Corpse Mountain and Sea of Blood

For twelve straight days, Xu Yan never stopped walking.

The Great Teleportation Token had been activated six times in all. At last, its power was spent. Its radiance dimmed, and a gust of wind scattered it into dust.

Xu Yan appeared high in the air, standing steadily on Mystic Qi before landing on the ground.

He cautiously surveyed his surroundings.

After six teleports, he had now entered the latter half of the Immortal Treasury.

The surrounding currents of heaven and earth were incredibly rich. When he looked up at the sky, he saw them converging into a vast river, surging above the distant clouds. The wondrous sights were dazzling.

Ahead stretched an endless mountain range, rising all the way to the firmament like giants propping up the heavens.

The mountains in the latter half were almost a mirror image of the Dragon Spine Mountain Range.

The only difference was that immortal energy filled the Dragon Spine Mountain Range, while a deeply oppressive atmosphere hung over these mountains. Each towering peak was dark as obsidian, tinged with crimson, and radiated a terrifying current of heaven and earth.

Xu Yan tensed, spreading his divine sense as he formed a hand seal. The Wenjin Shuttle hovered protectively around him, its sharp edge glinting.

Proceeding with utmost caution, he walked into the mountains.

To Xu Yan's surprise, he traveled more than ten li without encountering a single demon or ghost.

The place was terrifyingly desolate. The only sound was the wind sweeping over the ground.

Before long,

a corpse appeared on the ground ahead. It seemed to have died only recently; its body had not yet begun to rot. Its face was deathly pale, its eyes wide open, as if it had witnessed something utterly horrifying in its final moments.

"Something's wrong here."

Xu Yan furrowed his brow, certain of it.

He grew even more cautious, probing his surroundings with his divine sense every so often to avoid being ambushed by a lurking ghost or a hidden Primordial Era killing formation.

Yet the danger he expected never came.

Within these mountains, the only thing that kept increasing was the number of corpses on the ground. The farther in he went, the more there were!

The land gradually turned a deep, vivid red, as if it had been soaked in blood for countless years. The stench of blood filled the air, making him cover his nose.

In his previous life, Xu Yan had been on the battlefield, but he had never seen so many corpses at once. The sight shook him.

A day later, he had traveled three hundred li.

The sight in the distance made Xu Yan's pupils contract and his hair stand on end.

Corpses were piled into small hills in the distance. From the foot of one mound, a narrow river of blood trickled deeper into the mountains, reeking of rot. Severed fingers and broken bones littered the ground.

Xu Yan knitted his brows, suddenly feeling sick. A bead of cold sweat slid down his forehead.

"What is this place? How could there be so many corpses..."

Xu Yan breathed in short, shallow gasps.

He could just make out even taller mounds of corpses farther in, and longer rivers of blood. A suffocating aura of slaughter hung everywhere!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

The river of blood flowed between the rocks, winding endlessly onward as countless streams converged deeper in.

Suppressing his nausea, he walked past one mound of corpses after another. The sight was too horrifying, and Xu Yan feared running into some Primordial Era restriction or lurking ghost, so he did not ride the Qi.

Crimson rivulets wound beneath his feet, and the dense aura of slaughter surged toward him.

Xu Yan stepped over severed limbs and circled around remains, each step landing heavily on the scarlet earth.

After walking a hundred zhang, a rustling sound suddenly reached his ears again, like someone whispering.

Xu Yan instantly went on guard. The Wenjin Shuttle hummed.

He swept his divine sense over the surroundings but found no sign of any ghost.

"What kind of wretched place is this? This mountain of corpses and sea of blood looks as though someone deliberately created it. What purpose could it serve?"

Xu Yan thought, frowning.

As the thought crossed his mind, whispers came from somewhere unknown. They reached his ears and seeped into his divine sense. The voices were ethereal, rippling directly through his mind.

"My junior sister from the Dayan Sect is still waiting for good news. I can't die here!"

"Father, Mother, your child has been unfilial."

"I'm the Water Cloud Valley's chief disciple. How could I fail to pass even this first trial? I refuse to accept this!"

"Why isn't the Great Teleportation Token working?"

"Longevity Orthodoxy—if I don't become a True Disciple of the Divine Sect, how can I cultivate the way of longevity..."

Veins bulged on Xu Yan's forehead. He clapped his hands over his ears, but the voices weren't entering through his ears. They were burrowing directly into his divine sense, impossible to evade.

At that moment, it felt as though countless needles were stabbing into his mind at once. The pain was unbearable.

"Are these the lingering thoughts in the divine senses of disciples from past generations, left behind before they died?"

Xu Yan gritted his teeth and frowned, activating the Miaoyuan Edict. His divine sense spread outward in ripples.

He seemed to see them.

Faint spiritual lights hovered above every corpse. They were remnants of divine sense, left behind by unresolved obsessions and bitter regret.

The power of heaven and earth within the Dragon Ridge Immortal Treasury had sealed these lights away, preserving them through endless ages.

And these corpses truly had not died here. It seemed they had been forcibly moved here from somewhere else, creating this terrifying land of corpses and blood.

Xu Yan continued forward. Countless voices followed like shadows, as if trying to ensnare his mind and keep him here.

"I want to become an immortal! I want eternal life!"

"I want to enter the Taiyuan Divine Land, cultivate great divine abilities, then go back... and kill them all."

"If I could start over, I would never set foot in the Immortal Treasury."

"Xu Yan..."

Suddenly, one voice made Xu Yan shudder.

"I don't want to live an ordinary life and die in the village. I want to go to the Azure Sea, seek immortals, and pursue the Dao. I want everyone to see that I can make something of myself, too."

Xu Yan stopped in his tracks.

That voice was too familiar. It wasn't his voice—it was the voice of his original self. Or perhaps it was his own, too. He couldn't tell; there was no explaining it.

Xu Yan looked around in shock, but saw no spiritual light floating above any corpse.

Only when he lowered his head did he realize that the light had come from inside him. It had lasted only a fleeting instant before sinking back into his body.

Since time immemorial, countless disciples had entered the Dragon Ridge Immortal Treasury full of hope.

But in the end, after the great waves had washed away the sand, nine out of ten cultivators became nothing more than withered bones in this mountain of corpses and sea of blood. No one would even remember their names.

Xu Yan clenched his fists until his knuckles turned pale.

His gaze trembled as he looked into the distance. He had reached the last mound of corpses.

It stood about fifty zhang high, the bones piled up like a pyramid. At its very peak sat a skeleton, legs crossed and posture straight, as if it had been meditating before it died.

Its skin and bones had once been like ice and jade. Though it had been dead for countless years, its Root Bone still gleamed like fine jade. Its owner had possessed extraordinary talent, yet had still died here.

Countless voices continued echoing in his ears.

Scenes from the battlefield of his previous life flickered through Xu Yan's mind. During his many years as a soldier, he had watched countless people fall beside him. The sight of them dying had never left him.

In the end, he too had died somewhere on the battlefield. As his consciousness faded, his life had flashed before his eyes. Xu Yan had regretted things, too. If he could live another life, he would never again endure such a life of constant dread.

But the past was the past. Whether it was his previous life or Xu Yan, the mortal from Green Ox Town, everything had already vanished like smoke.

Xu Yan snapped his eyes open, his gaze clear and utterly resolute.

"I will not die here!"

The lingering thoughts in countless cultivators' divine senses howled past his ears like a hurricane.

"All I want in this life is eternal life and freedom, to roam between heaven and earth. No one will ever bind my hands and feet again!"

Xu Yan breathed in short gasps. It was as if he were speaking to those remnants of divine sense—and to himself.

After that, Xu Yan paid no more heed to the voices and stopped worrying about anything else.

The lingering thoughts gradually grew quieter and quieter, until they vanished.

Xu Yan was almost out of these boundless mountains, this land of corpses and blood.

Outside, he could just make out lush green forests, as well as a corner of the third Spirit-Sealing City in the far distance, concealed by mist, towering and majestic.

The instant he stepped out, a Dharma Sword shot toward him from the distance at incredible speed, its attack fierce and aimed straight at his face.

Xu Yan reacted quickly. The Wenjin Shuttle shot from his hand and easily knocked the sword aside.

The Daoist controlling the sword did not seem intent on killing him; it had only been a probe.

Xu Yan's gaze darkened as he looked ahead.

On the treetop not far away, a young sword cultivator in a blue Daoist robe came riding on his sword.

At the sight of the newcomer, Xu Yan's gaze flickered.

This man was a disciple of the Jiang Family Sword Tomb, an ancient aristocratic clan of the Divine Sect. When the Immortal Treasury had first opened, Xu Yan had watched him exchange blows with Tushan Jiuyuan.

Jiang Qingcheng's black hair streamed behind him. He had a handsome face and a faint smile as he rode his sword over.

"It's been nine days. At last, someone else has shown up!" Jiang Qingcheng said with a grin, sizing Xu Yan up. Then he raised his brows, his expression instantly turning serious as he fixed his eyes on him. "You look a little familiar, Daoist. You're... At Dragon Whisker Ravine, was it Ziwei Dharma King who gave you some pointers?"