Not long after Li Hai entered the old house, clusters of raging flames mysteriously appeared everywhere within it.
At the same time, looking out through a small window, he found that the sky outside had inexplicably turned to night, and the faintly visible village houses were also engulfed in raging fires.
Amidst the blood-red flames, agonizing screams continuously echoed.
It was as if the village had, in the blink of an eye, returned to that night decades ago when it suffered a devastating fire.
"Is it A Su's lingering resentment at work, or is something else causing trouble?"
The damage from these small fires to Li Hai was so minimal it was almost negligible.
So, enduring the flames, he began a thorough search of the old house, leaving no stone unturned.
Fortunately, the house was not very large; it was even smaller than any single side room in Guo Laogou's courtyard.
Therefore, Li Hai didn't have to put in much effort to find something peculiar here—a cellar.
However, this cellar was neither deep nor large, and besides some old sundries and broken pickle jars, there was nothing else inside.
An ordinary person finding this might only be able to return in disappointment.
But when Li Hai descended, as if sensing something, his body directly turned illusory, passing through rock and earth, reaching three zhang below the cellar floor.
There, astonishingly, was a stone coffin buried, its age unknown.
And within this coffin, amidst a pile of skeletal remains that no longer resembled a human, lay quietly an ancient token that made Li Hai's heart tremble.
"Could it be..."
Exiting his ghost eye vision, Li Hai, standing on the rocky slope, gazed at the ancient token in his palm, inscribed with the characters 'hell,' and pondered, "Is this the source of the Dao of ghosts that A Su cultivated?"
He could clearly feel that this token contained some kind of secret or power, but he had no way to access it.
Because besides the characters 'hell,' there were no other inscriptions or mechanisms on it, making it utterly unclear how to uncover its secrets.
"Could it be that it requires a drop of blood for recognition?"
Li Hai frowned and grumbled, "But that's too cliché."
Despite his grumbling, the helpless Li Hai could only try to use his long, sharp nails to painstakingly cut his overly tough skin, drawing a tiny bit of blood to drip onto the token.
However, it had no effect.
The token showed no reaction at all.
Afterward, Li Hai tried several other methods.
But whether it was pulling hair, cursing, shouting "open sesame," or immersing it in Soul Power, nothing worked.
"What do I do now? Do I have to break it open?"
In his frustration, Li Hai channeled his brutal True Force and fiercely struck the token with a claw.
Bang!
The ground cracked and split into numerous fissures, but the token, lying in the center of these mottled cracks, remained completely undamaged.
Not only was it undamaged, but it even began to flicker with a faint glow... Wait a minute!
"It's glowing?! A reddish glow with a hint of black."
Li Hai quickly picked up the token from the ground and held it in front of him, observing it carefully, "That's strange. Why did it do nothing no matter what I tried just now, but now it reacts after I hit it hard? Could it be that you really are a cheap piece of trash that likes to be beaten?"
As he muttered to himself, the token once again dimmed and became silent.
Seeing this, Li Hai threw it on the ground and stomped on it fiercely.
Bang!
Instantly, the spot where the token lay was stomped into a basin-sized pit by Li Hai.
But this time, the token still showed no reaction.
"Damn it!" Li Hai cursed under his breath, "Why isn't it working again?"
He then calmed down and began to think carefully.
"Just now, after I used force to strike the token, its body began to glow, and then I struck it again... Wait a minute!"
Li Hai seemed to have thought of something, "Using force? True Force?"
He immediately circulated his True Force, and instead of striking it, he slowly immersed it into the token.
Buzz—
Instantly, the token emitted a brilliant black-red light.
"It's working!"
Seeing a reaction, Li Hai excitedly continued to immerse his True Force into it.
After about half a minute of this, a clear, ethereal voice, neither male nor female, appeared in his mind:
"The Naihe Prefecture Guo Clan's Legacy token has been successfully activated. Do you wish to enter the Legacy Heaven?"
"Yes!"
Li Hai answered in his mind without hesitation.
"Entry request received. Initiating physical transmission now," the clear voice sounded again.
Buzz—
In an instant, the black-ash-covered ground and the misty sky in Li Hai's vision quickly blurred and vanished.
In their place was an ancient and magnificent grand hall.
This great hall was silent and empty, permeated with a heavy sense of age.
"What exactly is this place..."
Li Hai walked through the hall, raising his head to look at the surrounding hall walls, observing the severely faded murals, asking with curiosity and doubt, "What kind of place is this?"
Touching the thick stone pillars that supported the hall's ceiling, and looking at the blurred carvings on the pillars, he felt that everything here was filled with a sacred and bizarre aura.
The reason for this feeling was that although these carvings and murals were mottled and unclear, with his eagle-sharp eyesight, Li Hai could still understand what they were trying to 'say.'
These carvings and murals depicted a world where evil spirits and monsters ran rampant, causing widespread suffering to the people. Unable to endure, countless commoners, led by various heroes, rose up in resistance.
They fought day and night, sacrificing countless lives, and finally, with blood and fire, subjugated demons and monsters, using swords and blades to slay ghosts and eliminate evil, bringing peace back to the entire world.
Besides this theme, Li Hai also discovered that the various stone pillar carvings and hall wall murals depicted that even after peace returned to the Mortal World, evil spirits and monsters would still occasionally cause trouble, leading to the tragic deaths of innocent commoners. Thus, the heroes who had led the masses in resistance back then reappeared, gathered and recruited various talents, forming a team that traveled throughout the Mortal World, slaying demons and eliminating evil everywhere.
Then Li Hai also found that some fragmented carvings and murals depicted this team, which roamed about slaying ghosts and destroying demons. Although they possessed many astonishingly powerful heroes and various secret artifacts and profound treasures, they did not seize the highest power in the world. Instead, they retreated and hid from the world, silently traveling everywhere to protect the peace of the human world.
Finally, the carvings and murals Li Hai found depicted this team continuously lurking within the vast sea of humanity in the Mortal World. Even as Dynasties changed and worldly affairs shifted, they never altered their original intention, still silently slaying ghosts and eliminating demons, and still maintaining the peace of the human world.
"What a righteous organization! All of them heroes!"
Li Hai threw his head back, put his hands on his hips, and laughed heartily, his heart surging with emotion, "They finish their deeds, brush off their clothes, and hide their merits and fame! Damn, that's so cool! I, Old Li, want to do that too!"
He was impulsive; just by looking at these murals and carvings, he became hot-blooded and wanted to find this organization and join it, then enjoy slaying ghosts and monsters to his heart's content, and then...
"Eh, wait a minute~"
Li Hai suddenly scratched his head, "I think I'm also a ghost, this..."
Buzz—
Just then, on the altar table at the head of the hall, dozens of zhang away from him, a faint red light suddenly flashed.
