Chapter 275: Encounter with the Corrupted

Five days later, the light behind them had completely vanished.

The ship was surrounded by a fierce red glow, and the black sea had thickened to a viscous state, so dense that even the lingering essence of the Forbidden Sea couldn’t reach this place.

“Something feels off, Old Ox.”

Chen Xun looked ahead, sensing the energy of the world and the Five Elements. “This cold, eerie aura doesn’t belong to our world. We’ve never had anything like this.”

“Moo~” Black Ox nodded, standing beside Chen Xun with the black coffin slung across its back.

They could no longer feel any spiritual energy. Even the limitless essence of the Five Elements was scarce. It felt less like a world and more like an isolated domain, severed from the heavens and earth.

“What the abbot said back then was true. These corrupted beings aren’t true life forms. Even that black fish I caught was far from normal.”

Chen Xun’s eyes filled with contemplation as he drew a deathly Mountain Splitting Axe, gripping it tightly. “We don’t know where this path leads. If we can’t handle it, we retreat.”

Black Ox patted Chen Xun with its hoof, eyes wise and confident—when it came to retreating, no one could match its speed.

“Heh, well, if these corrupted beings are manageable, we’ll slaughter them all. Think of all the merit we could earn!”

Chen Xun’s eyes gleamed as he took a step forward. “Old Ox, let’s go all out this time. Not only could we gain the divine sense power needed to break through to the Deity Transformation stage, but we might even surpass its limits.”

“Moo moo!” Black Ox’s eyes sparkled with excitement, snorting enthusiastically as it thought about Chen Xun’s plans detailed in their notebook—all of them could become reality.

“Xiao Chi, you stay out of this battle. Stay with Brother Crane on the ship.”

“Brother Xun, Brother Ox, don’t worry. I won’t get in the way!” Xiao Chi called from the ship’s stern, nestled under the Crane Spirit Five Elements Tree. “If those corrupted beings have storage rings, leave the looting to me!”

Waving its lion’s tail, Xiao Chi chuckled. It had been doing this kind of work for years—its specialty.

“Haha, good!”

“Moo moo~~”

Chen Xun and Black Ox responded with laughter, feeling uplifted. They were excited for the future, imagining the fun ahead once Brother Crane transformed. The world held endless possibilities.

However, despite the Crane Spirit Five Elements Tree nearing its million-year nurturing point, it had reached a bottleneck, and its transformation showed no signs of progress. While it had developed intelligence, it still remained in its tree form, responding to Chen Xun’s words with slight movements of its branches.

They had no clue how to assist the transformation. Without prior experience, they didn’t know how a tree would take a human form.

“Hmm, Old Ox, we’re approaching something.”

Chen Xun’s expression sharpened, his aura surging to its peak as the Five Elements wheels around him began to spin violently. “Don’t act rashly.”

“Moo!” Black Ox remained calm, waving its hoof as the Five Elements formation flags settled into place.

*Clang!*

The space around them trembled as if something had been locked in place, ripples spreading outwards.

The dark sky, long left behind in the tunnel, had been replaced by an impossibly high expanse—no clouds, no stars, only a vast blackness filled with a suffocating stillness.

With their sixteen spirit points fully activated, they scanned the distant land—a vast, undulating terrain of black soil, deep and ominous, covered in eerie mountains. It felt like an entirely separate domain, void of life.

No ancient trees, no beastly roars, no miasma or poisonous insects, and above all, no trace of any living creatures.

This was the War Realm—the Black Soil Domain.

Everything here seemed like a distorted version of a living realm. The oppressive atmosphere, devoid of spiritual and vital energy, meant cultivators could only recover their strength using spirit stones.

The environment of the Black Soil Domain was hostile to cultivators, explaining why Extinguishing Spirit Artifacts were so effective here—spiritual treasures faced severe limitations.

“What kind of place is this? I can’t sense any other cultivators; this path is dangerous.” Chen Xun frowned.

Black Ox licked its lips. No wonder this path was sealed off so tightly—this might have been the site of the most brutal battles in ancient times, now considered a forbidden route alongside the Forbidden Sea.

It felt they were always on unconventional paths, and true to form, this was no exception.

Half an hour later.

*Buzz!*

The ship’s deep hum signaled it had docked on the coastline of the Black Soil Domain. For a long while, all was silent.

Chen Xun and Black Ox remained unfazed, their sharp eyes scanning the surroundings. Years of habit dictated they observe first—ensuring all exits were clear for a quick escape.

“Moo?”

“Where are the corrupted beings?”

Chen Xun and Black Ox exchanged glances. The eerie silence stretched endlessly—nothing but the cold aura pervading the air. It posed no threat to them.

Even Xiao Chi, while his fur stood on end, only felt a chill. He crouched under the Crane Spirit Five Elements Tree, eyes scanning the surroundings cautiously, his claws gripping the tree tightly.

Black Ox remained highly alert, its divine sense anchored in the formation flag. It was wary of a sudden ambush from a group of Nascent Soul or Deity Transformation-stage corrupted beings. That would be a catastrophe.

Chen Xun squinted as he felt something off about the cold aura around them.

Suddenly, a surge of intense malice filled the area. Several black figures materialized above them, emanating a chilling intent as if they had been lurking all along.

“Moo!”

“They’re here!”

Chen Xun’s eyes glinted as he looked up. Seeing the form of the corrupted beings gave him goosebumps—what in the world were these things?

Four corrupted beings took shape—some appeared human, others resembled spirit beasts, but all had skin coated in an eerie black hue, even their eyes were entirely black, devoid of whites.

Their immense hatred toward living beings crashed into Chen Xun and Black Ox’s minds. A Qi Refinement cultivator would have instantly transformed into a bloodthirsty monster under its influence.

The corrupted beings’ attacks were equally bizarre. Black blood seeped from their skin, forming blood blades that became their weapons, slashing toward Chen Xun and Black Ox.

Despite this, waves of spiritual energy pulsed within them. How had they cultivated this? Four Foundation Establishment-level corrupted beings!

Black Ox snorted, raising its hoof as a massive meteor streaked across the sky, scorching the air and filling the space with red light.

The corrupted beings, undeterred, charged at Chen Xun and Black Ox, seemingly willing to trade their lives for stolen years.

*Boom!!*

The meteor exploded into molten rock, its intense heat incinerating the corrupted beings in the air, leaving nothing but ash.

“So aggressive?”

Chen Xun frowned, a chill creeping into his heart. Foundation Establishment-level beings attacking Nascent Soul cultivators—what madness was this? He glanced at Black Ox, worried. “Old Ox, how are you holding up?”

“Moo?” Black Ox shook itself off, puzzled. “Moo moo!”

It explained to Chen Xun that it hadn’t felt any loss of lifespan. However, when the beings died, a cold energy forcefully entered its body, bypassing its spirit and physical points.

There was a connection here they couldn’t yet grasp, similar to the cause-and-effect logic they encountered in a village long ago—where eating led inevitably to excretion.

Oddly, the cold energy transformed into spiritual sense power, merging into Black Ox’s spiritual points, an effect even stranger than the Extinguishing Spirit Stones.

The Extinguishing Spirit Stones required the Five Elements energy for conversion, altering the existing spiritual sense, but this energy directly enhanced spiritual sense without transformation.