CH 158

This place was vast and filled with fog.

The remnant souls of four or five gods and demons attacked at the same time but were easily destroyed by Liu Yun and other Return to Void cultivators.

Along the way, Jing Yue and the others found many treasures. The shiny stone at the bottom of the puddle was a type of extraterrestrial meteorite that was very suitable for forging swords.

Of course, they also encountered several waves of remnant souls of gods and demons, up to twenty at a time. But for some reason, the strength of the remnant souls had dropped a lot, most of them Golden Cores or Amethyst Abodes, and the more powerful ones no more than Heavenly Grotto.

Jing Yue was very puzzled and even more wary, but they didn't encounter any danger for several days.

When they reached a huge pit, they saw white plants growing all over the bottom of the crater, which looked like a vast expanse of snow. Winds kept whipping around, producing a creepy howling sound.

Jing Yue, “Those plants are said to grow from the bones of ancient gods and demons. If you’re lucky, you can find ancient historical records and pictures on some leaves.”

Liu Yun, “What do you mean?”

Jing Yue, “It’s probably the consciousness of the original owner that remained on the bones. After the plants grow up, the consciousness turns into a picture.”

In his previous life, he learned many ancient secrets from here.

After hearing what Jing Yue said, most people were eager to try it out, but a thin old man said, “Jing-laozu, are you sure?”

Jing Yue turned to see a Return to Void cultivator from Mauve Aurora Sect. Thinking about the changes in the secret realm, he also had some doubts, so he only said, “It was like this when the Dragon Ancestor came here back then.”

The old man smiled with a hint of disdain. “It's been ten thousand years.”

Jing Yue responded with a reserved yet polite smile.

Although the old man said so, he still entered the pit.

When they were about to go down the pit, suddenly, a hand attacked Jing Yue!

Jing Yue dodged sharply. At the same time, he drew his sword and slashed it down, but the opponent grabbed his sword with one hand, and he suddenly felt the force of mountains and seas pressing down on him.

Others came to his aid. They could see that this remnant soul was very different from what they had seen just now, and it was obviously much more solid. The remnant soul was wearing a half-damaged armor with the mark of the gods on his forehead. If not for his dull eyes, everyone would almost think he was a living person.

However, when they actually fought against it, they found that the remnant soul was very strong, almost the upper level of Return to Void.

Even so, the remnant soul fought single-handedly and quickly fell into a disadvantage under the siege.

Then, the remnant soul ran away.

Everyone was stunned. The remnant souls they encountered before didn't know how to dodge at all, they only knew how to attack, but this remnant soul of the god race seemed to be conscious.

Jing Yue was even more unsettled. The last time he came to the secret realm, none of the remnant souls he met would run away. As long as they started fighting, it would be endless, just like a killing machine.

Had the remnant souls of the gods and demons in the secret realm gradually regained consciousness in the past ten thousand years?

Seeing his strange expression, Qin Yanzhi asked via voice transmission, “What’s wrong?”

When Jing Yue told him the situation, Qin Yanzhi's face darkened. If it was true, it would be dangerous.

He looked around warily and his pupils suddenly constricted. “We have been surrounded!”

Everyone was shocked and found a dozen remnant souls on each side of the pit. Even though they had practiced for many years and encountered countless life and death crises, they couldn't help but feel a sense of despair at the thought that these remnant souls might have the Return to Void cultivation base.

Were they about to be wiped out?

That thought lingered on everyone’s minds.

But even so, they could only fight, just fight!

When they actually fought, they found that there were only four remnants souls of Return to Void stage, one of which was the god race who had just escaped.

In terms of literal strength, they still had the upper hand in battle. After all, these remnant souls had lost their intelligence, so they were not as flexible and finally succumbed to destruction.

The danger finally passed, and everyone heaved a sigh.

An injured Heavenly Grotto cultivator swallowed a pill and said, “What's going on? Did the remnant soul of the god race find reinforcements? Are they still conscious?”

The old man of Mauve Aurora Sect said with a cold face, “We have to ask Jing-laozu about this. Were you trying to trick us when you said that earlier?”

Jing Yue wasn’t happy with the hidden implications in his words, but he had also heard that this person was notorious for acting in this way, so he simply said, “As I said, ten thousand years have passed. There may have been changes in the secret realm which I don’t know. However, when we fought against them just now, the remnant souls with low cultivation were obviously controlled by several Return to Voids. I suspect that they do have some awareness.”

Liu Yun, “The number of remnant souls in this space is immeasurable, with more Return to Voids than we can count, so what should we do?”

Hong Luan, “It's useless for us to speculate here. We can only take one step at a time.”

Old man, “Hmph!”

Qin Yanzhi gave the old man a cold look and was about to speak when he suddenly froze. His eyes turned to others and finally fell on Jing Yue.

“A-jing, why do you have gray hair?”

Jing Yue was taken aback, and casually picked up a handful of hair and looked at it. Amid the black hair were indeed strands of silvery white.

He looked up and stared blankly at Qin Yanzhi. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Hong Luan beside Qin Yanzhi, and hesitantly said, “Hong Luan-laozu, you seem a bit haggard.”

What he really wanted to say was there were a lot of fine lines on Hong Luan's face.

Instinctively, Hong Luan caressed her face and promptly felt her sagging skin. She was still in shock when Jing Yue added, “Liu Yun, you seem much younger.”

Liu Yun, “…”

Everyone looked at everyone else. After taking a closer look at the details, most of the people had changed.

Time seemed to have left different traces on them, either going backward or forward.

Jing Yue suddenly had a guess. Was the change in the secret realm due to the time difference? Time moved forward in some places while going back in other places. If humans and remnant souls were caught within, two changes would also occur.

It was like two colors of red and blue infused into a pool of water. Red represented forward and blue represented backward. People infected by red would grow old while those infected by blue would become young. The same was true for the remnant soul. The faster time flowed, the closer the remnant soul would be to destruction, so its strength would degenerate. As time flowed backward, the remnant soul's power would gradually recover, and even develop a little awareness.

They had seen such obvious changes in just a few days after arriving while the remnant souls had been wandering here for thousands of years.

At this moment, Jing Yue heard the blue phoenix say to him in his consciousness, “Jing-jing! Ji-ji knows!”

The space jade pendant refined by Jing Yue was unlike the Sumeru Ring. Although the blue phoenix was ​​inside, it could still perceive the outside world.

“This is Star Destruction Formation! The speed of time in the formation is different. One step forward may be one year, while a step back is ten years. This kind of formation is conceived naturally from heaven and earth, and people cannot control it. As long as they fall into the formation, even the stars can perish.”

Jing Yue, “Star Destruction Formation? Any specifics?”

The blue phoenix that was reliable on a rare occasion couldn’t explain the details either, and could only say half-heartedly, “A-Anyway, it's a very powerful formation!”

Jing Yue had a sudden thought. “Ji-ji, if you come out, will this place accelerate your growth? Is the thing you sensed just now related to the time here?”

The blue phoenix, “Although Ji-ji isn’t sure what that important thing is, it's definitely not time. The time in every place is different, and Ji-ji can't tell the difference either. In case Ji-ji encounters the time that went backward, I’ll turn into an egg. Ji-ji doesn't want to turn into an egg. And Ji-ji would rather not have that thing if Jing-jing will become older than Lil Leaf! Jing-jing, let's leave now!”

Jing Yue, “…”

Jing Yue was a little hesitant. Although they carried a heavy responsibility here, they didn't know what changes had taken place in the secret realm before. Faced with the current situation, it was likely that they would die without even knowing it.

Moreover, it wouldn’t be long.

He hesitated for a moment before he relayed the words of the blue phoenix to everyone, and said, “Frostcloud Sect has some brief records, but the specifics aren’t clear. I see that this situation is quite similar to the Star Destruction Formation so I have this guess.”

Liu Yun knew that Jing Yue was lying, but he was good at cooperating with Yi Ye, so he took the role very seriously at this time and said, “I see. When Laozu mentioned it, I remembered it too. It's really similar!”

Jing Yue, “…”

The atmosphere suddenly became solemn. Jing Yue's previous worry also made everyone anxious, and everyone looked at each other at a loss.

Jing Yue, “I want to ask for everyone’s opinions. Should we go or stay?”

As soon as he said that, the old man from Mauve Aurora Sect immediately said, “Of course, we should go! As you said before, if we want to find a way to deal with the demon spawn, we have to go to the core of the secret realm. But now that we’re on the battlefield of the gods and demons, we don’t even know how to leave this place. If we delay further, everyone might eventually die!”

Another person agreed. “If we die here in vain, the righteous path may not afford such a loss.”

However, Hong Luan said, “We spent a lot of effort to come here, and we only have one chance. Wouldn't it be a pity if we left like this? Even if we leave at this time and preserve the strength of the righteous path, we still can’t do anything when the demon spawn is born, so what's the use? Besides, since the Jadecloud Bell has indicated a chance encounter here, there might be a turning point.”

Several people agreed with her, and the situation reached a stalemate.

Seeing this, Jing Yue proposed, “How about we stay for another ten days? After ten days, regardless of whether we find anything or not, we’ll leave the secret realm.”

Everyone thought that ten days should not exhaust their lifespan. Maybe there’d be a turning point in ten days? So they all agreed.

After making a decision, Jing Yue sighed, and said to Qin Yanzhi, “My physical body should be hundreds of years younger than yours but now I’m like this. Perhaps by the time we leave, I can be your grandfather.”

He was reborn and his real age should be more than 10,000 years old, but his body was young, while Qin Yanzhi was Yi Wang’s reincarnation, but this was considered a new life for him.

But after this encounter, he might have complied with Lei Jing's insinuation of ‘pear blossom’ and ‘crabapple’ from a psychological to a mental state.

Qin Yanzhi was startled before saying, “That's good too. I'll accompany you until both our hairs turn gray.”

Jing Yue, “…”

Here he go again…