Immortal Bone

The mine tunnel was dim, and even the Luminous Pearls could only illuminate a tiny patch of ground. The traces in the tunnel were still fresh; it was obvious it had only been opened recently.

After walking a little over a hundred zhang, Chu Zheng felt a dense surge of earth Qi rising up, carrying faint toxins and a trace of Yin Sha nurtured by corpse bones.

This was Turbid Qi. To ordinary Martial Masters, it was a death warrant that slowly corroded the body. Even after taking a Detoxification Pill, one could not remain in the mine tunnel for long.

The Turbid Qi had no effect whatsoever on Chu Zheng. He had not even taken a Detoxification Pill before directly shifting into internal breathing, drawing upon the Primordial Qi between Heaven and Earth to sustain himself.

After entering the mine tunnel, the three hundred-plus people quickly split into several small groups, each choosing a direction to begin exploring.

This mineral vein produced a material known as Earth Yin Stone. It was commonly used to forge the power furnaces of Flying Boats and the fireproof stands beneath alchemy furnaces, and was occasionally used in the refinement of magical artifacts.

Receiving so many Spirit Coins and Qi Enhancement Pills every month was naturally not something given for free. There were mandatory quotas to fulfill every day.

The greater one's strength, the more abundant the resources one received, and naturally, the higher one's quota would be.

For someone at Chu Zheng's level, he had to mine at least a hundred jin every day and submit three thousand jin each month to meet the minimum standard and receive all of his Spirit Coins and Qi Augmentation Pills.

One jin short meant a ten percent deduction in resources. One hundred jin short meant thirty percent deducted; three hundred jin short meant fifty percent deducted; more than a thousand jin short meant ninety percent deducted.

The deductions would not stop even after everything had been withheld. If one submitted less than a thousand jin in a month, one might even end up owing Spirit Coins to the Phantom Spirit Sect.

Chu Zheng did not care much about any of this. He could see the flow of Qi and knew at a glance where Earth Yin Stone lay. He did not need to waste effort searching for it. A hundred jin of ore would take him no more than the time needed to drink a cup of tea.

He deliberately fell to the very back of the group. Recalling the map Fu Quanliang had given him, he found an opportunity to quietly slip away from the group and make his way toward that Ancient Battlefield.

The mine tunnel leading to that Ancient Battlefield had been deliberately isolated from the others' mining area. The regions these Martial Masters could explore were limited to the surface of this mine pit.

Following the map, Chu Zheng bypassed several remote mine tunnels and headed downward.

After walking for some time, the mine tunnel gradually changed. It was covered in dust and cobwebs, and along the way he saw shattered Battle Armor fragments and incomplete white bones.

Chu Zheng crouched down. His fingertips brushed aside the dust and gently passed over the traces left behind tens of thousands of years ago. Streams of information flashed densely before his eyes, seeming to sketch out a vast and stirring piece of Ancient History.

Crimson Crow Armor (Third Order): A standardized suit of Battle Armor forged with ordinary craftsmanship. Almost every soldier in the Crimson Crow Army had one. The materials were fairly good, but it had been forcibly smashed apart by a tyrannical force and had almost no repair value left. Repairable (0/3000)

Heavenly King Halberd (Fifth Order): The battle weapon of a Martial Dao cultivator. It had once drunk the blood of a Fifth Order lifeform before later falling into the hands of an Immortal Dao cultivator. It had broken into seven pieces. If all components could be gathered, repairing it might be easier. Repairable (0/5000)

Nameless Corpse Bone (Fourth Order): In life, belonged to the Crimson Crow Army and served as a Wing General. Bone Age: one hundred and twenty-seven. High-grade Immortal Bone. The spirit had dispersed. Cannot be repaired.

Incomplete Immortal Bone (Seventh Order): The remnant bone of a True Immortal. It was once obtained by an Immortal Dao cultivator and forcibly fused into their body. With your current ability, it cannot be repaired at all.

Chu Zheng's fingertips paused slightly. This was the first time he had encountered something that could not be repaired.

With a light sweep of his palm, he blew away the dust and picked out a fragment of bone from the tangled wreckage. After examining it for a few moments, he understood. It was half a palm bone.

As the dust scattered, the bone immediately glimmered with faint light, like a clear crystal. Within the pitch-black mine tunnel, it illuminated Chu Zheng's face, flickering between brightness and shadow.

Tens of thousands of years had passed, yet this Immortal Bone remained warm and lustrous. In a daze, Chu Zheng sensed a thread of life Primordial Qi brewing within it.

There was still vitality in this bone. Like a dormant seed, it could continue growing after being fused into a fleshly body.

Seventh Order.

A lifeform of this level had already surpassed Chu Zheng's imagination in terms of the level of its existence. It was merely a fragment of bone, yet after tens of thousands of years, it still retained vitality. What kind of vigorous and terrifying life force was this?

He truly found it difficult to imagine how such a powerful lifeform had, at the height of its strength, been beaten until its body split apart and it died without a whole corpse.

If this Immortal Bone were fully repaired, would that mean he could resurrect a True Immortal?

Bringing the dead back to life—could that still be called simple repair?

Judging from those weapon fragments, Martial Dao must once have flourished. At the very least, it could not have been as withered and declining as it was today.

There might once have been disputes between Immortal Dao and Martial Dao, perhaps even great wars.

Chu Zheng's thoughts continued to spread outward, one question after another surfacing, yet none had any answer.

Those answers had already been buried in antiquity. Some secrets might only reveal a glimpse of themselves within Immortal sects that had endured for ten thousand years, or even older Holy Lands.

To Chu Zheng, these secrets were more alluring than anything else in the world.

If he could uncover these secrets, it would be like seeing through the passage of time itself. In a certain sense, it would mean he had defeated time, that nearly invincible foe.

Chu Zheng subconsciously tucked the half-section of Immortal Bone into his robes, then, after thinking it over, put it back down and buried it.

It would be difficult for him to take the things from this battlefield away, but once his rank as a Restorer rose in the future, this place would become a treasure mountain.

He continued deeper into the mine pit. As he went farther in, more and more corpse remains and armor fragments appeared, while the mine tunnel grew broader and broader. In the end, it could no longer even be called a mine pit, but rather an underground world with no boundary in sight.

Damaged War Chariots, shattered banners, the bones of enormous beasts stretching over a thousand zhang, and even larger humanoid skeletons, with protruding shoulder blades and a pair of unimaginably huge bony wings behind them.

Chu Zheng's fingertips passed over the remains of these lifeforms one by one, gradually piecing together part of the history.

Tens of thousands of years ago, this place should still have been a plain. The Crimson Crow Army, formed from a group of Immortal Dao cultivators, had ambushed and slain a batch of Aberrant lifeforms here.

It was hard to say how the battle had ended. Even if they had won, it was likely a bitter victory. The remains of Immortal Dao cultivators here far outnumbered those of the Aberrant.

What exactly had caused this battle remained unknown.

Chu Zheng had originally hoped to find some remaining spatial artifacts here, but the battlefield had clearly been swept clean. Aside from corpses and weapon fragments, not even a single Storage Bag remained.

After circling the battlefield once, Chu Zheng helplessly gathered his thoughts. Just as he was about to begin the return journey, his fingertips suddenly touched a small piece of Broken Jade.

Void Condensing Bracelet (Sixth Order): A spatial Spirit Treasure. It broke into four pieces during the great battle and connects to a space in the Other Domain. Once repaired, the connection can be reestablished. If all components can be gathered, repairing it will be easier. Repairable (0/6000)