111: The Wasteland of Bones, the Curse Awakens

The third layer, Boneyard Wasteland.

Lu Qingxuan descended from the gray vortex, his feet landing on a patch of grayish-white bone sand.

Looking around, the entire space was boundless; the ground was paved entirely with shattered skeletons, and bone fragments of various sizes floated in the air.

In the distance, he could even see the rib bones of ancient gods as huge as mountain ranges, slanted into the earth.

A thick aura of death permeated the air, along with... a certain malice that was awakening.

"Ancient God of Curse..." Lu Qingxuan sensed the heartbeat that spread throughout the nine-layer mausoleum, his eyes solemn.

If the awakening of the Ancient God of War was violent and outward-projecting, then the awakening of the Ancient God of Curse was insidious and permeating.

He could feel that the aura of death filling the air was undergoing a qualitative change—every strand of aura was beginning to entwine with black curse patterns; these patterns were like living creatures, slowly eroding everything.

And even more dangerous, the ancient god skeletons on the wasteland that had originally been silent... began to move.

"Click... click..."

The few hundred-meter-tall giant beast skeletons closest to Lu Qingxuan saw ghost-green soul fire ignite in their eye sockets.

They slowly stood up, their bones rubbing together to make a teeth-grinding sound.

These skeletons were at least True Immortal Rank in their lifetimes; even with only their frames left after death, the pressure they emitted was close to the Peak of Undergoing Tribulation.

But this was only the beginning.

As that "thump" of a heartbeat sounded again—

"Thump-thump!"

"Thump-thump-thump!"

The heartbeat grew faster and more powerful!

The entire Boneyard Wasteland boiled!

Tens of thousands of skeletons crawled out of the bone sand, and the bone fragments floating in the sky began to combine automatically, condensing into complete skeletons!

Beneath those ancient god ribs as huge as mountain ranges in the distance, even more giant skeletons a thousand feet tall stood up!

Most terrifying of all, black curse patterns began to emerge on the surface of every skeleton!

These patterns endowed the skeletons with strange power—they were no longer just bone racks acting on instinct, but were beginning to display tactical coordination!

"Roar!!!"

A thousand-foot skeleton roared at the sky, its empty eye sockets locking onto Lu Qingxuan, the only living thing.

The next second, ten thousand skeletons charged simultaneously!

They didn't swarm in Chaos, but split into three torrents—the left flank was composed of high-speed avian skeletons, diving from the air; the right flank was composed of humanoid skeletons skilled in ranged attacks, throwing bone spears and releasing curse spells from afar; the center army consisted of those giant skeletons, crushing forward like a landslide!

"An organized skeleton army..." Lu Qingxuan's pupils constricted slightly. "The will of the Ancient God of War is controlling them!"

He could clearly perceive that a wisp of bloody war will was entwined within every skeleton.

These wills connected them into a single entity, moving as easily as an arm directing a finger.

"But you want to pile up and crush me with numbers?" Lu Qingxuan sneered, his god-suppressing sword humming. "You chose the wrong opponent."

He did not choose to meet them head-on, but flashed, charging directly toward the avian skeleton group on the left flank!

These skeletons had the fastest speed, but the weakest defense.

"Chaos Return to Void · Domain of Time!"

Ten times time acceleration activated!

Lu Qingxuan's speed skyrocketed instantly!

In the eyes of those avian skeletons, he transformed into an afterimage that was impossible to capture!

"Slash!"

The god-suppressing sword swung, and the sword light was not one, but split into thousands simultaneously!

Every sword light precisely hit the soul fire core of an avian skeleton!

"Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang—"

Bone powder exploded across the sky!

One-third of the left flank skeleton group was cleared instantly!

[Killed Cursed Skeleton (Undergoing Tribulation Rank) × 1037]

[Obtained: Cursed Bone (Gold) × 1037 (Can refine Curse Law fragments)]

[Obtained: War Will Fragment (Gold) × 47]

[dao rhyme value + 3.2 million]

But this was only the beginning.

The humanoid skeletons on the right flank had already completed their first volley!

Ten thousand bone spears entwined with curse patterns poured down like a rainstorm!

During flight, these bone spears automatically absorbed the curse power in the air, each one having the power of a full-strength strike from the Early Stage of Undergoing Tribulation!

Even more insidious was that the bone spears formed a certain curse Formation—once hit by any one of them, all other bone spears would automatically track, relentlessly!

"Troublesome." Lu Qingxuan frowned.

He could resist with his Chaos Immortal Devil Body, but that would consume a large amount of spiritual energy.

And there were still six layers of the mausoleum to break through, so he couldn't waste too much power here.

"Then... use your own attacks to kill yourselves."

Lu Qingxuan stopped abruptly, his hands forming Seals in front of his chest.

"Chaos Creation · Mirror Barrier!"

This was an advanced application of the [Chaos Creation (Intermediate)] entry—simulating the "Mirror Law" with Chaos Qi for a short time, creating a barrier capable of reflecting attacks!

Gray Chaos Qi surged from Lu Qingxuan's body, condensing into a huge gray mirror surface a hundred feet in front of him.

The surface of the mirror flowed with ripples of time and space, very strange.

"Rumble—"

Ten thousand bone spears crashed into the mirror surface!

Then... they all shot back!

And the speed and power of every bone spear had doubled!

More importantly, the curse patterns entwined on the bone spears turned gray-black after being infected by the Chaos Qi, and actually began to erode the caster in reverse!

"Sss, sss, sss—"

The humanoid skeleton group on the right flank was submerged by its own attacks!

Countless skeletons were pierced and exploded by the bone spears!

Even more terrifyingly, those gray-black curse patterns spread through the skeleton group like a plague; any skeleton that was touched disintegrated on its own within three breaths!

[Killed Cursed Skeleton (Undergoing Tribulation Rank) × 8926]

[Obtained: Cursed Bone (Gold) × 8926]

[Obtained: War Will Fragment (Gold) × 218]

[dao rhyme value + 9.8 million]

Two waves of attacks, nearly ten thousand skeletons lost!

But the giant skeletons in the center army had already rushed to the front!

The leading thousand-foot skeleton raised a bone palm like a mountain and slapped down!

The wind of the palm tore through space, and a black curse ball with a diameter of a hundred feet condensed in the palm—that was a power projection of the Ancient God of Curse!

"True Immortal Rank combat power..." Lu Qingxuan's expression was solemn.

The power of this palm had already reached the level of the Middle Stage of True Immortal!

And the curse power it contained made even his Chaos Immortal Devil Body feel threatened!

He couldn't take it head-on.

"Law of Time... Intent of Breaking Time!"

Silver brilliance flashed in Lu Qingxuan's eyes, and he saw it—on the trajectory of that huge bone palm falling, there were seven time nodes!

Those were the seven key moments where the palm's power condensed, transmitted, and erupted!

"Sever!"

The god-suppressing sword transformed into a silver stream of light, pointing out seven swords in succession!

Each sword precisely hit a time node!

Each sword contained the true essence of "severing" from the Intent of Breaking Time!

"Click... click, click..."

The trajectory of the bone palm's descent suddenly froze!

The black curse ball in the palm began to tremble and twist unstably!

The seven time nodes were severed, and the transmission of power for this palm was completely disrupted!

The thousand-foot skeleton let out a puzzled roar; it didn't understand why its attack had suddenly gone out of control.

And Lu Qingxuan seized this one-thousandth-of-a-second opening.

"Chaos Return to Void... Devour!"

He transformed into a gray vortex, rushing upward against the current through the gaps of the bone palm!

Wherever he passed, the curse patterns on the surface of the skeletons were crazily devoured and assimilated!

To others, these curse powers were deadly poison, but to the Chaos Void Returning Dao Seed... they were supplements!

"Boom, boom, boom—"

Lu Qingxuan rushed all the way to the skeleton's skull, aimed the god-suppressing sword at the soul fire core, and stabbed it in!

"Suppress God... Seal Soul!"

Bronze Seal runes surged into the soul fire along the sword body, forcibly sealing and stripping away that wisp of war will!

Having lost the control of the will, the thousand-foot skeleton collapsed with a crash, shattering into a pile of bone pieces.

[Killed Ancient God of Curse Skeleton (Middle Stage of True Immortal Rank) × 1]

[Obtained: Ancient God Bone (Colorful) × 1 (Contains incomplete Curse Law)]

[Obtained: War Will Core (Gold) × 1]

[Chaos Void Returning Dao Seed completion + 3%]

[dao rhyme value + 12 million]

But this was only the beginning.

On the wasteland, nine more thousand-foot skeletons were approaching!

Further away, there even appeared an ultra-giant skeleton three thousand feet tall—that aura had already reached the Peak of True Immortal!

And the curse patterns in the sky were becoming denser and denser, and the space of the entire third layer began to twist and alienate.

Lu Qingxuan could feel that an invisible curse Domain was forming; once the Domain was completed, all living beings within it would be subject to continuous curse erosion.

"I can't waste time here." He looked toward the depths of the wasteland. "The entrance to the fourth layer is... there!"

The memory crystal showed that the entrance to the fourth layer, "The Graveyard of Laws", was located beneath a bone mountain in the center of the wasteland.

But at this moment, that bone mountain was blocked by that three-thousand-foot ultra-giant skeleton.

Force his way through? He could, but it would waste too much time.

"Then... borrow strength."

A sharp glint flashed in Lu Qingxuan's eyes as he looked in the direction of the awakening Ancient God of Curse.

"Since you want war... then I'll give you a great war."

He took a deep breath and resonated the [War Will Core] he had just obtained with the [war godhead fragment]!

"Hum—"

The war godhead fragment erupted with blinding blood-red light!

A wave of pure War Law fluctuation swept across the entire Boneyard Wasteland!

This move poked a hornet's nest.

"Roar!!!!!!"

From the depths of the wasteland came the roar of the Ancient God of War, angry to the extreme!

It felt the aura of the godhead fragment and felt that someone was stealing its authority!

"Ant... you dare... to touch my godhead!!!"

"I will... smash you into ten thousand pieces!!!!"

The entire third layer shook violently!

The soul fire in the eyes of all the skeletons instantly turned blood-red!

They abandoned all tactics and crazily pounced toward Lu Qingxuan!

Even that three-thousand-foot ultra-giant skeleton turned around and rushed over!

But this was exactly the effect Lu Qingxuan wanted.

"Chaos Return to Void... Time Acceleration... Ten times!"

He added the Domain of Time to himself, his speed skyrocketing to the extreme!

Then, instead of rushing toward the bone mountain, he... rushed toward that three-thousand-foot skeleton!

"Court death!!!" The skeleton under the control of the Ancient God of War's will swept its giant palm, and space collapsed inch by inch!

But the moment the palm wind reached him, Lu Qingxuan's figure twisted strangely, and he flew past the edge of the palm by an incredibly narrow margin!

Then he did something that even stunned the Ancient God of War—

He slammed the aura of the war godhead fragment into the soul fire of that three-thousand-foot skeleton!

"You don't want the godhead? Take it!"

"Boom!!!"

The three-thousand-foot skeleton's movements froze abruptly!

The war will in its soul fire began to clash crazily with the aura of the godhead fragment!

The godhead fragment was the authority core of the Ancient God of War's main body, while the will in the skeleton was only a wisp of a Clone—the Clone wanted to devour the main body's authority, and the result was...

"Ahhhh—!!"

The three-thousand-foot skeleton let out a painful roar, and its massive body began to uncontrollably attack everything around it crazily!

Its giant palm shattered two thousand-foot skeletons beside it, and its bone tail swept, destroying another large area of the skeleton army!

Civil war!

Taking advantage of this Chaos, Lu Qingxuan shot toward the bone mountain like a gray flash of lightning!

"Ant... you calculated against me!!!" The Ancient God of War was furious, but it was currently at a critical moment of devouring other ancient god remains and could not spare too much power to the third layer.

Lu Qingxuan successfully arrived at the bone mountain and found the entrance to the fourth layer hidden in a crack in the mountain—it was a colorful vortex composed of countless Law runes.

Just as he was about to step in, the tomb guardian guest token in his bosom suddenly became burning hot.

Bronze Profound's voice came through the emergency contact rune in the token, intermittent and full of weakness:

"Sword Master... my lord... I can't... hold on..."

"The truth... of the curse... is..."

"We Tomb Keepers... are actually... 'living Seals'... created by the Ancient God of Curse..."

"The death... of every generation of Tomb Keeper... is reinforcing the cage... My death... will cause the cage to have... a brief flaw..."

"So... I will... burn my last life... to start the... standby mode of the Myriad Weapons God-Slaying Formation..."

"After you enter the ninth layer... the Formation will automatically... open a... path straight to the core for you..."

"But the time... is only... one hour..."

"Within one hour... if you cannot obtain the heart of the artisan ancestor... the Formation will be completely activated... and destroy everything..."

"Please... save... my clansmen..."

The voice stopped abruptly.

The bronze luster on the token dimmed completely.

Lu Qingxuan held the token and was silent for three breaths.

Then, he stepped into the colorful vortex.

Behind him, the shockwave from the three-thousand-foot skeleton's self-destruction swept over, leveling the entire bone mountain to the ground.

And in The Graveyard of Laws on the fourth layer, what awaited him... was even stranger, even more dangerous Law turbulence.

And a Myriad Weapons God-Slaying Formation... that had begun to operate in advance because of Bronze Profound's sacrifice.