398: Chapter 398 Heading to the Spirit Ruins Pool

The Cauldron Tomb went completely quiet.

Everyone stood among the scattered bones, gasping for breath.

The Randan Spirit controlled the pill king cauldron, causing it to slowly descend. The golden light on the cauldron dimmed, and it shrank back to the size of a palm, landing in Han Li's palm.

The old man floated back above Han Li's head, his wooden staff propped against the Void Realm, his brows deeply furrowed.

"Strange," he said.

Su Mingyuan was squatting on the ground checking Zhou Jian's injuries; hearing this, he looked up.

"What is it?"

The Randan Spirit stared at the pile of shattered bear bones on the ground, his eyes narrowed.

"After Red Eye and Mountain Splitter died, they should have just been two piles of ordinary bones. Beast bones, without consciousness, without Qi, they shouldn't move. But just now, not only were they moving, they also retained some of their combat instincts from when they were alive."

He tapped his wooden staff against the shattered bones.

"The thing driving them was that red fire. That thing is not a method of the Danding Heavenly Palace; I have never seen it before. What kind of thing can make a set of beast bones that have been dead for who knows how many years stand up again, and still retain part of their combat ability from when they were alive?"

He shook his head.

"This old man cannot figure it out."

Han Li stood nearby, hesitated for a moment, and spoke up.

"Senior, it's not just these two tomb-guarding beasts."

The Randan Spirit turned his head to look at her, a puzzled expression on his face.

Han Li tilted her chin toward the direction outside the Cauldron Tomb.

"The humanoid skeletons out on the Bone Plains are the same. When the Blood Moon rises, green flames ignite in their skulls, and they stand up and attack everything around them. When the Blood Moon sets, the flames go out, and they lie back down and turn into ordinary bones."

The Randan Spirit's expression changed.

"Humanoid skeletons?"

"Yes," Han Li said, "They are everywhere. We saw them when we landed from the portal; the Bone Plains were covered with human skeletons, numbering at least a few million. As soon as the Blood Moon rises, they all stand up and fight each other, sending bones flying everywhere."

The Randan Spirit's translucent body swayed.

"You mean—" his voice suddenly sank, "the Disciples of the Danding Heavenly Palace, after they died, were also turned into this kind of thing?"

Han Li didn't speak, but her expression had already answered.

The Randan Spirit's wooden staff struck the Void Realm heavily, and the entire pill king cauldron hummed along with it.

"Who on earth…"

The old man's voice squeezed out from between his teeth, every word trembling.

"Who on earth did this, so vicious. People are already dead, yet they still refine their remains into Puppets!!!"

"This is the behavior of an animal!"

The Cauldron Tomb fell silent again.

No one replied.

After a long while, the Randan Spirit took a deep breath. His translucent body stabilized, he propped his wooden staff up again, and his expression slowly shifted from anger to a heavy calmness.

He looked at Han Li.

"Girl, you are coming with me now."

Han Li was stunned.

"Where to?"

"To the Spirit Ruins Pool."

The Randan Spirit's gaze crossed the Cauldron Tomb, looking toward the mountain to the north.

The palace complex above the mountainside appeared and disappeared in the dim yellow light; the outlines of the flying eaves and upturned corners were still relatively intact, but some places had clearly collapsed, revealing the grey-black mountain body.

"This old man wants to go to the main vein of the Danding Heavenly Palace to take a look," he said.

Su Mingyuan looked at him.

"Look for what?"

"The Palace Master." The Randan Spirit's wooden staff pointed toward the mountain. "This old man does not believe the Palace Master of this generation would die. A great expert at the Late Stage of Soul Transformation, the Palace Master with the highest cultivation in the entire five-thousand-year history of the Danding Heavenly Palace. Even if the Sect was destroyed, with his cultivation, retreating unscathed would not have been a difficult task."

He paused, and something flashed in his translucent eyes.

"Perhaps he is still somewhere in the main vein. Whether he is in seclusion, severely injured and unconscious, or even if only a wisp of his remnant soul remains, this old man must find him."

"And ask him what on earth happened over these past hundred years."

Su Mingyuan did not refute this, because they also wanted to know what on earth had happened during these hundred years.

This was the old man's obsession, and it was also his own obsession.

"But before that—" the Randan Spirit's tone shifted, changing from sentimental back to practical, "the girl's Physique must be activated first."

He glanced at Han Li.

"It is unclear what the situation is like over at the main vein, but one thing is certain—if even the tomb-guarding beasts of the Cauldron Tomb turned into those red-fire skeletons, the things inside the main vein will only be harder to deal with."

Su Mingyuan's brows twitched; he had thought of this logic.

The Cauldron Tomb is the periphery; the tomb-guarding beasts were two Nascent Soul Yao Beasts with sealed cultivation, which dropped to the Foundation Establishment Stage after turning into skeletons.

The main vein is the core; if there are similar guards inside, their cultivation when alive would only be higher than the tomb-guarding beasts, and the strength retained after turning into skeletons would also be stronger.

Golden Core level skeletons, or even higher.

Relying on the two Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators, Chen Rong and Lin Wan, plus thirty Fifth-rank Martial Artists, is not enough.

"After Han Li activates her Physique, her cultivation will reach at least the Early Stage of Foundation Establishment; if she's lucky, the Middle Stage of Foundation Establishment is also possible," the Randan Spirit said. "Once her cultivation rises, the strength I can exert will also rise accordingly. By then, even if we run into Golden Core level skeletons, this old man will have the power to fight."

"Activate her Physique?" Tao Zhe interjected from the side, "What Physique?"

Han Li only then remembered that regarding what happened in the space of the pill king cauldron just now, Su Mingyuan and Tao Zhe only saw her sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed; they hadn't heard a single word of the conversation inside.

She briefly recounted the things the Randan Spirit had said.

Ten Thousand Wood Spirit Ruins Body, naturally has an affinity for Spirit Medicine, can promote the growth of herbs, and her Qi comes with the ability to regulate medicinal properties, but it hasn't been activated yet; she needs to go soak in the Spirit Ruins Pool.

After she finished speaking, the team was silent for two seconds.

Zhao Ping did chime in: "Then in the future, when we get hurt, we won't need to find a military doctor; we can just have Sister Han feed us a Medicinal Pill, right?"

Han Li blushed, but didn't say anything.

Sun Lei was squatting on the ground gnawing on a compressed biscuit, and mumbled a sentence: "Sister Han, once you activate your Physique, you have to look after us."

A few people chuckled, and the tension that had gripped the Cauldron Tomb for so long eased a little.

Su Mingyuan did not laugh.

He was thinking about another matter.

"Senior," he looked at the Randan Spirit, "can the Spirit Ruins Pool only activate the Ten Thousand Wood Spirit Ruins Body? Or can it activate other types of Physiques as well?"

The Randan Spirit thought about it while leaning on his staff.

"The Spirit Ruins Pool was not prepared specifically for the Ten Thousand Wood Spirit Ruins Body; its function is to activate Physiques, any Physique will do," he said. "It's just that this old man has stayed in the Danding Heavenly Palace for so many years and has only ever seen the Ten Thousand Wood Spirit Ruins Body, so I am most familiar with this Physique. Even if Girl Han hadn't activated her Physique, I could have identified it at a glance based on experience."

He scanned the people behind Su Mingyuan.

"But if it is another type of Physique, I wouldn't be able to tell before it's activated. Things like Physiques have too many varieties; some don't even have names. Whether someone has one or not, without going into the Spirit Ruins Pool to test it, no one can say for sure."

His wooden staff drew a circle in the air.

"You lot can also go and soak. If by chance someone is hiding a Physique, that would be extraordinary."

Su Mingyuan turned back to look at the team.

Chen Rong, Lin Wan, Zhou Jian, Zhao Ping, Sun Lei, and the other twenty-something Fifth-rank Martial Artists.

These people were all selected from the hundreds of thousands of Cultivators in Great Xia.

Chen Rong and Lin Wan have SSS-rank Root Bone, and the rest are also SS-rank or S-rank.

If someone among these people is still hiding an undiscovered Physique—suppressing the excitement in his heart, Su Mingyuan asked:

"Senior, how long will it take to get to the Spirit Ruins Pool?"

The Randan Spirit tilted his head and calculated.

"From here to the back mountain of the main vein, it's about one or two hours if we walk."

Su Mingyuan looked up at the sky.

Grey-white sky, dim yellow light.

About six hours have passed since the Blood Moon last set, leaving a safe window of six hours.

Although time is very tight, if we speed up a little, we can make it back.

Su Mingyuan was silent for a few seconds.

He scanned the people present quickly, then gave the order:

"Everyone, our target is the Spirit Ruins Pool."