Ch. 104 - Six Thousand Years Ago

Inside the Forbidden Ancient Realm, ancient trees stood like coiled dragons, their limbs stretching out in all directions. The massive old trees soared into the sky like small mountains. Vines as thick as water jars twisted like giant mountain serpents, each capable of wrapping around an entire mountain, firm and resilient.

To the uninformed, the flourishing vegetation and vibrant life would seem like a paradise. But a closer look would reveal something off. In this vast Forbidden Burial Ground, there were no bird calls, no beastly roars, no trace of insect activity, only a dead silence, eerily still.

This time, the three great families had joined forces, bringing only carefully selected cultivators, no more than eighty in total.

“The deepest part of this Forbidden Burial Ground has nine sacred mountains. Our three clans should split up and each climb one, to avoid disputes over distributing the divine medicine,” suggested Xu Daoling, the old soldier from the Radiant Light Sacred Ground.

Radiant Light had brought over thirty people, all tall and sturdy, mounted on massive exotic beasts known for their brute strength. In this Forbidden Realm, the source of godpower was suppressed, rendering magical techniques unusable. The stronger your physical power, the better. The Jiang and Ji Clans also brought powerful mounts for the same reason.

The Jiang Clan had brought about twenty cultivators. Their leader, the elder Jiang Hanzhong, sat atop a black-scaled magic mammoth. He smiled and said, “Brother Xu, I disagree. This place is full of unknown dangers. We’d be better off advancing together. Even if we only manage to scale one mountain, the divine medicine we find should be enough for all three of us. No one has succeeded in countless years. We can’t afford to split our strength.”

As he spoke, Jiang Hanzhong casually glanced at Ye Fan. A strange glint flickered in his eyes. Ye Fan’s heart tightened. He was especially wary of the Jiang Clan, two years ago, their soldiers had chased him to the brink of death.

Xu Daoling shook his head. “The scariest thing in this place is the power of the curse. Even if we all stay together, it won’t help. Better to spread out, perhaps each will find their own fortune.”

Jiang Hanzhong smiled playfully and said, “Our Jiang Clan only has about twenty people, too few. We’d like to borrow a few from your group, Brother Xu.”

Ye Fan, clad head-to-toe in divine iron armor, with even his face hidden behind a helmet, only had his eyes exposed. In that moment, he realized the Jiang Clan had recognized him, some of the soldiers who once hunted him must be among them.

Xu Daoling knew Ye Fan had consumed a sacred fruit and could better resist the curse. He intended to use him to harvest the divine medicine. Now that he saw the Jiang Clan was also eyeing Ye Fan, he immediately refused.

Ji Bingfeng, the elder from the Ji Clan, observed coldly. Sensing undercurrents between the other two, he said calmly, “Let’s not decide this now. When we reach the inner area of the Forbidden Zone, we can reconsider.”

The other two agreed and resumed their journey. At first, all seemed normal, but after traveling a dozen miles, everyone felt something was off.

“The godpower in my body is no longer flowing, it's fading!” cried a Jiang Clan cultivator.

“My life spring has closed. No more godpower is coming out,” said a worried Radiant Light cultivator.

Everyone's expression darkened. Their life essence was gone, even their Bitter Sea, the source of cultivation, was drying up.

“Don’t panic! This was expected,” Jiang Hanzhong barked.

Ji Yunfeng of the Ji Clan added, “Even without godpower, we can survive here. What matters is resisting the curse.”

Ye Fan felt a weakening of his life spring, but it hadn’t dried up. His golden bitter sea dimmed a little but remained active.

“Could it be… once the potential of the Primeval Desolate Sacred Physique is awakened, it can resist the demonic forces here?” Ye Fan wondered. He now had a powerful trump card, his greatest weapon.

Zhou Yi, Lin Jia, Wang Ziwen, Li Xiaoman, Zhang Ziling, and Liu Yiyi also rode beasts, guarded by several soldiers.

After another twenty miles, many beasts began to roar uneasily. One particularly weak leopard even trembled in fear, collapsing and refusing to go on.

The terrain ahead was flat. Ancient trees towered above, their branches like giant arms stretching toward the sky. Everything looked peaceful, but felt wrong.

Everyone advanced cautiously in silence, gripping spears and swords. With divine arts useless, only brute force remained.

Two hundred meters ahead, as they rounded a few trees with trunks over twenty meters thick, the front-line beasts reared up, throwing their riders.

Behind one tree stood a snow-white skeleton, upright, facing them, radiating a sinister aura. All soldiers backed away and raised their weapons.

“No signs of life, no godpower, just a skeleton,” one soldier muttered. A few of the fallen soldiers approached and hacked it to pieces.

But the moment the bones shattered, something terrifying happened, their divine iron armor, once dazzling and indestructible, began to darken and crack, making ominous sounds, then crumbled like rotten bark.

Their eyes sank in, flesh withered and crumbled to dust. They aged thousands of years in seconds, turning to white bone and collapsing to the ground.

“Fall back!” Jiang Hanzhong roared.

Everyone felt the sinister energy and quickly retreated. The mounts roared nervously.

That scene left everyone chilled, seven lives erased in an instant. A death so strange it froze the soul.

The forest grew quiet again. Only seven skeletons remained. Even their divine iron armor had disintegrated.

Ji Yunfeng shouted, “Detour around it! If anything else looks off, don’t touch it!”

After passing the grove, a soldier suddenly cried out in fear, “My, !”

This young cultivator’s hand had become rough and wrinkled. He quickly removed his helmet and touched his face, then screamed in horror.

His face was now covered in wrinkles. Hair white. Back hunched. His life force nearly gone.

Nearby soldiers cried out as well. The same had happened to them, they had all aged rapidly. Eyes cloudy. Near death.

“Why…” one of them murmured, then fell off his mount, dead from old age.

Moments later, the others also died. Their bodies collapsed, expressions twisted in fear. Their mounts, though not dead, were severely weakened, bones jutting out, like terminally ill animals. But since they had longer lifespans, they didn’t die immediately.

Ye Fan noticed all these people had been the ones who touched or approached the skeleton earlier. His heart turned cold.

Xu Daoling solemnly warned, “The terror of this Forbidden Burial Ground is now clear. No one act rashly.”

The atmosphere was heavy. Everyone was on edge. Life and death were unpredictable.

Ye Fan rode carefully, observing the plants along the way. He noticed many ancient spirit herbs, some likely thousands of years old.

A Dragon Tongue Grass glowed green like jade, nearly a small tree, two meters tall. Its central stalk curled like a green dragon spitting light.

Nearby, in a lake, a Jade Lotus glowed brightly. Its massive pod held nine lotus seeds, each as large as an egg, green and translucent, with an intoxicating aroma.

But no one stopped. There was no time to waste. Even if one reached a sacred mountain and found divine medicine, they might die of exhaustion before leaving.

A Jiang Clan soldier, riding a beast shrouded in red light, rode beside Ye Fan and sneered softly, “Why aren’t you running this time? Two years ago, you ran like a stray dog.”

Ye Fan glanced at him. “You smell like a loyal dog yourself. After two years, you still remember my scent.”

“Still so stubborn, huh? Let’s see how tough your mouth is when I gut you,” the soldier smirked. “I heard you can’t even cultivate. You must be dumb and bold to come here. You’ll die without knowing how.”

“You sure I’ll die without a trace?” Ye Fan asked calmly.

“You think the Radiant Light Sacred Ground will protect you? Don’t kid yourself. You’ll go harvest the divine medicine like a pawn. Maybe they’ll leave you a whole corpse. But don’t think you’re getting out alive.”

The soldier, named Jiang Feng, grinned coldly. “Of course, I could give you a painless death. Hand over that treasure, and I promise you won’t suffer.”

“Don’t you think it’s a bit early for that kind of talk?” Ye Fan said calmly. “In this Forbidden Realm, no one knows who will survive. Maybe I’ll be the one snapping your neck.”

Jiang Feng sneered. “Even without godpower, killing you is as easy as crushing an ant.”

“You’re quite confident,” Ye Fan replied with a cold smile.

Jiang Feng’s face darkened. “Three of the soldiers who hunted you down before are here. We’re eager to finish the job. This time, it’ll end differently.”

After journeying over a hundred miles into the Forbidden Realm, the nine sacred mountains finally came into view. Though not especially tall, they exuded immense pressure, like nine heavens looming before them.

“There, !”

Everyone gasped. Their scalps tingled. From the abyss surrounded by the sacred mountains, countless white skeletons were climbing upward, dense and terrifying.

“How could this be?!” Everyone was shaken.

“They’re probably from six thousand years ago…” said Ji Yunfeng gravely.

Xu Daoling nodded. “Yes, most likely. Back then, a sacred ground fell into that abyss, and countless cultivators died. These are their remains.”

Ye Fan felt a chill. He thought of the mad old man. The mountain of bones, those might be the remains of his fellow disciples and friends.

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