Chapter 131: Two Years

Just as Tang Jinbiao collapsed to the ground, in a room of the grand and majestic City Lord’s mansion in Chuyun City, hundreds of miles away from where he fell.

A woman of somewhat ordinary appearance sat before a bed, gazing quietly at the young man lying peacefully upon it.

The young man bore some resemblance to the woman, and his complexion was exceptionally pale. Upon closer inspection, he even looked somewhat like a woman. But currently, his face was deathly pale, and he was deeply unconscious.

“Cough, it seems this world truly is unstable. The fighting in the Hundred Thousand Mountains is intense, and now trouble begins to emerge even outside!”

The young woman sighed while looking at the man lying on the bed, and as she said this, a flash of killing intent flickered in her eyes.

This woman was Chu Yunyun, and the man was Chu Yunfei.

After Chu Yunyun startled Tang Jinbiao and Captain Wang into fleeing, she did not pursue them. Although she desperately wanted to grind Tang Jinbiao’s bones to ashes, his abilities were too bizarre and unfathomable. She still hadn’t unraveled what kind of powers Tang Jinbiao possessed.

Tang Jinbiao certainly appeared to be a Body Refiner, but what baffled her was how he managed to destroy her Spirit Artifact with a single strike every time he attacked, and how he could shatter even supernatural abilities unleashed from Talisman Paper with one blow. This was completely illogical.

If Tang Jinbiao were a Core Formation Cultivator, then she could believe that his Divine Sense far surpassed her own, allowing him to directly control her Spirit Artifact. But he was not a Core Formation Cultivator, nor did he possess an aura of immense pressure, which truly unnerved her.

An unknown enemy was always the most terrifying!

“Should I really dispatch people to search for that lad’s tracks? Even if he is a Body Refiner, he shouldn’t have been able to flee far while injured. And that man who attacked Fei, he seemed like nothing more than a martial artist suffering from qi deviation. But strangely, although he wasn’t a Cultivator, he had Spiritual Energy within him. That man is also highly suspicious. Did he perhaps possess some heavy treasure on him?”

Chu Yunyun kept pondering whether or not to go after Tang Jinbiao and Captain Wang to cause them trouble.

But currently, she was too busy to leave. She had another important task: maintaining order throughout Chuyun City.

In the past, Chuyun City, while not large, would have had Core Formation Cultivators present. Her father, moreover, was a powerful Nascent Soul Cultivator. However, in recent years, uprisings had erupted within the Hundred Thousand Mountains. Her father and many of the Core Formation Cultivators had gone there to suppress them.

Naturally, it wasn’t just Chuyun City like this; the entire Chu Clan was in this situation, and indeed the whole Northern Faction Alliance was the same. Even the entire province of Suzhou faced similar circumstances.

No one knew for sure whether there truly was a rebellion by Demon Beasts within the Hundred Thousand Mountains, or if it was a conspiracy by those with ulterior motives.

Across Suzhou, the four great powers dispatched countless Cultivators deep into the Hundred Thousand Mountains. Ostensibly, they claimed it was to suppress the Demon Beast uprisings, but in reality, they were continuously engaged in dark deeds, sneak attacking and killing each other. Furthermore, some major conspiracy seemed to be lurking beneath the surface; otherwise, so many factions wouldn’t have gotten involved.

Thus, over a short period, most areas of Suzhou lacked powerful Cultivators guarding them. Even a city like Chuyun only had a few Foundation Establishment Cultivators. Chu Yunyun was naturally one of them.

“Forget it. Though those two are suspicious, I’ll wait until Fei wakes up to decide. Otherwise, if this is some kind of conspiracy, who knows what chaos might erupt?”

After weighing it for a moment, Chu Yunyun still felt it unwise and temporarily set aside the matter of pursuing Tang Jinbiao and Captain Wang.

Chu Yunyun sat in the room for a while longer. After confirming that Chu Yunfei wasn’t seriously hurt, she got up and left.

…

Two hundred miles south of Chuyun City, in an ancient forest.

Located far from the main roads, this patch of woodland was relatively well-preserved. Each tree was roughly thick enough for two men to barely encircle with their arms. On one large tree in this forest, about ten feet off the ground, there was a tree hollow just large enough for a person to squeeze into. However, the entrance was currently blocked. Even so, waves of crimson light could still be seen radiating faintly from within.

The red light flickered incessantly in the pitch-dark ancient forest, illuminating a large area nearby.

The wild beasts inhabiting the vicinity, drawn by the crimson radiance, began converging on that large tree. As these beasts drew closer, one could vaguely sense that the energy emanating from their bodies diminished thread by thread, flowing toward and converging within the big tree.

…

Three days later, dozens of animal carcasses were piled beside that large tree, ranging from small rabbits and mice to large jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards.

These corpses all bore a pitiful appearance – mere skin stretched tightly over bones, as if completely sucked dry of flesh and blood.

Ssss ssss ssss!

The animal bodies encircled the large tree. The tree itself hadn’t visibly changed over these three days, but the crimson light emanating from within grew increasingly intense and bright. Even with so many corpses lying on the ground, anyone observing from high above would have definitely noticed that the wild beasts within several miles around were all steadily moving toward this location.

At the same time, several hundred li away, within the same dense forest, Tang Jinbiao still lay on the ground, utterly devoid of life.

Gurgle gurgle!

On the surface of his body, those eerie, wriggling substances could still be seen. Simultaneously, a black substance tinged with a thread of scarlet continuously oozed out from within him.

As this black substance was expelled, the foul stench pervading the air became increasingly potent. The stench from the initial discharge had already been overwhelmingly unpleasant, but this new emission made it far more severe.

The black substance that had oozed out earlier, adhering to his skin, had already dried.

Those dried patches of black substance resembled hardened mud, appearing rather solid. They formed a layer of black sludge that encased his body entirely.

…

As the days drifted by one after another, the black substance continued to seep out unceasingly. It wasn’t until the seventh day that this continuous discharge finally ceased.

…

Half a month later, all the expelled black substance had completely dried. It hardened into a layer approximately a finger’s width thick, sealing Tang Jinbiao tightly within it like a cocoon.

Yet, even though this black substance had hardened, the dreadful stench continued to emanate relentlessly from its mass. Within a radius of over ten li, not a single trace of any wild beast could be found.

So potent and terrifying was this odor that even the trees within a circumference of several dozen zhang had begun to wither, their leaves falling.

…

In the blink of an eye, three months had passed.

Centered on Tang Jinbiao’s body, within a radius of thirty zhang, the trees had completely died. For a distance of ten li all around, there remained absolutely no signs of any animals.

…

Similarly, three months had also passed in the other part of the primal forest. The area surrounding that massive ancient tree had transformed into a colossal graveyard. The strange thing was, despite the animals having died there for so long, their corpses still emitted no foul odor.

Had anyone been able to drag these animal carcasses back and dissect them, they would have been astonished to discover that these creatures were nothing but hollow shells. Precisely like animals killed by spiders, their insides had been completely devoured, leaving behind only their bones and hides.

As these animals died, the area began to be shrouded in a pall of death. Although wild beasts still occasionally approached, their numbers were nowhere near what they had been before.

…

Four months, five months, six months…

Time rolled forward like a relentless wheel, ceaseless and never pausing.

In the blink of an eye, a year had passed.

After a year had gone by, Tang Jinbiao still lay there, silent and unmoving.

The zone of death surrounding him, marked by dead trees, had begun to spread, extending to a hundred-zhang radius. However, over the course of that year, the overwhelming stench had finally begun to dissipate. Although a faint trace of it still lingered in the air, it had largely faded, allowing the atmosphere to start returning to normal.

…

For Tang Jinbiao, much had transpired during this year; he simply remained unaware of it.

Naturally, across the entire Divine Wind Continent, countless events had unfolded. The most shocking to everyone was undoubtedly the news originating from the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

It was said that within the Hundred Thousand Mountains, all the major sects began to wage a brutal massacre against the Demon Beasts dwelling there. In just a single year, innumerable Demon Beasts fell to the hands of the Cultivators.

News of various victories spread across the entire Suzhou Prefecture and even throughout the Divine Wind Continent. Simultaneously, a vast array of materials sourced from Demon Beasts and their monster cores began to flow out of the Hundred Thousand Mountains into the hands of the major sects and powerful factions, as well as countless independent Cultivators.

Driven primarily by the lure of profit, the previously unaffiliated independent Cultivators began to organize themselves, one group after another. They set foot upon what they called the path to riches, venturing deeper into the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

At that moment, countless cultivators once again set off towards the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

Even the minor cultivators, such as those at the Foundation Establishment and Qi Condensation stages, all began to tread this path, hoping to gain some benefits.

……

Time flew by as swiftly as a shuttle.

Another year had passed!

Or perhaps, had we lost a year?

After the second year since Tang Jinbiao collapsed, a significant piece of news spread across the Divine Wind Continent once more.

Because of the massive deaths of those demon beasts the previous year, countless Beast Kings (Nascent Soul) and Beast Emperors (Soul Refinement), and even Holy Beasts (Tribulation Transcendence), had been provoked and launched counterattacks against humans. Soon, reports of countless cultivators being slaughtered flooded out of the Hundred Thousand Mountains once again.

Even rumors emerged that, due to ambushes, several Soul Refinement cultivators from the human alliance had died, and Core Formation and Nascent Soul cultivators had suffered innumerable casualties, while several Tribulation Transcendents were injured too. As for those at Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment, the losses were beyond counting.

Instantly, a thick wave of defeat and fear radiated from the Hundred Thousand Mountains, sweeping across all directions of the entire Divine Wind Continent.

……

At the core of a dead dense forest spanning over a hundred zhang in radius, a black, mud-covered man lay on the ground—he had been lying there for two years.

But suddenly, a flicker of life emanated from that black, mud-covered man.

“So terrifyingly dark, where am I?”

Tang Jinbiao had been lying there for two long years when, abruptly, he opened his eyes. Yet upon opening them, he found complete darkness before him and sensed that something seemed to be wrapped around his body.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Tang Jinbiao instinctively placed his hands on the ground and tried to stand up.

As Tang Jinbiao rose, the black substance covering his body slowly peeled away like crumbling earth from an ancient city wall, falling to the ground.

Thump! Thump!

After standing, Tang Jinbiao flexed his limbs, causing more mud to shed quickly. Soon, all the black mud had completely fallen off, revealing his body.

Compared to two years ago, his figure now looked more athletic, with a bronzed skin tone, and an aura of greater maturity radiated from him. Of course, it was dominated by a powerful pressure—an immense pressure!

This belonged to the distinctive pressure of a Body Refining Third Tier cultivator. However, within this pressure, there was a lack of the most essential element—something called momentum!

Pop!

Tang Jinbiao felt a bit dazed. After scanning his surroundings, he couldn’t help but flex his fingers slightly, move them around, and clenched his fist. But as he clenched it, the air seemed to get crushed, emitting a loud bang.

“This?”

Hearing that sound, Tang Jinbiao started slightly, looking down at his fist with uncertainty……