The Purgatory Calamity

Fourth Realm.

Another deep, dark night fell.

In a corner of the Solitude Mountain Range, led by Jin Yang, the Dark Ghosts gathered by the side of Black Water Pool, staring blankly at the calm, unrippled surface of the water, their expressions quite bizarre.

In the pitch-black night of the Lower Realm, only cultivators like them could see the surrounding scenery.

Ordinary people, who had not embarked on the path of cultivation, would find it difficult to distinguish the objects around them in such a deep dark night without the aid of light sources like lamps.

Because Jin Yang had ordered, the Dark Ghosts did not light any lamps, and a group of them scattered around the pool like ghostly figures.

However, after a long and arduous wait, there was still no sign of Ouyang Duanhai and Pang Jian emerging from the dark waters of the pool.

Neither of the two had reached the Marrow Cleansing Realm and lacked the ability to breathe underwater for extended periods.

"It seems that, whether we light the lamps or not, it won't make them show themselves voluntarily."

"Perhaps they've already turned into skeletons under the water."

"..."

The people talked amongst themselves, keeping their voices very low, fearing that the two in the water would hear them.

The man wearing the mask was almost out of patience, he said to Jin Yang, "We've tried it too. When we threw bones into the pool, the flesh was quickly eroded away. They shouldn't be able to hold on for so long. Are we just going to continue waiting like this?"

To verify Jin Yang's claim, they had brought the recently deceased bodies of the Zhang brothers, Heng and Zhu, along with several war-horses poisoned to death, all thrown into Black Water Pool only to be pulled back up.

Just as Jin Yang had experienced, in the time it took to lower and raise them, all that came up were bones.

The flesh had been completely corroded.

They immediately knew there was something peculiar about the pool water, because when they first investigated Black Water Pool, Jin Yang had clearly gone near that withered skeleton, and some of them had even touched the water.

At that time, the water did not possess such intense corrosive toxicity, and they had all been unharmed.

Having had one safe encounter, Jin Yang dared to recklessly test the water with his left hand after a "Cicada Wing Sword" reacted oddly upon entering the water, resulting in his hand turning into nothing but bare bones.

"My instincts tell me that the young hunter named Pang Jian, and that Ouyang Duanhai, haven't had their flesh corroded by the pool water."

Under the pitch-black night sky, Jin Yang's voice was filled with a chilling and forbidding anger that informed everyone present that he was truly enraged this time.

"How are they able to breathe underwater?"

Another Dark Ghost leader standing beside the Silver Silk Giant Net asked in amazement.

"I want to know why, too! I also want to know why that Pang Jian's arm bones and chest bones are as tough as metal, and why even my Cicada Wing Swords can't sever them!" Jin Yang shouted furiously.

"Hiss hiss!"

The people by the side of the pool suddenly heard the sound of a python moving, so they turned their heads to look.

Hong Tai, the leader in charge of this operation, rode in on a python with a black and white patterned skin, looking distressed as he arrived in front of the group and sighed, "We let that Zhou family boy get away."

He briefly explained that Zhou Qingchen had more than just the Heart Protection Mirror among his treasures, always managing to escape his killing moves with these treasures.

In the end, Zhou Qingchen fled to the side of a muddy stream and after plunging into the water, it was unclear where he went.

After the recent storms, the stream was too murky and he couldn't see clearly where Zhou Qingchen was headed under the water. After an unsuccessful search, he returned.

"Our situation is very similar. A hunter named Pang Jian and that neither human nor ghost Ouyang Duanhai are both hidden in Black Water Pool, their fates unknown." The masked leader of the Meridians Channeling Realm immediately explained the situation here.

"The water of Black Water Pool has actually undergone a strange change, and can corrode flesh and blood?"

Hong Tai was clearly stunned. He rode his large python closer to the pool, patted the snake he was on, and instructed, "Check what's strange about the pool water!"

The python he had tamed moved closer to the pitch-black water, its green, ghostly eyes shining with a strange light, as it lightly touched the water with its forked tongue.

"Tss!"

The python's forked tongue emitted a puff of smoke, and its cold eyes suddenly showed fear.

Hong Tai's face drained of color.

He immediately dismounted from the python, went to the head of the snake, and leaned his ear close to where the smoke was coming from, assuming a listening posture.

"The Dark Giant Python! There's a Dark Giant Python hidden at the bottom of Black Water Pool!"

Hong Tai screamed in shock, retreating anxiously, fearing that the "Dark Giant Python" he mentioned would suddenly burst out.

Among the Dark Ghost cultivators encircling Black Water Pool, the majority, including the two Meridians Channeling Realm leaders, had no idea what the "Dark Giant Python" was.

Only Jin Yang, after a moment of hesitation, suddenly reacted in shock, saying, "Impossible! The Dark Giant Python from the Eternal Darkness of the Fifth Realm could not possibly step into our world with its own power!"

"A creature from... the Fifth Realm?!"

The two Dark Ghost leaders finally understood what the "Dark Giant Python" mentioned by Hong Tai and Jin Yang really was.

In the Fifth Realm below theirs, there lies a land of eternal darkness.

It is said that all life able to survive in the Fifth Realm is filled with unimaginable evil and terror.

The Fifth Realm has always been in a state of separation from the Fourth Realm, with almost no life from the Fourth Realm daring to enter the Fifth.

Not to mention cultivators from the Fourth Realm, even Great Cultivators from the Third and Second Realms would not easily venture into it.

Similarly,

The horrible creatures that dwell in the Fifth Realm also seem to be unable to break free, unable to escape that world of unknown horror.

If the "Dark Giant Python" is indeed a creature from the Fifth Realm, then by all accounts it should not be able to leave and sneak into Northern Qi in the Fourth Realm, hiding in a pool in the Solitude Mountain Range.

"I've heard from the leader that even the weakest Dark Giant Python lurking in the Fifth Realm are Fourth Level Ferocious Beasts or Spirit Beasts,"

"A Fourth Level of either Ferocious Beasts or Spirit Beasts is roughly comparable to us cultivators in the Innate Realm. Since there is a Dark Giant Python in the Black Water Pool, and it might not even be the weakest of the Fourth Level, then we..."

Even Hong Tai felt the urge to retreat deep down in his heart.

...

Within the dense underbrush.

The elusive, enchanting blood shadow watched as Hong Tai's python passed through the water and confirmed the existence of a "Dark Giant Python" at the bottom of the pool, also showing a slight change of expression.

"From snake to python, from python to pythonoid, from pythonoid to flood dragon, from flood dragon to true dragon. The Dark Giant Python should not have the ability to break through from the terrifying Fifth Realm, nor could it hide in the Black Water Pool for no reason."

"Unless, someone brought it up here, raised it... in the Black Water Pool."

Her mind was resolute, her gaze deep as she looked at the Black Water Pool, her face gradually becoming solemn.

She thought that once she gradually regained her strength, she would be the strongest in the Solitude Mountain Range, so she always appeared very calm.

But if someone could enter the Forbidden Land known as the Fifth Realm, even to gods and ghosts, and capture a "Dark Giant Python" to nurture in the Black Water Pool,

Then, the power that this person possesses is something she would have to shun by a wide margin even at her peak!

"Who could it be?"

"In these forsaken woods, how can such a remarkable figure be hiding?"

The woman who had intended to reveal her presence and force the Dark Ghosts to explore the bottom of the pool no longer dared to act rashly.

She became even more cautious in hiding her tracks, silently preparing for the worst-case scenario—abandoning the Phoenix Marrow if necessary.

...

At the bottom of the pool.

When Pang Jian came to again, he found that the Spirit Stones he had been clutching, as well as the gray rocks containing the Mysterious Yin Power, had turned into fine sand and slipped through his fingers at some point.

The pure nature's spiritual energy and the robust Mysterious Yin Power from the two Spirit Stones had been completely absorbed by him.

Inside his Spiritual Sea, a variety of energies were still swirling around.

Because his realm was not high enough and his Divine Sense had not yet condensed, he couldn't clearly introspect the movements in his Spiritual Sea, only vaguely sensing them.

He felt that a funnel-shaped vortex had formed in his dantian.

The vortex spun in the very center of the dantian, constantly pulling at the various types of energy filling it.

The mist-like nature's spiritual energy, the pitch-black Acidic Peculiar Supernatural Ability, and the gray-white Mysterious Yin Power, were slowly gathering from all directions toward the vortex.

As the funnel-shaped vortex rotated inward, the multitude of energies was repeatedly refined and extracted.

The pouring tip of the funnel received the washed-over power from above, condensing it into usable... Spiritual Power.

"So this is what they call cultivation,"

"Turning the essence of energies of various attributes into a tangible existence, one can clearly feel the Spiritual Power. This marvelous sensation, as if extracting strength from the vast mist and condensing it into droplets."

Pang Jian had an epiphany, working even harder to gather power, cultivating day and night without rest.

The Spirit Stones given to him by Ning Yao in the bamboo basket were quickly depleted.

Afterward, he could only draw spiritual energy and Acidic Peculiar Supernatural Ability from the pool water to continue refining Spiritual Power in the small heaven and earth of his dantian.

After some time had passed.

When Pang Jian awoke again, he discovered that the giant python, pierced through the skull by the Phoenix Bone, had lost all its flesh and blood, leaving only a skeleton as desiccated as the Phoenix Bone itself.

Parts of the python's bones were still wrapped around the Phoenix Bone, while the rest were scattered in a ring on the pool's bottom.

It seemed to know it could not escape death and awaited it resignedly, quietly waiting for the flesh from its skull to also be devoured.

Suddenly, Pang Jian realized that the humanoid monster, originally far away, was now very close.

The humanoid monster stood at the tail end of the snake bones, its deep red eyes intently locked on the Phoenix Bone, its throat "gulping" with a bloodthirsty craving.

A chill in his heart, Pang Jian frowned and left the python's head, falling straight down in front of it.

In this way, between him and the humanoid monster stood the giant python with a pierced skull and the thick Phoenix Bone.

The python was still being devoured.

The disappearance of its flesh and blood had spread to the skull, and it seemed that it would soon be completely consumed by the Phoenix Bone.

The python, in excruciating pain, still had a longing for this world, wishing to take one last look at the bottom of the pool it had been imprisoned in for many years.

Thus, it slowly opened a pair of cold, lifeless snake eyes.

At first glance, it saw Pang Jian, noticing the small part of the bronze pendant peeking through the gap in the shirt over his chest.

The already resigned "Dark Giant Python," with no sign of life in the depths of its eyes, first showed great fear as if seeing the great terror that made it tremble once more.

It stared at Pang Jian's face, its eyes gradually filling with confusion, and after a moment, they brimmed with overwhelming hatred.

Knowing that it would die sooner or later, it suddenly gathered the last of its strength and began to struggle frantically again.

The bones wrapped around the Phoenix Bone suddenly spun free, and together with the tail, created a tremendous upheaval at the bottom of the pool, viciously striking towards Pang Jian.

...