Within the Forbidden Desolate Land, ancient and vigorous trees spread their branches and boughs in all directions like coiling dragons, each one as tall as a small mountain reaching toward the sky. Thick old vines — each as wide as a water vat — coiled like great pythons winding around the mountains, robust and full of power.

To the uninitiated eye, seeing such lush vegetation and vibrant vitality, one would surely mistake this place for a land of purity. But upon closer observation, one would quickly notice the abnormality. Across the vast forbidden zone — no birdsong, no beast roars, not a single trace of ant or insect activity. A silence approaching absolute death!

This time, the three factions had hand-picked their members and had not brought large numbers. There were only just over eighty people in total.

“This life-forbidden zone’s innermost area contains nine sacred mountains. Let us split up and advance separately, each reaching a different sacred mountain. That way there’ll be no uneven distribution when gathering the divine medicines.” This was the proposal of Xu Daoling, the elder knight of the Yao Guang Holy Land.

The Yao Guang Holy Land had brought over thirty people — every one of them powerfully built, all mounted on savage beasts of massive frame and tremendous strength. This was because, once inside, regardless of whether one was cultivator or demon beast, the spring of divine power would be sealed and divine abilities could not be deployed. The stronger the physical body, the greater the advantage. The Jiang Family and Ji Family’s people also rode beasts of exceptional innate gifts, all for this same consideration.

The Jiang Family had brought over twenty powerful figures. Their leader, the elder Jiang Hanzhong, sat astride a great demonic elephant covered in flashing black scales and smiled. “Brother Xu’s words are mistaken. This place is filled with unknown dangers. It would be best for us to advance together. I believe that even ascending only one sacred mountain and gathering the divine medicines there would be sufficient to divide among all three factions. In so many years, success has almost never been achieved — we should not divide our forces.”

After saying this, Jiang Hanzhong casually swept his gaze across Ye Fan. A flash of something unusual passed through his pupils. Ye Fan’s heart immediately tensed. He was acutely sensitive when it came to the Jiang Family — two years ago, the knights of this family had driven him to the point of having nowhere to go in heaven or on earth.

The elder knight of the Yao Guang Holy Land, Xu Daoling, shook his head. “I believe the most terrifying thing in the forbidden zone is the power of the curse. Even if we all gather together, it would be of no use. Splitting up to advance might give each group its own fortune.”

The Jiang Family elder Jiang Hanzhong showed a faint smile of amusement. He scanned Ye Fan once more before speaking. “Our Jiang Family has only brought over twenty people — our numbers are insufficient, a bit thin. We’d like to borrow a few of Brother Xu’s people.”

Ye Fan was completely covered from head to toe by divine iron armor, with even his head concealed beneath a helmet. Only a pair of eyes were left exposed. In this moment he knew the Jiang Family’s people had recognized him — surely among them were the knights who had pursued and hunted him two years ago.

The elder of the Yao Guang Holy Land, Xu Daoling, had learned that Ye Fan had consumed a sacred fruit — meaning he had a greater ability to resist the curse than others. Xu Daoling intended to use him to gather the divine medicines from inside the forbidden zone, and upon realizing the Jiang Family also had designs on Ye Fan, he refused outright.

The Ji Family elder Ji Yunfeng watched with cool eyes from the side, perceiving the veiled scheming between the two. Without revealing anything, he said, “It’s too early to discuss these matters. There’s no harm in waiting until we truly reach the depths of the forbidden zone before deciding.”

The other two accepted his suggestion and continued to advance. At first, no one felt anything. But after advancing a dozen or so li, every single person noticed something amiss.

“The spring of divine power inside my body no longer flows — it’s about to vanish…” A Jiang Family cultivator was the first to cry out in alarm.

“My Life Spring has closed — divine power no longer flows from it.” A powerful figure of the Yao Guang Holy Land also changed expression.

Everyone’s faces darkened. The vital spiritual energy within their bodies was no longer manifesting, and even the Bitter Seas were slowly drying up.

“What’s there to panic about — this was expected long ago!” The Jiang Family elder Jiang Hanzhong snapped coldly.

The Ji Family elder Ji Yunfeng also spoke up. “Even if the spring of divine power dries up, it doesn’t matter. In this place, divine abilities are unnecessary — one only needs to be able to resist the power of the curse.”

At that moment, Ye Fan found that the vitality of his Life Spring had somewhat diminished, but had not dried up — it was still flowing quietly. As for his golden Bitter Sea, though it had dimmed somewhat, it had not dried up either.

Can it be that after awakening the potential of the Desolate Holy Physique, it can resist the sinister power of this place?! Ye Fan murmured to himself, his heart far from settled. He now held a sufficiently strong trump card — absolutely a decisive blow.

The six of them — Zhou Yi, Lin Jia, Wang Ziwen, Li Xiaoman, Zhang Ziling, and Liu Yiyi — were also seated on savage beasts, following along in the group, with a few knights assigned to protect them.

After advancing another twenty or so li, many of the savage beasts began snorting and snarling with unease. Among them, a tiger-striped beast whose power was weakest of all began to tremble and collapsed to the ground, refusing to advance any further.

The terrain ahead was level, with ancient trees reaching the sky and their boughs spread out like the arms of giants toward the heavens — a stretch of lush green, with nothing obviously abnormal to be seen.

Everyone advanced with extreme caution. No one spoke. All gripped spears and swords, ready to charge at any moment. With divine abilities sealed, this was all they could do now.

When they had advanced another two hundred meters or so and rounded several ancient trees with trunks over twenty meters in diameter, all the mounts at the very front reared up on their hind legs, throwing their riders to the ground.

Behind one of the ancient trees, a snow-white skeleton stood perfectly upright, facing them, emanating a sinister and eerie aura. All the knights fell back, tightening their grip on their sharp spears and swords, pointing them at the figure ahead.

“No signs of life, no divine power fluctuations — it’s nothing but a skeleton…” The several knights who had been thrown by their mounts strode forward, raised their long blades, and chopped the skeleton apart on the spot.

Yet what followed was terrifying. In the instant the skeleton shattered, every one of those knights cried out in agony. Their divine iron armor had originally shone brilliantly, impervious to blades — but now it was rapidly dimming, emitting sharp crackling sounds as it fractured over and over, and finally fell away like the bark of a rotted tree.

Those several knights’ eyes sank deep into their sockets; their flesh and blood dried and withered, crumbling away like dust. It was as though they had crossed through history and lived through several thousand years in an instant — and in a flash they turned to ash, leaving only white skeletons, which fell heavily to the ground.

“Fall back!” The Jiang Family elder Jiang Hanzhong shouted. “No one approach!”

Everyone sensed a sinister power and quickly withdrew. The mounts roared in agitation. What had just happened was deeply frightening — seven living beings had turned to dust in the blink of an eye, utterly gone. That manner of death sent chills up every spine present.

Ahead, all was still. Nothing further occurred. Only seven white skeletons remained — and even the divine iron armor they had worn had shattered.

The Ji Family elder Ji Yunfeng called out sharply, “Give it a wide berth. If anything else unusual appears, no one is to act rashly!”

After passing through that ancient woodland, one of the knights suddenly cried out in horror. “My hands…”

He was a young cultivator, but now his palms were coarse and wrinkled beyond measure, completely drained of their glow. He rapidly removed his helmet and reached up to touch his own face with trembling hands — and cried out in agony on the spot.

Everyone was horrified. The knight’s face was covered in deep wrinkles, his hair stark white, his frame stooped. The vitality of his life had sharply declined; he was nearly dead of old age.

Beside him, several other knights began speaking in aged, trembling voices, crying out in fear — the same thing happening to all of them. Each had cloudy, sunken eyes, their lives hanging by a thread.

“Why…” One of the knights was stooped and trembling, the light in his eyes fading slowly. Then with a dull thud he fell from his mount and died of old age completely.

A short while later, the other several aged knights perished as well, crumpling to the ground. They died with their eyes open. Their mounts were also rapidly aging — no longer strong and vigorous, now all skeletal and frail, as though struck by a great illness. But these beasts outlived humans in longevity and did not die of old age.

Ye Fan noticed that those who had died were all the ones who had approached the white skeleton earlier — the ones whose mounts had been startled and thrown them. This realization sent a chill through his heart.

The elder knight of the Yao Guang Holy Land, Xu Daoling, warned in a low and steady voice, “The terror of the life-forbidden zone speaks for itself. Everyone — do not be careless again. No more rash actions.”

The journey was oppressive. No one spoke. Every heart was unsettled; no one could predict life or death.

Mounted on his savage beast, Ye Fan carefully observed the flora growing across the mountain terrain. His heart was far from calm — for he discovered that a great many spirit medicines were growing here, herbs that had been growing for no one knew how many ages.

One Dragon’s Tongue Plant glimmered with jade-green light, as though carved from fine jade, almost undeserving of the name “plant.” Having grown into something nearly a small jade tree, it stood two meters tall, its heart shaped like a small jade-green dragon extending a tongue of flickering light.

Not far away, in a lake, a Jade Lotus blazed with brilliant light. Its enormous seedpod held nine lotus seeds the size of chicken eggs — crystalline and translucent, as green as jade. From a great distance, one could smell the heart-refreshing fragrance.

Yet no one stopped. They had no time to waste. Even if they successfully climbed the sacred mountain and gathered the divine medicines, they had to do so before their own life force was exhausted — otherwise they would die before walking back out of this forbidden zone.

A Jiang Family knight, mounted on a beast radiating a red aura all around, came up alongside Ye Fan and rode beside him. In an extremely low voice he taunted, “What, not running anymore? Two years ago, weren’t you sprinting like a frightened stray dog…”

Ye Fan glanced at him. “I think that description fits you better — two years have passed, and you can still pick up my scent.”

“Quite the hard mouth on you. I wonder if you’ll still dare speak this way when I’m slowly carving you apart.” The knight smiled coldly and dismissively. “I hear you can’t cultivate at all — truly bold for someone so foolish. When the time comes, you’ll die without knowing how.”

“You’re that certain? You’ve already got me delivered to a death with no burial ground?” Ye Fan was very calm, not a trace of anger.

“You think the Yao Guang Holy Land will protect you? Keep dreaming. When the time comes, you’ll obediently gather the sacred medicine for us. Consider yourself lucky if you’re left with a whole corpse. You should know very well in your heart — there’s no way we’ll let you leave alive.” This knight, named Jiang Feng, revealed a chilling killing intent. “Of course, I can make things easy for you — hand over that precious treasure you carry, and I’ll let you die without pain.”

“Don’t you think it’s too early to be saying all this?” Ye Fan looked at him calmly. “In the Forbidden Desolate Land, until the very last moment, no one can say who lives and who dies. I might yet wring your neck.”

Jiang Feng cast him a contemptuous look. “Even if my spring of divine power has temporarily dried up, killing you is no different from stepping on an ant — no effort required whatsoever.”

“You’re quite confident.” A faint cold smile touched the corner of Ye Fan’s mouth. He said no more.

Jiang Feng’s face carried a cruel, cold smile, and he spoke in a sinister tone, “Of the five knights who hunted you two years ago, three are here. We would very much like to run you down one more time — and of course, this time the result will definitely be different.”

After venturing over a hundred li into the life-forbidden zone, the nine sacred mountains finally came into view. They were not towering in height, yet they were majestic and imposing in presence, pressing upon the mind and heart with boundless weight — as though all nine heavens and ten earths lay before them.

“That is…”

No one could hold back a sharp intake of breath. Their scalps went numb. In the endless abyss encircled by the nine sacred mountains, countless white skeletal remains were crawling upward — dense and packed, an expanse of white.

“How can this be?!”

“They are most likely people from six thousand years ago…” The Ji Family elder Ji Yunfeng’s face was heavy with solemnity.

The elder knight of the Yao Guang Holy Land, Xu Daoling, nodded slowly. “Correct — it should be them. Long ago, the countless powerful figures of that immortal sect fell and perished in the desolate abyss. These are those people!”

Ye Fan also felt chills running across his entire body. In that instant, he thought of the old madman. All the bones blanketing the mountain must be the old man’s fellow sect members and old friends.