460: Chapter 475 Bone Netherworld!

Jiling Wasteland.

This was a forgotten land, just as it had been for thousands of years, silently prostrating beneath a gloomy canopy.

The earth was a parched grayish-white, like ruins after being scorched by fierce fire, with not a single blade of grass growing.

Looking as far as the eye could see, only the skeletal remains of rocks, corroded by earthly fiend astral winds for ten million years, remained in view.

They were twisted and broken, protruding from the riddled ground like withered bones reaching out from the depths of Hell, silently recounting the catastrophe that had once occurred.

The earthly fiend astral wind howled past, constantly surging from cracks deep in the earth, carrying dense Evil Qi and sharp as a knife.

They were formless and substanceless, yet they could erode the Divine Soul.

An ordinary Cultivator staying here for three days would become emaciated, their magic power would dissipate, and they would eventually turn into a dried corpse.

Even the protective spiritual light of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator would be ruthlessly torn to shreds before this astral wind.

Yet at this moment, a figure was walking through this deathly land where life was extinct.

His pace seemed slow, but with every step he took, he could cross several yards.

It was a man dressed in a dark black robe, his hood pulled low, revealing only the lower half of his face.

His expression was gloomy, and his skin was so pale it was nearly transparent, with blue veins faintly visible beneath.

What drew the most attention was the banner he carried slanting over his shoulder.

The entire banner was forged from unknown white bones, with countless twisted runes engraved on the pole, emitting a heart-palpitating Devilish Qi.

The banner surface was as black as ink, flapping loudly, with countless hideous faces faintly visible, wailing silently.

Those were the lost souls swallowed by this soul banner, never to be reincarnated.

This was the Demonic Path supreme treasure that overawed the Profound Spirit Domain—the soul devouring banner.

And the identity of the person carrying this banner was naturally self-evident.

It was the contemporary Demon Seed of the Soul Devouring Demonic Sect sent to the Secret Realm—Bone Underworld.

His cultivation had already reached Golden Core Perfection, having entered the Dao by refining thousands of lost souls; his mastery of the soul devouring banner was supernatural, and he was notoriously fierce among the Inner Domain Golden Core Cultivators.

As for why he appeared here instead of being inside the Xuanling Secret Realm?

Actually, it was an accident.

But by a stroke of luck, he had also achieved the purpose of his trip.

Because he had come for this place from the start, not only to complete the task assigned by the Soul Devouring Demonic Lord, but also to take the Opportunity that belonged solely to him.

And ahead was the destination of his journey.

Bone Underworld stopped his pace, and under the shadow of his hood, his narrow eyes were full of scrutiny.

Looking in the direction of his gaze, there was a stone forest in the distance.

Countless stone pillars stood like tombstones, corroded by the earthly fiend astral wind for ten million years, their surfaces covered in honeycomb-like holes, riddled and crumbling.

However, surrounded by those stone pillars was a relatively flat open space where one could hide from the invasion of the astral wind.

And Bone Underworld's gaze fell precisely on that open space.

However, just as he was about to step toward it, he seemed to discover something; his footsteps halted abruptly, and his eyes instantly narrowed.

"That is..."

A hoarse, coarse voice came from under the hood, like sandpaper rubbing together.

He raised his hand slightly, and a broken fragment flew out from the stone forest, slowly landing in his palm.

Bone Underworld focused his gaze; it was a blue-gray stone, its edges sharp, with some complex patterns engraved on the surface.

Although it was already in tatters, traces of runes could still be seen remaining on it.

Bone Underworld's pupils shrank instantly. Although he was not skilled in Formations, he could tell at a glance that this was a fragment of a Formation base.

If it were in any other setting, even if he saw a wild Formation, he wouldn't be surprised at all.

Cultivators always had multiple bolt-holes and were comfortable wherever they went.

If an array master with a Formation Legacy set up a Formation on the spot to open an Immortal Cave for a place to stay, it would be perfectly normal.

But where was this?

This was the Jiling Wasteland, where life was extinct and nothing grew! How could a remnant Formation appear here?

Yes, a remnant Formation!

Bone Underworld keenly sensed a trace of spirituality remaining on it, indicating that this Formation had existed here for some time, only its Formation base had been damaged by the earthly fiend astral wind, causing it to collapse on its own.

Bone Underworld's brow slowly furrowed, and his narrow eyes turned back toward that stone forest.

This time, he looked more carefully.

Sure enough, on those stone pillars riddled by the astral wind, he also found some subtle traces.

Those were not textures formed by natural weathering, but marks carved by hand.

Someone had once engraved something on these stone pillars; although they had long been ravaged by the earthly fiend astral wind, a trace of the marks still remained.

Someone has been here, and the interval of years is not long.

Bone Underworld's eyes narrowed as he muttered to himself. He stepped into the stone forest, his fingers lightly brushing over those remaining traces.

But the more he looked, the deeper the doubt in his heart became.

Although the Jiling Wasteland was dangerous, it was not impossible to enter.

But this was already the heart of the wasteland, at least a thousand miles away from the edge.

When an ordinary Cultivator stepped into this place, their magic power would be suppressed to the point of nearly stagnating, and their Divine Sense would be completely cut off by that strange mist, not to mention the deadly earthly fiend astral wind and the Grievance Infant Evil Poison.

Staying here for a period of time would cost even a Golden Core Immortal Master a layer of skin.

But looking at these traces, that person not only reached here but also set up a Formation and even lived here for quite a long time.

But how is that possible? Who would come to this place to camp for no reason!

Thoughts whirled in Bone Underworld's mind; he knew the origins of this wasteland.

In ancient times, the Nascent Soul True Monarchs of ten thousand races joined forces to attack the Asura Clan; that battle shattered the earth's spiritual veins, causing the Spiritual Qi of this land to be cut off and the Laws to collapse.

And as for those fallen True Lords, their Nascent Soul true blood dripped onto the earth, merging with the earthly fiend Qi to form the pervasive Grievance Infant Evil Poison.

This was something that even a Nascent Soul True Monarch would be somewhat wary of.

Even if this person's cultivation was high and their Realm was Golden Core Perfection, it would still be impossible to reside here for long.

Unless...

A cold light flashed in Bone Underworld's eyes.

This person's purpose is the same as mine; is he also after those corpses in the sealed land?

As soon as this thought popped up, Bone Underworld's heart sank.

Entering the Xuanling Secret Realm this time, he was acting on the orders of the Soul Devouring Demonic Lord, and his goal was the ancient battlefield buried beneath this wasteland.

That place concerned not only his Dao path but also the plans of that Nascent Soul old devil of the Soul Devouring Demonic Sect—the Soul Devouring Demonic Lord.

In that ancient catastrophe battle years ago, the ten thousand races of the Profound Spirit Domain fought the Asura Clan, shaking the heavens and earth.

In the end, the Dao Venerable of Spirit Transformation of the Asura Clan was suppressed deep within the Xuanling Secret Realm, while the Nascent Soul True Monarchs of the Asura Clan and the corpses of the experts from the ten thousand races who fell here were all buried beneath this broken earth.

To prevent the Dao Venerable of Spirit Transformation of the Asura Clan from breaking the Seal once more, the Nascent Soul True Monarchs of the Human Race sacrificed themselves.

Through self-sacrifice, they refined this battlefield where all living beings were buried into a massive sealing Formation to eternally suppress the Asura Clan's Dao Venerable of Spirit Transformation.

Of course, Bone Underworld didn't come here this time to pay respects to the Human Race's heroic spirits; he didn't have that much reverence for his predecessors.

He was simply here to cause destruction!

Of course, not to completely undo the Seal; doing that would be far too stupid.

Leaving aside whether Bone Underworld had the ability to release him, even if he could, that was a Dao Venerable of Spirit Transformation!

Nowadays, the upper limit of the Profound Spirit Domain was only Nascent Soul Late Stage Great True Lords; who could stop a Dao Venerable of Spirit Transformation from descending upon the world?

Wouldn't that be looking for trouble for himself?

So what Bone Underworld wanted was only to pry open a corner of the Seal, to make it loosen.

Sensing the chance to break the Seal, that Dao Venerable of Spirit Transformation of the Asura Clan would inevitably awaken a sliver of will and then strike the Seal with all his might.

But in that case, how could the Heavenly Dao allow such a powerful existence to reappear in the world?

To avoid repeating the same mistakes, the Heavenly Dao would inevitably cast a great deal of attention and Heavenly Dao power to re-suppress the Seal.

And in this way, the Heavenly Dao would inevitably no longer be able to look both ways, which gave Nascent Soul True Monarchs like the Soul Devouring Demonic Lord a chance to catch their breath.

Whether it was continuing to comprehend the Law or achieving a Breakthrough in Realm, it would inevitably be much easier than it was now.

That was the reason for Bone Underworld's trip.

As for Bone Underworld himself, what he valued were actually the corpses of those fallen experts beneath the Seal.

After ten million years of accumulation, a large amount of resentful souls and Death Qi had gathered in those corpses, which for Bone Underworld, who cultivated the "True Interpretation of Soul Devouring Return to Void," was simply the best nourishment.

If he could refine these resentful souls for his own use, then his soul devouring banner would surely break through to the fourth tier, transforming into a true Nascent Soul Spirit Treasure.

And he himself could use this Opportunity to charge into the Nascent Soul Realm in one go.

This was a shortcut, a path to the heavens.

Only... now it seemed someone had beaten him to it!

At this thought, killing intent began to rise in Bone Underworld's eyes. This was his Opportunity, and he would never allow others to touch it.

But that being said, the doubt in Bone Underworld's eyes grew even stronger.

How did this person find this place?

Although the Jiling Wasteland and the Xuanling Secret Realm seemed unrelated, if one traced their origins, the Xuanling Secret Realm and the Jiling Wasteland were actually one.

The Xuanling Secret Realm was the "mountain" pressing down on the Asura Clan's Dao Venerable of Spirit Transformation, while the Jiling Wasteland was the "incantation" sealing that mountain.

Layer upon layer, linked together.

It was just that normally, because of the "incantation," this "mountain" was not visible to the world, only appearing once every thousand years when the Xuanling Secret Realm manifested.

And if one wanted to enter that sealed land, one could only do so by detouring through the Xuanling Secret Realm and returning to the Jiling Wasteland.

Entering directly from the Jiling Wasteland would never lead there.

Bone Underworld could know all this entirely because of the experience the Soul Devouring Demonic Sect had gained through the corpses of generation after generation of Cultivators.

In the past, they didn't know this and had tried starting from the Jiling Wasteland, but they had gained nothing.

In the end, they noticed a clue within the Xuanling Secret Realm.

They also realized that if they wanted to re-enter the sealed land, they probably had to go through the process of the Xuanling Secret Realm first.

But after entering the Xuanling Secret Realm, they didn't know the specific location either.

And since the Xuanling Secret Realm only opened once every thousand years, every time they tried to find the correct path, they returned empty-handed.

However, with the accumulation of generation after generation, the experiences they brought out and the wrong paths they had taken were constantly eliminated.

By Bone Underworld's generation, he had finally, based on his predecessors, found that hidden passage leading to the sealed land, which was precisely this stone forest before him.

It was by relying on this that Bone Underworld could reach this step today.

But his being able to come here actually involved a certain element of luck.

He couldn't figure out what happened either; he just stumbled his way here.

This was actually to be blamed on those ancient Nascent Soul powerhouses of the Human Race.

To guard the Seal, beyond the double Restrictions of the "mountain" and the "incantation," they went a step further to change cause and effect and disorder the Void Realm.

In the end, they even forcibly intercepted a segment of fake history and projected it into reality, while the true time and space and the correct path to the sealed land were deeply hidden beneath the Xuanling Secret Realm.

Their purpose was to prevent people like Bone Underworld from coming to cause destruction.

Of course, they weren't originally guarding against the Human Race, but were worried about remnants of the Asura Clan.

They just hadn't expected that the relationship between the Heavenly Dao and Cultivators in later generations would deteriorate to this extent.

To restrain the Heavenly Dao, Cultivators would do anything, even things like breaking the Seal and potentially releasing a Dao Venerable of Spirit Transformation.

However, as ten million years passed, that "fake history" defense line set up by those Human Race predecessors was now losing its effect.

That intercepted segment of fake history was gradually blurring under the wash of reality, and the boundary with the real world was beginning to loosen.

True time and space, which was that deeply hidden Xuanling Secret Realm and the sealed land, faintly revealed a trace of itself in the cracks of this fake history.

Because of this, the traces left behind by a certain person were discovered by Bone Underworld, triggering a series of subsequent mental deductions.

Of course, Bone Underworld knew nothing of this and was still suspicious.

He wished he could find that person who arrived before him right now and grind their bones to ashes to eliminate future troubles!

However, Bone Underworld was also very puzzled.

He had the foundation of dozens of generations of his Sect, relying on the experience of his predecessors and a bit of luck to get here, but on what basis did this person get here?

Bone Underworld suddenly remembered a speculation recorded in the ancient books of his Sect—the Asura Clan Cultivation Technique.

It was said that the reason the Asura Clan could dominate this world back then was that they were born close to the Dao, and their Cultivate speed far exceeded that of the ten thousand races.

And the source of their Cultivation Technique was that Dao Venerable of Spirit Transformation.

If one could practice the Asura Clan Cultivation Technique, perhaps they could move unimpeded in this wasteland and even sense the location of the sealed land.

But this speculation had always been just a speculation.

Because no one had ever successfully practiced the Cultivation Technique of the Asura Clan.

Countless Seniors had tried, but the Heavenly Dao simply did not allow anyone to touch the Asura Clan's Cultivation Technique.

Once they tried to Cultivate it, without exception, they all suffered heavenly punishment.

The light cases resulted in Qi Deviation, while the heavy cases resulted in falling on the spot.

Over time, this speculation became a taboo, shelved and never mentioned again.

And now that someone had arrived before him, what Bone Underworld could think of was that this person had probably practiced an Asura Clan Cultivation Technique.

Moreover, his being able to stumble in here was also very likely because this person had triggered the Asura Clan's aura, thus causing a crack to appear in the fake history defense line, allowing him to slip through.

But soon, Bone Underworld shook his head. This speculation was too absurd.

Something that even a Nascent Soul True Monarch couldn't do, how could someone else do it?

This person was probably just lucky.

Perhaps like him, they just stumbled and happened to walk here.

Bone Underworld convinced himself this way.

But just then, he suddenly felt something and abruptly looked up.

In the next moment, his pupils shrank violently!