Doing "Business" in the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground, Chen Changsheng Studies Dao Patterns

"Senior, this price really isn't expensive."

"This is a top-quality Golden Silk Nanmu coffin. Within a hundred miles of here, everyone knows I'm famous for good quality at a fair price."

"At this price, I'm barely making anything."

Amid the black mountains of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground, the faint sound of haggling drifted through the air.

A closer look revealed a young man talking to a pile of dry bones.

"This is my bottom line. If you don't object, I'll take it as agreement."

After saying that, the young man waited for several breaths. When no voice of objection arose, he promptly got to work collecting the corpse.

That was right—this person was Chen Changsheng, who had been trapped in the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground for fifty years.

After placing the dry bones into the coffin, Chen Changsheng began examining the belongings beside them.

Three items lay quietly beside the bones: a pill furnace, a Jade Slip, and a small porcelain bottle.

Crack!

The moment Chen Changsheng touched the delicate pill furnace, a hole instantly appeared in its surface.

Seeing this, Chen Changsheng examined the other two items one by one. Yet aside from the Jade Slip, the porcelain bottle met the same fate and shattered as well.

"Tsk, tsk!"

"Time truly is the most powerful weapon!"

"Such a fine pill furnace turned into junk. What a pity."

After muttering to himself for a moment, Chen Changsheng examined the Jade Slip in his hand.

This Jade Slip had been made from Thousand Year Cold Jade. Even a hundred thousand spirit stones could not buy a piece as large as a fingernail.

Yet the Jade Slip in Chen Changsheng's hand was the size of an entire palm.

"Heaven Mending Paste?"

Looking at the pill formula recorded on the Jade Slip, Chen Changsheng tilted his head and thought for a while, but found no corresponding record in his mind.

According to the Jade Slip, this Heaven Mending Paste possessed the power to reverse life and death.

No matter how grievous one's injuries were, no matter whether one's Lifespan was nearly exhausted, as long as one had this Heaven Mending Paste, one could continue living for another seven days.

As its name suggested, even if the heavenly river were damaged, a single medicine could mend it.

After understanding the contents of the Jade Slip, Chen Changsheng casually tossed it into the System Space.

Naturally, Chen Changsheng wanted to try refining such a miraculous pill.

But his store of knowledge was insufficient. At present, he had no way to decipher the formula for Heaven Mending Paste.

These dry bones had lain here for an unknown number of years. The information from their era had long since ceased to circulate.

Chen Changsheng could only recognize a rough portion of the words on the Jade Slip, and he did not recognize any of the medicinal herb names mentioned on it.

As time passed, medicinal herbs from thousands of years ago might still exist.

But who knew how many times their names had changed? With only the formula and no corresponding illustrated guide, Chen Changsheng simply could not refine Heaven Mending Paste.

After successfully "selling" another coffin, Chen Changsheng turned to look at the Bronze Ancient Hall five hundred paces away.

There was another Bronze Ancient Hall behind him as well, though the two were only three hundred paces apart.

Looking at those "distant" five hundred paces, Chen Changsheng smacked his lips, then lay on the ground and began studying the Golden Arrays beneath him.

Five hundred paces away stood another Bronze Ancient Hall Chen Changsheng needed to find, and Emperor Zuo's bones were there as well.

When he had first arrived in the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground, Chen Changsheng had planned to spend twenty or thirty leisurely years first, then slowly study the Golden Arrays.

But he finished reading Xuanwu Pavilion's collection of books in less than ten years. Left with no choice, Chen Changsheng began studying the Golden Arrays.

At the beginning, Chen Changsheng's progress had been exceedingly slow.

A whole year only allowed him to advance a single inch, and he had not even fully comprehended that inch of Golden Arrays. He had merely found a safe way to move forward.

In this manner, Chen Changsheng spent a full twenty years to safely move only five paces beyond the Bronze Ancient Hall's safe range.

At that time, Chen Changsheng also encountered the first "customer" here.

Seeing the corpse lying exposed in the wilderness, Chen Changsheng's occupational habit immediately flared up. He took out a coffin and collected the corpse for the "customer."

Interestingly, many things on those dry bones had decayed away, but one unknown Beast Hide Book alone remained.

Chen Changsheng naturally accepted the "customer's" payment without hesitation.

After studying it, Chen Changsheng discovered that the Beast Hide Book's owner had been an array master.

Moreover, that Beast Hide Book contained his lifelong learning.

Through studying the Beast Hide Book, not only did Chen Changsheng's understanding of arrays advance by leaps and bounds, he also learned the name of these Golden Arrays.

Ordinary arrays generally borrowed the force of mountains, rivers, and terrain, or operated according to some particular trajectory, thereby unleashing all manner of formidable power.

But the Array Patterns in the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground were not like that. The Array Patterns here had evolved from the Great Dao between heaven and earth.

More precisely, these Golden Arrays were one form in which the Great Dao manifested itself. They were also called Dao Patterns.

The original text in the Beast Hide Book described them thus:

"Dao Patterns possess the power to reverse mountains and rivers, to turn the sun and moon upside down. None but the supreme may control them."

"This progress is still too slow!"

After successfully taking one step forward, Chen Changsheng looked at the remaining four hundred and ninety-nine steps, and the corner of his mouth could not help twitching.

Although his speed had increased severalfold after obtaining the Beast Hide Book,

those three hundred paces had still taken Chen Changsheng forty years. Adding the ten years he had spent reading in the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground,

Chen Changsheng had already remained in the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground for a full fifty years.

One hundred and thirty years had passed since his last slumber, and there were less than thirty years left before his next one.

Thinking of this, Chen Changsheng immediately took out the Beast Hide Book and began flipping through it.

But even after going through it several times, Chen Changsheng still could not recognize all the words within.

"This is just ridiculous. Why couldn't they create a writing system that remained in circulation forever?"

"If I could recognize every word in it, I could probably move several times faster."

After grumbling a little, Chen Changsheng began returning along the same route.

Over these fifty years, he had more or less figured out some of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground's conditions.

During the day, the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground was most likely safe, but nighttime was another matter entirely.

During the first ten years, Chen Changsheng had seen shadowy figures moving outside the Bronze Ancient Hall more than once at night.

This world had never had any talk of ghosts, but the "things" that could move about in the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground were most likely not human either.

Therefore, for safety's sake, Chen Changsheng only ever moved about during the day.

When night fell, Chen Changsheng would retreat into the Bronze Ancient Hall and climb into Hundred Defeats Immortal's Stone Coffin.

After a while, the sun set, and Chen Changsheng successfully retreated into the Bronze Ancient Hall.

Seven or eight coffins lay quietly outside the Bronze Ancient Hall. Under the shroud of night, an eerie atmosphere filled the surroundings.