Chapter 84: Ten Thousand White Bones

In the dim, withered woods, the light was murky and a nauseating stench of decay hung thick in the air. The ground was slick with heavy mud, mixed with rotting branches and leaves; here and there, a half-buried, gleaming white bone could be seen, steeped in the foul mire.

There were no sounds of insects, birds, or beasts. The silence was so profound, it sent chills crawling up one's spine.

Rustle. Rustle...

Suddenly, the abrupt sound of footsteps broke the deathly stillness, drawing nearer and nearer.

A slender figure moved cautiously through the woods, sometimes veering left, sometimes right, as if deliberately avoiding something.

“Should we keep going?” Jiang Min suddenly halted, speaking to the little blade of grass clinging to her sleeve, guiding her way.

Half a day earlier...

She had leapt from the cliff, and just before falling into that eerie black mist, she flung out a grappling hook, which caught fast on the cliff face, arresting her descent so she could climb up the steep wall.

The cliff jump was a ruse, after all; her real aim was to lose Jiang Ziyi.

Following the guidance of the little grass, she had stumbled upon a narrow, seemingly man-made mountain path hidden in the thicket. She followed this trail, weaving her way to what appeared to be the bottom of the Soul Burial Gorge.

Above her, endless, churning black mist. Beneath her feet, rotting muck and scattered bones.

Jiang Min had not expected that the depths of the Soul Burial Gorge would be riddled with invisible, deadly traps—one wrong step would leave even one’s corpse unclaimed. Fortunately, these wards were ancient and eroded by time, riddled with gaps through which the little grass led her, threading through the dangers toward some unknown destination.

When Jiang Min asked her question, the little grass lifted a blade, excitedly pointing ahead.

Almost there—something precious lies ahead!

“Is it related to thunder?” Jiang Min remembered the character for “thunder” the grass had traced onto her palm back on the cliff.

The little grass nodded eagerly.

Jiang Min’s bright eyes flickered with thought, and she raised her brows. “Thunder Jade Marrow?”

Such spiritual treasures could only form in places saturated with elemental forces or thunder and wind, accumulating over tens of thousands of years. As a result, Thunder Jade Marrow was increasingly rare and costly.

If thunder’s power had indeed pooled beneath this gorge for millennia, perhaps Thunder Jade Marrow really could have formed.

As she speculated, the little grass nodded again, a trace of delight flickering across Jiang Min’s features. There really was such a thing? If she could obtain Thunder Jade Marrow, temper her body with wind and thunder, her chances of surviving the Five Elements Tribulation would rise. It seemed this Soul Burial Gorge was a trial she could not avoid.

As for the myriad traps strewn throughout the gorge, with the little grass leading her and her own constant vigilance, the bones lurking in the muck offered all the warning she needed.

“Alright, let’s keep moving,” Jiang Min said, stepping forward.

She had only taken two steps before the little grass frantically tugged her sleeve, yanking her aside.

In the next instant—

Whoosh!

A vicious, whirling vortex of death tore into being where she had just stood—a step slower, and she would have been swallowed whole.

Cold sweat broke out on Jiang Min’s back as she stared in lingering fear at the slowly dissipating vortex.

“These wards... they shift and change location?” she murmured. “Who could have laid so many deadly traps beneath the Soul Burial Gorge?”

Her spiritual sense was not weak, yet she’d detected nothing before the trap appeared. How could those curious cultivators, drawn here by legend, have any hope?

“Thank you, A’Ling. Your senses are extraordinary,” Jiang Min said, exhaling and giving heartfelt thanks.

The little grass spun in a joyful circle at her praise, then tugged her forward once more.

The ground sloped ever downward. The path remained unchanged—dead trees, tumbled stones, fetid mud, bones everywhere.

Oppressive gloom. Deathly silence. It weighed heavily on the spirit.

Suddenly, Jiang Min seemed to catch a faint sound.

Rumble... rumble...

“That’s... thunder?” Joy flashed in her eyes—there really was thunder beneath this haunted gorge?

She pressed on, following the little grass. Once again, she narrowly avoided a trap, her guide’s warning saving her.

The sounds grew louder, thunder crackling in a dense, nerve-wracking chorus. Yet when she looked ahead, no light pierced the gloom—strange.

As she advanced, the traps became more intact, the safe gaps fewer. Jiang Min hugged the cliff wall, inching forward after the little grass.

She stopped abruptly, eyes wide with shock.

Sizzle! Sizzle!

A vast sea of thunder spread beneath the black mist, endless and unfathomable. But the thunder within it was black as ink, radiating a chilling aura of death.

Beneath the thunder sea stretched a bottomless pit, filled to the brim with countless bones, some covered by earth, others laid bare, each skeleton glowing faintly, proof that they had been powerful cultivators in life.

Jiang Min’s hand flew to her mouth in horror. Beneath the Soul Burial Gorge was a mass grave of ten thousand corpses!

What had happened here? Why so many dead? Were the deadly wards and the black thunder sea meant to suppress these bones, or to bury the past in oblivion?

The little grass cared nothing for the bones. It tugged at Jiang Min’s sleeve, pointing with a blade toward the thunder sea above the pit.

Jiang Min looked up.

Within the rolling black thunder, clusters of pitch-dark liquid floated, rising and falling, shot through with golden threads—Thunder Jade Marrow, coalesced from the thunder sea itself.

Yet—could such sinister Thunder Jade Marrow truly be consumed by humans?

“A’Ling, if I draw that Thunder Jade Marrow to me, will I trigger any dangers in the thunder sea?” Jiang Min asked.

The little grass shook its blade.

No~

“Really?” Jiang Min was skeptical. This thunder sea had lingered for millennia—surely, it was perilous. Honestly, she was afraid to try.

The little grass, indignant at her doubt, stretched out a blade toward the thunder sea.

Whoosh!

A few drops of the eerie Thunder Jade Marrow at the edge of the sea shot toward the little grass, hovering before it. The marrow was as black as ink, shot through with golden threads, exuding a chilling, macabre aura.

Jiang Min scrutinized it, then glanced at the grass. “Is this really Thunder Jade Marrow? Can it be eaten?”

In a sense, it could be called Thunder Jade Marrow born of a grave...

The little grass swayed, confident.

Of course it can be eaten~

It extended a root to touch the sinister Thunder Jade Marrow. At first, it shuddered with the shock of the lightning, but gritting through the pain, it devoured the drops.

Immediately, from the tip of its root, the entire blade of grass turned ink-black, an eerie, chilling aura slowly seeping out.