After entering the inn to the west of the city, the whole city collapsed rapidly. When Ding Yan came to his senses, he found himself in another place he did not know when he had arrived there. It was as if he had stepped into a teleportation array and been transported to another place.
It was a desolate, silent wilderness.
At first glance, it was a vast expanse of mist. In the distance, a few dead plants could be faintly seen, but beyond that, nothing was visible.
Ding Yan probed and found that the elemental power in his body was still normal, and the Qiankun Dao Sutra could still operate. Therefore, he determined that he had not left the Dead City, but had just moved from one place to another within it.
"Space jump. Just how big is this Dead City?" Ding Yan's eyelids twitched.
Glancing at the cracked stone tablet behind him, Ding Yan withdrew his gaze and expanded his divine sense.
This stone tablet was the same city that had previously trapped him. However, after he escaped, the stone tablet split on its own.
His divine sense range was not suppressed. After confirming this, Ding Yan let out a sigh of relief. In such a dangerous place, if his vision was impaired and his divine sense was suppressed, he could likely be ambushed and killed by the presence of others.
"Hmm? Is there a fight?" Retracting his divine sense, Ding Yan's gaze swept to the southeast.
Concealing his breath, Ding Yan flew towards the source of the elemental energy fluctuations.
After flying for a long time, the surrounding mist finally thinned. As his gaze swept around, Ding Yan found that the barren wilderness had turned into a deserted rocky area. Everywhere he looked, there were broken stone statues, shattered stone tablets, and occasionally a few cracked stone houses.
After a long walk, Ding Yan finally found the source of the conflict. Below a broken giant stone figure, two wandering cultivators were attacking each other with their treasures, using lethal moves. Among the broken stones around them, cultivators would occasionally flash by, indicating that they were attracted by the elemental energy fluctuations just like Ding Yan.
"Duān Mù, you're crazy to find someone else to be crazy with, I don't have time to entertain you!" one of the combatants yelled.
Clearly, he also felt more and more people gathering around, not wanting to fight desperately in front of others, and be taken advantage of.
"Huángfǔ Míng, are you afraid too! When you slaughtered all of my family, I didn't see you like this now," the wandering cultivator called Duān Mù had a sinister face, with a long scar running from his forehead to his chin, looking terrifying.
His treasure was a poison cauldron, and every attack released a large number of poisonous insects.
"You lunatic, how would I know those calamities were from your family!" Huángfǔ Míng was also furious.
If he didn't have to consider the presence of those hidden in the dark, he would have wanted to slap this lunatic to death.
"My third brother only killed a few commoners like ants, then you wiped out his entire family, and my eldest brother, who sought revenge with me, had his soul extracted and was thrown into the Nine Nether..." Duān Mù became even more crazed as he spoke.
Poisonous mist continued to emerge from the cauldron.
For wandering cultivators, normal poison could not harm them, but the poisonous substances inside Duān Mù's cauldron had all been refined, to a certain extent, these were not ordinary poisons, but rather something akin to treasure.
"All those calamities deserved their fates, I just couldn't stand by and watch. But Duān Mù, if you don't stop, don't blame me for extracting your soul and throwing it into the Nine Nether!" Huángfǔ Míng was also angry, as a cultivator of his caliber, he had never been so threatened by another person before.
"I'm afraid you are not capable!" Duān Mù's eyes flashed with a sinister light, accompanied by flickering flames.
A strange poison emanated from his body.
"This man has turned himself into a poisonous being!" The cultivators hidden in the dark were shocked.
A poisonous being meant that before transcending the mortal calamity, one completely poisoned their physical body. After surpassing the mortal calamity, the toxic mist inside the body could be transferred into the body of a wandering cultivator in the form of vital energy, becoming a rare poisonous being. Such a cultivation method was extremely malicious, generally, no one would practice it, unless their mind was completely twisted by hatred, such as a person who was crazily pursuing power. The current Duān Mù was clearly that kind of person.
Seeing the situation, Huángfǔ Míng retreated.
At the same time, his treasure, the Mirror of Darkening, also flew backwards.
Simultaneously, as Huángfǔ Míng retreated, he constantly performed hand seals in the air, and a complex array of symbols continuously integrated into the surroundings, emitting a strange force.
"Soul-Extracting Technique?" Ding Yan, observing from the shadows, noted.
The Soul-Extracting Technique was a type of spiritual technique, its foundation was to attack a person's soul, incredibly sinister and no less inferior to Ding Yan's Stone Transformation Technique.
While retreating, Huángfǔ Míng extended his right hand, and a mysterious force spread out in the void.
The figure of Duān Mù, who had been charging forward, suddenly staggered, and the light in his eyes dispersed for a moment. But he quickly recovered, and the madness in his eyes intensified.
"Soul-Extracting Assault!" Huángfǔ Míng violently retracted his right hand, as if removing something hidden in the void.
The figure of Duān Mù, who had been charging forward, suddenly staggered, and a mouthful of blood sprayed from his mouth.
Spiritual techniques!
Soul-Extracting Technique, an ability that surpasses spiritual arts, a wandering cultivator who knows spiritual art is completely different from one who doesn't. If Huángfǔ Míng didn't mind exposing his ace prematurely, he would have killed Duān Mù long ago.
However, Duān Mù was also no pushover. As his soul was about to leave his body, he fiercely slapped his right arm.
With this slap, his entire right arm exploded.
A mist of blood filled the air, more terrifying poison mist spread out.
"Haha... Even if I will die, I will take you down with me!"
"You lunatic!" Huángfǔ Míng's face turned pale.
Dying unjustly!!!
Just then, a terrifying demon voice descended from the sky, and the surrounding gray mist started to surge irregularly.
Seeing this, Huángfǔ Míng's expression changed, without bothering to kill Duān Mù, he immediately activated his elemental energy, fleeing in the distance. At the same time, the hidden cultivators scattered in all directions, escaping.
Ding Yan's expression also changed, and his entire being quickly and eerily faded at an extremely rapid speed, just like the surrounding rocks. If not for the naked eye, no one would have been able to find his whereabouts.
Turtle Breathing Great Technique!
Just as Ding Yan activated the Turtle Breathing Great Technique, a blurry figure emerged from the mist.
The figure moved at an extremely slow pace, and faint, crisp iron chains could be heard, echoing in this vast world, incredibly eerie.
Where he originally stood, after Duān Mù snapped off his right arm, his elemental energy suffered a heavy blow. With the approaching giant figure, Duān Mù's face changed drastically. Unable to escape, he rolled to a place between the broken stones, and his breath rapidly weakened.
"Ah..."
A miserable scream followed.
A fleeing cultivator, for some inexplicable reason, had their body strangely shattered, leaving behind a trace of blood mist that merged with the surrounding gray mist.
In the originally damp air, at some point, there was an overwhelming scent of blood...
Plop, plop...
One by one, the fleeing cultivators kept falling.
Seeing this, Ding Yan's scalp began to tingle.
After an unknown period of time, the surrounding area finally quieted down, but the smell of blood in the air grew stronger...
Ding... Ding...
The crisp sound of iron chains echoed in the space.
At this point, Ding Yan finally saw the true face of that giant shadow.
It was a headless ancient corpse!
It was covered in black iron chains.