Screech...
The surface of the enormous black boulder ahead suddenly split with crack after crack, deepening from shallow fissures as chips of stone pattered down.
In an instant, Yin Energy surged. A black beam shot from the boulder, scattering the spell Lin Xuan had used to pick the spirit herb.
The youth's expression darkened.
The howls grew ever more shrill.
There were the death screams of people, the roars of Demonic Beasts—every kind of bizarre sound tangled together, enough to make one's hair stand on end.
The sky also grew exceedingly dim. Thick, pitch-black fog seeped from the boulder, ghostly figures layering upon one another within it. The terrifying baleful aura was enough to drive one mad.
Even the resentment within the Hundred Soul Banner was far inferior to this. What sort of ghost was this? A trace of gravity appeared on Lin Xuan's face. He had originally thought a Demonic Beast guarded the heaven-and-earth spirit herb, but he had not expected Fierce Ghosts and evil souls instead.
With resentment this heavy, who knew how many cultivators had fallen here in the past.
Lin Xuan had once read legends concerning such situations in books.
Heaven-and-earth spirit herbs had always been contested by cultivators and Demonic Beasts alike, for whether consumed by humans or Demonic Beasts, they greatly benefited one's cultivation.
Some cultivators who died fighting over heaven-and-earth spirit herbs entered reincarnation anew. Others, filled with resentment, left their souls behind. After cultivating for hundreds or thousands of years, they became Fierce Ghosts and guarded the spirit herbs here. If they could not have them, neither would they allow anyone else to pick them.
The same was true for Demonic Beasts.
The ghostly figures flying out of the thick fog at this moment were the souls of cultivators and Demonic Beasts