Chapter 280: Land of White Bone Corpses, Incense of Prayer, No Death, No Life

Walking to the end of the lamp-lit path, a bronze human figurine with a human head and snake body held two ancient lamps, standing at the terminus and gazing in the direction from which Qian Chen and the others had come. Behind the bronze figurine lay a stretch of purplish-red demonic soil, brewing with peerless ferocity.

Within the demonic soil were many towering pillars of white bone, resembling coral on the seabed, with thousands of branches and twigs, arranged into a forest.

The white bone forest was silent, with thick fog drifting within. Someone opened their Dharma Eye, and a beam of clear light shot from their pupils, piercing straight into the deepest part of the bone forest. This profound Dharma Eye actually peered through that layer of white mist, presenting the eerie and terrifying scene within the forest to everyone.

Looking out, the white bone forest rose and fell, with countless skeletons standing tall like pines, and endless spines twisted into braids, resembling coiling dragons. There were even clusters of shrubs that, upon closer inspection, were all made of twisted white bones.

Those white bones used their spines as a central axis, with limbs, arms, wrists, and fingers twisted into a braided knot, growing branches and forks around the spine like a tree; the ribs and limb bones were like an opened tree canopy.

Looking closely, it was not just these shrubs; the bone trees of the forest were all skeletons with torsos and limbs intertwined, the bones wrapping around each other to "grow" into a tree.

The largest of those bone pillars were so vast that one could not imagine how many skeletons were needed to stretch them out like mountains.

Mist permeated the air, and in this land of dead silence, the few normal figures standing quietly were all the more hair-raising.

"Those figures, they shouldn't be living people, right!" Ma Laohei said, his voice trembling.

"If living people appeared here, it would definitely be more terrifying than dead ones... Those should just be refined corpses. Look, they are wearing armor and holding blades; although the weapons and armor have decayed, they still contain spiritual light—they are all magic treasures. It seems an army was buried here."

After Guo Lao finished speaking, he took a deep drag from the pipe in his hand and slowly exhaled the smoke.

The smoke spread forward, merging into the mist of the white bone forest.

Guo Lao glanced at the color of the smoke and shook his head, saying, "No miasma or poisonous fog!"

"The demonic cave gathers the Yu Yu Jiuyou qi of the earth's orifices—gloomy, dark, dead, absolute, resentful, filthy, poisonous, evil, and demonic. Even if a mortal died here, they would turn into a zombie. These zombies, obtaining gloomy qi become gloomy corpses, obtaining dark qi become walking corpses, obtaining dead qi become corpse ghosts, obtaining resentful qi become corpse demons... Obtaining just one type of nether qi is already extremely troublesome. If they absorb several types of nether qi simultaneously, or even obtain all the Yu Yu Jiuyou qi to become a corpse demon, they are extremely terrifying demonic creatures."

"Remember, once a corpse shows abnormalities, such as feathers growing all over its body, flesh scales, bone horns, fleshy wings, or demonic pupils, it is a Yu Yu Jiuyou Corpse Demon. Even a Core Formation True Person would lose their life if they encountered one. That is, if they even had a second life to lose..." Qian Chen said solemnly.

"Your aura, blood qi, magic power, and even your gaze will attract zombies. It is only because of the protection of this bronze statue with a human face and snake body that we are temporarily safe. If you leave this path and enter the white bone forest, it will be nine deaths and one life."

"But we cannot turn back on the path we came from!" the overseas rogue cultivator sighed gloomily. "Can we really hide here for a lifetime?"

"Zombies sense the living and crave blood. To cross this forest, one must first hide their own aura," Qian Chen lamented. "If those old monsters who transformed into ghost gods hadn't died on the road, they could have transformed into ghosts to mask their human aura. They could have crossed without encountering corpse demons or the most terrifying things in the forest."

"We should wait for those people from the great families behind us. They are better prepared; perhaps we can join forces to pass through this place," Guo Lao suggested.

Ma Laohei chuckled, "Refined corpses and walking corpses are common demonic evils, and they are the specialty of many demonic and heterodox sects. Everyone should be prepared. I have seven authentic San Shan talismans here—Qi-Restraining and Breath-Calming Talismans. Fellow Daoists who need them can name a price to trade with me!"

A rogue cultivator in a black robe said in a low voice, "I also have a bottle of Corpse-Avoiding Pills here!"

Ma Laohei laughed, "The San Shan talismans have the Celestial Master's Dharma Seal on them, so they are hard to fake. But as for Corpse-Avoiding Pills, not to mention that every family's pill formula is different and the efficacy varies, in this current situation, who would dare to take someone else's pills recklessly?"

"This bottle of Corpse-Avoiding Pills of mine is produced by Hundred Grass Mountain!" The black-clad rogue cultivator took out a mutton-fat jade bottle, with a small strip of talisman paper pasted on it, sealing the mouth of the bottle.

Immediately, someone went up to check the talisman on the bottle and nodded, "It really is the talisman seal of Hundred Grass Mountain, and it is indeed Corpse-Avoiding Pills. There are ten pills in this bottle; are you selling them separately, or the whole bottle?"

The black-clad rogue cultivator looked around and said, "Selling the whole bottle!"

With these two starting it, the crowd of rogue cultivators dispersed under the bronze statue with the human face and snake body, and began trading by the dim lamplight. Everyone used their own methods; as rogue cultivators, most of them carried their entire nether-wealth on them. In their storage bags, spirit herbs, talisman paper, talisman ink, and various spirit materials and magic treasures were all well-prepared.

These rogue cultivators had been mixing in the Thunder Sea for three months and had accumulated quite a bit of wealth thanks to this secret realm. Although the opening of this demonic cave immortal mansion was sudden and they hadn't made much preparation, the materials were fully stocked.

Someone used Thunder Dew Grass mixed with cinnabar, sulfur, and mica to refine a type of talisman ink containing thunder-elemental power, which was immediately bought by several rogue cultivators who knew how to draw talismans. They were drawn into Yin Thunder Talismans, Thunder Light Talismans, and other talismans on the spot, and then traded away by other rogue cultivators.

Guo Lao also picked several types of spirit herbs, returned to Qian Chen's side, baked them dry with pure true fire, cut them into fine threads, and applied oil paste and a type of tobacco thread to roast them. Finally, he made a type of pale purple tobacco.

He said to Qian Chen in a low voice, "Young man, just follow me. This old bone of mine doesn't have any great skills, but I've traveled north and south, and I have a knack for dealing with zombies and refined corpses."

Ma Laohei chuckled and leaned over to his side, "A few of you, together? I, Ma Laohei, won't say anything else, but my skill in hiding aura is unique. I will definitely not hold everyone back, and look..."

He took out a few items from his storage bag. Qian Chen glanced at them: San Shan talismans for warding off evil and protecting the body, pure yang pills for avoiding corpses, and several talismanic magic treasures for restraining gloomy spirits. It could be considered well-prepared, surpassing seventy percent of the rogue cultivators.

Qian Chen picked up a bit of Guo Ye's tobacco and sniffed it slightly: "Corpse-Yin Moss, Profound Yin Earth Dew, fingertip cinnabar from a Blood-Patterned Gecko, Silver Frost Lichen, Earth Dragon Blood..."

Every time Qian Chen said one, Guo Ye's eyes lit up.

"Combined with Guo Lao's method of controlling smoke, one should be able to use this smoke to escape between yin and yang. This technique has a shadow of the 'Eating Wind and Drinking Dew Sect's' art of swallowing clouds and spitting mist from years ago."

The old rogue cultivator praised, "I knew the young brother wasn't a simple person. The Eating Wind and Drinking Dew Sect was a great overseas sect, and its techniques are rarely circulated in the Central Lands. Its branch in the Central Lands, the Swallowing Cloud Sect, has been wiped out for a thousand years. For the young brother to be able to recognize the origin of my smoke-controlling technique at a glance, this eye for detail is truly beyond words!"

Ma Laohei shrank his head to the side, smiling ingratiatingly. Qian Chen turned his head and said, "Bring out your bottom-of-the-box skills!"

Ma Laohei smiled bitterly, "This really is my entire nether-wealth!"

"Magic robe..." Qian Chen pointed at his tattered clothes and said, "Make a set of aura-restraining magic robes for each of us, and use all these things." Ma Laohei tightened his tattered clothes and whispered, "How did you see that?"

"Your magic robe uses the 'Tucking Talisman Technique,' which can avoid water and fire, cover aura, and even substitute for death when necessary, performing the 'Golden Cicada Shedding its Shell' technique. It looks tattered, but it is actually the best treasure on your entire body."

"Weaving clothes with talismans, then soaking them in medicine for refining, combined with your unique secret techniques, allows you to refine Daoist methods onto the magic robe. This is the art of garment-making among the hundred arts of immortal sect cultivation. You were quite willing to turn spirit silkworm silk into this tattered state!"

Ma Laohei chuckled and said nothing more, just silently took out some straw-like grass leaves and began to use the power of spirit talismans to convert those grass leaves into grass talismans. Combined with the spirit medicine he had secretly refined, and through his skillful weaving, he soon wove a set of straw raincoat-like garments and began to cast spells to refine them.

At this time, someone else came before Qian Chen and the others. He was tall and thin, but his eyes were very sharp. It was the overseas rogue cultivator who had argued with Ma Laohei. He came to Qian Chen and said directly, "I want to join the group!"

Ma Laohei was unhappy, "What skills do you have to join the group?"

The overseas rogue cultivator had a small axe slide out of his sleeve and said in a low voice, "I can risk my life!"

"Your axe technique has extremely dense gloomy qi, and when performed, it is three parts like a ghost. Your cultivation method also belongs to the type with heavier gloomy qi. When you risk your life, at least you won't make too much noise and attract more zombies. But if you want to join the group, among the four of us, you must walk at the very front, and if you encounter danger, you must be the first to act!" Qian Chen looked at him and gave a relatively harsh condition.

"I understand..." he agreed readily.

Qian Chen took out the scraps from the last time he refined the Spirit-Startling Incense from his storage bag, skillfully ground the medicine into powder, mixed the spices, and rolled them into incense sticks. A handful of dried bamboo sticks were rolled into thirty sticks of incense. The faint residual fragrance rushed into the noses of the few, immediately clearing their minds.

Incense and smoke are inseparable. Guo Lao, who practiced the Dao of Smoke Control, was startled when he smelled this fragrance. He looked at it carefully for a few moments before saying in a tone of surprise and uncertainty, "Prayer Incense?"

"Just low-grade Prayer Incense!" Qian Chen replied casually.

"The fragrance is upright and not evil. Although it is heavenly incense, it can still nourish our spirits. Plus, the color of this incense is dark purple, without a trace of gloom. Although it lacks the ability of top-grade incense—'one stick of heavenly incense moves all gods and Buddhas, three sticks of heavenly incense block immortals and beg for the road'—it is still the best among low-grade incense, and is even close to the level of middle-grade Prayer Incense!"

Guo Ye lamented, "This kind of divine incense requires precious spirit materials containing pure wish power. If you had been willing to make this incense earlier, it wouldn't have been difficult to trade for that life-extending oil!"

"Trading incense for oil!" Ma Laohei looked at the handful of incense in Qian Chen's hand, his eyes turning red.

"This thing can be traded for life-extending oil!" He lowered his voice to Qian Chen and said, "Then why didn't you trade it?"

"Trade it and let those old monsters benefit?" Qian Chen sneered, "Do I look like someone who lacks lifespan?"

"But..."

"But what?" Guo Ye knocked his pipe and said, "Three sticks of incense can't even trade for a drop of oil. Do you know that this divine incense is worse than life-extending oil? If you brought the City God or Earth God of the human world, they would rather have one stick of incense than life-extending oil. If you offer it to gods and Buddhas, what good things can't you trade for? Whatever talismans you draw, light this stick of incense, and I guarantee every single one will be enlightened. Just looking at the young brother rolling the incense easily, do you know that just the stuff ground into powder contains enough wish power to be worth two taels of heavenly silver!"

"This must be the young brother's bottom-of-the-box collection, used for saving lives this time. You guys mixed in with just this little bit of stuff; you got off too cheap!"

That thing was the horn of a Kinnara, which is the god of fragrance, and it had absorbed incense fire in the Heavenly King Temple for four hundred years. It was indeed Qian Chen's bottom-of-the-box scrap, and he only used a tiny bit the size of an incense head.

Moreover, this batch of incense, although not the top-grade like the Spirit-Startling Incense refined last time, was still middle-grade heavenly incense. It was just that Qian Chen deliberately refined the appearance to look a bit inferior.

Low-grade?

Low-grade, no way! The Kinnara god's remains, the Stone Buddha's brain marrow, and the other spirit herbs were all processed by Qian Chen himself. Even if the pig Qian Chen raised (specifically the Ear-Dao God) refined it, it wouldn't be low-grade.

While the rogue cultivators were busy preparing, the Tao family also arrived. The young disciples of the Tao family immediately joined this small market. Those cunning rogue cultivators took the opportunity of selling things to ask clearly about what happened after they left.

Looking at Qian Chen again, their eyes were filled with faint fear—truly ruthless!

Some people secretly gave Qian Chen and the others a few thumbs-up gestures—satisfying!

The green ox swayed over to the few people who were drying spices. Its big head leaned toward Qian Chen, sniffed the incense, raised its head, and said, "Do you want to trade this incense?"

Qian Chen smiled, "I want a wisp of your Innate Wood Essence!"

The old ox paused its hooves and nodded, "That's fair!" It then dropped a wisp of green light from the board-horn behind its head, which was collected by Qian Chen. Then, it bit three sticks of incense and returned to the Tao family, placed the incense in Tao Kan's hands, and sighed, "It's not easy to pass through the front! I told you not to come in!"

"I, the old ox, can advance and retreat, but can you? I still have to cover for you. Take these three sticks of incense well; whether you can pass through the white bone corpse land ahead depends on them!"

Tao Kan said helplessly, "Why can the Spirit Venerable return from this path? And if we turn back, our lifespan will be shaved away?"

"This is the Yellow Springs Road... The Yellow Springs Road goes from life to death. This path is a dead end. Although the dead end is dangerous, it conforms to nature. And if you turn back, it is from death to life... Resurrection from the dead is a taboo, it is going against heaven, so of course, it is ten deaths and no life?" The old ox said, "As for why I can walk it, when you become immortal and undying, you can also walk back from this path!"

"Take these three sticks of incense well. Later, whatever he does, you do! Otherwise, I don't know if you can go back, but those Tao family disciples you brought definitely won't be able to! In the corpse land ahead, there are a few things that even I feel terrified of..."

The green ox raised its hoof and pointed at Qian Chen.

As the green ox spoke, it began to mutter to itself in a low voice. Tao Kan tilted his head to listen, and only heard the green ox muttering—"That bronze Buddha is very eerie..."

"That Daoist is not simple..."

"How is there still a Corpse King?"

"That human-skin tree!"

"The men and women of the Tao boy's family, how many will die on the road! I see this white bone corpse land, not one in ten can walk out, it's full of taboos everywhere!"

The lamp path behind was gloomy. Xu Xu, the figures of the Jin, Lei, and Xin families who had stayed behind also appeared! At least a quarter of the people among them were missing, and many young faces had disappeared, making the Tao family disciples shudder.

An old monster from the Lei family followed Lei Yu to the bronze statue with the human face and snake body and said to Tao Kan, "There is no powerful formation seen here. The eeriness of this lamp path just relies on the situation of the demonic cave and those eighty ancient bronze lamps."

"Although the bronze lamps are eerie and powerful, they are not magic treasures. If you and I join forces to sacrifice magic treasures to suppress them, it won't be hard to break this lamp formation. At that time, not only will we get the life-extending lamp oil, but even these bronze lamp magic treasures will belong to our families. Wouldn't it be wonderful to add to the foundation of the family?"

"Boom!"

Several old monsters joined forces to sacrifice a large tripod magic treasure and began to bombard the bronze human figurines on both sides. The power of this magic treasure was immense, actually knocking those two human figurines into the darkness. The life lamps on the heads of the remaining bronze human figurines immediately became bright, and the human figurines also began to move...

The old ox widened its eyes and opened its mouth, saying, "When it comes to courting death, I admire you humans!"

"At least they knew to come to the end of the road before dismantling the lamps! It's just that it harmed you all..." Qian Chen also stood up and said solemnly, "A few of you, this path hides great terror. If you don't stop, you will all die!"

A Core Formation old monster sneered, "Boy, I've tolerated you for a long time!"

"Do you think this path can still restrict us from using magic power?"

After saying that, he controlled the large tripod to strike out a mysterious light. Qian Chen sneered, "I've tolerated you even longer! If I can tolerate it, why can't you?"

Behind Qian Chen, the bronze statue with the human face and snake body suddenly opened its eyes, revealing pupils as brilliant as stars.

It waved its hand to shatter the mysterious light and lowered its head to look at Qian Chen.

Under the statue, three sticks of incense slowly rose with a wisp of green smoke. The statue was shrouded in the smoke, resembling a god. It tilted the life lamp and dripped a drop of life oil toward Qian Chen.

Qian Chen hurriedly caught that drop of lamp oil, applied it to the three sticks of incense in his hand, and reached out to use the life lamp in the statue's hand to light the three sticks of incense.

Seeing the bright red light of the incense head appear before his eyes, Qian Chen flew back into the white bone corpse land, and at the same time said to Ma Laohei and the others, "The things are ready! Great terror is about to happen here, let's go quickly!"

The green ox trotted along behind and shouted to Tao Kan, "Quickly use that life lamp to light the incense head, then run with the people!" Seeing Tao Kan hesitate, it said even louder, "That fragrance will protect you from burning your lifespan when you approach the life lamp. Once the smoke is sucked dry by those bronze human figurines! If you go up to light the incense then, you will definitely die!"

The Tao family disciples fleeing behind it cursed in their hearts, "You have such a hard life, why don't you run slower!" ===== CHAPTER 281 =====