Immortal Path in the Palm of a Mortal's Hand

Three fireballs simultaneously struck the spiritual light! The light shield trembled violently, turning from blue to white! Two more fireballs struck, shattering the light shield! The last blazing white fireball landed solidly on Sun Youfu's chest!

"Pfft—!" Sun Youfu was struck as if by a heavy hammer. He flew backward and crashed into a thick stone pillar. He bounced back to the ground, curled up like a shrimp. His Taoist robe was charred and torn, his chest was covered in blood and flesh, and he was barely breathing.

Chen Fan didn't even look at him, and walked towards Ma San with his knife.

Dragging his crippled leg, Ma San stumbled backward in terror, his left hand frantically reaching for his storage bag. Chen Fan stepped on his left wrist, the cold tip of the Golden Flame Spirit-Slaying Blade pressed against his throat. Ma San froze, as if plunged into an ice cave.

"Whose idea was this?" Chen Fan asked calmly.

Ma San's lips trembled, and his eyes darted sideways in terror toward Sun Youfu.

The blade tip moved slightly, cutting through the skin, a winding line of blood appearing. Ma San let out a strange hoarse sound, his eyes bulging. Chen Fan flicked his wrist, the blade slicing horizontally.

"Uh..." Ma San's body twitched a few times before he breathed his last.

Chen Fan sheathed his sword, wiping the blood off the corpse. The armored creature crawled back onto his shoulder, its scythe still bearing bits of flesh. He offered it a small piece of snake meat, which the armored creature grabbed and began to devour.

They walked up to Sun Youfu.

Sun Youfu was not yet dead. His chest rose and fell slightly, blood foam spilled from his mouth and nose, and his eyes were unfocused, but he could still vaguely see Chen Fan squatting down.

"You...knew...already..." Sun Youfu's voice was weak and feeble, each word stained with blood.

Chen Fan did not answer. He pulled off the storage bag at his waist and scanned it with his divine sense. There were seventy or eighty spirit stones, only three talismans left, and an ordinary spiritual herb, nothing else of value.

"After entering the forbidden area, how many people did you ambush and kill?" Chen Fan asked.

Sun Youfu was powerless to respond. Chen Fan needed no answer either. He tucked the storage bag into his robes, stood up, and looked down at the world.

"Next time you're choosing someone, remember to look carefully."

The Golden Flame Spirit-Slaying Blade swung down.

Chen Fan collected their storage bags, put the spiritual herbs into his own, and briefly examined the magical artifacts. Sun Youfu's small cyan seal that could unleash wind blades was of decent quality and worth some spirit stones. Ma San's low-grade flying sword was discarded like worn-out shoes. The two men's combined wealth was less than 150 spirit stones, their two spiritual herbs were ordinary, and with the talismans and magical artifacts, their total value was no more than 300 spirit stones.

It was far inferior to what the Red-scaled Python had obtained.

After finishing the collection, Chen Fan stood up and looked around the stone forest. The wind howled, making the silence even more profound. Smoke curled from the flame marks and wind-blade slashes on the stone pillars. The bodies of Sun and Ma lay on the ground, their blood seeping into the cracks of the rocks and quickly drying into a dark brown.

The Golden Flame Spirit-Slaying Blade returned to its sheath. Chen Fan turned and stepped into the depths of the stone forest.

The armored creature crouched on its shoulder, devouring the snake's flesh, its scythe folded back to its chest, returning to its dark gold, unyielding state.

Beyond the northern gap in the stone forest, undulating hills reappeared, the scenery similar to that before. The crimson light membrane above had dimmed slightly. In this forbidden area, there was no sun or moon; the light membrane's brightness and darkness cycled approximately every five or six hours. He had entered nearly one cycle.

We need to find a place to regulate our breathing.

They found a hollow in the rock face at the edge of the hill, about half a person's height and wide enough for two people to fit in. The armored man leaped down and lay prone in the hollow, keeping watch. Chen Fan entered cross-legged, leaned against the cold rock, took a fasting pill, and tallied his spoils.

The items included Golden Leaf Sword Grass, White Velvet Fruit, Red Scale Python Skin Gallbladder, Purple Heart Grass, Vermilion Fruit, plus two spiritual herbs, a small blue seal, and over a hundred spirit stones offered by Sun and Ma.

In total, there are eight spiritual herbs, one medium-to-high-grade magic weapon, a number of materials, and a number of spirit stones.

The discounted price is approximately eight or nine hundred spirit stones.

However, the real gains do not stop there.

Chen Fan closed his eyes to regulate his breathing, and Sun Youfu's every word and action from his appearance to his death was clearly replayed in his mind.

With beaming smiles and hands outstretched, they engaged in lively conversation. "How should I address you, fellow Daoist?" "Three men can make a tiger, it's better than one-on-one fighting!" A perfectly coordinated attack. A wind blade locked onto the throat, a fireball sealed the back. Precise timing, a narrow crevice in the stone pillar.

If it weren't for his divine sense far surpassing that of others of the same level, allowing him to glimpse the subtle ripples of spiritual energy in Ma Sanmo's incantation... the one lying prone in the stone forest, blood seeping from the cracks in the rocks, would be none other than Chen Fan.

Within this forbidden land, rules and regulations are nonexistent. Fellow disciples fight amongst themselves, and those from different factions become enemies. Beneath smiling faces, sharp blades are hidden in sleeves. Behind silence, talismans are clutched in the palms.

Chen Fan opened his eyes.

The brightness of the light membrane had begun to rise, and a new cycle had begun. He emerged from the hollow, his armor leaping back onto his shoulder. He identified the brightest point of the light membrane and strode forward.

The Mystic Soul Grass grows deep within the forbidden area, a place where Yin energy gathers.

The fifth day in the forbidden area.

Chen Fan crouched behind a dead tree trunk, his left hand clutching his right rib. Blood seeping from between his fingers had soaked a large patch of his Taoist robe. He tore off a strip of cloth, gritted his teeth, and wrapped it around his waist twice, tying a tight knot. The excruciating pain made him gasp.

"hiss……"

The armored figure lay at his feet, a deep, bone-revealing claw mark etched into its carapace, tearing from its head down to the middle of its back. The edges of the carapace were slightly turned outwards, revealing a tender yellow husk beneath. Fortunately, no internal organs were damaged, but if it had been half an inch deeper, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

Five days.

Most of the talismans in the storage bag had been used up. There were eleven fireball talismans, six ice cone talismans, three wooden vine talismans, five earthen wall talismans, two golden bell talismans, and five lightning strike talismans. The most treasured fire python talisman remained at the bottom of the bag. The weapon talismans were still there, but these life-saving items only had two more activation opportunities.

The Mystic Soul Grass remains nowhere to be found.

For the past five days, he had been walking on thin ice in the forbidden area, slaying two demonic beasts, killing two cultivators from Yellow Maple Valley, and collecting more than ten spiritual herbs. However, he had not even seen a trace of the Profound Soul Grass that True Person Crimson Cloud had specifically requested.

It is as black as ink, with ghost-face-shaped leaves, and grows in places where yin energy gathers.

Within the forbidden area, he found several places where the yin energy was dense. One was a swamp, its edges shrouded in a grayish-white mist; probing it with his divine sense yielded nothing but a few rotting white bones. Another was a fissure in the ground, where a howling wind blew; he threw stones into it, but heard no echo for a long time, so he dared not venture deeper. A cave, its entrance covered in dark red moss; as soon as he approached, the tentacles of the armored creature abruptly retracted—the creature lurking within possessed an aura far surpassing that of the Crimson-Scaled Python, something he could not afford to provoke. He had no choice but to detour.

None of these are what I seek.

The crimson light above their heads began to dim once more. The fifth cycle was nearing its end. The forbidden area typically remained open for seven days, occasionally six or eight. In the worst-case scenario, there were at most only two days left.

"Hiss..." He gritted his teeth and tightened the cloth strip again, forcing himself to stand up. The armored vehicle also rose, its movements slightly slowed by the wounds on its back armor. Chen Fan bent down, scooped up the armored vehicle, and placed it on his shoulder. "Let's go, north."

More than an hour later, the sand beneath their feet gradually turned into gravel, which in turn transformed into exposed, jagged rock formations. The terrain suddenly rose, and the hills became steep stone beams. The gaps between the stone beams were narrow, and in some places, one had to squeeze sideways to pass through.

As he climbed over the third stone beam, his divine sense suddenly detected something unusual.

A faint, extremely yin and cold spiritual energy seeped out from deep beneath the stone beam. It was so weak that it would be impossible to detect from such a distance unless one's divine sense had just reached the threshold of Foundation Establishment.

The whiskers on the shoulder armor stood upright instantly, swaying slightly and pointing downwards from the stone beam.

Chen Fan cautiously crept forward, following the source of the chilling spiritual energy. At the end of the stone beam was a sheer cliff, its walls vertical and over thirty feet high. Cracks crisscrossed the cliff face, the largest one located slightly below the middle section, about three feet wide, barely wide enough for a person to squeeze through sideways. The chilling energy emanated from this very spot.