Chapter 70: Chapter 70: The Space within the Heart of the Secret Realm
Seeing the scene inside the heart of the secret realm, Lin Xiao's eyes began to turn red.
He first looked up at Sun Yigao, then turned to Venerable Pantu, his expression heavy with emotions that were difficult to put into words.
Venerable Pantu was utterly confused by Lin Xiao's reaction.
"What's suddenly come over you?" he asked.
Lin Xiao took a deep breath, opened a passage into the space within the heart of the secret realm, and stepped aside, saying, "See for yourself."
Venerable Pantu didn't understand what Lin Xiao meant, and Sun Yigao was equally puzzled. The two of them looked toward the space that had just opened beside Lin Xiao.
Inside, they saw a space that wasn't too big or too small, where a dozen people lay scattered on the ground.
The most striking thing about these people was their skeletal thinness, with some resembling nothing more than dried-up corpses!
On the ground, there were also countless fish bones and even human bones.
The human bones still bore visible teeth marks.
The few people who were still alive were barely breathing.
One of them, who still looked somewhat human, slowly turned his head when he saw the space opening.
When he spotted Venerable Pantu standing outside, a strange glint flickered in his previously lifeless eyes, a look that sent chills down even the spine of the experienced Nascent Soul cultivator!
Aside from that person, none of the others had the strength to notice anything. They were all lying on the ground, barely clinging to life.
Sun Yigao, like Lin Xiao, found his eyes reddening at the sight, his heart heavy with sorrow.
The scene before them was too horrific!
Anyone witnessing this would be overwhelmed with grief.
What kind of despair had these people endured?
Through the heart of the secret realm, Lin Xiao had learned the truth of their situation. The heart had recorded everything that had happened within it, including inside its own space. Lin Xiao could view all the events that had occurred there over the years.
The people now lying in the heart of the secret realm were all cultivators in the Qi Refining stage who had been thrown into the lake by Venerable Pantu over the past few decades.
After being thrown into the lake, they had been sucked into the small space of the heart by its unconscious power.
Inside this space, no larger than a few rooms, there was nothing but bare walls.
Surviving on occasional fish and shrimp that were also sucked in, as well as the sparse amounts of lake water, they had been trapped in a place from which escape was impossible unless someone actively opened the space.
These people had sustained themselves on whatever they could find, and in the most desperate cases, on each other...
Out of dozens, only a few still had a breath of life left.
But they were merely clinging to life.
This space was already a dead zone, where they could only lie on the ground, waiting to die.
The cultivator who still had enough strength to turn and look at Venerable Pantu now had bloodshot eyes, filled with a hatred so intense that it made him look as though he wanted to tear Venerable Pantu apart and devour him.
He was filled with overwhelming hatred—this man, this ghostly figure, had brought them to this place of utter despair, where they were forced to tear each other apart to survive.
When he had first been thrown in a year ago, the sight of what lay before him had stunned him.
At first, he had tried to help the others, feeding them water and fish when he could. But eventually, he could no longer take care of himself, let alone anyone else.
Once, he had nearly been bitten by someone he had thought was too weak to move.
Although they were all Qi Refining cultivators who wouldn't die easily from lack of food, they were still human. Starvation and thirst slowly eroded their strength.
He would never forget how he had once crouched on the ground like a dog, licking up the few drops of lake water that were occasionally sucked into the space.
Despite the sight of the white bones, with visible teeth marks on them, and the bodies reduced to mere skin and bones, he had resisted the urge to consume human flesh.
Others held on as well, waiting until someone drew their last breath, at which point they would pounce on the corpse, consuming every last bit.
But they left the bones intact, so that one day, if they ever escaped, they could bury the remains properly.
This was the agreement each new arrival made with those who had come before them.
Over the past year, despair had gnawed at his soul every moment.
He thought that if he weren't a cultivator with the willpower instilled by his training, he might have taken his own life long ago.
In this small, hellish space, everything that happened was because of that man—a man who was neither alive nor dead!
Lin Xiao remained silent for a moment.
He then used the heart of the secret realm to release the survivors and the remains from the space.
Turning to Venerable Pantu, who was still in shock, Lin Xiao spoke with a heavy tone.
"Sorry, but I can't release your seal."
Seeing the horrific situation that Venerable Pantu had created, Lin Xiao realized that perhaps being sealed here was the justice he deserved.
As much as their sect might need a knowledgeable elder like him, Lin Xiao couldn't bring himself to accept someone who had caused such suffering.
Venerable Pantu was stunned as he looked at the survivors and asked, "What happened to them…?"
Taking a deep breath, Lin Xiao explained, "After you threw them into the lake, they were sucked into the space within the heart of the secret realm. If they hadn't been released today, that space would have been their tomb."
It was like a living grave.
Venerable Pantu fell silent.
Throughout his cultivation life, fighting, killing, and taking lives had always been part of the game—victory belonged to the strong.
But even he had never intended to torture others in such an inhumane way.
Faced with the reality of the situation, he found himself at a loss for words.
At first, he had wanted to argue that it wasn't his fault. If the secret realm's heart hadn't sucked them in, they would have been fine. And it wasn't as if he had controlled the heart. He hadn't intended for things to end up this way.
But in the end, he chose to remain silent.
Sun Yigao noticed that many of the survivors wore the same red robes as Yuan Qing and Xu Juan, whom they had met earlier. His voice thick with emotion, he said to Lin Xiao, "I'll go find their fellow disciples."
Lin Xiao nodded and approached the man who had been glaring at Venerable Pantu, the only one still fully conscious.
In a gentle voice, Lin Xiao asked,
"Do you have any tokens or signs of identification? We can help you find your fellow disciples."
Hearing Lin Xiao's voice, the man's gaze slowly shifted away from Venerable Pantu. With great effort, he looked at Lin Xiao and Sun Yigao, then lowered his head to glance at his waist.
Through the rags of his once-proud red robe, he fumbled weakly and eventually pulled out a token, barely holding it up.
"This…is my sect's identification token…please…find them…" he whispered hoarsely, his voice barely more than a rasp.
Lin Xiao took the token gently from the man's trembling hand and nodded.
"Rest assured, we will find them," Lin Xiao promised solemnly.
With that, Sun Yigao set off to find the other disciples of the sect, leaving Lin Xiao to continue assisting the survivors. He couldn't help but feel a heavy weight in his heart—this journey into the secret realm had revealed not just a hidden treasure, but also unimaginable suffering.
Lin Xiao knew that this incident would weigh on his conscience for a long time. But for now, he focused on helping these poor souls who had been trapped in this nightmare for so long.
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