The Camp

"That deathly aura is so heavy..." Su Muxue's face had gone pale.

Chen Feng was equally shaken, and the wound where his arm had been severed throbbed faintly.

Only Lin Ye remained calm. Deep in his eyes, there was even a fleeting hint of... adaptation.

"Follow the markings on the map. Stay as close to the edge as possible and avoid the central area," Lin Ye said quietly, stepping onto the gray-white plain first.

The ground rustled beneath their feet, as though they were walking across dead snow. Each step kicked up a cloud of gray-white bone dust.

After about an hour, they came upon an area where the bones were piled more densely. Countless bones of every shape and size were heaped together, forming one burial mound after another.

"Go around," Lin Ye said without hesitation, intending to skirt the area.

"Wooo—!"

A deep growl came from the depths of the burial mounds ahead.

The gray deathly aura in the area churned violently. A giant skeleton, assembled from countless ghastly white bones, suddenly rose from the mounds, clutching a massive bone club!

"Click! Clack!"

The skeleton giant took heavy steps toward the three of them.

Its ghostly green eye sockets locked onto them, its soul flames leaping wildly.

As it appeared, the resentful spirit shadows drifting among the surrounding burial mounds answered its call. They shrieked and lunged at the three of them!

"It's a Skeleton Guard! A vicious creature formed from countless resentments and the battlefield's killing intent!" Su Muxue's expression changed drastically.

Lin Ye's gaze turned icy. He stepped forward, placing himself between the other two and the threat.

He closed his eyes, sank his mind into his dantian, and communed with the strange seed.

An invisible field of force exploded outward from Lin Ye, instantly enveloping an area ten zhang across!

The moment the field appeared, the resentful spirits surging toward them like a tide let out shrill screams. They abruptly checked their advance and writhed madly at the field's edge, not daring to come any closer.

Even the skeleton giant's movements suddenly stilled the moment it stepped into the field.

"Now!"

Lin Ye's eyes snapped open. His figure blurred like a ghost, crossing several zhang in an instant to appear before the skeleton giant.

The Star-Shattering Sword became a fine, dark-gold line, stabbing straight toward the ghostly green soul flame in the giant's chest!

Swift, precise, ruthless!

Sensing the lethal threat, the skeleton giant swung its massive bone club down at Lin Ye with tremendous force! The soul flames in its eye sockets surged, trying to batter Lin Ye's mind with its overwhelming resentment.

"Shhk—!"

The dark-gold sword light pierced straight into the core of the soul flame!

"ROAR—!!!"

The skeleton giant let out a furious, unwilling bellow. Its enormous skeletal body shuddered violently, and the soul flames in its eye sockets went out completely.

"Rumble!"

The skeleton giant collapsed with a crash, breaking into scattered bones that sank into the gray-white bone dust. The resentful spirit shadows, now beyond its control, shrieked and slowly faded away as well.

Lin Ye lowered his sword, standing upright, his face slightly pale.

Su Muxue and Chen Feng stared at the scene, speechless for a long while.

Lin Ye calmly glanced at the bones scattered across the ground, then turned and said, "Let's go. That commotion might draw something else here."

Along the way, they suffered several more attacks. Bone Worms suddenly burrowed out of the earth; strange birds circled overhead. At one point, they even strayed into a remnant formation from an Ancient Battlefield and triggered a lingering killing prohibition.

Each time, Lin Ye used that strange field of force in tandem with his precise swordsmanship to resolve the crisis.

His fighting style grew simpler and simpler, as if he had become a finely tuned killing machine.

Su Muxue and Chen Feng went from shock to numbness. They silently followed behind Lin Ye, taking care of any stragglers while making the most of every opportunity to recover.

Three days later.

They finally reached the northern edge of the Skeleton Plains. The land was no longer flat; rolling hills began to appear.

On the map scroll, the area was marked as the Blood Fiend Hills.

And at the edge of their sight, where the lead-gray sky met the dark red earth, the faint outline of a colossal tower reaching from heaven to earth could be seen.

The Tongtian Tower.

Their ultimate destination, their only hope of leaving this dead land, lay ahead.

But there was not a trace of joy on Lin Ye and the others' faces.

A camp stood squarely across the road to the Blood Fiend Hills.

Black flags bearing skull emblems ringed the camp.

Figures moved within, their auras exactly like those of the assassins who had pursued them earlier.

The Blood Fiend Hall had established an outpost here.

Lin Ye and the others hid behind a massive boulder, observing the camp from a distance.

The camp was small, with room for about a hundred people. Its walls were built from dark red stone, and it had only one crude gate. A thin layer of dark red blood mist hung over the camp, clearly the work of a formation.

Figures could be seen moving inside. Most had reached the middle or late stages of the True Qi Realm, while a few gave off the aura of the peak of the True Qi Realm.

"At least thirty people, all at the middle stage of the True Qi Realm or higher. There may be someone in the Hua Yuan Realm stationed in those stone buildings at the center of the camp," Su Muxue said in a low voice.

Chen Feng's expression darkened. "They've blocked the way here. How are we supposed to get past?"

Lin Ye looked at the map. The Blood Fiend Hills were treacherous, and they were the only way to reach the Tongtian Tower, but there wasn't just one route through them.

The map marked several narrow paths that bypassed the camp head-on, but every one of them was fraught with danger.

"We can't force our way through, and we can't wait here for long." Lin Ye's gaze was icy as he stared at the camp. "We need to find a way past them and figure out why they're guarding this place."

"You want to sneak in?" Su Muxue immediately guessed what he had in mind. Worry flashed through her beautiful eyes. "It's too dangerous! The camp has a formation, and there may be someone in the Hua Yuan Realm..."

"I'll go. You two stay hidden here and wait for my signal." Lin Ye's tone left no room for argument. He took out the box containing the Earth Vein Crystal and handed it to Su Muxue. "If I haven't returned by dawn, or if the camp falls into chaos, leave immediately. Take the other route on the map and don't look back for me."

"Brother Lin!" Chen Feng cried out in alarm.

"That's an order." Lin Ye glanced at him, his resolve leaving no room for defiance. "Protect her. If I don't come back, find your own way and survive."