Chapter 1106: Corpse‑Nurturing Evil Formation!

At the heart of the lightning, Han Wuxian's figure was already invisible; only a vague sense of the star furnace's phantom trembling wildly could be felt, the furnace walls flickering under the lightning strikes, countless arcane runes turning in annihilation and rebirth. On the dark‑purple surface of the Star Marrow Battle Armor, innumerable fine lightning patterns spread; the armor itself, locked in a clash between destruction and stellar power, continuously shattered and instantly reformed, becoming more primitive and heavy, bearing the Destruction Dao Mark of the chaotic calamity lightning!

His tiny soul sat cross‑legged at the furnace core, bearing the most direct lightning tribulation. Each lightning strike made the soul's phantom shiver and dim, as if it might shatter at any moment. Yet after each dimming, supported by star core fragments and stellar heartfire, the soul became more solid and transparent, radiating a divine brilliance that had endured tribulations and would not be worn away by ten thousand calamities!

Having endured an unknown number of chaotic calamity lightning strikes, when the last strand of destructive lightning was painstakingly refined and fully absorbed by the star furnace's phantom, the terrifying lightning clouds covering the star domain finally began to dissipate slowly.

Inside the Star Gate Passage, a wreckage lay everywhere, spatial fissures visible at every turn, on the brink of collapse. As the light faded, Han Wuxian's figure reappeared.

He floated silently within the shattered passage. His Star Marrow Battle Armor had completely changed its appearance, the dark‑purple base now coursed with dark‑gold chaotic lightning patterns, primitive yet imposing, exuding a heart‑pounding aura of both destruction and protection. He stood there, his stature not seemingly larger, yet giving a sense of spanning the heavens and supporting a universe.

Within the dantian star domain, that tiny soul had solidified like substance; its eyes opened and closed, divine light radiant, as if it could pierce all heavens and All Realms. With every gesture, it drew surrounding stellar power along. A pressure of a Huashen cultivator, a life level that surpasses the mundane, spread naturally like rippling water, yet bearing the unique vastness and depth of the stars.

Early Huashen stage, achieved! Stellar soul, chaotic lightning armor, after enduring the forging of the star vault and the Huashen heavenly tribulation, finally reached this state!

At that moment, the broken Star Gate Passage finally reached its limit, and the light and shadow at the exit ahead twisted violently and expanded!

"Go!" Han Wuxian rolled up his great sleeve, a gentle stellar force enveloping the still‑shaken Lin Xiaoshi; the two became two streaks of light, and in the instant before the passage fully collapsed, they surged into the dazzling brilliance at the exit!

The light faded, and the sensation of solid ground returned. Fresh scent of grass and trees surged into the nostrils, dense, pure heaven‑earth spiritual energy brushed the face. Before them stretched an endless ancient forest, towering ancient trees, vines like dragons, distant resonant beast roars and crisp bird calls.

"This is…" Lin Xiaoshi gasped, curiously and nervously surveying the completely unfamiliar surroundings.

Han Wuxian, however, snapped his head up, his star‑sharp gaze piercing the layered canopy, looking toward a direction deep within the forest. The seven Star Key seals within his body now emitted an unprecedented, scorching resonance as if guiding a return path!

The forest's Silence was broken by distant faint beast roars and bird calls, and farther still, an indistinct murmur of human speech seemed to mingle. The dense spiritual energy almost condensed into a pale‑green mist, flowing among the branches of the towering ancient trees. Han Wuxian and Lin Xiaoshi stood atop a tangled mass of tree roots, beneath them a several‑foot‑thick layer of fallen leaves exuding both decay and rebirth.

Han Wuxian closed his eyes and gathered his spirit; the vast Huashen‑stage divine consciousness spread like an invisible tide, silently expanding. Within a hundred‑mile radius, every minute detail emerged: beetles sleeping in tree trunks, blind earthworms tunneling underground, spirit fish flicking tails in streams… and those few human silhouettes darting swiftly through the dense forest, emitting faint spiritual ripples.

Han Wuxian opened his eyes, the star‑light within his pupils restrained, yet his gaze pierced the layers of foliage, landing deeper into the forest. The seven Star Key seals inside him glowed like red‑hot branding irons, emitting a scorching and clear resonance, its source pointing directly to the secluded valley most shrouded in mist and embraced by towering ancient trees.

With a single step, his form appeared dozens of zhang away, landing silently as if merging with the forest's light and shadow. Lin Xiaoshi hurriedly activated the basic "Yin Xing Jue" that Han Wuxian had taught, barely drawing a wisp of thin stellar force onto his legs, stepping unevenly yet with intense focus.

The deeper they went, the taller and older the trees became, tangled vines hanging like giant serpents, blocking most of the sky light, making the environment increasingly dim and damp. The concentration of spiritual energy in the air rose, yet it was interlaced with an indescribable… deathly Silence. It seemed that deep within this vibrant forest lay a massive, slowly rotting root nodule.

The resonance of the Star Key grew ever stronger, nearly bursting through his body. Han Wuxian halted at the edge of a cliff covered in moss. Below the cliff lay the endpoint guided by the Star Key—Starfall Valley.

Yet the scene before him made Han Wuxian furrow his brows tightly.

The valley was not spacious, tightly encircled by steep cliffs and massive tree roots. At the valley's center, instead of the expected altar or ruins, lay a heart‑pounding twisted terrain.

The space there seemed like a shattered crystal mirror, showing unnatural folds and faults. Light refracted within it into eerie colors, sometimes stretching, sometimes compressing. At the core, a dark‑green dense fog constantly writhed, exuding thick death‑energy. Within the fog's center, a faint outline of a hunched figure seated cross‑legged could be seen!

The figure wore an ancient star‑patterned robe that had long decayed into tattered strips, its exposed limbs withered and gaunt, giving an odd texture of jade mixed with rotten wood. No trace of life surrounded him, only death‑energy so dense it could not be dissolved. Countless ink‑green "root‑tendrils" formed from pure death‑energy sprouted from the seven orifices and desiccated skin of this "gravekeeper" corpse, burrowing deep into the surrounding cliff walls, ancient tree roots, and even the void!

These death‑energy root‑tendrils pulsed slowly like living things; each pulse forcibly drew massive life essence from the surrounding mountains, forests, even the earth‑vein spiritual energy. Visible pale‑green light specks, as if pulled by invisible straws, crazily rushed into the dense fog, then were devoured by the corpse! The ancient trees stripped of life essence withered rapidly, rocks weathered and crumbled, and even the stream flowing along the valley's edge turned turbid and black!

The entire Starfall Valley had become a living graveyard, with the gravekeeper's corpse as its core, death‑energy as its root‑tendrils, crazily plundering and devouring vitality!

"What… what kind of monster is this?!" Lin Xiaoshi's face turned ashen, his teeth chattering. The pure death aura made him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave, his soul trembling.

"It's not a monster," Han Wuxian's voice was bone‑cold, his eyes flashing star‑light sharp as knives, "it's the Gravekeeper of the Star‑Spreading Sect… or rather, its remains. Only, it has been polluted, it has been reversed!"

"Reversed?" Lin Xiaoshi asked, puzzled.

"The duty of a gravekeeper is to guard the earth‑veins, tend life, and balance yin and yang. But here…" Han Wuxian pointed at the writhing death‑energy fog and the life‑stealing root‑tendrils, "death is extreme and abundant, using death to devour life, reversing the law of the life‑death cycle! This is not protection, this is… the Corpse‑Unbinding Evil Path! Someone is exploiting the gravekeeper's remains and the unique earth‑vein of Starfall Valley to set up a massive Corpse‑Nurturing Evil Formation!"