470: Chapter 470 City of Burial Bones

As Ye Tian spoke, he injected a stream of True Qi into the control hub at the bow of the little void boat.

The little void boat shuddered slightly before ascending into the air, a layer of azure light enveloping its hull and causing it to merge with the surroundings, making it extremely difficult to detect without careful observation.

"Where are we going?" Shui Qingdie asked.

Ye Tian retrieved the beast-skin map he had obtained from the Peng Family secret chamber from his Universe Ring and spread it out on the deck of the boat.

The map was very tattered with obvious burn marks along the edges, covering an area only the size of a palm.

In one corner, a pattern resembling an altar was drawn, with two small characters written next to it—Northern Wasteland.

"Northern Wasteland."

Ye Tian pointed at the two small characters. "Before Head of the Peng Family, Peng Wanli died, he confessed that he was instructed by a peripheral force of the Nether Abyss to come to Luo City to search for an ancient artifact related to the Ye Family ancestral lands. This map was obtained from them."

"Nether Abyss..." Shui Qingdie frowned slightly. "Is that the faction where Yin Wujiang resides?"

"That's right." Ye Tian's eyes turned cold. "They have a scheme in the Northern Wasteland, and the core of it is this ancient altar. I don't know what they are looking for, but since it involves my Ye Family ancestral lands, I must figure it out."

Looking at the blurred lines on the map, Shui Qingdie hesitated and said, "But this map is too tattered; even the specific location is unclear. The Northern Wasteland is so vast, how are we supposed to find it?"

"If there aren't enough clues, we'll just have to try our luck."

Ye Tian put away the map and cast his gaze toward the northern horizon. "Once we get there, we'll figure out a way to ask around."

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in the depths of the Northern Wasteland, a crack suddenly opened on an altar buried by wind and sand.

A wisp of faint black Qi seeped out from the crack and immediately dissipated into the wind.

At the same time, a thousand feet deep beneath the altar, a pair of eyes that had been tightly closed for who knows how many years trembled slightly.

...

City of Buried Bones.

Legend has it that in the ancient era, two Cave-Heaven Realm experts fought a decisive battle here, tearing the sky and cracking the earth, leaving corpses strewn across the fields.

After the battle, the corpses of both sides were left uncollected. Through wind and rain, their bones merged with the rocks, forming a range of white bone hills stretching for dozens of miles.

Later, someone built a city on top of these white bone hills, and beneath the foundations lay nothing but ancient remains.

There were no laws or morality here, only fists and profit.

Every day, people died here, and new outlaws flooded in.

At this moment, at the south gate of the City of Buried Bones, an old beggar wearing a tattered cloak was dozing off in a corner.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes and looked toward the distant horizon.

There, an azure little void boat was flying close to the ground.

The old beggar grinned, revealing a few missing teeth, and muttered to himself, "Another fat sheep has delivered itself to our door..."

The little void boat flew over the desolate land for two full days.

The further north they went, the more monotonous the colors of the world became.

In the end, the green vegetation completely disappeared, turning into a boundless grayish-brown desert.

"The Evil Qi here is getting thicker and thicker." Shui Qingdie stood at the bow of the boat, gazing into the distance with a slight frown.

"I feel that the circulation of True Qi within my body is becoming somewhat sluggish."

"The Northern Wasteland was once an ancient battlefield where tens of thousands of powerhouses fell. Their resentment has accumulated deep within the earth and has not dissipated even after millions of years."

Ye Tian explained while maneuvering the little void boat.

"The lower one's cultivation, the greater the impact; one might even fall into hallucinations! The fact that you can still maintain a clear consciousness is already quite impressive."

Upon hearing this, Shui Qingdie's heart stirred slightly. Knowing that Ye Tian was tactfully comforting her, she said no more and focused on circulating her Cultivation Technique to resist.

After flying for another two hours or so, a scene different from the desert finally appeared on the horizon ahead.

It was a hill.

To be precise, it was a hill made of countless white bones and rocks piled together.

The bones varied in size, some as thin as fingers, others as thick as giant pillars, and their colors ranged from white to dark yellow to deep black, clearly having experienced a long passage of time.

The spaces between the bones were filled with grayish-brown sand and stone, forming undulating ridges.

And at the highest point of that white bone hill, a city stood majestically.

The city walls were built with black stone slabs, their surfaces covered in marks from sword and blade strikes and indentations from wind and frost erosion.

In the gaps of the foundation stones at the base of the city wall, one could faintly see half-embedded ribs or vertebrae, as if the city had directly used the underground remains as part of its foundation when it was first built.

"That is the City of Buried Bones." Ye Tian put away the little void boat and landed with Shui Qingdie not far from the city gate.

There were no guards at the city gate, only a crooked stone pillar stuck in the ground with an oil lamp hanging from its top, emitting a strange greasy smell as the wick burned.

Beside the stone pillar squatted a thin, withered old man, holding a ragged cattail leaf fan and fanning himself idly, squinting his eyes to size up the passersby.

Seeing Ye Tian and Shui Qingdie approach, the old man's gaze lingered on Shui Qingdie for a moment before shifting to Ye Tian, and he smiled. "Young people, first time in the City of Buried Bones, right?"

Ye Tian didn't stop walking and replied casually, "You have a sharp eye, old man."

"Heh, having squatted at this city gate for thirty years, I can tell who anyone is and where they come from at a single glance."

The old man waved his fan and said slowly, "Let me give you a heads-up: there is no city lord in this city, no laws, and fists are the only reason. It's best to keep one eye open when you sleep at night, otherwise, when you wake up the next morning, it's hard to say whether the things on your body will still be there."

"Thanks for the warning." Ye Tian nodded and led Shui Qingdie through the city gate.

Upon entering the city, a wave of clamor rushed toward them.

The streets were lined with all sorts of stalls selling a motley assortment of goods: Yao Beast Materials, broken weapons, beast-skin scrolls, and exotic beast cubs squealing in cages...

The air was thick and foul, and the pedestrians on the street were of all kinds.

There were lone mercenaries with curved blades at their waists, Cultivators cloaked in capes, brawny tattooed men with bare chests, and courtesans in revealing clothes leaning against doorframes and casting flirtatious glances.

But without exception, everyone's eyes carried a chilling murderous intent, like beasts walking in a jungle, ready to bare their fangs at any moment.

"The people here... are all so fierce." Shui Qingdie said in a low voice.

She could feel that since entering the city, at least a dozen unfriendly gazes had swept over her, and that naked scrutiny made her very uncomfortable.

"You'll get used to it." Ye Tian's expression remained normal, his eyes scanning the surroundings discreetly, noting the source of each gaze in his mind.

He walked to a grilled meat stall by the street, tossed the stall owner a Low-Grade Spirit Stone, bought two skewers of sizzling, oily beast meat, and asked casually, "Boss, let me ask you something."

The stall owner took the Spirit Stone, weighed it in his hand, and smiled broadly. "Go ahead, customer! There isn't a thing in this City of Buried Bones that I, Old Zhu, don't know about!"

"Where in the city is there a place with reliable information? I want to ask about something."

The stall owner's eyes rolled, and he chuckled. "Customer, you've asked the right person! If you're talking about the place with the most reliable information in the City of Buried Bones, it has to be the Spider's Den."

Ye Tian was puzzled. "Spider's Den?"

The stall owner laughed. "There's a teahouse in the south of the city. The proprietress is known as Mother Black Spider; she has eyes and ears everywhere. There isn't a single thing, big or small, on this Northern Wasteland that she doesn't know about. However..."

He leaned forward, covered his mouth with his hand, looked around, and then lowered his voice. "That place isn't somewhere just anyone can enter. Mother Black Spider has a peculiar temper; she won't pay attention to those she doesn't look upon favorably, no matter how many Spirit Stones they offer. If you want to go, customer, you'd better prepare something substantial, or... have some information that might interest Mother Black Spider."

Ye Tian noted the name and nodded. "Many thanks."

Just as he turned to leave, the stall owner called him back. "Hey, customer! Let me give you one more piece of information for free..."