"Whoosh!"
Luo Yu's fingertips ignited a cluster of flames, instantly illuminating the bottom of the deep pit.
All the dark energy was purified, leaving no residue, with only the shattered bronze chains around.
They had lost all their luster and clearly no longer possessed divinity, so Luo Yu decided there was no point in collecting them for recycling.
What surprised him was the intactness of the pit walls; despite the commotion, there wasn't a single scratch on them, which was odd considering the dark energy had even restrained the Slay-Immortal Sword.
How could these walls be completely unharmed? What were they made of?
Luo Yu tapped them lightly with his finger, eliciting a crisp sound, like that of ordinary iron.
When he reached out with his Divine Soul Power to sense it, he couldn't penetrate at all, completely blocked from the inside.
"Interesting!"
He didn't try to damage the black walls of the pit but focused on searching for clues. He indeed found a special area on the ground, a bronze gate imprinted there, appearing much like a portal.
Tightly closed, with no keyhole to be seen, just faint fine lines present.
Had Luo Yu's vision not been extraordinary, he wouldn't have detected that it was a gate at all.
"The gate is on the ground, but where does it lead?"
"There's no handle, no keyhole, how is it meant to be opened?"
He didn't try to break it open; the creatures had been trapped here for so many years—if it could be destroyed, they would've done so long ago. Why wait for him?
"Hm?"
Luo Yu discovered five distinct palm prints on the bronze gate, four of which had clear five-finger patterns like that of a human hand, while the last resembled the paw of a beast.
"What's the purpose of these palm prints?"
"Who left them?"
A string of questions floated in Luo Yu's mind, but none provided an explanation.
He tried extending his hand and pressing it down, comparing sizes; besides the beast paw, he found that the other three prints were much smaller and more delicate than his own hands, as though they belonged to a woman or a slender man.
But when his hand reached the last human print, Luo Yu was shocked, his heart pounding hard, pupils contracting.
"How is this possible!"
"This..."
"What's the situation here?"
Luo Yu couldn't believe his eyes because that final palm print matched his hand perfectly.
Not a single discrepancy, as if he had made the print himself.
He quickly withdrew his hand and peered closely, driving his Eyes that Break Delusion to their ultimate state, to find that not just the size but even the minute lines on the palm were identical, without any difference.
"Holy shit!"
Luo Yu gasped, unsure whether to be thrilled or terrified.
All hands were different; this couldn't be a coincidence. Matching sizes might happen, but identical palm lines were too preposterous.
"What... what on earth is going on here?"
"Why is my palm print here?"
"It's not like I have a past life, is it?"
Luo Yu chuckled and shook his head. Setting aside the idea of a past life, even if one had existed, it would be absurd for the palm prints to be identical. That would be utterly ridiculous.
Right now, he was utterly baffled.
The most absurd part was that the size of the print on the bronze gate was exactly that of his adult hand.
It didn't match the size of his hand as a child.
"Damn it!"
"So, does this bronze gate require the gathering of the owners of five palm prints to open?"
Luo Yu couldn't help but speculate, though it still didn't seem quite right.
It was one thing for his print to coincidentally match, but could there really be four other people in the present day whose hands matched these ancient prints?
Or was he mistaken, and the gate was never meant to be opened, the five palm prints being those left by the original sealers, one of which just happened to match his?
Luo Yu shook his head, feeling that things couldn't be that simple.
After all, this throne was left specially for him, the terracotta warriors specifically matched to him, and one palm print on the bronze gate was identical to his. If he couldn't see there was something wrong with that, wouldn't he just be a fool?
Moreover, considering the messages left by the Divine Spirits, it seemed someone had anticipated that he would certainly come here.
Luo Yu felt that many things seemed predestined.
From his unique birth to the appearance of the Azure Stone Lotus within his Dantian, the origins of hundreds of gods, the dedicated teaching by The Venerable Sovereign, teaching him the unparalleled Secret Technique of Myriad Transformations that only one person in the world could learn.
Initially, he felt like a pawn, but soon he dismissed that thought.
Pawns didn't receive such incredible benefits—sources of hundreds of Divine Spirits, an unrivaled technique without weaknesses. The Venerable Sovereign had never wronged him or asked anything of him; he had been reaping benefits the whole time.
No pawn could enjoy the prestigious and comfortable life like his.
However, there was definitely a problem.
If this place required the Tiger Talisman to activate, he had to have the ability to obtain it.
Half of the talisman was obtained from the Mountain Lord.
The other half was in the Han Dynasty's Great Tomb.
"Hiss—"
Luo Yu couldn't help but draw a sharp breath, his eyes twinkling with an unusual radiance.
Could it be that everything was arranged?
Or had someone foreseen his encounters with the Tiger Lord and Zhen Fu'er, ultimately obtaining the Tiger Talisman and then coming here?
He meticulously reviewed all the events he had encountered, feeling as if they could all be tied together, yet there were no visible traces of intentional manipulation; everything seemed coincidental.
Zhen Fu'er didn't seem like she was controlled by someone with a plan for him.