Primordial Cultivator

Opening the door carefully, Elder Jing was surprised to see a massive area when compared to the narrow passage that brought them here.

"Is there really a treasure vault here?" Elder Jing said softly.

Normally, an area this big and has an underground passage means there are many valuables stored here. Otherwise, why would someone waste their money and effort in constructing one, to begin with?

However, Elder Jing's deduction soon changed when she sniffed a very foul smell.

"Corpse's smell," Elder Jing said as she turned solemn.

"The corpse smell seems to be very old, Elder Jing." Yang Wei smelled it as well and was sure the corpse had been dead for a long time already.

It wasn't a recent death at all and Elder Jing feared that the corpses deep inside could be the resident of this mini-house.

"Yang Wei," Elder Jing glanced at Yang Wei softly and he understood her meaning.

With their hand holding their weapon tightly, Yang Wei put up a barrier as he dashed inside in case there were some magical beasts lurking.

BAM!

Yang Wei glanced around the surroundings and saw no living being but his nose was soon hit with an extremely sickly-sweet smell that was disgusting to the point of making him nauseous.

Yang Wei quickly covered his nose with his sleeve and Elder Jing hurriedly retrieved some pills in her spatial ring before consuming them.

"Yang Wei, catch it," Elder Jing said as she threw the pill for Yang Wei to consume.

Yang Wei caught it and consumed it immediately. Afterward, Yang Wei could smell better and the corpses that were emitting a foul smell could barely affect him now.

"What kind of miraculous pill is this, Elder Jing?" Yang Wei then asked.

"It's a Breath Concealing Pill, used on occasion when an environment has an unbearable smell for a cultivator." Elder Jing said and continued.

"As cultivators, we must be prepared for all types of situations because one mishap and our life is gone. No one would be a fool to venture into the outside world without any preparation even if you have nine lives."

Yang Wei agreed with Elder Jing wholeheartedly. The cultivation world is too ruthless where you can die anytime.

Elder Jing smiled briefly before walking over to the sea of corpses and started to kneel down to investigate their death.

'Their death is not caused by magical beasts since there are no claw or scratch marks in the bones.' Elder Jing said inwardly as she narrowed her gaze on a particular wound.

'Those wounds are unusual and I can't tell if they're done by a martial technique or something else.'

While Elder Jing pondered over what kind of things could cause those kinds of injuries in the corpse, Yang Wei was walking around to check if there's something else.

"These corpses seemed to be stuck here for a long time…" Yang Wei mumbled softly as he witnessed many corpses have around 2-4 people grouped together, almost like they were a family.

Suddenly, like a bolt of thunder hit Yang Wei's mind, he wondered if they were refugees from the past.

'C-Could it be- these people are mortals and were seeking a safe haven in this underground passage?' Yang Wei exclaimed inwardly as he quickly dashed toward a 3 person corpse and started looking for an item or something that indicates their relationship.

Within a few moments, Yang Wei saw the three corpses have the same token that has Min labeled on it.

'I was hoping my conjecture would be wrong but alas,' Yang Wei sighed inwardly as he stood up and glanced at Elder Jing who was still busy investigating their death.

"Elder Jing, these people could be refugees," Yang Wei said to Elder Jing, relaying the information he found.

Elder Jing got up and turned around to look at Yang Wei before nodding her head.

"I got the same deduction because the corpse I'm investigating right now is a little girl and based on the condition, I'm afraid she was starved to death." Elder Jing said in a bitter tone.

Yang Wei walked toward Elder Jing's position and stared at a little girl's rotten corpse.

The bones of the corpse were extremely skinny, clearly showing signs of it being deprived of food and dying of hunger.

"Elder Jing, this mysterious realm seems to have more backstory than just a mere Pagoda and treasures," Yang Wei said as his complexion pale.

Elder Jing was quiet as she agreed with Yang Wei.

Elder Jing stayed silent for a brief moment before she made a soft sigh and said, "Nothing we can do about it anymore Yang Wei. Their death should have been a long time ago."

And she continued, "Let's just pay our respect to the dead and see what is hidden inside here."

"Un," Yang Wei nodded.

Afterward, both of them closed their eyes with their hands clasped together and bowed slightly.

"May the dead be in peace now"

They said in unison before burning their rotten corpses with light fire. Not only will this allow the corpses to turn into dust and scattered around but this will prevent any more foul smells from lingering in this room.

"Okay, let's go further inside," Elder Jing said once they finished burning every corpse in the room.

"Mhm, we should explore everything, and maybe there might be some clues about what happened here," Yang Wei said and followed behind.

Sometime later, they walked into an area with a platform high above in the center with some staircase.

In addition, there is a beam of light shooting through the ceiling, shocking Elder Jing and Yang Wei in the process.

"From a sea of corpses to an area with a ray of light…." Elder Jing mumbled softly as she glanced at the tall pillar that's emitting the blinding light on them.

"Could that be the treasure that the underground passage was hiding?" Yang Wei said as he unconsciously took a step forward, almost like his body is no longer his to command.