The tearing sensation of space was like being swept into a violent deep-sea whirlpool! His internal organs were wildly shifting!
Cheng Xi desperately grabbed whatever he could reach beside him—it was Yan Lingji's arm! Yan Lingji instinctively grabbed back at him, while her other hand protectively held the Green Jade Sword Sheath against her chest!
Amid the chaos, he seemed to crash into something hard and cold—it was Ying Zheng! At the moment of spatial distortion, Ying Zheng had actually leaped into the carriage as well!
Boom!
After a brief spell of weightlessness and dizziness came the agonizing pain of slamming heavily onto hard, icy ground!
Cheng Xi let out a muffled groan. Ignoring the pain that made his entire body feel as though it had fallen apart, he abruptly rolled over and sat up!
The sight before him made him suck in a sharp breath!
This was a deathly silent hidden valley. The sky was lead-gray, hanging low and oppressive, with neither sun, moon, nor stars in sight. Gray-white mist that could not be dispersed filled the valley, carrying a heavy stench of decay and sulfur. Steep, jagged black cliffs surrounded them like the savage fangs of monstrous beasts.
And the most terrifying thing was the ground!
Densely packed!
Countless incomplete, severely decayed skeletons carpeted the entire valley floor! Some were humanoid, some beast-shaped, and some were enormous twisted skeletons of indescribable form! The bones were an eerie black-gray, their surfaces covered in a greasy sheen. Thick death qi and grudges had nearly solidified, silently churning and wailing within the Gray Mist!
This place was practically a forgotten hell of bones!
"Cough, cough..." Ying Zheng's suppressed coughing came from beside him. He swiftly rose to his feet, his black robes covered in bone powder and sticky black grease, his expression so gloomy it seemed ready to drip water. He tightly held the bronze fragment bearing the burning Sun Totem. A faint golden-red glow had actually lit up across its surface, dispelling the Gray Mist attempting to coil around him.
Yan Lingji also struggled to her feet, her face pale, the hand gripping the Green Jade Sword Sheath trembling slightly. The sheath's cool radiance appeared somewhat dim beneath the erosion of the dense death qi and grudges around them. Looking at the bones filling the valley, her flame-like eyes were full of terror.
[Environment scan complete! Confirmed coordinates: east of Xiaoshan · Hidden Valley (spatial layer/Ancient Battlefield Remnants)... Energy attributes: Yin Sha Death Qi (density: extremely high)/Chaotic Grudges (intensity: dangerous)... Spatial stability: fragile/multiple Spatial Folds detected...]
The system prompt was cold and cruel. A spatial layer! An Ancient Battlefield! The Spatial Coordinates within that Witch Script Wood Fragment had forcibly dragged them into this land of death!
"This place... is extremely ominous!" Ying Zheng's voice carried an unprecedented gravity. He had fought across battlefields and seen mountains of corpses and seas of blood, yet the death qi and grudges here were far beyond anything found in the human world!
As if to confirm his words—
"Clack... clack..."
A teeth-grinding sound of bones scraping against one another sounded like a tide from the piles of bones in all directions!
Before the horrified eyes of the three, the mountain-like heaps of bones across the valley began to squirm!
One incomplete skeleton after another staggered to its feet, as though pulled by invisible threads! Ghostly green or pale-white corpse flames ignited within their empty eye sockets! They seized scattered broken bone spikes, rotten weapons, even snapped off their own ribs to use as weapons. Like an awakened army of the dead, they densely and slowly closed in on the living intruders!
Bones scraped, corpse flames swayed, and the deathly silent valley was instantly filled with sounds that made their scalps go numb!
"C-corpses transforming?!" Yan Lingji's voice trembled. Flames instinctively rose at her fingertips, yet under the suppression of the dense death qi, they flickered unsteadily.
"Hold the line!" Ying Zheng shouted, drawing the longsword at his waist with a ringing sound! In the dull gray light, the icy blade carved out a bleak, chilling flash! He stepped forward, shielding Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji behind him. His black robes stirred without wind as a deep, restrained, yet incomparably tenacious Imperial Dao Pressure burst forth!
The bronze fragment in his hand shone even brighter. Its golden-red halo was like a miniature sun, forcibly driving back the approaching Gray Mist and death qi several feet!
However, there were simply too many skeletons! Like a white tide, they poured forth from every corner of the valley! They knew no fear and felt no pain; they possessed only instinctive hatred and a desire to devour the aura of the living!
"We can't fight them head-on!" Cheng Xi's mind raced! He abruptly looked at the Green Jade Sword Sheath in Yan Lingji's hand! The sheath contained Heaven-Connecting Sword Intent and was also the carrier of the Spatial Coordinates!
"Yan Lingji! Activate the sheath! Pour your flames into it!" Cheng Xi shouted hoarsely! At the same time, he crazily poured all his spiritual power into the system!
[Energy overload initiated! Target: analyze Spatial Coordinates! Activate the sheath's Spatial Anchor! Combine witchfire characteristics! Calculate optimal path!...]
Although Yan Lingji did not understand why, at this moment of life and death, she chose to trust Cheng Xi! Gritting her teeth, she poured every last bit of the blazing white witchfire remaining in her body into the Green Jade Sword Sheath without reservation!
Buzzz!
The Green Jade Sword Sheath suddenly erupted with an unprecedented brilliance! Its cool cyan light and blazing white witchfire did not clash. But instead, they strangely merged and spun within the sheath! They formed a pillar of intertwined cyan and white light that shot into the sky!
Wherever the pillar of light passed, the dense Gray Mist was forcibly dispelled! Space let out a groan under unbearable strain!
[Coordinates locked! Path generated! Spatial Tunnel forcibly opened! Duration: three breaths!]
The system display flashed blood-red!
"Go!" Cheng Xi grabbed Yan Lingji with one hand and shoved Ying Zheng hard in the back with the other!
Ying Zheng reacted like lightning. Without the slightest hesitation, using the force of Cheng Xi's push, he shot forward like lightning, following the cyan-white pillar of light toward the violently twisted Space Node at its peak!
Cheng Xi pulled Yan Lingji along behind him!
Countless skeletons let out soundless shrieks, their rotting bone claws nearly grabbing their ankles! Thick death qi surged like an icy tide, trying to drag them back into the abyss!
At the critical moment!
The three figures abruptly vanished into the twisted spatial vortex at the top of the pillar of light!
Just as the vortex was about to close!
From the corner of his eye, Cheng Xi glimpsed something at the rear of the skeletal army, at the foot of the steep black cliffs where the Gray Mist was densest. There seemed to stand a... damaged altar built from enormous beast bones!
Upon the altar, a gigantic skeleton clad in damaged bronze armor, its frame far larger than that of an ordinary human, slowly... raised its hollow head, where two clusters of ghostly blue soul flames burned!
A cold, decayed Terrifying Will bearing the pressure of ancient savagery locked onto the Spatial Tunnel that was about to disappear like an awakening beast!
Boom!
The spatial vortex closed completely!
The three were flung out as though hurled by immense force, crashing heavily onto hard ground!
Fresh air flooded their lungs, carrying the scent of grass and earth.
Sunlight! Blinding sunlight!
They were out! They had returned to the foothills of Zhongnan Mountain!
However, Cheng Xi's heart sank. That final glimpse... the bronze giant skeleton atop the altar... that targeting will...
He struggled into a sitting position and looked at the Witch Script Wood Fragment in his hand, the one that had triggered the spatial transfer. At this moment, the silver Space Witch Script upon it had completely gone dark, and even a faint crack had appeared.
What made his pupils constrict even more was—
Yan Lingji sat collapsed nearby, still shaken. Ying Zheng, meanwhile, was slowly rising from the ground, his black robes covered in dirt and grass clippings.
As Ying Zheng stood, a palm-sized ring-shaped jade pendant, smooth as mutton-fat jade and carved with intricate coiled chi patterns, slipped from a hidden pocket in the lining of his black robe. With a soft "plop," it fell onto the grass at Cheng Xi's feet.
At the center of the jade pendant was an ancient seal-script character—"Xia"!
The Xia Empress Dowager! Zhao Ji's patron! The core of the Zhao Faction's power!
Cheng Xi stared fixedly at that "Xia" jade pendant with coiled chi patterns, as though he had been bitten by a venomous snake!
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