486: Dragon Bone Town

The group of six moved forward in silence, their steps heavy, as if they were Mortals.

The desolate land stretched out beneath their feet, withered trees slanted in the distance, and the sky was dim, permeated by an ancient sense of oppression.

Xiao Zhuo's face was calm, but his eyes were sharp as knives.

His Divine Sense spread outwards, meticulously sweeping over every inch of land and every whisper of wind like tentacles—even though here, Divine Sense and Divine Thought were inexplicably suppressed to less than one percent of their original power, and Immortal Spiritual Qi was completely forbidden, meaning that for every bit of Immortal Power they used, they had one less, with no means of replenishment.

Yet, he keenly captured that another kind of power flowed within the Void Realm—

the power of spirituality.

It was like a thin mist, like a stream of light, impossible to collect or refine, yet it could merge with Divine Thought and be used to construct Spirit Group Divine Abilities.

This meant that, apart from him, once the Immortal Power of the other five was exhausted, even with their strong Physical Bodies, they would be no different from Mortals.

And he, even if his Immortal Power ran dry, could still construct Spirit Groups and cast Divine Abilities using his suppressed Divine Thought—though without the blessing of Immortal Power and the Dao, their power would be less than one ten-thousandth of their original, it still gave him a few more points of self-preservation than the others.

It was precisely for this reason that he remained composed.

In the distance, the outline of a small town gradually became clear, like a giant beast prostrate on the gray-brown earth.

At the town's entrance, several children ran and played, clad in crude animal skin coats, their small faces dirty but their eyes bright.

One of the children held a strange beast with a single horn, resembling a small cat, which occasionally wiggled its body.

The six did not conceal their tracks.

Having just entered this place, with Immortal Power still present, they feared no Mortals; they only wanted to quickly ascertain the reality of this realm and understand the local situation.

Soon, the group of children also discovered them.

An older boy, about twelve or thirteen years old, suddenly shouted, and all the children immediately stopped their game, looking over in unison.

While vigilantly staring at Xiao Zhuo and his group, the boy spoke rapidly in some ancient language, simultaneously waving his hand to signal the other children to retreat back into the town, while he himself backed away step by step, his eyes wary as if facing a formidable enemy.

“It’s the ‘Language of the Ancestors’...” Wind Jade leaned closer and whispered, his tone grave, “An ancient language from about a million years ago, no longer in use today, only recorded in some ruins and ancient texts.”

Xiao Zhuo did not look back, merely giving a faint affirmative sound.

The next moment, a wisp of Divine Thought, carrying the information of the Language of the Ancestors known by Wind Jade, surged into his Sea of Consciousness.

In just an instant, Xiao Zhuo had comprehended the phonetic and semantic logic of this ancient language.

Almost simultaneously, there was a chaotic sound of footsteps at the town entrance, and more than ten burly men, clad in leather armor and armed with bronze weapons, rushed out.

Some held long spears, others curved knives, and some had wooden bows drawn, copper arrows nocked, gleaming with cold light.

“Father! Father! It’s these outsiders!” A child’s voice came from behind the crowd, filled with tension and hostility.

Xiao Zhuo’s steps did not falter.

Whoosh—

An arrow shot through the air, embedding itself three inches in front of his toe, its fletching trembling, emitting a dull hum.

The young man holding the bow had sharp eyes and shouted loudly, “Outsiders, stop! Dragon Bone Town does not welcome you!”

Xiao Zhuo seemed not to hear, continuing forward.

The young man’s face darkened, the bowstring twanged again, and a second arrow shot out rapidly, aimed directly at Xiao Zhuo’s left leg!

But when the arrow flew a zhang away, it was as if it hit an invisible Qi wall, and with a “thwack,” it was abruptly bounced away, falling to the ground.

A low gasp rippled through the townspeople, many showing fear and instinctively retreating.

Just then, a brawny man, eight feet tall and heavily muscled, stepped out from the crowd.

His voice was like muffled thunder as he roared, “What’s the panic! Even if they still have evil power, so what!”

His gaze was like a torch, firmly locked on Xiao Zhuo; though surprised, he remained unperturbed, possessing a calm demeanor.

Xiao Zhuo finally stopped ten zhang from the town entrance, and when he spoke, it was in a surprisingly fluent Language of the Ancestors: “No need to be nervous, we mean no harm.”

The brawny man was visibly stunned, a flash of surprise and suspicion in his eyes—it was the first time he had seen an outsider who could speak their language.

“You... understand our language?”

“A little.” Xiao Zhuo’s tone was calm, “We stumbled into this place, and our Immortal Power is difficult to sustain; we only wish to find a temporary resting place, understand the situation, and have no other intentions.”

The brawny man’s expression became wary again, and he tightened his grip on the bronze spear in his hand.

Xiao Zhuo said no more, his mind subtly moving.

More than ten zhang away, an ancient tree with black leaves, so thick it required one person to embrace it, suddenly let out a loud creaking sound and was violently uprooted!

It shattered and disintegrated in mid-air, transforming into dozens of sharpened wooden spears, which then poured down like a sudden rain—

Thump thump thump thump!

A series of dull striking sounds rang out, and the spears were neatly embedded in the ground before the townspeople, forming a stern, uncrossable boundary.

The entire scene was silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Several children, frightened, shrank behind the adults; even the child holding the single-horned kitten held his breath.

Xiao Zhuo’s voice sounded again, gentle yet with an irresistible authority: “This is not a negotiation. But I will say it one last time: we have no ill intentions.”

The brawny man’s pupils contracted slightly; after a long silence, his gaze swept from Xiao Zhuo’s calm face, then over his five companions behind him, who were steady in aura and silent, and finally, he slowly nodded.

“...Follow me.”

He led the six into the town, but did not go deep, finally stopping before a courtyard built of black stone and earth, a hundred zhang from the town gate.

The courtyard walls were tall and thick, faintly emitting a weak aura that resisted energy.

“This is my second uncle’s courtyard, it’s been abandoned for some time, but it can still provide shelter from wind and rain.” He pushed open the door and walked in first, but then raised a hand to stop the other townspeople who wanted to follow, “You wait outside.”

“Brother Xu!”

“Xu Kai!”

Everyone looked worried.

The brawny man, called Xu Kai, shook his head and said in a deep voice, “If they really intend to act, your coming in won’t do much good.”

With that, he closed the slightly heavy wooden door behind him, shutting out all the noise.

He walked to a root-carved wooden table in the courtyard, roughly planed from a huge tree root, sat down directly, and cast his gaze back to Xiao Zhuo, with scrutiny and vigilance:

“Now, speak! Outsider! What do you want to know!”

Xiao Zhuo met his gaze, and calmly sat down on a crude wooden stool opposite him.

Wind Jade and the other five stood silently behind him, their auras contained, yet they were like shadows, forming a formidable barrier.

“You don’t seem to be seeing ‘outsiders’ like us for the first time?” Xiao Zhuo asked, his tone as casual as if he were chatting, yet carrying an unmistakable sense of pressure.

Xu Kai’s eyes darkened, his rough fingers unconsciously stroking the tabletop: “You are the third group I’ve seen.”

“What about the previous two groups?” Xiao Zhuo pressed, his gaze as usual, yet seemingly able to see through people’s hearts.

Xu Kai’s Adam’s apple bobbed; his voice was dry and low, carrying a hint of barely perceptible hostility and anger:

“They died...”

“Killed by your people?” Xiao Zhuo asked again.

Xu Kai nodded then shook his head: “By the High Priest and my father’s group!”

Before Xiao Zhuo could ask further, he said again in a low voice, “I know you outsiders have evil power, but it doesn’t last long, and if you fight us and run out of strength, you will surely die!”

Xiao Zhuo smiled at this, knowing it was the man’s threat.

The previous two groups, he thought, must also have been Cultivators, but likely not Immortals.

He could feel that there were several people in this Dragon Bone Town who had mastered spiritual power, capable of resisting Cultivators to a certain extent.

Moreover, a Cultivator’s magic power and Immortal Power here would consume more than ten times the amount to cast spells, and their power would also be greatly weakened, as he had just noticed from a single spell cast.

He was not surprised that these townspeople could kill Cultivators.

But he did not believe these people could do anything to him.

Even Wind Jade and the others could not be harmed by these Mortals.

An Immortal Body was already vastly different from an ordinary Physical Body.

Xiao Zhuo was about to ask more.

Outside, a series of loud shouts came: “Brother Xu! This is bad! That big fellow from last time is here again!”

Followed by continuous knocking on the door.