"All arts are forbidden!"
A dignified Spirit Transformation cultivator—the highest realm in the entire mortal world—wore an expression of extreme terror at this moment.
Chen Sanshi drew his bow and loosed arrows, firing 4 at once.
The Four Symbols divine beasts howled in, bearing heaven-filling flames, and instantly burned more than 10 lingering souls into ashes. But the number of lingering souls behind them was simply too great—truly like a black tide blotting out the sky!
Chen Sanshi slipped sideways into a recess in the passage wall, avoiding the frontal impact of the mass of lingering souls, while drawing the Dragon Abyss Sword from his storage ring.
But—
These lingering souls did not attack him at all. They only wailed and screamed as they surged toward the cave abode's exit, as if some terrifying beast were chasing them from behind, leaving them with no thought except survival.
A few breaths later, over a hundred lingering souls rushed out of the cave abode and vanished without a trace.
What lingering souls did was often a repetition of their obsession in life.
Even their obsession was fleeing for its life. It seemed they had been truly terrified when they were still alive.
Only after the last wisp of lingering soul drifted away did Chen Sanshi return to the passage.
Frost spread, and the Ice-Soul Sword left its sheath.
Jiang Xiyue said nothing. Carrying the black iron sword, she walked slowly past the stone door, swallowed by the darkness within.
"The suppression laws are even harsher."
Chen Sanshi saw with his own eyes that, the instant the blind woman crossed the stone door, the mana on her body—already weakened to the Qi Refining stage—vanished completely, turning her into… a mortal!
All arts are forbidden?
The Spirit Transformation cultivator's shriek echoed in his mind.
Could it be that no matter what realm one was in, as long as they crossed the threshold, their cultivation would be stripped away and they would become a mortal?
If that was truly the case, then Chen Sanshi had nothing to fear.
He was a martial artist. The martial skill he had forged through day-and-night stance training and moves, drilled thousands upon thousands of times—each strike and stance tempered into shape—would still truly exist even without cultivation to support it.
Thinking so, Chen Sanshi no longer hesitated. Holding the Dragon Gall Silver Spear—over 3 meters long—he followed closely behind and passed through the stone door of the passage.
In an instant.
He felt countless invisible forces between heaven and earth press down upon him. They seemed like runes containing laws, and also like countless carving blades, beginning to seal his cultivation and strip away his roots and bones.
In the blink of an eye, Chen Sanshi's cultivation vanished completely amid unbearable agony!
"Hiss!"
The sudden change almost made him fail to hold on to the Dragon Gall Silver Spear. Fortunately, this spear did not rely on its own weight—if it had been some other magical implement, he truly might not have been able to lift it.
Chen Sanshi looked down and found that the "spirituality" on the silver spear had also been wiped clean by the laws. It was now nothing more than an ordinary mortal weapon.
Only then did he focus on the interior of the cave abode and discover that although this place was inside the mountain, there were also many small medicinal plots.
There was spiritual qi within the cave abode. All kinds of spirit plants grew in the plots, but they were likewise affected by the laws—having stopped growing long ago and remaining in their original forms.
Even so, judging by appearance, most of their quality was still above second-tier.
Besides that, there were ancient corpses.
Just like other places in the forbidden land, the Guardian Envoy's Cave Abode was filled everywhere with the corpses of high-realm cultivators, and Corpse-Kui Demon Vines also parasitized their surfaces. Moreover, these Corpse-Kui Demon Vines were not purple, but blood-red.
"This is bad."
Chen Sanshi recalled the record on the jade slips outside the cave abode: high-grade Corpse-Kui Demon Vines would appear blood-red, and the corpses they parasitized would awaken as soon as they sensed the aura of the living.
He warned, "Miss Jiang, should we go out first?"
The blind woman did not answer, only continuing forward in silence. Soon, she stepped into the core area where ancient corpses were piled like mountains.
Sure enough.
After sensing the aura of the living, these ancient corpses—sleeping for who knew how many ages—awakened one after another.
Jiang Xiyue drew the Ice-Soul Sword and, without hesitation, plunged into the corpse horde. Sword light flashed; her figure was like a startled swan, like a roaming dragon, ceaselessly cutting down one ancient corpse after another.
Chen Sanshi could not avoid the same fate either. More and more ancient corpses began to gather toward his position.
Among them was one ancient corpse whose arm flesh had already been stripped away in life, leaving only bare bone. The tip was sharp and pointed, like a weapon.
And—
This corpse's skeleton was made of emerald-green jade, with golden runes flowing over its surface. It looked like it had been a martial cultivator, and above the Golden Body Realm!
An ancient martial cultivator corpse above the Golden Body Realm!
Under "All Arts Are Forbidden," Chen Sanshi had even lost the effect of the Qi Observation Technique, so he had no way to judge the other party's exact strength.
With no way to avoid it, he could only heft the long spear and meet it head-on with the body of a true mortal, twisting aside to dodge the blades that fell from both sides—
His figure moved like a wraith as he closed in, then the long spear twisted at an extremely tricky angle to bypass the obstructions and stabbed fiercely into the jade-boned ancient corpse.
Chen Sanshi had thought that even with "All Arts Are Forbidden" suppressing everything, an ancient corpse above the Golden Body Realm should still be far stronger than him.
Yet the instant that spear went in, the sensation of slamming into a bronze wall and iron bastion never came.
On the contrary—
The ancient corpse was unexpectedly fragile.
No different from an ordinary mortal body at all.
The Dragon Gall Silver Spear tore through the air, pierced straight through the jade-boned ancient corpse's chest, and nailed it to the stone wall. Then he drew the Dragon Abyss Sword and lopped off its head in a single stroke.
The core root-vein of the Corpse-Kui Demon Vine either parasitized the heart or the head. Once those two places were destroyed, the corpse puppet would "die" along with it.
Chen Sanshi yanked out the spear and continued dealing with the other ancient corpses. Aside from a few ancient martial cultivator corpses, they were all surprisingly easy to handle.
Basically, it was like a martial arts master holding a peerless sharp weapon while fighting a crowd of ordinary people who only knew how to flail their fists.
In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the 10 nearby spell cultivator corpses—along with a few martial cultivator corpses—were all sprawled crookedly on the ground, sinking back into sleep.
"Strange."
Chen Sanshi walked up to an ancient corpse of the Golden Body Realm, lifted his leg, and stomped its chest. With a crack, he snapped its ribs in one step.
He then used the Dragon Abyss Sword to slice open the flesh and saw the bones inside were indeed golden and gleaming, yet extremely brittle—no different from a normal person's.
Right after that, he cut into the jade bone the same way, severing it with absurd ease, no different from mortal bone.
"These laws are truly formidable," Chen Sanshi sighed inwardly.
So it wasn't only the realm being stripped away—his physical strength was also weakened. In every aspect, everything became like a mortal's, including himself!
"All Arts Are Forbidden…"
Chen Sanshi took out the Nation's Fate Mystic Pearl and stared at a strand of clear qi inside.
This clear qi had been given to him by Mister Mei back then. At the time, he said this thing could forbid all arts once—could it be this kind of effect?
If that was truly the case, it was an incomparable trump card.
But even now…
Chen Sanshi still had not figured out how to use this strand of clear qi.
Maybe he could find something here!
His master respected Mister Mei greatly, and he also had the Guardian Envoy waist token. This was the Guardian Envoy's cave abode, and it even contained the law of All Arts Are Forbidden—there might well be some connection.
As long as he could figure out what the clear qi was for, even if it couldn't be used in Daze Market this time, it would definitely play an extremely important role in the future.
Thinking that, Chen Sanshi pulled the spear up from the ground and continued deeper inside, catching up to the blind woman's pace.
After his cultivation had been stripped away, in just this short while he actually began to feel "tired," as if he had returned to the days when he first started practicing martial arts.
At the end of the medicinal plots was a suspension bridge. The far end of the bridge led to an even larger underground palace.
"Skree—"
A piercing hawk cry came from overhead. In the darkness, pairs of eerie green vertical pupils lit up—dense beyond counting.
One of the fierce birds spread its wings, so fast it left an afterimage, arriving before the two of them in an instant. Its sharp talons were like blades.
Chen Sanshi instinctively raised the spear to stab. In the collision, he felt an impact he could hardly withstand and staggered back several steps.
These ferocious beasts—
Even under "All Arts Are Forbidden," their physical strength was still stronger than ordinary people's, and their numbers were enormous.
"Miss, fall back."
Chen Sanshi blocked in front. From his storage ring he took out a Kaiyuan Bow that had been sealed away for who knew how long, then drew and nocked, shooting nonstop at the ferocious beasts blocking the airspace.
With every arrow he loosed, a pair of eerie green pupils went dark. Not a single shot missed—each and every one struck true.
For a time, inside the cave abode there was nothing but the trembling twang of bowstrings and the wails of the ferocious beasts.
Only, the number of these unknown ferocious beasts was simply too great. Even if Chen Sanshi stood in place without moving and shot for 3 days and 3 nights, he probably still wouldn't be able to kill them all.
So he cleared the way with bow and arrow while leading the blind woman forward. Drawing the bowstring again and again without pause, he actually began to feel his arm grow sore.
Only now did Chen Sanshi roughly guess why the blind woman had sought him out to help.
After entering the cave abode, these encounters looked fairly easy, but in truth, if he hadn't been a martial artist with solid fundamentals, he would have died who knew how many times already.
Even Jiang Xiyue herself—her swordplay was beautiful, but to an expert eye, there were still minor flaws.
And judging by how familiar she seemed with this place, she had likely been here once before.
The two of them, one in front and one behind, crossed the suspension bridge spanning an abyss 33 kilometers deep and arrived at the outer perimeter of the underground palace. Before their eyes were 5 passages leading in different directions.
"Which way do we go?" Chen Sanshi asked.
At this point, he had also developed a strong interest in whatever lay deeper within the cave abode.
Jiang Xiyue's face, covered by a black silk blindfold, tilted slightly to the side, as if she were listening to the sounds within the passage. She stood there for a long time without moving.
"How is it?" Chen Sanshi kept his bow drawn, watching more and more ferocious beasts fly toward them, and couldn't help asking, "Which way do we go? Shouldn't you have been here before?"
He was, after all, a Foundation Establishment cultivator—how could he be carrying too many arrows on him? If this kept up, he would soon run out—
"I…" Jiang Xiyue paused, then said evenly, "I forgot."
"Forgot?!" Chen Sanshi was left speechless for a moment. After shooting his last arrow, he lifted the long spear again to deal with the ferocious beasts rushing at him and shouted, "Hurry—just pick a path first!"
In the end, the blind woman chose the passage to the left of the center.
Chen Sanshi followed close behind.
The passage was narrow, and dealing with the ferocious beasts chasing them became much easier. The beasts seemed to realize that as well. After they had gone more than 300 meters, the beasts gradually gave up the pursuit, and the surroundings abruptly fell quiet.
"Hah!"
Chen Sanshi let out a long breath and adjusted his breathing to recover.
This narrow passage wasn't suitable for using a spear, so he switched to the Dragon Abyss Sword and took the lead, advancing cautiously. Fortunately, they didn't encounter any more ancient corpses, nor were there any strange traps in the passage.
The two of them reached the end without obstruction.
"Is it here?" Chen Sanshi asked the blind woman.
Jiang Xiyue didn't speak, only shook her head lightly.
"Looks like we took the wrong way."
Chen Sanshi was about to turn back along the original route when he suddenly noticed movement up ahead. Listening closely, it seemed like someone was whispering!
There were people here?!
He immediately tightened his grip on the sword hilt and controlled his steps as he moved closer.
At the corner near the end of the passage was a stone chamber. A faint candlelight glowed within, and voices drifted out in conversation.
"This is bad!"
"People from Bai Yujing used a feint to draw the tiger away—they tricked the other elders into leaving, then actually led all their disciples to slaughter their way over!"
"Then what do we do?"
"Senior Brother sent a voice transmission. He says he'll stay behind to hold them off and told us to go take the thing!"
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
"No—bad, they're here!"
"Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Sect—"
Immediately after came the sounds of spell combat.
"Wait." Chen Sanshi realized something was off. "All arts are forbidden here—how can anyone cast spells?"
And from what they were saying, it was people from Bai Yujing. Why did it sound like events from when the great battle in the Nine Nether Forbidden Land first erupted?
Sure enough.
When Chen Sanshi stopped hiding his presence and looked straight into the stone chamber, he discovered that inside were only a few lingering souls conversing, and the "spell combat" was nothing more than empty gestures.
It looked like two people had been trying to leave, only to be intercepted by Bai Yujing disciples and ultimately die miserably here.
And those lingering souls kept repeating it over and over.
"This is bad!"
"People from Bai Yujing used a feint to draw the tiger away…"
It was like a stage play, endlessly reenacting the scene from their lives.
Chen Sanshi strode into the chamber. It seemed that the appearance of him—a living person—broke some kind of balance, and the lingering souls inside instantly dissipated into smoke.
Only then could he see the place clearly.
The stone chamber wasn't large, and the furnishings were simple. Medicinal cabinets lined the four walls, each labeled with the names of various heavenly materials and earthly treasures.
In the very center stood an alchemy furnace taller than a man.
Unfortunately—
With no special preservation measures, the heavenly materials and earthly treasures in the cabinets had all been dried out by the passage of hundreds of thousands of years, completely losing their spirituality.
As for the alchemy furnace, a huge crack ran down its middle; it was clearly unusable now.
Unwilling to come for nothing, Chen Sanshi began rummaging through everything, hoping to find something useful.
Heaven did not disappoint the diligent.
In the end, he found the only jade slip that had been preserved intact.
Inside it were several ancient pill formulas: some that helped Foundation Establishment cultivators advance through various stages, some that were assorted auxiliary formulas, and even pill formulas for martial cultivators to condense a golden body.