The Purgatory Calamity

The bizarre sight before him set Pang Jian's imagination adrift, his body petrified like a statue, unable to move.

The giant python had its head pierced by a Phoenix Bone, its head resting against the bottom of the pool while its body still desperately twisted, like a centipede's death throes.

No one knew how long it had struggled in vain, incapable of freeing itself from the Phoenix Bone's constraint, resulting in parts of its body void of flesh and blood.

Facing the pierce of a mere Heaven Phoenix's dry bone, such a mystical and different kind was revealed to be so helpless and desperate.

"Is it, the source of why father declared Black Water Pool as a forbidden zone?"

Gazing long at the massive snake body, Pang Jian's spirit was repeatedly struck, feeling as if a door to an entirely new world was gradually opening before him.

It was also at this moment that he realized that the Solitude Mountain Range, where he had hunted for many years, might not be as simple as he had imagined.

He even began to suspect that every place listed as a forbidden zone by his father could harbor terrifying creatures like the giant python.

"Did father know about the existence of these different kinds and intentionally conceal them, or... was he also unaware?"

Doubts continuously surfaced in Pang Jian's mind.

After a moment, he continued to inspect the abnormalities at the bottom of the pool.

Centered on the scaly giant python, he saw countless skeletons scattered around the rocky bed of the pool as far as his eyes could reach.

Some skeletons were obviously the wild beasts of Solitude Mountain Range, and others were unmistakably human like him.

No one knew how many beasts and humans had been devoured by the python lurking in Black Water Pool and then had their bones spat out.

Thinking about the past, he couldn't help but shudder with hindsight fear.

In the years since his father disappeared, if he had not heeded his father's instructions and recklessly entered Black Water Pool, would he too have become one of the dry skeletons at the bottom?

With such thoughts, he saw even more skeletons scattered around the bottom of the pool.

He slowly retreated, distancing himself from the Phoenix Bone and the giant python.

Suddenly, he noticed that one-third of the giant python, from its tail to its head, had turned into ghastly white snake bones.

The other part of the python's body connecting to its head still had flesh and scales wrapping around the bones, but as he observed closely, that flesh seemed to be slowly vanishing towards the direction of the python's head.

As if a mysterious force was at work, emanating from the python's head, continuously consuming the snake's blood and flesh in secret.

This resulted in the giant python's flesh disappearing progressively from its tail towards its head.

"The Phoenix Bone!"

Looking once more at the Phoenix Bone that had pierced the giant python's head and immobilized it at the bottom of the pool, Pang Jian suddenly understood.

It was this Phoenix Bone that had fallen from the Upper Realm, which after piercing through, continued to consume its flesh bit by bit.

The law of the survival of the fittest, natural selection, has always been the immutable truth of nature.

The giant python of Black Water Pool, devouring the beasts and hunters of the mountains, had now met the same fate, suppressed here by a fragment of Heaven Phoenix's withered bone, which was slowly consuming its flesh.

Suddenly, Pang Jian involuntarily recalled the anomaly of another Phoenix Bone.

With the rumbling of the earth, the ground around that Phoenix Bone cracked open, and numerous bloodthirsty vines burst out, attacking and devouring the first batch of Blood Moon and the second batch from Shangguan Family.

Afterwards, a cluster of liquid amber luster formed within the Phoenix Bone, beginning to wander within the crystalline bone.

Could it be...

Pang Jian slowly came to a realization, suspecting that the second Phoenix Bone's consumption of this giant python's blood and flesh essence was to congeal a new cluster of amber light!

"Boom!"

As he was deep in thought, the giant python struck the earth again, causing tremors near Black Water Pool.

However, compared to the previous shakes, this one was significantly milder.

The python's strike with its boney tail looked weaker and more powerless this time.

"It's not dead yet."

Pang Jian's eyebrows twitched, but then he suddenly realized that even without being in the calm state of the "Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell," his skin on his arms and chest was still absorbing the air in the water.

It had seemingly become an instinctive habit.

He felt much more at ease, knowing that with this ability, he could stay at the bottom of the pool for an extended time without worrying about those from Dark Ghost.

"Let's take a closer look at it."

Driven by curiosity, Pang Jian immediately became active at the bottom of the pool, and soon he found the Dragon Pattern Spear he had thrown earlier.

He quickly swam over, grabbing the spear in his hand, and used its heft to help him stand firm on the pool's bottom.

Feeling emboldened by holding the Dragon Pattern Spear, he quickly moved in front of the python's head.

The massive snake head, larger than his stone house, also had olive-green scales, layered like folds.

The python's mouth was slightly agape, revealing the lethal Phoenix Bone behind its sharp fangs, deeply embedded in its maw.

Streams of ink-like fine black lines, resembling secretions from its mouth, streaked straight towards the surface of the water above.

Upon seeing the black lines, Pang Jian realized the oddity of Black Water Pool; its dark water derived from the black secretions from the snake's mouth.

He then noticed the still-living giant python had its eyes tightly shut, as if in great agony.

The python, enduring extreme torment yet alive, seemed oblivious to his arrival, allowing him to look around and observe from every angle.

Having watched for a while, Pang Jian knew that once the Phoenix Bone had consumed its body, it would eventually devour the python's head, and that would be the time of its death.

Perhaps at that moment, a new cluster of amber light may abruptly reappear within the Phoenix Bone.

Anticipating what was to come, Pang Jian thought about thoroughly exploring the bottom of the pool, and began heading towards a more distant area.

Soon, two blood-red lights suddenly entered his view!

Drawn by the blood light, he gripped the Dragon Pattern Spear tightly and approached his target, thinking it could not be that besides the giant python, there were other creatures at the bottom of the pool?

If there indeed were new creatures that could survive in such an environment, they must be as ferocious and of the same rank as the giant python!

He was secretly anxious, thinking with the Dark Ghost hovering menacingly above the water's surface, if a new terror emerged from the depths of the pool, he would really be unable to escape his doom this time.

As he drew closer to the blood light, he noticed that the farther he was from the python and the Phoenix Bone, the dimmer and more obscure the light at the bottom of the pool became.

Finally!

He saw those two clusters of blood light and discovered that they were actually emitted by a pair of deep red pupils.

At the bottom of the pool, a gaunt figure, skeletal as a corpse, with crimson eyes glowing, was staring unwaveringly at the Phoenix Bone, as if waiting for something expectantly.

On the chest of this strange individual, there was a vivid tattoo of a phoenix bird with blood-red feathers, as if it were about to spread its wings and fly.

The phoenix, even though it was just a tattoo totem, gave off the impression of being full of life and spirit.

Pang Jian stared at the odd figure for a while, but it seemed unaware of his presence; the strange man and the phoenix tattoo on his chest simply fixed their gaze on the Phoenix Bone embedded in the python's skull.

It was as if Pang Jian didn't exist at all at the bottom of the pool.

Pang Jian, who had hidden himself under the water earlier, did not realize that the stranger before him was Ouyang Duanhai, and that Ouyang Duanhai had jumped into the Black Water Pool after him.

Encountering a humanoid monster like Ouyang Duanhai at the bottom of a pool where no life should exist, Pang Jian felt his scalp tingle.

If he hadn't been underwater, he might have already been sweating with nerves by now; he held the Dragon Pattern Spear with both hands and endured an agonizing wait.

Eventually, he confirmed that this humanoid monster did not care about him at all, focusing only on the Phoenix Bone.

In the depths of those deep red pupils, Pang Jian couldn't detect a hint of the emotions typical of humanity; he even doubted whether this individual was human at all.

"Is he waiting for the mysterious glimmer that will condense within the Phoenix Bone?"

After observing for a long time, Pang Jian felt enlightened.

He guessed that the immobile figure, fixated on the Phoenix Bone, was waiting for the bone to completely consume the python, waiting for the sudden emergence of that amber glimmer.

Before then, as long as he did not provoke the figure, it seemed unlikely that he would draw its attention.

After a standoff, Pang Jian cautiously crept back to where the Phoenix Bone and the giant python were, the spear in his hand betraying his nervousness.

Hesitating briefly, he deliberately picked a spot where he would not be seen by the humanoid creature.

With the Cultivator Dark Ghost above and the inscrutable humanoid monster below, plus the Phoenix Bone feasting on the original master of the Black Water Pool, there was nothing Pang Jian could do but wait passively.

"Forget it, I'll just continue my cultivation."

Unable to think of a way out, Pang Jian decided not to rack his brains further and casually made his way toward the middle of the Phoenix Bone with his Dragon Pattern Spear.

He returned to his original foothold.

With his back leaning against the Phoenix Bone and facing the area where the humanoid monster was lurking, the creature could not see him through the bone.

He used the Dragon Pattern Spear in his hand to prop himself against the python's body, which still had flesh and scales, stabilizing himself to continue his cultivation.

"Huff! Huff, huff!"

The continual Acidic Peculiar Supernatural Ability was absorbed from the black water above and gathered in his dark-green "Spirit Pot."

Within his Spiritual Sea, the "cotton-wool" sediments and impurities that he could perceive were rapidly dissolved by the venom secreted by the giant python's mouth.

...

After an indeterminate amount of time, a startled Pang Jian looked down and noticed that the Dragon Pattern Spear propped against the python's skin suddenly sank.

It turned out that the flesh and blood of this part of the python had been consumed by the Phoenix Bone.

After a moment's thought, Pang Jian moved down to the head of the python and propped himself against the serpent's skull with his spear, continuing his cultivation still close to the Phoenix Bone.

This time, upon entering a state of concentration, he felt as though all the filth and dross in his Spiritual Sea at his danidian had been cleansed away!

He concentrated and began to sense as if he were a blind man, moving freely in an empty room, until he touched a barrier-like existence, realizing that he had reached the extremity of his Spiritual Sea.

At that moment, he had completely cleared the obstacles in his Spiritual Sea, truly becoming a cultivator at the Qi Refining Realm.

"The Qi Refining Realm is divided into nine levels, which require guiding nature's spiritual energy into the Spiritual Sea and repeatedly tempering it."

"At the first level, one must first fill the Spiritual Sea with Spiritual Energy, then knead and purify it into Spiritual Power. At the second level, new Spiritual Energy must be introduced until it overflows and is then refined, turning the energy into power."

Reciting the essentials of the nine levels of the Qi Refining Realm in his mind, he began the first wave of absorbing Spiritual Energy into his body.

At a thought, he could sense that besides the Spiritual Energy in the water, what was absorbed even more was the Acidic Peculiar Supernatural Ability inside the black water!

He was startled, fearing that once the "cotton-wool" turbidity in his Spiritual Sea was dissolved, the Acidic Peculiar Supernatural Ability would corrode his Spiritual Sea, causing it to collapse and depriving him of the ability to cultivate ever again.

However, when the Spiritual Energy and Acidic Peculiar Supernatural Ability from the bottom of the pool merged into his Spiritual Sea, he did not feel any discomfort.

The complex energies of the pool were filling his Spiritual Sea, undergoing the "filling" process of the first level.

Seeing that his Spiritual Sea was unaffected, he decided to ignore the internal and external dangers for the time being and stay at the bottom of the pool, using his envisioned dark-green "Spirit Pot" to cultivate with the peculiar energies of the water.

He also took out the cracked gray stone and a few Spirit Stones that Ning Yao had shared from the bamboo basket he had been carrying on his back.

Without worrying about any conflicts, he held one with one hand, leaning against the Phoenix Bone Wall, and concentrated on his cultivation.

With the Dark Ghost expert above, the humanoid monster below, the not yet fully deceased giant python, and that mysterious Phoenix Bone,

Pang Jian could only do his best to enhance his strength, even willing to take certain risks to do so.

He hoped to gain more power for self-preservation.

...