12 The Stone Monument

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Nanwu Mountain, the deep pool at the end of the Mist River.
The reanimated corpse plopped into the bottom of the pit in the Mist River. The writhing black worms on its surface began to swell, and the other half-dead worms, stimulated by the blood, seemed to come alive. They crawled ferociously over the corpse’s skin, sucking the blood washed away by the river’s dark waters, eventually transforming into new flesh.
In the unnoticed depths of the pit, the blood drained from the corpse condensed in the fetid water of the Mist River, forming crimson blood droplets. As if drawn by some invisible force, they slowly sank to the bottom of the river pit.
The corpse crawled up from the river’s surface, struggling in the misty pool as if desperate to reach the waterfall or the upstream direction.
The surrounding malevolent spirits noticed it and lunged toward it from all sides.
Zhang Fugui watched the corpse attempt to climb up several times, each time being overwhelmed by the surrounding fiends. He was terrified and on edge for a while. Ever since Su Yu’s warning, he felt the cold wind wasn’t as biting against his skin, but closing his eyes was no help. The great ghost above the Mist River’s deep pool hadn’t disappeared; he could hardly distinguish reality from illusion. “Daoist, I’m listening to you, but closing my eyes doesn’t work…”
Su Yu tilted his head, noticing a few brightly glowing spots in the distance.
The cultivators nearby were surrounded mostly by gathering yin energy, and the few malevolent spirits on the deep pool were busy attacking the corpse. Clearly, those people were also bewitched.
The mist here affected one’s mind; once close to the Mist River and under its influence, what the eyes see is no longer true.
Su Yu reexamined the totem in his dantian. Though he had briefly been affected by the mist, seeing chaotic memories in his spirit sea, this confirmed the mist affected all five senses and thus the mind. Yet the totem in his dantian seemed utterly fearless of the mist; no illusions appeared before his eyes.
Just like his current vision—he could see the truest things beneath the fog.
“I’m so hungry…” Su Yu ground his teeth. He saw the pure yin energy floating around the cultivators, and his hunger grew stronger. The crimson-gilded threads in his eyes deepened, piercing his pupils, and even the meridians on his body gradually became more prominent as hunger stirred them.
Zhang Fugui glanced nervously and turned back hastily. This was bad—his mind was faltering.
He actually found Daoist Su Yu scarier than the malevolent spirits below.
At this moment, the yin energy above the deep pool seemed to solidify.
Su Yu suddenly said, “Has the mist thickened where you can see?”
Zhang Fugui snapped back to reality. “Seems so. The fog down below keeps getting heavier.”
But that didn’t make sense—the fog had dissipated quite a bit before, so why was it suddenly thickening?
The dense fog above the pool grew darker and heavier. The figures of malevolent spirits and wild ghosts multiplied. The cultivators defending the shore had just repelled a counterattack from Nascent Soul-level fiends when more and more spirits gathered toward them. The outer defensive spirit artifacts shattered one after another. Those cultivators, who had hoped to let the spirits fight among themselves and profit, now wore looks of terror.
Some fiends tore through the defensive spirit artifacts and dragged a cultivator on the edge into the river.
The scream abruptly stopped. The cultivators looked out and saw more and more fiends emerging from the fog-covered pool.
Not only Nascent Soul-level fiends—they even saw other cultivators. Sharp-eyed disciples from the Lihuo Sect immediately recognized them as those seen not long ago at the mouth of Nanwu Mountain, who had vanished, swept away by the yin wind, but now all appeared here.
“What? How are all these people here?”
“I thought there were only a few dozen fiends!”
“What’s the dense mass outside?”
“This isn’t right…” Su Yu’s gaze darkened as he looked at the attacking fiends outside. Suddenly, he spotted a dozen or so fiends bearing the Su family crest and his expression changed: “That’s not right. The Su family doesn’t have this many.”
Half a month ago, only five Nascent Soul-level Su family cultivators had gone missing in Nanwu Mountain, but here there were far more.
Among these dozens of cultivators, who were real and who were fake?!
The other cultivators’ faces changed drastically at this. How could this be fake?!
The fiends were physically striking their spirit artifacts, several of which had been destroyed. How could that be an illusion?
Seeing the dire situation, they could only helplessly endure the blows, completely unlike the intelligence they had gathered previously.
The Lihuo Sect cultivators were battered and bruised. At that moment, a pockmarked Su family cultivator stepped forward and said to the Lihuo Sect disciples, “You guys try to hold on a while. We’ll set up a formation to request external aid.”

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The Lihuo Sect cultivators brightened. “Alright!”
With that, the senior brothers of the Lihuo Sect led their juniors forward to defend.
“But the teleportation formation can either bring a few elders inside or only let a few of us out,” another Su family cultivator cautiously looked toward the distant Lihuo Sect cultivators. “What about the others?”
They could escape, but those left behind from the Lihuo Sect would surely die.
“We’ve already used up over half the spirit energy brought in, and we haven’t even entered the pool bottom. The urgent priority is to escape first,” the pockmarked cultivator thought. What did this have to do with them? The Lihuo Sect was just a pawn the Su family used for cooperation. Use them while useful, discard them promptly when not. They couldn’t even tell which fiends were real or fake; if they lingered half a burning incense stick longer, they’d all perish here.
A Su family cultivator asked, “Should we inform the Young Lord?”
“The Young Lord is busy dealing with the fiends ahead.” The pockmarked cultivator glanced at Su Yu in the distance and whispered, “Besides, the elders said, in tough situations, first ensure the Young Lord’s safety.”
Everything he did was for the Su family’s sake. If the Young Lord died here, even if they escaped, the Su family would hunt them down.
The pockmarked cultivator looked toward the fiend-ravaged mist pool nearby, suppressed his fear, and hurried over.
The chilling yin wind stirred ripples on the pool’s surface. The bottomless pool’s waters reeked of blood and decay. As the cultivator neared, unseen currents flowed beneath the murky surface, waves rising from deeper places, whipping up dark mist that silently spread throughout the pool.
Deeper down, the muddy pool bottom was churned by the current, revealing a bluish-gray stone tablet hidden beneath the dark waters.
Suddenly, the currents seized the corpse’s ankle and dragged it beneath the water in one swift motion.
At the top of the waterfall, Su Yu’s eyes inadvertently fell on the cultivators. He saw a spiritual power leave the group, heading toward a more secluded shore. Around it, the yin energy seemed to flow slowly as if under its command.
He narrowed his eyes to look closely but was soon distracted by another movement.
“Daoist, is there something over there?” Zhang Fugui looked down and saw one of the cultivators stepping away as if summoning a spirit artifact, fiddling with something. “What’s that cultivator doing? Could he be up to something?”
At the same time, Su Yu noticed something odd. “Is the corpse still there?”
Zhang Fugui looked carefully. Apart from the fiends, nothing else could be seen on the dark mist pool. “Gone!”
On the increasingly dense fog-covered waters, within what looked like a huge white jade stone submerged in the pool, something seemed to be stirring silently.
Su Yu saw black spots inside the white jade stone, similar to those on the corpse’s body, and ground his teeth.
At the pool’s edge, the pockmarked cultivator seized the moment when others were distracted and quickly ran to the far side of the cultivators’ defensive spirit artifact.
All the other fiends had been drawn toward the Lihuo Sect cultivators. The pockmarked cultivator hurried to the Mist River’s edge.
The Su family elder, considering the formation’s failure or loss of contact with the outside, had prepared a rare formation powered by yin energy, which only cultivators with exceptionally yin natures could operate.
“I’m doing this all for the Su family.” The pockmarked cultivator carefully summoned the Su family members as the formation’s spirit artifact landed and rapidly absorbed nearby artifacts. Suddenly, he felt the earth tremble and was momentarily stunned. “What’s happening?!”
The Lihuo Sect cultivators turned and saw other Su family cultivators approaching the formation. Almost only Lihuo Sect disciples maintained it, and their faces changed drastically.
“What are you trying to do?!”
“Could the Su family be abandoning us and escaping with the formation?!”
The Lihuo Sect cultivators quickly withdrew their hands, scrambling toward the formation.
Su Yi, who had been supporting the formation ahead, turned his head, and seeing what was happening, his expression changed. Those fools! Activating the formation now was just attracting the fiends’ attention!
Seeing the pool’s abnormality, Su Yi shouted, “Don’t go over there!”
But it was too late. Suddenly, a gust of wind surged from the pool. A fierce yin wind rushed from the water, attacking the cultivators on shore. The nearest pockmarked Su family cultivator near the formation couldn’t evade and was swallowed by the surging water. Screams rang out all around.
At the muddy bottom of the pit, the flowing yin energy seeped into the sludge, soon rising again as a thin veil of yin energy.
Meanwhile, several droplets of blood falling from the corpse above sank into the mud. In the stillness, the river water turned murky. A humming vibration came from deeper below, scattering the mud and revealing the pit’s original appearance.
Beneath the dispersed mud lay an ancient bluish-gray stone door. The intricate carvings on the stone tablet became clearer with the slight tremor. The resting tomb beasts guarding the grave opened their eyes and greedily consumed the surrounding yin and blood energy. All the yin energy was activated by the stone door, surging upward instantly.
The Mist River’s waters flowed backward toward the sky. The cultivators, dazed, looked up to see countless yin energies converging heavenward, forming a massive phantom of a ferocious beast.
“What is that…”

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The ferocious beast was towering and solemn. Its formed phantom radiated unprecedented pressure, causing all surrounding cultivators’ knees to weaken, unwilling to look up. Its four paws stood on the lake’s surface, which transformed into a vast transparent tablet inscribed with writings.
The lake became a tablet; the beast became a shadow.
The yin energy above Nanwu Mountain twisted into an image, all swirling like a cyclone, rushing down to the bottom of the Mist River pit, revealing the seal covering the entire mountaintop.
At this moment, at the mouth of Nanwu Mountain, the cultivators of the Lihuo Sect and the Su family saw the soaring yin energy.
Previously, the Nanwu Mountain seal had only cracked a few meters, but now everyone looked up and saw countless dense inscriptions soaring to the clouds, special runic writings covering the entire mountaintop, revealing the true form of this seal.
A Su family cultivator carrying a spirit-seeking compass hurried over, “Elder, the compass—”
Several Su family elders gathered to check it, the needle spinning wildly. Originally able to detect the chaotic yin energy within Nanwu Mountain, the compass needle now spun erratically, and the compass’s surface cracked in several places.
The yin energy was overwhelming, exceeding the detection range of the spirit artifact.
What exactly was hidden inside this cracked seal of Nanwu Mountain?!
“This is—!” An elder from the Lihuo Sect shouted urgently. This was no longer a chance for a small sect like theirs to handle.
A Su family elder’s expression darkened slightly. “This is not the work of a great cultivator’s death and ascension.”
“Trouble!”
A white-haired old man sat by the wall formed by the spirit boat. Seeing this, he straightened his back and slowly looked toward the giant seal shrouding the mountaintop, as if noticing something. His previously listless demeanor tightened. “This technique…”
“A small place like Nanwu Mountain actually preserves an ancient seal?!”
Nearby, the Su family elder’s face turned greedy upon hearing “ancient seal.”
An ancient seal—what could be inside?! A divine artifact? A secret treasure? Any of those would be more valuable than the resting place of a great cultivator, especially since the world’s premier sect, Tianlu Mountain, had not yet fully discovered it!
Ancient seals… In the Eastern Huan cultivation world, thousands of years have passed since the ancient era. After the chaos of a millennium ago, places with ancient relics have been sealed or brought under the management of the cultivation world’s elite, namely Tianlu Mountain. Remaining ancient seals hidden in unknown corners are extremely rare. They had thought the fallen cultivators here were powerful but never imagined an ancient seal would appear.
Amid the panic, a Su family cultivator rushed over: “Elder, the spirit artifact formation has detected a signal!”
Excellent! The Su family elder’s face brightened. “Connect with the formation immediately!”
“All Nascent Soul-level Su family cultivators, follow my command and enter Nanwu Mountain!”
The white-haired old man stepped back a few paces. Around him, the faces of Su family, Lihuo Sect, and even scattered cultivators changed. Almost everyone was activating spirit artifacts to send out news of the ancient seal’s appearance. If it were just a great cultivator’s resting place, these scattered cultivators would hesitate to spread the news due to the Su family’s power. But now, the profit far outweighed any caution; the lure of an ancient seal was far more tempting.
“Trouble.” The white-haired old man’s face darkened. “The southern border of Eastern Huan is about to be thrown into chaos.”
He glanced obliquely toward the depths of Nanwu Mountain and murmured, “Let’s hope nothing troublesome gets released.”
Meanwhile, at the summit of the Mist Pool waterfall on Nanwu Mountain, a man and a ghost struggled to stand firm against the wild wind.
Yin energy surged to the sky within the deep mist pool. Crimson-gold sealing runes appeared over the entire mountaintop, and the scattered yin energy almost tore Zhang Fugui’s soul apart.
Zhang Fugui clung tightly to Su Yu’s thigh. “Daoist, is this also fake?”
The seemingly white jade pool completely cleared, revealing dense black ink spots in the center.
These matched the black spots on the corpse and the few battling fiends. Beneath them lay an even larger ink stone.
When Su Yu saw that ink stone, his hunger reached its peak.
He had only one thought: to devour it.