70: Chapter 70 The Black Mist Retreats, the Corpse Tide Withdraws, and the Three Find the Core of the Bone Tower

Xiao Xiner took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the overwhelming shock and countless questions in her heart, her beautiful eyes fixed on Li Siwen.

Her voice trembled slightly with disbelief as she said, "Junior Sister Li, you... how exactly did you do it? This is no ordinary method!"

She truly couldn't understand.

From Mid-stage Marrow Cleansing to Great Circle of Viscera Refining, even giving birth to the prototype of primal energy, breaking through five stages in such a short time... this simply overturned all her understanding of cultivation!

Li Siwen felt the surging power within him gradually converge and become harmonious. Hearing her words, he turned his head.

Shrugging his shoulders, he said with a hint of helplessness, "Senior Sister, you watched the whole process. What could I do? It's nothing more than having a solid Foundation and a bit of good luck. Those two Medicinal Pills just now were incredibly potent and helped me break through the bottleneck."

His words were half-true, half-false, attributing everything to his "Peerless Grade Foundation" and "Medicinal Pill Opportunity." While still astonishing, it was far easier to accept than an inexplicable System.

Xiao Xiner: "..."

She looked at Li Siwen's expression of "I'm helpless too, but my talent is just that amazing" and was momentarily speechless.

Yes, she had watched the entire time and indeed hadn't seen Li Siwen make any extra, strange movements. He just took the medicine, and then... then he broke through?

Could a Peerless Grade Foundation truly be this Heaven-Defying?! Breaking through five realms as easily as drinking water or eating a meal?!

[Speechlessness and disbelief from Xiao Xiner +999!]

Her mouth twitched slightly, and she ultimately suppressed her myriad doubts and questions for the time being. Now was indeed not the time for probing.

The gazes of the two simultaneously turned to the sky.

The giant face formed by the dense black mist still hovered there, its hollow eye sockets "staring" intently at them.

The swirling mist was oppressive and silent, exuding a strong sense of surprise, anger, and... a hint of undeniable apprehension.

It seemed it hadn't expected this seemingly weakest girl to erupt with such terrifying power in the blink of an eye, instantly turning the tide of battle.

[Surprise and apprehension from ??? +666]

"Senior Sister, do you know what this thing is?" Li Siwen asked in a deep voice, his fengwu sword trembling slightly, locking onto the unsettlingly cold Aura.

Xiao Xiner's expression was solemn. Her clear, cold gaze carefully scrutinized the giant black mist face as she pondered, "This place is a remnant Secret Realm artificially refined. This black mist face is not a true life form; it's more like a wisp of a powerful evil cultivator's Clone, existing by attaching to the core object of this place, responsible for controlling these corpse puppets and maintaining the Secret Realm's operation."

She paused, then continued her analysis: "If we can find the core object where its consciousness resides and destroy it, perhaps we can fundamentally dismantle this remnant Secret Realm, and we can also find a way to leave."

Yue Li, who was beside them, heard this, and a glimmer of longing flashed in her nimble eyes. She softly added, "Master, if we can defeat this consciousness Clone, the Soul Origin Power left behind after its dissipation will definitely be extremely pure and vast... If I can devour it, it will greatly benefit the repair of my Soul body, and I might even recover some lost memories or powers."

A sharp gleam flashed in Li Siwen's eyes.

It could break the situation and allow them to escape, and also repair Yue Li's Soul body—killing two birds with one stone!

"Since that's the case..." He gripped his fengwu sword tightly, and his newfound primal energy and vast Internal Energy began to slowly gather. The crimson Sword Qi once again flickered unsteadily, "Then let's take it down!"

Xiao Xiner also raised her yuehua longsword, cold Qi emanating from her body.

From Yue Li's fingertips, a grey-white beam of light reignited, locking onto the giant black mist face in the sky.

The Aura of the three surged, ready to launch a thunderous strike together!

However—

Just as they were about to make their move!

The giant black mist face in the sky seemed to sense their intention. A flash of extremely unwilling yet somewhat cunning ghostly light suddenly flickered in its hollow eye sockets!

It actually let out a sharp, piercing mental shriek full of malice and threat, and then the massive mist face suddenly collapsed inward!

Boom!

The black mist violently churned, instantly scattering and transforming back into a sky full of surging ordinary Death Qi grey mist, merging into the surrounding environment.

That wisp of powerful evil cultivator consciousness Clone actually... dissipated on its own?!

It directly gave up a direct confrontation and chose to retreat and hide!

"It ran?" Li Siwen frowned slightly.

His Void-Piercing Spiritual Eye Technique operated to its maximum, carefully scanning the surroundings, but he could no longer capture that special and powerful consciousness fluctuation.

It seemed to have completely merged into the Death Qi of this world, leaving no trace.

"It seems it knew it was no match and retreated to its core," Xiao Xiner said, sheathing her sword, her tone grave. "This is more troublesome. If it hides and uses the corpse tide and Secret Realm power to obstruct us, it will be even harder to find its main body."

"No matter!" Li Siwen's expression returned to calm, his gaze once again cast towards the direction where he had previously sensed anomalies. He said, "Its hiding actually further proves that direction is where the core lies. The more it obstructs us, the more it proves we're on the right path."

He looked at Yue Li and motioned, "Continue to lead the way, in that direction."

"Yes, Master!" Yue Li acknowledged, and the grey-white beam of light at her fingertips once again lit up, shooting towards the surging corpse tide.

However, this time, the corpse tide's offensive clearly changed.

Although the corpse puppets still surged forward, their movements seemed a bit... sluggish and stiff?

As if they had lost some kind of flexible command, only their instinctive desire to attack remained.

Even the occasional Kaiyuan Realm corpse puppet appeared much clumsier, far less troublesome than before.

Yue Li found it easier and more efficient to purify and absorb them. Wherever the grey-white light beam passed, corpse puppets dissolved in patches, and points of Soul Origin Power continuously merged into her Soul body, causing her Soul Power to steadily increase and her Aura to become more solid and agile.

She was killing with gusto, her grey-white light beams crisscrossing with extreme efficiency.

But before long, something even stranger happened.

The corpse tide, which had been fearless and surged forward madly, suddenly paused in unison as if receiving some unified command!

Immediately, they stopped attacking forward. Instead, like a receding tide, they began to rapidly retreat!

Countless corpse puppets turned around, stumbling and silently merging into the surging grey mist behind them. In just a moment, they had retreated completely!

Looking ahead, the area was vast and empty, with only the desolate grey mist and bone-white sand remaining. Not a single corpse puppet could be seen.

It was as if the endless, unkillable terrifying corpse tide had never existed.

"This..." Xiao Xiner held her sword, vigilantly looking around, her beautiful eyes filled with surprise, "They... retreated?"

The light from Li Siwen's Void-Piercing Spiritual Eye Technique slowly receded, and a cold smile played on his lips: "It seems the guy behind this is completely out of options."

"Unable to stop us, and unwilling to send more 'nourishment' for Yue Li to devour and improve, it simply retreated into its lair, hoping to make a final stand with the arrangements at the core."

"That saves us a lot of trouble." He stepped forward, "Let's go, to meet its true body."

Without the obstruction of the corpse tide, the trio's speed increased significantly.

After passing through a particularly dense area of grey mist, the scene before them suddenly opened up.

Before them was a huge circular clearing, and in the center of the clearing, a tall tower stood, constructed entirely from various pale bones!

The Bone Tower had about nine stories, towering into the dim sky. Its body was covered with countless twisted skull bones and ferocious bone spurs, exuding an extremely dense Death Qi, resentment, and an ancient, evil Aura.

Around the tower, the bone-white sand on the ground seemed to be stained by some force, presenting a dark red color, like dried blood.

The atmosphere here was oppressive, deathly silent, and chilling.

Undoubtedly, this was the core of this remnant Secret Realm!

That evil cultivator consciousness Clone, and the key object controlling everything, must be within this Bone Tower!