Chapter 188: Always One Step Ahead

Jiang Hao was in no hurry to enter the ruin.

The ruin was not safe, and he was not at his peak. He needed to recover his strength before entering the ruin.

He also wanted to wait outside to see if anyone else would be coming out. Lan Feng, in the Golden Core Realm, had managed to escape. Maybe someone else in the Golden Core Realm could escape too.

If that happened, it would be safe for him, as a Primordial Spirit Realm cultivator, to enter the ruin.

Jiang Hao didn’t want to act recklessly. He took a few steps and began to restore his spiritual power. He would only enter the ruin once he was at his full strength.

If it was too dangerous inside, he decided to retreat immediately. There was no need to take unnecessary risks.

Inside the ruin, the sky was vast, and an endless abyss surrounded it. There were floating stone platforms and paths in the abyss. At the center were two men. They smiled and looked ahead.

“The people from the Heavenly Note Sect are quite smart. One managed to escape, while the other is still hiding,” said the old, white-haired man.

They had come to find Jiang Hao but had unexpectedly ended up here. They wanted to explore the place because they sensed treasure within this place.

When they entered, they found some people already inside. They followed the group. However, they moved too slowly. The two men caught up to the group and tried to make them work for them.

The group was too rebellious and refused outright. One of them used a formation to escape, and another disappeared into the mist. The remaining were all killed by the two men.

“This place is closed off. We should be careful. After getting the treasure, we still need to find someone,” said the man with the goatee.

The two men continued ahead. They had already passed several levels and should be close to the location where the treasures were hidden.

“The abyss is a bit strange. I wonder what will happen if someone falls into it,” said the old, white-haired man. “We should be careful. Someone from the heavenly Note Sect escaped… I wonder if he will send some powerful people our way.”

“This area falls within the Foundation Establishment region. Who can be powerful enough to come here? Even if someone is in the middle stage of the Primordial Spirit Realm, two of us can handle them. If the ones approaching aren’t cultivators, we can just kill them,” said the man with a goatee as he laughed. They walked faster.

At this moment, on one of the floating paths, Ye Ji walked deeper as she clutched at her injured arm.

‘D*mn it! I can sense the two Primordial Spirit Realm cultivators!’ She couldn’t fight two Primordial Spirit Realm cultivators together. If she hadn’t escaped, she would have died by now.

‘Everyone is dead. If anyone was alive, I could have used them as a distraction. This place requires someone sharp and perceptive. Jiang Hao would have been the best person to be used. With him around, I could definitely try and fight. Otherwise, I could just use him to distract the Primordial Spirit Realm cultivators and escape.’

Lan Feng had escaped. Ye Ji envied him. Sometimes, knowing about different formations was useful. She sighed and continued to walk deeper into the ruin. She hoped she could survive.

At nighttime, Ning Xuan and the others rushed into the area surrounded by trees. They sensed the presence of many demons.

“There are many Gold Core and Primordial Spirit demons here, which means this is the place we’re looking for,” Mu Qi said.

Ning Xuan nodded, but she was puzzled. “There’s no problem with the demons here. It means that the person who was ahead of us didn’t pass from here.” “Perhaps they went the wrong way?” asked the man who was with them.

“Hard to say. For now, let’s lure the demons out one by one and kill them,” Ning Xuan said.

With a plan in mind, they began to lure the demons out.

After a long battle, the three of them finally got rid of all the demons. Although it took a bit of time, everything went smoothly.

They saw a wooden house. If they were right, the house contained the reason the demons were acting strangely.

The three of them entered the wooden house cautiously. They frowned when they looked inside.

There was a dead demon on the ground and a broken stone on the table. The power in the stone was faint but discernible.

They knew that this was the work of the person who was ahead of them. He had bypassed the defenses and reached the house easily.

“Who exactly is this person?” Ning Xuan picked up the broken stone from the table. The person left no trace, and his strength seemed to far surpass theirs.

Mu Qi and the other man shook their heads. They were clueless. “Let’s go back. This stone was our goal. Since the person who came here didn’t take it with him, it’s ours now,” said Ning Xuan.

Mu Qi and the other man had no problem with her suggestion. If they took credit for this, they could claim a lot of benefits.

However, the mysterious person made them very curious. What exactly was that person after?

Outside the ruins, Jiang Hao opened his eyes. He had completely recovered his strength and energy.

No one had come out of the ruin during this time. He approached the entrance and made sure the Thousand Miles Teleportation Talisman was functioning properly.

If he encountered danger, he could use the talisman to escape.

The entrance was a staircase descending into complete darkness. He walked a total of 636 steps before reaching the bottom.

At the bottom, there was a faint illumination from the starlight. The place was empty, with a boundless abyss surrounding it.

Ahead, there were floating paths and some floating stone platforms. Each stone platform had formation traces.

Even on the paths, there were formations present. It was unclear what would happen if he touched it. There were also some traps. Some had been triggered, while others were still hidden in the dark.

‘It seems someone has been here…’

Jiang Hao walked along the safe path. He noticed that it didn’t stop going down.

After walking a while, he saw a corpse. It was a dead man.

Jiang Hao recognized him as one of the early Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators who had been in his group when they started toward the core. A trap had killed him.

Jiang Hao shook his head and continued forward.

This time, he didn’t go down but passed through a huge passage. There were more floating paths and formations.

Occasionally, he came across some corpses.

After safely passing several checkpoints, Jiang 1–1ao arrived at a foggy area. It was so dark that he could hardly even see his hands in front of his face.

He slowed down and spent some time trying to sense the dangers around him.

Finally, he passed through the mist and arrived at a massive floating platform. ‘I still haven’t seen anyone around here… Just how deep does this ruin go?’

So far, he hadn’t encountered any treasures. The further down he walked, the more he felt an invisible force suppressing him..