Chapter 265: Shenshan

Mo Hua felt a faint chill and silently memorized those sixteen characters.

This map must be of great significance; if left unclarified, it would become a grave hazard.

Cultivators rely on the mountains for their livelihood, adapting to local conditions.

Near Xiancheng, there are no fertile spirit fields, no roaring rivers or seas, and no spirit beasts suitable for breeding.

The nearby cultivators all eke out a living in Great Heishan.

The weapon-smithing shops, pill-making halls, and even Fushan Restaurant in Chengnan all depend on hunter-killers to hunt demonic beasts, strip their bones and flesh for materials used in forging, pill-making, and cooking.

Mo Hua, while studying formation arrays, also needs vast quantities of demonic blood to mix his spirit ink.

Every cultivator in Xiancheng, whether for cultivation, production, or daily life, is intimately tied to Great Heishan.

If Great Heishan harbors hidden dangers, the trouble will be immense.

After that, Mo Hua studied the Reverse Spirit Array, and whenever he had spare time, he entered Great Heishan; whenever he encountered remote or unfamiliar areas, he would open the criminal cultivator's map to compare and see if he could locate the marked positions.

Yet after days of searching, he found nothing.

Mo Hua felt dejected, looked up—and suddenly saw distant thick fog spreading, obscuring the layered mountains, blocking the sunlight, shrouding everything in a hazy blur, leaving him unable to tell where the mountains ended and the cliffs began.

That place was Shenshan, the most perilous region of Great Heishan.

Rumors say Shenshan is unpredictably deadly; cultivators who enter never return.

Mo Hua stared, then suddenly gasped, drawing in a sharp breath:

"Great Heishan's fog can obscure abysses and marshes…"

Could the map's marked location be Shenshan?

Mo Hua's eyelid twitched; the more he thought, the more plausible it seemed.

He knew the outer mountains inside and out; the inner mountains were vast, but even if he didn't know them perfectly, he was very familiar with them.

If the map's marked location were truly in the outer or inner mountains, he would surely recognize it.

If it wasn't in the outer mountains or the inner mountains, it must be in Shenshan.

The vanished criminal cultivators. The place with no return.

Mo Hua formed a suspicion—and a cold dread surged through his heart.

He immediately activated his body technique, sprinted all the way back to Xiancheng, breathless, and found Elder Yu:

"Elder Yu, has anyone ever entered Shenshan?"

Elder Yu startled, "Why ask that? Shenshan is dangerous—you must not go."

He assumed Mo Hua was merely curious and wanted to play around in Shenshan.

"I'm not going—I just want to ask," Mo Hua panted. "Do hunter-killers who enter Shenshan never come back?"

Seeing Mo Hua looked solemn and spoke with grave seriousness, Elder Yu realized this was no trivial matter, and nodded:

"It's true."

"Since when?"

Elder Yu frowned in thought, then said: "About two hundred—or perhaps three hundred years ago…"

"You don't know for sure?"

"I've only lived two hundred years myself; what happened before that, I can't know—I've only heard rumors."

Elder Yu stroked his beard, recalled, then said:

"It seems that three hundred years ago, Shenshan was dangerous, but still accessible."

"Accessible?" Mo Hua was surprised.

Elder Yu nodded. "It was accessible, but the fog was thick, the miasma toxic, and the demonic beasts stronger—with more second-rank demonic beasts."

Elder Yu paused, then added: "Back then, though called Shenshan, it was still technically part of the inner mountains—just the most dangerous part. But after too many hunter-killers entered and never returned, gradually no one dared go anymore, and Shenshan became taboo."

"Even Foundation Establishment cultivators dare not enter?"

Elder Yu's eyelid twitched. "Even Foundation Establishment won't go—because Foundation Establishment cultivators have died inside."

Mo Hua widened his eyes. "Foundation Establishment cultivators die inside?"

Elder Yu nodded.

"Not just missing—but dead inside?" Mo Hua asked, puzzled.

Logically, being missing didn't mean death—how could they be certain they died in Shenshan?

"Because their corpses were found at the outer edge of Shenshan."

The more Mo Hua heard, the stranger it seemed. "Who was it?"

Elder Yu's expression grew complex. "The former Grand Elder of the Qian family."

"The Qian family?" Mo Hua found it hard to believe.

Elder Yu nodded slightly and told Mo Hua:

"Back then, I was just a lowly Qi Condensation cultivator. I heard the Qian family's Grand Elder entered Shenshan and vanished. Half a month later, the Qian family's Patriarch led a group to enter Shenshan, determined to find him alive—or at least recover his body."

"A Grand Elder of a family—high-ranking and powerful—how could he die without explanation? At the time, the Qian family was already powerful, numerous, and bold enough to enter Shenshan—but even then, they dared not be careless."

"The entire Qian family—from Foundation Establishment down to Qi Condensation—sent nearly everyone. Cultivators stood shoulder to shoulder, forming a human net, advancing from the outside toward Shenshan's interior, until finally, beneath a tree at the outer edge, they found the dead Qian family Grand Elder."

"It was said he died in a most peculiar way—missing one arm, as if bitten off by a demonic beast. But this was merely rumor; the Qian family has never publicly revealed the cause of death."

"What happened after?" Mo Hua asked.

"Afterward, it was dropped. The Qian family dared not go deeper. Their Grand Elder, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, was dead—and his corpse recovered. That was enough. If they entered Shenshan again and encountered some great peril, the Qian family might be wiped out."

Elder Yu seemed both gleeful and regretful.

He was gleeful because the Qian family's Grand Elder had died, yet regretful because the Qian family hadn't all perished in Shenshan.

Mo Hua said: "Since then, no cultivator has dared enter Shenshan?"

Elder Yu corrected him: "Some dare to enter—but none come out."

"There are plenty of people in this world who are brazen to the point of recklessness, or simply ignorant of heaven's height and earth's depth; some are skilled and bold, others foolish and fearless—but no matter what, none who entered Shenshan ever came out."

Mo Hua's gaze was complex as he said slowly, "Were they willing to enter?"

Elder Yu smiled, as if to say more, but suddenly froze; his smile faded, replaced by a solemn expression.

"You... have you learned something?"

Mo Hua took out the map and handed it to Elder Yu, then recounted the matter of the Bald Monk and the group of criminal cultivators, including those sixteen characters.

"Great Heishan's thick fog can obscure abyss and marsh; at midnight's third watch, cast a stone to test the path."

Elder Yu murmured the words, and with each repetition, his alarm deepened.

His thoughts raced swiftly; his voice trembled slightly as he said:

"Are you suggesting that Shenshan within Great Heishan may be a vast den of outlaws—that for the past two or three centuries, vicious criminal cultivators have been hiding there?"

Mo Hua nodded slowly.

Elder Yu could not help rising to his feet, frowning, pacing back and forth in the hall.

After walking several rounds, Elder Yu gathered his thoughts, sat down, drank a cup of tea, calmed his emotions, and said in a low voice:

"There is indeed such a possibility..."

"In the past two hundred years, not only have foreign cultivators vanished, but many Hunter-Yao specialists have also disappeared in Shenshan."

"Even the former Elders of the Hunter-Yao guild—including myself—repeatedly warned: never enter Shenshan, or you will surely meet a grim fate."

"Yet some Hunter-Yao specialists ignored the warnings, entered Shenshan, and vanished without a trace."

"I once merely despised them for their stupidity, their disregard for life—but now I realize something strange lies beneath."

"Whoever becomes a Hunter-Yao specialist, whoever survives in Neishan, doesn't know the danger of Great Heishan? And how many among them are so careless with their lives that they'd rashly charge into Shenshan?"

"Even if they cared nothing for their own lives, their wives and children depend on them for the Spirit Stones earned through hunting—how could they, with families to support, dare risk themselves so lightly?"

"If they died, their widows and orphans would suffer in misery—how could they not understand that?"

"Now it seems clear: they did not enter Shenshan willingly—they were captured, or killed, then dragged into Shenshan!"