50: The ancient battlefield is full of shadow skills, and the death energy crystal is surging.

The moment he stepped into the gray mist, it was as if he had passed through an invisible barrier. The sounds of wind and insects from the outside world completely vanished, replaced by a suffocating silence. The air was thick and cold, and dense Death Qi and shadow energy, too thick to dissipate, surged from all directions like a tide, frantically trying to bore into Lin Chen's body.

If an ordinary Cultivator were here, they would probably be instantly corroded by this terrifying Death Qi, their Fighting Energy circulation would become sluggish, and even their mind would be drowned by endless negative emotions. But Lin Chen felt all his pores open involuntarily, and the Shadow Erosion Dou Qi in his body cheered, like a hungry traveler encountering a feast, automatically operating at high speed, greedily devouring all the surrounding negative energy.

The Cultivation Technique route of the Dark Shadow Soul Binding Art glowed faintly within his body, refining all the Death Qi, shadows, and even the faint battle remnants and despairing resentment in the air, transforming them into pure Dark Shadow Fighting Energy, nourishing his parched Meridians and Dantian. The injuries on his shoulder and the internal hidden wounds were repairing at an unprecedented speed under the infusion of this vast energy.

"What a great place! It truly is an excellent place for Cultivation!" Lin Chen was excited, but he didn't lose his head. He immediately found a natural barrier formed by several huge beast bones and collapsed boulders, sat down cross-legged, and fully guided this immense energy.

As the Cultivation Technique operated, an invisible black hole seemed to form around him. With him at the center, the gray mist subtly rotated, forming a small energy vortex that frantically poured into his body. His aura began to steadily climb, assaulting the barrier of a six-star Dou Ling.

However, the energy of the ancient battlefield was not so docile. Besides pure Death Qi and shadows, it was mixed with a large amount of violent, chaotic fragments of will. These were the lingering unwillingness, anger, fear, and desire for slaughter of the powerful individuals who had fallen here countless years ago.

As a large amount of energy poured in, these negative intentions also attacked Lin Chen's mind like a persistent disease.

In a trance, he seemed to see countless fragmented images: Demonic Beasts roaring and charging, obscuring the sky; dazzling and deadly Dou Skills clashing; the sorrowful cries of comrades falling; desperate self-detonations; cold blades cutting into flesh... Various extreme emotions surged like a tide, trying to drown him.

"Hmph!" Lin Chen let out a muffled grunt, his face slightly pale, but his eyes remained clear. Having experienced the Soul-deep fear from the black hole beneath the Demonic Flame Valley and having greatly enhanced his Soul Origin by absorbing the earth core soul marrow, his willpower had long become incomparably tough. He guarded his spiritual platform, treating all those chaotic intentions as whetstones to temper his mind, and used the Mind-Cultivation Technique of the Dark Shadow Soul Binding Art to shatter and refine them one by one, which instead made his Soul even more condensed.

After an unknown amount of time, a faint sound of a breaking barrier seemed to come from within his body.

Six-star Dou Ling!

It was a natural Breakthrough. Majestic Fighting Energy surged and flowed within his body, several times more powerful than before! His physical condition also returned to its peak, and he even benefited from the misfortune, as his Meridians became tougher through repeated tearing and repairing.

He slowly opened his eyes, his gaze sharp and restrained, his control over his own power reaching a higher level. Feeling the still endless energy around him, his heart burned with fervor. If he could Cultivate here long-term, his progress speed would probably be beyond imagination!

But he also knew that this place was by no means benign. During his Cultivation just now, his keen Soul perception vaguely caught that in the depths of the gray mist, something seemed to be attracted by his energy fluctuations and was quietly approaching. It was a cold, silent aura, filled with hatred for the living.

He restrained his aura and cautiously extended his perception from behind the pile of bones.

He saw several blurry, almost transparent shadows wandering nearby in the gray mist. They had no fixed form, like a mass of condensed resentment and Death Qi, emitting an uncomfortable chill. They seemed to have lost their target, spun in place, and then slowly sank into the ground and disappeared.

"Battlefield remnant Souls? Or some strange creatures born from Death Qi?" Lin Chen's heart tightened. The strength of these things didn't seem too great, but their numbers were probably astonishing, and they were extremely strange and unpredictable.

He became even more cautious, deciding to explore and Cultivate at the same time.

He left his temporary hiding spot and delved deeper in the direction of denser Death Qi. The ground beneath his feet was soft and muddy, as if soaked with blood. Every step left a deep footprint, which was soon covered by the gray mist. Broken weapons and huge skeletons were everywhere. Some skeletons even shimmered with a jade-like luster, indicating that their owners were extremely powerful in life.

Suddenly, he paused, his gaze sharply sweeping towards a collapsed stone building ruin to his front left.

In the corner of that ruin, the shadow energy was so dense it almost solidified, and at the center of that shadow, a faint black light caught his attention.

He approached silently.

He saw a black crystal, about the size of a fist, half-buried in the rubble, lying there quietly. It was completely black, as if it could absorb all light, with a smooth surface, emitting extremely pure shadow energy and solidified Death Qi.

"This is... a Shadow Death Qi Crystal?" Lin Chen's heart filled with joy. This was a Heaven And Earth Treasure formed by a large amount of shadow energy and Death Qi, condensed over long years under specific conditions. For those who Cultivated dark-attribute Cultivation Techniques, it was a priceless treasure! Its value far exceeded ten stalks of youying grass!

He carefully dug out the crystal. It was cold to the touch, and the energy within was vast yet gentle, extremely easy to absorb.

"It seems there are indeed many good things hidden in this ancient battlefield." He was about to put away the crystal when his gaze inadvertently swept over the rubble where the crystal had been buried.

Under a few pieces of rubble, a corner of something seemed to be pressed down.

He pushed aside the rubble, revealing half of a broken black token! The token's material was neither metal nor wood, cold to the touch. It was engraved with strange patterns, and although incomplete, Lin Chen recognized the style of the patterns at a glance—

It was from the same Origin as the secret script on the scroll he had seen in the Dou Huang's Storage Pouch from the Soul Hall! Moreover, on the edge of the token, there was a blurry mandala flower imprint, seemingly formed by shadows!

"A token from the Soul Hall?!" Lin Chen's pupils constricted, "And this imprint... seems to be of a higher Rank than that Dou Huang's token?"

Had people from the Soul Hall been here? Or rather, had they always been active here?

He immediately recalled the "suspected Yellow Springs entrance," "Other Shore Flower Project," and "seed" mentioned on the scroll.

Could this ancient battlefield also be one of the Soul Hall's targets? Or even... was there another "Yellow Springs entrance" here?

A huge sense of crisis instantly enveloped Lin Chen. He had originally thought this was a secluded place for Cultivation, but he never expected that it might also be under the surveillance of the Soul Hall!

He immediately put the token and the crystal into his storage ring, fully activating the Dark Shadow Soul Binding Art to reduce his presence to the lowest level, cautiously sensing his surroundings.

The gray mist permeated, silent and deadly.

But beneath this silence, Lin Chen felt as if one or countless pairs of cold eyes were watching this land of death indifferently through the thick mist.

His journey of Cultivation in the ancient battlefield would probably not be peaceful.

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