After about a dozen breaths, the blood-colored infant opened its eyes again, its round, babyish face now displaying a chilling expression.
“Judging from this girl's memories, it seems a long time has passed. These people inadvertently triggered the Qian Yuan Cauldron that Tian Chenzi placed on the earth vein formation. This venerable one must thank you handsomely, otherwise, who knows if I would have been able to escape. Heh heh…”
After chuckling coldly a few times, several strands of black thread condensed on its small hand once more, sinking into Ye Zimei’s body. Then, it tossed this woman onto the toad's head.
The blood-colored infant glanced at Ye Zimei, pondering how to utilize her.
After all, this girl was also a Golden Core cultivator. It had just escaped from Tian Chenzi and its strength had not yet recovered. It also knew nothing about the changes outside, so it decided to keep her around for the time being.
Moreover, this girl, along with another cultivator, had been the first to arrive at this underground altar. As soon as they entered the altar, their minds were controlled by its spirit pet, which inadvertently provided the spirit pet with an opportunity to escape.
“Let’s go, break this formation and leave this place. Once this venerable one recovers his cultivation, I will grind Tian Chenzi to ashes.”
呱…呱
The blood-colored infant patted the toad's head, and the monster cried out excitedly. A swirl of black gas enveloped its massive body, and in a flash, it was thirty zhang away. Its enormous body moved like the wind, truly astonishing.
After it left, only a pile of rubble remained on the ground, the remnants of the three god statues and the shattered altar.
……
On the other side, Zhang Ling, after being sucked into the bronze cauldron, found himself in a hazy yellow space.
Standing before him was none other than Ding Ruozhao. They stared at each other for a moment, neither speaking.
Zhang Ling, while remaining vigilant towards her, released his senses to explore the surroundings.
He had been directly sucked into the cauldron and hadn't expected to arrive in such a place. The space seemed quite large. Could the bronze cauldron be a spatial treasure, containing such a space within?
Zhang Ling couldn't help but speculate.
“I didn’t expect you to enter here as well,” Ding Ruozhao suddenly said.
“Oh? What does the fairy mean by that? Does she know what this place is?”
“Does the Daoist friend still intend to play dumb? We are both now controlled by that strange jade-white skeleton, and our lives are no longer in our own hands.”
After Ding Ruozhao spoke these words, Zhang Ling’s expression turned gloomy.
This was the reality. Silence descended once more, and the atmosphere remained oppressive as time slowly passed.
Zhang Ling carefully examined the surroundings. The space they were in wasn't very large, only about ten li across. But it was gray and misty everywhere, devoid of anything.
Approximately the time it takes to drink a cup of tea passed. A ray of light descended from the sky, hovering for a moment before landing between the two of them. As the light dissipated, a jade-white skeleton appeared.
Seeing this, Zhang Ling’s eyes narrowed, and with a flick of his hand, his flying sword emitted a low hum, conjuring a myriad of sword shadows. At the same time, he gripped the spirit beast pouch at his waist, watching the eerie skeleton warily.
On the other side, Ding Ruozhao was also enveloped in a flash of silver light, but she didn't act rashly.
“Do you two intend to fight me?” The jade-white skeleton seemed amused by their actions, and it let out a loud laugh.
The skeleton had no flesh, but its laughter was no different from that of a normal person. Its voice sounded like that of an old man.
“With your strength, senior, killing the two of us would be as easy as blowing off dust. I wonder why senior brought us here? If it is within my power, I will certainly not refuse,”
Ding Ruozhao suddenly bowed and saluted the jade-white skeleton. Her tone was neither servile nor arrogant. It was unclear whether she was feigning composure or knew that pleading was useless.
“This little girl has some courage. What about you? The little brat over there.”
The jade-white skeleton’s empty eye sockets flickered with a golden light as it glanced at Ding Ruozhao, then turned to face Zhang Ling.
Facing the skeleton’s gaze, Zhang Ling immediately felt the air around him tighten, and a powerful spiritual pressure descended upon him. His expression changed drastically. This aura was definitely not something a Golden Core cultivator could emit; it would require at least a Nascent Soul level old monster to unleash such a powerful spiritual pressure.
Under this spiritual pressure, he felt that his own spiritual power was becoming sluggish. Zhang Ling struggled for a moment with a grim face, then his expression returned to calm.
The jade-white skeleton seemed surprised by his appearance, and it reached out its jade-like bone claws, touching its smooth skull, looking very interested.
“Senior must have a reason for not killing us earlier. I dare not guess your thoughts, but as long as there is a glimmer of hope, I will not give up,”
As Zhang Ling spoke, the numerous sword shadows around him disappeared, also showing a fearless attitude.
“Heh heh, you’re quite interesting, kid. Alright, I don’t have much time to play with you two. I am Tian Chenzi. Have you ever heard of me?” The jade-white skeleton chuckled and sat down cross-legged, looking relaxed.
However, Zhang Ling found the jade-white skeleton body somewhat strange no matter how he looked at it.
He didn't feel a trace of yin or evil energy from the skeleton. On the contrary, there was a kind of clear spiritual energy. Combined with the powerful spiritual pressure it had released earlier, he guessed that this old monster was definitely not an ordinary cultivator.
Even among Nascent Soul old monsters, he had never heard of one who could survive with only bones left. Even in the rare cases where corpses remained intact, they would mostly become corpse demons or ghost-like beings, possessing mostly yin and cold ghost energy. How could it be clear spiritual energy? Zhang Ling couldn't figure it out.
“What, Tian Chenzi? That’s a Nascent Soul cultivator from over three thousand years ago. Senior, are you really Tian Chenzi? No, even such an old monster could not possibly have survived for three thousand years.”
Ding Ruozhao frowned, pondered for a moment, and exclaimed with a somewhat pale face.
Although she maintained her composure, she had long been wary of this eerie skeleton. If the monster attacked, she would never sit still and wait for death; she would rather fight to the bitter end.
But hearing the monster say that it was Tian Chenzi, Ding Ruozhao was truly shocked.
Zhang Ling also frowned, feeling that the name Tian Chenzi sounded somewhat familiar. Then, he remembered that he had seen some records of ancient cultivators with that name in a classic text.
However, he couldn't recall the specific details about this person at the moment.
If this jade-white skeleton was really a cultivator from three thousand years ago, Zhang Ling couldn't imagine what kind of existence it was.
In the cultivation world, Nascent Soul cultivators could live for up to a thousand years, but most could only survive for about one thousand five or six hundred years. Even some long-lived ones would never exceed two thousand years of lifespan.
After Nascent Soul, there was still the Transformation God realm, which no one had seen for tens of thousands of years. But even Transformation God cultivators had a maximum lifespan of only three thousand years.
