I Was Forced to Marry a “Trash” Cultivator, But She Turned Out to Be a Reborn Empress!

Emerging from a curtain of mist, Shen Xing’s party found themselves before the Ten Thousand Beasts Maze.

A colossal bronze gate towered at the edge of a cliff, its surface intricately carved with the reliefs of ten thousand beast heads. Each head was shockingly lifelike, their bronze-cast eyes glowing with an eerie green light in the gloom, looking as if they might spring to life at any moment. Wisps of blood-red mist seeped from the gate’s cracks, coalescing into the shape of monstrous claws at their feet.

“Is this… the Ten Thousand Beasts Maze?” Shen Tianhao swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. The light from his illumination talisman seemed exceptionally feeble before the colossal bronze gate.

He recalled the clan’s records: twelve Foundation Establishment cultivators had once entered this place together. In the end, only a blood-stained, broken sword was ever found outside the gate.

Ye Qingxian, however, strode forward without hesitation.

When she was still ten paces from the gate, the thousands of beast heads roared in unison!

ROAR—

The deafening sound formed tangible shockwaves, causing the two guards with the weakest cultivation to bleed from their ears and noses.

Shen Xian made a show of covering his ears in a panic, but in reality, he had already secretly activated the Void Reflecting Spirit Mirror. The sound waves were laced with a spiritual sense attack. If his own spiritual sense hadn’t already reached the Nascent Soul realm, he would have likely fainted on the spot.

The colossal bronze gate groaned open, revealing a distorted, warped space within.

Nine ancient bronze lamps hovered at the entrance, each wick burning with a uniquely colored flame. Bizarrely, the shadows they cast were not of the lamps themselves, but of nine ferocious demonic beasts.

There was only one path forward. To learn more, they had no choice but to enter.

Although Shen Xian had technically lost his qualification to be here, he wasn’t about to let Ye Qingxian face the dangers ahead alone. He followed her in. As for Shen Tianhao and the others, they had no choice but to follow their mistress.

Ye Qingxian took the lead, with the others following silently behind. The moment the bronze gate swung shut without a sound, an unnatural silence fell over them.

It wasn’t merely quiet; it was an absolute stillness that seemed to swallow the very sound of their breathing and heartbeats. He could see Shen Tianhao’s lips moving but couldn’t hear a single word he said.

The clan had no useful information on this maze; no one who entered had ever returned to share its secrets. They would have to explore it on their own.

Suddenly, Ye Qingxian stopped. The golden light that had entered her body earlier now surged forth, illuminating the entire passageway.

The beast head reliefs on the walls began to slowly rotate, their bronze eyes swiveling to scan everyone present. Dense clusters of claw prints materialized on the ground. A dark golden liquid seeped from each imprint, congealing in the air to form ancient characters shaped like beasts.

Alarmed, Shen Tianhao and the others tried to memorize the characters, but for some reason, the information simply wouldn’t stick in their minds, no matter how hard they focused.

They suddenly realized the truth: these characters could only be understood by those who had passed the previous trials. If their Young Mistress hadn’t comprehended the secret inheritance technique from the Purple-Gold Giant Stele, they likely wouldn’t even be able to see this phenomenon.

The guards couldn’t help but glance at the ethereal, aloof figure leading them, their respect deepening.

Shen Xian found he couldn’t remember the characters either. So, he focused on observing his surroundings instead.

Just then, he spotted a venomous snake slithering silently from a dark corner toward Shen Tianhao.

“Watch out!” he sent via spiritual sense transmission.

Shen Tianhao’s heart jolted. His senses immediately locked onto the snake, and with a swift slash of his longsword, he cut it in two. The creature dissolved into a puff of black vapor and vanished.

“This maze is full of hidden dangers. Stay vigilant,” Shen Tianhao transmitted sternly to the others.

Shen Xian’s gaze, however, lingered on the spot where the black vapor had dissipated, a thoughtful look on his face. This maze’s tricks are rather crude, he thought.

By now, Ye Qingxian had already memorized all the characters. She took another step, and the group continued their advance.

The passageway began to twist in bizarre ways. Though they felt like they were walking in a straight line, a glance back revealed their path had warped into a sharp ninety-degree angle. Every hundred steps, another bronze lamp of a different design would appear. The colors of their flames ranged from a ghostly blue to a sickly green, with no two being the same.

Ye Qingxian seemed completely unaffected by the strange phenomena, maintaining a steady, unwavering pace. Shen Tianhao and the guards, on the other hand, were on high alert, advancing with extreme caution as if expecting an attack at any moment.

As they reached the seventh bronze lamp, the passage suddenly narrowed. The lamp’s flame flickered eerily, casting long, distorted shadows of the group onto the walls behind them.

“Watch your footing,” Shen Tianhao suddenly warned via spiritual sense.

At some point, without anyone noticing, the solid ground beneath their feet had transformed into a semi-transparent bronze grid. Below it was a bottomless abyss. Through the gaps in the grid, countless pairs of glowing, emerald-green eyes flickered in the darkness.

Ye Qingxian halted. She retrieved a bronze token from her robes—the very one she had obtained before the Purple-Gold Giant Stele. As soon as she touched the token to the grid, a series of safe footholds materialized across the floor ahead.

The first three guards made it across safely. But then—Crack!—the fourth guard misstepped, his foot landing just off the designated safe spot. Panicking, he flailed and grabbed onto the two companions beside him, dragging all three of them down into the chasm.

As they fell, the bodies of two of the guards abruptly stiffened, their skin rapidly turning a strange, bluish-gray. When they plunged into the darkness, the owners of the emerald eyes pounced. The sounds of tearing flesh that followed were enough to make one’s blood run cold.

“Hang on!” Shen Tianhao roared, flinging out a Binding Spirit Rope. It snaked through the air and wrapped around the wrist of the last falling guard, who was left dangling precariously over the abyss.

“Th-thank you, Captain…” the rescued guard gasped, his spiritual sense transmission shaky from his brush with death.

Once everyone was safely across, the group faced a new obstacle: three branching paths, each leading into pitch-black silence.

Ye Qingxian’s brow furrowed in thought for only a moment before she chose the middle path without hesitation.

The bronze floor of the middle corridor was smoother than the other two, as if polished by the passage of countless feet over the ages. Shen Xian, however, noticed several faint indentations on the smooth surface—marks that looked suspiciously like the claws of some ferocious beast.

“Everyone, be careful,” Shen Tianhao whispered, keeping the tip of his sword hovering just inches above the floor, ready to react to any sudden threat.

The rescued guard took up the rear, his boots making a strange, sticky squelch against the metallic floor. The sound echoed faintly in the corridor as the party advanced cautiously into the labyrinth. They continued step by step, deeper into the maze, until they reached a sharp corner where a peculiarly shaped, wall-mounted lantern suddenly came into view.