Divine Root Bone

Cangxuan Continent, Eastern Region.

A vast, dark, and desolate mountain range stretches for hundreds of miles, shrouded in mist and shrouded in shadow.

This is Black Stone Ridge.

It is the most desolate and forgotten corner of the entire Eastern Region.

Surrounded by sheer cliffs, with broken mountain paths and ancient forests blocking out the sky, this place has no official roads connecting it to any major territories, and no merchants are willing to set foot in this barren and isolated mountain range.

In the vast world of cultivation, Black Stone Ridge is as insignificant as a speck of dust.

The lack of information was alarmingly severe.

The changes of sects, the opening of secret realms, the great battles of cultivators, and the anomalies of heaven and earth in the outside world, even if a storm sweeps across half the region, may not be able to reach Blackstone Ridge even a fraction of its scale over several decades.

Within a radius of a hundred miles, only a few small villages and towns and scattered third-rate cultivation forces knew of the existence of this place. Cultivators and sects further away had no idea that such a place existed in the Southern Region.

It is precisely because of its isolation from the world that Black Stone Ridge has remained peaceful and serene for hundreds of years, free from disasters and calamities. The people here are born and grow old here, trapped in the cage of mountains for their entire lives, living a simple and impoverished existence.

The ruler who guards this place, the Stone Ridge Master: Shi Wanshan, has the cultivation level of the eighth level of Qi Refining.

He was insignificant in the eyes of major sects, but in this desolate border region, he was undoubtedly a top expert, suppressing the area and ruling over both the legitimate and illegitimate worlds.

Shi Wanshan was not ambitious, but he was unwilling to remain in this barren and desolate place.

To completely revitalize the lifeless state of Black Stone Ridge and break the centuries-old shackles of isolation, he devoted all his financial and human resources to organizing the first "All-Region" Martial Arts Tournament in Black Stone Ridge.

There are only a few days left until the grand ceremony begins.

His mind is extremely meticulous and insightful.

Heishiling is poor in local products and its industries are declining. Relying solely on the self-sufficiency of the local people will never lead to development, and it will forever be trapped in the crevices of the barren mountains.

Only a martial arts tournament can attract independent cultivators, disciples of small sects, and martial artists from all walks of life to gather here.

Where people come, merchants come; where merchants come, prosperity follows.

The massive revenue and development opportunities brought about by cultivators settling down, eating and lodging, consumables, repairing magical artifacts, trading elixirs, and selling miscellaneous goods in the market far exceed the meager prizes of ranking in martial arts competitions.

By leveraging a grand event, Shi Wanshan could revitalize the entire deserted town; this was his only way out of the predicament.

To ensure order during the event and to separate visitors from local residents, the natural terrain and man-made high walls of Black Stone Ridge effectively divide the area into two completely independent zones.

Zhenxi·Yingbin Inn New District.

This is the reception area specially opened by Shi Wanshan for visiting cultivators and guests from all walks of life.

The entire area was newly opened up against the mountain, with smooth roads and brand-new houses. Rows of elegant and clean inns were arranged in a row, specifically for visiting monks to live, rest, and recuperate.

At this moment, the Zhenxi New District presents a peaceful and prosperous scene.

Cultivators from surrounding towns and small sects arrived in droves, gathering in twos and threes in the courtyard of the post station and on the long bluestone street. Some sat cross-legged to regulate their breathing and stabilize their cultivation, some chatted with each other, and some observed the local customs and culture of this border town.

The visiting cultivator exuded a calm and composed aura, his spiritual energy flowing freely as he chatted and laughed.

In their eyes, Heishiling is a place of simple folk customs, peaceful and orderly life, and a place where people can live and work in peace and contentment despite its remote location.

Everyone was eagerly anticipating the martial arts competition a few days later, unaware that the old town of Zhendong was separated from the main town by only a wall and a mountain.

Between the two areas lies a dense forest hundreds of feet high, a thick, black rock wall over ten feet high separating them, and a steep cliff with a dramatic drop in elevation. The sound of the wind is blocked by the mountains and forests.

The old, dilapidated, and impoverished alleyway area in the east of the town.

This is the most primitive, dilapidated, and chaotic local residential area in Heishiling.

The alleyways are intricate and complex, the old houses are low and crowded, and the eaves are layered and squeeze the sky, making it extremely difficult for sunlight to penetrate, resulting in a dark and damp environment all year round.

Countless narrow alleys, dead ends, and closed lanes crisscross the town, hiding the darkest and most secluded corners of the entire town.

At this time, the old street in the east of the town still appeared to be a place of simple and peaceful everyday life.

People came and went on the streets, and ordinary people strolled leisurely. Steam rose from the street stalls, selling rice, noodles, dried fruit, wild game, and coarse tea, with vendors' cries echoing everywhere.

An old man leans against the door to bask in the sun, children play along the street, women wash vegetables and clothes; all is peaceful, and time flows gently.

Everyone was immersed in the joy of the upcoming martial arts tournament, their faces beaming with honest and simple smiles.

At the deepest part of the old street in the east of the town, there is a closed dead-end alley that is rarely visited.

This alley, sandwiched between two old mud houses, is less than three feet wide and dozens of feet deep. It is sealed off at the end and is the coldest, most secluded, and most dark corner of the entire old street.

The alley is perpetually shrouded in darkness, the air thick and stifling. Even at midday when the sun is high in the sky, the alley remains shrouded in a heavy black fog, chilling and icy cold.

A ragged, filthy beggar, his thin body hunched over, wandered aimlessly deep into the old street.

He was an ant at the very bottom of Black Stone Ridge, homeless and destitute, spending his days scavenging scraps and odds and ends in the corners of the streets, barely surviving.

His entire face was covered in mud, except for his eyes, which held a humble gaze.

He wandered through the streets and alleys, habitually venturing into all sorts of deserted corners, trying his luck in the hope of finding food or odds and ends left behind by others.

Unwittingly, he turned into this deep, desolate, and closed alley.

The moment you step into the alley, all the hustle and bustle of the surrounding city is instantly cut off.

It felt like stepping into another cold and desolate world.

Outside the alley is a warm and welcoming human world; inside, it is a chilling and ghostly realm.

The wind, which was originally flowing, has completely stopped here.

The air was thick, damp, and cold, carrying a faint, extremely faint, and eerily pungent, fishy-sweet, putrid stench.

It wasn't the stench of dead fish and rotten shrimp, but rather a strange, pungent odor of fresh, decaying flesh mixed with the corrosive influence of yin energy. Even a slight inhalation sent chills down one's spine and made one's scalp tingle.

The light dimmed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The crisscrossing eaves overhead squeezed out a narrow sliver of sky, and the dim, gray sunlight could not penetrate, making the entire alleyway dark and hazy, and the scenery blurry and distorted.

The surroundings were eerily silent.

There were no insect chirps, no wind, no footsteps, and no signs of any living creature.

The entire alley was excessively quiet, eerily quiet, so quiet that it made one's heart involuntarily tighten, sink, and panic.

The beggar's hair stood on end, and a fear stemming from instinct slowly crept up his spine.

He instinctively felt that something was wrong.

It's too quiet.

It's too dark.

it's too cold.

But the desperate will to survive, born of poverty and humility, overcame the faint fear in their hearts.

He thought that this deserted corner might hide things that others had dropped, or perhaps he could find some scraps of food.

He gritted his teeth, hunched his neck, and slowly moved step by step into the depths of the dead-end alley.

The further you go in, the more eerie the atmosphere becomes.

From the cracks in the blue bricks on the ground, wisps of cool black mist seeped out, crawling along the ground and wrapping around his ankles, chilling him to the bone, like countless ghostly hands gently scratching.

The earthen walls on both sides were damp and seeping water, with mottled and peeling paint, revealing irregular dark stains that looked like dried, dark bloodstains.

The darkness at the bottom of the alley grew thicker and thicker, like ink, pressing down heavily, almost swallowing the person completely.

The faint smell of putrid blood gradually became clearer, stronger, and more pungent as you went deeper.

Just when he was only a few feet away from the end of the alley—

A chilling, eerie sound, enough to make one's scalp tingle and soul tremble, emanated with crystal clarity from the deepest part of the darkness.

Tsk, smack, gulp, hiss—

The sounds of chewing were fine, sticky, and moist, mixed with the sounds of bones cracking, flesh rotting, and tendons tearing.

It was definitely not the sound of any wild animal feeding.

Too detailed, too bizarre, too much like a living person devouring flesh and blood.

The sound was sticky and wet, each bite accompanied by a muffled tearing sound of fascia, each swallow accompanied by a strange rolling sound of liquid, endlessly echoing, amplifying, and piercing the eardrums in the dead silence and emptiness of the narrow alley.

The beggar's feet were instantly rooted to the spot.

My blood seemed to freeze completely at that moment.

His pupils contracted sharply, his mouth opened slightly, his throat tightened, and he dared not even breathe.

An extreme chill shot from his feet straight to his head, making his head numb and his limbs stiff.

He raised his head, trembling, very slowly and stiffly, to look into the deep darkness at the far end of the alley.

Next second,

He saw a hellish scene that he could never forget in this life or the next.

In the dim, thick shadows, several twisted and deformed humanoid evil spirits were crawling on the ground.

They were no longer human-shaped; their bodies were shriveled and stiff, their flesh was grayish-black and rotten, and many parts of their skin had peeled off, revealing the pale and grim bones underneath.

Its eyes were hollow and pupil-less, with deep, dark eye sockets, and its mouth was filled with fine, sharp, black teeth.

At this very moment, they are surrounding a mangled human corpse, frantically gnawing, tearing, and devouring it.

The scene was bloody, violent, gloomy, and twisted to the extreme.

scoff-

A rib, still attached to the skin and flesh, was ripped off, and blood gushed out.

click-

Finger bones and tibia bones were directly chewed and crushed.

Broken flesh, shattered bone fragments, and thick, scarlet blood covered the blue bricks at the bottom of the alley.

Dark red blood meandered along the cracks in the brickwork, gleaming with an eerie, somber luster in the dim light.

Minced meat and scraps were scattered all over the ground, and the internal organs were torn to pieces, making them indistinct.

The evil heads thrashed wildly, their sharp teeth flying as they frantically chewed on fresh flesh and blood, hot, foul-smelling blood dripping from their mouths, and low, cruel, satisfied groans emanating from their throats.

Their movements are mechanical, frenzied, numb, and violent, carrying an inhuman, primal cruelty as they wantonly desecrate and devour human corpses.

The stench of blood, decay, and mold mingled together, creating a nauseating, overwhelming stench that slammed into the beggar's face.

boom--

The beggar's mind went completely blank for a moment.

Extreme fear instantly overwhelmed all his consciousness.

His legs went weak, and he almost collapsed on the spot.

His pupils trembled violently, his whole body shook violently, his teeth chattered wildly, and cold sweat instantly soaked through his tattered clothes.

He saw hell.

A real, naked hell.

The alleyway is not a ghostly illusion, but a living, bloody evil spirit that devours people!

He could hold on no longer, and all that remained in his heart was extreme panic, his survival instinct exploding!

run!

Must run!

He shuddered violently, his stiff body suddenly reviving, and he didn't even dare to scream, lest he disturb the evil spirits in the darkness.

He turned around abruptly, stiffly, tremblingly—

But in the instant he turned around...

A dark, stiff, and lifeless figure.

Without him noticing, she had silently appeared behind him.

He was less than half a foot away.

It stood quietly in the alley, its posture stiff and straight, its head slightly lowered.

His body was completely still, with no breathing and no sign of life.

The chilling stillness of the entire alleyway was all concentrated on this eerie figure.

The moment the beggar caught a glimpse of this scene out of the corner of his eye, his soul seemed to freeze.

Before he could even react,

The dark figure suddenly moved!

Without warning, without any prior indication,

A sudden, violent surge!

Extremely fast, extremely bizarre!

A dull thud of flesh tearing rang out.

The faint struggle and trembling at the bottom of the alley came to an abrupt halt.

A deathly silence returned to the entire dead-end alley.

The beggar from before had completely disappeared into the darkness.

Even the screams couldn't escape the alleyway.

Only the soft, sticky chewing sounds slowly rose again, blending with the cannibalistic noises from the bottom of the alley, creating an eerie and resonant atmosphere.

The dead corner of the old alley in the east of the town has been completely turned into a slaughterhouse unknown to anyone.

……

Time passed slowly.

The visiting cultivators from Zhenxi New District continued to chat and relax, completely unaware of the tragedy that had occurred just a wall away, eagerly awaiting the martial arts competition in seven days.

Throughout the entire Black Stone Ridge region, only the old town in the east is where evil is quietly spreading, breeding, and proliferating.

After a while.

Lord Shi, outside the main gate of his mansion.

Two guards, dressed in black armor and exuding a refined aura, stood ramrod straight.

Both of them were at the third level of Qi Refining cultivation.

In this remote border town, it already possesses a formidable fighting force sufficient to subdue ordinary people and deter local thugs.

They stood tall and straight, with sharp eyes, carefully inspecting the street order in front of the mansion.

The streets remained peaceful, pedestrians came and went as usual, and the daily life of the city continued smoothly.

Just then.

In the distance, at the entrance of the old street, a figure slowly walked out.

The man's gait was extremely stiff, rigid, and wooden.

Unlike ordinary people who walk without swinging their arms or bending their knees, this person moves their legs straight and slowly along the street, like a marionette.

His head was slightly tilted, his eyes were empty and lifeless, and his face was deathly pale, without a trace of the color of a living person.

The whole place was deathly still and silent.

At first glance, this person seems strange, slow-witted, and mentally confused.

The two Qi Refining Level 3 guards at the entrance glanced at it subconsciously, but didn't take it to heart.

The people of Heishiling are mostly simple and honest, and it is not uncommon for there to be a few eccentric or mentally challenged individuals.

But the person got closer and closer.

The expressions of the two guards suddenly became serious, tense, and horrified!

Something is wrong!

Something's really wrong!

This person has no trace of the vitality, body temperature, spirit, or heartbeat of a living person!

A faint, chilling, and malevolent aura of darkness enveloped him.

His eyes were vacant, his gaze unfocused, staring intently at the gate of the manor ahead, his steps unwavering as he approached.

"stop!"

The guard on the left sternly ordered them to stop, raising his hand to intercept and question them.

Before the words were even finished!

That dull figure suddenly erupted!

The deathly silence instantly shattered!

The sluggish, wooden figure suddenly unleashed a terrifying speed far exceeding that of ordinary people!

The dark figure flashed and instantly pounced in front of the guard!

A mouthful of jet-black, sharp teeth suddenly opened, dripping with thick, foul-smelling saliva, and viciously bit and tore at the guard's carotid artery!

Pfft—!

Blood is boiling!

Flesh and blood were torn apart!

This Qi Refining Level 3 Guardian didn't even have time to circulate his spiritual power, activate his protective spiritual energy, or let out a scream!

A large chunk of flesh was torn off his neck in an instant!

The skeletons were stark, the blood vessels were severed, and scalding blood gushed out everywhere!

His body convulsed violently twice, and he instantly collapsed to the ground!

Blood instantly stained the bluestone ground in front of the mansion gate!

The guard on the right had his pupils dilate in shock, his whole body filled with horror, and his scalp tingled!

"Enemy attack!!"

He roared fiercely, instantly channeling all his spiritual power, trying to raise his hand to resist and warn others!

But it was all too late.

On the surrounding streets.

Pedestrians walking normally, vendors setting up stalls, people strolling around, and children playing—

One by one, the heads slowly and stiffly turned.

All the eyes turned into empty, dark, lifeless silence!

The originally simple and kind townspeople were transformed in an instant into eerie corpses shrouded in yin energy!

Densely packed!

The whole street!

Dozens, even hundreds, of strange figures turned around stiffly at the same time and rushed towards the gate of the mansion!

The footsteps were rhythmic, stiff, and numb!

Countless hordes of corpses rushed towards us, lunging and biting menacingly!

Tearing flesh and blood, gnawing on tendons and bones, insane and violent!

Screams, the sound of flesh tearing, the sound of bones shattering, and eerie, grotesque cries instantly filled the entire long street!

Outside the manor, it instantly turned into a bloody hell!

Inside the main hall of the mansion.

Shi Wanshan, the master of Shiling, who was busy handling matters related to the martial arts competition, instantly caught sight of the evil aura and bloody chaos rising into the sky outside the door, thanks to his powerful cultivation at the eighth level of Qi Refining!

boom!

An extremely chilling sense of crisis suddenly rushed straight to my soul!

His eyes suddenly narrowed, and he abruptly stood up from his seat!

His expression changed drastically, and he suddenly looked up at the dark streets outside the mansion where riots were raging!

For the first time, extreme shock and horror surfaced deep in his eyes!

"What's going on—!!"

……

at the same time.

Outside Black Stone Ridge, along the ancient mountain road that winds its way through the mountains.

The mountains are layered with green peaks, shrouded in clouds and mist.

Zhang Yang and his group were still on their way to Black Stone Ridge.

There is still a distance to travel before we reach Black Stone Ridge.

The mountains are a cesspool of hell, a bloodbath erupts, and the town is mysteriously destroyed.

The cultivators in the distance awaited the competition peacefully, completely unaware of what was happening.

The boy who is about to stir up all the turmoil and suppress this bizarre catastrophe is still on his way.

The entire Black Stone Ridge has quietly fallen into boundless darkness.