Chapter 329: One Body, Three Souls and Seven Spirits

Chapter 329: One Body, Three Souls and Seven Spirits

Sanling Zhendao Mountain, like the Eight Sect Alliance, lies in the southern part of Yinghuang Prefecture, on the far side of the Tai Si Du'e Mountain.

That vast Du'e range, immense in scope, is thick with miasma, teeming with heretical paths and countless uncanny phenomena.

To some extent, it differs little from a forbidden zone.

This mountain range also cleaves southern Yinghuang Prefecture into two parts.

Relatively speaking, one side is still a land of joy, where laughter occasionally rings out, while the other is a hell, where weeping is a luxury and numbness is the sole refrain.

This is Sanling Zhendao Mountain.

It is also the greatest mortal realm of dread in Yinghuang Prefecture, second only to the forbidden lands.

Spanning an area comparable to half of Nanhuangzhou, it encompasses one hundred and thirty-seven kingdoms, inhabited by both humans and alien races.

Whether by day or night, within these one hundred and thirty-seven kingdoms, few sounds emerge. It is not that they are empty of people, but that living itself is a torment. All beings are penned like livestock, mere rations.

And rations have no right to speak.

Thus, the people living in these one hundred and thirty-seven kingdoms have lost the ability to speak. The only sound they can make is a piercing scream.

So the earth here is silent, the sky likewise: dim and darkened, where the sun and moon barely shine through, shrouded by dense clouds.

Only the ghastly flames, kindled with the fat and blood of myriad races atop heaps of bones, serve as light in this mortal realm of dread.

The bones on those hills bear no flesh, only skeletons; some seem long exposed, others freshly cast aside.

Gazing outward, such bone-hills are everywhere.

Every five hundred li, one rises, thickly clustered, as if this land has become a forest of ridges.

One can imagine that over countless years, the myriad mortal races who have died here are beyond counting.

It is precisely this scale of death that fills the land with a suffocating miasma of decay.

The soil, soaked time and again in blood, has turned a dark purple; grains of sand long fused together into mats of cloth, a sight that chills the heart.

A foul, rancid stench pervades heaven and earth; a single whiff would make any ordinary person retch until even bile is expelled.

Trees also grow here, but they are red, drawing nourishment from the blood in the soil. Each is profoundly uncanny, and from their branches occasionally hang naked, desiccated corpses.

In the wind, these corpses sway like dried meat, weathering away.

If one looks closely, one sees that these corpses have been smeared with volatile substances.

These attract fierce birds from the sky and the uncanny that drift about, which become supplementary ingredients cooked alongside the corpses.

Aside from trees, there are blood lakes.

Within this mortal realm of dread, the lakes silently heave bubbles. Occasionally, a wandering disciple of Sanling Zhendao Mountain pauses to take a drink, their faces mostly showing satisfaction.

Xu Qing's dharma vessel flew silently across the sky; all that lay below left him mute.

The Captain also remained quiet, and even Yan Yan, with her fierce aura, was momentarily dazed after seeing all this.

Xu Qing and the Captain had once, within Tai Si Du'e Mountain, encountered a faction calling itself the Lesser Three Spirits, but compared to this, they could not even be called lesser.

There was no comparison.

"Though it seems like one hundred and thirty-seven kingdoms, in truth they are now fewer than a hundred. That is why Sanling Zhendao Mountain has recently been frequently going forth to plunder small states to replenish them."

"The number one hundred and thirty-seven seems to hold special meaning for the Three Spirits, so whenever they have devoured enough, they need to add more."

The Captain, gazing at the earth, spoke softly.

"But when one's cultivation reaches the level of the Three Spirits, why would they still devour the flesh and blood of myriad races? That should hold no meaning for them." Yan Yan, beside him, was greatly puzzled.

"The Three Spirits are the incarnation of the three souls of the Southern Mountain Ghost Emperor."

Xu Qing recounted what his master had once told him to the Captain and Yan Yan, and at the same time sensed that the Ghost Emperor Mountain he had moved into his Sea of Consciousness had become somewhat different from before.

It seemed that this relocated Ghost Emperor Mountain, within this domain, had become more lifelike.

This filled Xu Qing's heart with wonder and gave rise to more conjectures.

The Captain, upon hearing this, appeared lost in thought, then nodded.

"That explains it then. One body, three souls, seven spirits—within this lies some rule we do not understand."

Xu Qing, after sensing the Ghost Emperor Mountain in his Sea of Consciousness and then looking down at a blood lake below, watching a disciple of Sanling Zhendao Mountain drawing water, spoke in a low voice.

"According to my master, after that Ghost Emperor fell here, Yinghuang Prefecture was forever changed. Could it also be understood that every person born on this land carries a thread of the Ghost Emperor's bloodline?"

"If that answer is correct, it also explains why the Three Spirits must devour so frequently... In truth, this is their method of strengthening themselves."

"Exactly!" The Captain's eyes brightened.

"Almost certainly so. But these matters are far too distant for us; we need not seek the truth."

As they spoke, the three of them, aboard the dharma vessel, silently flew over the blood lake. A vessel this large passing overhead should have been noticed, but the disciple drawing water perceived nothing.

This was because, upon entering the domain of Sanling Zhendao Mountain, the Captain had brought out his concealment artifact, shrouding Xu Qing's dharma vessel.

Xu Qing glanced back at that disciple drawing water on the ground, thought for a moment, and abandoned the idea of capturing him for study.

This time, their first priority was to hide themselves; thus, it was best not to stir up unnecessary trouble or alert the enemy.

And so time slowly passed, and soon half a month had gone by.

During these fifteen days, Xu Qing and his companions drew ever closer to the heart of Sanling Zhendao Mountain, witnessing more of the world's misery along the way, and also seeing kingdoms that had been completely devoured.

Those kingdoms stood empty, ghost towns, their interiors a uniform gray-black, with only uncanny things wandering within.

Utterly wretched beyond words, Xu Qing also noticed that the Ghost Emperor Mountain in his Sea of Consciousness had not only become more real but was faintly emitting some light. This made him more cautious.

Another three days passed, and after discussing with the Captain, Xu Qing decided to no longer rely on the dharma vessel.

The vessel was too large; continuing like this, even with the Captain's concealment artifact's ability, was still somewhat risky.

As for Yan Yan, she had been very obedient along the way, and the sights on the ground had mostly kept her silent.

Though her aura was fierce, she was not pure evil. Many times, Xu Qing saw compassion and anger in her eyes.

Thus, at the edge of the central region of Sanling Zhendao Mountain, Xu Qing put away the dharma vessel. The moment the three landed, the Captain rapidly pulled dozens of artifacts from his pocket.

"To retrieve my precious robe, I have prepared long. These are all the concealment items I have gathered. One is not enough, so five; five not enough, so ten!" The Captain spoke as he quickly distributed them to Xu Qing and Yan Yan.

Each of them activated them, and under the cover of over a dozen concealment artifacts per person, they further hid their auras and figures, then raced toward Sanling Zhendao Mountain at top speed.

There was no pause along the way. Another half-month passed, and in the distance, within the dim sky and earth, three immense, towering black mountains that soared into the clouds came into Xu Qing's view.

Those three peaks were vast beyond measure, with a majestic aura that seemed able to shake the heavens. The mere sight of them stirred one's heart—partly due to their overwhelming presence, and partly because upon those three great black mountains existed great cultivators.

Thus, it was as if the mountains had spirits, evoking a desire to worship.

Xu Qing and his companions, the moment they saw those three mountains, all halted their steps, their expressions shifting.

Those three great black mountains were Sanling Zhendao Mountain!

One could see above the mountain peaks, upon the clouds, enormous phantoms materialized, forming celestial anomalies that resembled three gigantic funnels, drawing the black mist from the sky.

Within this suction, faintly visible in the mist, were three colossal thrones.

On the third mountain, the throne was crafted from crystal, extravagant to the extreme, dazzling and delicate. Upon it sat a peerlessly beautiful woman.

Her body was tall, yet perfectly proportioned, full of allure. The charm that shone from her captivating eyes was enough to stir any male's desires.

The longer one looks, the more one becomes irresistibly captivated within, unable to escape.

This woman is none other than the ghostly immortal spirit lord of the people's souls of Guidi Mountain that Xu Qing and the captain saw that day.

At this moment, she sat there, holding a mirror, admiring her beauty. With a wave of her hand, countless mortals from the eight directions were dragged over, surrounding her.

Amidst the wailing cries, these mortals, like delicacies, were grasped by her fingers and placed into her mouth, slowly chewing. As she devoured them, her skin became better.

The second mountain was more fearsome, its throne made of the bones of a giant beast, resembling a giant skull, with countless lost souls floating around, low howling. On this throne sat a tall cultivator.

His body, though giant, was emaciated like firewood, as if a large skeleton. He had no hair, his body was bony, but his back was raised like a small mountain, which turned out to be a giant tumor, with red veins spreading, shocking to the eye, as if the tumor had sucked out all his flesh and blood.

Its regular contractions emitted a war-drumbeat resounding through the heavens and earth, stirring the soul.

It seemed the tumor pressed heavily upon him, causing the bony cultivator to pant painedly, often opening his mouth to reveal voids where hundreds of souls were gulped down and crushed.

Because he had devoured too much at once, his mouth was filled with fresh blood, yet his body radiated fierce energy, and the more he bled, the more fiercely he chewed.

This bony cultivator on the skeleton throne was the second among the three spirits, the Lord of the Earth Soul's Secret!

Even the grotesque spectacles of these two mountains had already caused Xu Qing and his party to suffer intense spiritual shock, how much more so… the first mountain!

The first mountain was but a mass of black mist, obscuring the throne and revealing nothing within, yet exuding a terrifying dread that erupted from within. The first and second mountains could not be compared!

It was as if this mountain alone was the true peerless demon!

For the soul within this mountain was the Tian Soul, the strongest of Guidi Mountain's souls—the Taigu Immortal Lord!