The mountain range was desolate and lifeless, devoid of any human presence. A chilling yin energy permeated the air. The black rocks gleamed with a cold light. As Ye Chu stepped into it, he felt a wave of icy chill invading his body.
The Ancient Nightmare Forbidden Land was vast beyond imagination. Once inside the mountain range, Ye Chu felt like nothing more than an ant. Especially the oppressive, yin-heavy atmosphere made his scalp tingle with unease.
“Thump… thump…”
In this deathly silent and suffocating space, the sudden rhythmic thumping sound made Ye Chu’s entire body tense. He snapped his head towards the direction of the noise. In such quiet surroundings, the sound was piercingly loud. After a moment’s hesitation, Ye Chu ultimately strode quickly towards it.
The stones of the Ancient Nightmare Forbidden Land were incredibly hard. The path was flat. Pitch-black and eerily silent, it felt as though he had entered the realm of the dead. Occasionally Ye Chu came across scattered bones. If he stepped on them carelessly, they crumbled instantly, clearly weathered to the extreme.
Ye Chu knew this forbidden land had buried countless lives. But at the same time, rumours of various cultivation resources and supreme treasures here attracted many cultivators to venture in.
Ye Chu soon reached the source of the sound. To his surprise, a group of people was there, frantically digging at the black rocks of the Ancient Nightmare Forbidden Land.
“We found it! We found it!” As soon as Ye Chu spotted them, several people shouted in excitement. One person pulled a stone from the dug pit. The stone shimmered with flowing light, radiating brilliant radiance like a gem.
“Mysterious Stone!” Ye Chu could not help exclaiming. He stared in a daze at what the group held in their hands.
Mysterious Stone was a type of heavenly material and earthly treasure. It grew within ore veins but absorbed the spiritual energy of countless surrounding stones, eventually forming into Mysterious Stone. It contained extremely dense spiritual energy and was extraordinarily valuable. Mysterious Stone could be used to forge Sun-Moon artifacts. High-quality Mysterious Stone could even be used to craft Heaven-Earth artifacts. It could also be used in alchemy, where its spiritual energy could elevate the grade of pills by several levels.
Mysterious Stone had miraculous effects. Ordinary people who wore it could strengthen their bodies. When used to accompany the dead in burial, it could preserve the corpse from decay. This was something cultivators coveted fiercely. Ye Chu had never expected the Ancient Nightmare Forbidden Land to yield such a thing.
One Primordial Spirit Realm cultivator held the Mysterious Stone. Its radiance wrapped around him. Ye Chu clearly saw the power of the stone seeping into his body. The man’s strength was visibly increasing at a perceptible speed.
Ye Chu could not help taking a deep breath. Only now did he truly understand the divine effect of Mysterious Stone. With Mysterious Stone continuously supplying spiritual energy, a cultivator’s cultivation speed would become far too fast. There would be no need to spend time refining and absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
Ye Chu had seen many good things while at Heartless Peak, yet even he could not help feeling his blood surge with excitement. If he had Mysterious Stone providing him with endless spiritual energy, Ye Chu was confident he could break through to the Primordial Spirit Realm within three months.
Breaking through three layers in three months—this was an inconceivable speed. Yet Mysterious Stone gave Ye Chu such confidence. Its divine effect was simply too astonishing.
The group was ecstatic at having dug up Mysterious Stone. The seven or eight people began digging even more frantically.
But what made Ye Chu and the others’ hair stand on end was this: they dug all over the area. Yet every time they abandoned a pit, the hole would soon recover completely, leaving no trace of excavation.
“The rocks here grow back on their own!”
The seven or eight people cried out in alarm. A chill surged from their feet straight to the crown of their heads. They stared blankly at the restored ground. The sinister feeling grew even thicker in that moment.
Someone refused to believe it and dug fiercely several more times. Yet the pit quickly returned to normal.
“Hiss…”
Ye Chu also sucked in a cold breath. This was far too eerie. A mountain range that grew back on its own—this was either a divine land or a ghostly one. And clearly, this place had nothing to do with anything divine.
While everyone was shaken by this, a hissing sound came from one direction. They looked over and saw a group of dark shadows slowly approaching.
When they could make out the dark shadows clearly, someone cried out in alarm, “Desiccated corpses!”
Blocking their path was a group of desiccated corpses. The corpses were withered and shrivelled. Their muscles and skin had atrophied completely, leaving only skin stretched over bones. Patches of corpse spots covered their bodies. A mouldy stench wafted from them. The sight was utterly horrifying, especially in this eerie environment. It made one’s scalp tingle.
The group of desiccated corpses stared at the Mysterious Stone in the cultivators’ hands. Their empty eye sockets, long devoid of eyeballs, somehow emitted a glint of light. Without a word, the corpses lunged towards the cultivators.
One cultivator failed to react in time. A corpse pounced on him and pinned him to the ground.
A bloody scene unfolded in an instant. The corpse tore into him, biting down and ripping flesh from his body. It chewed and swallowed. The biting was brutally savage. In just a few breaths, the cultivator’s entire body had been torn apart until only white bones remained. He screamed until he fainted. Blood flowed freely, the scene reeking of blood and cruelty.
Watching from a distance, Ye Chu felt his hair stand on end. This was true cannibalism—and done with such savage brutality.
Ye Chu recalled Tan Miaotong’s words: the Ancient Nightmare Forbidden Land contained monsters. Were these desiccated corpses one type of monster? If not, then what kind of bloody and terrifying monsters awaited deeper inside?
At this moment, Ye Chu could not help feeling the urge to retreat. The Ancient Nightmare Forbidden Land was far too terrifying.
Ye Chu watched as the cultivators’ long blades struck the corpses, yet failed to cause any real damage. His scalp tingled. A chill surged straight to his heart.
Of the seven or eight cultivators, three more were pounced upon. The corpses bit into their throats. Blood was sucked into the corpses’ bodies. A living person was quickly transformed into a desiccated corpse lying on the ground.
“Ah…”
The bloody scene drove the remaining cultivators into madness. They roared and swung their blades, chopping at the corpses’ heads and severing them. Yet even headless corpses stood upright and continued lunging at the cultivators. They did not die because of it.
The cultivators were not weak, yet under the siege of these corpses, they were quickly killed or injured. Blood dyed the black ground red. The pungent stench of blood filled the air.
Ye Chu hid to the side, holding his breath, not daring to let his aura leak out. Watching the corpses chew on the bodies, his stomach churned violently.
“Ye Chu, you won’t escape!” Just as Ye Chu’s heart was pounding with fear, Shangguan Min Da’s voice suddenly rang out. A group of people appeared behind him.
Ye Chu froze. He could not help glancing at the group of desiccated corpses. Sure enough, the newcomers’ auras attracted them. The corpses dropped the bodies they were chewing on and lunged towards Shangguan Min Da’s group.
Ye Chu retreated sharply, still holding his breath to conceal his presence. “Here’s a gift for you. Enjoy yourselves!”
Ye Chu moved swiftly away. With the corpses blocking the pursuers, he had the perfect chance to escape. Of course, Ye Chu did not forget the Mysterious Stone the cultivators had dug up earlier. With extreme speed, he darted to the bloody scene, swept up the stone, and fled at full speed.