Divine Root Bone

The pitch-black night completely sealed off the entire valley, obscuring even the faintest glimmer of starlight and moonlight from the thick fog.

Shouan Village was completely plunged into absolute darkness, where one could not see their own hand in front of their face.

The deathly silence is no longer just simple quiet.

Rather, it is a desolate and lifeless state where vitality has been completely drained, locked up, and suppressed.

In the entire village of hundreds of houses, not a single person was awake.

Whether they were still innocent children, young adults in their early twenties, or villagers in their late twenties or early thirties, all were trapped in an extremely deep, unconscious state of slumber. This sleep was not caused by exhaustion; it was stiff, numb, and dull, as if an invisible hand had pressed down on their souls and sealed off their senses. No matter how fierce the wind and rain or how close the danger, there was absolutely no possibility of awakening.

Only in the neighboring house, Zhang Yang's eyes were slightly open, his gaze clear and calm, making him the only conscious person in the entire dead village.

He was now a Foundation Establishment Stage Two cultivator, belonging to the first three stages of Foundation Establishment. A layer of pale golden Dao patterns floated on his body. At this moment, he lay quietly on the bed, liquid spiritual energy slowly flowing around him. The black jade deep inside his clothes was slightly warm, and the pale golden Dao patterns faintly floated along his limbs and bones. A layer of pure primordial aura firmly enveloped his entire body, effectively isolating him from the gloomy and deathly aura that was quietly spreading around him. It was precisely because of the enhanced soul and transcendent physical abilities brought by the Foundation Establishment Dao foundation that he was able to maintain a clear mind amidst the gloomy and restrictive aura of the entire village, and coldly observe this strange change in the dead of night.

Time passed slowly, and midnight quietly arrived.

hum-

There was no wind, no noise, no burst of malevolent energy, yet the entire land, the entire street, and every inch of soil trembled gently.

Immediately afterwards, countless fine, almost transparent gray-white filaments slowly seeped out from the cracks in the ground, the fissures in the earthen walls, the gaps in the windows and doors, and the withered grass on the roof.

This is the source of the strangeness of Shou'an Village—the Corrosion Silk. As thin as a hair, as light as smoke, invisible and silent, it is extremely difficult to detect with the naked eye, and ordinary Qi Refining cultivators' shallow spiritual sense cannot distinguish it at all.

They do not invade flesh and blood, do not create wounds, and do not unleash fierce killing intent, yet they are a hundred times more insidious than vengeful ghosts and demons. The yin threads sway and float, like ghostly insects foraging at night, precisely drifting towards every house in the village, coiling around the body of every sleeping creature, landing on the brow, wrapping around the neck, covering the heart, and encircling the limbs and bones, layer upon layer, silently taking root in the human body.

The next second, the terrifying looting officially began.

On the sleeping villagers, the faint golden light of lifespan was slowly drawn, peeled away, and absorbed by strands of grayish-white yin energy—a slow, continuous, and never-ending process. Inside the house, each young face decayed subtly in the darkness, their vibrant life force drying up at a rate imperceptible to the naked eye. Their skin sagged, their black hair turned white, and their vitality gradually withered away. Those villagers nearing their thirties twitched slightly, their brows furrowed in pain, yet their souls were imprisoned by death energy, unable to awaken, forced to endure the torture of their lifespan being drained in their slumber.

As each generation's lifespan is exhausted, the next generation takes its place, and the cycle repeats itself every hundred years. This seemingly simple and peaceful mountain village has never been a human settlement, but rather a longevity pasture nurtured by the life-devouring yin spirits in the mountains behind it. The girl who led the way just now is a living puppet in this pasture, used to lure outsiders into its trap.

Zhang Yang's profound divine sense, now at the second level of Foundation Establishment, spread out, taking in all the eerie scenes of the entire village, sending chills down his spine.

He thoroughly sorted out all the inconsistencies and doubts: the absence of elderly people in the village meant that no one could survive past the age of thirty when their lifespan was exhausted; the villagers' numbness and complacency meant that their souls had been altered by shallow yin threads for many years, making them unaware of the brevity of life and death; the path into the village was deliberately hidden in the dense forest to lock the pasture and prevent the prey from escaping; the girl's fabricated story of picking wild vegetables and her deliberate concealment of her tragically killed companion, A Cui, were all carefully crafted traps—cultivators have pure qi and blood and long lifespans, making them far more appealing to yin spirits than mortals, and tonight, this group of Qingyun Sect disciples were the top prey that the pasture had welcomed.

Before the thoughts had even settled, crises erupted one after another in the residential buildings on both sides.

The first to be affected were the twelve inner disciples who had been staying elsewhere. Their cultivation levels were at most the sixth or seventh level of Qi Refining, their spiritual foundations shallow. After nightfall, the village's oppressive atmosphere further suppressed them, causing them to fall into a deep, lifeless sleep. Thin strands of life-corroding Yin energy seeped through the cracks in the door, binding their bodies. Within moments, a disciple near the window suddenly turned pale, his dantian's qi vortex became chaotic and congested, his spiritual energy stagnated, and his spirit rapidly withered. He was panicked and weak in his nightmare, struggling to open his eyes, but his soul was firmly locked by the death energy. If left unchecked for another half hour, without even a fight, they would have their lifespan drained and their cultivation foundation destroyed in their sleep.

The small house where the girl next door is temporarily staying is even more dangerous.

Lin Wanqing was the lowest-ranked cultivator in the group, at the second level of Qi Refining. With a pure and kind heart and no defenses, her spiritual energy was completely relaxed. Countless Yin threads recklessly entered the room, wrapping around her limbs and brow. Her breathing became increasingly heavy, and her skin turned a withered gray. If this continued, her Dao heart would suffer irreversible damage.

Su Qingyao, standing to the side, was at the peak of the ninth level of Qi Refining. Her spiritual energy permeated her flesh and blood, and her body radiated a faint glow. Even in her slumber, her physical body was instinctively resisting the Yin threads. However, she had not yet reached the Foundation Establishment stage and lacked Dao patterns to protect her. She could only barely block most of the Yin threads, and some extremely fine ones still managed to penetrate the spiritual energy barrier, slowly eroding her outer spiritual power and making her consciousness increasingly numb and drowsy.

Among the entire team, only Zhang Yang, who was at the second level of Foundation Establishment, was completely unaffected by the Yin Silk, thanks to the solidified Dao foundation, the natural isolation barrier formed by the light gold Dao patterns on his body, and the protection of the Black Jade Origin. He was able to overlook the entire situation from a high vantage point.

Just then, from the direction of the cemetery on the back mountain, the heavy deathly aura suddenly surged violently!

A vast expanse of grayish-white, eerie energy surged skyward, then crashed down, engulfing the entire desolate graveyard. A figure in white, stiff and rigid, slowly emerged from the depths of the layers of desolate tombs.

This man, dressed in a plain white Taoist robe stained with grave soil and mud, with a tall and aloof figure, was none other than Xiao Jingchen, the only personally taught disciple of the Qingyun Sect Master.

Xiao Jingchen's cultivation had reached the fifth level of Foundation Establishment, which is the third level of the Foundation Establishment realm. He was surrounded by a small spiritual energy field all year round, which could directly block the spiritual power circulation of all Qi Refining cultivators. He originally had a low-grade spiritual root, and after decades of hard work, he had honed his Dao heart to be as solid as a rock. That's why the sect leader sent him to investigate the Yin Sha of Shou'an Village. However, the Yin spirits that had been accumulating resentment for a hundred years in the cemetery had countless Yin threads that were penetrating every crevice and eroding his sea of ​​consciousness and meridians day and night.

At this moment, the pale golden Dao patterns around him flickered, and most of his body was shrouded in a thick, grayish-white death aura. Half of his eyes possessed the clear, spiritual light of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, while the other half was murky, deathly gray, controlled by a Yin spirit. The spiritual energy field unique to the fifth level of Foundation Establishment within him had long been torn apart and disrupted by the death aura, with only a sliver of clarity struggling desperately deep within his soul. His physical body, however, was completely driven by the Yin spirits beneath the earth, his movements stiff and wooden, his joints creaking as he slowly moved towards the village.

He had not yet completely degenerated into a mindless walking corpse, but his profound cultivation at the fifth level of Foundation Establishment had become the sharpest weapon in the hands of the Yin Spirits. Once he stepped into the village, he could instantly suppress all the Qi Refining disciples with just the chaotic spiritual energy field around him. Even Zhang Yang, who was at the second level of Foundation Establishment, had to face the pressure of a cultivator at the third level of Foundation Establishment.

The deathly aura churned continuously in the back mountain, but Xiao Jingchen's stiff steps did not falter for a moment as he slowly approached the village entrance.

Inside the house, countless life-eating filaments continued to drain the lifespan of the living, while the sleeping disciples and villagers were completely unaware that annihilation was approaching.

Even from a distance, Zhang Yang sensed that his cultivation level was being suppressed. With a gentle flick of his fingertips, the pale golden Dao patterns on his body lit up, and his Foundation Establishment Level 2 liquid spiritual power surged and circulated within his dantian, preparing him to engage in a confrontation.

He wanted to protect all his fellow junior teammates.

Zhang Yang sat upright inside the house, the pale golden Dao patterns unique to the second level of Foundation Establishment rising from his body, slowly flowing through his limbs and bones. The innate divine might of a cultivator at the first three levels of Foundation Establishment quietly spread out, an invisible suppressive force filling the entire small house. If an ordinary Qi Refining cultivator were to approach this place, their legs would immediately go weak, their blood and qi would become disordered, and even mobilizing a trace of spiritual energy would be extremely difficult. The solidified liquid spiritual power within his dantian surged endlessly, and the keen senses brought by his transcendent physical body clearly captured the movements of Xiao Jingchen in the back mountain and the movement of the countless Yin threads in the village.

He was aware of the difference in their cultivation levels; he was at the second level of Foundation Establishment, while his opponent was likely at a higher level.

"We can't wait until he sets foot in the village."

Zhang Yang murmured to himself, his fingertips gently gripping the black jade in his bosom. The warm, primal power merged with the pale golden Dao patterns on his body, forming a double barrier to isolate the Yin energy. He lightly pushed open the wooden door, his figure silently slipping into the dark alley. His footsteps landed as lightly as if they were falling, revealing the unparalleled advantages of his Foundation Establishment physical body.

In the streets and alleys, countless threads of life-corroding Yin energy continued to seep into the doors and windows of each house, gradually stripping away the faint glow of life force from those sleeping inside. In the house of the twelve inner disciples, two already had ashen faces, their dantian qi vortexes floating and turbulent. If they delayed any longer, their cultivation foundations would suffer permanent damage. In the small house next door, the Yin energy threads wrapped around Lin Wanqing grew thicker and thicker, her breathing so weak that it was almost imperceptible. Su Qingyao's spiritual energy barrier, at the peak of the ninth level of Qi Refining, was already as thin as a cicada's wing, her eyelids drooping uncontrollably, on the verge of falling into a deep, unconscious sleep.

Zhang Yang's mind tightened, and a circle of soft golden light erupted from the second level of Foundation Establishment Dao patterns, sweeping across the houses on both sides. The golden light touched the gray-white yin threads wrapped around the disciple and the two women, and immediately emitted a faint sizzling sound. Those yin threads melted and scattered inch by inch, like ice and snow meeting a raging fire.

The light gold Dao patterns brought the Foundation Establishment Heavenly Power, which naturally restrained the evil and turbid things. In a short while, all the life-corroding Yin threads that enveloped the entire team were dispersed by the golden disc machine.

Lin Wanqing, inside the room, suddenly frowned, exhaled a long breath, and her tense body relaxed slightly; Su Qingyao's scattered consciousness returned a little, and her fingertips subconsciously tightened their grip on the long sword at her waist; the pent-up frustration in the chests of the twelve inner disciples dissipated, and they no longer struggled painfully in the nightmare, but they were still extremely exhausted and unable to fully wake up.

After doing all this, Zhang Yang looked up at the village entrance and found that his target had arrived at the old locust tree at the village entrance. He stopped abruptly.

His neck slowly twisted at an angle that defied human logic, his gray and turbid eyes fixed on Zhang Yang in the middle of the street. A trace of struggle and anxiety flashed in the half of his eyes that still had some clarity, as if he wanted to speak to warn him, but his throat was constricted by death energy, and he could only make a hoarse sound.

The underground spirits sensed that the outside Foundation Establishment cultivators were disrupting their plan to devour lifespan, and instantly unleashed a massive amount of Yin threads that surged toward Xiao Jingchen, forcibly stimulating the chaotic Foundation Establishment Level 5 spiritual energy field within his body.

Suddenly, a layer of murky gray mist exploded from Xiao Jingchen's body, and the shattered spiritual energy field, carrying a heavy death aura, pressed down on Zhang Yang. The suppressive force of the third level of the Foundation Establishment realm swept over him, and even though the spiritual energy field was incomplete, it still made the surrounding air stagnate and the ground gravel tremble slightly.

Zhang Yang firmly planted his feet, layers of pale golden Dao patterns illuminating his body. All the liquid spiritual power of the second level of Foundation Establishment surged to his surface, forcefully withstanding the suppression. The power of the Dao patterns of the first three levels of Foundation Establishment collided with the broken spiritual energy field of the middle three levels in mid-air. The black and white air currents constantly tore and clashed, stirring up a cold whirlwind in the streets and alleys.

"Senior Brother Xiao, you still retain your sanity, do not let the Yin spirits control you!" Zhang Yang spoke in a deep voice, his voice carrying Foundation Establishment spiritual power that pierced through the deathly aura and entered Xiao Jingchen's sea of ​​consciousness. "The sect leader sent you to investigate the secrets of this place. The Yin spirits that erode lifespan for a hundred years are raising the entire village to steal people's lifespans. Your mind is clear, how can you willingly become a puppet of the Yin spirits?"

Seeing that the other person was wearing sect attire and possessed such cultivation, Zhang Yang knew that this person was the personal disciple mentioned by the sect leader: Xiao Jingchen.

These words struck Xiao Jingchen like a thunderclap, echoing deep within his mind, which was entangled in dark threads.

His remaining Dao heart suddenly erupted, and most of the pale golden Dao patterns around his body lit up instantly. The gray-white death aura was forced back several inches. His originally wooden and stiff movements came to a violent halt. He clutched his head tightly with both hands, and his body trembled violently as two forces pulled wildly within his body.

"Get out...get away..."

Xiao Jingchen finally managed to squeeze out broken, hoarse words. The gray-white death aura in his eyes faded by most, replaced by a clear spiritual light. But in just a moment, the death aura surging from the underground cemetery surged again, and countless Yin threads frantically drilled into his meridians, wrapping his soul once more.

"All the foreign cultivators... left behind... their lifespans..."

A cold, numb whisper escaped Xiao Jingchen's lips, and his spiritual energy field expanded once more, enveloping countless yin threads that transformed into gray mist, rushing straight towards Zhang Yang's face.

Zhang Yang's heart tightened; he knew he couldn't delay. If Xiao Jingchen were allowed to be completely controlled by the Yin Spirit and unleash his full Foundation Establishment Level 5 power, no one in the team could stop him. He condensed liquid spiritual power at his fingertips, and pale golden Dao patterns gathered in his palm, forming a refined golden spiritual seal. Instead of retreating, he advanced, charging forward into the gray mist.

"I will help you break free from the shackles of the Yin Silk, and today we will surely break this century-old predicament of Shou'an Village!"

The golden spiritual seal collided violently with the turbid spiritual energy field. The pale gold Dao patterns disintegrated layer by layer, and the power of the two Foundation Establishment cultivators fiercely confronted each other in the pitch-black night.

Inside the small house where the girl lived, the puppet girl who had guided the way was now standing by the window, her lifeless eyes silently watching the two people facing each other in the alley. A cold, sinister smile still lingered on her lips as she quietly awaited the moment when the evil spirit would completely devour the lifespan of the intruder. Deep within the cemetery behind the mountain, an even heavier, boundless stillness was slowly seeping outwards from the underground tombs.