I Was Forced To Marry The Phoenix Empress-Chapter 194: Being Sucked In

Yi Chen’s eyes were fixed on the dense clouds, which were concentrating towards the centre of the lake.

"Didn’t you hear me? Go and get your belongings! The tomb might suck us in any time now!" Gao Zhen exclaimed once again, seeing their unresponsive state.

It was only then that they were pulled out of their stupor and started moving. Turning towards their respective tents, they soon rushed in to get their stuff.

’Luckily, I didn’t take out many things,’ Yi Chen thought, and after placing a few of his robes and sleeping mat inside the storage ring, he was done with his packing.

With this done, he immediately left the tent, eager to observe the changes taking place in the clouds.

However, when he left the tent, he noticed Gao Zhen, who was standing a few meters away with a frown on her face.

It would have made sense if she had been glancing towards the sky, but instead of the sky, her gaze was directed towards a black pill resting on her right hand’s palm.

"What’s that black pill?" Yi Chen curiously asked when his gaze fell on that pill.

Gao Zhen’s mind had been so preoccupied with uncertainties that she didn’t even notice Yi Chen’s presence when he came out of his tent.

Therefore, it was only when he asked her that question that she noticed him. It was also at that very moment that she seemed to have made a decision in her mind.

Meeting Yi Chen’s inquisitive gaze, she said with a smile, "Wasn’t Young Master Chen curious about how I was planning to enter the Tomb earlier? This is how I’m going to do it."

She gestured towards the glistening black pill in her hand, and before Yi Chen could ask anything further, she gulped down the pill.

"???"

An expression of confusion was apparent on Yi Chen’s face when he noticed her sudden actions.

’Just what kind of pill was that and why-’

Before Yi Chen could finish his string of thoughts, he saw Gao Zhen falling to her knees, coughing up thick, dark blood.

Cough! Cough!

"Madam Gao!" he rushed to her side and tried to help her up, but his hands froze when he noticed her status panel.

Her cultivation level, which was at the Ninth Qi Absorption Stage, began falling rapidly right in front of his eyes. As this was happening, her coughing intensified further.

Eight Qi Absorption Stage...

Seventh Qi Absorption Stage...

Fifth Qi Absorption Stage...

Third Qi Absorption Stage...

First Qi Absorption Stage...

.

.

.

Ninth Meridian Refinement Stage.

It was only when her cultivation had dropped all the way down to the Ninth Meridian Refinement Stage that Gao Zhen stopped coughing blood.

Her entire body was drenched in sweat by now, and the sound of coughing was replaced with that of heavy gasping.

’D-Did she just destroy her cultivation...’ Yi Chen thought with an expression of disbelief.

Initially, he had thought that it was at most just a special pill which would allow her to somehow bypass the tomb’s scrutiny and enter the tomb.... In no way did the idea of her destroying her cultivation enter his mind.

’Just why is she so desperate...’ Yi Chen thought while glancing at her weakened figure, which was in stark contrast to her image in his mind.

By now, Gao Zhen’s breathing had somewhat recovered.

Using the sleeves of her Hanfu, she wiped the remaining traces of blood from her mouth and struggled to stand up.

Along with her cultivation, her entire body was sapped of energy after taking that black pill. Therefore, just this simple action of standing up seemed to be taking her everything.

Seeing this, Yi Chen grabbed her shoulders and helped her up.

"Madam Gao, you-"

He tried asking how her condition was the next moment, but was met with a silent palm from Gao Zhen’s side.

Now that she was standing on her feet, she took out a bottle of pills from her storage ring.

’Qi Nourishing Pills?’

Yi Chen was easily able to recognise the familiar pill.

The next second, Gao Zhen gulped down the entire bottle of pills, which seemed to have an almost immediate effect on her state.

Energy seeped into her body, and the weakened gaze returned to its bright state soon after.

It was only when Yi Chen saw this that he finally asked in a hesitant tone. Although her status panel had clearly stated it, he still wanted to confirm it from her mouth, "M-Madam Gao, are you alright? Your cultivation...you...you...’

"Yes, I destroyed it." Gao Zhen answered with a smile. There was no need to hide it.

"Why...that was several years of your efforts, and it all went down the drain...Was it really worth it just to enter this tomb..." Yi Chen asked with a conflicting expression. If he were in her position, he would definitely have found a different path rather than this one.

"I can always recover my cultivation. It will just cost me time. However, I won’t be able to get this opportunity ever again..."

As she said those words, her eyes shone with determination.

Her words had indirectly answered the question he had just asked. It was apparent that if given another opportunity, she would have done the same thing again.

Hearing her words, Yi Chen could only purse his lips while keeping his conflicting emotions to himself.

"Madam Gao?!"

"What happened?! Who attacked you?!"

Zhou Lan and Xie Rou rushed towards her the next moment when they saw her condition.

A large portion of her robes was covered in blood, the traces of which were still apparent on her mouth.

Hearing their barrage of questions, Gao Zhen smiled softly and was about to answer. However, just then, the dense concentration of dark clouds above the lake began to tear apart.

A long vertical slit slowly opened the next second as the clouds surrounding it were pushed away. In a way, it looked as if the clouds were pulling the slit open from both sides.

The insides of the slit were completely black in colour, which was tens of times darker than the dark shade of the surrounding clouds.

"Just what is..."

Before Yi Chen could complete his words, a yellow pupil materialised inside the black slit.

The pupil glowed with a glaring yellow hue and took three-fourths of the space inside the slit. The very next instant, it observed all the people who were gathered around the lake below.

Yi Chen couldn’t help but feel a creepy sensation wash all over him when the eye momentarily glanced towards him before moving on to others.

"It’s confirming the cultivators who are meeting the Tomb’s requirements. We’ll all be sucked in after it has confirmed everyone’s presence." Gao Zhen said.

Not even a millisecond had passed since Gao Zhen had said those words, and they all felt a force pull them up.

"WHA-"

Yi Chen couldn’t help but flail his arms and legs in the air while seeing the ground distancing itself from him.

"Don’t worry, we won’t fall." Gao Zhen chuckled and told the three of them, who seemed to be in a similar state.

The same thing was happening with several cultivators around the lake who were camped at different spots.

A few moments later, they were all several thousand feet above the ground and were hovering at their spots at the same level as the gigantic eye.

Now that they were observing it from up close, many cultivators couldn’t help but gulp. Their figures were comparable to tiny ants when compared to the eye’s enormous size.

’Just which creature this eye belongs to....’ Yi Chen couldn’t help but think while gulping down his saliva.

"Remember to keep going towards the core of the tomb the moment you land in the forest. If fortunate, we’ll reunite along the way, or it will happen directly at the black temple, understand?" Gao Zhen repeated her instructions to them.

The three of them nodded as fear and nervousness rose in their hearts.

Meanwhile, several thousand feet below, Gao Di and Gao Tian had a confused expression on their faces.

While the cultivators were rising in the sky, they had ended up catching a glimpse of someone who shouldn’t have been there.

"Wasn’t that Elder Sister? Did she find a way to fool the guardian eye?" Gao Di muttered with disbelief.

In a different location, Gao Tian also had a serious expression as he said to himself, "It seems I’ve been underestimating you all this while, Elder sister..."

Gao Tian’s gaze narrowed the next instant.

Without wasting a single second, he brought out a sound-transferring stone from his storage ring and relayed a new set of instructions to his team members.

"Along with that cultivator from my brother’s team, also kill that Fifth Meridian Refinement Stage cultivator whom you met earlier." Gao Tian said with a cold face.

"Understood, Manager Tian." An affirmative message came from the other side.

Unbeknownst to all this, Yi Chen was busy glancing at the enormous eye with a heart filled with trepidation and curiosity.

It was at that very moment that an enormous suction force was felt by all of them, and the next instant, they were all sucked inside the yellow pupil.

A second later, the enormous eye in the sky vanished, and the dark clouds dispersed soon after, leaving a sunny blue sky in its wake as if nothing had happened just now.

Only the grim silence that pervaded the surroundings for a few minutes longer left an unsettling feeling in one’s heart, as if to say that something dreadful had taken place here.