“Ah, that hurts, I’m dying of pain… Eh? Could it be… I, I’m still alive? This… where is this place?”

Ding Hao did not know how much time had passed. An indescribable pain that felt as if he was being burned by hot flames and bitten by tens and thousands of ants brought Ding Hao slightly back into consciousness. He wanted to move instinctively, but his body felt as stiff as cast iron and he could not move at all. He subconsciously opened his eyes slowly.

All he could see was a patch of milky white light. He could not see anything else.

He seemed to be enveloped in a soft liquid.

This feeling was like when he was enveloped by amniotic fluid in his mother’s womb as a baby.

However, he felt waves of immense pain radiating from all parts of his body. Ding Hao floated in and out of consciousness and felt slightly disorientated.

His eyelids felt as if they had been sewn together. He had to put in an immense effort to even crack open his eyes slightly. He could vaguely see a blurred, white and soft patch of liquid before his eyes that enveloped him within.

“Holy shit, this milky white liquid…I’m not submerged in semen, am I?” Ding Hao felt extremely painful and could only think positively of his current dilemma like Ah Q.

Just then, suddenly, something bizarre happened-

For some unknown reason, Ding Hao could clearly “see”, despite being in such an extremely drowsy state, the shadow of a pair of old and simple swords. They were like a pair of water dragons swimming in the milky white liquid that surrounded him.

What was even odder was that the swords were just shadows and were not even tangible. Yet, they seemed to be alive. They were real, and yet not. They were near, yet far. They circled him, vibrating incessantly. They were like two picky customers who were picking and assessing something.

“Deities? Monsters?” Ding Hao was shocked.

It was then when suddenly, the shadow of the pair of ancient swords seemed to have reached an agreement.

The swords sang brightly like dragons roaring.

The two shadows shot towards him. They sang happily like water dragons returning to see after being trapped on the beach for millions and millions of years. They easily entered Ding Hao’s body and turned into two warm currents before disappeared completely.

Then, Ding Hao started to hallucinate.

He could suddenly hear the sounds of two people bickering.

The sounds of two voices squabbling and chattering incessantly felt distant and filled with the vicissitudes of life. They were close but unclear. It was an odd feeling. Ding Hao could only ascertain that the two were quarreling, but could not clearly hear what they were arguing about. He did not even clearly hear a complete word through it all.

Quickly, waves of indescribable, immense pain radiated from all parts of his body.

Ding Hao felt as if he had been submerged in a solution of sulfuric acid. It was worse than death. It felt as if the milky white liquid that enveloped him was the most corrosive liquid under the sun. It was about to melt every part of him completely.

This process was slow, but also extremely painful. It was not something that humans could endure.

“I, I can’t die. I have to find Ding Ke’er. I have to find my sister… I must find her.”

The unbeatable strong desire to survive, and the smile of his sister, Ding Ke’er, were like a lamp of eternal light in the boundless darkness of the ocean. The lamp released a faint light, allowing Ding Hao to miraculously endure the pain.

He did not fall unconscious. He gritted his teeth and bore the endless pain that impacted him in waves.

Time passed slowly, like a crawling snail that had sunk into a swamp.

He did not know how much time had passed.

The pain was excruciating, and finally, a change happened.

There was a sudden moment in time when Ding Hao suddenly felt the pain begin to abate. At the same time, an indescribable, curious new power appeared in his body. It filled his limbs, his bones and even and his every cell. It made him feel warm and comfortable as if he were floating in the clouds.

An hour later, Ding Hao regained control over his body suddenly without any warning.

“I… I can move?”

Ding Hao opened his eyes abruptly and stood up, using his hands to support him.

He quickly got into a defensive position and looked around him, quickly making sure of his surroundings.

He seemed to be in an extremely ancient cave.

Spotted green-grey walls surrounded him. The texture of the wall was natural and was dry and rough. There was no trace of any man-made carvings. However, in the middle of the cave, was an old and simple stone table and two stone chairs. They were all covered in dust and it was evident that they had not been used in centuries.

There were vertical and horizontal lines on the table that were definitely not natural. It was likely that they had been carved on the table.

However, the lines were strange and illogical. They seemed to be meaningful, and yet, was also like mindless graffiti. Ding Hao stared at it for some time and felt dizzy. He did not know what the lines were for but knew that they were extraordinary.

Ding Hao guessed that someone must have lived here a long time ago.

But the place had been abandoned for at least a few hundred years.

The cave was empty and a path that was about 10 meters long led to the outside.

The sound of wind howling could be heard from the cave entrance, and rolling black mist could vaguely be seen. However, they seemed to be stopped by a strange force as the pungent black mist could not enter the cave at all.

Ding Hao was standing on a sunken square about three meters in width and one meter in depth.

At first glance, the depression on the ground was like a grave that has been specially dug out. The incision was extremely smooth and the shape was very regular. If not for there not being a trace of man-made excavation, one would find it extremely hard to believe that the pit had formed naturally.

The white milky substance that enveloped Ding Hao earlier was the liquid in the pit.

However, the color of the liquid had already turned from a milky white to a faint black.

However, it still exuded a very strange fragrance, but the amount of liquid had reduced significantly from before. It could previously envelop Ding Hao’s body but only reached his ankles now.

Ding Hao jumped lightly out of the stone pit.

“What exactly happened? The pair of shadow swords. And that liquid that had turned from a milky white to a faint black color… Also, my body. Those life-threatening wounds that I had sustained when I knocked into the cliff as I fell from it have all healed? And… It seems like something else has changed?”

Ding Hao waved his fist and a long-lost feeling of power filled his body.

“I’ve not only recovered from the serious injuries. The power within my body seems to be several times stronger than before. A strange change has happened to my body…”

Ding Hao felt that something must have changed in his body.

Previously, when he was slipping in and out of consciousness, he had seen the shadow of a pair of ancient, simple and sturdy swords entering his body. But it was impossible for him to figure out what was different right now. It was really strange!

His clothes were in tatters.

However, he had not lost the rusty iron sword. It was still tied behind him.

Ding Hao looked extremely pathetic right now.

Forcing himself to calm down, Ding Hao began to carefully examine the cave.