"Why do people from New Township come looking for treasure and always think about killing to silence witnesses?"
The porcelain doll that Chen Shi had turned into escaped from the spirit realm and was now hopping through the mountains, moving with great agility.
The villagers of Yellow Slope Village never cared about the True King's Tomb, and neither did Chen Shi. If these people came to look for treasure without any intent to kill, he would even be willing to guide them to the real True King's Tomb.
Unfortunately, every group that came had murderous intentions towards him.
He moved through dense forests and swam across rivers, reaching another strange place.
Here, there were roads and stone steps paved with blue stones, with large pine and cypress trees planted on both sides. The trees had rugged bark and strong branches, and in front of the trees stood stone figures and beasts, each two to three stories high.
This was the True King's Tomb that the woman in purple and her group had been desperately searching for but couldn't find.
The True King's Tomb was only two or three miles from the kiln factory, but the terrain in the mountains was tricky. Without someone to lead the way, it was really hard to find this place.
However, Chen Shi was familiar with the area. This was Heavenly Yang Mountain, and he and his grandfather had entered the mountains countless times. While he couldn't say he knew every blade of grass, he certainly knew where each tree was.
Chen Shi jumped down from a rock, landing with a crisp sound as his feet hit the stone.
Startled, he quickly lifted his foot to check and was relieved to find that his porcelain foot hadn't been chipped or broken.
After all, he was now porcelain, very fragile, and a small mistake could mean shattering to pieces.
He walked along the tomb path, and as he moved, the trees and stone statues around him began to tremble!
The trees shook, their branches swaying like dragons and pythons, thick and fierce.
The surface of the statues began to shed stone dust, and they seemed to grow flesh and blood. The majestic mythical beasts seemed to be coming to life, exuding a wild aura!
Chen Shi pressed forward against the increasing pressure. His small body grew taller and larger, transforming from porcelain back into flesh and blood.
This True King's Tomb was enveloped in an even more powerful spirit realm!
This spirit realm suppressed the effects of the spirit realm at the kiln factory, allowing Chen Shi to return to his normal form from porcelain!
Chen Shi continued forward, and the world around him began to distort. The mountains shook like waves, and the giant mythical beasts pulled their claws from the mountains, exuding an overwhelming presence!
Chen Shi had returned to normal, completely removing the side effects of the kiln factory's spirit realm, but he still gritted his teeth and moved forward.
Ahead, a stone tablet caught his eye, its characters shining with a golden light, barely readable.
As Chen Shi tried to decipher the text, he took out some spirit-infused meat he got from the woman in purple, Zhao Erni, and started chewing.
The spirit-infused meat filled him with a powerful energy, activating his True Qi and forming a divine altar behind his head!
Chen Shi felt his body brimming with strength, and he pushed forward against the growing pressure.
Just as he was reading most of the stone tablet, a voice suddenly spoke, laughing, "Little one, if you keep going, the spirit realm will fully activate, and not even your grandfather could save you. Don't be greedy, go back."
The speaker wasn't human but one of the tomb guardian beasts closest to Chen Shi. It had a human body with ram horns, a large nose taking up half its face, and a fake smile with fierce eyes that sent chills down one's spine.
"I had a good relationship with your grandfather. I don't want you to die here."
The ram-horned tomb guardian beast smiled, while the other beasts roared, their powerful blood energy forming red clouds, foul-smelling and ready to pounce on Chen Shi!
"Besides, it's getting dark."
The ram-horned beast kindly advised, "It's dangerous at night. You won't be able to leave then."
Chen Shi bowed and said in a crisp voice, "Thank you, Uncle Ram Horn!"
The ram-horned beast waved him off with a smile, "Go on, go on!"
Chen Shi reluctantly glanced back at the stone tablet and left.
As he exited the spirit realm, the power of the spirit-infused meat faded, and the divine altar behind him vanished.
Chen Shi sighed, looking a bit downcast.
He didn't want to be useless.
He wanted to be like other kids, able to study, cultivate, and take the county and provincial exams to become a scholar.
He wanted to make his grandfather proud, not have his grandfather take care of him forever!
"It's getting dark!"
Chen Shi perked up, looked at the sky, and hurried his pace.
In the sky, two suns hung high, one on the left and one on the right, still blazing hot. Strangely, they were slowly becoming elongated, like eyes closing.
If one had good eyesight, they could see that beyond the sky, behind the two suns, floated a giant face, with the suns as its eyes.
At this moment, the eyes were slowly closing, with endless flames pouring out from under the eyelids, filling the upper atmosphere, creating a vast sea of fire, brilliant like a sunset!
Behind this face, there seemed to be a massive figure, sitting cross-legged, hidden in the immense darkness.
This supreme being was the only True God of the Western New Bull Continent!
The True God sat in space, vast and boundless. When he opened his eyes, it was day, the fire in his eyes illuminating the world.
When he closed his eyes, it was night, and the vertical eye on his forehead would slowly open, observing everything under the night sky.
As the world darkened, strange things would awaken under the moonlight, making it dangerous to be outside.
People needed to find safe places before dark, or they would be in grave danger.
The sky was turning redder, signaling the "sunset"!
At the True King's Tomb, in the spirit realm.
The ram-horned tomb guardian beast looked up at the reddening sky, squinting, lost in thought.
"Big brother, why did you let that human boy go?" A massive tomb guardian beast awoke, growling angrily.
It was over two stories tall, wrapped in flames, shaped like a lion with a single horn and wings on its back, extremely fierce.
Other tomb guardian beasts also voiced their discontent.
The ram-horned beast let them vent before coldly laughing, "You think I don't want to crush him? This little thing causes trouble and runs here to use the True King's power to shield him. In the past, he would've died a thousand times! But he has a powerful grandfather."
It sighed and continued, "His grandfather is truly formidable. You all have seen him. Years ago, he broke into the True King's Tomb. We trapped him for nine days and nights, but he still took a scroll of burial scripture and left calmly."
The other beasts fell silent.
The ram-horned beast was puzzled, "He took the Water and Fire Refinement secret technique, a method to cultivate into a Corpse Liberation Immortal. I wonder why he took it."
Someone muttered, "But that guy should be old, about to die, right?"
The ram-horned beast looked in the direction Chen Shi left, saying softly, "Maybe he's already dead. Last time I saw him from afar, he didn't look alive. Did he take the Water and Fire Refinement to become a Corpse Liberation Immortal?"
A tomb guardian beast said, "That little guy just now didn't look human either. He didn't have any human aura..."
Before it could finish, a strange force surged, and the tomb guardian beasts began to turn to stone.
Meanwhile, Chen Shi hurried out of the forest, heading straight for Yellow Slope Village.
The two suns in the sky gradually sank into darkness as the True God closed his eyes, and the sky fire slowly extinguished.
Gradually, cold moonlight shone from the True God's forehead.
The moonlight, like silver, spread across the land.
At the same time, a mysterious power rapidly revived under the moonlight across the Western New Bull Continent, with every household closing their doors tightly and hanging Peachwood Talismans.
Strange sounds, like ghostly wails, echoed from the forest.
In the woods, a giant head, like a deflated balloon, slowly floated up. Its facial features twisted, the head was as large as half an acre, inflating like a balloon, its features becoming three-dimensional, staring at Chen Shi in the moonlight.
The giant face showed a peculiar smile, drifting towards the boy.
This kind of big head, his grandfather called "Evil Spirit."
Evil Spirits weren't all big heads, but they came out at night, wandering around, disappearing before sunrise.
Encountering one meant death.
Very eerie.
At this life-and-death moment, Chen Shi ate his last piece of spirit-infused meat, activating his technique. Starlight from the sky flowed towards him, forming a small divine altar behind his head.
The divine power in the altar increased his speed, bringing him closer to Yellow Slope Village!
The technique he was using wasn't the one taught at the private school.
The private school's technique was called the Heavenly Heart True Qi Technique. After Chen Shi's Divine Fetus was taken, he tried to cultivate it but found that without the Divine Fetus, his True Qi was like a rootless tree, constantly dissipating and unable to stay.
The technique he activated was the one from the stone tablet at the True King's Tomb, called the Three Lights True Qi Technique!
The Three Lights referred to sunlight, moonlight, and starlight.
The stone tablet said to gather the three lights of sun, moon, and stars to cultivate one's True Qi.
Among the three lights, sunlight and moonlight were the strongest, while starlight was the weakest.
However, Chen Shi could never gather sunlight and moonlight, only refining starlight True Qi.
Chen Shi repeatedly visited the True King's Tomb, not only to use its power to counter the kiln factory's spirit realm but also to obtain the complete Three Lights True Qi Technique!
Although he didn't succeed this time, he memorized most of the technique and could smoothly activate it!
"The True King's Tomb technique is indeed extraordinary, far beyond the private school's Heavenly Heart True Qi Technique!"
Chen Shi activated the starlight True Qi, taking strides of over ten feet, moving quickly, with Yellow Slope Village in sight.
This village had about one or two hundred households, with an ancient tree at its center, towering and lush, as tall as a small mountain.
The villagers of Yellow Slope Village built their homes around the tree, arranged in concentric circles, five layers deep.
Now, moonlight bathed the land, the tree's branches swaying, absorbing the moonlight, dancing like spirit snakes, very enchanting.
At the village entrance stood a tall figure, face shrouded in darkness, seemingly waiting for Chen Shi's return.
"Grandpa!"
Chen Shi felt joy in his heart, speeding up. As he reached the tall old man, he suddenly felt the air temperature drop sharply, a chill hitting him.
Then, the last piece of spirit-infused meat's power was exhausted, and the divine altar behind him wobbled. Even with the Three Lights True Qi, he couldn't stop it from collapsing.
Finally, the altar crumbled, the True Qi scattered, disappearing.
Chen Shi felt his strength rapidly fading, feeling dejected.
Even the True King's Tomb technique couldn't let him cultivate normally.
"It's time to go home and take your medicine," Grandpa said, looking at the approaching giant head.
"Got it."
Chen Shi looked up, trying to see his grandfather's face, but the moonlight cast shadows, making it hard to see.
He hadn't clearly seen his grandfather's face in quite some time.
Strangely, he smelled a faint stench near his grandfather, a peculiar smell like rotten meat, but different from the usual bad meat smell Chen Shi was familiar with.
He tried to find the source of the smell, but his grandfather's medicinal scent masked it quite a bit.
The grandfather and grandson walked into Yellow Slope Village, and as they passed, households pulled their children inside, closing their doors tightly.
Chen Shi glanced at the houses, seeing oil lamps lit inside, with shadows of the residents cast on the windows, secretly watching them.
"Good people don't live long, and the troublemaker is back," someone whispered in the dark.
"Have they noticed something strange about Grandpa too?"
Chen Shi felt uneasy hearing the villagers' whispers, "Will they harm Grandpa?"