My Misfortune Crushed Instances

After the main entrance of the great hall was opened, unexpectedly, it wasn’t pitch black inside; the Luminous Pearls lit it up as bright as day.

Li Rui and Cheng Mingyue exchanged glances and, in unison, stepped inside.

Of course, the mighty warrior immediately followed, fortunately, the dimensions of the hall were quite large, allowing his massive body to fit through.

Upon entering the hall, Li Rui and Cheng Mingyue each remained vigilant, yet they did not encounter any hostility. The outer hall of this palace was empty, save for a table in the center in front, but it was bare, and there were no portraits or memorial tablets on the wall behind.

"Let’s go, we’ll talk about it later at the back."

Li Rui felt this place was somewhat peculiar, reminiscent of Thunder City during his advancement.

But since there was no danger, he didn’t want to waste time here. He led the way forward, and when they reached the table and were about to go around to the back door, the door, previously opened with fine gold currency, slowly closed again, finally sealing off the outside world with a loud boom.

"It seems we won’t get out unless we unravel the secrets here," Cheng Mingyue said.

"Since we’re here, even if I don’t find anything, I wouldn’t want to leave."

Li Rui answered casually.

He held the Great Demon Black Law and the Instant Wind Nine Turns Technique for this ultimate reward—he wouldn’t rest until he obtained it.

The mighty warrior and Yuan Erliang had weathered many storms, long accustomed to such events. The only one who was deathly afraid was Zhu Wen, who had accepted traveling with Li Rui and the others but hadn’t signed up to face death.

Seeing the palace’s main door shut tight, his mind started imagining being trapped here for a lifetime, turning into bones within the hall, and the more he thought about it, the more frightened he became.

But it was futile; the mighty warrior had already carried him past the altar table, heading deeper beyond the back door.

"Strange, there’s still nothing here."

Cheng Mingyue remarked, "By usual practice, shouldn’t there be many monsters ambushing us?"

"Who’s following conventions here? Can’t you see there’s something on the wall?"

Li Rui pointed at the wall of the second hall, which was adorned with numerous murals.

The group rushed to inspect the murals, discovering they depicted abstract human figures, clearly human rather than Demon Race.

The first image showed little people playing music and dancing, forming a circle, with a much larger figure compared to the rest holding an umbrella in the center.

In the next mural, half the surrounding little people were lying down, while the other half continued dancing.

In the subsequent mural, the positions of the lying and dancing little people swapped places.

Finally, all the little people disappeared, leaving only the grown-up figure, now without the umbrella, standing alone.

"An umbrella, this must be that Yin Yang Umbrella, no doubt about it," Cheng Mingyue said, "But these murals are a bit abstract."

Li Rui chuckled dryly: "Indeed, could it be describing the umbrella’s properties?"

"Properties?"

Cheng Mingyue stared at the mural for a moment, "I’ve got it! Yin and Yang represent life and death. The fallen ones symbolize the dead, the dancing ones the living. Could it reverse life and death?!"

Li Rui’s intuition said this was impossible.

"Let’s find the item first."

The group passed through the mural room and arrived at the third hall, where they found an entrance leading underground.

Li Rui mumbled, "I told you, from the outside, this palace seemed small; the first two rooms were empty yet occupied most of the space. Turns out, there’s more to discover underground."

He turned to the mighty warrior, saying, "The space below seems limited, you should wait here."

This was a subtle way of expressing concern for their safety by leaving them in a secure location.

The mighty warrior nodded, and Zhu Wen didn’t refuse either. He was here to watch the show, not to fight for the treasures with Li Rui.

Squeak—

The door leading underground wasn’t locked or trapped. Li Rui gently pushed it open, and he shone the Nether Light Ring forward, revealing a stairway wide enough for three people, descending underground, curving after several dozen meters, hiding what lay beyond.

"Let’s go."

Li Rui called out, leading Cheng Mingyue down the stairs, jogging to the corner, taking a left turn of ninety degrees, repeating the descent as if the stairs were endless.

Tap, tap, tap.

The two ran down the silent stairway for a long stretch.

"These stairs are really long; my legs are getting weak."

Cheng Mingyue complained, though it was merely laziness acting up.

To be fair, Li Rui also felt they had been descending for a while, continuously turning downward. He felt like they had gone down several dozen floors, perhaps even more, given the darkness only lit by his gear, which might skew his spatial senses.

"Arrived!"

At that moment, Li Rui suddenly yelled, as they turned another corner and finally saw an exit.

Ahead was an ajar wooden door, bright light spilling out from inside.

Upon seeing this, they quickly took a battle stance, readying themselves. After a brief exchange of glances, Li Rui activated the Shenxiao Thunderbolt Heart Scripture, charged to the door, and kicked it open with a boom.

"....."

Standing at the door, unmoving for a long time, Cheng Mingyue couldn’t resist asking, "What’s wrong?"

"See for yourself."

She got closer and peered inside, only to see it wasn’t a lamplit cavern but a sunlit paradise with birds chirping, streams flowing, and lush vegetation—a vast, open world.

To anyone viewing it, it seemed like a peaceful hidden paradise, but the surprising thing was its placement underground.

"What is this? A projection? Illusion Technique?" Cheng Mingyue asked.

Li Rui shook his head: "I don’t know either; we better go in and take a look. It’s undoubtedly an impressive Divine Power."

Without hesitation in such a moment, the two advanced one after the other, in positions allowing mutual support.

Upon exiting, as before, with a bang, the door closed.

Unlike before, the palace’s main entrance auto-closed, with the door still present, but the small door they’d entered through shut and vanished completely.

Between heaven and earth, it seemed the door had never existed.

Li Rui ran back to the former door position, reaching out and touching, not feeling anything—the entry had vanished completely.

"Now we’re truly without a retreat," he shrugged.

But the pair was already mentally prepared, unfazed by minor changes, pressing forward through a forest until they encountered a downhill slope.

"Hiss, there’s someone living here."

Cheng Mingyue spotted a spread of buildings at the slope’s base.

Li Rui shook his head slightly: "This place... be extremely cautious."

"Why so?"

"I’ve seen similar buildings before; this place is perilous."

Li Rui gazed at the structures below, the foremost being a grand entrance flanked by two halberd-wielding guards, resembling the Divine Generals of the sand-carved statues outside.

Above the entrance hung a plaque etched in the Thunder City script he had seen before: Armory.