Seven Great Families

Ahead, scattered rocks lay beneath a shrill wind that wailed like ghosts, sending a chill down the spine.

Pang Jian sat silently in the corner, staring woodenly at the pile of rocks as he waited for the newcomers to figure out the predicament before them.

"Old Han, can you break the formation?"

Zhou Qingchen called out as he swung down from the One-Horned Rhino and walked up to the pile of rocks, looking around curiously.

With no crowd in the way, he spotted Liu Qi's corpse lying on its back among the rocks at a glance. Surprised, he asked, "Did someone die?"

Ning Yuanshan hadn't mentioned this earlier, so he explained somewhat awkwardly, "He coveted the items left behind by the Blood Moon cultivators. We didn't know that pile of rocks had become such a strange formation, so..."

Zhou Qingchen smiled brightly to show he understood. "If we'd been the ones to come here, and Old Han hadn't been with us, our people might not have been able to resist either after seeing that the Blood Moon cultivators were dead and had left their belongings behind."

After speaking, he looked again at the portly Han Duping.

Han Duping had been examining the area around the pile of rocks. Now he came over, looking relaxed. "Breaking the formation shouldn't be a problem. It'll just take a little time. Once the formation is broken and the dense, frigid energy gathered inside dissipates, the weaker Beast Sha will naturally disappear."

"Oh, right."

After a moment's thought, he asked Ning Yuanshan and Ning Yao if they knew what those "Beast Sha" looked like.

Ning Yuanshan explained carefully that they were just some common wild animals from the mountains. Then he pointed at Pang Jian not far away and said, "He's a local hunter from the Cenji Mountains. He knows the wild animals that roam here well, and has a general idea of how strong they are."

"Young man, what sort of wild animals have you seen near the canyon? How strong and ferocious are they?" Han Duping asked Pang Jian with a friendly smile.

Pang Jian briefly described the wild boars, packs of white wolves, pythons, and other beasts commonly found around the canyon.

Han Duping listened, nodding lightly. Reassured, he said, "They're all ordinary wild animals, not ferocious beasts or spirit beasts. The Sha they turn into after death should be easy enough to deal with. Nothing to fear."

Wild animals, ferocious beasts, spirit beasts.

Pang Jian was taken aback. He knew there were wild animals in the mountains, but he'd never heard of ferocious beasts or spirit beasts.

Seeing his confusion, the chubby Han Duping casually explained the differences between the three.

"In many places in the Fourth Realm, there's also spiritual energy between heaven and earth."

"But in this layer of the world beneath our feet, the spiritual energy is mixed with quite a lot of impurities. Some of those impurities are even poisonous or have the power to cause hallucinations. They're quite dangerous."

"Human cultivators like us can gather spiritual energy to strengthen ourselves. Some wild animals can also absorb spiritual energy from heaven and earth, causing them to transform."

"After we absorb spiritual energy, we have to remove the dross and impurities that enter our bodies with it, so they don't harm us."

"As for wild animals, if they don't know how to cleanse the pollutants from the spiritual energy, they can't grow wiser. Even if they grow stronger as a result, they can only be called ferocious beasts. Ferocious beasts are bloodthirsty and violent, and it's very hard for us to communicate with them."

"Spirit beasts are wild animals that can cleanse their bodies of pollutants just as we do. As they grow stronger, they often develop extraordinary intelligence and can communicate with us normally."

Han Duping explained in great detail.

After hearing his explanation, Pang Jian realized that the divine bird that had hovered over his home must have been the kind of spirit beast Han Duping described.

"All right, give me a little time. I'll break the formation now."

Han Duping gestured for everyone to wait patiently.

He went forward alone again, still not entering the pile of rocks directly. Instead, he tried moving the smaller stones nearby, figuring out the pattern that formed the array.

While he worked, Zhou Qingchen chatted with Ning Yuanshan and Ning Yao about the great upheaval in the Upper Realm.

The newcomer, Zhou Qingchen, deliberately ignored He Ziren, as if the He Family young master wasn't even there.

He Ziren, who had acted arrogant and domineering earlier, showed remarkable composure in the face of such a person. He didn't fly into a rage just because Zhou Qingchen ignored him.

"The Zhou Family..."

Pang Jian's thoughts shifted. He recalled the Seven Great Families of Qi cultivators that dominated the Fourth Realm. He knew the Zhou Family ranked just below the Dong Family, making it one of the most powerful clans in this world.

The Ning Family and the He Family ranked below the Dong Family, the Zhou Family, the Shangguan Family, and the Ouyang Family, with the Ning Family still ahead of the He Family.

The He Family was only a little stronger than the Su Family, which ranked last.

The Seven Great Families of the Fourth Realm didn't always keep the same ranking. Sometimes, when a family produced an exceptionally powerful expert, its position would rise.

But this usually only happened among the lower-ranked Shangguan Family, Ouyang Family, Ning Family, He Family, and Su Family.

The Dong Family and the Zhou Family, at the very top, were said to have held first and second place without the slightest change for hundreds of years.

Since Zhou Qingchen came from the Zhou Family, it was no wonder he didn't care about He Ziren, and no wonder He Ziren could hold his temper.

"The Remains of the Heavenly Phoenix shattered. It's said that one of the bones contains a wondrous inheritance. Most of the remains fell across the Third Realm and Fourth Realm, and even many sects and forces in the Upper Realm are searching for that divine bone that may contain the inheritance."

"As for the remains that fell in the Cenji Mountains... in my opinion, it's unlikely that the divine bone is among them."

Zhou Qingchen spoke of the Upper Realm's secrets.

As soon as Pang Jian heard "Heavenly Phoenix" and "divine bone," he immediately listened closely, confirming that the enormous withered bones that had descended from the Upper Realm into the Cenji Mountains were the so-called Remains of the Heavenly Phoenix.

"A divine bone containing an inheritance?"

He thought that after it shot down the divine bird, the bone as crystalline as white jade must have been the Heavenly Phoenix divine bone that contained the inheritance.

Unfortunately, he had only seen the moment the divine bone killed the bird, when countless runes shrieked through the air like glittering diamonds. He had no idea where the bone had gone afterward.

"The people from the Galaxy Alliance, the Blood Moon, and the Yin Spirit Temple who died in the Cenji Mountains either died because of the divine bone or because of the spreading Ghost Mist!" Zhou Qingchen added.

As soon as he mentioned the "Ghost Mist," the faces of the Ning Family members and Zhou Family members, including He Ziren, all darkened.

It seemed the "Ghost Mist" gradually spreading north through the Cenji Mountains was what they truly feared, and it was more terrifying than the deaths of people from the Galaxy Alliance, the Blood Moon, and the Yin Spirit Temple.

"Ghost Mist."

Pang Jian's brows lifted. His father had designated the extreme north of the Cenji Mountains—the region said to lie closest to the Boundary Wall—as a forbidden zone, explicitly forbidding him from entering.

After his father disappeared, he had to take care of his younger sister, Pang Lin. He had never dared take too many risks, so he hadn't ventured into the area.

He also vaguely knew that most cultivators in this world seemed to fear the "Ghost Mist."

Whether in the Lower Realm or the Upper Realm.

"Done!"

While everyone was talking, Han Duping called out from in front of the pile of rocks. A moment later came a rumbling crash, as if he had shoved over a massive boulder.

"Whoosh! Whoosh, whoosh!"

A frigid wind trapped inside the pile of rocks howled out through the gap in the boulders, its shriek growing ever sharper and more grating.

As the wind scattered, it swept over Pang Jian. He immediately felt a bone-deep, sinister chill and couldn't help shivering.

At the same time,

the Bronze Tablet beneath his lapel grew warm, and the Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art he had recently been focusing on began to circulate quietly.

The "Spirit Pot" he visualized in his dantian seemed to gradually turn a dark blue-black in his awareness.

Suddenly, as the icy, sinister wind swept past him like mist, it seemed to be drawn by some powerful magnetic force. It abruptly turned and rushed back toward him.

Threads of icy power seeped from the sinister wind into the Spirit Sea in his dantian.

Pang Jian's eyes widened in surprise.

He secretly sensed that some fragments of ice had appeared in his Spirit Sea, scattered among the "cotton-like" dross.

The "ice fragments" held a wondrous power. When they touched the "cotton," both seemed to dissolve.

Pang Jian gently closed his eyes. He sensed that this icy power also contained some spiritual energy.

That frigid power was like sediment in an airflow, seemingly the very impurities and filth everyone had mentioned.

"Everyone, be careful. The spiritual energy escaping in all directions contains Profound Yin Power, which you can't withstand. Anyone who hasn't cultivated a special art will suffer unbearable torment if they recklessly absorb Profound Yin Power into their body," Ning Yuanshan warned.

He didn't need to remind them. Everyone present except Pang Jian knew better than to try absorbing the spiritual energy in the cold wind. They all knew it wouldn't be worth the cost.

"Profound Yin Power?"

Pang Jian's thoughts stirred.

The strange power in the "ice fragments" was cleansing the "cotton" in his Spirit Sea, making it clear and pure.

And he wasn't suffering the unbearable torment Ning Yuanshan had described.

"The Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art!"

He silently praised the art's wonders, and even felt a little gratitude toward Sun Bin, whose fate was now unknown.

In a secluded spot away from the others, he quietly continued guiding the sinister chill into his body.

As the frigid aura dispersed with the wind, everyone's attention remained on the pile of rocks and Han Duping. No one paid any mind to Pang Jian sitting in the corner.

"That should be enough."

Accompanied by the rumble of shifting boulders, the burly Han Duping finally dared to approach the interior of the pile of rocks from the outside.

At that moment, the piercing howls from within the rocks suddenly stopped.

Soon, Han Duping reached Liu Qi's corpse. He looked at the bloodied hole in his forehead, then at the White Paper Fan.

The bamboo stalks that had originally been green across the fan's paper had all turned blood red.

Han Duping's gaze fell on the corpse holding the White Paper Fan. "These Blood Moon fellows were about the same cultivation level as us... only at the Pulse-Opening Realm. The real bigwigs are all searching for the Remains of the Heavenly Phoenix in the Upper Realm, because that's where the divine bone is most likely to appear."

"After all, the divine bone carries the wondrous inheritance of the Heavenly Phoenix, and the Upper Realm has more people with astonishing talent."

As if to bolster his own courage, Han Duping stared at the White Paper Fan in the pile of rocks, now cleared of sinister energy, for a moment before reaching out to take it.

"I trust Old Han's ability and judgment."

The tall, powerful Zhou Qingchen looked just as relaxed. Smiling, he said, "The dead man was at the same cultivation level as us, and he's been dead for a long time. Even the Profound Yin Power has dispersed. There's nothing to fear."

With that, he climbed back onto the One-Horned Rhino and led the charge toward the pile of rocks.

As soon as he moved, the Zhou Family members who had followed him hesitated no longer and immediately followed in his footsteps.

"Ning Yao, there could still be danger inside," He Ziren suddenly warned.

Ning Yao ignored him. After exchanging a glance with Ning Yuanshan, she led the Ning Family members inside as well.

Suddenly, only He Ziren and Pang Jian remained outside the pile of rocks.

Pang Jian stayed in the corner, continuing to cultivate with the Profound Yin Power that had spilled out. He hoped to remove the dross from his Spirit Sea in a short time and become a true Qi cultivator.

"Kid, do you think they'll all die in there like Liu Qi?"