It had been almost two weeks since Tin Ming had left the Sirgil village and had tried to go to the Sermil town, which was the nearest town to the village and took almost a month to get there by foot.
Everything was well and good...until Tin Ming realized he somehow managed to get lost and ended up on a gloomy mountain range.
Here the trees were all shriveled up and the ground was red and dry. There were also some dark-black grass growing about which Tin Ming had never seen in his life.
"Just what is this...place? How come I have never heard about it before?", Tin Ming was filled with doubts. Such a gloomy place had creeped Tin Ming out but what made him fear it was the fact that this place was never mentioned by his father or by any other people who had been out of the village!
Such a place would obviously stand out but the fact that no one had even talked about it meant only one thing…. This place could not be accessed by normal means or that it had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
This assumption terrified Tin Ming a lot. He had tried to hasten his way out of that place...but he found himself lost yet again and before he knew it, he was right in the middle of the gloomy mountain range.
The skies here were much darker and ghostly screams rang out from all directions. Tin Ming hopelessly looked at the grand ancient temple before him.
The red-ring on Tin Ming's index finger glowed in a crimson shade and released a crimson light which fell onto the five metre-tall entrance gate of the temple.
*RUMBLE* *RUMBLE*
The ground shook and the skies thundered.
The entrance gate of the temple opened and a cold bone-chilling air was let out which gave Tin Ming goosebumps.
"This ring belonged to my mother, which was later on passed onto me… It seems that this ring has some connection to this place. No wonder I kept getting lost here..", Tin Ming muttered.
Tin Ming's memory of his mother was vague but he knew that she had always cared and loved him with all her heart.
"Mother…", Thinking about his mother made Tin Ming's eyes misty. He sometimes wished he return back to his childhood days to enjoy the love and care of his parents...but he knew that it was impossible to reverse the time and that he could only move on forward.
'Looks like this place is somehow related to my mother….', Tin Ming thought as he stepped into the ancient temple with firm determination to uncover the mystery of the ring and to know about the matters relating to his mother.
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Tin Ming was shocked to see the sight before him when he entered the temple.
The temple was all worn out and dilapidated from the outside but from within, everything around was in its pristine condition. There wasn't even a single speck of dust to be seen inside the temple!
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As Tin Ming roamed about, he found that everything inside the temple was made up of expensive materials, even the mattress which was laid onto the floor seemed to be made of a very ferocious beast's hide.
'This temple seems… rather empty.. it feels as if everything was cleared out of here…', Tin Ming pondered. Although a few things like the mattress were left around, within a few glances Tin Ming had gotten the gist of the things that had likely happened within the temple.
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Tin Ming soon proceeded into the central part of the temple and came across another five metre-tall gate. Just like the previous scenario, the red-ring on his finger released a crimson light onto the gate, which then opened with ease.
On the otherside of the gate was a huge chamber. Stepping inside the chamber Tin Ming could smell a strong smell of blood and this smell strongly came from a crimson-colored altar which was located right in the middle of the chamber.
It didn't take a genius to guess that this was a place where blood-sacrifices frequently took place.
Tin Ming noticed a several metre-wide circular inscription by the side of the altar and out of curiosity he went to check it out.
The circular inscription was filled with various symbols and strokes and even words which were written in a language that Tin Ming had never seen before.
Upon touching the inscription, Tin Ming's face paled instantly as the blood from his hand moved onto the inscription.
Fortunately only a small amount of blood was lost, after which the inscription glowed eerily in shades of black and red as if it had come alive.
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There was a sudden bright crimson light that spread across the chamber and within the next moment, the inscription and Tin Ming, who was touching the inscription both disappeared as if they never existed.
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*Beep*
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[System update complete.]
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[Running scan on Host.]
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*Beep*
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[System has detected that the Host has begun Spiritual Qi cultivation. Does Host want the system to switch to cultivation-based mode?]
'Boy… that's new. Is this what the new update is about?', Yenma wondered but he felt that it was unlikely.
'System, what was the new update about?'
[Host's level is insufficient to access the update-related information.]
'Err..fine!', Yenma sighed.
'System, switch to cultivation-based mode!'
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*Beep*
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[Enabling cultivation-based mode.]