When he had obtained the map before, Qin Yang had wondered: since the map had already marked the location of that palace complex, why mark out the other places as well? Why was there such an obvious route, and why was it so detailed?
After entering the secret realm and choosing a general direction, any cultivator who had forged a Dao Foundation could naturally fly with a weapon and head straight there.
Now, he understood...
Without following the route, there was simply no way through.
Qin Yang looked at the boundless swamp shrouded in thin mist and hazy vapors, and his heart began to drum. The deathly silence here differed somewhat from that of the Banyan Forest.
The Banyan Forest had possessed pure deathly silence, as if that place had reached the end of the road, driven into a corner. Spiritual energy was filled with inertia, and there had been nothing else. It was precisely because of that that Qin Yang had dared to charge in and take the risk...
But this swamp was deathly silent within. Death qi bred there, vicious baleful intent lurked in the shadows, and together with the poisonous miasma, who knew how many living creatures had been buried inside? It had to be perilous in the extreme.
If the danger came only from the swamp itself, that would have been fine. Natural perils always left traces, and there was always a chance to avoid them.
But if the danger was some strange thing hidden within, then even the best outcome would be nine deaths and one life.
Alone and without company, if anything truly happened, he could only rely on himself. There was not even anyone to watch his back.
Involuntarily, Qin Yang began to miss Zhang Zhengyi a little...
The black ribbon wrapped around Zhang Zhengyi's wrist was flexible and ever-changing. In this swamp, it would definitely prove tremendously useful.
Achoo...
A sneeze came from a coffin beneath the earth. Then a black ribbon, like a stubborn young shoot, burrowed out of the soil, churning the surrounding earth until it continuously rolled and surged.
After quite a while, a hand emerged from the dirt. Zhang Zhengyi struggled as he poked his head out, his eyes darting about as he furtively peered at everything around him.
Only after seeing no movement nearby did he slowly crawl out of the ground.
"My senior brother does have a bit of conscience. He actually tidied up my corpse and buried me. What a pity, though—I'm not dead! Hahaha! Purple Firmament Dao Lord's Seated Transcendence Land, countless treasures! Your Fat Master is coming!" Zhang Zhengyi waggled his brows, laughing so hard that the fat all over his body quivered. He was immensely pleased with himself...
But just as he was laughing happily, the smile on Zhang Zhengyi's face suddenly froze...
A slip of paper slowly drifted down from his body.
"Junior Brother Zhang, I'm leaving first. Be careful on your own."
The crooked handwriting entered his sight. Zhang Zhengyi's eyelids twitched wildly, and he felt as though those few words were about to stab his eyes blind.
"This works too? How did he know I wasn't really dead? No, that's not right—I really was dead then. How did he know? How could he possibly know?!"
He really had died at the time. It was only because he had once encountered a fortuitous opportunity and, for no apparent reason, cultivated a strange secret art called Divine Phoenix Undying. Even if he truly died, he could burn his lifespan and undergo nirvana rebirth. The lifespan burned each time was uncertain; the more grievous his injuries upon death, the more lifespan would be consumed.
This time, his heart had merely shattered, his organs had been damaged, and his breastbone and ribs pulverized. Overall, his body had remained fairly intact, while his soul and head had not been injured. Burning only five years of lifespan had been enough for him to undergo nirvana rebirth.
After cultivating this secret art, he had made inquiries openly and covertly, but no one had ever heard of it, nor had anyone heard of anything similar. Even if such secret arts existed, they would be extraordinarily precious, enough to make top experts fight over them.
He had told no one about this. Even when he thought back on it himself, he had no idea how he had managed to cultivate it...
Then how had that senior brother known he was not dead?
Zhang Zhengyi felt as though cats were clawing at his heart, driving him nearly mad. He had clearly been able to play dead and pull one over on the other man, then act in secret and keep all the spoils for himself, but now...
Smack...
A slap.
Zhang Zhengyi stared fixedly at the note. Qin Yang's smiling-but-not-smiling face naturally surfaced in his mind, gently patting him on the shoulder.
"Junior Brother Zhang, you're still too green."
With a surge of True Essence, Zhang Zhengyi expressionlessly shattered the note into dust. Closing his eyes, he began hypnotizing himself.
He's trying to trick me! He's trying to trick me! My senior brother must have thought that someone as capable as me couldn't possibly die so easily. Yes, that's it! Since he was able to leave a note and bury me, that means the Demon Tiger is dead and he has already set off!
After muttering for a long while, Zhang Zhengyi finally shook the terrifying image from his mind. In the end, he concluded that his senior brother had a perverse sense of humor and would even toy with the dead.
Casting aside those thoughts, Zhang Zhengyi strode toward the outside of the Banyan Forest.
But as soon as he left the dense forest, Zhang Zhengyi's expression stiffened and his steps halted.
In the distance, following the riverbank, came at least twenty or thirty Foundation Establishment cultivators...
Several of them looked quite familiar, and there was even an old acquaintance among them...
Steward Qiu of Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce...
Zhang Zhengyi turned and ran, but unfortunately, a flash of spiritual light appeared, crossing more than a hundred zhang in an instant and transforming into a pitch-black long sword that hovered before him.
"Zhang Zhengyi, you're quite lucky. You actually aren't dead yet!" Steward Qiu's face was livid as he led a group toward him.
"Ha, Steward Qiu, what fate. We meet again." Zhang Zhengyi gave a dry laugh, not daring to make any sudden moves...
"Hm? Why are you the only one here? Where is that other junior brother?" From within the crowd, a handsome young man dressed in white stepped forward, his expression puzzled.
Zhang Zhengyi kept dry-laughing. Naturally, he found this man very familiar as well. He had been the one fighting Imperial Concubine De before. This fellow had really taken the senior brother duo for disciples of Boundless Dao Academy...
"There was a Demon Tiger earlier, with the strength of a Demon General. Senior brother Qin and I got separated. Oh, right, senior brother, may I ask your esteemed name? And where is this place? After we fell off the cliff outside Ghost City, we landed here..." Zhang Zhengyi's expression shifted as he moved closer to the handsome man...
"My name is Bai Yutang. Are you junior brothers outer sect disciples?" Bai Yutang did not suspect much and casually replied.
"So it's Senior Brother Bai. I've long heard Senior Brother's great name many times, but sadly, I never had the chance to meet you..." Zhang Zhengyi moved even closer, standing directly beside Bai Yutang as he launched into a torrent of flattery...
"I spend all year within the sect. You're in the outer sect, so it's normal that we haven't met..." Bai Yutang wore a faint smile and did not suspect anything at all. Boundless Dao Academy's outer sect disciple residences were scattered inside and outside its territory. Altogether, there were at least eight or ten thousand of them. Most of the time, outer sect disciples were little more than sweatshop laborers working for Boundless Dao Academy...
Let alone Bai Yutang, among the Boundless Dao Academy cultivators present, it would already be remarkable if any of them recognized thirty to fifty outer sect disciples.
Seeing Bai Yutang speak, the other inner sect disciples of Boundless Dao Academy had no objections either. Steward Qiu waved his hand with a dark expression, too lazy to fuss with Zhang Zhengyi any further in a place like this.
"Keep moving. Hurry up."
On the other side, within the swamp, a muffled bang sounded. Qin Yang rushed back from the swamp with rapid steps and cold sweat covering his head, then stood again on the shore, staring fixedly at a patch of dry ground in the marsh.
The weeds there had been crushed, and a claw print the size of a human head had been left behind. The surrounding weeds continuously withered, while the earth let out a series of sizzling sounds. In only a few breaths, the claw print vanished, and that patch of ground over a zhang wide was completely corroded away.
For a time, the swamp returned to calm. Not a trace of anything else could be seen.
"What the hell was that?!" Qin Yang's face darkened. He had not even seen what had ambushed him just now...
Thank you all for your favorites and recommendations. Special thanks to the reader whose English name starts with h, which I can't spell, and to Old Ox, for giving recommendation votes every day since the book began.
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