Pang Jian had a nightmare.
In the dream, the painful feeling of being gnawed at his bones by thousands of ants when he woke up seemed to have become a reality.
What was different was that in his dream there were not millions of ants, but countless dancing divine phoenixes.
Countless divine phoenixes, as tiny as dust, soared in his sternum and two arms, showing magical grace in his bone marrow, causing him unspeakable pain and suffering.
Compared with the severe pain this time, the pain of Sun Bin wandering around his body with lightning and testing his talent was nothing at all.
Maybe that's also the case. Last time he could grit his teeth and hold on, but this time he fainted on the spot.
After an unknown amount of time, Pang Jian finally woke up faintly after the high fever in his body subsided.
"Why is your boy suddenly sick?"
As soon as he opened his eyes, Pang Jian saw Zhou Qingchen sitting cross-legged on the ground guarding him, biting a piece of grass and smiling at him: "How do you feel now?"
Pang Jian tried to move his neck and arms, and found that his neck made a "clicking" sound, as if he had been stiff for a long time.
"Well!"
His eyebrows moved, and he felt as if he had been blessed by unknown divine power. He was filled with endless energy, and the bones in his chest gave him a strange illusion of being as solid as gold and iron.
When he swung his arms, he felt that his arm bones had been tempered and were obviously different from before.
His body was full of weirdness, but it was inconvenient to talk to Zhou Qingchen, so he had to ask in a roundabout way: "Master Zhou, I heard that the third realm of practitioners is the marrow cleansing realm?"
When questioning him, he thought of the strange image in his dream of many divine phoenixes soaring over his arm bones and bone marrow.
"Why do you know this? I haven't even successfully washed my marrow yet, so don't even think about it."
Zhou Qingchen laughed dumbly and explained his doubts in detail: "The first state of the cultivation path for all of us is to practice Qi. We need to guide the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the Dantian spiritual sea. The Qi refining stage is a process of accumulation, and the overall strength There is no qualitative improvement, and it is not much better than ordinary people who don’t know how to practice.”
After a moment's pause, he solemnly said: "It's different in the Tongmai realm."
"After reaching the realm of Tongmai, we can infuse the spiritual power in the Dantian into the muscles and veins of our limbs. When the muscles and veins are filled with spiritual power, the practitioner becomes infinitely powerful, and it can also spread outward through the limbs, causing an explosion. Astonishing power."
He stretched out a hand, rolled up the cuff to expose half of his forearm, and then secretly exerted force.
Pang Jian clearly saw a dark red light flowing in the veins of his forearm, all the way to the palm of his hand.
"Wow!"
A ball of crimson aura suddenly rose from his palm, and then was skillfully controlled by him, slowly turning into a small crimson mountain.
He casually slapped the illusory "Red Mountain" floating in his palm against a huge stone next to him.
"Bang!"
The stone exploded.
"This is the power of Tongmai Realm."
Zhou Qingchen demonstrated calmly and calmly.
The movement he made attracted the attention of Zhou Ning's family in the distance, including Shangguan Qin, who couldn't help but look at it.
"As for the Marrow Cleansing Realm, it is called Bone Cutting and Marrow Cleansing, which focuses on the tempering of bones, flesh and blood, as well as the internal organs. Those who have achieved the Marrow Washing Realm often mean that they have been reborn and have washed away their mortal bodies."
There was a hint of pride in Zhou Qingchen's eyes, and he raised his head and said, "When I reach the marrow-washing realm, I will be able to wash away the impurities contained in my flesh, bones, and muscles, and it will not delay my practice in Hongshan."
He told Pang Jian that because the spiritual energy in the fourth realm was not pure enough, the Qi practitioners who practiced in this realm would naturally retain dirty impurities in their bodies.
When he officially steps into Hongshan in the future, he will first break through the marrow cleansing realm and complete his own rebirth.
"Clean the marrow, cut the bones and wash the marrow."
Pang Jian murmured thoughtfully, feeling that when he was in a coma, his sternum and hand bones were tempered by some mysterious power of unknown origin.
He suspected that it was the disappearing amber shimmer, but he couldn't find any conclusive evidence and couldn't ask Zhou Qingchen for advice.
It was already evening, the sky was getting darker, and it looked like night was about to fall.
After a deep conversation with Zhou Qingchen, Pang Jian looked at the surrounding environment and saw the Ning family's war horses parked together.
The servants of the Zhou family were lighting a fire to cook at the moment. Ning Yao and Ning Yuanshan were not far from the fire, but they still kept a certain distance from the Zhou family.
Barriers have arisen, and the Zhou and Ning families are no longer in harmony, and both sides have begun to be wary of each other.
Han Duping, who was good at breaking formations, was busy harassing Shangguan Qin with a playful smile, as if he couldn't see the boredom on her face.
Pang Jian stood up slowly, looked at the mountain peak behind him, and looked at the place where the sound of running water came from.
He saw a small waterfall falling from the mountain behind him, converging into a large dark pool.
The water falling into the waterfall was clear and transparent, but when it fell into the pool, it turned black, which seemed a bit strange.
Where the pond was close to the mountain wall, there was a section of protruding... huge withered bones, without a trace of luster, but it surprised Pang Jian and shouted: "The bones of Tianfeng?"
Zhou Qingchen nodded with a smile and said, "Most of the bones have gone deep into the bottom of the pool, and only a portion is exposed."
"When you were in a high fever and comatose, I checked carefully. There is nothing magical about this withered bone. It is not the so-called sacred bone that has the inheritance of talent that all parties have been searching for."
Zhou Qingchen had already determined in his heart that bones with the talent to inherit divine power would never appear in the fourth realm.
Pang Jian thought of the withered bones with a mysterious shimmer inside, and thought that even without the Tianfeng inheritance, every withered bone that fell from the sky had some hidden wonders.
"You don't have to worry. We are very cautious this time. As long as there is another earthquake, we will evacuate as soon as possible."
Zhou Qingchen's mentality was very relaxed, taking it for granted that the changes occurring around the withered bones would still be accompanied by the roar of the earthquake.
"Black water? Black water pool!"
Pang Jian looked at the pool behind him. After being stunned for a moment, his face became extremely heavy and he suddenly shouted: "This place is not safe. You should not camp here!"
He remembered!
This area with the Blackwater Pool was listed as one of the restricted areas in the Serenity Mountains by his father, and he was explicitly told not to set foot in it.
He obeyed his father's instructions, and he had not gone deep into any place designated as a restricted area by his father in these years.
Because he had a younger sister to take care of, he was unwilling to take risks for fear that he would disappear like his father, which would bring Pang Lin's life to the darkest moment.
Pang Lin has not yet grown up. She lost her father at a young age and must not lose him again.
"Is something wrong here?"
While Zhou Qingchen asked Pang Jian, he waved to Han Duping, asking Han Duping to stop stalking Shangguanqin.
Seeing Han Duping look at him, he immediately shouted: "Old Han, let everyone prepare, we have to leave here as soon as possible."
After the last experience, he now believed in Pang Jian unconditionally and did what he said.
He and Pang Jian immediately headed towards the direction of the war horse.
Ning Yao and Ning Yuanshan were still discussing in low voices whether to go to the far north, but they suddenly became nervous by their actions.
Shangguan Qin also felt uneasy. Before Pang Jian came over, she left Han Duping and ran towards the maroon war horse.
However, before she could reach the horses, all the horses, including the maroon horses, fell to the ground one after another, foaming at the mouth.
In the blink of an eye, all the war horses fell to the ground and died from the poison.
"Zhang Heng!"
Ning Yuanshan was furious and roared towards the forest: "I asked you to feed the horse, what did you feed it?!"
"I'm afraid the person you recruited deliberately poisoned all the war horses." Han Duping's face was dark. He felt something was wrong and shouted: "He said that the water in the black pool was not very clean and he went to find water sources elsewhere. I see He must be looking for someone!"
"He poisoned the war horses to prevent us from escaping calmly." Zhou Qingchen interrupted in a deep voice. .
Young Master Zhou, who was not too frightened, and Pang Jian came to the crowd and looked at the direction Zhang Heng left, then at the black pool behind him and the tall, smooth rock wall.
Behind them, it is obviously impossible to become their escape route.
Although there were trees and tangled grass in front of them, the terrain was quite open and they could evacuate in any direction.
"We, the seven major families, rarely fall out completely until a treasure that is enough to make people jealous appears." As a genius of the Zhou family, Zhou Qingchen, who has sufficient status and confidence, was unafraid and said coldly. Said: "I want to see which family dares to attack me, Zhou Qingchen!"
"As expected of the genius seed selected by Hongshan."
A strange hoarse sound suddenly sounded, and then someone was seen riding a python, emerging from the depths of the dead grass unhurriedly.
The python, which was as thick as a bucket, had black and white patterns. The snake was hesitating, and its eyes glowed with a ferocious green light.
The man riding the snake was wearing loose clothes with the same pattern as the python. He had his hands curled up in his sleeves and was as thin as a bamboo pole.
"Old Hong Tai, I was also a member of the Blood Moon in my early years. Unfortunately, I was expelled from the Blood Moon a hundred years ago. Alas, I can't stay in the upper world anymore, so I can only hang out in the lower world." The snake rider smiled and announced his name.
"Shasha! Shasha!"
After he appeared, many people without uniforms emerged from the waist-high weeds.
Zhang Heng was actually among them.
"Hong Tai?"
"Hong Tai!"
Juniors like Zhou Qingchen and Ning Yao were unfamiliar with this name and looked confused when they heard it.
Han Duping's expression changed slightly. He looked at Hong Tai coming on a snake and whispered to Zhou Qingchen, "He belongs to the Dark Ghost."
"Dark ghost?"
Pang Jian was at a loss.
When Zhou Qingchen, Ning Yao and Ning Yuanshan heard that the person coming was from a dark ghost, their expressions suddenly became ugly.
In the fourth realm where they are located, the strongest sects and forces are naturally the seven major families.
The seven major families and the sects in the upper world have more or less connections. They are considered the official and orthodox of this world and control the seven large areas with the most abundant cultivation resources.
The seven major families have close contacts with each other, and their relationship is relatively harmonious on the surface, with endless conflicts rarely breaking out.
Dark ghosts are a force of practitioners outside the seven major families that wander in the darkness and edge of the broken land.
The so-called dark ghosts refer to the lonely ghosts in the dark depths.
The seven major families often unite to encircle and suppress dark ghosts, but this organization knows how to hide and escape. So far, it has not been wiped out, and it is still operating in dark corners.
The seven major families have not yet figured out who the leader of the dark ghosts is and what level of cultivation they are at.
They only knew that the leader of the dark ghosts had recruited some evil practitioners who could not survive in the upper world and provided them with a hiding place in the lower world.
"Now that we dark ghosts have received the news about the disintegration of Tianfeng's body and its bones scattered all over the world, we naturally want to try our luck."
Hong Tai pointed at Zhang Heng and introduced him generously: "He is a member of my Dark Ghost, and he has been lurking in the Ning family for a long time. There are many Dark Ghost members like him in your seven major families, but you don't know it. .”
"Only at certain critical moments will they reveal their identities and do big things for us."
Listening to his blunt words, there are many people like Zhang Heng, and Zhou Qingchen and others feel very heavy.
"Okay, let's not talk nonsense. Let's get down to business first."
Hong Tai clapped his hands, wasting no more time, and ordered with a smile: "Except for those two women, kill everyone else. No need to leave me alive."
…
