The Purgatory Calamity

The placid Black Water Pool, which attracted many a concentrated gaze, had several figures swiftly approaching.

Submerged in the water, Pang Jian knew only that when the "Cicada Wing Swords" entered the water, they lost all spirit and magic.

Unbeknownst to him, when he dove back under the water, Jin Yang, who had probed the mysterious Black Water Pool, suffered corrosion on one hand.

Catching his breath, Pang Jian continued to observe the hovering "Cicada Wing Swords" above his head, enduring the agony as he waited for a miracle to occur, hoping to avoid the massacre from the Dark Ghost.

Time ticked away, second by second.

As someone skilled in water, Pang Jian could hold his breath for a long time, and he could see the "Cicada Wing Swords" whizzing around underwater.

Unnoticed, the wound on his hand stopped bleeding.

The luminescence emitted by the Phoenix Bone seemed to be slowly contracting, and the area it could illuminate grew smaller and smaller.

"Underwater, could I perhaps cultivate the Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell..."

With this thought, beside the dimming Phoenix Bone, he tried to clear his mind of the many distracting thoughts.

He no longer swam around the Phoenix Bone but allowed his body to sink slowly, quietly entering a state of calm and focused meditation.

He visualized his Spiritual Sea at the Dantian and suddenly noticed the strange dark "Spirit Pot" reappear, naturally absorbing any power available for assimilation nearby.

Gradually, he discovered a very bizarre power hidden in the pitch-black, icy waters, surging towards the "Spirit Pot" at his Dantian.

This power lingering in the Black Water carried a distinctly acidic property that seemed capable of corroding all flesh.

He immediately felt terrified.

Just as he was about to stop cultivating the Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell, he found that the first wisp of acidic supernatural ability that had entered the dark "Spirit Pot" was also purging the cotton-like impurities from his Spiritual Sea.

Moreover, the speed and efficiency of this process far surpassed that of the Mysterious Yin Power in the grey-white rocks.

There seemed to be nothing amiss in the small realm inside his Spiritual Sea due to his absorption of a wisp of acidic supernatural ability.

"This can be absorbed too? Can it cleanse the pollution in the Spiritual Sea?"

Pang Jian felt it was unbelievable and marveled silently at the magic of the Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell, thus allowing his body to continue sinking while maintaining the operation of the dark "Spirit Pot."

He soon made a new discovery.

As he kept his mind focused and meditated on the Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell, his two arms and the pores in his chest area began to draw... air from the cold Black Water.

Only then did he realize that there was air in the water, though ordinary people cannot breathe it through their nose and mouth.

Why could he suddenly do it?

Why was the absorption of air in the water limited to his arms and chest?

He suddenly remembered the durability of his arms as hard as metal, the sudden surge of strength during the attack by a Ghost Cultivator, and the images of countless phoenixes soaring within his bones in his dreams.

With so many thoughts flooding his mind, his cultivation of the Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell came to a sudden halt, and he quickly came back to his senses.

He once again forced himself to stay calm, re-entered the state of calm, focused meditation, and continued to cultivate the Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell as his body kept sinking.

...

"Jin Yang!"

Outside the pool, two Dark Ghost leaders shouted hysterically.

Watching Pang Jian slowly sink to the bottom of the pool, as the small patch of bright white light around the Phoenix Bone slowly retracted, Jin Yang's originally quite handsome face twisted with malice and frenzy.

He suddenly turned around.

The sight of a lifelike blood-colored phoenix bird dancing eerily in front of Ouyang Duanhai's chest flashed before his eyes.

"Swoosh! Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!"

The "Cicada Wing Swords" that patrolled the surface of the pool, previously focused on Pang Jian, flew back to Jin Yang like silver lightning, ready to deal with the anomaly before him.

But he quickly realized that Ouyang Duanhai, who had already lost his Spiritual Intelligence and had a wooden expression in his eyes, was not coming for him.

The remaining "Cicada Wing Swords" hadn't yet reached above Jin Yang's head when Ouyang Duanhai, who had killed many Ghost Cultivators and absorbed their Blood and Flesh Essence Energy with his blood-colored feathers, suddenly leaped up and plunged with a "splash" into the Black Water Pool.

Jin Yang, on high alert, was about to activate the talismans with his skeletal left hand when he noticed that Ouyang Duanhai had completely ignored him.

Jin Yang was stunned like a wooden chicken.

And Ouyang Duanhai, whose body was like a withered skeleton, was suddenly wrapped in a thick blood light.

He appeared only for an instant in the water before being completely swallowed by the Black Water, vanishing from sight.

"He wasn't corroded and dissolved; he actually wasn't dissolved!"

Raising his fleshless left hand, Jin Yang felt an immense frustration and dismay, staring at the spot where Ouyang Duanhai disappeared, and he hysterically shouted, "A youth named Pang Jian and this mad Different Kind, they weren't dissolved by the Black Water!"

At that moment, the two Meridians Channeling Realm Dark Ghost leaders, anxiously coming to his rescue, finally arrived, one after the other.

"Jin Yang, your hand?"

The one wearing a golden mask, upon seeing Jin Yang's raised skeletal left hand, screamed in horror, "I've said before, you shouldn't have shown yourself in this matter! What should we do now? How can we explain this to the leader when we return?"

He feared the blame from the leader; just the thought of the leader's cruel methods made him shiver with fear even before returning.

"We have ways to regenerate flesh from bones."

Jin Yang took a deep breath, forcibly calmed himself down, and decided not to waste words on this matter, saying solemnly, "The water of the Black Pool is strange, possessing an odd force that can corrode flesh. I was careless to come across it."

"We had checked the water a short time ago, and there was nothing unusual, wasn't there?" another Meridians Channeling Realm leader said, perplexed.

"The past is the past; now is now."

Jin Yang took a glove from the leader with the golden mask and put it on. Baring his teeth, he growled, "Perhaps we overlooked some detail last time."

The two Meridians Channeling Realm Dark Ghost leaders looked at the murky black water, unsure if this was indeed the case.

"After the earth cracked open, no terrifying creature emerged. Those guys deceived us."

The leader who had discarded the Silver Silk Giant Net watched his subordinates dragging Ning Yao with the net and said coldly, "It seems I need to conduct an interrogation with her."

"They did not lie."

With a cold face, Jin Yang snorted before saying, "There are things that Zhang Heng did not tell you, but he made clear to Hong Tai. The first Phoenix Bone they encountered did indeed have terrifying vines emerge from the ground fissure, attacking and consuming the Shangguan Family members."

"And the reason I've been concerned about that hunter is also because Zhang Heng told me that the Branded Eye of the Blood Moon chose him!"

The two leaders were not privy to the inside story, which he was, of course, clear about; he had simply not intended to explain it to the two of them before.

"What do we do next?"

Hearing that there was indeed such a matter, the two men looked at the fissure in the earth again and suddenly grew worried.

"Only Cultivators in the Marrow Cleansing Realm can breathe underwater through their skin pores after shedding their mortal body. That kid Pang Jian has been underwater for quite a long time, I don't know if he has sunk to the bottom of the pool dead or if he's..."

Jin Yang frowned deeply, stared gloomily at the black water surface, and said, "Let's wait and see!"

The two of them could only obediently wait.

However, neither Pang Jian nor the crazed Ouyang Duanhai emerged from the surface of the water.

"Han Duping has escaped!"

Outside the valley, a Ghost Cultivator suddenly shouted.

When the masked leader rushed worriedly to Black Water Pool fearing for Jin Yang's safety, the defenses there naturally relaxed significantly, allowing Han Duping the opportunity to break free.

"Don't bother with him. He's just a guy who knows how to explore Arrays. He's not that important."

Jin Yang stopped the two from pursuing him.

...

While they were talking,

From the ancient tree leaves where Jin Yang had previously hidden, a faint blood shadow slowly appeared. She concealed herself in the dense foliage, gazing from a distance at Black Water Pool and Jin Yang who were in discussion.

No one noticed her presence.

"At the bottom of the pool, there's more than just Phoenix Bone. To my knowledge, every drop of Phoenix Marrow's refinement and shaping requires a massive accumulation of blood and flesh." she whispered softly.

She, who had already arrived at the gruesome battlefield, was not in a hurry to delve into Black Water Pool, as there were no suitable coverings around the pool water to conveniently hide her presence.

"This drop of Phoenix Marrow is unusual; I don't know what Alien Power was used to gather such overwhelming Blood and Flesh Essence Energy."

...

In the depths of Black Water Pool,

Pang Jian, immersed in cultivation, allowed his body to sink slowly, deeply focused on absorbing the acidic Peculiar Supernatural Ability from the icy pool water.

An indescribable sense of fulfillment gradually sprouted from his heart. He felt the power that could be described as majestic!

The vast energy was like water being swallowed by a giant whale by the "Spirit Pot," quickly purifying the filth in his Spiritual Sea.

"Mysterious Yin Power" he absorbed it bit by bit, but within the water at that moment, he seemed to roam in a vast ocean of energy!

He didn't know that as he cultivated the "Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell" in the water, the water around him gradually became transparent.

As the Acidic Peculiar Supernatural Ability was absorbed by the "Spirit Pot," he looked like a glowing source, purifying the Darkness in the water.

After a long time, he felt his feet touch something solid, and then he opened his eyes underwater.

To his surprise, he discovered that the pool water at the bottom was clear and bright, no longer pitch black.

Looking down, he first saw an olive-green scale under his feet.

His gaze shifted, and he quickly spotted some oval-shaped black spots, and as he continued to look... he discovered the thick body of a python!

Pang Jian's color drained from his face.

Having hunted in the Solitude Mountain Range for many years, he had seen countless pythons, but never one as big as this!

The serpent ridden by the Dark Ghost leader Hong Tai, patterned with black and white, compared to the giant python at the bottom of the pool, was simply a small earthworm.

This giant python, now coiled around the Phoenix Bone that had pierced into the bottom of the pool, seemed to be trying to twist or push over the Phoenix Bone.

The flesh of its tail part was long gone, leaving only the huge snake bone, resembling a spine, flapping powerlessly against the bottom of the pool.

When the Snake Bone slapped the bottom of the pool, it appeared feeble but still caused an earthquake at the bottom of the pool.

It was this writhing tail that caused earthquakes around Black Water Pool, and its frenzied thrashing that made the land outside full of ravines and fissures.

Looking directly downward from Pang Jian's perspective, he could only see its body coiled around the Phoenix Bone, its fleshless Snake Bone slapping the rocky bottom of the pool.

Shaken by the impact, Pang Jian's mind drifted away from the part of the Phoenix Bone to take another look from the side.

Immediately, Pang Jian saw a massive python head with its lower jaw against the bottom of the pool.

A huge and sharp Phoenix Bone, like a towering Long Spear, had pierced through the python's head from above, nailing it to the bottom of the pool.

Its enormous head was immobilized, and no matter how it twisted its tail and body, it could not escape the fatal piercing of the Phoenix Bone.

In a daze, Pang Jian seemed to see a giant Phoenix Bone falling from the sky, impaling a huge python coiled at the bottom of Black Water Pool through its head on impact.

...