The Longevity Family: Starting from the Foundation Establishment Ancestor

boom! boom! boom!

Like dumplings being dropped into a pot, everyone was thrown from mid-air onto a hard, cold ground covered with dark red gravel and broken bones. Before the dizziness from the teleportation had completely subsided, the sounds of metal scraping and bones cracking filled the air.

Han Mu was the first to flip and leap into the air. A flash of gray-white light emanated from his body, dissipating the impact and allowing him to land steadily. He quickly scanned his surroundings, while tossing the soft, mud-like "Shadow Time" at his feet.

Before them stretched an endless, dark red wasteland, with three eerie crescent moons hanging in the sky—a blood-red, withered, deathly white, and a gray moon within which countless fragments of time flowed. The intertwined light of the three moons illuminated the earth as if it were a scene from hell. The air was thick with the stench of blood, sulfur, and an indescribable, decaying odor of time.

"Cough cough... Where am I? I've fallen to my death." Luo Feng crawled out from a pile of broken bones, covered in dust, but the defensive inner armor given to him by Han Mu glowed faintly, helping to offset most of the impact.

Han Li, Liu Ruyan, Zhou Meng, and the others also stood up and cautiously formed a defensive formation. Bai Ling, Li Qingzhu, Lin Fan, and Lin Xue were in a sorry state, but were all unharmed. Yun Yazi's remnant soul floated out of Zhou Meng's arms, transforming into a thin humanoid phantom. He looked around and gasped.

"This is... the 'Eternal Star Tomb'! An ancient battlefield from countless eons ago, said to bury the remains and relics of countless stars, gods, demons, and powerful beings. The spacetime here is extremely chaotic, filled with 'Time-Binding Spirits,' 'Star Bone Beasts,' and various natural spacetime traps. It is one of the most infamous forbidden zones in the heavens." Yun Ya Zi's voice was filled with shock.

"Eternal Star Tomb?" Han Mu's eyes flickered, and he immediately summoned the system panel and quickly scanned it.

Name: Han Mu

[True Realm: Mid-stage Taiyi Jade Immortal (Peak State)]

[Time Rule: 86%]

[Status: Peak. Fragment fusion rate of "Coffin of Origin" 20%. A faint resonance was sensed from the sixth fragment.]

[Celestial Aura: -6000 points]

[System Notification: You have entered the "Eternal Star Tomb (Outer Periphery)". High concentrations of chaotic time energy, deathly resentment, and residual malevolent energy from an ancient battlefield have been detected. Warning: Spacetime here is extremely unstable, containing numerous spacetime rifts, time reversal/acceleration zones, and unknown dangerous entities. Faint traces of "Reverse Time Alliance" activity have been detected (recently). The resonance of the sixth fragment (tail) of the "Coffin of Origin" has been detected (approximately northeast, about 3,000 miles away). New quest issued: Explore the "Eternal Star Tomb" and obtain the sixth fragment. Quest reward: Depends on completion.]

"Is the sixth fragment here?" Han Mu closed the panel and turned his gaze to the northeast. There, a undulating mountain range of skeletons, composed of countless huge bones and broken metal fragments, could be vaguely seen, stretching across the horizon like the spine of a giant beast.

"My lord, what should we do next?" Liu Ruyan asked, while distributing healing pills to her injured companions.

"Let's find a relatively safe place to rest first, interrogate Ying Shi, and then head northeast." Han Mu pointed to the Skeleton Mountain Range. "The sixth fragment is there."

"Brother Han, this place isn't safe." Han Li's expression was grave. The "Time-Tracing Array Disc" in his hand spun rapidly, its surface covered with countless points of light. "I've detected at least seventeen areas of spatial-temporal anomalies within a hundred miles, along with a large number of wandering 'Time-Wraiths.' What's even more troublesome is... in the northeast direction, there are remnants of a recent battle, and the energy fluctuations are very recent, no more than three days old. Moreover, it's the 'Reversal of Time Alliance's' 'Disorderly' aura."

"The Reverse Time Alliance is here too?" Zhou Meng gripped the Time Hammer tightly.

"They're also looking for fragments?" Luo Feng scratched his head. "Then aren't we going to have to compete with them for them?"

"Let them take it, what are we afraid of!" Zhou Meng's eyes burned with fighting spirit. "Perfect timing to test my newly awakened 'Time Guardian' inheritance."

Just then, a series of dense, chilling "crackling" sounds came from afar, as if countless bones were rubbing and assembling. Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw, hundreds of feet away, a pile of scattered, enormous beast bones suddenly assemble on their own, instantly coalescing into a ten-foot-tall "bone beast" with three heads and six arms. Ghostly green flames flickered in its eye sockets, emanating the aura of an early-stage Golden Immortal, and it lunged towards the group!

"It's the 'Star Tomb Bone Beast'! A monster formed from the condensation of deathly and malevolent energy in this place, it's impossible to kill it all!" Yun Ya Zi said urgently.

"I'll do it." Bai Ling took a step forward. Although her left arm was injured, she pointed her right hand with her sword fingers and a sharp sword light shot out, accurately hitting the eye socket in the center of the bone beast's head.

*Poof!* The will-o'-the-wisp went out, the bone beast froze for a moment, then crumbled into pieces, turning back into a pile of bones. But a grayish-white "soul fire crystal," the size of a longan, rolled out from among the scattered bones.

"Huh? There's something else?" Luo Feng's eyes lit up, and he scurried over to pick it up. It was icy cold to the touch, and he could feel the pure Yin energy and faint power of time within it. "This thing... seems like it can be used for weapon forging or to aid in cultivation?"

"Star Tomb is a local specialty. Defeating the Bone Beasts, Evil Spirits, and other monsters here has a chance to drop materials such as 'Soulfire Crystals,' 'Time Crystals,' and 'Fiendish Aura Cores,' all of which are rare treasures to find elsewhere," Yun Ya Zi explained. "However, this place is dangerous, and for a few materials..."

Before he could finish speaking, an even bigger commotion came from afar. To the left and ahead, in a low-lying area, the ground suddenly rose up, and a "Star Bone Beast" thirty feet tall, seemingly pieced together from fragments of stars and the bones of giants, burst forth from the earth, its aura reaching the peak of the Golden Immortal realm! Two dark red flames burned in its empty eye sockets, locking onto the group, or more precisely, onto "Shadow Time" at Han Mu's feet.

"Not good! This giant beast sensed the 'rebellious' aura remaining in Ying Shi's body and was attracted to it!" Han Li's expression changed.

The colossal star-beast let out a silent roar and charged towards the group with heavy strides. With each step, the earth trembled, its power terrifying.

"Senior Han, leave this to me!" Zhou Meng was full of fighting spirit and was about to step forward.

"No need." Han Mu raised his hand to stop them, then shook his head as he looked at the charging Star Bone Beast. "It's too noisy."

Han Mu raised his right hand and gently clenched it in mid-air towards the Star Beast a hundred feet away.

"Time... stripped away."

*Whoosh!* An invisible force of time instantly enveloped the behemoth. Its forward charge abruptly halted, and the star fragments and bones on its body visibly lost their luster, weathered, and peeled away, as if eroded by millions of years. In a mere three breaths, the thirty-zhang-tall behemoth completely transformed into a cloud of grayish-white dust, drifting away with the wind. Only three fist-sized "star cores," shimmering with starlight, and a dark red "evil energy crystal core," clattered to the ground.

The entire process was silent, yet more chilling than any violent battle.

Luo Feng's mouth dropped open, and it took him a while to stammer out, "Senior Han... your move... is too effortless, isn't it? I spent ages chopping bones, and you just grabbed it like that..."

"The difference in strength is too great, there's no need to waste energy," Han Mu said calmly, beckoning to collect the four materials and tossing them to Luo Feng. "Keep them safe, you'll need them for refining weapons later."

"Alright!" Luo Feng grinned, carefully putting it away. "Following Senior Han is so great! I can pick up treasures even while lying down!"

Han Li frowned and looked towards the Skeleton Mountain Range in the northeast: "Brother Han, the fact that the giant beast was attracted here just now means that the 'Reverse Time Alliance' may be very active in this area, or even... they may be planning something big in that direction. If we go there, we might just run into them."

Han Mu's eyes were deep: "So what if we crash? I'm taking the fragments. Anyone who dares to stop me should be prepared to stay here and join these skeletons."

Just then, "Shadow Time," which Han Mu had thrown at his feet, suddenly began to convulse violently, making strange hoarse noises in its throat, and the remaining scarlet light in its eyes flickered wildly.

Han Mu lowered his head and placed a foot on Ying Shi's chest: "Want to talk about it?"

A sinister smile twisted across Ying Shi's face as he hissed, "You...can't escape...Lord 'Eclipse'...has already led the main force...to lay a trap at 'Burial Mountain'...just waiting for you...to walk right into it...Heh heh...Time Lord...already knows...your growth...you...are doomed..."

Before he could finish speaking, the last vestige of life within Ying Shi was extinguished, and his body rapidly withered and decayed. But a barely perceptible gray light flashed between his brows and disappeared into the ground.

"It's a tracking mark!" Han Li's expression changed drastically. "He used his last remaining soul as a catalyst to plant a mark on us! The 'Reverse Time Alliance' will soon be able to pinpoint our location!"

A cold glint flashed in Han Mu's eyes as he looked towards the Bone Mountain Range in the northeast—"Burial Mountain".

"It seems this battle is unavoidable."