Chapter 455: Evil Hand
Zhong Yue had then finally struggled to pull his arm out of Chi Xue's. He released the huge carrot Husan Weng, and the four of them continued on their journey.
"This Six Paths Fruit, should we eat it or not?" Zhong Yue took out the Six Paths Fruit and thought.
Chi Xue took it out as well, and the two Six Paths Fruits seemed to resonate with one another.
The two of them had both opened the sixth secret realm. But in comparison, Zhong Yue had gone through a more arduous process as he had to crush the bloodline seal and face against the evil existence from 100,000 years ago.
On the other hand, Chi Xue was not from the Fuxi Celestial Race, and so she didn't need to go through all of that. But even so, her process was not that easy either.
After all, the opening of the sixth secret realm was not a trivial task. Even if the other races didn't have the bloodline seal, those who could open the sixth secret realm were still only one in a trillion!
This was because the Six Paths Reincarnation was broken. The evil existence had cursed the life in this Six Paths World and formed the bloodline seals in the Fuxi Celestial Race.
The Six Paths Reincarnation could be said to be the blueprint to the Qi Practitioners' six secret realms. With the Six Paths Reincarnation now broken, all of those living beings in the Six Paths World had to face one problem — the disappearance of the sixth secret realm, and thus, they were barred from cultivating it.
Only those incredibly talented prodigies were able to forge a slight resemblance of the complete Six Paths Reincarnation circuit in their body.
Only a handful of the whole Six Paths World was able to do something like that.
At the very least, Zhong Yue was only aware of three Qi Practitioners who had achieved it: Feng Xiaozhong, Chi Xue, and himself.
Among those three, Feng Xiaozhong was the strongest. The madman's principle was to recreate the complete majesty of the Six Paths Reincarnation within his own body. His ideology was that if one was their own Six Paths Reincarnation, one would be able to reincarnate for eternity. And theoretically, as long as the Yuan Shen wasn't destroyed, one would effectively become immortal.
"This Six Paths Fruit... it contains the mysteries of the Six Paths Reincarnation." Chi Xue submerged her thoughts into the chants, and she could discern the abstrusities flowing in it. Her heart stiffened up, and she quickly said, "It feels like it has certain connections to the Six Paths Reincarnation inside our body!"
Zhong Yue then asked, "Does your Western Mother Empire have any records about this Six Paths Fruit?"
"None that I know of."
Chi Xue shook her head, and she answered, "There wasn't any Qi Practitioner that managed to obtain one before. Even if they did, there was simply no use of it for them. Without opening all six secret realms, one wouldn't be able to gain much from its medicinal efficacies. It contains profound insights into the Six Paths of Reincarnation, and thus, I think we should hold off on eating it for now."
Zhong Yue nodded, if they consumed the divine fruit now without being fully prepared, they wouldn't be able to fully enlighten themselves on the mysteries that were encapsulated in the Six Paths Fruit. If they couldn't fully absorb the medicinal efficacies of the Six Paths Fruit, it would be a huge waste.
Thus, they needed to prepare themselves and find a place that was free of dangers, And with the help of many divine herbs which could strengthen their thoughts, psyche, and mortal body, they would then be able to eat it.
After all, this was a divine fruit from the king of divine herbs!
By then, I'll have to take some parts off of the huge carrot and its friends! Zhong Yue looked at the huge carrot leading the way at the front as he thought this.
Husan Weng suddenly sneezed and shouted in anger, "Who is planning a scheme on me?"
Zhong Yue laughed behind the carrot and said, "Husan Weng, you are such a hero, who dares to scheme on you?"
...
After a few moments, Zhong Yue's heart skipped a beat. There was a god's corpse sitting unmovingly in the middle of a bush, staring at a divine flower in front of him.
Half of the god's corpse was rotten, and its eyes were glimmering with rays, indicating that there was still a godly spirit in it. After all, after such a long time, it should be impossible for the soul to survive.
This meant that there was no soul but a spirit residing in the god's corpse!
That godly corpse heard their footsteps as they drew nearer, and it raised its head to glance at them with a pair of emotionless eyes.
Immediately, Zhong Yue and the two girls could feel their body shuddering, their Yuan Shen froze, and their minds became vacant. Any sort of arcane energies and skill was frozen!
In their eyes, the god's corpse was gigantic with many stars and planets revolving around it and the divine flower.
The god's corpse then turned back to its usual state, staring back at the divine flower, It was then that Zhong Yue and the girls felt the pressure disperse and the specters disappear from their sights. They all heaved a breath of relief and quickly moved away from the god's corpse.
"What is it? Is this god guarding the divine herb? Trying to eat it after the divine herb has matured?"
Along the way, they saw another few gods. Their dead bodies existed in many forms, but each and every one of them was guarding at a divine herb. Their souls were gone, but their spirits remained.
The danger persisted all over the Returning Ruins, even here, they had come across a huge creature's skeletal frame. It wandered around the place and devoured every living being it encountered.
They also saw many coffins hanging in mid-air. The coffins were pitch-black, with one end connected to an ancient tree and the gravitational force pulling them vertically downward.
There was a nest of black crows living on the top of the ancient tree. As the crows saw the three outsiders, they let out a series of hoarse caws, and the dark coffins began to creak open. On one of the coffins, tendrils of hair reached out from inside and grabbed the coffin lid, trying to pull it open as black blood trickled out of it. It seemed like it was trying to come out.
Zhong Yue and the others quickly ran, they dashed away at an incredible speed and saved themselves from another dance with death.
They also met with a team of demon Qi Practitioners that numbered over ten people, walking on the top of the mountain ridge. Suddenly, as they walked, the flesh and muscles of their bodies seemed to spontaneously disintegrate while they continued walking onwards like skeletons, ostensibly oblivious to what just happened to them.
It was utterly bizarre, they were dead and were turned into skeletons, but were still walking forward. It felt like as if there was an evil force manipulating their action to bring them to the precipice before making them jump off of it.
It was unknown how deep their fall was, and when Zhong Yue focused his senses toward the bottom, he was never able to hear the sound of the skeletons hitting the bottom.
"It would be the Reincarnation Pool." Husan Weng looked down at the bottomless hole and said, "An old divine herb once told me that there is a Reincarnation Pool in here. If one dropped into it, they wouldn't die but reincarnate into one of those little babies and start over again. Hence, the Reincarnation Pool."
Chi Xue heard the explanation, and she laughed, saying, "Makes me feel like jumping down to see what kind of interesting things I'll find down there."
They then reached the front of a herb garden and saw countless divine herbs growing in it, But the godly seals around the garden still operated. These godly seals have surrounded the herb garden. This would most probably be a garden created by one of those ancient existences of the imperial court.
The divine herbs in there lived and died over countless generations, with each generation making the soil better for the next. When the divine herbs died of age, they would turn into the best fertilizer. Year after year, even these soils were imbued with a divine air!
Even the soils alone qualified to be divine herbs superior to ordinary divine herbs!
Zhong Yue and the others, including Husan Weng, nearly couldn't help themselves. They wanted to be soaked in the godly soils so much, but the corpses and shattered weapons around the garden gave them a warning to not do it.
The corpses around numbered in hundreds, clearly telling them that before their arrivals, there were many predecessors that have been here, tried to collect the divine herbs for their own but were killed by the godly seals instead. Even their divine weapons were crushed by the seals!
If Xin Huo is still awake, he might be able to break the seals. I wonder just what level these seals are at...
With Zhong Yue's current cultivation base and Xin Huo's knowledge, they were capable of fully breaking the lord-level godly seals but would struggle if it were the emperor-level godly seals.
As for how strong the seals around the herb garden were, and whether it would be stronger than emperor-level godly seals, even Zhong Yue wasn't sure about it.
When they were leaving, Husan Weng turned back every three steps it took. It was clear that it was unwilling to leave, but there was no choice at all. Zhong Yue then comforted it from the side, "Husan Weng, don't worry. I will find you better soil in the future, better than this one!"
Husan Weng wiped the tears off its eyes and said, "Promise?"
"Promise!"
...
There were still the other Qi Practitioners in the Heaven Garden, some were the celestial experts from Kun Lun while some the demons from A'thoer. They were all strong and powerful, but when situated in a place like this, not a single one of them had engaged in a battle.
After all, those that managed to reach this stage were the cream of the crop; their cultivation and prowess were not much different, and it would be unwise to be entangled in battles among one another.
Furthermore, without reaching the Peaches of Immortality, there was really no need to fight. However, in turn, quite a number of them had chosen to join hands to cross the dangers together.
Zhong Yue has noticed that these Qi Practitioners walked in different sized teams; some were made up of as few as seven people, while others had 50 people. These teams were led by the strongest experts, a fact that drew Zhong Yue's. He then mumbled inquisitively, "Magnates like them don't need to have so many Qi Practitioners around them as they would be nothing but burdens. So why are they still bringing so many weaker Qi Practitioners around them?"
"Sacrificial objects, these Qi Practitioners are only meant for one thing, to be sacrificed." Chi Xue explained, "The Peach Garden is an evil place, it requires blood to open a temporary path for them to go past the seals. On the surface, it is a cooperative relationship between the Qi Practitioners and the magnates, but in actual fact, the magnates are just planning to sacrifice them to open a temporary path. This is also why Feng Zhishan brought so many Qi Practitioners together with him. This is a secret that only the higher-ups of the Kun Lun and A'thoer gods know about."
Zhong Yue's heart clench in alertness, while at the same time, he felt guilt and pity for the Qi Practitioners that were fated to be misled.
The Peaches of Immortality were limited in number, they were the divine herbs only the higher-up gods could have enjoyed. Even in such a dangerous place like Returning Ruins, which looked as though it was fair for all, the inherent inequity of life still prevailed.
The higher-ups held the best and most valuable resources, they had more means and better ways to search for the Peaches of Immortality for themselves. While those lower gods who thought they might have a chance were, in fact, tools for the higher-up gods.
"The Peach Garden!"
Suddenly, Husan Weng shouted, it was thrilled and excited, "That's where those arrogant brats threw me out of the last time I came!"
Zhong Yue, Chi Xue and Ying Nu heard the huge carrot and were excited. They quickly climbed to the top of a mountain, and as they looked over, their bodies violently shuddered.
They saw a palm mark, huge beyond imagination!
The palm mark covered miles and miles of distance. It seemed to be what had crushed the indestructible godly mountain and eradicated the divine palaces. There were only finger-like marks extruding out from the ground, so tall that they were piercing into the cloud layer!
Five mountains of fingers!
Zhong Yue frowned, he slammed his hand on the sands and a palm mark was left on the ground, but it was nothing close to what was presented in front of them.
The palm mark in front of them had five mountains extruding high from the ground, resembling five fingers!
That evil existence, how... how can a palm mark be like that? He... it seemed like he has....
Zhong Yue's face had a strange expression, and he pierced his hand into the sand and flipped his palm up to the sky while slowly moving his hand up. His fingers then started to extrude out from the ground and looked the same as the mountains. He mumbled, Yes, yes, just like this. That evil existence has ... severed his hand and planted it in the Returning Ruins! But ... why, why is he doing that?