He fumbled around at the end for quite a while, but found nothing. Just as he was feeling a bit disappointed, a sudden, powerful force swept over him. Gordon Brooks, caught off guard, let out a startled cry that was sucked away by that immense force. The force formed a vortex inside the cave, and the moment Gordon Brooks was pulled in, the vortex rapidly shrank and disappeared...

Gordon Brooks was wracked with pain all over his body, and with a miserable scream, he fell from midair, landing hard on the ground. Poor Gordon Brooks had suffered this kind of treatment twice in half a day; his injuries, which hadn’t even healed yet, were now even worse. He lay paralyzed on the ground, eyes closed, and didn’t recover for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. Only after a long, long while did he let out a sound: “Aoo—” He reached out to push himself up, but as soon as he opened his eyes, he was stunned.

Where was this place? Gordon Brooks looked around in confusion. When he lowered his head, he realized he wasn’t lying on the ground, but on top of someone else’s body—more precisely, on top of a corpse!

This was a strange place. In a valley stretching beyond sight, the ground was covered with corpses. No one knew when these people had died, but the bodies showed no sign of decay. Their weapons and magical treasures were scattered all around, everything covered in a layer of ashen gray. Gordon Brooks’s hand was pressing on a corpse’s chest, which felt as hard as granite!

Gordon Brooks could no longer care about his pain. He stood up and looked around carefully, discovering that all these corpses were people of the demonic path. Gordon Brooks was greatly puzzled: if this many people had died in a great battle between good and evil, it was possible, but where were the corpses of the righteous? In all his years, Grant Benson had never heard of any major infighting among the demonic sects.

He walked among the corpses, not needing to be careful, because no matter what, he would step on them—there were so many bodies that the ground itself was completely covered. Looking at these people, he could tell at a glance the level of their magical treasures, and from that, their cultivation was not low. Though not as high as his, they probably weren’t far behind.

Gordon Brooks looked up at the sky. Above his head floated a layer of ever-shifting black clouds, their thickness unknown, blocking out the entire sky above the valley. The black clouds seemed to emit a grayish-black glow, casting the whole valley in a dusky gloom.

This mass of black clouds cut off all connection between the valley and the outside world. Inside, it was deathly silent; who knew how many years had passed without a sound? Even when Grant Benson stepped on the corpses, not a single sound was made. The silence was terrifying!

That stretch of black clouds gave Grant Benson a sense of déjà vu, perhaps because of the powerful, fearsome demonic energy within them. Grant Benson sighed inwardly: If only he had found this place before entering Yunhua Cave, how wonderful that would have been! With such dense black clouds for protection, even if several heavenly tribulations descended in a row, he would probably have survived unscathed. But alas, now it was all useless.

He walked along the valley and finally found a righteous cultivator—he could tell at a glance from the magical treasure hanging on the man’s body. Gordon Brooks wanted to examine the corpse up close to see what had happened here, but he was unable to, because the corpse was hanging from a cliff dozens of zhang high, one hand gripping a sword embedded in the rock. With Gordon Brooks’s current strength, there was no way he could climb such a slippery cliff.

Gordon Brooks continued forward, when suddenly two objects caught his eye: a circular ring with a strangely shaped notch. Gordon Brooks walked over and found another ring not far away, also with a strange notch. Grant Benson’s heart trembled—he now knew where he was!

Those rings were the “Twin Rings of Ice and Fire” belonging to Lucas Sullivan, one of his rivals for the position of city lord. The two notches were left from when they collided with his toes! Grant Benson hurriedly searched the area and soon found Lucas Sullivan’s corpse, which was pressing down on another person’s head, the body twisted—clearly, he had lost control as he fell.

He was now in the bottomless abyss beneath Bone Pile City!

Grant Benson propped up Lucas Sullivan’s corpse, sat down heavily on the ground, and said self-mockingly to the body, “Brother Sullivan, who would have thought we’d meet again like this, hahaha…” He let out a low laugh, the sound full of sorrow, though it was unclear whether he was laughing or crying.

Although he and Lucas Sullivan were rivals, and it could even be said that he had personally killed Lucas Sullivan, neither of them had ever considered the other an enemy. Both were upright men, understanding that a duel to the death was inevitable, and neither bore any resentment. Now, after so many incredible experiences, Grant Benson found himself face to face with Lucas Sullivan’s corpse in this bottomless abyss, and actually felt as if he were reuniting with an old friend. He spoke at length to Lucas Sullivan about all he had been through lately. Lucas Sullivan listened quietly. After so long, Grant Benson finally had someone to confide in. Pouring out his heart was like a flood bursting its banks, releasing all the bitterness of the past two years in one go, leaving him feeling utterly relieved!