Ghosts in Eternal Slumber · No Rest for Ten Thousand Skeletons

A dense, Netherworld aura, like a never-ending curtain of deathly fog, enveloped the entire Spectral Ghost Cemetery.

As Qin Yu and Wang Yuan stepped inside, each step they took felt as if they were treading on some long-frozen memories of the dead.

The dark, gray sky hung low, as if pressed down on the ground by an invisible hand. The earth was cracked into crisscrossing ravines, from which purplish-black eerie flames surged. From time to time, skeletal hands would reach out from the depths, only to turn to ashes in the next instant.

The scattered corpses were no longer whole; some were just empty cavities, others only half a grinning head, with a faint ghostly light flickering in the hollow eye sockets, as if the last resentment was still staring at the intruder.

Most terrifying were the enormous skeletons suspended in mid-air—some stretched like mountains, their joints covered with shattered armor; others resembled strange beasts, their fangs still sharp, yet they were nailed to the void by invisible chains, never to escape.

Footsteps were swallowed by the thick fog of death, but in the profound silence, faint murmurs could be heard, like countless souls whispering their stories underground. Occasionally, a dull cracking sound could be heard, whether it was bones breaking underfoot or a sleeping spirit turning over.

In the distance, there seemed to be the sound of dragging chains, never ceasing, slow and cold, each sound like a blow to the soul, making one unconsciously hold their breath.

The air seemed to have solidified into a cold liquid, each breath carrying a burning pain, as if countless tiny blades were slicing through the throat. The ground beneath one's feet was as hard as stone and iron, but occasionally, stepping into it would sink into a layer of bone powder like quicksand, cold and sticky, as if pulling at the traveler's feet.

The thick stench of decay mingled with the smells of blood and rust; each breath felt like swallowing the stench of hundreds of corpses. Yet, hidden deep within the putrid stench was a sweet, floral fragrance that was mesmerizing, as if beckoning you to venture deeper into the cemetery.

When the shadows of the two fall to the ground, they twist and stretch uncontrollably, sometimes even splitting into multiple arms or heads, as if they were not shadows, but another "self" trying to crawl out of the darkness and take their place.

At the edges of some cracks, the structure of space is peeling away, revealing an abyss-like "gap in existence" below, making one wonder if stepping into it would completely erase one's own record of existence.

Wang Yuan glanced around, his brow furrowed, his voice so low it was as if he were afraid of waking the sleeping spirits:

"These corpses... are probably beings from the Chaos Realm thousands or tens of thousands of years ago... or even higher."

Qin Yu's gaze darkened slightly, Azure Evolution Core vibrated gently between his brows, as if responding to the oppressive atmosphere and danger here.

"Keep going."

His voice was like a blade slicing through ice, without a single ripple, but his footsteps were exceptionally steady.

Passing through the bones and shattered armor scattered everywhere, the deathly mist beneath Qin Yu and Wang Yuan's feet gradually thickened and became heavy, as if each step was stepping into an invisible river. The river was not a liquid, but rather the crushed souls and resentments flowing with an inexhaustible curse.

A hundred miles away, the deathly fog was cleaved by a pale green light. The light was not dazzling, but it was like a cold eye, silently staring at the intruder.

The outline of the tomb emerged from the depths of the dead fog.

The tomb was so enormous that it defied conventional measurement. The entire mausoleum seemed to have been sculpted from a fallen star, its surface covered with dense bone patterns. Under the glow of the eerie green light, these bone patterns seemed to come alive, constantly twisting and intertwining to form strange symbols and arrays.

The tomb entrance was as tall as a city wall, and the door panel was made of two pieces of the spine of an unknown creature. Fine green phosphorescence seeped from the gaps between the joints and meandered outwards along the ground, as if the blood of the dead were searching for the breath of life.

Countless enormous heads, some humanoid and some beast-like, floated on the tomb ceiling, their eyes faintly flashing green, as if waiting to awaken.

From the depths of the grave came an extremely slow heartbeat—each beat causing a slight tremor in the ground. The rhythm was heavy and sluggish, like an ancient being that had traversed countless eras, still slumbering in the grave.

Accompanying the heartbeat, extremely low whispers echoed in the surrounding air, indistinguishable from direction and language, yet capable of penetrating directly into the depths of consciousness, evoking a chilling sense of intimacy and disgust.

The chill in the air was no longer just cold, but carried a sense of oppressive weight, like an invisible hand pressing on the spine, making one instinctively want to kneel down.

When you get close, you feel a slight burning sensation on your skin, as if countless tiny undead are gnawing at your presence with their teeth.

Every breath carried the scent of earth, decaying flesh, and some ancient spice—a lingering, pungent aroma mingled with the putrid stench, like the lingering scent of offerings from a grave, reminding all who approached that this was once the burial place of a god.

The moment Qin Yu's gaze met that eerie green light, a scene suddenly appeared in his mind—endless tombs stretched to the horizon, and he stood before the smallest one among them, less than a speck of dust.

In reality, the shadow of the tomb was even larger than the tomb itself. When it was projected onto the ground, it covered the entire core of the Spectral Ghost Cemetery, as if it were not stationary here, but had crossed countless times and was slowly approaching them.

Wang Yuan's breathing quickened slightly, and his voice was kept extremely low:

"This... is not the burial place of ordinary things... what is buried here is very likely..."

Qin Yu's gaze darkened slightly, and the Azure Ring between his brows trembled gently, as if sensing some kind of slumbering giant shadow in the grave.

He slowly uttered two words: "Divine remains."

As soon as Qin Yu finished speaking, the dark green light suddenly contracted, as if some being had opened its eyes.

--boom!

The heartbeat deep within the tomb suddenly became heavy, as if it came from thousands of miles underground. Each tremor caused cracks in the ground to spread wildly outward, and bone patterns and fissures intertwined to form a strange net that instantly covered the core of the entire Spectral Ghost Cemetery.

What followed was a deep, Ultimate roar—not produced by the vocal cords, but resonating through every inch of air, every grain of dust, and even the intruder's very marrow.

That roar contained an unquestionable will of dominion:

"Leave--"

A sudden burst of eerie green light illuminated the entire dead fog, and the bone patterns on the surface of the tomb began to peel away, transforming into twisted bone snakes that slithered along the ground in all directions, like a silent army deploying its forces.

The sky was bathed in green light, turning it into a deathly still night. Even the stars and moon were banished, with only the eerie green light above the tomb acting as the sole fixed star, looking down upon all living beings.

--Boom!

The tomb door lurched open, revealing a darkness that was not emptiness, but a substance capable of devouring light and time, like a Dead Sea frozen for billions of years. Any presence that gazed upon it would be gradually erased by the ripples of that Dead Sea.

As the tomb door opened, a chain as thick as a mountain slowly descended from the darkness. Hanging from the chain was not a weapon, but a head so enormous it blotted out the sky.

The head was already dead, but its eyes opened at this moment, and a ghostly green light burst forth from them, piercing directly into Qin Yu and Wang Yuan's sea of consciousness.

Wang Yuan groaned, half-kneeling on the ground, cold sweat beading on his forehead. He gripped his Innate Martial Soul tightly, forcibly trying to calm himself.

Qin Yu felt the Azure Ring trembling violently between his brows, as if it were actively manifesting—an ancient and cold will was crawling into the depths of his soul from the green light, trying to explore, try to rewrite, try to reap.

Azure Ring's deep voice rang out:

"This thing... is not merely a tomb guardian... it is the residual soul lock of the tomb's lord. If you do not immediately sever your senses, you will be directly inscribed into the tomb's Book of the Dead."

The ground trembled more violently, and the skeletons around the tomb rose up one after another, their eye sockets burning with the same eerie green flames, and they turned in unison toward Qin Yu and Wang Yuan.

These skeletons were no ordinary remains—each and every one of them possessed an aura exceeding the Annihilation Source Realm · Supreme!

This is merely the "outer protection" of the tomb.

From the deeper darkness, a pair of giant hands slowly emerged, seemingly trying to pry open the tomb door and release some true being...

The massive gates of the tomb were forced open with a deep rumble.

--Click, click, click!

The chains rubbed together in the air, sparking a mixture of eerie green and dark gold. Each spark seemed like a soul carrying millions of years of resentment, howling and dying in the air.

The two outstretched giant hands were finally revealed in full.

It is not a hand of flesh and blood, but a piece made up of countless bones, broken iron, and remnants of soul light. The surface of the palm is engraved with ancient annihilation runes, each rune carrying an indelible curse.

The moment it forced open the tomb door, an overwhelming torrent of death poured out, completely overturning the Netherworld aura within a hundred miles.

"--I am not dead."

The sound seemed to come from the source of time, and penetrated all the threads of cause and effect, exploding directly in the sea of consciousness of Qin Yu and Wang Yuan.

Then, a tomb guardian, hundreds of feet tall, stepped out of the tomb.

Its form is unstable, like a corpse being repeatedly disassembled and reassembled in countless cycles of reincarnation:

Half of his body was made of jet-black soul bones, while the other half burned with deep green Netherworld flames;

The skull split open with three fissures, from which flowed blood-red, pitch-black, and silver-white liquids respectively; each drop corroded the ground for hundreds of feet.

Nine chains trailed behind it, each chain binding the skull of an Annihilation ancient god, and it continued to roar silently.

With each step it took, the entire space of the Spectral Ghost Cemetery trembled, collapsed, and reformed, as if reality could not bear its existence.

Azure Ring's voice was low and urgent:

"The Soul-Annihilating Lock Master... its level of existence is at least above the Stainless Realm. This is the tomb master's 'remnant of will,' created specifically to devour the souls and life foundations of all intruders."

Wang Yuan's expression was extremely solemn. His Innate Martial Soul spun around him, the pages of the book flipped rapidly, and the rules of the Only Book Realm began to form an array to resist.

Qin Yu's hand slowly landed on the hilt of the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword, Azure Ring between his brows emitted ripples of Annihilation —he knew that in this battle, if there was even the slightest hesitation, even their "past existence" would be completely erased.

The tomb guardian raised its gigantic hand, interwoven with bone and soul flames, and with a snap of its fingers, the surrounding space was instantly shattered into countless fragments, each reflecting the "deathly fate" of Qin Yu and Wang Yuan:

In some scenes, they are depicted as dried-up corpses;

In some scenes, they are pierced by endless chains and suspended before the tomb entrance;

In some scenes, their names are burned away on the void inscriptions, Does Not Exist a trace.

"Those who enter my tomb—will surely return to the grave."

With that whispered pronouncement, as if delivering a judgment, the tomb guardian suddenly attacked. Nine chains tore through the air, moving with the speed of nine silent lightning bolts, aimed directly at Qin Yu and Wang Yuan's throats, hearts, sea of consciousness, and dantian... Each strike was a fatal blow.