Rewinding time to when Long Hua and the Tai Xuan Emperor had just finished sorting matters out—
Treasures of varying types littered the floor of this vicinity—that is large enough to hold a rich man's entire estate, along with their garden inside.
Hanging from the ceiling, and held up by chains—are a total of 21 caskets, with each one containing the corpse of a government official, who was a major decision maker of a city known as the Myriad Tribe City.
Situated at the far back of the vicinity is the one casket that isn't hung from the ceiling. This casket's bulkier structure makes it seem far sturdier than the ones that are hung. And carved onto the front of the casket's door are three characters, which reads Wáng Běi Mù.
"Eight, is it?"
Counting the total number of individuals, who had been brave enough to venture into this location, an archaic voice comes from within the bulky casket.
"Uh?"
Taking notice of one of the eight individuals, the person within the casket, Wang Bei Mu can't help but frown.
"A fishing rod? What an odd thing to bring into this place, and to even think of using it to prevent themselves from getting lost…"
Judging by his tone, Wang Bei Mu doesn't seem too pleased with Long Hua's behavior.
In actuality, the entirety of the area that Long Hua and the others are in isn't that big. The only reason it's difficult to navigate through is because teleportation magic arrays exist at almost every corner.
Making things more difficult, these magic arrays were designed in a way that prevents ordinary people from noticing their presence and activation, which in turn leads them to believe that they were walking in a straight line, but in reality, they had already taken more than 20 turns.
"Hmm."
Contemplating about the situation, Wang Bei Mu presses his brows together.
He has already lost track of how many years have passed, since he was sealed inside of this casket by the Sinners of Myriad Tribe City.
Much of his cultivation base has also been converted into life force, as a means for him to not die, while waiting for the day in which he may see daylight once more.
Now that there are eight individuals looming about in the area above this treasury, how could he not get a bit excited about the prospect of taking over one of their bodies—to return to the outside world?
As an elder of the Ling Yuan family, even if his cultivation base has been reduced to the level of Foundation Establishment, the other old fogeys of the family would still have to give him a bit of face—in the form of free resources.
Using those resources, Wang Bei Mu is confident that he will be able to return himself to the peak of the Core Formation realm at the very least.
One could say that Wang Bei Mu's imagination is beautiful, but reality is cruel.
The world that he is in is the Leng Bing Realm, and all denizens of this realm are unfortunately—
"Ai, all of them are weapon spirits. There is no flesh and blood body among them for me to take… Over…-?"
Just as he is thinking of this, Wang Bei Mu's attention turns to Tian Cheng.
"Uh? What is up with that girl's body? It seems… It's not the same as a flesh and blood body, but…"
Turning his head quickly, Wang Bei Mu's eyes emanated with a gleam of hope.
"It should work. So long as it's not a weapon spirit's body, it should be fine."
Drawing in a deep breath of air, Wang Bei Mu regains his composure.
"Confronting these people head-on isn't going to work for me. But if I can get them to kill each other… Heh."
A scheming expression appears on Wang Bei Mu's face, as he spreads his divine senses outwards.
Rather quickly, he shrouds his divine senses around the fishing line that Long Hua had embedded into the wall.
Despite it being a process that could only be described as tedious, Wang Bei Mu eventually managed to sever the line.
"There. That should do it. With their way back gone, they'll meet up with the others soon enough. Once these people go insane from being trapped in this place for too long, they'll surely kill one another off to reduce their consumption of supplies."
Looking forward to seeing these individuals turn against each other, Wang Bei Mu's eyes gleam with cruelty, and this cruelty is even more evident when he looks to Tian Cheng.
So long as he casts his current body aside, Wang Bei Mu would be able to emerge from this casket, but for someone of his current cultivation base, his soul is nowhere near powerful enough to exist in the outside world without a flesh and blood vessel—this is something that the people who had sealed him knew; hence, they spared themselves the effort of making his seal more complicated.
Keenly aware of his own circumstances, Wang Bei Mu has waited all this time for a miracle to occur, and today, that miracle that he has always dreamt of seems to have finally arrived.
Continuing to watch over the situation's development—
"Oh? They've all met up, have they? Good, it seems like the five that are already in that area are about to snap at the slightest hint of tension."
With his mood in a merry state, Wang Bei Mu patiently waits for one of these individuals to snap, to trigger a chain reaction. However—
"Hm? Sword Qi? No, I must be imagining things; it can't be."
Eventually—
"Uh? What is that thing he's holding? Why do the others seem a bit afraid?"
As soon as Long Hua shouts "happy new year," while tossing the item in his hand over the tower shield—
*Boom!!!!!* a violent tremor goes off, as cracks appear on the ceiling above Wang Bei Mu's casket!