Gone, vanished. The burial grounds returned to silence, devoid of any sound.
Shi Hao stood motionless, his gaze fixed on the distant horizon, not uttering a word for a long time.
The female Burial Knight did not disturb him, standing quietly by his side. Divine light flickered in her eyes, her heart still unsettled by the shocking sight she had just witnessed.
Even now, she could not calm her mind. What she had experienced was beyond belief—the heavens had transformed right before her eyes!
After some time, Shi Hao silently turned and left the area, heading deeper into the ancient burial grounds. Once revered as a sacred land, this place held great secrets.
As radiant light shimmered and luminous rain scattered, Shi Hao’s body suddenly trembled in shock.
Behind him, the female Burial Knight was equally stunned.
Shi Hao’s flesh and blood had disappeared once more, leaving him as a skeleton again. He frowned in frustration—hadn’t his flesh just regenerated?
How could this be?
“Can you explain what’s happening?” Shi Hao asked the woman beside him.
Clad in a flowing dress, ethereal and pure, with snow-white wings gently fluttering behind her, she resembled an otherworldly spirit. Yet, she furrowed her brows—she didn’t understand either.
If this were the unyielding obsession of an ancient supreme being, having transformed into a butterfly and wandered across realms before returning here, it should have dispersed its consciousness, realizing its true self—dust returning to dust, earth to earth.
The flesh should not have regenerated!
Yet, Shi Hao’s body kept reverting—flesh peeling away only to regrow—completely defying the legends.
From what the female Burial Knight knew, once the butterfly returned, the obsession should have dissipated, leaving nothing behind. Yet, this man still stood before her.
“Your obsession runs too deep!” she remarked, believing he had too many unfulfilled desires, unwilling to die and still yearning to walk the mortal world.
“Obsession my foot!” Shi Hao glared at her. If he weren’t outmatched, he would have rapped her smooth forehead by now.
From start to finish, he refused to believe he was dead, nor that he was some amalgamation of a supreme being’s flesh and lingering obsession. He was himself—nothing more, nothing less.
Within the burial grounds, some areas were barren and lifeless, while others flourished with dense vegetation, brimming with vitality.
Particularly ahead, where the sacred land had inexplicably revived, countless towering steles rose from the earth, piercing the clouds—monumental and awe-inspiring.
From afar, Shi Hao spotted structures among the massive stone tablets—though ruined, they still exuded a sacred and majestic aura.
Yet, something felt amiss—scattered among the ruins were massive graves.
“Ah! The ancestral sacrificial land has appeared?!” the female Burial Knight gasped.
One of the three great sacrificial sacred lands, its very heart had manifested!
It was said that this ancient land had once been shrouded in profound mystery, only to fall into desolation over time, with the Burial Knights abandoning it.
Shi Hao pressed forward, while the white-robed maiden followed eagerly, eager to uncover the truth.
“You were lifeless before, your wings rotting. Why do you appear so divine here?” Shi Hao asked along the way.
The female Burial Knight shot him a glare, clearly displeased by his words.
With a wooden tone, she replied, “This is the sacred sacrificial land. It reveals the true form, purging the stench of decay.”
In an instant, black mist seeped from her body, as if she were reverting to the cold, indifferent Burial Knight she had been before.
“Hmm?” Shi Hao was startled. Was this just concealment? Why did he sense that chilling aura again?
The female Burial Knight fell silent for a moment before speaking. “Outside these burial grounds, I do carry the aura of death. I am not this sacred and transcendent.”
As she explained, she had yet to shed her Burial Knight’s yin form. Only when her strength grew and her yang energy flourished would she appear holy, indistinguishable from humans.
This place, once a sacred land of the ancient burial grounds, nourished all Burial Knights, allowing them to shed their yin energy and embody purity.
Shi Hao was stunned. “So you’re essentially corpses, undergoing spiritual metamorphosis to become living beings after shedding death’s taint?”
A shiver ran down his spine. He had thought Burial Knights were incomprehensible, but now it seemed they evolved from the dead.
“You’re wrong. We are indeed a race, born this way. Only through evolution can we shed the mist of death,” the girl retorted.
“How is that possible?” Shi Hao remained skeptical.
“That’s the truth. We weren’t buried by others—we were born in the Burial Domain,” she insisted.
“I don’t believe it. Do you have parents? Were you born like any other being?” Shi Hao pressed, finding it all too bizarre.
To his surprise, the female Burial Knight nodded. As she withdrew the black mist, her skin gleamed with an immaculate radiance, dotted with specks of luminous rain.
This was her future form—nourished by the sacred land, she temporarily embodied yang energy.
“You have parents? You were born?!” Shi Hao gaped.
“Obviously!” the girl snapped, glaring at him.
Shi Hao’s mind was in turmoil. Were Burial Knights truly not born from corpses?!
“Some Burial Knights are born with yang bodies, just like humans and other races. Under the sun, they’re no different—they’re called Golden Burial Knights,” the girl explained.
Shi Hao froze, recalling how creatures from the foreign realm had panicked upon seeing him with a female Burial Knight, some even exclaiming that he was a Golden Burial Knight conspiring with humans in Emperor Pass.
The thought made his head spin, stirring countless questions.
What kind of place was the Burial Domain? With its enigmatic beings, even Golden Burial Knights, distinguishing friend from foe would be a nightmare!
“Now you see—the depths of the ancient burial grounds aren’t all shrouded in black mist and deathly fog. Some great figures dwell in lands filled with flowers and birds, bathed in sacred light,” the girl said.
Shi Hao stroked his chin, deep in thought. The burial grounds were truly mysterious!
No wonder someone could keep a True Phoenix as a pet, letting it roam freely. The depths of the burial grounds weren’t all darkness—they could resemble paradise.
A True Phoenix, being holy, would never dwell in a land of death.
“Of course, some great beings, even after shedding yin energy, prefer the darkness, contemplating the origins of the Burial Knights,” the girl added.
In such places, darkness reigned, deathly aura thick—a true forbidden land, littered with countless graves.
“Hey, what’s that over there?”
Suddenly, Shi Hao tensed, sensing an astonishing spiritual presence deep within the sacrificial land, its fragrance wafting from afar.
The female Burial Knight also looked surprised. Could there truly be the legendary herbs that outsiders coveted?
Shi Hao and the female Burial Knight had come here hoping to stumble upon an immortal longevity herb. Now, his heart pounded with excitement and nervousness.
Both fell silent, moving like stealthy cats—swift and soundless as they advanced.
Soon, they reached the site, where broken walls and ruins stood alongside towering ancient halls and dark-red graves.
Some graves were as massive as mountains!
“Are there treasures inside these graves?” Shi Hao whispered.
“Don’t touch them!” the female Burial Knight warned.
An ancient supreme being was buried here. These were his resting places—untouchable.
Of course, considering the man beside her might be that very being’s flesh and obsession incarnate, she didn’t know what to say.
But Shi Hao refused to believe he was someone else’s lingering obsession. Naturally, he wouldn’t risk digging up these graves.
Besides, the fragrance wasn’t coming from the dark-red graves—it emanated from beyond.
“The scent carries for dozens, even hundreds of miles!” Shi Hao marveled.
Finally, they saw it—past the towering steles, dozens of miles away, flickering lights pulsed, radiating sacred energy.
Drawing closer, through the holy mist, they beheld it clearly.
A crumbling altar, a hundred zhang tall, stood precariously, its surface riddled with cracks.
From those fissures, purple liquid gushed forth, exuding the most serene aura, its mist swirling in a mesmerizing dance.
“What a wondrous place!” Shi Hao exclaimed.
This grand altar, though on the verge of collapse, had become a convergence point for the essence of heaven and earth.
At a glance, Shi Hao recognized it as Purple Mansion Liquid—a sacred treasure—along with Earth Marrow nurtured by ancestral spiritual veins!
The ancient altar, weathered and cracked, leaked these divine liquids!
“An immortal herb!”
The next moment, Shi Hao’s breath hitched. Circling the altar, they spotted a plant rooted in its fissures.
No wonder the Purple Mansion Liquid and Earth Marrow gathered here—a longevity herb had taken root!
Standing over a meter tall, it shimmered with five-colored divine light, enveloped in swirling immortal mist, exuding an indescribable serenity.
A single herb had transformed this ancient land into a paradise, elevating it to ethereal sanctity.
Shi Hao had once encountered the White Turtle Bearing Immortal herb but failed to capture it.
In the Primordial Ancient Mine, he had glimpsed another herb but couldn’t even discern its form.
Immortal herbs were sentient, capable of flight and evasion, breaking through all restraints—nearly impossible to catch.
Moreover, they possessed strong consciousness, more akin to spirits than mere plants, with thoughts and wills of their own.
“This is… a tree!” the female Burial Knight gasped.
Immortal herbs were rare, but a tree-form was even more unheard of.
Only in the deepest reaches of the burial grounds did two such trees exist, each belonging to a different great being.
Yet here stood another!
“This tree was felled—look, the stump remains, and now new shoots have sprouted!” Shi Hao said excitedly.
The immortal herb, just over a meter tall, was a tender sprout, glistening with vitality, its five-colored light dazzling amidst swirling immortal mist.
“Each leaf is different!” Shi Hao muttered.
The ancient tree’s new shoots bore leaves of varying shapes—some resembled weapons, others cauldrons, and even living creatures.
“It’s that one—the oldest immortal tree!” the female Burial Knight gasped.
“What’s special about it?” Shi Hao asked softly, wary of startling the herb.
The female Burial Knight explained, “A supreme Burial King once considered carving its trunk into a coffin but couldn’t bring himself to do it. This tree is unique—even beneficial to us Burial Knights. Meditating beneath it aids enlightenment.”
“Who was the fool who chopped it down?!” Shi Hao nearly cursed aloud.
“For it to flee the depths of the Burial Domain, something major must have happened,” the female Burial Knight mused.
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