Eight Uncles' Beloved Treasure (Lily)

Layers of clouds enveloped Ivan’s form, cloaking him one stratum at a time.

The ambient miasma lingered, akin to a malevolent specter brimming with hostility, lunging at him.

Ivan was unaware of the trail of blood he left behind as he ventured and couldn’t recall how many times the barbed talons had slashed his body.

Resolutely, he fixed his gaze on the sacred mountain ahead.

Though the sacred mountain was seemingly invisible, Ivan had an epiphany. It was not the mountain that was imperceptible, but rather, he was within the sacred mountain!

The obscuring blood haze vanished from his sight, and suddenly, apparitions surged forth one by one. A woman who met a tragic death, an infant that was charred, a man with a bloodstained visage twisted in horror…

Ivan’s fingers twitched slightly, and the long spear at his back unsheathed like a keen blade, resonating with a clang that dispelled all illusions before him.

Undaunted and undeterred, he refused to relinquish his vigilance. As anticipated, in less than half a heartbeat, a more potent malevolence than that of the Ghost Abyss swept over him, intent on devouring him!

Having been to the Ghost Abyss before, Ivan remained calm. He raised his hand to assail, his eyes void of hesitance or sentiment, bearing an indifference uncharacteristic of a typical teenager.

Time passed as Ivan slew the apparitions, sensing that the fixation of spirits at the mountain’s base was a hundredfold more terrifying and potent than the apparitions within the abyss.

Had he not clung to his clarity, he might have succumbed to bloodlust, as he had in the Ghost Abyss, even if he resisted.

Ivan’s gaze burned bright and unwavering as he scrutinized the depths of the mountain, methodically searching for an escape.

Abruptly, a radiant streak caught his attention. A semblance of a unique path had become apparent. The light possessed an unusual quality, born from the remnants of hostility shed after each successive layer of adversaries fell.

An imperceptible route emerged in a space untouched by malevolence’s taint. A passage forged unwittingly amidst the expulsion of each stratum of hostility.

“It’s here!”

his voice hushed. The long spear cleaved the air, parting

“Boom!”

converged with

a backward glance, Ivan realized that he had successfully exited the perilous zone, finding himself inexplicably on the mountainside

sky, and the mountain stood like a forgotten deity,

help but pant heavily, only then noticing that one of his legs had fractured at some

force had gnawed and torn

had not

true predators often evade

have experience now. If Lilly ever wishes to

on how

of Mount Cape ensured that if Lilly wanted to traverse that path, she

the ring dangling

red thread, was somewhat smaller and more delicately made

had brought to this venture. It was a storage

might assume that there was a concealed folded space within the ring capable of accommodating objects thousands of times larger than the

it was suited for Lilly and intended to gift

of fabric from within the ring, tearing it into slender strips. He then applied medicinal powder to the exposed flesh and bones, procured branches, and smoothed their edges, spreading them on either side of his injured

down an elixir, propped himself against a rock, and surveyed

the weakest point in the gloomy mist, with the smog around

were correct.

feature, intent on leading Lilly here on a

Those on his face, shoulders, and back ranged from superficial abrasions to minor flesh wounds, yet under the influence of the elixir,