Chapter 846: Netherworld
The ghost soldiers marched in perfect unison, causing heaven and earth to tremble. They seemed to have come from ancient times, charging toward an eternal unknown, with primeval savage aura soaring to the heavens!
*In his later years, he encountered misfortune, his actions becoming eerily unpredictable. He had entered the Divine Ruins, ventured into the Immortal Mound, and witnessed ghost soldiers clearing the path, with even ancient sages making way for them.*
Banners fluttered as the ghost soldiers passed by, charging toward an unknown distance, sending chills down one's spine. Ye Fan stopped the others and remained motionless, not daring to provoke them.
No one else could see them except for him. Even though Duan De specialized in tomb studies, his hair stood on end at this moment as he sensed something strange, yet he saw nothing at all.
"What? Ghost soldiers clearing the path?!" When tens of thousands of ghost soldiers had marched past, the others exclaimed after hearing Ye Fan's words.
Underground yin energy could form spirits and the like, sometimes also called ghost soldiers, but they were absolutely different from this—these were true netherworld soldiers that defied understanding.
"I've cultivated the Yin-Yang Heavenly Eye, yet I didn't even see a shadow. Only my intuition told me that a group of terrifying existences passed by..." Duan De shuddered.
"I heard Emperor Wu Shi mention it before, something about ghost soldiers appearing somewhere... but I didn't listen to the details." Black Emperor said regretfully.
Ye Fan was the most unsettled. The eerie sight that only an Origin Heavenly Master could see in their later years, he was witnessing it now. Was this some kind of omen?
"I remember now—I once saw a manual left by a former sage. It recorded that the highest achievers in feng shui burial arts entered the Netherworld in their later years and saw ghost soldiers." Duan De clenched his fists.
But that manual was incomplete, never finished. The former sage was scared to death while writing it, sitting upright in his stone chamber with a terrified expression.
Upon hearing this, the others felt their hair stand on end. According to Duan De, it was not surprising that the highest achievers in feng shui burial arts rarely died peacefully.
"Let's follow them and see where they're going," Ye Fan said. Seeing this scene reminded him of the Origin Heavenly Master's later years, filling him with unease. If he didn't figure it out, he would always feel unsettled.
Duan De raised both feet in agreement, strongly supporting the idea. He believed that a monument of feng shui burial arts lay before them, about to unveil an ancient secret spanning ten thousand years, and he would become a legend in history.
"This is really creepy, but I've heard that black dog blood can ward off evil..." Li Tian muttered.
Black Emperor's expression immediately turned hostile. He turned to stare at Li Tian, baring a mouthful of gleaming white teeth.
"How about... Big Black, you contribute some blood to boost our confidence?" Li Tian said, oblivious to the danger.
"Woof!" The big black dog rose on its hind legs and pounced, biting down fiercely.
"Stop! Don't disturb the ghost soldiers." Ye Fan separated them and then took the lead in chasing after them. Only he could see them, so he guided the way.
The pitch-black ghost soldiers were like a torrent of steel, seemingly capable of slaughtering any enemy. Their grim aura was terrifying; getting too close would cause one's body to shatter.
The ancient purgatory was vast and boundless, with various complex terrains. Countless corpses lay on the ground, embedded in rock layers and turned into fossils.
All kinds of ancient creatures had ferocious faces—human bodies with phoenix heads, eight arms and four heads... unheard-of and unseen biological corpses were astonishing.
The dim battlefield stretched endlessly, wrapped in ribbon-like demon clouds, terrifying and heart-pounding.
Especially the tens of thousands of ghost soldiers marching forward with overwhelming killing intent, making everything feel even more eerie.
"Where are they going?" Ye Fan and the others followed for over a hundred li, but the army never stopped.
"A thick fog is rising ahead!" The others were startled. It was very sudden, the mist exceptionally dense, drowning the entire sky and earth. Everything ahead was hazy, impossible to see through even with heavenly eyes.
Ye Fan was even more astonished. The ghost soldier army was shrinking, as if entering another world, arriving at their destination.
"Hurry, go around and take a look."
He was the first to dash forward, circling around the tens of thousands of troops and entering the foggy area. At that moment, his body felt as if it were being cut by knives, and goosebumps rose all over his skin.
Not to mention mortals—even cultivators at the Dragon Transformation Secret Realm would have their bodies crack and be torn apart by the grim aura here.
"It's too thick! The yin-sha aura pierces the nine heavens, like we've truly entered the Netherworld!" Duan De exclaimed, judging by his years of tomb-robbing experience.
"Big Black, I still feel creeped out. How about you contribute some blood?" Li Tian nagged.
"Woof!" The big black dog's bald tail stood on end as it opened its bloody maw, wanting to swallow a living person whole.
"Quiet! Where have we come?!" The monkey stopped them, his fiery golden eyes glowing with a grave expression as he pointed ahead.
The mist was extremely heavy. This area was not the ancient battlefield but a strange place that truly resembled the Netherworld, completely different from the outside scenery.
"No, before the thick fog rose, ahead was an endless plain—the ancient battlefield. But now it's completely changed." Li Heishui said.
This was an eerie transformation, baffling to the mind. It was all caused by the rising mist, as if they had come to another world.
"This connects to another world..." Duan De was astonished. They couldn't see the ghost soldiers, but they felt the netherworld troops decreasing.
"Brother Ye, what do you see?" Yan Yixi asked.
"This looks like an entrance to another world. The ghost soldiers are entering, like the Nine Netherworld!" Ye Fan was uneasy.
"Since we've come this far, let's go in and take a look!" Duan De urged. As an authority on feng shui burial arts, he was eager to uncover an ancient secret.
The fog was thick, and the area ahead was vast. The ghost soldiers didn't fill it completely, leaving enough space for them to enter. Bold and skilled, they pressed forward.
The sha aura grew stronger, their bodies aching as if scraped by knives. Netherworld qi surged, threatening to tear them apart.
Netherworld!
Finally, they stepped inside. This was an astonishing land, not the ancient battlefield. It wasn't a world but seemed like a path.
"A path to the Netherworld?!" Duan De rubbed his hands together, both excited and thrilled. He had seen scattered records in some former sages' manuals, but no one had fully explained it.
Black soil, gray mist, an unknown road ahead. The ghost soldiers ignored them, marching steadily and disappearing into the distance.
"What's that smell? So fragrant!" The big black dog sniffed, its copper-bell-like eyes wide open, its bald tail erect as it looked ahead.
The others exchanged glances, smelling nothing. But the big black dog insisted it smelled a fragrance, claiming it might be an Immortal Elixir.
"How could a divine medicine grow in this Nine Netherworld place?!" Duan De poured cold water.
They advanced cautiously. After traveling five li, they finally smelled the refreshing fragrance, all perking up.
"Truly a dog's nose, able to smell from several li away." They marveled inwardly but dared not say it aloud, fearing the dog's bite.
After another li, the fragrance became so thick it was intoxicating, making them want to quicken their pace to find the source.
"There's a pool over there!" They were surprised. Up ahead, water glistened. Many ghost soldiers marched neatly past it, and the fragrance came from there.
"A yellow spring pool, such terrifying water. Doesn't it look like corpse fluid?"
The pool was only ten zhang square, bubbling up with a sickly yellow color. A yin-sha aura rushed toward them, but it was also mixed with a refreshing fragrance.
Duan De took out a white wooden stick and dipped it into the water. The entire stick instantly turned yellow, with death qi swirling around it. He exclaimed, "This is the Yellow Spring!"
They found it unbelievable. What kind of place had they come to? It would be rare for a small puddle of Yellow Spring to form in an extreme yin death ground, but here there was so much.
Legend had it that the Yellow Spring didn't belong to this world at all and couldn't exist in it. Everything they saw today was eerie and mysterious.
"Splash"
A splash of water rose from the Yellow Spring pool, and a jet-black divine grass emerged. It looked like an orchid carved from black jade, radiating the aura of the Great Dao. It was over a meter tall, with a rich fragrance.
"An Immortal Elixir!" Li Tian and Duan De's mouths watered, both unable to resist reaching for it.
"No, this is Netherworld Grass!" Ye Fan shouted.
Even the big black dog, whose drool was almost dripping, nodded and said, "Right, I saw one in the Immortal Mountain back then. It's exactly the same, but I still want to bite it."
They took a deep breath, and their pores opened wide, feeling refreshed as if they had received the holiest baptism, almost as if they were about to ascend to immortality.
Unfortunately, this was not an Immortal Elixir. Eating it would have terrible side effects, making life worse than death.
In the past, the three old demons who besieged the Peerless Divine King lived for nearly five thousand years because they ate a Netherworld Grass, but their bodies became rotting corpses, with only their divine thoughts remaining.
"This is a demon flower. Though terrifying, it's also a rare wonder of heaven and earth. If we pick it, it might have some use in the future."
This was not the Immortal Mountain, and there were no Great Emperor array patterns, so it could be picked.
However, the Netherworld Grass had long become sentient. It turned into a black light and dove into the spring pool. They acted together, refining the entire Yellow Spring pool to seal it.
"Clank, clank"
Chains rattled, clanging loudly.
The others were startled. The roots of the Netherworld Grass were locked by a netherworld iron chain; otherwise, they might not have caught this ancient wonder.
"It's not a physical chain but a Dao principle locking it here. Truly strange!" After careful observation, they exchanged glances.
"Let's take the Yellow Spring pool away too. Let the Netherworld Grass continue growing. It might prove useful in the future." In the end, they sealed the Yellow Spring pool and the terrifying demon grass into a small white jade cauldron.
Ahead lay a blood river, no more than one zhang wide, crimson and eerie, flowing silently into the distance.
On the river was a stone arch bridge, ancient in style, having existed for who knows how many years. All the ghost soldiers crossed it to the other side.
"I can see the ghost soldiers on the other side!" Li Heishui said.
The others were also startled. After crossing the stone bridge over the blood river, all the ghost soldiers became visible, continuing their march.
"This is a Netherworld. Was it refined by the ancient Netherworld Emperor, or does a truly inconceivable world exist?" Duan De was uncertain.
"The mist is fading. We're about to leave the Netherworld and return to the ancient battlefield!" The monkey said.
At this moment, the mist was dissipating, and all the eerie scenes were fading. Only the blood river and the stone bridge ahead remained real, with the last group of ghost soldiers about to cross.
Without a doubt, once all the ghost soldiers had crossed, everything would disappear—unless they followed them in completely.
"It's like a spatial node. This burial ground containing millions of ancient clans connects the discontinuous Netherworld." Duan De analyzed the reason for the ghost soldiers' passage.
"It's fading fast. The last ghost soldier has stepped onto the stone arch bridge." Li Heishui said.
At that moment, Duan De made a move that no one expected. He quickly pounced forward, grabbed the last ghost soldier, and dragged it back.
Then, with a clatter of banging, a fight broke out. Yin wind howled, death qi surged, and the area became as cold as an ice cellar.
So ferocious!
Everyone was dumbfounded. Fatty Duan was wrestling with that ghost soldier, rolling back and forth.