The place Old Man Sun had called somewhere "no one dared go" was actually on the edge of the Immortals' Mass Grave.
Lin He followed Old Man Sun through the deep mountain forest.
The farther they went, the darker their surroundings grew.
The treetops overhead intertwined like a tightly woven net, blocking out all the sunlight.
The air was thick with the smell of moldy leaves, along with an indescribable, sinister chill.
"Elder Sun, how much farther do we have to go?" Lin He lowered his voice, gripping his woodcutting saber tightly.
He might now be an "iron turtle" impervious to blades and spears, but who knew what demons or monsters might suddenly spring out in this deep mountain forest?
Old Man Sun walked ahead with light steps, making no sound as he trod on the leaves.
Without looking back, he said in his raspy voice, "Almost there. Once we cross that rocky slope ahead, we'll be on the outskirts of the Mass Grave."
"That place is heavy with Yin Qi. Normally, even wild beasts won't go near it, but now that the outside has been turned upside down, those frightened Fanged Rabbits can only hide over here."
They walked for another incense stick's worth of time before the view ahead suddenly opened up.
A desolate, rock-strewn slope greeted their eyes.
The grayish-white rocks came in all manner of strange shapes, jutting out of the ground like bones.
Not a single weed grew nearby, and the silence made their skin crawl.
"Here we are." Old Man Sun stopped and crouched, pointing at a crevice beneath a rock. "Look, fresh rabbit droppings, and these claw marks. There's definitely a big nest underneath."
Lin He leaned over to look. Sure enough.
He grinned. "All right, same as always. You flush them out, I'll catch them."
Old Man Sun nodded and took a fire striker and a handful of specially prepared dry grass from his waist.
The grass had been mixed with pungent herbs. Once lit, it gave off acrid, stinging smoke specifically meant for smoking out burrows.
A spark flashed, and thick smoke poured into the crevice.
Within ten breaths, a rapid rustling came from deep inside.
"Here they come!" Old Man Sun called in a low voice.
Lin He's gaze sharpened, and he leaned forward slightly like a leopard poised to pounce.
After two rounds of body tempering with essence of the sun, his reactions were already far beyond those of ordinary people.
Whoosh-
A grayish-brown blur shot from another hidden crevice, so fast it was practically a bolt of lightning.
But to Lin He, it seemed to move in slow motion.
His hand shot out, all five fingers closing with perfect precision around the scruff of the Fanged Spotted Rabbit's neck.
"Squeak, squeak, squeak!" The Fanged Spotted Rabbit kicked its hind legs frantically, trying to turn around and bite him with its two little fangs.
"Behave, you." Lin He chuckled, deftly tied its four legs securely with hemp rope, and stuffed it into the sack behind him. "That's the first!"
Watching Lin He's deft movements, Old Man Sun's cloudy eyes flashed with admiration. "Young fellow from the Lin Household, even a veteran hunter with thirty years under his belt couldn't match your grip strength and keen eyes."
"You flatter me, Elder Sun. Luck, it's all luck." Lin He laughed it off, secretly delighted.
He had earned a low-grade spirit stone just like that, easy as could be.
Over the next two hours, they repeated the process.
Old Man Sun's wealth of experience let him pinpoint hidden rabbit nests throughout the rocky slope, while Lin He's inhuman reactions ensured that whenever a rabbit showed its head, he never missed.
The second, the third, the fourth...
By the time Lin He stuffed the sixth Fanged Spotted Rabbit into the sack, it was already heavy.
A jumble of squeaks and thrashing came from inside.
"Six! Six whole rabbits!" Lin He patted the sack, his eyes shining.
That was six low-grade spirit stones! Including what he already had, his net worth was nearly breaking into double digits.
Old Man Sun wiped the sweat from his forehead as well, giving a pleased smile. "All right, young fellow from the Lin Household, we've had a bumper harvest today. Let's hurry down the mountain while it's still light. This isn't a place to linger."
"Come on, Elder Sun." Lin He grabbed Old Man Sun's arm. "Look, it's still early. Let's go a little farther in. We might catch a few more. This is the kind of good business you couldn't find even with a lantern. Once the main crowd finds its way here tomorrow, there won't even be a rabbit hair left."
Now that Lin He had tasted the sweetness, the greed in his heart had been stirred.
Six spirit stones were nice, but if he and Su Qiuran were going to establish themselves in the cultivation world, that little money wouldn't even fill the gaps between their teeth.
Old Man Sun hesitated and glanced at their gloomy surroundings, his brows knitting into three deep furrows.
"Young fellow from the Lin Household, it's not that this old man is a coward. The area ahead is the actual Immortals' Mass Grave. The miasma is thicker there, and it's a very sinister place."
"What's there to be afraid of? We'll just skirt the edge. We absolutely won't go in!" Lin He thumped his chest and solemnly promised.
Old Man Sun sighed, ultimately unable to resist the lure of spirit stones. "All right, then. Just another quarter of a kilometer. If there's nothing, we turn right around."
The two shouldered their gear and continued onward.
As they ventured deeper, the temperature around them seemed to drop a little more. At first, they could still see grayish-white rocks scattered about, but gradually, strange things began appearing on the ground.
Initially, Lin He thought they were dead branches, but when he drew closer, his scalp instantly prickled.
They were lengths of stark white bone!
There were not only human skulls and ribs, but also some absurdly enormous beast bones, half-buried in black soil.
They could even see rust-covered fragments of weapons nearby, giving off a nauseating stench of decay.
"Fuck, what the hell..." Lin He cursed inwardly, unable to keep himself from swallowing.
Just then, a sinister gust swept past.
The rock-strewn landscape ahead suddenly warped like rippling water. Immediately afterward, gray mist surged out of the ground without warning, enveloping everything around them in an instant.
Lin He rubbed his eyes and looked ahead again, sucking in a cold breath.
The scene ahead had completely changed!
What rocky slope? Before him lay a vast graveyard strewn with corpses! Countless mangled bodies were piled into mountains. Some even wore splendid Daoist robes that gave off faint spiritual light.
Blackish-red blood gathered into little rivers, flowing between the heaps of corpses.
The air was filled with a suffocating stench of blood and a sense of despair.
"Elder Sun! Something's wrong. Retreat!" Without hesitation, Lin He grabbed Old Man Sun and prepared to run. A mortal like him couldn't afford to get caught up in the cultivation world's uncanny phenomena.
But when he pulled, Old Man Sun didn't budge.
Lin He turned to look, and his heart lurched.
Old Man Sun was staring fixedly at the mountains of corpses and seas of blood ahead, standing rigid as though immobilized by a spell.
His eyes were utterly hollow, without a trace of life, and he was mumbling something unintelligible.
"Kill... kill... everyone must die..." Old Man Sun's voice was so hoarse it no longer sounded human, and a strange, vicious grin even appeared on his face.
"Elder Sun! Elder Sun, what's wrong with you?!" Alarmed, Lin He shook Old Man Sun's shoulders hard, but he showed no response. He even slowly raised his hunting bow and nocked an arrow.
The arrowhead pointed straight at Lin He!
"Fuck! He's possessed?!" Lin He went pale with shock.
He looked at the eerie graveyard before him, then checked how his own body felt. Apart from being a little chilly, he felt no discomfort at all. His mind was even unusually clear.
Is this from tempering my body with essence of the sun? Or is it because my transmigrator soul is strong? The thought flashed through Lin He's mind, but now was no time to investigate.
Looking at Old Man Sun's dull, hollow eyes, filled nonetheless with killing intent, Lin He knew he couldn't wait any longer.
"Elder Sun, sorry about this!"
Lin He swung his arm in a full arc and landed a solid slap on Old Man Sun's face with a sharp smack.
Although Lin He held back, he was now a powerhouse whose body had been tempered twice with essence of the sun. The force of that slap was tremendous.
The slap spun Old Man Sun halfway around before he fell to the ground with a thud, his hunting bow dropping beside him.
"Ow..." Old Man Sun clutched the badly swollen side of his face and groaned in pain.
Clarity finally returned to his cloudy eyes, and he looked around in bewilderment.
"Young fellow from the Lin Household, you... why did you hit me?" Old Man Sun spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, looking utterly baffled.
"Stop talking! Run!" Lin He hauled Old Man Sun off the ground, shouldered the sack full of rabbits, and took to his heels, racing down the mountain.
Dragged along by Lin He, Old Man Sun glanced back. The eerie graveyard and gray mist churned behind them, as though some living thing was about to awaken within the mist.
The old man's face went green with fright, and he scrambled after Lin He, stumbling and crawling as they fled.
They ran a full kilometer in one go. Only when green bushes and familiar birdsong reappeared around them did they dare stop.