Chapter 35: Primordial Desolation

**Chapter 35: Primordial Desolation**

###**I. The Landscape of Primordial Desolation: An Eternal Furnace, A Hundred Clans Competing**

The Primordial Desolation, formed from fragments left behind when chaos first opened, had nine blood moons hanging in the sky and magma rivers surging through the earth. There was no ethereal purity of the Immortal Realm here, nor the cold, dead silence of the Return to Ruins, only the most primitive law of the jungle and chaotic disorder.

####**Geographical Divisions**

-**Beihuang Xueyuan (Northern Wasteland Blood Plains)**: The burial ground of the Ancestral Dragon's remains. Dragon bones weathered into mountain ranges, and the soil soaked in dragon blood bred "Spirit-Devouring Vines" capable of consuming immortal souls. This area was occupied by remnants of the Dragon Clan and exiled Immortal Sects. Ao Hui led the surviving dragons to build "Reverse Scale City," using Ancestral Dragon Marrow as bait to recruit fierce criminals.

-**Nanjiang Wuhai (Southern Border Fog Sea)**: Filled year-round with chaotic miasma, the mist hid "Chaos Spirit Springs." Drinking from them could reshape an immortal body but would result in infection with Void Poison. This area was controlled by the hidden sect "Xuantian Sect," whose leader, Xuan Mingzi, used the spirit springs as leverage to manipulate three thousand rogue cultivators into working for him.

-**Xiji Leiyuan (Western Extreme Thunder Abyss)**: Thunder was like a prison. The Primordial Desolation fierce beast "Thunder Savage" occupied this place, and its bones could be used to refine realm-breaking divine weapons. The Thunder Savage shed its skin every thousand years; during this period of weakness, all factions eyed it covetously.

-**Dongming Heizhao (Eastern Abyss Black Swamp)**: Buried beneath the poisonous miasma swamp were the altars of the Ancient God remnant clan, the "Nine Li Witch Clan." The Witch Clan was skilled in controlling chaotic poisonous insects and exchanged living sacrifices for prophecies, but they had been struck by heavenly punishment ten thousand years ago for prophesying Lin Xuan Su's tribulation, and only a few bloodlines remained, struggling to survive.

###**II. Factions Intertwined: Profit Above All, Life as Cheap as Grass**

####**1. The Ambitions of the Exiled**

-**Reverse Scale City (Dragon Clan Remnants)**: Ao Hui used Ancestral Dragon Marrow as bait to gather defeated generals from the Immortal Realm and villains from the Return to Ruins. A bounty list hung high in the city: whoever took Lin Jin's head would be granted three drops of Ancestral Dragon Marrow; whoever captured Ling Yue would be gifted a wisp of dragon soul from Ao Tian's gourd.

-**Immortal Sect Remnants**: Ling Yue's daughter, Ling Yue, led nine Burial Fire Puppets into the Primordial Desolation, pretending to defect to the Xuantian Sect, but secretly plotting to restart the "Burial Immortal Pool." The Chaos Brand on the foreheads of the Burial Fire Puppets had mutated and could consume Chaos Spirit Springs to feed the puppet master.

####**2. The Schemes of Hidden Sects**

-**Xuantian Sect**: Leader Xuan Mingzi covered his face with a black robe; his true identity was a traitor of the Witch Clan. He used the Southern Border Fog Sea as a chessboard and the spirit springs as bait, inducing the exiled and fierce beasts to slaughter each other, while secretly collecting dead souls to refine the "Ten Thousand Poison Banner."

-**Youming Hall (Nether Hall)**: Hiding in the shadows of the Western Extreme Thunder Abyss, Hall Master You Lu used Thunder Savage shed skin as armor to refine the "Thunder Prison Battle Body." His subordinates, the "Shadow Hunters," specialized in assassination and charged high prices, having once assassinated three Dragon Clan traitor generals on Ao Hui's behalf.

####**3. The Pride of Ancient God Remnants**

-**Witch Clan Remnants**: Deep in the Eastern Abyss Black Swamp, Witch Clan Saintess Wu Yao fed insects with her blood, guarding the Ancient God prophecy stele. A line of blood-red characters appeared in the latest crack on the stele: "The Coffin Keeper appears, chaos opens again." She wanted to use Lin Jin's power to break the clan's curse but feared his Burial Fire-devouring heart appearance.

-**Thunder Savage Royal Clan**: At the bottom of the Western Extreme Thunder Abyss, Thunder Savage King "Zheng Mie" sensed his skin-shedding period approaching and took the initiative to send an envoy to ally with the Nether Hall, offering his shed skin in exchange for You Lu's help in killing the Xuantian Sect's spies.

####**4. Fierce Beasts and Rogue Cultivators: The Struggle of Ants**

-**Primordial Desolation Fierce Beasts**: Low-level fierce beasts ravaged in groups, becoming slaughterhouses for the disciples of various factions to train; high-level ones like the "Nine-Headed Xiangliu" and "Red Flame Golden Lion" were controlled by the Xuantian Sect with poisonous Gu, serving as the vanguard for the Fog Sea battle.

-**Rogue Cultivator Alliance**: The "Blood Blade Old Ancestor" of the Southern Border integrated thirty thousand rogue cultivators, outwardly submitting to the Xuantian Sect while secretly colluding with the Nether Hall, intending to loot the Fog Sea spirit springs when the Thunder Savage shed its skin.

###**III. Interwoven Interests: Power Schemes Like a Web, Killing Intent Everywhere**

####**1. Spirit Spring Auction**

The Xuantian Sect sent out "Chaos Invitations" to all factions to bid for the spirit springs in the Fog Sea. One spirit spring bead was priced at one hundred thousand fierce beast crystal cores. Ao Hui offered the Dragon Clan treasure "Reverse Scale Mirror" as payment, while Ling Yue offered three Burial Fire Puppets as collateral. The Blood Blade Old Ancestor sneered and threw out a Xiangliu poison sac, killing three bidders to establish his authority, but was then decapitated by You Lu with thunder chains—the spirit springs were not yet auctioned, but the blood had already stained the Fog Sea red.

####**2. The Thunder Abyss King-Slaying Game**

The Nether Hall released false news that the Thunder Savage's skin-shedding was early. The elites of the Xuantian Sect and Reverse Scale City went all out, only to be ambushed by Witch Clan poisonous insects deep in the Thunder Abyss. Zheng Mie's skin-shedding was real, but the old skin he shed had already been cursed by Wu Yao, turning into pus and blood upon contact. You Lu took the opportunity to lead the Shadow Hunters in a betrayal, his Thunder Prison Battle Body resisting the heavenly thunder to seize Zheng Mie's new skin, only to be intercepted by the Burial Fire Puppets—Ling Yue's puppets could actually consume the power of the Thunder Savage!

####**3. Black Swamp Prophecy Tribulation**

Lin Jin went deep into the Eastern Abyss to resolve his Void Poison, and Wu Yao tested him with the punishment of a thousand insects devouring his body. He let the poisonous insects burrow into his meridians, and when his Burial Fire incinerated the insect corpses, the Witch Clan altar suddenly collapsed, revealing an ice coffin beneath the stele—the person sealed inside was actually a wisp of Lin Xuan Su's residual consciousness! The residual consciousness wept blood and warned: "Xiaoyaozi's wine is a blade that slays one's kin!"

###**IV. Lin Jin's Choice: Burn the Fire to Break the Game, or Sink into Power and Profit? **

Outside Reverse Scale City, Ao Hui set up the "Nine Dragon God-Slaying Array," using Ao Tian's residual soul as the array eye to lure Lin Jin into the trap; by the edge of the Fog Sea, Ling Yue controlled the Burial Fire Puppets to consume the Thunder Savage's power, the Chaos Brand already spreading to her neck; at the Black Swamp altar, Wu Yao knelt and begged Lin Jin to use his Burial Fire to burn the stele and end the Witch Clan's curse...

"In this Primordial Desolation, what power and profit is there?" Lin Jin's black robes were bathed in blood, and Xiaoyaozi's drunken shadow emerged from the silver-white Burial Fire, "It's just a gambling game where a group of fools bet their lives."

He crushed the Witch Clan prophecy stele, but the chaotic insect swarm that flew out of the stele condensed into four characters:

**"Coffin opens, the heavens are buried."**

###**Finale: The Peak of Power, Nothing More Than Dust in a Coffin**

The Xuantian Sect's Ten Thousand Poison Banner was completed, and the Fog Sea turned into a dead zone; the Nether Hall's Thunder Prison Battle Body reached perfection, and You Lu pointed his sword at Reverse Scale City; Wu Yao sacrificed her entire clan to awaken the Ancient God relic "Chaos Bell"—and Lin Jin sat alone in the Black Swamp, injecting his Burial Fire into the ice coffin.

The moment the coffin opened, the Primordial Desolation trembled.

Xiaoyaozi's wine gourd flew from the Sea of Chaos. What poured from the gourd's mouth was not wine, but the greed, anger, and ignorance of all living beings accumulated over one hundred thousand years—

"Jin'er, I have prepared this final ingredient for you, my disciple."

The power and profit of the Primordial Desolation were reduced to ash in the Burial Fire.

Only one ice coffin remained, carrying the truth of chaos, drifting toward the distance where Xiaoyaozi fished. ===== CHAPTER 36 =====