The barrier behind them sealed shut completely, cutting off the last sliver of moonlight.
The cave wasn't entirely dark—glowing ores embedded in the walls emitted a faint bluish light, casting ghostly reflections across the damp stone.
The air was cold and heavy with the scent of dust and decay. From deep within, a faint yet oppressive aura pulsed, as if something ancient was breathing beneath the earth.
Lin Feng and Su Lingshuang exchanged a glance—both saw the same tension in each other's eyes.
The strange tremor of the thunder seal and that eerie whisper they had heard earlier—neither had been an illusion.
"Stay close. Be careful," Su Lingshuang murmured.
A sphere of soft, icy-blue light bloomed in her palm, illuminating the narrow passage ahead. She moved with deliberate caution, yet her steps carried a sense of purpose—as if she already knew what lay within.
The tunnel wound downward, its walls lined with faint murals. Ancient figures prayed to heaven, battled colossal beasts, and wielded the raw powers of wind, fire, lightning, and stone.
One figure in particular—shrouded in crackling lightning—caught Lin Feng's attention. The markings on its body resembled the very patterns of his own thunder seal.
The deeper they went, the stronger the pressure became. The entire cavern seemed to breathe, resonating with the pulse of a sleeping behemoth.
The thunder seal within Lin Feng's dantian quivered again—restless, eager… and wary.
Then came the sound of running water.
Rounding a bend, they stepped into a vast underground chamber. Countless stalactites hung from the ceiling, dripping steadily into a pool of crystal water below.
The pool radiated intense cold, its surface perfectly still yet bottomless, like an eye staring into eternity. Across the pool stood a stone platform—upon it, several ancient relics rested.
But what drew their eyes first… was the skeleton sitting motionless beside the pool.
The bones glowed faintly under the light, pristine and white as jade despite the passage of countless years.
It sat cross-legged, head slightly bowed, robed in faded purple garments threaded with lightning motifs.
"A cultivator who passed away in meditation…" Su Lingshuang's tone carried a rare trace of respect.
Lin Feng's gaze fell upon strange markings carved into the ground before the skeleton—symbols he recognized. They resembled the ancient script from the beast-hide scroll he had once found.
He studied the carvings carefully. The drawings depicted a cultivator who possessed multiple elemental roots—wind, fire, water, earth, lightning—all clashing violently within his body until it exploded apart.
Yet in another depiction, that same figure had a mystic sigil inscribed upon his core, harmonizing the elements into perfect balance, releasing power capable of sundering worlds.
The inscriptions beside it read, in essence:
"To hold many elements is to defy heaven's law.
Only by forging the Myriad Transformation Seal within one's dantian
can all powers be united under one will—
thus avoiding destruction and treading the Path of Chaos.
The method—The True Scripture of Chaos."
The Myriad Transformation Seal… The True Scripture of Chaos!
Lin Feng's heart pounded violently.
Could his thunder seal be the incomplete form of this legendary seal?
That would explain why he could wield thunder, wind, and fire together without his body tearing apart!
Suppressing his excitement, he read on.
The text named this ancient master Lei Yan, the Thunder Sovereign, a cultivator who had devoted his life to mastering multiple elemental roots. He had succeeded in creating only the first half of the True Scripture of Chaos, but failed to complete the seal before his life ran out.
His partial legacy, along with several relics, he left behind for a future successor.
"It seems this senior followed the same path you're on," Su Lingshuang observed quietly, her eyes flickering with intrigue. "Your condition matches his pursuit almost exactly."
Lin Feng took a deep breath. Hiding was pointless now.
"Senior Sister, you're right," he admitted. "I… can sense several elemental forces. But they conflict within me. I fear I might meet the same end as this senior."
Su Lingshuang looked at him for a long moment, then nodded. "Fortune and disaster are two sides of the same coin. Come—let's see what he left behind."
They stepped carefully onto the stone platform.
Upon it lay three items:
a violet jade slip, a small black vial made of some unknown material, and a cracked dark-purple token engraved with the ancient character for "Thunder" (雷).
Lin Feng first picked up the jade slip and infused it with spiritual sense.
Instantly, knowledge flooded his mind—it was indeed the True Scripture of Chaos: Part One, along with Lei Yan's notes and theories on elemental fusion. The cultivation method was deep and profound, far beyond anything in Qingyun Sect.
Next, he examined the black vial. It was icy to the touch and sealed with complex runes that blocked divine sense—its contents a mystery.
Finally, his fingers brushed the cracked thunder token.
The thunder seal in his dantian roared to life, resonating fiercely with the relic!
A surge of information imprinted itself in his mind:
Lei Yan Token—key to the true inheritance of the Thunder Sovereign.
Serves as both a soul ward and a fragment of the ancient thunder will.
Before Lin Feng could study further—
"Hummm—!"
The once-silent skeleton suddenly stirred.
Twin flames of eerie blue ignited within its hollow eye sockets, and a wave of malicious, hungry intent swept across the chamber!
"After so long… finally, a vessel worthy of me!
A body of thunder, blending multiple elements—perfect!"
The voice shrieked directly into their minds.
The skeleton stood up, lightning flickering across its bones.
"Spirit possession!" Su Lingshuang's face changed drastically.
She raised her hand and conjured a towering wall of ice. "Be careful! That's no remnant of the Thunder Sovereign—it's a parasitic evil spirit!"
"Hah! Clever girl—but your pitiful strength won't save him!"
The skeleton jabbed a bony finger forward, releasing a beam of blue soulfire that tore through the ice wall like paper and shot straight for Lin Feng's forehead!
Too fast to dodge.
A surge of primal fear gripped Lin Feng—he could feel death closing in.
Then—
the cracked Lei Yan Token in his hand suddenly flew up on its own, shining with blinding purple light!
Bzzzzttt!
The blue beam struck it head-on.
A thunderous shockwave shook the cavern. The beam was deflected—but the token screamed in protest, another crack splitting across its surface before it fell, dim and lifeless, to the ground.
"Even a broken relic dares oppose me?!" the evil spirit howled, flames flaring violently.
The entire cave quaked. Dust rained from above.
Su Lingshuang coughed blood, the backlash shredding her ice barrier.
She grabbed Lin Feng's arm, shouting, "Run! That thing's been trapped here for centuries—its power is weak, but still far beyond us! I'll hold it off—attack the pool! The cold vein beneath it might destabilize this place!"
Before he could object, she rushed forward, unleashing a storm of frozen lotuses toward the skeletal fiend.
Lin Feng's chest tightened. Watching her charge toward near-certain death, he clenched his fists.
Leave her and flee?
Never.
His gaze swept the relics—the True Scripture of Chaos, the black vial, the shattered token—then to the howling evil spirit.
A wild idea took root in his mind.
He would bet everything.