The gloomy, cramped cavern was exceedingly small—barely three zhang across, with an entrance only wide enough for one person to pass at a time.
Its ceiling rose no more than a single zhang high, and inside stood nothing more than a crude, primitive stone bed.
Li Guanqi sat on the stone bed, scrutinizing the Bone Spirit Bead in his hand. After a long moment of contemplation, he settled into a cross-legged position.
The Bone Spirit Bead hovered slowly before him. As Li Guanqi circulated his cultivation art, Divine Punishment, the power within the bead began drifting steadily into his body.
Boom!
A domineering force pricked at his meridians, yet the energy within was thoroughly impure!
Li Guanqi's brow knitted slightly. He detected an eerie aura deep within the bead.
Specks of white light, like grains of dust, resisted refinement. Instead, they began clustering together, seeping into his flesh and bone.
He understood at once: this was the reason for the old man's ossification. Energy that could not be refined had accumulated within him over the years, until time transformed his physical frame into bone.
Li Guanqi sighed, preparing to give up on refining the Bone Spirit Bead.
Suddenly!
The cultivation art within him abruptly accelerated!
His whole body convulsed as a piercing agony shot through his meridians.
Immediately after, Li Guanqi felt an inexplicable, immense power coursing wild throughout his body!
Under the refinement of Divine Punishment, the dust particles that had previously resisted assimilation began dispersing bit by bit.
In the end, this power merged into his origin spirit and sea of consciousness.
Li Guanqi actually felt the ambient suppression weighing down on his sea of consciousness ease by a fraction!
Buzz!
His divine sense extended an inch outside his body!
Wild joy surged in Li Guanqi's heart!
He snapped his eyes open, light flickering relentlessly in his pupils.
Suddenly, he raised his hand and pressed his storage ring against his brow.
Swish!
The snakeskin sack vanished in an instant.
The corners of Li Guanqi's mouth curled up faintly.
He had never expected that the Bone Spirit Bead—an object both coveted and dreaded by the cultivators of God Burial Valley—would conceal such an effect.
Being able to access his storage ring was the best news possible.
Eyes gleaming, Li Guanqi murmured softly, "If I can absorb more Bone Spirit Beads, won't the mist's suppression on my divine sense weaken further and further?"
If he could deploy his divine sense in this treacherous place...
He would hold absolute initiative!
The cultivators trapped here had gone hundreds or thousands of years without replenishing their resources.
If not for that, the old man before would never have developed such terrifying physical strength.
It seemed the cultivators here fought in a far more primal fashion.
Buzz!
Woooo—!
Li Guanqi's expression shifted drastically inside the cave. His ears filled with the howling wail of gale winds.
Concealing his aura, he moved cautiously to the cave entrance. A savage tempest roared and snarled outside.
Before Li Guanqi could react, the mist swept up blinding grit, shaving away inches of rock from the cliff face!
The raging storm carried an appalling, suffocating stench of decay!
It seemed as though nothing remained between heaven and earth except this howling maelstrom—devoid of life, devoid of any sign of mortal habitation.
Li Guanqi's face hardened. Reaching into his storage ring, he retrieved a defensive array plate and tossed it down at the mouth of the cave.
Watching the barrier ripple violently, he frowned deeply.
He had no idea how long the storm would last. The spirit stones within the array plate were depleting at an alarming rate, turning to gray ash in the blink of an eye.
Without hesitation, Li Guanqi pulled out more stones and slotted them into the plate—ten purple gold crystals in total.
As the crystals glowed with a dense, shimmering radiance, the barrier finally stabilized.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of violent blasts erupted, and Li Guanqi snapped his head up to peer into the distance!
From the old man's memories, he knew this tempest was universally referred to as the Death Storm.
The name was straightforward: almost no one survived caught within it.
According to those memories, no one could predict when the storm would strike, and its duration and ferocity varied each time, making it appear entirely random.
Yet barely a hundred zhang from Li Guanqi, explosions echoed from the heart of the storm.
Li Guanqi stared fixedly through the tempest, sensing the formidable power of whoever was fighting there.
The faint, suffocating pressure proved beyond doubt that this newcomer was even stronger than the old man he had slain.
"An early Mahayana...?"
Fierce strikes continued to battle the gale without pause, but after only a single incense stick's time, the clamor of resistance dwindled noticeably.
Li Guanqi's expression darkened. If even a Mahayana realm cultivator could not hold out for an incense stick's time...
Had it been him—even with ample primal energy—death would have been nearly certain!
Moreover, the space here was extraordinarily bizarre; tearing the void to execute teleportation was impossible.
Just as Li Guanqi's thoughts turned grim, a blood-drenched man abruptly materialized outside the barrier!
Bang!
Terror written all over his face, the man pounded on the barrier, his expression desperate and pleading.
Clad in coarse hemp robes, he possessed resolute, upright features. He shouted in frantic urgency, "Fellow Daoist! Please, open the barrier and save my life!"
As he spoke, he drew several egg-sized Bone Spirit Beads from his robes and cradled them in his palms.
Li Guanqi gave a cold smirk. He reached out and drew the Bixiao sword from the stone bed into his grasp.
Clang!
The blade hummed, gleaming with biting chill.
Not a sliver of pity showed in Li Guanqi's eyes. Pointing the tip at the man, he said frigidly, "Get lost."
The disheveled man froze in surprise. A flash of murderous savagery instantly surged in his eyes as his protective primal energy began faltering against the storm.
A longsword snapped into his hand from his back. Arm muscles taut, he slashed viciously toward the barrier!
The terrifying impact spiderwebbed fine cracks across the surface, prompting a flicker of astonishment in the man's gaze.
"Purple gold crystals!"
Before his words finished echoing, as he raised his sword a second time, a glint of killing intent sparked in Li Guanqi's eyes. He flicked his hand, recalling the array plate.
At the same moment, the sword in his hand unleashed a wave of violent momentum, cleaving outward in a fluid arc!
"Sword Draw Stance!"
Rumble!
The terrifying force sheared the man's sword clean in two, tearing open a horrific gash on his chest so deep that bone showed through.
The man was hurled back several hundred zhang, swallowed once more by the tempest.
Taken entirely off guard, he was instantly engulfed by the storm. Li Guanqi watched coldly as the man's flesh and blood dissolved away in the gale.
No matter how he flailed, it was futile!
The man's contorted expression was horrifying to behold. His skin and flesh were obliterated by the storm, exposing bare bone. Glaring toward Li Guanqi's cave, he howled with venomous laughter.
"Hahahahaha! This place is cursed! You won't survive either!"
"I'll be waiting for you in hell!"
"Aaaaargh!"
The man's voice and life were extinguished simultaneously within the storm.
Li Guanqi's expression shifted slightly. He raised the defensive barrier once more, a lingering dread stirring in his heart.
On merely his first day here, he had already weathered so much; it was truly chilling.
It seemed...
God Burial Valley was far more dangerous than he had imagined.
A cultivator of the Mahayana realm had still been powerless to withstand the valley's Death Storm, meeting a gruesome end.
Had it been himself...
Li Guanqi let out a soft sigh, observing that the storm showed no sign of abating.
Just as he turned back to resume his cultivation, he noticed the Bone Spirit Beads lying on the ground where the man had perished!
Pulling a long whip from his storage ring, he snapped it forward to haul the Bone Spirit Beads into his hand. The corners of his mouth turned up faintly.
Chapter 1075