476: Skeleton

This was troublesome, meaning his journey to the west would not be peaceful.

As for Hao Canghong, he was now collapsed on the ground like a pile of mud, frothing at the mouth, his eyes unfocused.

Xiao Zhuo showed him no mercy, using brutal methods. This person's Divine Soul suffered severe damage; even if he didn't die, he was essentially a complete idiot, his Dao path utterly severed.

He didn't even spare him another glance.

To him, this person had no value whatsoever.

With a gentle flick of his sleeve, he collected everything useful to him.

An invisible breeze swept through, and Hao Canghong's body, along with his shattered Divine Soul, disintegrated and vanished in an instant like a sand sculpture, turning into the most primitive particles and dissipating into the prairie wind, leaving no trace.

It was as if a Cultivator named Hao Canghong had never existed in this world.

Having done all this, Xiao Zhuo raised his hand, and the broken, dark golden spear shaft reappeared in his palm.

He immersed his Divine Sense into it, carefully sensing the incomplete star map formed by the advanced Spiritual Root Runes, as well as the vague coordinates and the phantom of a Chaos artifact that the star map pointed to.

The direction indicated by the star map had a slight deviation from the sea chart of the Ruins of the Lost he had obtained from the Myriad Laws Reach Heaven Pavilion.

"It's not directly pointing to the Ruins of the Lost, but rather... a specific node along the way?" Xiao Zhuo mused thoughtfully.

The broken spear seemed to be guiding him to an intermediate "waypoint," or perhaps a specific location related to the spear shaft's original owner or the great battle beyond the Realm.

After a brief contemplation, Xiao Zhuo made a decision.

He would first follow the broken spear's guidance to see what this intermediate "waypoint" concealed.

Perhaps there would be more clues about that great battle, about Saints, and even about the Time Spirit Root.

As for the Tianyi Immortal Dynasty's pursuit, he would deal with it as it came.

After determining the direction, he no longer delayed.

His figure flickered, merging into the Void Realm, and he sped towards the northwest, his speed no slower than a True Immortal's.

The further northwest he went, the sparser the population became, and the landscape gradually changed from grassland to desolate Gobi, eventually replaced by endless ice plains.

However, the ice plains here were different from those near North Cold King City; the air was filled with a more ancient, primitive aura, and the spatial structure became increasingly unstable, with distorted light and fleeting Space Law cracks often visible.

After several large teleportations, Xiao Zhuo, following the subtle adjustments indicated by the broken spear, stopped above a seemingly unremarkable ice plain.

Below was a thousand miles of frozen ice, no different from other places.

But in his perception, the Space Law here had an extremely subtle, unnatural sense of distortion, like a transparent film covering the real world.

"A hidden spatial rift? Or rather... a Small World created by someone?" Xiao Zhuo's eyes showed interest.

This technique was extremely clever; if not for the broken spear's guidance, even with his current mastery of Space Law, he might not have immediately noticed the anomaly without a careful scan of the area.

He extended his finger, silver light flowing at its tip, and gently tapped on the invisible spatial film.

Buzz... Like a stone thrown into a calm lake, ripples of subtle Space Law spread out.

The film seemed to be activated, revealing countless intricate and unimaginably complex Spatial Restriction Runes!

These Runes were ancient and powerful, carrying a vast will, resisting all prying by outsiders.

"A bit interesting." Xiao Zhuo was not surprised but pleased.

The way these Spatial Restrictions were constructed was completely different from the mainstream Formation system of the Nirvana Realm he knew, full of an otherworldly style.

This further confirmed his guess.

He did not forcibly break the Restriction, as that would trigger a more violent counterattack or even lead to the self-destruction of the internal space.

Instead, he attached his Divine Sense to the wisp of silver light, like the most skilled thief, and began to rapidly analyze the operating rules and core nodes of these ancient Restrictions.

Time passed bit by bit.

After a full half hour.

Xiao Zhuo's tightly closed eyes suddenly opened, and the silver light at his fingertip blazed, like a key finding its lock, and he gently twisted it with a peculiar frequency!

"Open!"

Crack!

A faint, crisp sound, like breaking glass, was heard.

On the invisible spatial film, an irregular, glowing portal, just wide enough for one person, quietly opened.

Beyond the portal was not cold ice and snow, but a dark, silent, seemingly eternal Void Realm aura.

Without hesitation, Xiao Zhuo's figure flickered and he entered the glowing portal.

After he entered, the portal quickly healed and disappeared as if alive, and space returned to its original state, as if nothing had ever happened... The moment he passed through the portal, a heavy, oppressive atmosphere filled with decay and death instantly enveloped Xiao Zhuo.

He found himself in an extremely strange space.

There was no sky, no ground here; all around was an endless, dim darkness.

Only some colossal, broken rocks and unrecognizable metal components, like fragments of stars, floated silently in the Void Realm, drifting slowly.

Some strange remnants of light bands, long extinguished for countless millennia, like the carcasses of giant beasts, were entwined around these fragments.

The air was filled with pure but extremely violent and chaotic Immortal Qi particles, mixed with traces of... high-level energy residues with peculiar attributes that Xiao Zhuo had never sensed before!

This place was more like the ruins of an ancient battlefield floating in the Void Realm!

Its scale was far larger than the one in the basin outside, and it was even more dilapidated!

His Divine Sense cautiously spread out, and he immediately felt a powerful suppressive force, greatly reducing his detection range.

The Void Realm was filled with traces of terrifying energy storms, as well as some... dried bloodstains and weapon fragments that, even after countless ages, still exuded a heart-palpitating pressure!

Those bloodstains were colorful; some were as hot as magma, others as cold as an abyss, clearly not belonging to the same race, but every drop contained terrifying power. Judging by the residual energy intensity, their owners must have been at least Golden Immortal level experts in life.

And the material of those weapon fragments was even more inconceivable; some were even still faintly trembling, emitting an unwilling hum.

Xiao Zhuo took a deep breath, steadying his mind.

He could feel that after the broken spear shaft in his hand entered this place, the strange energy became much more active, emitting a slight tremor, as if wailing, or perhaps guiding the direction.

He followed the faint pull, cautiously navigating through these colossal ruins.

After flying for about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the area ahead suddenly opened up.

In the center of a relatively empty Void Realm zone, a particularly massive dark red rock, like the remnant of a small star, floated.

But what truly caught Xiao Zhuo's gaze was a gigantic skeleton, maintaining a half-kneeling posture, on top of the giant rock!

The skeleton was entirely dark golden.

Its bones were covered with dense cracks, and its chest cavity was completely pierced through, leaving a huge hole.

One could imagine what kind of fatal attack it suffered in life.

Even so, the skeleton still exuded a vast, majestic, and unwilling Battle Intent, like an unmoving rock, suppressing this Void Realm, making it impossible for countless ages to erode!

And within the skeleton's pierced chest cavity, it was not empty—

A soft and pure halo, as if condensed from countless tiny starlight, was slowly rising and falling, beating like a heart!