199: Ten Thousand Blade Sword Tomb

Leaving the foul, miasmic stench of the Mist Swamp, the six of them dragged their exhausted bodies along a narrow path winding through broken rocks. The air became dry and sharp, each breath stinging like metal shavings. Passing through a desolate stone forest of jagged, bizarre rocks, their vision suddenly widened as a heart-shaking sight rushed toward them.

The earth was not flat but filled with crisscrossing, massive gullies and deep pits, as if it had been repeatedly hacked and ravaged ten thousand times by countless violent, giant blades. As far as the eye could see was a forest of death composed of innumerable broken weapons.

Broken and twisted greatswords were thrust into the ground like a forest, notched battle-axes were half-buried in the crimson gravel, and shattered shield fragments were scattered like abandoned tombstones, with rusted arrowheads densely dotting the landscape.

The thick, nauseating smell of rust, mixed with the unyielding scent of dried blood and dust, formed the unique, suffocating odor of the Sword Tomb.

Even more terrifying was a sharp killing intent, as solid as substance and pervasive, filling the air and heavily pressing down on the minds of every intruder.

This was the lingering, unwilling roar of the spirits of countless fallen experts, the destructive obsession imprinted at the moment divine Sharp Weapons shattered, and even more, the violent Metal Spiritual Evil Qi from deep within the Spiritual Veins. After ten thousand years of resentment intertwining and Fusion, it had finally formed a natural forbidden zone.

The air was filled with a constant humming—no longer a physical sound, but the desperate shrieks of billions of dead Souls, the ear-piercing wails of breaking metal, and the heavy, oppressive sounds of slaughter like ancient war drums. They wove together into a burial song for the dead, frantically battering everyone's Sea of Consciousness and bringing tearing pain.

The sky was completely obscured by a thick, viscous layer of dark red evil clouds, casting an eerie copper-colored light that reflected off this battlefield where countless lives and weapons were buried, making it look like a purgatory of the Nine Netherworlds.

Stepping into this place, everyone except Lu Yang immediately felt the deadly, all-encompassing pressure of the Sword Tomb.

Ning Hong’s body began to tremble violently, as if struck hard by an invisible giant hammer. The Metal Spirit Root within her body was like it had been thrown into the core of molten lava, uncontrollably and frantically absorbing the violent Metal Spiritual Evil Qi from the outside.

Majestic power instantly filled her Meridians, her spiritual power swelling at an unprecedented speed, and visible wisps of sharp golden light uncontrollably escaped from her body's surface.

However, this power was not a blessing; it originated from endless slaughter and resentment, filled with a violent and destructive will.

Her Meridians felt as if they were being simultaneously pierced and stirred by billions of red-hot thin iron wires, the intense pain piercing her heart and eroding her bones. Her bones let out an overburdened "creak" and groan, and countless tiny bloody gashes split open across her skin, blood seeping out instantly as if she were being sliced by countless invisible, miniature Sword Qi.

More lethally, the purplish-blue fingerprint on her waist and abdomen, left by the Earth Spirit Leader of the Kugu Wasteland, suddenly turned as pitch-black as an abyss under the frantic stimulation of the Metal Evil Resentment. Its center even emitted an eerie blood-light that seemed to wriggle with life.

A cold, murky Earth Evil Qi and the sharp, violent Metal Evil Killing Intent clashed and intertwined within her body, forming a toxic torrent of power that ran rampant. The intense pain made her vision go black in waves, her body trembling uncontrollably. Her legs went weak, and if not for her strong will, she would have knelt on the spot. The illusory sense of power from the surge in strength and the extreme pain of her body being torn apart by the backlash clashed and pulled within her.

As the Peak Foundation Establishment expert with the highest cultivation in the group, Spring Breeze endured pressure like a collapsing mountain or a tsunami. The pale blue Water Flower Shield she struggled to maintain was frantically squeezed and eroded by the pervasive sharp killing intent in the air, its light flickering and its range forced down to barely covering a few feet around her. Water-system spiritual power was naturally and almost absolutely countered and rejected in this death zone filled with metal evil cold qi. The originally smooth and effortless circulation of spiritual power became incredibly difficult and heavy, like forcing a massive wheel through a deep sea frozen by ten-thousand-year profound ice; she could hardly even exert thirty percent of her full power smoothly. Worse, her powerful Divine Sense here was like hitting a copper wall and iron bastion covered in billions of sharp blades. Every attempt to release it for scouting brought tearing pain to her Soul, and her scouting range was suppressed to the extreme, leaving her almost blind. The boundless killing intent and desperate wails filling heaven and earth were like icy, filthy tides, battering her Dao Heart wave after wave, bringing an indescribable heavy oppression that shook her mind.

Transforming Rain’s experience was several times more painful than Spring Breeze's. Her water-system spiritual power seemed completely frozen deep within her Meridians. Every time she struggled to mobilize a sliver of spiritual power, it felt like tearing her own Origin, triggering a violent spiritual power backlash. The blood and qi in her chest churned violently, and a metallic sweetness kept rising in her throat, with lines of bright red blood already uncontrollably seeping from the corners of her mouth. The pervasive sharp metal qi and the bone-chilling cold made her feel as if she were walking naked on a mountain of blades covered in poisoned ice. Her arm, which was supporting Xia Yuxuan, trembled violently from the cold and the intense pain of the internal backlash, making it almost impossible to hold on.

Xia Yuxuan’s condition was even more precarious, like a candle in the wind. Her heavily injured and extremely fragile Water Spirit Body was like a thin layer of ice exposed in a blizzard in this land of the dead filled with extreme cold and sharpness. The ink-black, wriggling fingerprint on her waist became even more hideous under the strong stimulation of the Metal Evil Resentment. It throbbed frantically, emitting a heart-palpitating cold murkiness and destructive Evil Qi, greedily devouring her remaining life force and pure water spirit Origin like a living thing. Every weak breath pulled at her entire body, causing violent spasms. The intense pain had almost completely blurred her consciousness, and she could only let out faint, pained groans like a dying young animal. The faint life barrier wrapping around her, which Mu Wanqing was struggling to maintain, flickered under the internal and external attacks, looking as if it would be completely extinguished at any second.

Mu Wanqing, the young girl with the rare Wood-Yang Spirit Body, was currently suffering the most cruel rejection and suppression of this land of death. The Wood-Yang Spirit Body, representing the Origin of life and exuberant vitality, was like an incompatible enemy before the Ten Thousand Blade Killing Domain, a realm symbolizing ultimate death and destruction. She gritted her teeth, recklessly driving her Origin power, trying to release pale green specks of light containing pure life force. However, as soon as these glimmers of life appeared, they were frantically annihilated and devoured by the dense Evil Qi, bone-chilling cold, and resentment of the dead Souls in the space, like hungry wolves pouncing on prey. Maintaining the paper-thin life barrier around everyone, which could break at any moment, was no longer just a consumption of spiritual power for her; every breath was burning her precious life Origin! The intense consumption made her face as pale as golden paper, her lips completely lost their color, and her thin body trembled violently under the invisible gaze of those countless cold dead Souls. She was stubbornly using her own fire of life to resist this dead zone's absolute erosion and rejection of the concept of "life."

Clearly sensing the agonizing pain of his companions as they reached their limits, Lu Yang did not hesitate for a moment. He immediately drove the mysterious Spirit Source Core within his body to its full potential, cautiously extending his perception like a spiderweb. What he perceived was not just the deadly killing intent and torrent of resentment in this land of death, but also a very familiar, incredibly pure spiritual power fluctuation carrying the characteristic majestic sharpness of Golden Palace Peak—this fluctuation belonged to his Dao Companion, Chi Rong!

Without the slightest delay, Lu Yang used the Spirit Source Core’s miraculous synchronization ability to instantly adjust his spiritual power fluctuation frequency to be exactly the same as Chi Rong’s! In an instant, a miracle occurred. The Ten Thousand Blade Killing Intent that had been piercing his Soul like billions of steel needles, the coldness that had chilled his bones and frozen his blood, the mental impact of the dead Souls' shrill wails... all of that deadly pressure suddenly vanished! They seemed to transform from deadly attacks into some kind of familiar, harmless background noise. His body was no longer an alien object out of place with this world but perfectly integrated into the environment of the Sword Tomb, becoming a part of it. He could even clearly feel the Metal-system Spiritual Qi in the air, so dense it was almost physical, carrying a strange affinity as it actively and continuously poured into his body, submissively nourishing his Spiritual Veins. Far from any discomfort, it brought a refreshing sense of being filled with power.