"Hope so."
Ning Beichen also looked forward to it.
"Let's go. We'll explore from the outside first, and don't go too deep recklessly."
Ning Beichen said to Chen Mingyue.
"Okay."
Chen Mingyue nodded and walked towards the building in front with Ning Beichen.
Before long, the two arrived at a grand hall. Ning Beichen looked up and saw a plaque above the hall. However, the writing on the plaque was neither modern nor ancient, at least not from recent times.
Yet, Ning Beichen could understand this type of script.
It was the same script he had seen in the ruins beneath the Sahara Desert's no-man's-land.
Therefore, Ning Beichen guessed that these two ruins were from the same period.
However, Chen Mingyue could not understand the script.
"No need to look. This is the Hall of Transmitting Skills."
Ning Beichen told Chen Mingyue, who was looking with curiosity.
"Huh? Ning Beichen, you can understand the words on it?"
Chen Mingyue asked in surprise.
When it came to being knowledgeable and talented, Chen Mingyue was confident she was no worse than anyone else, but she had never seen the script on the plaque before.
She had compared it from ancient oracle bone script to modern Chinese characters, but had not found any script similar to the one on the plaque.
"I know some, but I don't understand much."
Ning Beichen replied.
He wasn't being humble; it was the truth. He only knew some of the characters and knew nothing about the era to which this script belonged.
Ning Beichen stepped forward and pushed open the hall door. The hall was empty, but there were many futons on the ground.
As the name suggested, this was probably where teachers imparted skills and knowledge to their disciples in the past.
Chen Mingyue also looked around curiously, a look of envy on her face.
Perhaps these things were commonplace in that era, and this underground ruin might not have belonged to a particularly famous sect.
But for modern people like Chen Mingyue and Ning Beichen, it was already something they yearned for.
Compared to that era, modern martial artists and cultivators were like abandoned children of the times, longing to return.
Yet, they scoured the world, visited famous mountains and rivers, but could never find those vanished existences, as if they had never existed at all.
Ning Beichen stopped at a futon at the very front and looked up at the front of the hall. Faint shadows, like a black and white movie, flickered intermittently before his eyes.
Ning Beichen wanted to experience the scene from that era, but in the end, he gained nothing and could only leave with regret.
As they just walked out of the Hall of Transmitting Skills, they suddenly heard a terrifying roar, its source unknown. Following that, they saw someone appear.
"It's someone who came in with us. So they came in here."
Chen Mingyue said excitedly to Ning Beichen.
The person approaching was a short-haired young man. Ning Beichen seemed to have seen him before outside, but he didn't know him well.
"I recognize him. He's Tao Yong, the nephew of Huang Yingzhong from the Grandmasters' Alliance. I'll go say hello."
Chen Mingyue told Ning Beichen.
"Wait, something's not right with him."
Ning Beichen grabbed Chen Mingyue and stared at Tao Yong with eyes like lightning.
"Not right?"
Chen Mingyue was puzzled, but she listened to Ning Beichen and didn't go forward, instead speaking to Tao Yong.
"Tao Yong, do you still recognize me? I'm Chen Mingyue."
Hearing Chen Mingyue's voice, Tao Yong slowly turned his head to look at her. His eyes were bleeding, and he looked extremely strange.
"No, it's the ominousness. He's been invaded by the ominousness!"
Ning Beichen shouted, pulling Chen Mingyue back quickly.
Tao Yong let out a non-human roar and charged towards Ning Beichen and Chen Mingyue at lightning speed, thus proving that although this person still had Tao Yong's appearance, he was no longer the original Tao Yong.
Seeing Tao Yong charging at them, Chen Mingyue quickly kicked out at him. Her high-heeled boots blurred into a streak of afterimages as they landed on Tao Yong.
But Tao Yong, like a wild bull, simply charged through, knocking Chen Mingyue flying.
"Die!"
"Die! Die!"
"Die! Die! Die!"
Tao Yong let out muffled roars, like a beast, and lunged at Ning Beichen.
Ning Beichen punched him, but Tao Yong reacted nimbly, dodged Ning Beichen's attack, and appeared behind Ning Beichen strangely.
Sensing the danger from behind, Ning Beichen immediately bent down like a springboard, dodged Tao Yong's attack, and then pushed off the ground with both palms, leaping up and throwing three consecutive punches at Tao Yong.
But Ning Beichen's three punches missed again. He didn't hit Tao Yong, but Tao Yong, perhaps sensing the power of Ning Beichen's attack, dodged backward.
At this moment, Chen Mingyue happened to be behind Tao Yong. Seeing Tao Yong approach, she immediately unleashed a series of Bagua palm strikes.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The palm energy split the air, making sounds like firecrackers. A series of Bagua palm strikes hit Tao Yong.
But before Chen Mingyue could rejoice, she saw that her Bagua palm strikes had not harmed Tao Yong at all. Instead, her palms were left feeling numb.
"Such powerful defense!"
Chen Mingyue's brow twitched. Before she could react, she saw a bloody red palm whistling towards her head, accompanied by a dense aura of blood that enveloped her.
Chen Mingyue wanted to dodge, but the bloody aura seemed to have imprisoned her, making her dazed and stand frozen in place.
Just as her head was about to be smashed, Ning Beichen arrived in time and struck Tao Yong with a punch of "Great Collapse."
The power of the Great Collapse was instantly released, igniting the air and emitting a deafening roar as it sent Tao Yong flying.
Chen Mingyue, who had almost lost her life, shivered and looked at the now utterly unfamiliar Tao Yong with disbelief.
"He's been invaded by the ominousness. He's not Tao Yong anymore; he is the ominousness. Chen Mingyue, you're no match for him. Get back, I'll deal with him."
Ning Beichen said to Chen Mingyue.
At this moment, the bloody aura around Tao Yong intensified. From a distance, he looked like a man covered in blood. Even Ning Beichen became extremely tense.
He was a Grandmaster, and his full-power strike just now would have killed an elephant.
Yet, he had only sent Tao Yong flying and was unable to destroy him. This was too terrifying!
If Tao Yong had not been fully invaded by the ominousness, Ning Beichen could have used the Vajra True Scripture to stop it.
But the current Tao Yong had clearly been replaced by the ominousness. Tao Yong was the ominousness, and the ominousness was Tao Yong. They were one. Even if Ning Beichen used the Vajra True Scripture, he probably wouldn't be able to eliminate the ominousness.