Chapter 546: Chasing the Elusive Shadow

The dead‑silent village, under the autumn sun, showed an eerie tranquility.

Chen Wen stood at the village entrance of Wang Family Hollow, not rushing to go deeper.

He closed his eyes and sank his mind into the mysterious 'Shi Yong'.

Instantly, the colors of the world changed in his perception.

The steady earth‑yellow glow representing land and buildings still existed, but the subtle warm current of life that should have come from human and livestock activity within it had completely vanished.

In its place were strands like black waterweed, entwining and writhing—traces of lingering yin energy.

They were not evenly distributed; instead, they spread from certain points in the village—such as beside the well platform, in front of the largest house, and toward the ancestral hall behind the village—like ink drops in water, diffusing outward and finally converging into a faint but clear flow pointing toward the deep mountains northwest of the village.

These traces were extremely faint; without Chen Wen's keen perception and considerable understanding of yin energy's nature, they would hardly be detectable.

"As expected… after they 'harvested,' they transported the collected things in that direction."

Chen Wen opened his eyes, his sharp gaze directed toward the northwestern mountains.

"My lord, what did you find?" Chao Gai asked in a low voice, holding a plain blade and warily scanning the empty street.

"There are traces, very faint, but we can follow them."

Chen Wen spoke concisely.

"Heavenly King Chao, take twenty brothers, hold the village entrance, establish a line, meet reinforcements, and carefully search the village for any other abnormalities or survivors."

"The rest, follow me.

Move lightly, stay alert, especially those wearing Soul‑Calming Bells—if the bell moves, give the alarm immediately!"

"Understood!" the troops replied in lowered voices.

Chen Wen took the lead, following the faint yin‑energy flow he sensed, and walked toward the rear of the village.

Passing abandoned field ridges, crossing a nearly dry stream, the traces entered the dense forest.

In the forest, light was dim, vines tangled, making tracking even harder.

Yet that pure trace of yin energy, bearing the qualities of 'extraction' and 'annihilation,' appeared in Chen Wen's perception like a firefly in darkness, pointing the way.

The unit moved silently and swiftly through the woods.

Every soldier raised his alertness to the utmost, gripping weapons and constantly scanning every shadow around.

The Soul‑Calming Bells on their chests were silent, but this stillness only heightened their tension.

After tracking for about half an hour, the forest grew ever deeper.

Ahead appeared a slope of jagged rocks, with sparse vegetation.

The air was filled with a faint, indescribable mix of cloying sweetness and decay.

Inhaling it made people feel slightly dizzy and nauseous.

The traces of yin energy became evident here, even faintly converging toward a cave mouth at the base of the slope, half‑covered by vines and rubble.

That cave mouth was pitch‑black, just wide enough for one person to bend through, exhaling threads of cold that seeped into the marrow.

"This is the place."

Chen Wen halted, signaling the troops to spread out and stand guard.

He approached the cave mouth and sensed carefully.

The yin‑energy concentration inside the cave far exceeded the residual traces outside.

Moreover… there seemed to be an extremely weak fluctuation of the 'qi' of living beings.

But this fluctuation was like a candle in the wind, flickering on the verge of going out, full of pain and despair.

"There are living things inside, but their condition is terrible."

Chen Wen said in a deep voice.

"The Iron Crow Army is likely still inside, or they only just left."

He quickly made a decision.

"You, you, and you, guard the cave mouth and set up trip‑wire alarms."

"The rest, follow me in.

"Remember, our primary goal is to uncover the truth and rescue any possible survivors."

"If we encounter the enemy, we focus on dispersal and interference, avoiding a head‑on clash in the confined space."

He took a deep breath, drew his sword first, and crouched low to slip into the pitch‑black cave.

A few of the elite soldiers followed closely behind.

Inside, the cave was initially narrow and cramped, allowing only crawling forward.

But after advancing more than ten zhang, it suddenly opened up.

It turned out to be a naturally formed stone hall about the size of two or three rooms.

The sight in the stone hall made even Chen Wen, accustomed to the cruelty of the battlefield, feel a chill rise from his spine.

On the walls of the stone hall were embedded several stones emitting a lurid green light that constantly swayed, casting the whole space in an eerie, ghostly glow.

The temperature was lower than outside by more than one unit, cold and damp; the cloying stench of decay was so intense it almost became tangible, making breathing difficult and causing waves of dizziness.

Most alarming was the center of the stone hall.

On the floor, a huge, complex, and orderly circular pattern had been carved by human hands.

The pattern's lines were deeply gouged, their grooves filled with a dark‑red, dried‑and‑caked substance that faintly gave off the smell of rust and another indescribable foul odor.

On the pattern's several key points, each held an item:

Villagers' worn‑out short jackets, children's faded tiger‑head caps, battered wooden bowls, even half a piece of dry, hard biscuit.

And beside these items, at the junctions of the pattern's lines, lay a dozen or so people!

They were precisely the missing villagers from Wang Family Hollow—men and women, old and young.

Their eyes were tightly shut, their complexion an abnormal ashen pallor, and the rise and fall of their chests was so faint it was almost invisible.

On the center of each person's forehead was affixed a small, thin dark-colored crystal chip engraved with dense, twisting runes.

—It is precisely the nether energy crystal chip device once captured and studied by the Northward Aspiration Army.

At the exact center of the pattern stood a slightly raised stone platform.

Upon the stone platform hovered an object about the size of a fist, entirely jet-black, resembling both stone and crystal.

It was not stationary but slowly rotating; as it turned, a dim, light‑absorbing sheen flowed across its surface.

A visible chill ripple that slightly distorted the surrounding light continuously spread from it.

At the same time

A low hum that drilled straight into the marrow, making people irritable and as if their energy were being invisibly drained, filled the entire stone hall.

This black crystal was unmistakably the core of the evil arrangement.

It was also the source of all the cold, corrupt aura and mental oppression.

Two figures clad in the Iron Crow Army's standard gray‑black cloaks, their faces hidden in shadow, were the 'nether shades'.

They stood like stone statues on either side of the platform.

The intrusion of Chen Wen and his companions broke the dead silence here.

"Intruders……die!"

One nether shade suddenly turned, two points of scarlet light flaring beneath its cloak, its voice hoarse and piercing, not human.

It swung its arm, and a twisting mass of nether energy exuding a freezing corrosive feel shot toward the cave entrance!

"Attack! Save the people! Destroy that core!"

Chen Wen gave a low shout, showing no fear, and instead led the charge.

His thoughts raced, and his inner power surged.

"Grant, fourfold, target, myself and the three frontline blade‑and‑shield fighters, duration, fifteen breaths!"

A faint golden light flashed across his blade and vanished—that was the condensed Fortune Momentum power, which naturally counters nether energy.

The three strengthened blade‑and‑shield fighters felt their blood surge, roared, raised their shields, and surged forward!

Chen Wen's movement was even faster, like a gusting wind; he sidestepped the nether energy mass and thrust his sword straight at the throat of the shouting nether shade!

The other nether shade, seeing this, immediately uttered a hurried, strange syllable and formed a peculiar hand sign, seemingly to trigger some contingency set up in the stone hall.

However, a few soldiers behind Chen Wen wearing calming bells felt the bells on their chests emit a rapid, faint 'buzz' vibration.

A cool, calming thought‑wave spread out, though it did not completely interrupt the nether shade's action.

But it noticeably disturbed its concentration and the potency of that syllable, causing its maneuver to falter.

In an instant, Chen Wen's sword arrived!

The long sword bearing Fortune Momentum power pierced the void beneath the nether shade's cloak, yet emitted a 'hiss' like a red‑hot awl stabbing into snow.

That nether shade let out a shrill, piercing wail; its scarlet light swiftly dimmed, its gray‑black form violently fluctuated and dispersed, turning into a foul‑smelling black smoke that vanished.

The three strengthened blade‑and‑shield fighters had already encircled the other nether shade, bashing with shields and slashing with swords, forcing it to retreat repeatedly, unable to attend to anything else.

"Quick! Pull those crystal chips from their heads! Move the people out of the pattern area!"

Chen Wen succeeded with his strike, showed no hesitation, and barked an order.

He himself turned and lunged toward the black crystal at the platform's center that emitted an ominous fluctuation!

One of the quickest‑reacting soldiers heaved his spear at the crystal!

However, as the spear approached within about a foot of the crystal,

it seemed to strike an invisible wall of tough, icy resistance, causing the spear shaft to bend.

Then it was violently rebounded, and a layer of white frost instantly formed on the spear tip.

The nether shade that had not yet been defeated, seeing this, let out an angry roar.

It disregarded the blades behind it, threw its whole body at the platform, and used its body to shield the crystal.

Chen Wen's gaze was icy, his speed undiminished.

He did not attempt long‑range destruction; instead, he intensified the Fortune Momentum power condensed on his sword and gave a low shout.

He lunged forward with his sword, aiming precisely at the gap between the nether shade and the crystal!

The faint golden light on the blade clashed violently with the crystal's dark ripples and invisible force field, producing a grating 'sizzle,' yet he forced it in!

Although the sword tip did not directly touch the crystal, it successfully disturbed the stability of that invisible field.

At the same time, he gathered strength in his left palm and struck the edge of the stone platform hard.

With a crisp 'crack,' a small piece chipped off the platform's edge.

As if a chain reaction, the black crystal's rotation suddenly stalled, its surface emitting a faint 'crack' and revealing a hair‑line fissure.

Throughout the stone hall, the suffocating chill, the low hum, and the sweet‑sickly corrupt aura all began to fluctuate and become disordered.

The dark‑red pattern on the floor also seemed to dim a little.

Most crucially, the breaths of the unconscious villagers, though still weak, were no longer declining; instead, they faintly showed a trace of the tiniest uptick.

"No——! You destroyed the master's offering!" the nether shade shrieked in despair, then was hacked to pieces by the pursuing blade‑and‑shield fighters and turned into black smoke that vanished.

"Quick! Keep rescuing! Destroy all the crystal chips!" Chen Wen shouted while guarding with his sword.

The soldiers swiftly pulled the strange crystal chips from the foreheads of the remaining villagers, smashed them with the backs of their blades or ground them to powder underfoot, and quickly moved the unconscious villagers to a ventilated spot near the cave entrance.

Inside the stone hall, the cracks on the black crystal slowly widened, and the chill ripples and hum it emitted were steadily weakening.

But Chen Wen's mood grew ever heavier.

He approached the platform and focused his senses on the crystal whose cracks were spreading.

Within it lay a vast amount of highly compressed nether energy brimming with despair and dead silence, as well as an echo of the purest source life force that seemed to have been stripped and refined away.

This evil artifact's very existence is a desecration of life.

"Lord of the Iron Crow Army…"

Chen Wen gazed at the gradually collapsing crystal, his eyes like ice.

"Is this one of the ways you seize power? Using the lives and souls of the innocent as sacrifice..."

He gripped the sword hilt tightly, his knuckles turning white from the effort.

Today I fortunately saved over ten people, but what about the remaining villagers of Wang Family Hollow? Under the shadow of this chaotic age, how many more villages are currently or will soon suffer the same misfortune?

This confrontation is far from being as simple as battlefield slaughter; the darkness and cruelty behind it are heart‑pounding.