Su Zhenhe’s expression flickered. He stepped forward to examine them, and his expression relaxed slightly. "None of our Profound Daoist Sect’s predecessors are among them."

Xu Yunfan lifted his chin, a playful arc on his lips. He pointed to the shadows in the corner. "Brother Su, I must disagree. Take a look over there."

Su Zhenhe followed his gesture, and his expression jolted in shock. In front of a mottled wall at a turn in the corridor sat the upright skeleton of a figure clad in the tattered robes of the Profound Daoist Sect. Its bony hand gripped a broken Cyan Blade Sword. Though the blade was snapped, the hilt was clearly engraved with the Profound Daoist Sect’s unique Cyan Mountain Cloud Pattern.

The skeleton’s skull was bowed, as if it had been staring at the sword in its final moments. A Jade Hairpin from its scattered topknot had rolled onto the ground. The two characters for "Profound Daoist" on its head were so eroded by time they were barely legible.

"This... How could this be..."

Su Zhenhe’s throat bobbed, his face suddenly turning pale.

He staggered forward, his trembling fingertips touching a star pattern subtly embroidered on a fragment of the robe. It was the Purple Sky Star Emblem, which only successive Sect Leaders of the Profound Daoist Sect were permitted to wear.

A gruesome, diagonal crack ran across the skeleton’s sternum, with faint traces of scorching. It was identical to the wounds caused by the Nine Luminaries Burning Air, as recorded in the Sect’s archives.

"It seems that two thousand years ago, your sect’s predecessor wasn’t a case of ’no one entering the palace’ after all."

Xu Yunfan gently stroked a restless scale on his Dragon Scale Armor, his gaze flickering as he studied a Bronze Token partially concealed between the skeleton’s knuckles.

Even though the member of the Profound Daoist Sect had suffered a fatal attack from the Nine Radiance Sect’s Nine Luminaries Burning Air, it seemed he had also obtained what he came for.

"This Daoist, however, seems to have left something interesting behind."

After saying this, Xu Yunfan couldn’t help but look up at Zhou Tianyan and his group, who had just vanished around the corner.

Their objective was clear; they hadn’t paused for a single skeleton in the corridor.

Xu Yunfan wasn’t in a hurry either. Although the White Jade Palace currently looked inexplicably decayed, it was best to be cautious. There was no need to be the first to charge into trouble.

While Su Zhenhe was still reeling in shock and doubt, Xu Yunfan took a step forward and snatched the token from the skeleton’s hand.

Seeing this, Su Zhenhe cried out in his heart, ’This is bad!’ but he didn’t dare make a move. He could only say pleadingly, "B-Brother Xu, this token must be a keepsake left by my Profound Daoist Sect. How about you let me take a look?"

Xu Yunfan’s hand stiffened for a moment before returning to normal. He looked up at Su Zhenhe with a half-smile.

"I’ll hold onto this for now. I’ll give it back to you after we leave the Secret Realm."

Su Zhenhe opened his mouth but didn’t say anything more. He nodded and changed the subject. "Brother Xu, it looks like we need to pick up the pace. If Zhou Tianyan and his group get there first, I’m afraid we’ll be at a disadvantage."

Xu Yunfan nodded slightly but didn’t speak, his mind pondering the two complex characters on the token.

’Su Zhenhe was just spouting nonsense. This token had nothing to do with the Profound Daoist Sect. Instead, it bore two characters similar to the ones on the lintel of the White Jade Palace’s gate.’

’Although I don’t know what they say, still...’

Xu Yunfan glanced back along the corridor. The sword gashes and blade marks on the Jade Pendants on the walls were still conspicuous. It seemed the experts from the various sects had been locked in a life-or-death battle back then.

Seeing that Xu Yunfan wasn’t moving immediately, Su Zhenhe, now used to his ways, knelt and bowed to the skeleton. After a careful inspection, his expression changed dramatically. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"It’s... the third-generation Sect Leader of the Profound Daoist Sect, Daoist Master Qing Yue!"

This Daoist Master Qing Yue was once unparalleled in strength, his power shocking the world and overwhelming all his rivals.

"The Sect records say that this Daoist Master Qing Yue once served as the Observatory Master of the Profound Daoist Temple. He reached Nine Realms Qi Cultivation before he was forty. Then, at the age of fifty, he broke through the Heaven and Earth Profound Pass and entered the Land Immortal Realm. Everyone said he had ascended to immortality, but to think he actually died here in the White Jade Palace..."

Su Zhenhe’s expression was complicated.

Xu Yunfan said, "It seems that two thousand years ago, this Sect Leader managed to seize the key item from the chaotic battle, but ultimately failed to make it out alive."

Although this Daoist Master Qing Yue had snatched the token from the top experts of the various sects, he was struck by a dying counterattack from a Supreme Elder of the Nine Radiance Sect. The Nine Luminaries Burning Air was blasted into his body, leaving him on the verge of death.

That’s why he dragged himself to this corner, sat down cross-legged, and quietly awaited his death.

’This Daoist Master Qing Yue was quite arrogant,’ Xu Yunfan mused. ’He disdained dying alongside the experts from the other sects. Even in death, he had to find his own space.’

Two thousand years ago, this White Jade Palace was likely fraught with peril, a place where even a Nine Realms Qi Cultivation Supreme Grandmaster could barely move. But now, after two thousand years, who can achieve true longevity?

The White Jade Palace is, after all, an inanimate object. After so many years, any strange and treacherous things within it must have faded with time.

"That’s enough. Let’s go take a look."

Xu Yunfan left with those words, following the trail left by Zhou Tianyan’s group. He passed through a dark corridor and stepped into the depths of the White Jade Palace.

Su Zhenhe saw this and naturally didn’t dare to linger. With this big shot leading the way, he certainly wasn’t going to miss out.

’Sometimes, all one needed to do was carefully stay on the periphery of events,’ Su Zhenhe thought, his eyes glinting. ’As others weakened each other, one could naturally reap the rewards without any of the risk.’

As a skilled practitioner of the Profound Daoist Sect’s Coiling Dragon Skill, he naturally had his own plans.

As Xu Yunfan stepped into a grand hall deep within the White Jade Palace, a putrid stench washed over him. The hall was dimly lit and the dome high above was covered in a web of cracks, looking as if it might collapse at any moment.

Broken and toppled Coiling Dragon Jade Pillars lay all around. Their once-exquisite reliefs had been eroded by time into blurry shapes, leaving only the grim remains of dragon heads, their hollow eyes staring at the intruders.

The jade floor tiles were shattered, and a strange black mist seeped from the cracks, as if some decaying power were slowly reawakening.

On either side of the hall, broken Bronze Lamps had long since gone out, their oil dried into black scabs. The air was filled with a mixed smell of decay and rusted metal.

Xu Yunfan’s gaze swept the room before finally focusing on the far end of the hall.

There, at the end of the dilapidated hall, stood a high platform. It was carved entirely from flawless white jade and showed no signs of erosion from time, still emitting a lustrous sheen that was utterly out of place with the rest of the hall.

And upon that platform, a man sat cross-legged. His face was as handsome as carved jade, his features picturesque, as if he were merely asleep.

He wore a simple white robe, and a faint, pure glow lingered around him, a stark contrast to the hall’s decay.

The man’s skin was like jade, his lips like vermilion, and his ink-black hair fell to his shoulders. A Cyan Jade Hairpin nestled in his hair pulsed with Spiritual Light, making him look like an Exiled Immortal gracing the mortal realm, untouched by the profane.

’He’s alive?!’

Xu Yunfan’s heart pounded violently, but he quickly realized the figure wasn’t breathing at all. The qi and blood within his body were silent and withered.

Xu Yunfan’s gaze hardened, and he thought in alarm, ’This person... he looks as if he’s alive?’

Even if a Martial Artist mastered the Circulation Martial Dao to Perfection, reaching Perfection in every Realm and refining their body until it was flawless and profound, like transparent glass...

...after several hundred years, they would still end up like Daoist Master Qing Yue—nothing but a pile of dry bones that would crack at the slightest touch.