down along it, and the deeper he went, the more obvious the palpitations in his chest became.

In the end, the space ahead suddenly opened up.

It was a hollowed-out mountain interior.

In the center of the mountain interior stood a ruined platform.

Around the ruined platform were broken lock patterns, which bit into the mountain body, as if they had once suppressed something.

The platform was empty.

There really was nothing at all.

Qin Yun stood before the platform and was silent for a while.

He activated his Heart Heavy Pupils and scanned it once.

No Immortal Scripture.

No treasure liquid.

No weapons.

No Legacy light orbs.

Nor any Divine Thought left by a remnant soul.

He dismantled it once more with his Void Method.

Still empty.

He turned it over again with his Life Technique.

The break was extremely neat.

Not even the last bit of Legacy root remained.

Qin Yun's brows slowly furrowed.

All the clues he had followed along the way were correct.

Entering the mountain gate, finding old marks, touching the stone disk, looking at the ancient stele, entering the mountain interior.

Every step was not wrong.

But this core ruined platform at the end was, unexpectedly, empty.

It was not hidden deep.

It was truly gone.

This peak was truly completely ruined.

Not even the last bit of foundation was left.

Before, when outsiders said it was ruined, he did not completely believe them.

Now, he believed it.

This place had nothing at all.

Qin Yun stood for a moment and finally turned around.

He prepared to leave.

And just at the moment his footsteps moved, a voice suddenly sounded behind him.

It was very hoarse.

Very lazy.

And carried a bit of impatience.

"Have you seen enough?"

"If you've seen enough, then get lost."

Qin Yun's footsteps stopped.

The palpitation in his chest, which had originally been suppressed, suddenly surged up at this moment.

Heavier than any time before.

He did not immediately turn back.

He only tightened his Heart Heavy Pupils first, and his Nine Techniques also retracted simultaneously, his whole body instantly tensed up.

This voice was very close to him.

But just now, he had not sensed it at all.

When did an extra person appear in the mountain interior?

Qin Yun slowly turned around.

Behind the ruined platform, in that shadow that should have been empty, an old man was standing, though it was unknown when he had arrived.

The old man was dressed in tatters, his hair as messy as a clump of grass, his face dirty, his beard knotted in clumps, and his waist slightly hunched; he looked no different from an old madman begging for food at the foot of the mountain.

He was holding a chipped wine gourd in his hand, his eyelids half-drooped, and he was looking at Qin Yun with a face full of disgust.

It was as if he were looking at a junior who had broken into the wrong door.

Or as if he were looking at an annoying thing.

Yet the moment Qin Yun saw him, the palpitation in his chest was heavier than any time before.

So heavy that even his fingertips paused for a moment.

This old madman was so close to him, yet he had not sensed anything in advance just now.

Qin Yun looked at that crazy old face, was silent for a moment, and spoke in a low voice.

"Who are you?"

The old man lifted his eyes, the corners of his mouth twitching in a smile that was not quite a smile.

"You break into my territory, and then you ask me who I am."

"Kid, you've got some nerve."