Chapter 158: Ancient Battlefield

Hum!

The Vajra Pestle in his hand reappeared; Wang Ping focused and stayed on guard. If his guess was correct, this should be a sign of an ancient site opening, but in the legends of the West Decline Cultivation Realm, there are no tales of relics in the desolate lands.

However, facts proved Wang Ping's guess. In the next moment, a beam of light shot out from the middle of the verdant tree-shadow's trunk, enveloping Wang Ping; when the beam vanished, Wang Ping had disappeared.

A breeze blew, the green grass swayed; at the center of the azure grassland, a verdant tree-shadow hovered silently, and a pillar of light connecting heaven and earth stood still.

After Wang Ping disappeared, a glowing figure condensed from the grass below; upon its appearance, the whole heaven and earth submitted to it.

He silently gazed at the verdant tree-shadow in the air for a long time, then whispered: "Undying Tree! Long time no see; I never imagined someone could reassemble you from that chaotic pattern below, a three-dimensional method? A single leaf obscuring the eye!"

At the end of its speech, that light-shadow's tone was filled with uncontrollable regret!

"The opening that occurs once every ten thousand years is still three months away, yet that brat has gotten ahead of us; it seems he may obtain part of the Undying Tree's inheritance! Unfortunately, the ultimate secret of the Undying Tree only appears after one has gained the full inheritance and the hundred acupoints manifest."

"Qing Emperor, Qing Emperor! Even in your fall, you hid the secret of the Undying Tree—what exactly is it? This Emperor does not believe it is the secret of immortality; even immortals can die, let alone an ancient tree! Only invincible power in the world is the foundation of immortality, but what exactly is that secret?"

"What is it?"

At the end of its speech, that light-shadow's tone suddenly turned manic; the entire desolate land was affected, and winds and clouds changed color instantly. Soon, however, nine iron chains of various colors appeared on his body, tightly binding him, and simultaneously dragging the light-shadow down into the earth.

"Damnable humans, dare to bind this Demon Emperor! Wait, wait—do you think this Sealing Heaven-Annihilating Demon Formation can wear me down? Delusional!"

At the end, his voice grew weaker, but as he vanished, the light-shadow's gaze suddenly turned southeast; deep in his pupils, a mountain range flickered in and out of view, and the corner of his mouth hinted at a faint smile, that smile brimming with mockery.

Suck! Suck! The more you suck, the better! Hahaha!

Wang Ping was unaware of everything happening on the azure grassland; he now found himself on a battlefield, to be precise, on the relics of a battlefield.

Here, countless bones are plainly visible; though in Wang Ping's impression bones are white, in this place white, black, red, and yellow bones of various colors can all be seen.

Especially directly ahead of him stood a huge, astonishing pink skeleton; Wang Ping roughly estimated its height to be over a thousand zhang, though he did not know its length, for its lower half was buried in the ground.

This is not the point; the point is that its skeleton is entirely pink.

He merely stared out of curiosity for about ten breaths; at a glance, everything before him turned pink, startling Wang Ping into hastily averting his gaze—yet even so, it took the span of a cup of tea before his vision returned to normal.

Thus, Wang Ping dared not casually gaze at those colored bones; this place was extremely strange—every skeleton he saw was astonishingly large, and the air was permeated with a tragic, desolate, and sorrowful aura.

The ground was blackish-red, with not a single plant growing; the surroundings were utterly silent, so Wang Ping's landing sound was clearly audible. Moreover, the spiritual energy here was extremely thin, nearly matching that of the outside desolate land.

Wang Ping secretly wondered: could this be the battlefield of the ancient great war spoken of in legend?

Only this explanation makes sense; otherwise, where in the lower realms could one find so many enormous, astonishing demonic beasts?

Besides these strangely shaped, variously colored skeletons, the ground was littered with enormous weapons; having learned from the pink skeleton, Wang Ping dared not touch these weapons, and furthermore, they were clearly not magical artifacts but resembled ancient arms—each astonishingly large, which he could not possibly wield.

Wang Ping walked for a long time across this strange battlefield, yet he saw not a single human cultivator's skeleton along the way.

He carefully considered the possibilities: if humans had not participated in this great war, it would be understandable; but if they had, it would indicate that humanity was the victorious side, and the fallen cultivators' remains here had been collected by humans themselves—this would explain the present situation.

Here, it seems easy to lose track of time; there is no sun in the sky, yet the whole world is brightly lit.

Fortunately, Wang Ping could estimate how long he had been on this battlefield based on his own body.

Today is the fifth day, and Wang Ping finally saw a different weapon—a broken five-colored battle axe, with only half of its blade remaining, yet that half was already the size of a commoner's door panel.

Its handle was one circumference thicker than Wang Ping's arm and half a zhang long.

Hum! Hum! Hum!

After entering the relic, the Vajra Pestle, which had never been retracted, showed its first intense urge to devour. Wang Ping's gaze continually examined the axe, and he finally fixed his eyes on its five-colored metal.

He did not dare linger long—just about three breaths—but Wang Ping had already guessed the reason for the Vajra Pestle's agitation: if his guess was correct, that axe must have been forged from Five Elements Spirit Metal.

Even after countless ages, the spirit-metal essence within might not have fully dissipated, and what the Vajra Pestle wishes to devour should be this spirit-metal essence.

Wang Ping thought it over, released the Vajra Pestle; the bracelet that had bound it shot away with a swish and came to rest upon the five-colored battle axe.

After five breaths, Wang Ping slapped his cheek, feeling foolish—what made him think the Vajra Pestle could absorb spirit-metal essence on its own?

Fortunately, there was no one around; otherwise he would have lost face badly. Suppressing his embarrassment, Wang Ping actively employed a refining secret technique, extracting the axe's residual spirit-metal essence bit by bit; the process was excruciatingly slow, and he feared his actions might provoke a change in the axe.

At that moment, a jolt could possibly cause even a minor Foundation Establishment cultivator like himself to keel over.

Fortunately, perhaps due to the immense passage of time, the axe had lost its variability, allowing him to extract the essence.

Bit by bit, the Five Elements Spirit Metal essence emerged from the axe, yet what astonished Wang Ping was that although the extracted essence belonged to the Five Elements, its emitted light was somewhat different.

That white should be the color of the metal attribute among the Five Elements, and black the color of the water attribute.

The remaining three colors were roughly normal, yet the hue and light they emitted—who knows how many times purer than the Five Elements colors in Wang Ping's dantian!

Wang Ping had a faint realization: could this color change be related to purity?

This question is clearly not for now; he must quickly extract the spirit-metal essence, for if it were not for the long passage of time, the spirit-metal's spirituality would have been lost, the axe would have lost its proper power, leaving only traces of essence, which Wang Ping could not possibly obtain.

After the spirit-metal essence was extracted, the Vajra Pestle, acting somewhat childishly, spun a few circles in the air; then a five-colored beam shot out, sweeping away those specks of essence.

Seeing this, Wang Ping retrieved it into his sea of consciousness and then unleashed the Fan Tian Seal to protect himself.

Going around the axe, Wang Ping continued forward; after another three days, a hazy outline of mountain peaks finally appeared in his view.

Seeing this, Wang Ping unconsciously sped up; since there were mountains, there must surely be steles or similar introductions, and he very much wanted to clarify exactly where this place was.

Bang!

While running, Wang Ping stumbled and fell flat on his face in the dirt!