The Demon King is back, leading adorable kids on an adventure around the world!

Luo Tian used his earth-遁术 (earth-遁术 is a technique used in Chinese martial arts) to merge his body into the rock, like an invisible stream of water flowing through layers of rock.

The deeper you go, the darker the color of the rocks become, from light gray to dark brown, and then to almost pure black rock layers.

The temperature was rising, but it had no effect on him.

After descending about two thousand feet, the surrounding rock walls suddenly disappeared.

He landed in a vast underground space, with stalactites hanging overhead and flat stone slabs under his feet.

There was a faint light source on the four walls, like some kind of ore embedded in the rock, shining spontaneously.

This space is very large, roughly several miles in circumference, and the dome is so high that the boundaries are not visible.

He floated down onto a stone slab and looked around.

This area is not naturally formed; the stone slabs on the ground are cut neatly, and the joints are perfectly sealed, clearly indicating that it was laid by humans.

There are engravings on the wall, which have become somewhat blurred by the passage of time, but their outlines are still discernible.

He approached a wall, brushed away the dust on the surface with his hand, and revealed the pattern carved underneath.

A majestic mountain peak, with a palace on it, and birds circling above the palace, their forms unlike any birds on Earth.

There are also a few lines of text next to it, the handwriting is simple and ancient, and the strokes are deeply embedded in the stone.

After looking at it for a while, Luo Tian recognized that it was a rune commonly used by ancient cultivators, and that it shared the same origin as the characters on the stone tablet in the Shennongjia Small World.

He roughly deciphered the contents: "The spiritual energy of this world is about to be exhausted. All members of my clan who possess the inheritance jade tablet may enter the teleportation array to be reborn in the next world."

There were a few more sentences, but they were so worn that they were no longer legible.

He withdrew his hand and continued exploring.

After passing through this stone wall, several stone platforms appeared at the end of the space.

The stone platforms are arranged in a circle, with the one in the middle being slightly higher and the ones around it being lower, resembling a place for discussion or sacrifice.

There were traces of ash on the table, and the edges were scorched by high temperature, leaving dark patches.

Luo Tian squatted down and touched it. It felt hard, like something that had melted and then solidified at an extremely high temperature.

On the highest stone platform, he found a jade slip.

The jade slip is dark green all over, with a thin layer of cracks on the surface, but it is not completely broken and can still be used with difficulty.

He infused a wisp of spiritual energy, and the jade slip lit up. Then, a message flowed into his mind—not words, but an image.

He saw a magnificent palace floating above the clouds.

Cultivators flew through the mountains on their swords, and flocks of spirit birds filled the air.

A teleportation array slowly rotated in the square in front of the palace, with spiritual light flowing within it.

Many cultivators lined up to enter the teleportation array, and as the light flashed, they disappeared in batches.

A person stands on the roof of the palace, with their back to the viewer, so their face is not visible, but their figure is upright and their robes are billowing in the wind.

The man turned around and glanced back. That glance pierced through time, across countless years, and met Luo Tian's gaze. The scene ended there.

Luo Tian held the jade slip in silence for a while, then put it away.

There were other things in the space, with a few broken metal fragments scattered in the corner.

It was impossible to tell what the object originally was, but the material was very special, containing components he had never seen on Earth before.

The back of a stone tablet is covered with densely packed names, like some kind of directory or memorial.

He walked among the fragments and stone tablets, piecing together a rough outline.

This underground space is a relic left behind by ancient monks on Earth before they left.

They anticipated that spiritual energy would be depleted, so they built a teleportation array to send their people to the "realm of life," which later became the world of cultivation.

Those who remained either missed the boat or volunteered to stay and guard the place.

They guarded this place until the spiritual energy was completely cut off, and then passed away in this underground space.

Luo Tian discovered new inscriptions on a corner of the stone wall. The characters were more hasty than the previous ones, as if they had been carved later:

"The last group of people have left, the teleportation array has been destroyed, and we will stay here to guard it."

If any future generations come and see this text, they will be considered to have a special connection.

There is a hollowed-out stone here, placed in a niche on the north wall. Retrieving it can break through the barrier between the walls, but it must be used with caution.

The signature was not a name, but just a simple symbol.

Luo Tian turned and walked to the north wall, where there was indeed a shallow niche.

It was about a foot square, and inside it was a dark stone about the size of a fist.

Its surface is rough and non-reflective, making it look like an ordinary river pebble.

He reached out and took it out. It was heavier than he had expected. He probed it with his spiritual energy and found that its internal structure was intricate and disordered, which was exactly the characteristic of the Void-Breaking Stone.

He carefully put away the Void-Breaking Stone and then glanced back at the entire underground space.

The carvings on the stone wall stand silently, the eroded characters and symbols extending intermittently in the dim light, like a long letter written to future generations.

He raised his hand and bowed slightly in all directions, then used his earth-burrowing technique to merge his body into the rock layer and return the way he came.

When we returned to the ground, the wind from the Kunlun Mountains blew in our faces, carrying tiny ice particles that hit us.

The sky was getting darker, the sun was setting in the west, and the shadows of the snow-capped mountains stretched long in the valley.

Luo Tian stood on the ridge and looked back at the mountain below.

Those traces deep underground have been reburied by the rock strata, and no clues can be seen from the outside.

He withdrew his gaze, raised his hand again to tear open the spatial passage, and stepped inside.

As the space closed, a few snowflakes, whipped up by the wind, swirled around in place for a few moments before falling back to the ground.

Everything returned to normal, without leaving a trace...