Gateway of Immortality

Qin Sang showed no mercy and ordered the flying yaksha to press in and savagely beat the fierce tiger.

Wandering Man paid no attention to the fight. His gaze roamed the surroundings.

Before them lay a dried riverbed filled with smooth, water-worn pebbles. On the opposite bank stood a broken mountain, its collapsed rocks spilling into the river and blocking part of the path.

Beyond the mountain loomed endless darkness.

Wandering Man warned Qin Sang not to let the flying yaksha leave the riverbed's boundaries. Even if the tiger fled across the river, they were not to pursue it.

Qin Sang obeyed without question.

Not long after, Wandering Man's eyes lit up. He fixed his gaze on a pebble in the river with azure markings. Lifting his hand slightly, he formed a seal and struck toward it.

At that very moment, the tiger's howls grew more frenzied. It began charging wildly, its eyes locked on Wandering Man.

Qin Sang understood that Wandering Man had likely found the key. He stared hard at the pebble and, after a moment, also began to sense something unusual.

Pop!

The seal landed on the azure-speckled pebble, releasing a burst of azure light.

The fierce tiger that had been fighting the flying yaksha suddenly froze, whimpered, and vanished without a trace. The surrounding illusion shattered once again.

To be precise, only the illusion on their side of the river shattered.

The faint pressure they had sensed earlier also disappeared.

Seizing the opportunity, they leapt across the river. Glancing back, the riverbank behind them remained the same.

"This is the true ancient herb garden, but the ancient barrier has become extremely chaotic. It exists everywhere, and every few steps brings us into another layer of sealed space. At most, we can see two layers ahead. We must break through them one layer at a time, following the correct path," Wandering Man explained

He continued, "Without the flying yaksha, we'd have had to start breaking the barriers from the edge while dodging attacks from the tiger. We would have had to weaken the illusion slowly by dismantling the barriers bit by bit until we located the core. But now, we can go straight to the heart of the barrier and shatter it directly. It's twice the result for half the effort."

The flying yaksha was a living corpse, far more agile than a regular refined corpse.

Qin Sang did not need to expend much effort to control it.

He had wanted to assist Wandering Man in breaking the barriers, but quickly realized that these ancient barriers were far too complex. His own understanding of barrier techniques was still lacking, so he could not help for now.

Still, Qin Sang did not give up. He followed Wandering Man closely, analyzing the barriers and comparing them with his previous knowledge. His progress improved rapidly.

Whoosh...

They made their way up to the mountainside and stopped.

The mountain collapsed from that point onward. Looking past the broken peak, they could see into the next sealed space.

On the far side of the mountain, the left was a sheer cliff with dried vines hanging precariously. One would suspect they might snap at the slightest pull. Below lay pitch darkness, nothing visible at all.

To the right was a mountain ridge.

It was clear that both paths were sealed by different barriers. A decision had to be made.

There would likely be more forks like this ahead. Without knowing the correct route, wandering at random would only result in failure to find the Purple Cloud Fruit before Ziwei Palace closed.

Qin Sang and Wandering Man climbed to the cliff's edge.

The flying yaksha suddenly threw a punch. With a resounding crack, its fist stirred ripples in the air, revealing a thin light barrier.

That punch blasted a large hole through the light screen.

Before the hole could close, they jumped through it one after the other and plunged down the cliff.

This layer of ancient barrier had been especially easy to break. There had been no tiger to contend with and no need to locate a core. Sheer force had sufficed.

It showed that this section of the barrier was already extremely weak. Perhaps in a few hundred more years, it would disappear entirely and allow the surrounding spaces to merge.

Such instances were not uncommon. The barriers in the herb garden varied widely in strength and scale.

Some powerful barriers were beyond even the means of Spiritual Infant cultivators.

Fortunately, the path to the Purple Cloud Fruit only contained a few difficult checkpoints. Most were within the limits that the flying yaksha could handle. Otherwise, even Demonic Core Realm demonic beast would not have been able to harvest the herbs.

As for those few difficult spots, they would be true trials and tempering for them.

The instant they entered the cliff passage, a powerful suction suddenly surged from below.

At the same time, a yin wind swept down from above. The combined force caused Qin Sang and Wandering Man to plummet rapidly.

The shadow at the bottom of the cliff resembled a blood-red maw, waiting patiently for prey to dive straight in.

Qin Sang and Wandering Man exchanged a glance, then both let out a low shout as spiritual power surged from their bodies to resist the yin wind and suction force.

In the next moment, countless skeletal claws suddenly emerged from the darkness below the cliff. Pale and chilling, the bone claws formed a forest of skeletal limbs, clawing and scratching wildly. It was as if countless living skeletons were climbing upward from the depths of the earth.

The wailing wind above their heads sounded like ghosts crying, sending chills deep into their bones.

Without needing Wandering Man to remind him, Qin Sang forcefully broke free from the suction and flew upward against the current. At the same time, he ordered the flying yaksha to descend on its own. As it neared the skeletal claws, corpse qi suddenly burst forth from its body.

That corpse qi exploded into a circular shockwave, sweeping out in all directions. A crisp crackling sound followed as the bone claws shattered into pieces.

Countless shards of bone scattered through the air, turning the surroundings into a blur of white.

But the bone claws were endless. As soon as one wave was destroyed, another surged up in its place, still rushing upward at great speed.

The flying yaksha could not kill them all, and the space above was growing narrower by the second.

At that moment, Wandering Man suddenly made his move.

He opened his palm. The Flawless Orb spun gently, and a beam of white light shot downward. It transformed into a flying sword, which slipped precisely between the gaps in the claws and stabbed deep into the heart of the bone forest.

A miserable scream rang out. It was unlike any human voice.

In an instant, the suction and the yin wind vanished.

At the same time, all the bone claws disappeared without a trace. The scene that had just played out now felt like a dream.

It was only now that they finally saw the bottom of the cliff.

At the base of the cliff wall lay a semicircular cold pool. To their surprise, it still contained water. The pool was deep and emitted bursts of cold qi.

They should have seen it earlier, but the view had been blocked by the bone claws. Now that the barrier had been broken, it was clear that this was the location of the next layer of the barrier.

"There's no end to this pool. A Spiritual Infant once spent a great deal of time exploring it and dug out a stalk of Heavenly Cold Grass from within," Wandering Man said quietly as he landed beside it.

Heavenly Cold Grass was far more valuable than the Purple Cloud Fruit. Even for a Spiritual Infant cultivator, it could enhance their true essence.

Qin Sang couldn't help but envy that cultivator's fortune.

The barrier around the cold pool wasn't particularly powerful. Wandering Man soon located the core and had the flying yaksha prepare to break it.

But just as the flying yaksha was about to throw its punch, Wandering Man's expression suddenly changed. He raised a hand sharply to stop Qin Sang, then looked up toward the cliff above and said in a grave tone, "Someone's following us. They took the same path."

Qin Sang's heart jumped at the words.

"So soon?"

Anyone who had entered the herb garden along the same route was likely from Heavenly Demon Hill.

They had only just stepped into the ancient herb garden and barely made any progress, yet they were already being caught up to.