Corpse-Refining Grand Formation
Song Wen followed the mountainside downhill and arrived at the foot of the mountain without any problems.
Perhaps due to the pollution of the ghostly mist, the foot of the mountain, like the mountain itself, was barren, devoid of any vegetation or life.
On a flat area more than ten miles away from the mountain, Song Wen discovered an underground fissure.
After confirming that there was no danger in the crack, Song Wen jumped down.
The crack was very shallow, only about ten feet deep.
At the bottom of the crevice, Song Wen carved out a temporary cave abode.
A cunning rabbit has three burrows!
About a hundred feet away from the crack, Song Wen dug two passages leading to the surface from two different locations.
These two passages were not completely carved through; instead, a layer of rock about half a meter thick was preserved near the ground.
In case of an emergency, Song Wen could simply break through the rock strata and escape.
Song Wen had the Ghost King hide in the crack to monitor the activity on the surface.
He then set up a Qi- Qi-Sealing Spirit-Isolating Formation inside the cave abode and began his meditation.
During his two years on Fangzhu Island, he devoured the souls of many Demon Beasts. After entering the secret realm, he devoured eight more third-tier Wraith.
This caused his Divine Sense power to reach a bottleneck, showing signs of advancement.
Song Wen planned to cultivate in this temporary cave abode until the secret realm closed, at which point he would be forcibly sent out of the secret realm.
According to Xing Wenyao, the secret realm will close in six months. At that time, he will be sent to the place where he entered the secret realm, which is a dense forest with lush foliage.
Song Wen was confident that with his physical body's control over his aura, he could easily find a secluded spot in the dense forest and no one would be able to discover his whereabouts.
Song Wen sat on the ground, calmed his mind and focused his spirit, and began to circulate the <Soul-Banishing Technique>.
The bottleneck in Divine Sense at the Middle Golden Core Stage came sooner than Song Wen had anticipated.
He only secluded himself for a few days, but he clearly sensed the existence of a bottleneck.
Perhaps due to consuming too many souls, a large number of soul fragments were refined, becoming nourishment for the expansion of his Sea of Consciousness. In just half a month, Song Wen's Divine Sense broke through the bottleneck, and his Divine Sense power surged instantly.
Subsequently, Song Wen's Sea of Consciousness and soul gradually began to strengthen.
This process lasted for about half a month. Song Wen's Sea of Consciousness and soul gradually stabilized, and his Divine Sense strength broke through to the Late Golden Core Stage realm.
Xing Yixuan waited patiently for Song Wen outside Cave halfway up the mountain for three whole months.
She suspected several times that Song Wen had been killed by the Wraith in the cave.
However, she had already used up Soul-Severing Talisman she had, so she dared not rashly enter the Cave to investigate.
The concentration of ghostly mist halfway up the mountain was comparable to that of the outer edge of the Ghost Mist Domain. The diamond-shaped jade pendant she wore on her chest could not permanently protect her from the erosion of the ghostly mist.
The jade pendant, having been exposed to the ghostly mist for an extended period, has already shown signs of corrosion from the mist.
To restore the jade pendant to its original state, she must leave the place shrouded in ghostly mist and re-refine the jade pendant.
However, the entire secret realm was shrouded in ghostly mist; there was no place without it.
To prevent the jade pendant from being completely corroded by the ghostly mist and losing its power to resist it, Xing Yixuan had no choice but to retreat to the foot of the mountain.
The ghostly mist at the foot of the mountain is relatively thin, and the jade pendant should last for another year or two.
As for Song Wen, she planned to ask Xing Wenyao to investigate the Cave if they encountered Xing Wenyao. Alternatively, after leaving the secret realm, she would report to Xing Wenyao and Xing Gaohan that Xing Liren had died at Song Wen's hands, so that the two Nascent Soul Cultivators could deal with Song Wen.
Xing Yixuan intended to meet up with her two subordinates, but when she arrived at the small square, it was already deserted.
Xing Yixuan recalled that Xing Wenyao had mentioned that there were many relics at the foot of the mountain.
She guessed that her two men had probably gone to search for ruins and treasures.
So she searched the foot of the mountain for ruins and treasures, while also looking for traces of her two subordinates.
The secret realm was larger than she had imagined. It took her half a month to find two of her subordinates— Ox-Faced Man and Horse-Faced Man.
For the next period of time, the three of them traveled together, searching for various historical sites.
However, the secret realm had already been searched by the ancestors of the Xing Family, and the three of them did not gain much.
That day.
Xing Yixuan and her two companions discovered an underground entrance.
The entrance is at the foot of the mountain, buried under a pile of rocks.
After clearing away the rubble to reveal the sloping stone steps, all three of them beamed with joy.
There is a very high probability that this site has never been discovered!
After descending for about a mile, the three of them arrived at the end of the stone steps.
This is an underground pit.
The pit was several miles wide and filled with thick layers of bone fragments.
The bone fragments were several meters high, formed from the weathering of the corpse's bones.
It's hard to imagine how many corpses it would take to produce such an astonishing amount of bone fragments.
In the center of the pit, there is a stone platform.
The stone platform was several meters long and wide, its bottom submerged under rubble, with only a small section of its top exposed.
The three of them leaped into the air and flew towards the stone platform.
"Bang!"
A transparent barrier suddenly lit up on the stone platform.
The Horse-Faced Man flying at the very front was caught off guard and crashed heavily into the barrier.
In an instant, the barrier blazed with dark light, and a dense aura of Sha Qi swept out like a raging storm.
Caught completely off guard, the Horse-Faced Man was thrown back dozens of feet, spitting out mouthfuls of blood that stained the air red.
"Ma Qi, how are you?" Xing Yixuan asked.
"Miss, I'm fine. I just suffered some internal injuries," Ma Qi replied.
"That's good!" Xing Yixuan nodded in response.
Then, her gaze shifted to the high platform, her eyes gleaming with an undisguised gleam.
Tens of thousands of years have passed, yet the formation on the high platform is still functioning, which is enough to demonstrate the importance of this place.
There must be something extremely precious on that high platform!
She spoke to the Ox-Faced Man beside her.
"Niu Ying, are you confident you can break this formation?"
Niu Ying stared at the array barrier on the platform for a moment, then said, "This array doesn't seem to be an offensive or defensive formation, but rather a demonic <Corpse-Refining Grand Formation> used to refine Corpse-Baleful Qi."
Xing Yixuan asked, "The Corpse-Refining Grand Formation! Is there any way to break it?"
Niu Ying said, "Breaking this formation isn't difficult, but I don't know much about the <Corpse-Refining Grand Formation>, so it will take some time."
"Approximately how long will it take?" Xing Yixuan asked.
"It could take a few days, or at most a month or two," Niu Ying said.
"It would be good if we could break through it. There are still five months before the secret realm closes, which is plenty of time. The items inside are probably extraordinary. Unless absolutely necessary, we should not use drastic measures to forcibly break the formation, so as not to damage the treasures on the platform."
After a moment's hesitation, Xing Yixuan continued.
"Niu Ying, you break through the formation here, I will protect you."
Then, she looked at the Ma Qi and gave instructions.
"Ma Qi, hurry up and heal your wounds."
"Yes!"
After responding in unison, the two went their separate ways and followed Xing Yixuan's instructions.
Xing Yixuan then turned back to the stone steps entrance, activated her magic Law Power, and manipulated the rocks outside the cave to seal the entrance again, preventing others from discovering it and entering the corpse pit.