513: A clan of tomb keepers, a mysterious village

After the jiu xuan dao tablet shattered...

The thunderous roar at the bottom of Nirvana Valley, which had persisted for countless years, fell into utter silence.

The surrounding distorted space and broken rules were smoothed over as if by an invisible giant hand, revealing a path hidden by layers of dense mist.

It was an ancient road paved entirely with grim white bones; its beginning was unknown, and its end was nowhere in sight, winding into the deeper darkness ahead.

Those bones were interlocked section by section, some in human forms and some in beastly shapes.

In the dead silence, there was an indescribable eeriness, as if every inch of the road surface buried an unwilling soul.

Shen Yuanmo took out the dark-gold beast hide he had obtained from the Zixiao Holy Land, upon which the star chart coordinates were marked.

At this moment, it was emitting a faint glow, pointing clearly toward the end of this bone road.

It seemed the direction was correct.

He did not hesitate and stepped onto the bone road.

The moment his sole made contact with the bones, there was no sound, as if he were stepping on nothingness.

A cold, deathly aura spread up from the soles of his feet, attempting to corrode his dao body and Divine Soul.

However, the moment this power touched Shen Yuanmo's Chaos Dao Body...

It instantly disintegrated and dispersed, not even possessing the qualifications to make him frown.

Shen Yuanmo walked slowly, spreading out his Divine Thought, and soon noticed the abnormality of this place.

The periphery of the Burial Ground of Immortals was a desperate land with chaotic rules and violent energy.

But in the area where this bone road was located, the rules were exceptionally stable.

One could even say they were excessively stable.

It was as if a power of a higher level had forcibly stripped this area from the chaos of the Burial Ground of Immortals, forming an independent pure land.

“A man-made safety zone...” Shen Yuanmo thought to himself. Heavenly Venerable of Nine Mysteries's methods were indeed extraordinary.

The bone road was long, stretching out for an unknown distance.

Shen Yuanmo was neither hurried nor slow, like a true traveler, measuring this strange land.

After he had traveled roughly tens of thousands of miles, a different kind of light finally appeared in the darkness ahead.

It was not spiritual light, nor firelight, but a ghostly green glow, like will-o'-the-wisps, burning quietly in the dark.

As the distance closed, the outline of a village gradually became clear.

This was a primitive village built entirely from the skeletons of giant beasts.

The houses were formed from massive curved ribs, and the fences were made of interlocking, ferocious fangs.

The totem hanging at the village entrance was the skull of an unknown Vicious Beast, with that same ghostly green fire burning in its eye sockets.

The entire village exuded a sense of isolated desolation and savagery.

Inside the village, shadows flickered as if many figures were moving about.

They wore ancient animal skins and held bone weapons; the aura they emitted caused Shen Yuanmo's footsteps to pause slightly.

Hedao Realm.

The villagers walking casually in the village had cultivation levels where the lowest was actually in the Hedao Realm, and there were even many at the Great Perfection of Dao Conjoining.

In the Canglan Realm, these would be figures capable of founding sects and being revered as ancestors.

But here, they seemed like the most ordinary villagers.

At the same time Shen Yuanmo discovered them, the people in the village also discovered him.

“Woo——”

A desolate, ancient horn sounded, breaking the tranquility of the village.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Dozens of figures darted out from various bone houses like ghosts, their movements incredibly swift.

In the blink of an eye, they had Shen Yuanmo surrounded.

They held sharp bone spears, pointing the tips at Shen Yuanmo, their eyes hollow and wary, their bodies emitting dense Death Qi and killing intent.

An old man with a head of white hair, a hunched figure, and leaning on a cane made of a spinal column, slowly walked out from the crowd.

His aura was the most powerful and unfathomable, actually comparable to a Saint Lord of Mahayana Perfection Stage.

The old man's cloudy eyes looked Shen Yuanmo up and down, and a series of strange syllables issued from his throat.

It was an ancient language that had long been severed in the river of history, difficult and obscure.

“Outsider, this is the habitat of the Tomb-Guardians. Withdraw quickly, or else, die!”

The voice was raspy, like two pieces of sandstone rubbing together.

If it were any other Cultivator, they would be unable to overcome even the barrier of this language.

But in Shen Yuanmo's ears, as soon as this ancient language sounded...

He activated Insight into Origin.

The structure of the syllables, the patterns of pronunciation, the dao rhyme fluctuations contained within... everything was instantly analyzed, deciphered, and reorganized.

In less than a breath, this unfamiliar ancient tongue no longer held any secrets for him.

At the same time, he also saw through the essence of these villagers.

They were not living people.

Within their bodies flowed a trace of extremely thin yet incredibly pure Immortal Bloodline.

It was precisely this trace of Bloodline that allowed them to persist in this dead land.

But they had no true Divine Soul; they were more like a strange existence between living beings and Puppets, created with the special rules of this place as a framework and the Immortal Bloodline as a core.

The meaning of their existence seemed to be only one—to guard.

Shen Yuanmo looked calmly at the old man and responded word by word in that same ancient language.

“I did not come here to be your enemy. I am merely a passerby seeking the ruins of Heavenly Venerable of Nine Mysteries.”

His pronunciation was incomparably standard, even purer than the old man's, as if he were the true master of this language.

Hearing this, the villagers surrounding him showed a hint of confusion, clearly not expecting this outsider to speak their language.

But the leading old man, upon hearing the four words 'Heavenly Venerable of Nine Mysteries', his cloudy eyes suddenly shrank, and his withered body trembled violently.

It was a fanaticism evolved from a mixture of extreme reverence and bone-deep fear.

Not just him, all the surrounding villagers, after hearing this title...

Their bodies began to tremble uncontrollably, and in their hollow eyes, ghostly green flames identical to the totem at the village entrance ignited.

The atmosphere, which had been tense a moment ago, vanished instantly.

The old man's attitude underwent a hundred-and-eighty-degree turn.

The spinal column cane in his hand fell to the ground with a 'clatter'.

Upon that wrinkled old face, an expression of extreme respect, or even fawning, was squeezed out.

Then, he actually knelt on both knees and kowtowed heavily to Shen Yuanmo.

“So it is... the Lord Envoy seeking the glory of the Heavenly Venerate! Please forgive our offense!”

With his bowing, the dozens of villagers holding bone spears also knelt on the ground in unison.

They buried their heads deep, their movements uniform, exuding a strange piety.

“According to the ancestral teachings, anyone who can pass the test of the Dao-Inquiry Tablet is a distinguished guest of our clan! And even more, an acting agent of the Heavenly Venerate's will!”

The old man looked up, staring at Shen Yuanmo with fanatical eyes, his voice trembling.

The Dao-Inquiry Tablet likely referred to that jiu xuan dao tablet.

Shen Yuanmo's eyes shifted slightly, and he understood in his heart.

These people were another layer of arrangement left by Heavenly Venerable of Nine Mysteries.

They were both guards to block those who were not qualified, and chess pieces to screen and guide those 'Great Medicines' who passed the test into the next stage of the trap.

He remained calm on the surface, but a hint of coldness rose in his heart.

What a Heavenly Venerable of Nine Mysteries; his layout truly could be called interlocking and meticulously planned.

However, he wanted to see what this so-called True Immortal was really up to.

Shen Yuanmo's expression was indifferent as he calmly accepted the bow and spoke slowly: “Rise.”

“Thank you, Lord Envoy!”

The old man rose respectfully, his attitude completely different from before.

He stepped aside and made a gesture of 'please', his voice carrying a hint of undetectable excitement.

“Lord Envoy, please follow me. Our clan has been waiting here for endless ages, just for your arrival.”

Shen Yuanmo's expression was calm and thoughtful as he stepped toward that bone village.

He wanted to see how far this play could go.