143: Ancient secrets, thrilling

The moment they stepped into the Ancient Barren Domain, the texture of the air abruptly changed.

It was no longer the gentle Spiritual Qi of ordinary regions, but a torrent of violent energy, mixed with savagery and decay.

The wind carried visible grey grit, each particle imbued with a faint wisp of Evil Qi, scraping against their protective Spiritual Light with a subtle "shasha" sound.

Su Meier's pretty face paled slightly.

She instinctively moved closer to Lin Fan.

Every inch of land here, every twisted and bizarre plant, exuded an undisguised, primal malice.

Dark red vines, covered in sharp barbs, lay silently on the ground, like venomous snakes waiting for their prey.

In the shadows of distant mountains, pairs of faintly glowing eyes occasionally flashed, carrying greed and a thirst for blood.

This world, like a giant beast that had slept since ancient times, had just opened its hungry eyes.

Su Meier's curiosity had long been completely suppressed by this omnipresent sense of danger.

She reached out and carefully grasped Lin Fan's sleeve.

The body warmth emanating from the fabric calmed her somewhat anxious heart.

Lin Fan's steps did not falter in the slightest.

He didn't even activate his protective Spiritual Light, allowing the Evil Qi-laden wind to whip at his robes and hair.

Those mixed energies, which ordinary Cultivators would need to painstakingly refine and which could even corrupt their Dao foundation, transformed into the most docile trickles the moment he stepped into this place.

They were silently and greedily absorbed by his Soul-Devouring Dao Body.

His body was like a bottomless black hole.

This Ancient Barren Domain, regarded by all Cultivators as a forbidden land and a wasteland, was to him like a vast, unmined treasure trove.

Following the intermittent guidance on the broken ancient jade, the two walked unhurriedly towards the depths of the Ancient Barren Domain.

Along the way, prying gazes never disappeared.

However, the predators hidden in the dark seemed to sense something was amiss.

This seemingly ordinary human man carried an Aura that made them tremble from the depths of their Souls.

Finally, a Yao Beast could no longer hold back.

"Sha—!"

Accompanied by a sharp hiss, a gigantic sand scorpion, its body covered in black carapace and as large as a house, suddenly burst out from underground.

Its two massive pincers, gleaming with a metallic cold light, struck like lightning, fiercely clamping towards Lin Fan's head.

A foul, fishy smell wind rushed towards them.

This sand scorpion's Yao power had reached the peak of the Early Stage Nascent Soul Stage, making it exceptionally ferocious.

Su Meier's heart leaped into her throat.

She was about to summon her Magic Treasure.

But Lin Fan didn't even turn his head.

He merely raised his right hand and casually waved it backward.

There was no earth-shattering Spiritual power explosion.

Nor was there dazzling magical light.

An invisible, indescribable wave of power suddenly spread out from Lin Fan.

The imposing giant sand scorpion's massive body abruptly froze in mid-air.

All the fierce light in its cruel, bloodthirsty compound eyes instantly faded.

In its place was an extreme, hollow blankness.

It was as if its Soul had been forcibly pulled from its body by an irresistible force in that instant.

"Bang!"

Its huge body crashed heavily to the ground, raising a cloud of dust.

It was dead beyond dead.

A wisp of Yao Soul, mixed with tyranny and resentment, visible only to Lin Fan, struggled as it was forcibly dragged into Lin Fan's body, then crushed, devoured, and transformed into the purest Divine Soul nourishment by the Soul-Devouring Dao Body.

A faint, enjoying expression appeared in Lin Fan's eyes.

This feeling was quite good.

It was like drinking a cup of iced plum juice on a hot summer day—refreshing and pleasant.

He knew that his Soul-Devouring Dao Body would achieve unprecedented, rapid growth in this ancient land.

This would be one of his most important assets in the future to contend against the so-called "Era Calamity."

Su Meier stared blankly at the motionless sand scorpion corpse, then at Lin Fan's calm and composed back, and slowly loosened her grip on her Magic Treasure.

She had once again updated her understanding of Lin Fan's strength.

To instantly kill a powerful Yao Beast of the Nascent Soul Stage with a mere flick of the hand.

Even the Nascent Soul Elders in her Sect could never do such a thing with such ease.

He had grown stronger again.

It seemed that with every breath, every heartbeat, he was becoming stronger at an incredible speed.

This realization, while shocking Su Meier, also filled her with a sweet sense of pride.

The journey that followed encountered several more Yao Beast attacks.

Without exception.

All the Yao Beasts silently dropped dead the moment they approached within a hundred zhang of Lin Fan.

Their Souls all became nourishment for the growth of Lin Fan's Dao Body.

Gradually.

This area fell into an eerie silence.

All the prying gazes hidden in the dark disappeared.

Those Yao Beasts, acting on instinct, finally realized that this seemingly weak human was a terrifying existence they absolutely could not provoke.

After another half-day's journey.

The scene before them changed dramatically again.

A gigantic, boundless pit, appeared without warning at the end of the horizon.

The edges of the pit were covered with dark, scar-like spatial cracks.

Violent Law storms gathered into grey tornadoes above the pit, emitting deafening roars.

An indescribable Aura, mixed with solemnity and desolation, rushed out from the depths of the pit.

Just standing there, one could feel the lingering, tragic killing intent that had persisted for countless ages.

This was the destination indicated by the ancient jade.

The ancient battlefield ruins.

"Let's go in."

Lin Fan held Su Meier's hand, his tone calm.

Su Meier looked at the constantly flickering spatial cracks, which seemed to devour everything, and her palms were sweating a little.

But the warmth and strength from Lin Fan's hand gave her an inexplicable sense of security.

She nodded, not speaking.

Lin Fan led her, familiar with the way, avoiding the dangerous Law storms and spatial cracks, and entered this massive battlefield ruin.

The ground beneath their feet was dark red.

As if it had been soaked in endless blood for billions of years.

Everywhere, one could see the decayed and broken remnants of weapons, as well as the unimaginably huge skeletons of unknown creatures.

In the air, there was a faint, lingering charm of Immortal Dao Law.

And a stronger, more corrosive and destructive Devilish Qi.

Lin Fan's expression gradually became solemn.

He could feel that this battlefield was far more complex than he had imagined.

The two delved several more miles into the ruins.

Behind a relatively intact, massive broken wall, Lin Fan stopped.

His gaze fell upon the mottled murals and stone carvings, covered with the marks of time's erosion.

The carving technique of these murals was extremely crude, yet full of a thrilling sense of power.

The first mural.

It depicted a peaceful Immortal world above the clouds.

Immortal palaces stood tall, spiritual cranes danced, and countless Immortals, adorned in shimmering light, discussed the Dao and cultivated within.

The second mural.

The sky was torn open by a huge, black gap.

Countless hideous, grotesque, indescribable demonic creatures, like a tide, poured out from the rift.

War erupted.

The third, fourth, fifth... Each subsequent mural depicted scenes of extremely tragic Immortal-Demon wars.

Lin Fan saw towering Immortals, wielding divine weapons, striking down countless stars with a single blow, only to be torn apart alive by several even larger demonic creatures in the next moment.

He saw beautiful Fairies, playing Immortal zithers, their sound waves transforming into endless killing blades, annihilating thousands of demonic creatures, only to die from exhaustion and be corrupted by Devilish Qi, transforming into new, even more terrifying demonic creatures.

He saw Immortal cities floating in the clouds, burning like ignited paper, falling into an endless abyss.

The entire Immortal Realm was burning.

The entire world was weeping.

Su Meier's pretty face had long turned pale, and her delicate body trembled slightly.

The apocalyptic despair depicted in these murals filled her with a Soul-deep, suffocating fear.

Lin Fan's expression was also unprecedentedly solemn.

His breathing was even a little ragged.

He had always thought that the so-called "Era Calamity" might just be a catastrophe for the Cultivation World.

But now it seemed he was wrong.

Terribly wrong.

What was depicted in these murals was not a mortal war at all.

This was a higher-dimensional, Immortal Realm, world-ending war.

Those so-called "Heavenly Demons" were perhaps just a tiny, insignificant, lowest-grade cannon fodder that had leaked out from that rift.

If even powerful Immortals could not withstand this catastrophe.

Then what could this current Cultivation World use to resist it?

An unprecedented, heavy sense of urgency, like a giant boulder, pressed heavily on his heart.

He realized that the "Era Calamity" was not a false statement.

Moreover, it was far more terrifying and closer than he had imagined.

His gaze slowly shifted to the last mural.

It was a mural that was nearly half-incomplete.

On the picture, there seemed to be very few surviving Immortals left.

They surrounded something, seemingly performing some tragic ritual.

It was a huge, ancient bell, primitive in design and entirely Chaos-colored.

Below the ancient bell, a line of small characters was carved in an extremely ancient Immortal script.

Although many of the characters were blurred, Lin Fan still recognized several key pieces of information.

"chaos bell... resist calamity... last... hope..."

chaos bell.

It seemed to be the key to resisting this great calamity.

However, the mural did not specify where this supreme treasure was.

Just as Lin Fan fell into deep thought.

"Dong."

A faint, yet very regular heartbeat sound, without warning, came from the deepest part of the ruins.

"Dong."

"Dong."

The heartbeat sound was very faint at first, as if separated by endless time and space.

But soon, it became clearer and more powerful.

It was as if some ancient and terrifying existence, in its endless slumber, had been completely awakened by their arrival.

An Aura a hundred, a thousand times stronger than that of the giant sand scorpion before, was rapidly reviving in that dark depth.

Moreover, that Aura was growing stronger at an astonishing rate.

As if it was about to break free from some restraint and see the light of day again.