The subterranean chamber was suffocatingly vast, a vaulted sepulcher carved straight out of the petrified abyssal mantle miles beneath the crust of the secret realm.
Colossal stalactites hung from the high ceiling like the fangs of a slumbering cosmic titan, while down along the perimeter of the cavern, rivers of stagnant, iridescent mercury flowed through deeply grooved channels, casting an unnatural, pale-indigo luminescence across the gloom.
The air was frigid, thick with the sharp tang of ancient ozone, sulfur, and the suffocating, necrotic pressure of a dead epoch.
At this moment, in this underground ruins, Gu Xunyi and Ning Xueli stood before a massive golden skeleton with horns and wings.
The remains were titanic, towering over a hundred meters tall, pinned against the sheer face of a cliff by nine gargantuan spikes carved from primordial soul-suppressing jade.
