"What? He repelled the undying monster?" Yuan Gold Spirit Warrior's smile stiffened, and an inconceivable expression appeared on his face. By his side, Rock Spirit Warrior retracted his contemptuous expression, "What an exceptional sword intent! It's at least the Daoist grade. No wonder he could force the opponent with just one move."
"Sword intent attaining Daoist grade?"
Yuan Gold Spirit Warrior was flabbergasted. Sea of Soul realm was divided into three grades- Spiritualist, Daoist, and Master. Didn't it mean that his success in sword will had already surpassed the spiritualist grade? How did he even cultivate? It was simply too hard to wrap one's head around.
"Field Slash!"
Murong Qingcheng's reaction was not slow either. Her two hands folded over each other and two sharply contrasting force fields combined together, transforming into an unstoppable force field slash that struck at the chest of undying monster.
Peng!
The undying monster rammed into the wall and bounced back from the surface's restrictive power. Its stomach was badly mutilated, almost ripped open.
Hou!
The undying monster let out a roar. It had considered the two individuals before it to be softies. However, who could have imagined that they were even more troublesome than the previous two? Especially the young sword artist in the blue robes, who had severely injured it without batting an eyelid. It would have been fine even if the wound couldn't be regenerated at a fast pace, but the former's strike had even peeled off a huge chunk of Yuan Qi.
Shua!
With a flicker, the undying monster escaped into distance, unwilling to provoke Ye Chen.
"Eh, interesting! To comprehend elemental sword intent at Astral Reaching realm, this is something even Sea of Soul realm sword artists struggle with." Yin Demon Master was able to see more deeply compared to Rock Spirit Warrior. He himself was acquainted with a master grade sword artist. It was precisely because the latter had comprehended elemental sword intent that he held the title of Master.
Not far away, Daoist Iron Wood began to be mindful of Ye Chen, thinking, 'This kid is not simple. In terms of comprehension, I'm afraid he is among top five in the southern sector.'
"How powerful! Let's follow him."
Ye Chen's strength caused a lot of Astral Reaching experts to draw close to him. They understood that Ye Chen and Murong Qingcheng might not lend out a helping, but their presence alone would somewhat restrain powerful undead monsters, and thus, the chances of preserving their lives would be much higher.
Ye Chen was unconcerned. Whether others chose to stick close to him or not didn't affect him in the slightest, so there was no reason to cruelly shoo them away. There was no harm in leaving some hope to others. Of course, it was only as long as he wasn't affected. Otherwise, he wouldn't act friendly at all. What he most disliked was to help others at the expense of oneself.
Seeing that the three showed on reaction to their approach, they felt more assured to approach them. As for Sea of Soul realm experts, it wasn't as if they hadn't thought about them. Unfortunately, the latter were unreasonable fellows. Those with good temperament would keep their distance, but those with bad temperaments would harshly lash out and might even kill.
The first night passed by. Before the dawn, the cruel undying monsters rushed into the construction, hibernating and waiting for the night.
Out of danger for the time being, everybody began to study the thirteenth image.
Wang Tong thought out aloud, "The thirteenth and fourteenth images are completely abstract, impossible to see through what exactly they are. Honestly speaking, Extreme Yin Region has several hundred, or even thousands of places that could represent these images. This is obviously not possible, so I need to classify them and look for those that stand out. Give me a little bit of time."
"No problem."
Ye Chen nodded. To understand what places the images represented should be hard, but not impossible. Otherwise, the original owner of the map wouldn't have auctioned it. Ye Chen could easily tell that the original owner of the map had invested a lot of time and energy on this map, and decided to auction the map after gaining nothing.
At the dawn of the fourth day, a vague warped passage appeared before the Sun Palace. Following the passage, all the survivors rushed out. Leaving the Golden Desert, Ye Chen and other two entered the nearest city, the Molan city.
"Haha! I got it! The thirteenth image is not an image, but ancient letters- ancient letters lost in the history. If one tries to solve it as an image, they won't succeed in their entire life." On the hotel's second floor, Wang Tong excitedly rushed into Ye Chen's room.
Murong Qingcheng rushed over after hearing the news and asked, "What letters?"
"Bitterwater River!"
"Bitterwater river? Why have I never heard of this?"
Wang Tong explained, "Bitterwater River existed about a thousand years ago, but dried up for some reason, only leaving behind an underground river. We only need to find the underground river to find the exact location of Bitterwater River."
Wang Tong wasn't the only person who had solved the mystery of the thirteenth image. As of now, thousands of people had entered the ranks of the explorers of undying body map. There were many among them who were well-versed in the history of Extreme Yin Region. And although there were only a few who had knowledge of some ancient letters, they were there as well. Of course, these people obviously couldn't be compared to Yin Demon Master. After all, an individual by him or herself would always have some blind spots.
"Eh, dozens of people are going in the same direction. Could they have solved the thirteenth image?" In Molan city, Yin Demon Master's eyes shone brightly.
Nobody knew that there was a catch regarding the three hundred map copies. On every copy was his spiritual imprint. This imprint was not made from usual method of Sea of Soul realm experts. It was much more ancient and profound, a method that he had incidentally come across. Apart from Life and Death Kings, nobody would be able to discover the intricacies on the map's surface."
"Hehe, struggle with all your might and dress the bride for me. The one to obtain the secrets of undying body will only be me, the Yin Demon Master."
A smile appeared on Yin Demon Master's face, as if radiating wisdom.
The course of finding Bitterwater River went quite smoothly. First, the trio searched for the location of the underground river. Then, following its patterns, they found the location of Bitterwater River back in the day. They dug out a stone tablet from the soil, which also had the same three images as the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth on the map.
"Seems like finding the Bitterwater River was useless. There is basically no information left behind. If the fourteenth image is also like this, we can directly study the fifteenth altar image." Wang Tong was originally expecting to obtain clues of the fifteenth image from the thirteenth and fourteenth images. But, he was only met with disappointment. Apart from the three images which they had already seen, there was nothing else.
"Since we've already taken this step, let's head over to the location of the fourteenth one as well." Ye Chen proposed.
Murong Qingcheng nodded, "We don't have the slightest clue regarding the altar. Rather than pondering over it, let's spend some time to find the location of the fourteenth image. I feel we'll have some unexpected gains from the fourteenth image."
"Someone is coming." Ye Chen raised his head and peered into distance.
Wang Tong said, "Should we destroy the tablet or not?" He didn't hold any delusions for the undying body. First of all, he didn't have the qualifications to join the struggle. Therefore, he wished that Ye Chen and Murong Qingcheng would be the one to be able to do so.
Ye Chen shook his head, "If we destroy it, we'll end up incurring everybody's hatred. It doesn't make much of a difference if others know about it, since there is no secret on the tablet in the first place."
The moment the trio left, three figures appeared near the stone tablet, and soon after, even more people arrived, including the black-robed Yin Demon Master.
"There are three images on the tablet, including the altar. From this, it seems like the altar is the fifteenth image, and in other words, the end point of the map." Yin Demon Master's emotions were surging. The day of obtaining the secrets of undying body was approaching. He suddenly felt quite bitter. If he had shared the map earlier, he wouldn't have to waste decades in search the undying body.
"Whatever happens, the undying body will belong only to me. If humans resist, I'll kill humans; if demons resist, I'll kill demons."
At the place that represented the fourteenth image…
"As expected, there is nothing here to be found except just two images." It had to be said that Wang Tong was an exceptional historian. In merely half a month, he had deciphered fourteen images and their locations. Unfortunately, just like Bitterwater River, there was nothing here to be studied,
"No, don't you feel that this mountain is like an arrowhead?"
Ye Chen spoke.
"Arrowhead?"
Hearing Ye Chen, Murong Qingcheng released her spirit power in every direction, and soon discovered that the terrain of the mountain was peculiar. If looked from above, this not so big mountain peak resembled a huge arrowhead. She was in admiration of Ye Chen to have noticed this point.
"Could it be the direction it's pointing is the location of the altar?" Wang Tong's spirit power wasn't as strong as Murong Qingcheng. Thus, he could only fly above and look from there. Then, he slowly spoke.
Ye Chen asked, "Does the direction the arrowhead points to lead to some special place?"
Wang Tong replied, "The arrowhead is pointing towards the west. Going straight in this direction, there are a lot of ancient ruins. It might be the Stoneman Array!"
Stoneman Array was a well-known ancient ruin in Extreme Yin Region. There were no treasures inside, but a lot of powerful experts liked to go there for comprehension. They unanimously agreed that the Stoneman Array has some mysterious energy that allowed them to comprehend things that they couldn't normally.
A few hundred li behind the trio, the Yin Demon Master blindly followed the trail.
Thirteenth image was discovered by Ye Chen's group, and so was the fourteenth image. He had no reason not to follow them.
"The moment has finally come. The heavens haven't disappointed me."
The trio peered at the Stoneman Array distantly.
Stoneman Array was made of a combination of several stone sculptures. The smallest one was dozens of meter high, and the biggest one was as high as hundred meters. The sculptures had all sort of strange postures. Some were thinking, some were gazing into the sky, some were sitting, some were swinging swords, and some meditating. None of the statues seemed shallow.
"There are a lot of people here."
Murong Qingcheng's beautiful eyes looked around. There were several powerful experts sitting before the statues, indulged in peaceful comprehension, including several Sea of Soul realm experts.