Nie Tian and the experts flew out of a spatial rift one after another into the depths of a mountain valley that was wreathed in an aura of death.
No suns, moons, or stars could be seen in the sky, which was filled with heavy, grayish-brown clouds. The few mountains in the surroundings weren’t very tall, yet they exuded an aura that could wither all things.
With a closer look, Nie Tian discovered that the mountains were actually made of countless pale-gray skeletons.
At this moment, the glowing spatial rift they had just flown out of started to flicker and shrink down, and soon became hard to notice.
This place made everyone very comfortable.
There wasn’t a shred of spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth here. The air they breathed into their lungs carried a noticeable aura of death.
Looking at the vanis.h.i.+ng spatial rift, Zhao Shanling said, “This spatial rift won’t stay open forever. It seems to me that this place isn’t a human realm, but rather the territory of the Bonebrutes.”
With these words, Zhao Shanling squinted and unleashed his Death Reign.
He had forged his Death Reign by refining a magical item he had discovered in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation with unique methods. That item seemed to have belonged to Bonebrutes.
The misty Death Reign then rose from the top of Zhao Shanling’s head and floated towards the nearby mountains of bones.
The Death Reign looked like a gray, spinning vortex in which lay the profound truths of death power. As it approached the mountains of bones, numerous wisps of pale-gray smoke rose from them.
As the wisps of smoke rapidly merged with the Death Reign, it expanded at a noticeable rate.
CRACK! CRACK!
After smoke stopped rising from the mountains of bones, the bones shattered, and the mountains they were piled into toppled.
Zhao Shanling’s eyes glittered as he said with a deep frown, “Those mountains of bones contain death power, which normally only resides in the deceased. And the skeletons that are piled into them are mostly human skeletons.”
Face very grim, Hua Mu said, “All of these are mountains of human skeletons?”
Zhao Shanling nodded. “That’s right.”
Hua Mu took a deep breath to calm himself then said, “Since Huilan’s body flew through this spatial rift into the Void Illusion Mountain Range, people from the Thousandsword Mountain Sect must have been here at some point. If this is the Bonebrutes’ territory, then what were Thousandsword Mountain Sect disciples doing here? Also, they must have known that these are mountains of human skeletons, so why didn’t they fight the Bonebrutes, but kill Huilan instead?”
“I don’t know.” Zhao Shanling was puzzled as well.
“Bonebrutes’ territory... Mountains of skeletons...” Nie Tian pondered in silence for a few seconds before summoning the Bone Blood Demon from within his ring of holding.
As soon as the enormous Bone Blood Demon appeared, the death Qi that filled this heaven and earth started to converge on it without any effort of its own.
Wisp after wisp of death Qi flew into the Bone Blood Demon’s translucent, jade-like bones, where they turned into some mysterious power and started to strengthen the bones.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
Without Nie Tian telling it what to do, the Bone Blood Demon strode forward, as if it were following its nature.
Nie Tian went blank briefly, and then followed along.
Hua Mu and the other experts were also taken aback, and followed along, hoping to see where the Bone Blood Demon was going.
Zhao Shanling was the only one who stayed in place. With his unfathomable eyes, he watched the spatial rift grow faint and vanish completely. Then, he left a special mark of his own.
He knew very well that the spatial rift hadn’t vanished for good.
After some time, it would reappear in this place, but not for long.
“A strangely variable spatial rift...” He pondered briefly before going after Nie Tian and the others.
After pa.s.sing a few toppled mountains of bones, the Bone Blood Demon came to an open area that was filled with scattered pale-gray skeletons, and in the middle of the sea of bones stood an altar of bones.
The Bone Blood Demon flew over and landed on the altar of bones in the blink of an eye.
As its enormous body of translucent, jade-like bones landed heavily on the hexagonal altar, the alter seemed to be activated, and started channeling death power from its surroundings.
Wisps of death power rapidly rose from the countless skeletons in the vicinity.
One after another, they streamed towards the altar of bones, through which they infused into the Bone Blood Demon like streams of water.
Hua Mu and the other experts stood by the perimeter of the sea of skeletons. They tried to enter, but after taking a few steps forward, their expressions flickered as they hastily backed out.
Enveloping the sea of skeletons was not only pale-gray death Qi, but also a noxious aura that corpses had produced.
As powerful as Hua Mu, Qi Bailu, and the other experts were, they had great difficulty warding off the raging death Qi and noxious aura with their spiritual power wards.
Nie Tian felt even more uncomfortable after entering the sea of skeletons.
His unique Life Bloodline seemed to be very repulsive to the raging death Qi and noxious aura that enveloped the entire area. He kept losing his flesh aura standing in the sea of skeletons.
Therefore, he backed out of it as well.
Eyes narrowed, he sensed by relying on his profound connection with the Bone Blood Demon that it seemed to be refining its body with the help of the altar of bones and the death power it channeled from its surroundings.
The Bone Blood Demon was made from a dead Bonebrute. Its bones had been badly damaged and fractured in many places during its death.
After the Blood Sect had gained it, no matter what means they had tried, they had been unable to fix its ruptured bones.
Later, Nie Tian had awakened it. Over the years, it had fought side by side with him and gathered copious flesh power from high grade outsiders. However, the damaged bones still hadn’t healed.
At this moment, however, as the Bone Blood Demon continued to take death power into itself, its ruptured bones started to heal, as if it had finally found the right recipe.
“This is one of the Bonebrutes’ burial grounds,” Qi Bailu suddenly said.
Nie Tian was taken aback. “It’s a burial ground?”
Qi Bailu nodded slightly. “The Realm of Unbounded Desolation used to be a burial ground of the Bonebrutes’ too. Bonebrutes’ bloodlines carry the profound truths of death power. The upgrade of their bloodline greatly relies on their acc.u.mulation of death power. However, death power is very different from most other types of power.
“Death power can only be born in dead creatures.
“And Bonebrutes can only practice cultivation in burial grounds like this one. When they suffer serious injuries, they’ll also need to recover with the help of these burial grounds.
“There are countless domains and realms in this starry river, but there are very few places that can help Bonebrutes upgrade their bloodline at a fast rate.
“Plus, there aren’t any spiritual materials or medicines that contain death power. Therefore, this unique race can only strengthen themselves or recover in their burial grounds.
“These burial grounds don’t form naturally. They would have to constantly fill places with fresh corpses and allow the corpses to release death Qi. Only after this goes on for a long time will these places become a Bonebrute burial ground.
“Therefore, the Bonebrutes and their cultivation methods are not only detested by humans, but by Demons, Fiends, and other outsider races too.”
Qi Bailu went silent for a moment before continuing, “Most of the skeletons here seem to belong to humans. They were either slaughtered by Bonebrutes or...”
“Or what?” Hua Mu asked.
“Or put here by the Thousandsword Mountain Sect,” Qiao Bailu said, hate and detestation filling his eyes.
Hua Mu’s expression instantly changed. “They put some of the corpses here?!”
Qi Bailu sighed. “We humans are better at repopulating than any outsider race. Over the years, humans have always been the main source of corpses when Bonebrutes build their burial grounds. None of the outsider races has a population that can be compared to ours, so they attach great importance to every one of their members. If the Bonebrutes dare to build burial grounds with their members, they would surely provoke ma.s.s retaliation.
“Only humans are great in numbers and constantly fight among ourselves, so the deaths of a small number of us won’t attract much attention.
“Since people from the Thousandsword Mountain Sect have come here at certain points, they must be somehow involved... I bet the humans corpses here are their doing.
“They must have some secret agreement with the Bonebrutes!”
As the sectmaster of the Tool Sect, which was based in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation, Qi Bailu clearly had a fairly deep understanding of Bonebrutes.
Bitter hatred filled Xing Huanyue’s voice as she said, “I can’t believe those people from the Thousandsword Mountain Sect are actually s.h.i.+pping the corpses of their kind here to build a burial ground for the Bonebrutes. They’re even worse than monsters!”
Furious, Hua Mu chimed in, “Huilan and Qiqi must have discovered what they were doing, so they put their murderous hands on them!”
Nie Tian’s face was also very grim as he spat, “The Thousandsword Mountain Sect!”