Chapter 546: Black Hole

Smoke instantly came into view.

This smoke was imperceptible to normal vision, only discernible through the contrast between what his left and right eyes perceived.

The hazy yellow smoke spread out in all directions. As it seemed to close in on him, Shi Chun instinctively waved his hand, trying to disperse it. To his surprise, the hazy yellow smoke remained completely unaffected by the wind, continuing to expand unhindered.

He still harbored some reservations about Granny Qi. Could a centuries-long act of gratitude, seemingly without any expectation of return, truly be sincere? He had been murmuring to himself, and naturally, he couldn't fully let down his guard. As things stood, what if it wasn't the 'Yet-Death Incense'? What if some hidden maneuver was at play?

So, he instinctively activated his Demonic Bathing Art for protection, and a surge of green energy immediately enveloped his body. The wafting hazy yellow smoke collided with the protective green energy and could not penetrate. This relieved Shi Chun slightly, and the strange scent by his nostrils gradually faded. Then, he was suddenly startled and looked sharply at Wu Jinliang, realizing the smoke had already invaded Wu Jinliang's body.

Wu Jinliang, who had been glancing around, noticed the Boss staring intently at him, which made his hair stand on end. He quickly examined himself and then looked behind him. Finding no abnormalities and sensing nothing amiss within his own body, he still couldn't help but ask, "Chuntian, why are you looking at me like that?"

Shi Chun asked, "Do you feel any discomfort?"

Wu Jinliang quickly performed an internal self-check and confirmed, "No, why? What's wrong?"

Shi Chun: "Good, I was worried this incense might be problematic. Let me know immediately if anything feels off."

"Oh." Wu Jinliang sighed in relief, having been startled by the thought that something was amiss.

Seeing the spreading smoke drifting towards the direwolf on the ground, Shi Chun immediately shifted his attention and stared intently. The key to knowing if it was truly the 'Yet-Death Incense' lay in the changes in the direwolf's body. After a moment of observation, his eyes suddenly narrowed. Through his right eye, the direwolf's gradually fading silhouette twitched the moment the hazy yellow mist permeated it.

Not only him, but Wu Jinliang's gaze also snapped to attention at the movement, his eyes wide with questioning wonder, as if asking, "Is the effect really that fast?"

However, Shi Chun's right eye perceived another scene invisible to Wu Jinliang: the direwolf's faded form gradually reappeared as a grayish-white image, and the fluids that had ceased to flow within its body seemed to be reactivated. But the direwolf did not revive. On its gradually deepening grayish-white body, glistening golden filaments suddenly sprouted, twisting and accelerating their growth like bean sprouts—one, then two, then three or four. Having previously probed the binding power of immobilization talismans, he vaguely realized that the number of these growing golden filaments correlated with the amount of hazy yellow mist that had permeated the direwolf's body.

Suddenly, the tips of the golden filaments, which had grown to a height of about one and a half persons, appeared to bloom like flowers, as if they had reached the point of bearing fruit. They were not actual flowers, but rather the golden filament tips generated a ripple of ethereal waves upon impact. After the ethereal ripples vanished, it became apparent that the golden filaments had not stopped growing. Their continued twisting growth seemed to vanish into the void, with visible black void points, like sesame-sized black holes, appearing around the twisting ends as the golden filaments burrowed into them. All several strands of filaments behaved similarly. A chilling aura seeped out through those small black holes.

Wu Jinliang also noticed the chilling aura, which seemed to emanate from the spot Shi Chun was staring at, so he asked aloud, "Chuntian, what are you looking at?" He found Shi Chun to be acting strangely, staring blankly at a certain point in the void. Shi Chun waved his hand, signaling him to be quiet.

Driven by curiosity, he drew his dagger and attempted to touch the golden filaments. He felt no resistance and observed no effect on them. He immediately activated his Demonic Bathing Art, imbuing his dagger with green energy. When he poked the golden filaments again, they indeed moved. He then retracted his dagger, releasing green energy into the air to bind and compress the golden filaments together. He immediately saw the result he wanted to confirm: the sesame-sized black holes had expanded to the size of small soybeans. The chilling aura seeping from the black holes seemed to intensify.

After observing for a while, he suddenly saw the golden filaments glow brightly. Shi Chun could feel them rapidly twitching, seemingly contracting. Soon, the rapidly retracting golden filaments returned, their tips wrapped around several pulsating white lights, resembling flower buds. Shi Chun wanted to see what they were. He quickly cast a spell, using green energy to constrict and grasp them. While he couldn't grasp the retracting filaments, he successfully seized the bulging flower buds. The golden filaments struggled, unwilling to release the entangled white light points, engaging in a contest of strength with Shi Chun. Their power was significant, but it was inferior to Shi Chun's control.

To Wu Jinliang, Shi Chun was reaching and grasping at thin air, seemingly observing something in front of him, though he couldn't tell what. In reality, he was observing the entangled points of light. After observing for a long time without understanding, and with his spells revealing nothing, Shi Chun released the flower buds he was holding to confirm if the 'Yet-Death Incense' truly had its miraculous effect.

Immediately, the golden filaments, carrying the white light points, vanished into the direwolf's body, disappearing without a trace in an instant. Above, the small black holes from which the chilling aura had seeped also disappeared.

Just as Shi Chun was wondering what those black holes oozing chilling aura were, a "hoo-woo" sound suddenly came from below his feet. He lowered his gaze to see the recently deceased direwolf suddenly stir and stand up again, appearing to sway as if still disoriented.

"Hey, it's alive, Chuntian! Looks like it's true, it really is 'Yet-Death Incense'," Wu Jinliang exclaimed, laughing and gesticulating wildly. He swiftly extinguished the burning flame in his hand; the 'Yet-Death Incense' was scarce, and now that its effect was confirmed, it was only natural to conserve it.

To his surprise, the direwolf, seeing him gesticulate, let out a howl and lunged to bite his calf. But how could it possibly harm a cultivator like Wu Jinliang? Wu Jinliang, having already confirmed the effect, wasn't about to tolerate it. *Bang!* He kicked it directly, sending it flying to hit the wall. It wasn't completely pulverized, but it stuck to the cave wall in a bloody, mangled mess, like a squashed mosquito.

Shi Chun raised a hand, speechless. He hadn't managed to stop Wu Jinliang in time. There were still things he hadn't figured out, and now the experimental subject was ruined. What was the point of stopping him then?

Wu Jinliang noticed this and asked in confusion, "Was it still useful?"

Too lazy to lecture him, Shi Chun pulled out a parent-child talisman and said, "Have Lao Changtai catch another one. Come on, let's go up."

Wu Jinliang chuckled, then once again cast his earth-burrowing spell, carrying Shi Chun upwards through churning waves of mud. Initially, they could still smell the fragrance of the 'Yet-Death Incense' throughout their ascent. It gradually faded after they rose nearly a hundred *zhang*, and by the time they emerged above ground, they could confirm that the scent hadn't permeated outwards, even without asking Chu Jingtang and others. Even so, the incense's penetrating power was astonishing; it could permeate through a hundred *zhang* of thick earth.

Lao Changtai's efficiency was quite high. Perhaps drawing on his experience from the previous capture, knowing the direwolf pack's location, he soon returned with another one. As before, Shi Chun directly strangled it to death. Instead of going down at the same spot, Shi Chun pointed to a nearby area, signaling Wu Jinliang to move the direwolf's body and change their position. Lao Changtai watched the two sink underground, then flashed to his designated position to maintain vigilance.

After descending to a similar depth underground and stopping, at Shi Chun's signal, Wu Jinliang once again scraped off a piece of 'Yet-Death Incense' and lit it. Soon, the fragrance reappeared. Shi Chun, activating his right eye's special ability again, immediately unleashed a large expanse of green energy from his Demonic Bathing Art. He confined all the smoke from the burning 'Yet-Death Incense' to a specific area, preventing its dispersion and directing it solely towards the direwolf's corpse on the ground. This was an ability he possessed after reaching the Grand Accomplishment realm of High Martial Arts; previously, the green energy of the Demonic Bathing Art he controlled could not be released from his body, and indirectly applying it to a blade was already its limit. At this moment, it was also to verify one of his hypotheses.

As he expected, after all the hazy yellow smoke from the burning 'Yet-Death Incense' flowed towards the direwolf's corpse, the direwolf immediately trembled, and numerous "bean sprout"-like golden filaments emerged from its body, rapidly growing taller like bamboo shoots after rain. Once the quantity and scale were sufficient, Shi Chun immediately withdrew the green energy's cover over the smoke and commanded, "That's enough, extinguish the flame." Wu Jinliang paused for a moment but complied, extinguishing the flame and conserving the remaining 'Yet-Death Incense'. Shi Chun's withdrawn green energy then encircled all the emerging golden filaments, forcing them to burrow in a single direction.

Soon, ripples appeared in the void, like a dense rain shower striking a lake. After they subsided, a black hole, as large as a tabletop, was punctured through the space above. "..." Wu Jinliang, looking up, was dumbfounded. He wasn't blind; how could he not see such a large hole appearing out of nowhere? Immediately after, he shivered, as the surging chilling aura seeping from the hole forced him to cast a spell to resist it. He then quickly moved to Shi Chun's side, and together they looked up at the black hole above.

From the side, it was a black hole, but standing beneath it, one could see a glittering, dazzling, and distorted starry sky, with what appeared to be an illusory passage winding through it. Shi Chun, however, was focused on the distance the golden filaments had traveled. Discovering that the opening on the other side seemed not too distant, he felt a sudden urge to act, flipping his hand to send a pellet of sandalwood gold flame energy into it to scout ahead.

Wu Jinliang, filled with apprehension and doubt, asked, "Chuntian, where does this hole lead?"

Shi Chun, staring intently into the black hole, countered, "I'd like to know too. Jinliang, where do you think souls go after people die?"

Wu Jinliang: "Is that even a question? To the Underworld, of course... wait," His expression suddenly jolted, and he said with utter disbelief, "Is this a passage to the Infernal Underworld?" Then he quickly denied it to himself, "No, wait, hasn't the Underworld been sealed for over eight hundred years? Even the top cultivators of this era can't get in..." However, recalling the chilling aura from earlier, he began to doubt himself again.

Shi Chun said, "We'll know if it is once we go in and see."

Wu Jinliang was startled. "Chuntian, don't be reckless. This isn't a joke. Who knows what kind of place this is? It'll be trouble if you go in and can't get out."

"Don't worry, I've tested it before. I have a way out. Just guard this place, I'll go take a look." As Shi Chun finished speaking, he moved, suddenly soaring into the air and rushing directly into the chilling black hole above.

"Chuntian..." Wu Jinliang, extending his arm and crying out in alarm, failed to stop him. After being dumbfounded for a moment, he sighed, unable to comprehend. Why take such a risk? If you're going, at least leave your valuables behind.