An unknown distance away from Yingfeng, atop a canyon, Xia Hanshi coldly overlooked the scene below.
Through the thin mist, a small settlement could be seen in the canyon below. Stone houses built from stacked 'Aurora Stones' emitted a soft, lustrous glow, linking together to section off living areas.
However, at this moment, the thousands of residents below were acting like manipulated puppets, frozen on the surface of the earth in the exact same kneeling posture. Their knees sank deeply into the soil, their spines curved in stiff arcs, and their hands hung limply at their sides.
All of those withered bodies were perfectly aligned toward the central area, forming concentric rings.
The skin of these kneelers was tightly wrapped around their bones. Their eye sockets had sunken into pitch-black voids. The center of this ringed array was entirely empty, leaving only dark red energy brands burned into the ground.
"Sigh..." A sigh came from beside Xia Hanshi. "Which site is this now?"
Due to the influence of the mist, settlements like this were extremely common. The people here had lived this way for generations, highly resistant to relocating to the nearby cities.
"The twenty-second location..." Xia Hanshi's withered cheeks were like frozen stones. "Looking at the brand on the ground, it belongs to 'Crimson'."
"Black Buddha, Crimson, Dark Plague, Sly Fox..." Yuan Poshan's brows furrowed tightly. "Four Evil Gods. After the ten-city sacrifice failed, they've started massively searching for small settlements like this again."
"These settlements are too scattered; it is almost impossible for us to defend them all. Could it be... are they really going to initiate that so-called Holy Banquet?"
"There still doesn't seem to be any trace of the Faceless Ghost Cultists," Xia Hanshi suddenly noted.
Yuan Poshan frowned. "Is the Faceless Ghost out of the picture?"
...
"Your Excellency Su Chen, I am Rune MasterâGong Yun."
Su Chen looked at the woman before him. She wore a grey-white, form-fitting dress that draped down to her ankles, outlining her graceful figure, with long, black, wavy hair flowing down to her chest.
"Please come in," Su Chen stepped aside. A gentle smile played on Gong Yun's face.
"I was sent by the Analysis Department to construct an 'Aura-Concealing Rune Seal' for you."
"I know, they already informed me," Su Chen nodded.
"Then they surely didn't tell you that I volunteered to come, right?" Gong Yun pursed her lips and giggled.
"They didn't," Su Chen replied casually. "Take a look around; where's a good place to start working?"
"Anywhere is fine," Gong Yun's eyes drifted over him. "However, you'll need to temporarily take off your shirt. Where do you find convenient?"
"Then let's just do it here." Su Chen immediately stripped off his shirt, revealing a well-defined upper body. His chest and abdominal muscles looked as if they were carved by a knife, containing explosive power.
His chest heaved slightly with his breathing, and faint blue veins of light flickered beneath his skin, looking like liquid lightning coursing through them. This was due to his recent completion of the Thunder Aura Body Forging Method.
Gong Yun paused, her gaze subconsciously sweeping over him as she licked her lips. "Then here it is."
She extended a finger, and a pale golden radiance swirled around her fingertip. Tracing complex trajectories in the air to form symbols, she tapped just below Su Chen's collarbone. Fine ripples immediately spread across his skin, like stones tossed into a calm lake.
More rune seals were branded into his body. Those pale golden patterns began to extend automatically, wandering along the texture of his muscles like living vines.
Gong Yun's technique was far from simple. Focusing entirely, the threads of light pulled by her fingertips resonated with the patterns on Su Chen's body.
The rune seals gradually faded into the lower layers of his skin, leaving only faint golden veins on the surface that pulsed slightly in time with his breathing.
It took well over half an hour to completely finish. Dense beads of sweat now covered Gong Yun's fair cheeks.
"Done." Upon saying those two words, Gong Yun's slender body swayed as if she were about to collapse. However, seeing Su Chen standing completely still in place, she couldn't help feeling a wave of disappointment as she stood up straight again.
"So, going into the Nether Realm like this, the danger will be reduced?" Su Chen looked down at his golden-glowing skin and asked.
"That's correct. This rune seal can conceal your life vitality. However, you still need to be careful; it only strictly acts to drastically reduce the emanation, not entirely isolate it," Gong Yun warned. "Additionally, this rune seal can only last for half a month."
"In half a month, if you still need it, I'll come do it again."
Su Chen nodded in understanding. Seeing him fully dressed with an expression that practically screamed, 'Why are you still here?' Gong Yun stood unmoving for a moment, feeling regretful.
She had heard that this Core Seed wasn't a playboy. If she could hitch a ride on him, she would truly soar to the top.
"I'll take my leave then," Gong Yun reluctantly bid her farewell and left.
Meanwhile, Su Chen couldn't wait any longer. He went straight into the Gravity Room. Closing the door, he sat cross-legged on the floor, tentatively connecting with the 'rune seals' on his body, and then proceeded to draw a string of symbols on his chest.
Entering the Nether Realm under normal circumstances was just like the Trial of Whispersâvery simple, only requiring a few basic symbols.
And as expected, this time was completely different from the Trial of Whispers. He could clearly feel himself stepping across some sort of boundary, his body gradually growing icy cold.
His surroundings were dyed in a grey-white hue until the Gravity Room entirely vanished, bringing him to a land of the unknown.
The ground stretched out immensely toward the edge of his vision, boundless and endless. He couldn't see almost any color, and the sky remained perpetually gloomy.
The most bizarre aspect was the threads of grey-white mist floating in the air. They swayed exactly like living tentacles.
"This is the Nether Realm when entering under normal conditions? This mist looks very much like the mist in reality. Could it be that the mist in reality actually leaked from here?"
Su Chen looked around, trying out a couple of steps. He looked down at his own body, which was highly illusory, like a floating cloud drifting.
His mental energy was slowly draining away. Before it was completely exhausted, he had to return to reality, or he might end up permanently stuck here.
With a thought, a burst of crimson lightning crackled before his eyes.
"My mental-type professional abilities are still intact." Su Chen felt much more at ease.
"The Essence of Spirituality is born in places where spiritual remnants converge. It has a multicolored hue, like a rainbow, and inherently possesses an extremely strong attraction toward Nether Realm creatures."
Su Chen pondered, looking left, right, front, and back. His choice paralysis acted upâeverything looked the exact same, so which way was he supposed to go?
He didn't even have a coin to toss.
Just as he was thinking, his gaze settled. Not far away, a grey-black creature was curled up, surrounded by a grey-white mist. It had three or four tails, resembling a fox.
The vast majority of Nether Realm creatures operated purely on instinct, lacking any consciousness.
"Perfect time to test it out..." Su Chen's mind stirred. He first returned to reality, letting his body gradually hide within the spatial layers before entering the Nether Realm once more.
"That was stupid." Su Chen was speechless. By coming back in, his location had changed.
However, he very quickly spotted another Nether Realm creature.
Instantly, his body began to transform. His facial features vanished, transitioning into the state of a Faceless Ghost Priest.
Yet, the very moment he completed the transformation, the Nether Realm creature crawling on the groundâwhich looked something like a turtleâsuddenly jumped up and scurried away at top speed, disappearing without a trace in no time.
"This..." Su Chen raised an eyebrow. "Are Evil God Cultists really this influential here?"
Su Chen couldn't help but recall the true forms of the Evil Gods he had seen during previous Trials of Whispers. It seemed... that such a reaction was indeed expected.
"The vast majority of Nether Realm creatures have no consciousness. Only those that reach a certain tier can give birth to an incredibly thin consciousness."
Su Chen surveyed the boundless surroundings. "This place is too vast. It's virtually impossible to find the Essence of Spirituality all by myself."
He thought of a method. It was highly risky, but it was worth a try.
"I need to think this through carefully," he mused. "First, I must ensure my mental energy can keep up. I'll need to stay here for a sufficiently long time."
He attempted to activate the ability of the Origin Reverser. Through an obscure connection, he quickly discovered a surge of mental energy welling up from an unknown source.
"If I can still use it, then that's fine. It means the time I can persist here will be drastically prolonged."
After confirming this point, Su Chen returned to reality and exited the spatial layers.
"Although staying inside the spatial layers also drains mental energy, the amount of time I'll be spending in the Nether Realm in Priest form might be very long, and my physical appearance will also change. It would be highly troublesome if someone inexplicably barged in. It's better to play it safe."
After a brief thought, he began to slowly wipe away the symbols that had just been branded onto him.
After considering his next steps, Su Chen took a deep breath and immersed himself into the Nether Realm once more.
This time, the bright vitality of his mental energy wasn't concealed. Su Chen could clearly detect a faintly discernible malice.
Nearby, some Nether Realm creatures crawling on the ground began to move their bodies.
After annihilating a few of them with a burst of crimson lightning, Su Chen shook his head. "No, this is still too slow."
Suddenly, he leaped into the air. Crimson lightning expanded outward, forming a domain of lightning as his mental aura diffused without any concealment.
Soon, Su Chen detected substantial malice converging from all directions. One spine-chilling aura after another rippled toward him.
"...Sweet aura..."
"...Snatch... snatch..."
"...Delicious... delicious..."
Within the crazed and chaotic malice, there was a single commonality: intense drooling greed.
Black lightning boomed. Su Chen's heart skipped a beat as a rotting, gigantic black bird approached at top speed. It appeared in the sky, its wings spanning tens of meters, and let out an ear-piercing, ferocious cry.
"If placed in reality, this aura would be comparable to a 5th-tier professional." Su Chen's eyes turned grave.
And this was only the first one. The ground trembled as another giant with two headsâone large, one smallâcame striding over. It was roaring, and although the words were unintelligible, he could bizarrely comprehend its meaning.
"Mine... mine... mine..."
Both creatures harbored a naked desire for Su Chen. However, they also noticed each other. Black lightning interwove as the ground to quaked.
"The spiritual body of a living person is truly a massive slab of fat meat in here." Su Chen really hadn't expected the effect to be this good.
He didn't wait around. He directly disguised himself as a Faceless Ghost Priest, radiating a gloomy and eerie aura.
Visibly, the two Nether Realm creatures stopped their stand-off and simultaneously turned to look at him. Panic surfaced in their six pairs of mismatched eyes as they let out screeches and wails.
"...Faceless!"
"...Faceless!"
Su Chen could sense their mental fluctuations. Seeing that they were about to flee, he immediately barked, "Come back!"
Although they couldn't understand his words, they could comprehend his consciousness fluctuations.
Both creatures paused. After a brief struggle, fear gained the upper hand. The giant black bird tucked its wings and shivered, while the giant squatted on the ground, both of its heads drooping, not daring to move an inch.
"They're actually this terrified?" Su Chen was astonished; the effect was even better than he'd imagined.
"Come over..." He broadcasted a mental fluctuation. The giant and the black bird reluctantly approached.
"What are your names?" Su Chen asked, met only by silence.
Su Chen asked again, "Why are you so afraid of me?"
"Faceless... Faceless..."
Both beings responded simultaneously. Su Chen frowned. "To think that creatures of this level would still have such feeble consciousness."
He had originally wanted to ask about the situation here, but from the looks of it, they probably didn't know anything either.
"Do you know of the Essence of Spirituality?" he asked.
Both creatures sank into silence.
"Troublesome..." Su Chen felt helpless and could only try his best to describe its general external appearance as simply as possible.
The black bird remained bewildered, but the two-headed giant sent out a fluctuation. "Ate it... it was delicious."
"You ate it." Su Chen fell silent, sighing helplessly. Looking around, he logged off.
He used the exact same method several times in a row, switching between multiple locations, but couldn't find a single clue regarding the 'Essence of Spirituality'.
"This is truly a bit troublesome. I wonder just how large this Nether Realm actually is." Su Chen pinched his brow, chugging compressed nutrient fluid, waiting for his body to absorb and store it before converting it back into stamina and mental energy.
Through this method, he could rapidly recover both.
For several days in a row, Su Chen stayed inside the Gravity Room without stepping foot outside, constantly logging on and off to search for the Essence of Spirituality.
He even temporarily put aside his usual training. After all, once he advanced to the 'Spirit Adept', the boost to his talent would be more than enough to compensate for this lost time.
Unfortunately, he consistently came up empty-handed.
"It's so difficult to find. How on earth did Yuandu manage to find it?" After logging off to rest once again, Su Chen couldn't help pondering. The sound of continuous knocking echoed from his door.
Opening it, he found Ming Lin standing there, his expression looking fairly unpleasant. He relaxed a bit upon seeing Su Chen: "I thought you weren't here."
"You need something from me?" Su Chen invited him in and asked along the way.
"You don't know?" Ming Lin was surprised, then shook his head. "True, you probably didn't even pay attention to it."
"What happened?" Su Chen raised an eyebrow.
"That Hong Xuan has started challenging people to battles," Ming Lin said solemnly.
"Challenging people?" The image of the person he met while attending Wei Yinshuo's condolences surfaced in Su Chen's mind.
"So what if he's challenging people? Didn't you say they've engaged in spars before?" Su Chen didn't understand.
"It's different." Ming Lin shook his head. "In the past, even within the same tier, differences in the development level of each person's class meant there were gaps in strength. Sparring was just sparring; nobody took it seriously. But now, it's different."
"Don't tell me he..." Su Chen's expression turned odd.
"Exactly, the challenge arena," Ming Lin said coldly.
"How can the people from Yuandu also be this fond of that kind of thing?" Su Chen was speechless.
"Yuandu's overall strength has always been considered inferior to Yingfeng. Now that they have a chance, they naturally want to suppress us."
Ming Lin's expression was grave: "That Hong Xuan's strength is immense. Quite a few Inner Court Seeds have made a move, and none of them were a match for even a single of his blows. I'm afraid he'll be very difficult to deal with."
"Feng Ze is going into the arena today. He'll probably be able to force out quite a few of his methods. Do you want to go watch?"
Su Chen shook his head. "Forget it, I'm not interested."
"You..." Ming Lin was speechless. Knowing that he probably couldn't persuade Su Chen, he had no choice but to leave.
"Challenging people to battles?" After seeing Ming Lin out, a glint flickered in Su Chen's eyes.
(End of this chapter)