Chapter 2605: A Keen Nose

Under the moonlight, the desolate forest was peaceful and harmonious.

In the towering ancient trees, Shura Tianzun sat in meditation like an old monk, his demeanor dignified and majestic. A divine glow enveloped him, and profound Dao principles flickered in and out of sight.

"At this rate, he should recover in less than a month."

"Someone even the Jade Emperor couldn't take down—if he charges out, it's bound to get lively."

"I wonder if the Pan Tao Yuan is still around. We should bring it home."

Compared to Shura Tianzun, Siming and his two companions were quite relaxed. They had set up a large iron pot on a sturdy tree trunk and were stewing meat, occasionally glancing over at Shura Tianzun.

Their injuries were nothing compared to his and Ye Chen's. In just a few days, they had mostly recovered, thanks mainly to the healing elixirs they had taken from Dan Shen's treasures.

Before long, Ying Jie Tianqing and Hou Wang also woke up one after another.

Seeing the three stewing meat, the two joined in without hesitation, bringing their own wine and seasonings. Each grabbed a large spoon and stirred the pot vigorously.

Their cooking skills were decent—the meat smelled delicious and aromatic.

Bathed in a beam of moonlight, Yue Xin also awoke, her injuries fully healed. She glanced at Shura Tianzun beside her and joined Siming and the others.

"That kid has been gone for three days. He hasn't been captured, has he?"

"Or maybe he's buried in Bu Zhou Shan?"

"Get lost, you jinx."

"Hmm?"

As they spoke, they all frowned and turned their gazes in one direction. A rumbling sound echoed from all sides, accompanied by surging waves of killing intent, cold and savage, sweeping in from the outskirts.

Shura Tianzun suddenly opened his eyes and stepped into the air, hovering in place. His eyes narrowed slightly, as if he could see through the vast distance to the countless heavenly soldiers and generals.

"Bizi Zhenling."

Tai Yi cursed under his breath and drew his immortal sword. Siming and the others also grabbed their weapons, no longer in the mood for stewing meat. Their expressions turned grim—if the enemy had found them, the forces of the heavenly soldiers and generals must be massive.

Shura Tianzun's face grew serious. With a wave of his hand, he sealed everyone inside a bronze furnace.

This group of weak fighters wasn't even enough to fill the enemy's teeth.

As for himself, he had regained a good deal of his strength. Though far from his peak and still a long way from Ye Chen's level that day, he had a chance to break through.

"By His Majesty's order, capture them alive."

The cold, desolate words echoed from all directions.

Just as Shura Tianzun had seen, a vast number of heavenly soldiers and generals were approaching.

From above, it looked like four vast oceans converging on the center. Wherever they passed, the towering ancient trees, mountains, and boulders were all reduced to dust. Their momentum united as one, their killing intent overwhelming. Ancient war chariots thundered by, making the heavens rumble and the very fabric of the universe tremble, plunging the entire world into darkness.

Buzz!

Shura Tianzun drew a divine blade and charged toward one side.

Boom! Bang! Boom!

Soon, the sounds of explosions and battle cries filled the air.

In the fierce bloodshed, figures fell in droves, and crimson blood mist blanketed the sky, even staining the reflected starlight and moonlight red.

Boom! Bang! Boom!

The desolate forest was in chaos, and so was Bu Zhou Shan.

Deep within, explosive noises shook the heavens and earth, toppling one mountain peak after another, with debris flying everywhere.

One side of the battle was naturally Ye Chen.

The other side had far too many opponents.

To be precise, they weren't human but evil spirits, their numbers enough to make one's scalp tingle. None of them looked normal—some had bodies without heads, others had three heads and six arms, and still others had bizarre shapes.

What they all shared was their terrifying strength. Even Ye Chen, powerful as he was, found himself trapped in that region, his body covered in fresh blood.

What frustrated him most was that in Bu Zhou Shan, he couldn't use any of his Emperor Dao immortal techniques. Even trying to resolve it with his Emperor Dao Black Shore was futile, blocked by some mysterious force.

It wasn't until who knows when that the rumbling finally subsided.

In the dim realm, Ye Chen gripped his blood-stained iron staff and staggered forward, gravely injured. The evil spirits could draw power from Bu Zhou Shan, while he was suppressed, and facing a group assault, he had nearly perished there.

"Full of traps everywhere!"

Ye Chen clicked his tongue and sat down on a rock, sighing as he looked back at the battlefield he had just fought in. As soon as he stepped in, the evil spirits swarmed out, each one incredibly powerful.

Ah!

Another miserable scream rang out, still piercing, coming from the depths.

Ye Chen didn't bother looking and popped a handful of pills into his mouth.

He took out the jade slip that Ren Wang had asked Siming to deliver, which contained coordinates pointing to his current location. But there were no treasures in sight—only a horde of evil spirits that had nearly wiped him out.

Putting away the jade slip, he scanned his surroundings.

This ancient battlefield was even more bizarre than he imagined. Some force was constantly shifting the heavens and earth, and with it, the space itself.

In other words, the spatial coordinates from Ren Wang were useless.

What was certain, though, was that Bu Zhou Shan held great treasures. Even Ren Wang valued it highly, so it couldn't be insignificant.

Half an hour later, he got up and circled around that area.

Woo woo woo!

The deeper he went, the more wailing sounds he heard, whether from howling winds or real vengeful ghosts, it was enough to disturb one's mind and spirit.

Before long, he stopped again.

Ahead was the same dark forest he had passed through earlier.

As he expected, Bu Zhou Shan's heavens and earth were constantly changing. A place he visited once might appear again, and wandering too long could trap him here.

Indeed, he could no longer find the path he had taken; both ahead and behind were hazy and gray.

The only constant was the piercing wails from the depths.

He didn't know which fool kept howling unexpectedly, catching him off guard.

"Fu Xi, you bastard, you set me up!"

Ye Chen muttered to himself and cursed as he crossed the forest for the second time, then waded through a blood river.

What followed was different from before.

He walked on, observing along the way, witnessing many strange sights: a bronze coffin hanging upside down from a cliff; a headless ancient corpse sitting blankly under an old tree; a graceful figure dancing in a roaring sea of flames.

That was nothing unusual, but what disgusted him was the evil spirits' sneak attacks—he had fought countless battles, mostly fleeing in disarray.

The more he experienced, the more shocked he was by Bu Zhou Shan.

In that ancient era, how many had fought here, and how high were their cultivation levels?

They were likely all at the peak of the supreme realm, perhaps quasi-emperors.

It was precisely because they were so strong that the evil spirits born here were so powerful and ferocious; their lingering auras had disrupted the heavens and earth, with evil thoughts in many places even he couldn't withstand.

Once again, he arrived at that dark forest.

This was his third time there, like walking in circles, as if caught in a ghost wall, revisiting the same spots no matter how he turned.

That day, he walked for an unknown length of time.

Looking up, he couldn't even see the stars or moonlight—just a vast, misty haze obscuring his vision, like a gloom weighing on his mind, so oppressive he wanted to roar.

Clang clang!

As he walked, he suddenly heard the cry of a phoenix, faint and intermittent.

Ye Chen raised an eyebrow and headed straight in that direction, crossing a dark river and scaling a barren mountain, finally stopping in a valley.

In the distance, something seemed to shine like a spirit pearl, strikingly bright in the dim valley.

The phoenix cry had come from there.

Ye Chen narrowed his eyes and focused on the depths. It wasn't a spirit pearl but an immortal flower, radiating ethereal energy and bursting with colorful light. Its shape was unusual—three parts like a Zhu Que and seven parts like a Qing Luan.

Upon closer inspection, visions of a phoenix rebirth through fire appeared, intertwined with phoenix cries.

"Phoenix Flower?"

Ye Chen murmured tentatively, but his eyes already sparkled with excitement.

It was indeed the Phoenix Flower, a key ingredient for refining the Nine Turns Reincarnation Pill. Though he had never seen one before, he had heard descriptions, and it matched perfectly with the flower in the valley. If anyone claimed it wasn't, even ghosts wouldn't believe it.