# Chapter 1126: Divine Mineral
Crystalline and brilliant light spilled down like liquid crystal, and as it fell, skeletal creatures screamed, the ghostly flames within their skulls extinguishing, turning into wisps of smoke while their bones shattered inch by inch, becoming white powder.
What was this? An aura so peaceful and holy, capable of purifying this world!
Ye Fan was astonished. Beside him, those bodiless ghosts melted like ice and snow, rapidly dissolving into wisps of smoke that vanished.
Deep within the forbidden zone, the roars grew even more terrifying, emitting streaks of black light like a black sun rising, casting threads of demonic radiance.
"So powerful!"
Ye Fan retreated, teleporting thousands of li in an instant, because he sensed a dangerous aura spreading across heaven and earth. If he didn't retreat, he would be like a small boat in a raging sea, capsizing at any moment.
"Crack, crack" sounds rang out without end. The entire world became unstable. Even after retreating thousands of li, bone mountains were collapsing, and the white bones on the ground were turning to dust, becoming snow-white bone powder.
"Sage-level power!" Ye Fan's expression changed. He hadn't expected to encounter an Ancient Sage-level being in the very first battle of the trial grounds. One could imagine how terrifying the road ahead would be.
The earth was covered with endless dry bones, like vast expanses of white snow stretching endlessly to where heaven and earth met.
And it was precisely at that end that a black sun slowly rose from the white bone sea. It was immeasurably vast, filling the sky, emitting billions of black light threads that wove into black order divine chains, piercing through the void.
An Ancient Sage-level Black Sun!
Ye Fan opened his heavenly eye, carefully examining it, trying to see through its origin. This black sun was comparable to a black mountain, resisting the brilliant immortal light in the sky.
The two were fundamentally incompatible, naturally clashing. Light scattered chaotically, laws intertwined, continuously annihilating each other. One was filled with life force, the other inherently contained destructive power.
"Hum"
More immortal light fell, tearing through the leaden clouds, making this dark world bright, no longer so gloomy.
Violent explosions came, countless bone mountains collapsed, bone fragments scattered everywhere, and skeletal creatures wailed, struggled, and fled in all directions.
"In my death kingdom, you scatter your so-called survey seeds, conduct your experiments, and continuously slaughter my subjects. You will all die!"
A majestic voice came from within the black sun. Divine principles affected the leaden clouds, making them boil, transforming into death energy that devoured the immortal light, once again covering the sky.
"Hum!"
A white bone blade, brilliant like moonlight, shot up from the black sun, charging beyond the heavens to strike the mysterious holy light.
"Boom"
The leaden clouds tore open. A great path of divine marks pressed down. The invader's laws were extremely powerful, filled with holy power, continuously colliding with the bone blade.
Ancient Sage-level!
Ye Fan could confirm that both sides were Ancient Sage-level figures with heaven-reaching methods. He was grateful that he had retreated far enough; otherwise, he would have been reduced to ashes.
"This is a dangerous world. No wonder the ancient sages never returned. From the Primordial Era to now, only three to five have survived. The rest, including Sacred Bodies, have bled and died beyond this domain!"
His expression was grave. This was just the beginning. The very first stop had encountered such terrifying Sage-level existences. One could imagine the danger and terror of the trial grounds ahead.
This black sun contained a powerful life form within. Threads of black light extended from its gaps, like tentacles, continuously colliding with the immortal light in the sky.
Death energy boiled. The black sun split into four parts, and from within rushed out a mysterious ancient beast. More precisely, it was a skeletal creature that had grown flesh, appearing quite unusual.
Behind it were bone spikes shooting up to the sky, snow-white and sharp. With a slight tremor, they could split heaven and earth, each one hundreds of zhang long.
This was a never-before-seen extraterrestrial heavenly beast, massive and agile. It had a tiger-leopard body, crocodile scales, divine deer antlers, eagle-like iron claws, and a scorpion tail with a hooked tip pointing to the sky.
Except for the bone spikes on its back, which were snow-white, crystalline, sharp enough to split the sky, the rest of its body was like purple jade, crystalline and brilliant, looking incredibly divine and martial, with holy radiance surrounding it.
"Rebirth from death!"
Ye Fan was horrified. He sensed powerful death energy. With every slight movement of this extraterrestrial heavenly beast, terrifying death aura rushed out from within its body, shaking the eight directions and causing everything to collapse.
This giant beast was thousands of zhang tall. It opened its mouth and roared, shattering the dark clouds. The scenery in the sky was revealed. Besides the sun, moon, and stars, there was also a war chariot, as if a Divine King had descended to tour the mortal world.
"Boom!"
Massive lightning carrying chaotic energy struck down, hitting this heavenly beast. Tens of thousands of Sage-level dao marks descended, wanting to purify this world into a place full of life.
The immortal light from earlier had been scattered from this ancient war chariot, casting streaks of radiance throughout the death kingdom.
"What kind of person is in this war chariot?" Ye Fan wondered.
Having embarked on the path of the strongest trial, he had finally encountered some living beings, but each one was extremely peculiar. This was a Sage-level confrontation, and he dared not approach.
"Roar..."
The heavenly beast roared, battling the existence in the war chariot beyond the heavens. The entire death world trembled. The leaden clouds were torn open, and all kinds of light poured down.
"You merely rely on that war chariot. You have repeatedly violated my kingdom. This time, I won't let you escape."
"Master of the Death Kingdom, I do not wish to offend. Scattering survey seeds is to detect a mineral we need. If you permit it, I will leave immediately after collecting it and never return." Divine thought fluctuations came from the war chariot.
Ye Fan was inwardly surprised. Examining the several-thousand-zhang-long giant metal war chariot, he sensed its vastness. Just how precious was the mineral an Ancient Sage wanted to collect?
"The divine material belonging to my Death Kingdom, how could I allow you to steal it? Don't dream of it!" The divine thought fluctuations emitted by this heavenly beast were like star domains shaking, vast and boundless.
"These minerals are useless to you. I can trade with you, give you boundless corpses and death energy, allowing you to break through in the future." The fluctuations from the metal warship transmitted.
Ye Fan found it strange. Mining minerals? He thought of the Eternal Kingdom, where people conducted interstellar travel to refine the strongest evolution liquid, extracting divine liquid as the highest goal of many lives.
But this metal war chariot looked very different from flying saucers. Could it also be a product combining technology with dao traces?
"Not needed!"
The heavenly beast refused. The dozens of white bone giant spikes on its back all shot into the sky, transforming into white bone divine spears, piercing through the universe, charging toward the giant metal warship. At the same time, it leaped forward itself. Its deer antlers bloomed with five-colored divine radiance, transforming the sky into a black hole.
A great battle erupted. The two Ancient Sage-level existences rushed beyond the domain, disappearing into the boundless universe, engaging in a life-and-death decisive battle.
Ye Fan flashed, turning into an extreme light, plunging into the deepest part of the white bone sea. He discovered one grand tomb after another, all built from bone blocks.
There were no fewer than several dozen, and within each white bone tomb was a strange remnant corpse, gloomy and dark, filled with death energy!
These were left behind by successive masters of the Death Kingdom after they passed away. Most were broken bones that had lost their luster, as their essence had been absorbed by later inheritors.
Deep within the bone sea, the death energy was far stronger than elsewhere. This was where the successive Death Lords cultivated and went into seclusion, called the forbidden zone. Other skeletal creatures dared not approach, only those who had broken through to the Sage realm dared to challenge.
"Nothing of value here." Ye Fan muttered to himself. This was a death world. It was impossible for Medicine Kings or immortal liquids to grow here. There was nothing but bones and ghosts.
He looked up at the sky. The two Ancient Sage-level existences had fought beyond the heavens. The leaden clouds once again covered this world, everything dark and gloomy.
"This ancient star doesn't seem very large. I can look for that so-called rare mineral!"
Earlier, using the secret method given to him by the old master of the Extraordinary Scholars Mansion, he chanted incantations and sensed the fluctuations of an ancient secret formation. In the ground far from the forbidden zone, he discovered a formation gate. Within was a self-contained small world containing a small five-colored altar. Even Ancient Sages couldn't discover or enter it; only those who knew the formation patterns could enter.
Ye Fan felt relieved. The ancient formation was still there. If the formation platform had been destroyed, he would have needed to repair it himself. That was also part of the trial, and would be very troublesome.
Although the old sage of the Extraordinary Scholars Mansion had said there would definitely be breaks in the road ahead that needed to be reconnected, he certainly didn't want to encounter such a bad situation just half a year after starting.
Ye Fan remembered where the patches of immortal light had fallen earlier and quickly appeared in that area, because those were survey seeds, most likely very close to the rare mineral.
"Oh? Strange fluctuations!"
Sure enough, when he arrived at this area, faint fluctuations came from underground where the immortal light had fallen. They were barely perceptible. Only someone like him, with a physical body comparable to a Sage, could keenly detect the movement beneath his feet.
"Bang"
Ye Fan's entire body emitted golden light, becoming a golden war god. His powerful physical body moved with irresistible force, plunging thousands of li underground, reaching the core area.
Besides magma, there was also a gloomy and terrifying aura, as if he had arrived at the source of death. His body was about to crack, and the hairs on his body stood on end.
"What is that?"
Magma bubbled and surged, the temperature scorching hot. An ordinary person would have turned to ashes here, but he remained unharmed.
In the magma ground, there was a millstone-sized stone that had long cracked. Inside it was black liquid, like melted ink jade, flowing with black light, dotted with specks of luster.
"This... terrifyingly intense death aura!"
Every wisp of aura overflowing from there was intensely lethal. Ye Fan was certain that if an ordinary cultivator inhaled even a single breath, they would turn into white bones, their life force devoured.
"Is this the mineral that Ancient Sage was looking for? What use does it have? Can it be refined into a supreme treasure, or extracted into a precious liquid?" Ye Fan muttered to himself.
He didn't dare get too close. This kind of thing devoured life force. The entire ancient star becoming a deathly forbidden zone was most likely related to it.
Although this stone was only the size of a millstone, Ye Fan felt as if he were facing a vast ocean of death. The black liquid within it made one's mind and spirit want to collapse.
"It must be something extraordinary. I'll put it aside for now and study it in detail later."
Ye Fan took out a precious bottle, a King-level weapon. However, as soon as he put the millstone-sized stone inside, the jade bottle made a crisp cracking sound, developing many cracks.
"What kind of liquid can destroy a King-level divine weapon?!" He was greatly shocked.
He showed an expression of disbelief, then took out a blood-red small gourd. This was a Half-Saint-level weapon, a war trophy seized from a powerful Ancient Clan member.
"Crack"
The same sound came again. The blood-red small gourd also shattered, unable to bear the millstone-sized stone. The black liquid inside was crystalline and glossy, yet shocking to the eye.
"This is too outrageous. What kind of mineral is this? As heavy as a hundred thousand mountains, or inherently capable of destroying precious treasures?"
Ye Fan increasingly felt that this mysterious black liquid was extraordinary. He didn't dare touch it with his hands. He summoned the Primordial Qi Cauldron and collected it inside.
This time, it went smoothly. There was no obstruction, and the cauldron remained intact.
"This place cannot be lingered in. Taking this mineral might cause unknown consequences..."
After Ye Fan rushed out of the surface, he immediately entered the ancient secret formation, then boarded the five-colored altar, and vanished.
Half an hour later, the battle beyond the heavens affected the ground. The giant metal war chariot and the several-thousand-zhang heavenly beast occasionally flashed, clashing fiercely in the leaden clouds.
Immortal light occasionally fell. The master of the war chariot was still detecting the rare mineral.
However, the master of the Death Kingdom cried out first: "Oh? No, it's disappeared! The death energy concentration has dropped significantly. You stole the divine object!"
The master of the metal war chariot was also shocked: "What's going on? The mineral has truly disappeared. It's no longer on this ancient star. Death Kingdom Lord, where have you hidden it?"
"Nonsense! Everything here is mine. The ancient star's innate divine artifact has disappeared. You must be behind this! Give me back my divine treasure!"
"Who stole the mineral? Everything on this entire ancient star combined isn't as precious as it. Why has it disappeared? I've been tracking it for a thousand years and only found it here. I must find it!"
Both Ancient Sage-level existences had red eyes, fighting desperately while their powerful divine thoughts swept across the eight directions, searching for anything suspicious.