A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

Chapter 49: Chapter 48: Mass Grave

After dealing with the Skeleton Demon, Lü Zhong immediately took out a small leather pouch and began collecting the bone powder scattered in the passageway. He planned to sift it later to separate out the Bone Crystals inside.

Bone Crystal is an artifact refining material. It is a precipitate of Yin Qi that forms within a Skeleton Demon’s body. It can be ground into powder and added to Talisman Ink, serving as a rare conductive agent.

Talisman Ink mixed with a conductive agent possesses superior Spiritual Power conductivity.

Conductive agents like this were sold by weight in the Workshop Market. An opportunity this rare couldn’t be missed.

Li Dong was also collecting the bone powder from the ground, clearly aware of the Bone Crystals’ value.

Afterward, the two continued forward.

They passed more large urns filled with skeletons, but they didn’t encounter any more Skeleton Demons. Even the Yin Qi in Lü Zhong’s vision slowly began to fade.

Perhaps because he had gained something, the grim expression on Li Dong’s face finally eased.

Just then, a black obelisk appeared ahead. It was quite short, only a little over ten feet tall.

”The Rebirth Stele. This is the entrance to the mass grave,” Li Dong said, his tone heavy as he pointed at the obelisk.

Lü Zhong walked up to it and examined the obelisk closely.

The stone appeared to be obsidian, with a ritual text carved on each of its four faces.

One of the texts seemed to be a narrative. It began, ”In the 147th year of the Southern Calendar, we battled the demon horde on the banks of the Lio River,” and went on to describe parts of that great war, using phrases like ”a sky-rending bloody glow” and ”bodies piled high in the wilderness.”

Just from reading these few fragments of the ritual text, he could feel the sheer brutality of that ancient battle.

”O, soul, o, soul, return to your homeland...”

Lü Zhong murmured the line from the Soul-Summoning Ritual Text, finally understanding the purpose behind the Ancient Cultivators’ practice of burial.

They likely feared that without a body, a wandering soul would lose its way and never be able to return home.

In the view of the Ancient Cultivators, after death, one went to the Nine Netherworld Yellow Springs. Only by possessing a body, just as in life, could one protect the easily lost soul from dissipating. Only then, under the guidance of a Soul Summoning Platform in one’s homeland, could the path home be found.

’Is there really a Yellow Springs after death?’ Lü Zhong suddenly wondered.

’If the Yellow Springs truly exists, then does a corresponding Underworld also exist? And what about a heaven full of Immortal Gods?’

He didn’t dwell on it. It was a question destined to remain unanswered.

He turned his gaze to the entrance of the mass grave, where a large, sealed bluestone door stood.

Remnants of many Talisman Papers clung to the door. Judging by their age, they were likely left there when the tomb was built. Their specific purpose was unclear, but it was probably related to soul-summoning.

In the center of the door were seven scattered indentations.

The indentations contained a good amount of grayish-white powder, clearly the kind left behind after a Spirit Stone’s Spiritual Qi is depleted.

Obviously, to open the bluestone door, the indentations had to be filled with Spirit Stones.

Lü Zhong used his Qi Observation Skill to look behind the door, and his expression turned grave.

Li Dong saw this and shot him a questioning glance.

”I see dense Yin Qi behind the door. If I’m not mistaken, it’s full of Skeleton Demons!” Lü Zhong shared what he saw without holding anything back.

He took two steps back, not forgetting to check that the path they came from was still clear, lest their escape route be cut off.

Then, he began to murmur an incantation while his hands formed a series of seals.

A moment later, fireballs began to coalesce in front of him, fifteen in total.

Although it couldn’t compare to Yuo Qing of the Qingyang Sect, it was still the result of his long and persistent practice.

”Alright, open the door,” Lü Zhong said in a low voice.

With the power of the Qingyang Fire Rain Technique, even a horde of Skeleton Demons hiding behind the door wouldn’t be able to withstand this wave of fireballs.

A flash of surprise crossed Li Dong’s eyes as he saw the sheet of fireballs.

On the day of Ancestor Qingyang’s commemoration, when Yuo Qing had demonstrated the Qingyang Fire Rain Technique to the Loose Cultivators, he had been in the audience, and had even dreamed of mastering the technique himself.

He never would have thought that this Secret Skill, which he had been completely unable to learn, would now be used by Lü Zhong.

At this moment, Li Dong’s feelings were impossibly complex.

But then, thinking of his critically ill young son, his expression firmed with resolve. He picked up the last Spirit Stone and said in a heavy voice, ”Fellow Daoist Lü, I only need to place this last Spirit Stone.”

”Go ahead and place it. I’m ready,” Lü Zhong said with a nod.

Hearing this, Li Dong inserted the Spirit Stone into the indentation.

Instantly, glowing patterns lit up on the surface of the bluestone door, converging into a circle of cryptic symbols.

Immediately after, with a GRINDING RATTLE of machinery, the bluestone door slowly began to retract into the walls on either side.

Almost at the same instant, they saw clusters of green flames behind the door, and their scalps prickled with fear.

Without hesitation, Lü Zhong brought two fingers together and pointed forward.

”Go!”

The fireballs floating beside him shot out one after another.

A searing gust of wind washed over them as fiery waves began to roll behind the door, occasionally spitting out tongues of flame that incinerated everything in their path.

Lü Zhong didn’t stop, adding another Qingyang Fire Rain Technique for good measure.

Only after doing all this did he retreat into the passageway to wait for the flames to subside.

Behind the door was now a sea of fire. The rolling heat waves churned up bone ash, which billowed out toward them like a white mist, turning their entire field of vision a stark white. Faintly, they could hear a crisp crackling from within the inferno.

Gradually, the blaze died down.

Lü Zhong slapped a Cleaning Talisman on himself and saw that all was quiet behind the door.

The ground inside was covered in a layer of ghastly white ash, probably more than half a finger thick.

One could only imagine how many Skeleton Demons had been standing behind that door just moments ago.

”Let’s go in.”

For some unknown reason, Li Dong’s expression had suddenly become calm.

The other man’s abrupt emotional shift made Lü Zhong inwardly wary. He immediately cast Malice Detection, but felt no reaction at all.

’Strange...’

He looked up, puzzled, and saw that Li Dong had already gone through the doorway, so he followed.

Beyond the door was a straight passageway. Because it had been blasted by two Qingyang Fire Rain Techniques, parts of the earthen walls had vitrified, and could even clearly reflect their figures.

They walked straight down the passageway for several hundred yards before arriving in a vast, open space.

Worthy of its name, the mass grave was filled with countless human bones as far as the eye could see. It was hard to imagine just how many people had been buried here.

As if he had thought of something, Li Dong’s expression suddenly changed. His lips moved for a moment, and a ball of light appeared at his fingertips.

Then, he flicked the ball of light forward, and it exploded with a BAM.

A dazzling white light illuminated the area ahead.

In an instant, an astonishing scene unfolded before them.

For a moment, Lü Zhong was so stunned he couldn’t even speak.

In the massive space before them, there was a literal sea of skeletons.