Abruptly, Su Xiaobai stood frozen, his eyes locked on the blue, ethereal glow coming from the top of the cavern.
The light was soothing, almost serene, but the sight that accompanied it sent chills racing down his spine.
"Treasure?" he whispered to himself, his voice barely more than a breath. How could he have forgotten his original purpose?
He was here for the treasure! And now, it was right in front of him—or so he thought.
Hovering above, bathed in that faint blue light, was an object unlike anything he had ever seen.
Suspended midair, glowing threads of qi swirled and converged toward a small, pulsating embryo, nestled within the light like a baby in a womb.
It throbbed gently, as if something within it was on the verge of being born.
"Not good..." Su Xiaobai's first instinct was to step back, his heart pounding.
This was no ordinary treasure.
His intuition screamed at him—this thing was dangerous.
He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. This cave, this whole setup—it suddenly all made sense.
"Why would someone just leave treasure lying around, with a treasure map conveniently circulating among cultivators?" he muttered, his brow furrowing. He had never trusted such rumors, but the lure of treasure often made even the most cautious cultivator act foolishly.
But now... now he could see the truth with his own eyes.
The faint, barely perceptible threads of qi being sucked into that embryo weren't just random energy from the cave.
No, they were from the souls of those who had come here before him, slowly drained by the hidden 'Soul Refining Array'.
He could feel the sinister intent embedded in the very air.
"Soul Refining Array!" Su Xiaobai's voice trembled as he shivered involuntarily. This wasn't a treasure vault—it was a massacre ground!
The entire cave was a trap, designed not to grant fortune, but to lure in cultivators, bleed them dry in the trials above, and refine their souls to fuel the creation of this Immortal Fetus.
The countless rumors, the maps, the greed of hidden treasures—it was all part of a deliberate scheme.
"Someone's been feeding this thing for years!" His throat went dry, and he couldn't help but gulp audibly, taking cautious, deliberate steps forward.
Above him, the Immortal Fetus hung, absorbing everything. The more he stared at it, the more its faint blue light seemed to pulse in sync with his own heartbeat, as if the thing was aware of his presence.
The entire cavern reeked of death and ancient sorcery, like the remnants of countless cultivators were whispering warnings into the void.
Su Xiaobai's thoughts raced as the cold truth sank in. "This place has been rigged from the beginning! There's no treasure—just a trap to harvest souls!" His heart hammered in his chest, his mind cycling between panic and grim realization. "An immortal-killing grade array... to fuel that thing!"
He bit his lip, sweat forming on his brow despite the cavern's eerie chill. The more he observed, the more terrifying the situation became.
The absence of qi wasn't some strange natural phenomenon—every bit of energy here had been consumed by the Immortal Fetus.
No wonder the entire cave was void of qi. It had all been fed into this horrifying creation!
What was this thing? And why would someone create such a monstrous formation just to birth it?
Even the Infernal Emperor, who had seen countless mystical techniques, had never mentioned something like this.
Birth by soul refinement? It was unheard of in any ancient text he knew of.
His eyes shifted nervously, scanning the cavern, when something else caught his attention—a coffin, lying directly beneath the Immortal Fetus, shrouded in shadow.
As he stepped closer, his heart skipped a beat. The moment he saw it, recognition struck him like a lightning bolt.
"A Fate-Deceiving Coffin?!" His eyes widened, and his knees nearly buckled.
This… this was a treasure of legendary proportions! Not some petty prize, but something that could incite a war among Immortal Emperors, Gods fiends, and celestial beings alike.
A treasure capable of deceiving fate itself.
Su Xiaobai sucked in a sharp, cold breath, his thoughts spinning wildly. "Why would something so valuable be hidden here?!"
His gaze darted to the nearby tables surrounding the coffin. Ancient scrolls, half-decayed from what must have been the ravages of millions of years, were scattered across them.
Some had crumbled to dust, but others still clung to the faint remnants of long-forgotten ink and writing, etched by hands that had likely passed into dust eons ago.
"What was someone doing here? This place feels abandoned… millions, maybe even eons have passed." Su Xiaobai swallowed hard, his mind in shock.
Whoever had designed this setup was long gone, but the trap they had laid had persisted, an unbroken cycle of death and deceit.
His eyes darted back to the Immortal Fetus, which continued to pulse softly, as if unaware—or perhaps entirely indifferent—to his presence.
Su Xiaobai's mind raced. If the Fate-Deceiving Coffin was here, and it was connected to this terrifying array... then this wasn't just some ordinary cultivation scheme.
This was a plan on a scale he could barely comprehend.
The coffin, the Immortal Fetus, the soul refining—all of it was tied together in some grand, unfathomable plot.
"Whoever set this up..." he whispered to himself, "they weren't just after power. They were trying to defy fate itself."
But as much as that thought filled him with dread, another feeling crept into his chest—a glint of excitement. Because as dangerous as this place was, the treasures here were real.
And if he could survive this… if he could seize the Fate-Deceiving Coffin, then perhaps he could turn this nightmare into the greatest opportunity of his life.
But first… he had to figure out how to get out of here alive.
"Let's see..."
Su Xiaobai's hands trembled slightly as he reached for one of the decaying scrolls on the table, carefully brushing off the dust with his fingers.
The paper, though old and brittle, still held together—barely. What caught his eye immediately was the intricate script, written in a language he never thought he'd encounter again.
It was the language of the Four Heavens, something he'd only learned through the memories of the Infernal Emperor.
As he unrolled the scroll, the words seemed to leap out at him, each stroke heavy with emotion, every character imbued with a sense of profound grief and longing.
The more he read, the more he felt the weight of the story before his eyes.
---------
"I, Tian Yu, the Emperor of the Northern Heavens, inscribe this record with a heart burdened by grief and regret, for these may be the last words I leave in this world. My beloved... I remember the first time I met her, like it was carved into my very soul."