Divine Root Bone

Cangxuan Continent, Eastern Region, Shou'an Village.

The entire world seemed to have been covered by an enormous, incomparable black coffin, making people feel suffocated.

There was no wind, no insects, no faint sound of birds and beasts flapping their wings; even the most ordinary flow of spiritual energy between heaven and earth was completely cut off.

Only deathly silence, a bone-chilling silence, heavily suppressed this small village on the eastern border.

At the entrance of the village, on the branches of the ancient locust tree that has stood for a hundred years, an old figure in a green robe stood quietly.

This person was an elder of the Zhang family in the Central Plains Holy Land. His cultivation was profound, and his power should have been as vast as the sea, capable of intimidating an entire region with a single move. However, he had now completely absorbed it into his body.

The old locust tree beneath my feet had long since died, its branches twisted and jagged, the gnarled branches growing wildly outwards, each dry, blackened branch hanging precariously in mid-air like countless withered ghostly claws, menacingly pointing towards the ground. The bark was cracked and peeling, the crevices filled with black grime—not dust, but the resentment and deathly aura accumulated over the years, clinging tightly to the wood, impossible to wash away or dissipate.

The old man stood firmly on the withered branches, as steady as a mountain, without moving an inch.

But the moment his shoe sole touched the branch, a very faint layer of black frost silently spread out, icy cold to the bone. It was not the frost of heaven and earth, but the yin cold that belonged only to the dead and evil spirits. It seeped into his flesh, bones and blood through his shoe sole and clothes.

His gaze was deep as he slowly raised his eyes to look down over the entire Shou'an Village.

The sight that met one's eyes sent a chill down one's spine.

There's no trace of village life or human presence left.

Every inch of land within sight was filled with dilapidated and crumbling houses. Half of the earthen walls had collapsed, the broken walls standing crookedly, blackened and moldy, covered with eerie dark patterns, as if countless filthy things had once crawled and lingered on them. The rotten wooden doors, reduced to fragments, lay scattered among the overgrown weeds. The empty doorways and windows were dark and deep, like the unclosed eyes of the dead, silently staring at the uninvited guest standing atop the ancient tree.

Wild grass grew rampant, covering the village roads and courtyards. The waist-high weeds were all withered, yellow, and black, lifeless and motionless.

And what really makes your scalp tingle and your hair stand on end—

This Shou'an Village is not a human settlement at all. He closed his eyes and counted breaths, and was surprised to find that the place was full of graves.

There were graves in front of the house, graves behind the yard, graves on the ridges of the fields, graves in the corners of the walls, and even in the center of the hall of the collapsed house and next to the stove, there were bare mounds of yellow earth.

Densely packed, layer upon layer, boundless.

There is no monument, no sacrifice, no incense, and no name.

Rows of low, burial mounds stand close together, covering the entire land of Shou'an Village. The yellow soil has turned black and dark. What lies buried deep beneath the soil are not corpses, but the lifespans of mortals who have been forcibly plundered and squeezed dry, and the overwhelming resentment that has accumulated over the years.

The entire village is a graveyard, every inch of soil conceals evil spirits.

The old man stood on a branch, his gaze deep and serious, a heavy sense of gravity passing through his eyes.

The evil spirits here are not fierce, violent, or ostentatious.

It doesn't churn and roll, it doesn't blot out the sun, it doesn't roar and devour people.

It lies quietly hidden in the soil, in the weeds, in the graves, in the shadows of dilapidated houses, silently swallowing up the smoke and fire of the world, quietly stripping away the lifespan of living beings, gentle yet sinister, deadly yet insane.

He could see that beneath this dilapidated and desolate appearance lay a pair of unseen eyes.

He had been watched from the moment he landed from the sky and stepped into the territory of Shou'an Village.

The eerie source buried deep underground has already awakened and has its sights firmly fixed on him.

The other party remained calm, unhurried, and composed.

Like a hunter who has been lying in wait for ages, quietly watching the prey that has entered the hunting ground, silently observing, secretly spying, and waiting for the right moment to strike.

The entire village was deathly silent, full of disguises and hiding places.

Something is hidden in the shadows of the ruins, something is hidden deep in the weeds, something is hidden in the dark houses, and even beneath every silent grave lies lurking malice.

The old man slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, his aged and hoarse voice suddenly breaking through the ancient silence.

The voice was soft, without any imposing force or hostility, and simply echoed over the entire ghost village.

"Stop hiding, come out."

With the first word uttered, all was still deathly silent.

There was no response, no unusual activity, no whispers, no rustling of leaves.

The deserted Shou'an Village remained a desolate and desolate ghost town, as if the shout from earlier was just a gust of wind blowing through the empty valley, unheard by anyone.

The old man remained unfazed, his eyes deep and unfathomable as he silently surveyed the entire village of graves below.

He knew.

It's not that I didn't hear it.

The other side is stalling, waiting, accumulating, and secretly mobilizing the resentment and evil energy of the entire village to surround and kill him.

The silence stretched on for what felt like centuries.

The cold and oppressive atmosphere was suffocating, as if even the air was gradually freezing, tightly enveloping everything around us.

The next moment—

Rumble!

A faint, muffled, and low rumbling sound emanated from beneath the entire land of Shou'an Village.

The sound was extremely soft and muffled, spreading along the ground. It didn't sound like an earthquake, but rather like countless spirits turning over underground or countless evil spirits awakening in the shadows.

Followed by.

Countless fine, jet-black threads of malevolent energy emerged from the graves, the dilapidated ground, and the shadows of houses, swarming out in a frenzy.

One by one, strand by strand, densely packed, covering the sky and the earth.

The jet-black threads, as fine as hair, yet carrying a chilling coldness and boundless resentment, burst forth from the earth, soaring through the air and twisting wildly.

Every thread of evil energy is imbued with the lifespan of the people of Shou'an Village who have been forcibly drained over generations, and is filled with the fear, despair, resentment, and unwillingness of mortals before their death.

The black lines soared into the air, frantically intertwining, pulling, and solidifying.

hum-

One humanoid silhouette after another slowly coalesced and took shape amidst the interwoven black lines.

Fifty or sixty figures appeared all at once!

Their figures were no different from those of human cultivators, dressed in tattered old clothes, their faces blurred and distorted, their features indistinct, neither human nor ghost. A faint aura of black death enveloped them, their figures elusive, their feet never touching the ground, silently hovering in mid-air above the dilapidated village.

This is the evil spirit clone formed from the overwhelming resentment of Shou'an Village, manipulated and condensed by a strange source underground!

Unlike the high-level evil spirits Zhang Yang had encountered before, these clones had no independent intelligence. They were all naturally formed from the resentment of the dead in the village and the evil energy of their stolen lifespans. They were controlled by the strange source underground, fearless of death, unaware of pain, and only knew how to kill intruders.

Their cultivation aura was also clearly revealed.

The weakest, Foundation Establishment Level 4!

Intermediate level, Foundation Establishment Stage 5!

More than half of them have all reached the peak of Foundation Establishment!

Fifty or sixty evil spirit clones at the foundation level stood densely packed in mid-air, silently surrounding the ancient locust tree and the old man from the Zhang family standing on its branches, completely trapping him in the center.

The sheer number of them was overwhelming, and the atmosphere was sinister and chilling.

If an ordinary Foundation Establishment or peak Foundation Establishment cultivator were to enter this place, their physical body would be torn apart and their soul devoured by a massive number of evil spirit clones, leaving them no chance to resist.

Fifty or sixty blurry figures floated silently in mid-air.

There were no roars, no howls, no menacing glints.

They stood there quietly, their blurred faces all facing the old man on the ancient tree, staring silently, their gaze deathly still.

The quieter it is, the more terrifying it is.

This silent encirclement was far more chilling than a frenzied attack.

On the ancient tree, the old man's expression remained calm, but his eyes were filled with frost.

He could clearly sense that these fifty or sixty evil spirit clones were merely pawns used by the other party to test him, a pre-emptive killing intent casually activated by the strange source underground.

The real terror, the true primal evil, remains buried deep underground, hidden from view.

Those eyes, hidden beneath endless darkness and endless graves, still stared coldly at him, looking down at him indifferently, as if looking at a corpse about to fall.

The wind blows, yet the place remains deathly silent; the ghost village is filled with murderous intent.

In Shou'an Village of the Eastern Region, the entire ghostly realm of tombs has entered a deadly standoff.

at this time.

Fifty or sixty evil spirit clones, ranging from the fourth to the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage, soared into the air and attacked, instantly filling the sky above Shou'an Village in the Eastern Region with thick, inky black resentment and poison.

The evil black threads twisted and extended wildly in mid-air, transforming into fangs, bone spikes, soul-splitting claws, and soul-binding black whips, layer upon layer, crushing down on the old man atop the ancient locust tree branch. Each evil avatar had a blurred and distorted face, its features blended into a murky gray shadow. The resentment surging within it carried a bone-corroding, decaying chill. It was the malevolent energy condensed from the villagers of Shou'an Village who had their lifespan forcibly drained and died with resentment. Any Golden Core cultivator who encountered it would have their three-foot protective shield erected by their dantian shatter upon contact, ending up with their soul scattered.

These clones had no independent consciousness and were completely controlled by the eerie evil source in the graveyard behind the mountain. They knew no fear or pain, and even if their physical bodies were shattered, they could be rebuilt by the continuous Yin energy from the ground. Fifty or sixty figures spread out into a dark, turbid wave, blocking all the old man's escape routes. They densely surrounded the entire withered ancient locust tree, and the evil energy attacks from all directions left no gaps, bombarding the lonely, old figure on the branch.

The old man on the branch remained motionless, his body innately activating a void barrier, unleashing his unique passive protective divine power. His primordial spirit intertwined with the real, creating a layer of void isolation within three zhang (approximately 10 meters) that was almost imperceptible to the naked eye. Without him needing to actively activate any spiritual power, it spontaneously isolated him from all low-level spatial erosion and evil attacks—a chasm that lower-level cultivators could never overcome. At the same time, he wielded shallow spatial laws, dealing with the group of evil spirits before him who hadn't even touched the threshold of the Golden Core stage; the difference in their cultivation was like heaven and earth.

The old man didn't even lift his eyelids, his hands behind his back remained still. He gently ground a withered black locust branch under his feet, and slowly floated down from the branch several meters high. He walked directly down into the heart of the village, where graves were scattered everywhere. His simple blue Taoist robe hung down, moving without wind. There was no dazzling spiritual light bursting from his body, only a layer of light, flowing spatial ripples quietly swirling around him. This was the independent small void created by the fusion of the primordial spirit and the real world.

The first bone spike, over three feet long, slammed into the void isolation layer.

The expected roar of spiritual light colliding and the turbid sound of baleful energy exploding were nowhere to be seen. The bone spur, sharp enough to easily pierce the flesh of a Golden Core cultivator, touched the flowing spatial ripples and instantly seemed to fall into a bottomless void. The entire bone spur was slowly pulled and dismantled by the misaligned space. The life-corroding black energy contained within was locked into the independent void inside the barrier, dissolving into a wisp of insignificant gray mist in just half a breath. It didn't even manage to wipe the hem of the old man's Taoist robe, leaving not a trace.

Immediately following, three Foundation Establishment Peak evil clones simultaneously unleashed their jet-black giant claws. Five claw blades, each over ten feet long, tore through the air, carrying the villagers' extreme fear and resentment before their deaths as they clawed at the old man's back. The moment the claw tips touched the surrounding void, the entire space suddenly caved in and distorted slightly. The entire arm of the evil clone was directly stuck between the void and reality. The continuously pouring evil energy was completely diverted and dissolved by the shallow spatial laws. No matter how frantically the clone twisted and turned, urging the Yin energy beneath the ground to surge, the arm could not move forward even half an inch. The continuously surging black energy was completely swallowed up as soon as it entered the void barrier, not even a trace of coldness could penetrate it.

The attacks from all directions never ceased. Countless black whips lashed through the air, bone-crushing evil needles shot out everywhere, and giant fists formed from turbid black energy bombarded in turn. The dense attacks relentlessly pounded on the void barrier surrounding the old man. However, all the evil energy, resentment, and evil artifacts that touched the isolation layer ultimately met the same fate—they were locked into the interlayer of the primordial spirit void, dismantled, and dissolved, like pebbles thrown into the boundless deep sea, unable to stir up even the slightest ripple.

The old man walked steadily, stepping over the moss-covered, decaying branches and landing on the ground covered with weeds and grave soil. His pace was unhurried as he headed straight towards the graveyard deep in the village. The attacks of evil spirits around him never ceased, yet they could never get within three zhang of him. That invisible void barrier was like a chasm separating yin and yang, completely keeping all the low-level evil spirits out.

As he walked, the old man's aged and serene thoughts slowly surged in his heart. His gaze swept over the layers of unmarked tombs and collapsed, decaying houses on both sides, and his heart was filled with astonishment and doubt.

This place is named Shou'an, originally meant to pray for long life and peace year after year. However, the entire village is buried alive, with mounds of yellow earth rising in every courtyard, hall, and stove of every household. Hundreds of ordinary people have died young and tragically, their lifespans forcibly robbed by an invisible force. Their resentment has lingered for years, eventually giving birth to this malevolent place that can mass-produce Foundation Establishment level evil spirit clones. Such a massive aggregate of resentment could never be created by ordinary demons or vengeful ghosts.

In this Shou'an Village, the evil source can be manipulated at will to condense fifty or sixty resentment clones at the fourth or fifth level of Foundation Establishment or even the peak of Foundation Establishment. The primordial evil energy hidden underground is so profound that it has already exceeded what the old man had seen and heard in his previous travels to various dangerous places.

The old man frowned slightly, his steps never faltering. The void barrier around him continued to circulate silently, continuously blocking the attacks from all directions. He could clearly sense that the yin energy and resentment of the entire village were flowing along the soil layers and converging towards the massive cemetery on the back mountain. There, beneath the soil, lay the root of the entire ghost village's evil energy. Nine out of ten parts of the malevolent power of Shou'an Village resided deep within the tombs on the back mountain.

The evil spirit clones that surrounded him and kept attacking him were just pawns that the evil source casually manipulated to test his strength. The real killing move and the truly terrifying source power were still hidden in the graveyard in the back mountain, never revealing themselves.

Seeing that their ranged attacks were completely ineffective, the several evil clones charged forward fearlessly, their entire bodies formed from turbid black energy crashing violently into the void barrier. At the moment of impact, the clones were instantly trapped in a distorted spatial layer, their bodies slowly torn apart and disintegrated by the power of the void, turning into countless tiny black ash fragments that vanished in an instant. But the Yin energy from the earth would immediately re-outline their shapes in the distant graveyards, rising again to surround them, endless and relentless.

The old man ignored this and continued to ponder the strangeness of the place in his mind.

The most peculiar aspect of the resentment here is that it is entirely dependent on the lifespan of mortals. These clones possess neither demonic power nor evil energy; their power originates entirely from the lifespan of ordinary people that has been plundered. The depletion of lifespan generates decaying malevolent energy, which, combined with the resentment of the deceased at the moment of death, forms this unique and malevolent power. This bizarre method of devouring lifespan is definitely not a known orthodox demonic or ghostly technique on the continent. Instead, it resembles some kind of lost, extremely insidious forbidden art, specifically targeting mortal villages and towns as its hunting grounds to harvest the lifespan of the living in large quantities.

However, if it were a deliberate arrangement, the person who arranged it would have to be at least as powerful as him to have the ability to seal off the flow of Yin and Yang in an entire village and gather the resentment of ten thousand people. But if a high-level cultivator were to cause trouble here, they would inevitably leave behind clear traces of Daoist energy. The old man walked along, his divine sense sweeping across the entire village, but he only sensed pure, natural resentment, without a trace of cultivator's Daoist power remaining. This created an inexplicable contradiction.

It is either some ancient evil creature that is naturally rooted in the earth, with the innate talent to devour the lifespan of mortals and create vengeful clones; or it is a forbidden array that someone set up here long ago, and now the person who set up the array has long since left, and the array has been operating on its own for a hundred years, reaping the lifespan of the villagers day after day and nourishing the evil source underground.

The old man weighed the situation in his mind, and the void barrier around him remained as immovable as a mountain, no matter how many times the fifty or sixty evil spirit clones attacked, they could not even touch his robes.

In the distance, the rolling earthen slopes at the edge of the village came into view. The slopes were densely covered with countless burial mounds, stretching to the horizon. A thick, almost tangible black aura rose from the graves into the sky. Even from hundreds of feet away, the old man could clearly sense the terrifying evil power that was crushing the entire village. This was the core of the Yin energy gathering in the whole Shou'an Village—the cemetery on the back mountain.

The closer they got to the back mountain, the more ferocious the attacks of the surrounding evil spirit clones became. More and more evil energy threads surged from the ground, constantly condensing into new clones. The number of evil spirit figures in the air quickly increased to seventy or eighty, a dark mass surrounding the old man. Claws and black whips bombarded the void barrier like a torrential rain, but the flowing spatial ripples remained calm and gentle. All the evil energy was swallowed up and dissolved by the void, without causing the slightest ripple.

The old man continued walking, his gaze fixed on the eerily dark graveyard at the back of the mountain. He was certain that all the mysteries and the strange source of the life-devouring evil lay hidden in that boundless cemetery. He didn't need to deal with the Foundation Establishment level clones around him; these mere pawns were insignificant. He only needed to go straight to the back mountain, find the hidden source of evil, and the truth would naturally come to light.

Despite the relentless onslaught of malevolent forces, the old man in green robes strolled leisurely through the entire cemetery, the void barrier around him remaining unmoved for eternity. As if taking a leisurely walk, he steadily advanced towards the depths of the back mountain, where the evil energy was most concentrated. The world was deathly silent, with only endless shadowy resentment swirling around him, yet he was always firmly blocked by a unique void chasm, unable to cross it even half a step.