Pang Jian had a nightmare.
In the dream, the painful feeling of thousands of ants gnawing at his bones when he was awake seemed to become real.
What is different is that what is in his dream are not tens of millions of ants, but countless dancing phoenixes.
Countless divine phoenixes, as tiny as dust, soared between his sternum and arms, displaying magical grace within his bone marrow and bringing him unspeakable pain and torture.
Compared with the severe pain this time, the pain when Sun Bin used lightning to wander around his body and test his talent was nothing.
Perhaps that was the case. Last time he was able to grit his teeth and hold on, but this time he fainted on the spot.
After an unknown amount of time, Pang Jian, whose high fever had subsided, finally woke up.
"Why did you suddenly get sick?"
As soon as Pang Jian opened his eyes, he saw Zhou Qingchen, who was guarding beside him, sitting cross-legged on the ground, biting a piece of grass in his mouth, and grinning at him: "How do you feel now?"
Pang Jian tried to move his neck and arms and found that his neck was crackling, as if it had been stiff for a long time.
“Hmm!”
His eyebrows twitched, and he felt as if he had been blessed with an unknown divine power. He had endless energy all over his body, and the bones in his chest gave him a strange illusion that they were as hard as iron.
When he swung his arms, he felt that his arm bones seemed to have been tempered, which was obviously different from before.
There was something strange about his body, but it was inconvenient to talk to Zhou Qingchen, so he had to ask in a roundabout way: "Mr. Zhou, I heard that the third realm of cultivators is the Marrow Cleansing Realm, what is it?"
While asking the question, he thought of the strange scene in his dream where many divine phoenixes were flying over his arm bones and marrow.
"Why do you know this? I haven't even completed the marrow cleansing yet, so don't even think about it."
Zhou Qingchen laughed dumbly and explained his doubts in detail: "The first stage of the cultivation path for all of us is Qi training, which requires guiding the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the spiritual sea of Dantian. The Qi training stage is a process of accumulation, and the overall strength has not been qualitatively improved. It is not much stronger than mortals who do not know how to practice."
After a pause, he said solemnly: "The Tongmai realm is different."
"After reaching the Tongmai realm, we can infuse the spiritual power in our Dantian into the tendons and veins of our limbs. When the tendons and veins are filled with spiritual power, the practitioner becomes extremely powerful, and the spiritual power can also spread outward through the limbs, thus bursting out with amazing power."
He stretched out a hand, rolled up his sleeves to reveal half of his forearm, and then secretly exerted force.
Pang Jian clearly saw a dark red light flowing through the veins of his forearm all the way to the palm of his hand.
“Wow!”
A ball of deep red light suddenly rose from his palm and was skillfully controlled by him, slowly transforming into a small deep red mountain.
He casually clapped his hands and smashed the illusory "Red Mountain" floating in his palm towards a huge rock nearby.
“Bang!”
The stone exploded with a loud bang.
"This is the power of the Tongmai realm."
Zhou Qingchen demonstrated calmly.
The noise he made attracted the attention of Zhou Ning's two families in the distance, including Shangguan Qin who couldn't help but look over.
"As for the Marrow Cleansing Stage, it is called bone-cleansing and marrow-cleansing, and focuses on tempering the bones, flesh, blood, and internal organs of the whole body. For those who have achieved great success in the Marrow Cleansing Stage, it often means that they have been reborn and have washed away their mortal flesh and blood."
Zhou Qingchen's eyes showed a hint of pride, and he raised his head and said, "When I reach the Marrow Cleansing Realm, I will be able to cleanse the impurities hidden in my flesh, blood, tendons and bones, and it will not delay my cultivation in Hongshan."
He told Pang Jian that because the spiritual energy in the fourth realm was not pure enough, the cultivators who practiced in this realm would naturally retain dirty impurities in their bodies.
When he officially steps into Hongshan in the future, he will first break through the Marrow Cleansing Realm and complete his own transformation.
"Marrow washing, bone-cutting and marrow washing."
Pang Jian murmured thoughtfully, feeling that when he was in a coma, his sternum and hand bones were tempered by some unknown magical power.
He suspected it was the disappearing amber light, but he couldn't find any conclusive evidence, and it was not easy to ask Zhou Qingchen for advice.
It was already evening, the sky was getting darker, and it looked like night was about to fall.
After a deep conversation with Zhou Qingchen, Pang Jian looked around and saw the Ning family war horses resting together.
The servants of the Zhou family were making a fire and cooking at this moment. Ning Yao and Ning Yuanshan were not far from the fire, but they still kept a certain distance from the Zhou family.
A rift has arisen, the Zhou and Ning families are no longer harmonious, and both sides begin to be wary of each other.
Han Duping, who was good at breaking formations, was busy harassing Shangguan Qin with a grin on his face, as if he couldn't see the annoyance on her face.
Pang Jian stood up slowly, checked the mountain behind him, and looked towards the place where the sound of flowing water came from.
He saw a small waterfall cascading down from the mountain behind him and gathering into a large pool of dark water.
The water of Feilu Falls is clear and transparent, but when it falls into the pool it turns black, which looks a bit strange.
There was a huge dry bone protruding from the cliff near the pool. It didn't emit any light, but it surprised Pang Jian. He shouted, "The remains of the Heavenly Phoenix?"
Zhou Qingchen smiled and nodded, saying, "Most of the bones have sunk to the bottom of the pond, with only a small part showing."
"When you were in a coma with a high fever, I carefully examined this bone. There is nothing magical about it. It is not the so-called divine bone that everyone has been searching for, which is said to have inherited a gift."
Zhou Qingchen had already determined in his heart that there was no way that bones that were gifted with inherited divine power could appear in the fourth realm.
Pang Jian thought of the dry bone with a mysterious glow inside, and thought that even without the inheritance of the Heavenly Phoenix, every dry bone that fell from the sky contained some wonders.
"You don't have to worry. We are very cautious this time. If there is another earthquake, we will evacuate immediately."
Zhou Qingchen was in a relaxed state of mind, and took it for granted that the changes surrounding the dry bones would still be accompanied by the roar of an earthquake.
"Black water? Black water pool!"
Pang Jian looked at the pool behind him, and after a moment of stunned silence, his face became extremely heavy. He suddenly shouted, "This place is not safe, you shouldn't camp here!"
He remembered!
This area with the black water pool was listed by his father as one of the restricted areas of the Silent Mountains, and he was explicitly told not to set foot there.
Because he had a younger sister to take care of, he was unwilling to take risks, fearing that he would disappear like his father, ushering in the darkest moment in Pang Lin's life.
Pang Lin lost his father at a young age before he even grew up, and he must not lose him again.
"Is there something wrong here?"
While asking Pang Jian, Zhou Qingchen waved to Han Duping, asking him to stop pestering Shangguan Qin.
Seeing Han Duping coming, he immediately shouted: "Old Han, tell everyone to get ready. We need to leave here as soon as possible."
After the last experience, he now trusts Pang Jian unconditionally and does what he says.
He and Pang Jian immediately headed towards the direction where the war horses were.
Ning Yao and Ning Yuanshan were still whispering about whether to go to the Far North, but were suddenly made nervous by their actions.
Shangguan Qin also felt uneasy. Before Pang Jian came over, she left Han Duping and ran towards the chestnut warhorse.
However, before she reached the war horses, all the horses, including the chestnut war horse, fell to the ground one after another, foaming at the mouth.
In the blink of an eye, all the war horses fell to the ground, killed by the poison.
"Zhang Heng!"
Ning Yuanshan was furious and roared at Lin Jian: "I asked you to feed the horse, what did you feed?!"
"I'm afraid the man you recruited deliberately poisoned all the war horses." Han Duping's face was deep. He felt something was wrong and shouted, "He said that the water in the black pool was not clean, so he went to find water somewhere else. I think he went to find someone!"
"He poisoned the warhorse so that we could not escape calmly." Zhou Qingchen interrupted in a deep voice.
The young master of the Zhou family, who was not too frightened, and Pang Jian came to the front of the crowd, looked in the direction where Zhang Heng left, then looked at the black water pool behind him, and the tall and smooth rock wall.
Behind them, it was obviously impossible for them to escape.
Although there were trees and messy dead grass in front of them, the terrain was quite open and they could evacuate in any direction.
"Before a treasure that is coveted enough appears, we rarely have a complete falling out among the seven families." As a genius of the Zhou family, Zhou Qingchen, who has sufficient status and confidence, is not afraid at all. He said in a cold voice: "I want to see which family dares to attack me, Zhou Qingchen!"
"As expected, you are the genius seed chosen by Hongshan."
A hoarse and strange sound suddenly sounded, and then someone riding a python was seen slowly emerging from the depths of the dry grass.
The python, as thick as a bucket, had black and white patterns, its tongue moved unsteadily, and its eyes shone with a ferocious green light.
The man who came riding on the snake was wearing loose clothes with the same pattern as the python. He had his hands tucked into his sleeves and was as thin as a bamboo pole.
"My name is Hong Tai. I was also a member of the Blood Moon in my early years. Unfortunately, I was expelled from the Blood Moon a hundred years ago. Alas, I can't stay in the upper realm anymore and can only hang out in the lower realm." The snake rider introduced himself with a smile.
"Sha! Sha! Sha!"
After he appeared, many people without uniform clothing emerged from the waist-high weeds one after another.
Zhang Heng was among them.
"Hongtai?"
"Hongtai!"
Younger people like Zhou Qingchen and Ning Yao were unfamiliar with this name and looked confused when they heard it.
Han Duping's face slightly changed. He looked at Hong Tai who was riding a snake and whispered to Zhou Qingchen, "He is a member of the Dark Ghost."
"Dark ghost?"
Pang Jian was at a loss.
When Zhou Qingchen, Ning Yao and Ning Yuanshan heard that the person coming was from An Gui, their expressions suddenly turned ugly.
In the fourth realm where they are, the strongest sects and forces are naturally the seven major families.
The seven major families have more or less some connections with the sects in the upper realm. They are considered the official and orthodox of this realm and control the seven areas with the richest cultivation resources.
The seven major families have close ties with each other, and their relations are apparently harmonious, with few conflicts leading to the end of life.
The Dark Ghosts are a group of practitioners outside of the seven major families, wandering in the darkness and on the fringes of the land.
The so-called dark ghosts refer to the lonely ghosts in the deep darkness.
The seven major families often join forces to encircle and suppress the Dark Ghosts, but this organization is very good at hiding and escaping. It has not been completely eliminated so far and is still active in dark corners.
The seven major families still haven't figured out who the leader of the dark ghosts is and what level of cultivation he is at.
They only knew that the dark ghost leader had recruited some evil practitioners who could not make it in the upper world, so that they could have a hiding place in the lower world.
"Since we, the Dark Ghosts, have received news that the Sky Phoenix's divine skeleton has disintegrated and its bones have fallen to various places in the world, we naturally want to try our luck."
Hong Tai pointed at Zhang Heng and introduced him openly: "He is a member of my Dark Ghost, and he has been lurking in the Ning family for a long time. There are many Dark Ghost members like him in your seven major families, but you just don't know about them."
"Only at certain critical moments will they reveal their identities and do something big for us."
Hearing him speak frankly, there are many people like Zhang Heng, and Zhou Qingchen and others felt very heavy.
"Okay, let's stop talking nonsense and get down to business first."
Hong Tai clapped his hands, not wasting any more time, and smiled as he ordered: "Except for the two women, kill all the others. Don't leave any alive for me."
…
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(End of this chapter)