The King of Black Fog

There are a total of ten palaces, and Li Changzhou and his group have already entered the third one, still without encountering the other two teams.

"We might have run into trouble," Li Qianxia said.

"Life and death are matters of fate. Since we've chosen to tread the Heavenly Road and desire to Step into the Sky, we must be prepared for the fall that could lead to our demise," Li Changzhou said nonchalantly, surveying the palace before him.

Upon entering, it felt as though they had stepped inside a cylindrical structure.

Niches had been carved into the walls, each holding a corpse.

In the very center of the floor, there was only a table and a chair, arranged simply.

"So why did you let me follow you, and even carry me... you don't possibly like me, do you?!" Bi asked from his back.

The words 'like me' were said particularly loudly.

Li Changzhou tilted his head as if avoiding noise and continued examining everything before him: "It looks like a tomb, albeit a slightly peculiar one."

The methods of death among these corpses varied widely. Gathering so many different causes of death in one place meant it was either a battlefield or a graveyard.

"Three halls, all encountering dead people; it seems our luck is bad," Turquoise Pool laughed.

"Dead people may be terrifying, but meeting those who are alive and active could be even more frightening," Li Qianxia, standing beside Li Changzhou, remarked.

"No, that's not right."

Everyone looked towards Yang Qinglan.

"What's not right?" Bi asked.

Yang Qinglan gazed around in contemplation, holding Ruyi and standing elegantly, sensing something.

She turned her clean, fair face to look at the four: "This feels a lot like a bookroom."

"..."

"... I'm floored," Li Qianxia even resorted to using an outdated internet slang from the '90s.

No one believed it.

How could a place filled with corpses be a study room?

"Could it be that they are reading books of the dead?" Bi suggested.

"Or perhaps they're written on skin, like in 'The World's Number One' where Cheng Shifei needs to stare at his opponent's butt to learn the Left-Handed Blade Technique," Li Qianxia stated with a serious expression.

Turquoise Pool just laughed.

Yang Qinglan kept her eyes on Li Changzhou.

"I believe," Li Changzhou said.

"Brother, if you're under threat, just blink."

"It's something that scholars wouldn't understand," Li Changzhou said, putting Bi down and walking alone towards the table and chair.

Hmm?

He suddenly felt something shift in his heart.

Before Yang Qinglan spoke, he thought the table and chair were where the Tomb Guardian rested between duties. After her words and moving closer, he really did get a sense of a desk.

This was the Instinct of someone who had spent years sitting at a writing desk.

If it were true, then clearly someone had spent much time reading at this lone table and chair, leaving behind an aura.

The long years had diluted the aura to weak remnants, perceivable except by someone like Yang Qinglan, who was an Earth Immortal from a family that ran a bookstore, and had been in study rooms since childhood.

Li Changzhou sat at the table and chair.

When he looked up again, a golden glow emanated from more than half of the niches filled with corpses on the surrounding walls.

The golden light was concentrated but limited in range, illuminating only the niches themselves, like a series of golden lamps.

Almost instinctively, as if knowing how to operate, Li Changzhou used his Divine Sense to touch one of the glowing corpses.

The surrounding environment changed sharply.

Li Changzhou did not panic, recognizing this as merely a space within the Divine Sense.

This was a small boat, carrying nine people.

One adult and eight children, the children being as tall as Li Changzhou, with scaly skin and four arms.

The adult had no scale armor and no four arms, dressed in armor that resembled a Daoist robe.

The boat drifted in the orbit of a Constant Star, with the spewed Corona Material resembling splashes.

"... you are all one in a billion geniuses within our clan, born with combat power of 5, qualified to cultivate the 'Heavenly Demon Bathing Scripture,'" the sole adult spoke, standing at twenty-three meters tall.

"The 'Heavenly Demon Bathing Scripture' is one of the strongest Cultivation Methods of our Heavenly Demon Clan, more than half who've cultivated this method have become true Heavenly Demons."

The eight children couldn't conceal their excitement.

"Heavenly Demon Bathing allows one to bathe in all kinds of Strength in the world, from the small like rain and breeze to the vast like stellar heat, even emotions can be bathed in."

"There was once a genius who was incapacitated at a young age and spent six hundred years as a street Beggar, constantly reciting the 'Heavenly Demon Bathing Scripture' during those six hundred years, soaking in despondent Qi, ultimately accomplishing the impossible and achieving Heavenly Demonhood."

One child suddenly clasped their hands together, seemingly having realized something, and said, "Among those with combat power below 0.001, those clansmen who choose writing as a profession..."

Li Changzhou turned to look at that child.

"... they turn their experiences, good or bad, into a reservoir of writing material. Is the 'Heavenly Demon Bathing Scripture' like this too?"

"Correct!" the adult nodded in appreciation and continued, "Li Changzhou, are you planning to bathe in love?"

"Hahaha!" all the children laughed.

The girl whom Li Changzhou had been watching winked at him, a slight bashfulness in her smile.

Li Changzhou turned back; the girl bore a striking resemblance to a queen in demeanor.

"Bathing in emotions is too difficult for you at the moment. First, follow me to learn how to bathe in the power of stars; the vast Strength of stars is best for beginners..."

Li Changzhou snapped back to reality, finding himself back in the palace.

The corpses in the niches were dull and lifeless, without the faintest glow.

"Brother, what happened?" At some unknown point, the others had gathered around him.

"You seemed all right, so I didn't wake you," Yang Qinglan explained.

"It is indeed a library, no, calling it a Hall of Transmission would be more apt," Li Changzhou said, his gaze fixed on one niche housing a man, standing at twenty-three meters, donned in similar Daoist robe armor.

He transmitted the experience to the four.