16: The legacy of the dead, immortals and mortals united in the furnace.

The cold scorched earth pressed against his back, and every weak breath tugged at the ruptured wounds all over his body, bringing agonizing pain. The wailing of vengeful spirits was like maggots clinging to bones, echoing madly in his sea of consciousness, attempting to tear apart that faint spark of spiritual light. Malevolent energy, like a cold viper, furiously drilled and eroded along the cracks covering his body, fiercely clashing with the weak airflow released by the chaos base point, subjecting him to the torture of ice and fire.

Chen Feng lay on his back on the charred ground of the ancient battlefield, like a dying beast, gazing at the lead-gray, suffocatingly silent sky. Killing that malevolent energy monster brought not relief, but deeper exhaustion and boundless despair. This body, comparable to an Earth Immortal's, was now as heavy as if filled with lead, making it incredibly difficult to even move a finger.

Mortal body, immortal bones... an empty shell... Faint information from the fragment of the fate plate surfaced between spasms of pain: "chaos base point activity slightly increased... partial fusion of fleshly body cracks... strength slightly increased..."

Slightly? In this ancient battlefield, where danger lurked at every step, this

He struggled, using all his strength, and laboriously turned his head. His bloodshot eyes stared intently at the scattered remains of the monster. Foul blood and mud were still bubbling with a stench, and distorted vengeful spirit faces hovered and wailed over the remains like headless flies, attempting to re-coalesce. Broken bronze armor plates, huge bone fragments, and twisted metal components were scattered everywhere.

Suddenly, a faint but exceptionally pure dark-golden luster, like gold dust in mud, pierced Chen Feng's vision from the center of that pile of filthy remains!

That seemed to be a... bone?

A bone shard, roughly the size of a palm and irregularly shaped. It was entirely a deep, subdued dark-golden color, as if it were the core of a star that had settled for ten thousand years. The surface of the bone shard was covered with naturally formed, extremely profound and intricate dark-silver patterns. These patterns were not static; they flowed slowly, exuding an ancient, profound, and majestic aura, as if bearing the baptism of endless blood and fire. Compared to the surrounding filthy malevolent energy and vengeful spirits, this bone shard seemed out of place, like a golden lotus blooming in mud, pure and unstained, yet containing a heart-pounding will to kill!

Ancient battlefield malevolent bone?!

Chen Feng's heart leaped! The aura emanating from this object subtly echoed the fragments of the Earth Malevolence Ore Marrow from the Dragon Severing Ravine within him, yet it was even purer, more ancient, and more... powerful! It seemed capable of spontaneously repelling the surrounding filthy malevolent energy, forming a tiny, pure domain!

A strong, instinctive craving from the chaos base point, like a famished beast smelling blood after ten thousand years, instantly overwhelmed Chen Feng's reason! His intuition told him—this thing was useful to him! Extremely useful!

"Get it!" This thought, like a prairie fire, instantly ignited his dying will to survive!

He let out a low growl, enduring the agonizing pain of his body tearing apart. He propped himself up with his still intact left hand, dragging his almost numb right leg and fractured arms, like a worm struggling in the mud, inch by inch... he crawled towards the pile of filthy remains, towards that dark-golden bone shard!

Every inch of movement was accompanied by the groaning of grinding bones and the tearing sensation of cracks splitting open. Filthy blood and charred dust covered his entire body. The wailing of vengeful spirits pierced his sea of consciousness like poisonous needles, attempting to disintegrate his will. The erosion of malevolent energy made his vision intermittently black out.

Closer... even closer... The pure and profound aura emanating from the dark-golden bone shard was like a potent stimulant, supporting him to move forward. Ten zhang... five zhang... three zhang... Just as his left hand was about to touch the dark-golden bone shard!

Roar—!!!

A terrifying roar, far more violent and profound than that of the previous monster, as if from the deepest abyss of the Nine Nethers, like a tangible sonic sledgehammer, slammed heavily into Chen Feng's soul!

"Pfft!" He spat out another mouthful of foul blood, his vision suddenly darkened, and his outstretched left hand froze in mid-air!

Hundreds of zhang away, a terrifying

The monster was over five zhang tall! Its main body was a terrifying giant beast skeleton covered in thick, obsidian-like carapace. Between the bone gaps flowed viscous, magma-like dark-red malevolent energy, emitting terrifying high temperatures! Its head resembled a giant lizard, but it had three pairs of huge compound eyes flashing with crimson malevolent light. Its lower jaw split open to its earlobes, revealing three rows of pale, sharp teeth like guillotines! Its four limbs were as thick as giant pillars, ending in huge bone claws that gleamed with metallic cold light! A long tail, composed of countless vertebral segments and ending in a massive bone hammer, slowly swayed behind it like a giant python, each swing creating a deafening sonic boom!

A terrifying pressure, far surpassing the peak of Qi Refinement and subtly touching the threshold of Foundation Establishment, instantly swept across the entire battlefield like a boiling magma tsunami! The dense battlefield malevolent energy, as if summoned by a monarch, furiously converged towards this newly formed terrifying malevolent entity, forming a swirling, roaring dark-red malevolent energy storm around its body!

Malevolent Energy Aggregate: Skeleton Tyrant!

Its six massive crimson compound eyes instantly locked onto Chen Feng, tiny as an ant on the ground, and the pure dark-golden bone shard in front of him! The enormous bone claw lifted, accompanied by a space-rending shriek and all-consuming dark-red malevolent energy, like a collapsing fiery mountain, slamming down towards Chen Feng and the bone shard before him!

Destruction! True destruction! This strike was enough to turn a hundred-zhang radius into scorched earth and lava!

The coldness of death instantly froze Chen Feng's blood! He couldn't dodge! He couldn't block it! Even the strength to crawl had completely dissipated under that terrifying pressure!

"No—!!!"

A desperate roar exploded in his heart! In this critical moment, when all hope was lost, his left hand, frozen in mid-air, with the last shred of unwilling obsession, suddenly shot forward and fiercely grasped the dark-golden bone shard that was within reach!

It was icy cold to the touch! An indescribable, vast and boundless aura, as if imbued with the will of blood and fire from ten thousand years of battlefields, instantly surged into his broken body through his palm!

Buzz—!

In his sea of consciousness, the silent and dim fragment of the fate plate, at the moment it touched this aura, exploded with an unprecedented, dazzling gray light, like a barrel of gunpowder ignited by a spark! All the cracks on its surface lit up! A suction force, far more domineering and profound than that which previously guided malevolent energy, erupted with a roar!

"Use the body as a furnace! Draw malevolent bone as fuel! Forge a chaos dao foundation!"

The cold and grand will of the life plate, like a great bell, resounded in Chen Feng's collapsing sea of consciousness!

Chen Feng had no choice! At the moment the Skeleton Tyrant's sky-obscuring bone claw descended, and the destructive dark-red malevolent energy was about to utterly annihilate him, his remaining will, like grasping at a life-saving straw, instinctively and frantically complied with the life plate's guidance!

"Draw!!!"

His will roared!

The dark-golden bone shard tightly held in his left hand instantly became scorching hot! The dark-silver patterns flowing on it seemed to come alive, erupting with dazzling light! The vast and boundless battlefield will and the extremely pure ancient malevolent origin contained within the bone shard, like a breached stellar river, were forcibly extracted and guided by the fragment of the fate plate, brutally pouring into Chen Feng's cracked Chaos Immortal Body!

This time, it was not the filthy erosion of malevolent energy, but the most fundamental, purest, and primordial malevolent power, like the womb of the earth! This power was vast, profound, and filled with the will to refine and forge!

"Ugh ah ah ah—!!!"

An even more intense, deeper pain instantly engulfed Chen Feng! He felt like a piece of raw iron thrown into a Heaven and Earth Furnace! The dark-golden bone shard tightly held in his left hand was the purest

Boom!

The Skeleton Tyrant's terrifying bone claw, burning with dark-red malevolent flames, descended with the might to incinerate all things!

Bang—!!!!

A deafening, terrifying explosion resounded across the entire ancient battlefield! The earth, as if struck by a meteorite, suddenly caved in! A violent shockwave, carrying scorching molten rock fragments and a destructive malevolent energy storm, swept furiously outwards in a ring shape! Chen Feng's location was instantly swallowed by dazzling dark-red malevolent light, splashing lava, and towering dust!

The Skeleton Tyrant's massive bone claw was deeply embedded in the scorched earth and lava, its six crimson compound eyes flashing with cruel and satisfied light. It was certain that the tiny ant and the bone shard that it instinctively craved and feared had been completely reduced to ashes by its destructive strike!

However, right at the center of this destruction, deep within the boiling lava and raging malevolent energy storm—

A faint, yet incredibly tenacious, chaotic gray light was struggling to illuminate!

Chen Feng's body was not shattered!

At the critical moment when the bone claw descended, the vast ancient malevolent origin forcibly guided and poured into his body by the life plate resonated incredibly with the cracks covering his body, with the Nirvana Heavenly Condemnation Imprint deep within the chaos base point, and with his repeatedly tempered immortal and mortal body!

Centered on his left hand, which gripped the dark-golden bone shard, a rapidly rotating miniature chaotic vortex, about a zhang in diameter, instantly formed! Within the vortex, gray chaotic airflow, dark-golden ancient malevolent origin, subtle Nirvana lightning, and his own ruptured flesh and blood particles furiously intertwined and rotated!

The Skeleton Tyrant's world-destroying claw struck not Chen Feng's physical body, but this newly formed miniature chaotic vortex, driven by the ancient malevolent origin!

Rumble!

Like a giant hammer striking a rotating millstone! The destructive power was furiously dissipated, guided, and even... forcibly swallowed in part by the rapidly rotating chaotic vortex! The violent dark-red malevolent energy, as if encountering its nemesis, was forcibly torn apart, neutralized, and transformed by the gray airflow and ancient malevolent origin within the chaotic vortex!

Chen Feng's body, at the center of the vortex, was like a reef in a raging sea, enduring unimaginable energy impact and tearing! The cracks all over his body, under the forced infusion of the ancient malevolent origin and the impact of external destructive forces, made unbearable

The pain reached an unprecedented peak! Every inch of flesh, every bone, and even every cell struggled madly on the brink of destruction and rebirth! His consciousness had long been completely submerged by this inhuman suffering, leaving only that spark of spiritual light, jointly protected by the life plate and the chaos base point, letting out a silent roar in the boundless purgatory.

Immortal and mortal in the same furnace! Chaos as the foundation! malevolent bone as fuel!

This was an unimaginable process of forced forging amidst destruction! The terrifying power of the Skeleton Tyrant became the most violent forging hammer; the ancient malevolent origin in the dark-golden bone shard was the spiritual spring for quenching; the chaos base point and the Nirvana Heavenly Condemnation Imprint were the shaping molds; and Chen Feng's cracked immortal and mortal body was the rough blank being repeatedly hammered, calcined, and refined!

Every destructive impact caused the miniature chaotic vortex to vibrate violently, on the verge of collapse!

Every time it was on the verge of collapse, it was forcibly stabilized by the infused ancient malevolent origin, becoming even more condensed!

With each condensation, a portion of the violent destructive power was forcibly swallowed and transformed by the vortex, integrating into Chen Feng's body, which was being repeatedly forged!

The cracks on Chen Feng's body, under the infusion of the dark-golden ancient malevolent origin, began to forcibly mend at a visible speed, as if re-cast with molten gold! Where they mended, it was no longer the fragile healing from before, but presented a profound texture, like divine metal poured, interwoven with dark gold and chaotic gray! A majestic power, far purer, more condensed, containing ancient malevolent intent and chaotic inclusiveness, began to slowly grow within him!

His aura, instead of dissipating at the center of the destructive storm, rose like a phoenix reborn from fire, slowly but irresistibly, with arduous tenacity... it climbed!

The Skeleton Tyrant also seemed to sense the abnormality! Its massive bone claw not only failed to crush its target, but it also felt a powerful suction and a chaotic aura that instinctively repulsed and frightened it emanating from the center of the vortex! Its six compound eyes flared with malevolent light, and it let out an even more enraged roar! The massive bone claw suddenly lifted, bringing up a sky full of lava, and once again gathered even more terrifying dark-red malevolent flames, preparing to launch a second, even more thorough destructive strike!

However, just as its bone claw lifted—

"Buzz—!"

At the center of the rotating miniature chaotic vortex, Chen Feng's tightly shut eyes suddenly opened!

In the depths of his pupils, there was no longer the previous pain and madness, but a swirling, bottomless chaotic gray! Within the gray, dark-golden ancient malevolent runes flowed, and subtle Nirvana lightning flickered!

A faint, yet ancient, profound, all-encompassing, and subtly malevolent strange aura, like a sleeping fierce beast, slowly awakened!