I Can Accumulate Proficiency, Starting from Alchemy

Great terror.

This terror was more horrifying than any he had experienced before, even more so than when Star River Monarch was devoured in the Tanggu Mountain Range.

Deep within the massive palace, rows and rows of cultivators stood like puppets, unaware of how many thousands of years had passed. Before this, Han Yi had wondered why he had encountered many Ancient Demon corpses along the way, but rarely cultivator corpses. He had only seen a few preserved bodies near the city gates.

Those corpses were most likely Spirit Transformation Experts when they were alive. In other words, countless Spirit Transformation corpses must lie densely packed within this Immortal Mountain Palace.

Among them, there may be more than just Spirit Transformation; even half-immortal or real Immortal corpses and discarded shells might exist.

If that were all, this place would be an Immortal Affinity far beyond the Void Thunder Spirit Tree. However, the phantom that emerged from the palace and the chain in its hand turned everything here into a terrifying forbidden land.

Han Yi was instantly horrified to the point of chills spreading throughout his body, but as fast as he was, the chain behind him was faster. Even more so, the chain was not just of speed but also a manifestation of rules.

With just one step, the chains extending from the enormous palace had already entered Han Yi’s body.

Then, as Han Yi took another step forward, he suddenly froze, as if a pause button had been pressed. This scene was exactly the same as when the True Monarch had been captured earlier.

As Han Yi’s body froze, the shock on his face and the fear in his pupils were almost tangible; they were as stagnant as his body itself.

Next, the phantom outside the palace casually shook the chain, and in an instant, the mana that had just emerged from Han Yi’s body, the immense strength passing through his muscles, the fearful pale face, and the horrified pupils all vanished into thin air.

His hands hung limply by his sides, his mana dispersed, his face expressionless, and his pupils lifeless.

At this moment, Han Yi was not only an empty shell physically but also in terms of his soul.

Immediately, the chain was pulled, and his soulless body was dragged towards the palace gates.

The slightly open palace gates closed once more.

In reality, though,

Han Yi could ‘see’ all of this very clearly.

Only when the chain entered his body did he realize that he had no control over his flesh, Spirit Sea, Sea of ​​Consciousness, or anything else. His body was like a puppet, his mana unable to materialize, his Golden Core immobile, and his Divine Soul muddled. Only the black bead in the sky above his Sea of Consciousness continued to guide the grayish-white soul aura, completely unaffected but not making any further action.

Han Yi’s consciousness was trapped within his body yet separated from it, a completely bizarre puppet-like state. He could see what was happening before his eyes and feel his body, but he had no control over anything in the outside world. He had become completely isolated from the world, a single independent line of sight.

Watching himself being dragged into the palace by the chains without any resistance and standing at a spot not far from the door, Han Yi was anxious but completely helpless.

After he entered the palace, the chains disappeared, but Han Yi’s condition did not change. This made him realize that the strangeness came from the palace itself, and the phantom carrying the chains was merely a manifestation of the palace’s rules.

Through his fixed line of sight, Han Yi saw a few cultivators standing in front of him, including the True Monarch who had been captured by the chains just before him. However, since his gaze was fixed and unable to use his divine sense, he could not see anyone else.

A day later, Han Yi sensed the palace door behind him opening, and immediately, a figure was constrained and placed next to him.

In the following days, more and more cultivators were captured and placed neatly like puppets, utterly defenseless.

With only a single line of sight left, Han Yi could only hope for time to pass quickly, so the Two Realms Jade would take them back to the Yu Heng World. Once there, they should be able to leave the palace and be rescued from this bizarre state.

However,

Half a month after he was captured and brought into the palace, another change occurred.

Before his eyes, spirit lights appeared on all the Gold Core cultivators in the palace. These spirit lights contained not only mana but also physical vitality and Divine Soul power. All of these energies were stripped away from their bodies and then drifted deeper into the palace.

It was as if someone was treating the captured cultivators as blood sacrifices and continuously devouring them.

Han Yi could clearly feel that the cultivators who had had their spirit lights stripped away experienced a significant decline in their auras, an unmistakable change.

This extraction of spirit lights lasted for a full incense stick’s worth of time before finally ending. The entire palace returned to its eerie and deadly silence.

Another half-month passed, and the spirit lights of the cultivators in front resurfaced. This time, the scope extended not only to the other cultivators but also to Han Yi himself.

At the moment his horror grew, another bizarre event took place before his eyes.

A figure suddenly appeared before him, swaying slightly in his field of vision. This figure wore a black daoist robe.

Han Yi was startled, thinking that another cultivator had been captured, yet immediately sensed something was not right.

This attire, this figure, overlapped with a certain silhouette from his memory in an instant.