37: The shadow of the ancestral hall at night, the primordial energy of the Yellow Mother.

The murky, yellowish-brown light of the sky filtered through the narrow window lattice, casting dappled light spots inside the crude adobe house. They moved slowly, like the faltering steps of an old man in his twilight years.

Old Man Shi was already curled up exhaustedly on the straw-covered floor in the corner, snoring heavily, bearing the toil of the day's labor and the lingering fear of 'immortals and monsters'. The firewood in the earthen stove had long since extinguished, leaving only cold ashes and a faint scent of smoke.

Dead silence.

Only Su Wanzhao's breath, so faint it was almost non-existent, like a wisp of smoke, struggled to persist in the dim air. She lay on the cold earthen bed, covered by a tattered hemp blanket, her face as pale as early winter frost and snow. The Star Vortex mark on her brow was so dim that only an imperceptible outline remained, as if it could merge into this turbid world at any moment. That faint spark of life flickered deep within her depleted origin, barely resisting the erosion of the Immortal Curse and complete desiccation, relying only on the primitive vitality of the earth brought by the earth root soup and the passive nourishment of the turbid evil qi. [Su Wanzhao's Status: Deep Coma! Chaos Star Vortex Dao Body severely damaged and dormant... Origin depleted (95.5%)... Life spark faintly flickering... Immortal Curse erosion (weak stalemate)...]

Chen Feng lay silently on another earthen bed, his eyes tightly closed as if in slumber. But inside his body, a tumultuous, deathly silent battlefield raged.

Deep within his Dantian, the Star Returning Ruins Dao Foundation, like a dark red molten star, remained lifeless and covered in spiderweb-like cracks. The singular mark at its core, symbolizing the ruins abyss imprint, was dim and dull, like an extinguished candlewick. However, the Immortal Curse entwined deep within the cracks, like a lurking venomous snake, its golden light still emitting a cold and stubborn erosive will even in its dormancy. The turbid evil qi of this world, like thick mud, continuously enveloped and suppressed it, slowing its erosion to an almost standstill, but also acting like a cold, heavy shackle, tightly binding any possibility of the dao foundation's recovery. [Star Returning Ruins Dao Foundation: Severely damaged and dormant... Core ruins abyss imprint depleted (on the verge of extinguishing)... Cracks (8%)... Immortal Curse erosion (continuous stalemate, strongly suppressed by turbid evil)...]

What was truly active was the fate disk nirvana mark, almost integrated with the core of the dao foundation!

Buzz... buzz... like a plucked heartstring, it pulsed faintly but incredibly clearly! Each pulse carried a primal, almost greedy desire! This desire clearly pointed in the same direction—to the west end of the village, to that ancient, solemn Black Stone Ancestral Hall, emanating an aura of accumulated history!

That vast, ancient, primal aura, pulsating like the heart of the Earth Mother, was wrapped in layers of dense, impenetrable turbid evil qi, like a peerless jade buried deep within the earth. Through thick rock layers, through murky dust, through the mundane smoke and fire, it continuously emitted a fatal attraction! It called to the life plate mark, like a wanderer calling to their homeland, like a thirsty traveler calling to a clear spring! [fate disk nirvana mark: Strong resonance... Sensing unknown high-grade Earth Origin (Profound Yellow Mother Qi? Sealed by turbid evil)... Desiring to devour/merge... Repelling turbid evil outer shell...]

This desire was so strong that it even overshadowed the intense pain and exhaustion of his body, stirring up monstrous waves in the depths of Chen Feng's dormant consciousness! He had to go! He had to get closer! He had to find out what was hidden beneath that ancestral hall! That was his only hope for recovering his strength, dispelling the Immortal Curse, and even saving Su Wanzhao!

As night deepened, the murky sky completely lost its last trace of pale light, swallowed by ink-like darkness. Black Stone Village fell into slumber, with only occasional barks of dogs and the whimpering of the mountain wind sweeping over the bare slopes, adding to the dead silence and desolation.

The time had come.

Chen Feng suddenly opened his eyes. His Guixu Left Eye was a cold darkness, while his right eye flickered with a faint, starlight-like Chaotic luster due to the intense resonance within his body. He did not disturb Old Man Shi, who was snoring like thunder. Like the most precise puppet, he slowly and silently sat up from the earthen bed.

Every inch he moved brought a shattering pain throughout his body. His depleted meridians were like dry riverbeds; forcing out even a sliver of strength caused tearing agony. He gritted his teeth, the muscles on his face, covered in dark red crystals, twisted with pain, and cold sweat instantly soaked his coarse cloth clothes. Like a marionette, he laboriously moved his legs, stepping onto the cold, hard ground.

Creak... The decaying wooden door was pushed open very slowly, creating a faint, almost negligible groan. Chen Feng's figure, like a ghost merging into the night, silently slipped out of Old Man Shi's home and disappeared into the heavy darkness.

The dirt road in the village was uneven, permeated with a mixed smell of animal feces and burning low-quality firewood. The night was the best cover. Chen Feng, guided by the clear compass-like direction of his life plate mark, moved through the dark village. He avoided windows with occasional faint lights, walking as if on the edge of life and death, every step treading on knife points.

The ancestral hall was close.

It was an ancient building constructed from huge, uncarved black rocks, with a rough and heavy style, carrying an aura of antiquity and solemnity that was out of place with the surrounding crude adobe houses. The ancestral hall had no windows, only a heavy, double-leaf main door also carved from black stone, tightly closed. Ancient totems, blurry and seemingly smoothed by time and wind, were carved on the door. An invisible aura of reverence, stemming from accumulated bloodline, permeated the area around the ancestral hall.

And the source of that primal aura, which caused the life plate mark to intensely throb, was beneath this ancestral hall! It pierced through the heavy black stone foundation, deep into the earth! At this moment, in the dead of night, that pulsating sensation was even clearer, even more magnificent! Like the heartbeat of the earth!

Chen Feng suppressed the dizziness and intense pain brought by his depleted dao foundation, silently approaching the ancestral hall. He circled to the side of the ancestral hall, where there was a small backyard piled with discarded farm tools and dry firewood, right next to the cold black stone wall of the ancestral hall.

This is it! The pulsation of the life plate mark reached its peak! As if the origin was within reach!

He stretched out his emaciated hand, covered in dark red crystal cracks, trembling, and gently pressed it against the cold, rough black stone wall.

Buzz——!!!

The instant his fingertips touched the wall!

An unimaginable, terrifying will, like an ancient primordial beast awakening, mixed with a pure, suffocating, yet endlessly turbid and evil qi-wrapped, majestic power, surged violently from deep within the wall, from beneath the earth, slamming into Chen Feng's palm, rushing up his arm, and directly into his depleted Dantian!

"Ugh...!" Chen Feng grunted, his body shaking violently as if struck by lightning! His vision instantly turned black!

This power was too vast! Too pure! It was the Earth Mother Qi, accumulated over billions of years! The origin that nurtured all things! But at this moment, it was wrapped, polluted, and twisted by endless turbid evil resentment, miscellaneous thoughts of sentient beings, and some ancient and powerful seal! Like a pure spark wrapped in mud!

This polluted primal power, under the frantic attraction of the fate disk nirvana mark, surged into Chen Feng's body like a breached, muddy flood!

[Warning! Unknown high-grade Earth Origin (Profound Yellow Mother Qi • Polluted State) forcefully surging in!]

[Star Returning Ruins Dao Foundation: Unable to bear it! Core vibrating! Cracks worsening (8.5%)!]

[fate disk nirvana mark: Devouring instinct activated! Assimilation beginning! Target: Polluted Profound Yellow Mother Qi! Efficiency (extremely low)!]

[Immortal Curse erosion: Impacted by polluted Mother Qi! Suppression fluctuates! Erosion speed briefly increases!]

Excruciating pain! Tearing! Pollution! Chen Feng felt like a skin forcibly filled with magma! Inside his Dantian, the dormant Star Returning Ruins Dao Foundation wailed on the verge of disintegration under the impact of this violent power! The fate disk nirvana mark, like a ravenous beast, frantically gnawed at the surging polluted Mother Qi, trying to strip away its pure origin, but with extremely low efficiency! The turbid evil qi and resentment, like maggots clinging to bone, instantly spread, beginning to erode his already severely damaged meridians and flesh! Even more terrifyingly, the Immortal Curse, startled by the impact of this external force, suddenly flared with golden light, and its erosion speed abruptly increased slightly!

Attacked from within and without! Adding insult to injury!

Just as Chen Feng's consciousness was about to be completely engulfed by the intense pain and pollution—

In the shadows of the ancestral hall's backyard corner, a pair of clear yet ancient eyes silently watched it all.

It was Zhang Shouzhuo.

The old village chief had not slept. As if he had long anticipated this, he silently hid in the darkness, leaning on his shiny jujube wood cane. His cloudy gaze pierced through the night, falling upon Chen Feng's figure, which trembled violently with pain, almost prostrate against the ancestral hall wall.

He watched Chen Feng's body shake violently when his fingertips touched the black stone wall, saw his face instantly turn pale and twisted, observed the chaotic and almost uncontrolled qi fluctuations within him as the polluted Mother Qi surged in, and noticed the golden shackle (Immortal Curse) that briefly brightened in the turbid energy... There was no surprise on the old village chief's wrinkled face, only a profound understanding, tinged with pity and resolve.

"Indeed... it was triggered..." He sighed silently, his ancient voice so low only he could hear it, "Fates intertwined, unavoidable... Profound Yellow Mother Qi, both life and... virulent poison... It depends on whether this outsider can... grasp that faint 'truth' in this turbid mire of a world..."

His cloudy gaze turned to the tightly closed black stone main door of the ancestral hall, carved with blurry totems, as if piercing through the thick rock to see the pulsating, primal light cluster beneath it, wrapped in endless turbidity.

"The burden left by our ancestors... someone must bear it after all..." the old village chief murmured, his hand gripping the cane tightening slightly, his knuckles turning white. He took one last deep look at Chen Feng struggling in pain, then his figure, like a ghost merging into the night, silently retreated into the deeper darkness, leaving only an inaudible sigh that dissipated in the murky night wind.

In the backyard, Chen Feng's body remained pressed against the cold black stone wall, as if nailed to a cross. The dark red crystal cracks, under the erosion of the polluted Mother Qi, twisted slightly like living things. He gritted his teeth, letting out a beast-like growl from his throat. His Guixu Left Eye was bloodshot with pain, but the faint chaotic starlight in his right eye stubbornly flickered under the impact of the turbid energy. Together with the frantically devouring and assimilating life plate mark, he waged a desperate and primal tug-of-war in this turbid Mother Qi torrent.

The pollution and purity of the Profound Yellow Mother Qi, the devouring and assimilation of the life plate, the erosion of the Immortal Curse, and the suppression of the turbid evil... several forces violently clashed and tore at his body, which was on the verge of collapse!

To completely fall, be swallowed by the turbidity, and be annihilated by the Immortal Curse?

Or... in the desperate filth, grasp that deeply buried, singular 'truth', and be reborn from the cocoon?