Chapter 1: Strange Lifeform (Part 2)

Li Ran’s expression turned serious, and the speed at which he cast spells slowed down. Each spell produced a golden rune, and whenever one of these golden runes landed on the black object, it caused intense vibrations.
Guo Shier said in a low voice, “It’s almost done!”
The old man also watched closely, saying, “Not necessarily… This thing contains immense power. Look… its size isn’t shrinking anymore…”
A trace of red light gradually emerged, with more and more red light shining through the silver virtual runes, like flames bursting from a furnace. Guo Shier said, “That’s wrong… this light is off…”
Suddenly, Li Ran shouted, “Get out of the way!”
Zhen Wuji and Guo Shier quickly retreated without hesitation, fighting against the chaotic air currents high in the sky and moving over a kilometer away in an instant.
Li Ran grew anxious as he realized his virtual runes could no longer suppress the black object.
The black object shrank abruptly—this time by a huge amount, collapsing from ten meters in height to the size of a sesame seed, as if it had disappeared suddenly. In the blink of an eye, it expanded again. With each contraction and expansion, it blasted the virtual runes apart.
The olive-shaped black object turned blood-red and shot toward Li Ran like a bullet, with a whooshing sound as it pierced through the air. Guo Shier and Zhen Wuji were shocked. Guo Shier shouted, “Be careful!”
Li Ran, however, remained calm. He raised his hand to cast a large virtual hand, teleporting to the side in a flash. The virtual hand quickly solidified and slammed into the blood-red object, producing a loud metallic clang.
The collision forced the blood-red object back, but the virtual hand also shattered, turning into countless virtual runes that dispersed into the air.
It seemed the blood-red object could distinguish enemies, as it turned around and charged again.
By then, Li Ran was ready. He suddenly swung a silver long sword, sneering as he said, “Slice!”
The blood-red object showed no fear and crashed into the silver sword, causing another loud metallic sound. With a clatter, both the sword and the object recoiled. Li Ran’s expression tightened slightly—he hadn’t expected the object to be so hard. He shouted, “Again!”
Guo Shier was stunned and said, “Wow, that blood-red thing can even turn into a sword!”

The silver long sword transformed into a silver dragon, fighting against the blood-colored long sword. As time passed, everyone noticed that the once-suppressed blood-colored long sword became increasingly fierce. Li Ran was secretly astonished—this thing was too strange, and he couldn’t figure it out right away, so he could only continue to fight it off.

Guo Shier, on the other hand, seemed to understand a bit. He shouted, “Brother Li Ran, it seems to be learning!”

Zhen Wuji also noticed and said, “We must defeat this thing quickly—there’s no time to delay!”

Li Ran suddenly realized what to do. He slapped the top of the altar, and countless purple chains shot out, quickly wrapping around the blood-colored long sword, securing it in midair. His silver long sword turned into countless silver rays, piercing wildly at it.

Popping sounds filled the air. This time, the black entity couldn’t dissolve into nothingness; it struggled violently, with blood holes appearing all over its body. Li Ran stood up abruptly, waved his hands, and shouted, “Sky Burial!”

This version of Sky Burial was different from the one Guo Shier had seen before—it seemed to be a move targeted at a single entity. In an instant, the sky darkened, and countless bolts of lightning mixed with silver light pierced into the black entity’s body. With a thunderous explosion, blood mist filled the air, sparks flew, and a violent shockwave spread out, forcing the three of them to retreat.

Sky Burial was Li Ran’s strongest move, with many variations. It was the most effective tactic against individual enemies. Despite the black entity’s extreme strength, this attack severely weakened it, leaving it floating in the air pitifully.

Li Ran said, “How can you resist now?” As he cast another virtual symbol to capture the black entity, it suddenly shrank, turning into an olive-shaped blood entity five meters long. It flashed and crashed into Zhen Wuji’s altar, sending Zhen Wuji and his altar flying.

Before Li Ran and Zhen Wuji could react, the blood entity contracted again, turning into a blood shadow that suddenly hit Guo Shier’s altar. Guo Shier screamed in terror, “Ah? Ah…”

Li Ran and Zhen Wuji were also shocked and immediately teleported over, but the entity was already gone. Li Ran asked urgently, “What happened?”

Guo Shier stared at Li Ran and Zhen Wuji with a wide mouth, confused. After a while, he said, “It… it seems to have crashed into my altar… Old Man Shuai!”

Old Man Shuai poked his head out and said, “Don’t panic… It’s fine. That thing entered the Ancient Ink Lotus and was trapped by it… It’s still struggling. Find a way to calm it down!”

At that moment, Guo Shier’s altar began to shake violently. He was as if sitting on a trembling machine, his body shaking like sifted bran. He exclaimed urgently, “What can I do to make it… make it… calm down?”
No one expected such a result. Guo Shier was also in a panic. If it weren’t for Gu Mu Lian and the fact that his altar was a rare Heavenly Altar, he believed his altar would definitely collapse.
Suddenly, Guo Shier’s altar flew away on its own, at a speed even faster than he could control. With a loud cry, it shot off into the distance in a whoosh.
Li Ran and Zhen Wuji exchanged a glance and immediately chased after it.
…
Once the black object entered Guo Shier’s altar, the world of Da Yuan Tan fell into chaos.
All the mutated rune beasts beneath the Bone Mountain were desperately fleeing into the distance. Even those severely injured mutated and aberrant rune beasts were scrambling down the mountain. The fluctuations that restrained their powers vanished suddenly, and they realized that staying on the Bone Mountain would mean certain doom soon.
The entire ice plain was in turmoil as countless mutated rune beasts rushed outward.
Driven by a powerful force beyond his control, Guo Shier’s altar rushed outward like mad. He was completely at a loss for what to do. He cried out in frustration, “Elder Shuai, Elder Shuai, what’s going on?”
Elder Shuai exclaimed in horror, “That thing is taking control of the altar by force! You have to control it, you have to…”
Guo Shier couldn’t help but curse, “How the hell am I supposed to control it?”
Elder Shuai said firmly, “Even if it’s impossible, you still have to try!”
Guo Shier snapped, “Tch, damn it! Impossible! Control it? I’ll control it!”
Elder Shuai was stunned for a moment before bursting into laughter, “Kid, you’re nothing but an idiot! Hahaha… haha.” Distraught by his words, Guo Shier regained his composure. With a roar, he exerted all his spiritual power. After all, this altar belonged to him. Instantly, the altar began to shake violently.
Li Ran and Zhen Wuji were chasing behind them. Even though they were top experts, they found it extremely difficult to keep up. Not only was Guo Shier’s altar moving fast, but it also changed direction constantly—east, west, south, north—sometimes flying upward and then suddenly dropping back to the ground. There was no pattern to it at all, like a headless fly flitting around randomly.
Guo Shier kept complaining, “Damn that bastard thing! It wasn’t me who attacked you… Why did you come into my altar? Fine, you came in, but why cause all this trouble? You’re going to drive me crazy… Ugh, what bad luck… Elder Shuai, I can’t communicate with it… What should I do?”

The handsome old man said, “If it controls the altar, you die! If you control the altar, it dies… Choose for yourself!” In truth, what he said wasn’t entirely true. If that thing controlled the altar, both Guo Shier and he would die—neither of them could survive.

Guo Shier roared, “I’ll go all out!” He had no choice but to fight desperately; otherwise, he would die, a consequence he couldn’t bear. At this point, he had no other option but to risk everything—otherwise, they would truly be finished.

Most of the soul’s power flowed into the altar. In an instant, Guo Shier felt as though his soul was being drained. Without hesitation, he swallowed a handful of soul beads. The violent soul merged into him, causing him to feel dizzy, forcing him to silently recite scriptures.

As the soul fluctuations caused by the scriptures began, not only did he calm down, but the handsome old man also became peaceful. To his surprise, even that black entity, which resembled a frenzied madman, calmed down as well.

The handsome old man exclaimed in astonishment, “Huh? It’s not moving? Boy, don’t stop… definitely don’t stop… Let me control the altar. Keep reciting the scriptures as much as you can!”

As waves of fluctuations spread, the black entity inside the Ancient Ink Lotus also fluctuated. It quickly found a spot on one side of the lotus and stopped moving. The handsome old man excitedly entered the Ancient Ink Lotus, using virtual talismans to connect the black entity to the lotus while continuously casting sealing runes. He didn’t want to go through it again—the danger just now made him realize that even he and Guo Shier combined couldn’t suppress this thing.

Guo Shier couldn’t help but marvel once again—this soul scripture was truly an unparalleled weapon in this world. Though it couldn’t attack or defend, in this vast world of souls, it was a deadly tool.

Li Ran rushed to Guo Shier’s altar and immediately sensed the soul fluctuations. He asked in surprise, “Shier, what’s going on?”

Guo Shier rolled his eyes. He was too busy reciting scriptures secretly to answer Li Ran’s question. Fortunately, the handsome old man was quick-witted. He poked his head out and explained, “It’s under control. That thing almost destroyed the altar just now. Luckily, it’s the Heavenly Altar… uh, everything’s fine now.” With that, he retracted his head and disappeared. He was even busier than Guo Shier, needing to constantly cast sealing runes.

Li Ran flashed over to Zhen Wuji and said, “It’s okay. We’ll wait here. Just help keep watch—he can handle it on his own.”

Zhen Wuji exclaimed in surprise, “He can solve it by himself? Amazing!” He stopped going any further and stayed aside to guard.

Guo Shier’s altar slowly landed, and he sat on it, continuing to recite scriptures silently. He had to wait until the old man sealed that thing completely before he could stop reciting.

By now, they had arrived not far from the Bone Mountain. This place used to be a fierce battlefield, but now it was completely quiet. All the living mutated rune beasts had fled, leaving behind countless corpses and a strong smell of blood on the ground.

Guo Shier sat quietly on the altar, reciting the scriptures over and over again. After about half an hour, the old man finally emerged, looking tired, and said, “It’s safe for now. I’ll reinforce the seal when I have time… I’m not sure if we can seal this thing permanently. Hopefully, the confinement runes will work.”

Guo Shier carefully examined the altar and saw that the thing was attached to the wall of the Ancient Ink Lotus. It was hard to detect if you didn’t pay attention, and it wasn’t very large—compared to the Ancient Ink Lotus, it resembled a small beetle. The massive black entity from before had nothing in common with it now.

Seeing Guo Shier put away the altar, Li Ran immediately flew over and asked, “How did it go?”

Guo Shier smiled bitterly. “It’s temporarily sealed inside the altar. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing. I can’t do anything about it for now—I can’t take it out, so I had to seal it inside. Hopefully, we can figure out what this thing is in the future.”

Li Ran nodded. “That’s the only option.” He looked up at the Bone Mountain and said, “I think… this Bone Mountain is a treasure mountain.”

Zhen Wuji also came over and said, “With so many corpses of mutated rune beasts, this place must definitely be a treasure mountain.”

Li Ran shook his head. “That’s not what I mean.”

Guo Shier asked curiously, “Then what do you mean?”