Starting as the heir of a marquis's mansion, I gained access to a summoning system.

"Thanks. I'll accept the scabbard, and I'll remember the Samsara Seal."

He tucked the sword sheath into his waistband, then leaned on his bamboo cane for support, his gaze once again falling on the unfolded map.

"Ya Jiu, could you help me look up a name on the Reincarnation Palace's information network—Yin Wuji?"

How many people did he bring? When did they set off? Was their destination the Yin Gu Tomb?

"Yin Wuji led twenty disciples of the Yin Sha Sect, along with two Yin-Yang Realm peak retainers. Three days ago, they set off from Tieyu City, taking the old trade route along the southern edge of the Blackwater Swamp."

He was indeed going to the Yin Bone Tomb—the fragment of the bone tablet he had won at the auction had an ancient seal script inscribed on it, which the appraiser from the Reincarnation Palace had also seen. The fragment read, "At the bottom of the Yin Bone Tomb, gold is hidden among broken bones."

Yin Wuji was convinced it was some kind of ancient magical artifact or bone treasure; he didn't know it contained fragments of divine and demonic remains.

As Ya Jiu spoke, a hint of mockery flashed in his dark green eyes, as if he were laughing at the shortsightedness of the Yin Sha Sect's young master.

"Twenty people against one fragment. You need to get there before he breaks through the outer barrier of the Yin Bone Tomb."

He raised his hand and drew a talisman in the air. The talisman transformed into a cloud of eerie green mist, which condensed into a route map on the stone wall of the mine—starting from the abandoned mine.

By following the Blackscale Merchant Guild's secret trade route, passing through the Gray Bone Hills, crossing the Blackwater Ferry, and then walking thirty miles along a swampy mud road, you can reach the desolate hill where the Yin Bone Tomb is located.

The entire journey is about 680 li, and it would take the Windhorse about two hours to run at full speed.

Yin Wuji's pace will be slower because they need to break through the ancient restrictions surrounding the Yin Bone Tomb along the way.

If we can set off immediately, we have a chance to arrive before them.

Before leaving, Ya Jiu paused at the mine entrance, his back to Dongfang Weiwo, and left behind his last words:

"The Lord of the Samsara Palace asked me to pass on a message to you—take the map left behind by the Demon God Lü, fuse with his remains, and follow his path using his methods."

But don't become the second Lu Moshen.

Back then, he fled back to Tianxuan alone after losing his arm so as not to implicate the Lin family. He was willing to give up everything in Tianwu Continent rather than let the flames of war of the Supreme Realm reach Qingzhu Town.

His courage is admirable, but you also see his end – thirty years later, the Lord of the Undying Hall still discovered his successor, and Blood Infant Granny and Wanqifeng still came to the Lin family.

The stronger you are, the more dangerous those around you become. So don't push them away.

That little girl,

His gaze swept towards Lin Xiaoman, who was busy adding firewood to the copper furnace deep inside the mine.

"Before the auction started, she went to the Iron Feather City Medicine Market alone and negotiated with three medicine merchants at the same time using the Lin family's ancestral bone-protecting ointment formula, and finally got half a catty of iron burl tree powder."

She didn't tell anyone. "You can't push away someone like that, and you shouldn't."

The black mist enveloped his figure again, and when the sound dissipated, he vanished along with it.

Lin Xiaoman carried a bowl of freshly cooked hot soup out from the depths of the mine. She was stunned to see a sword sheath on the stone table, but then she placed the soup in front of Dongfang Weiwo without asking any questions.

The soup was made from dried mushrooms and cured meat stored in the mine; it was bland, but steaming hot. She took a bowl for herself, sat on the stone chair opposite, and sipped it slowly. After finishing, she put the bowl on the table.

"There are black leeches in the blackwater swamp. They suck out bone marrow. They are about the size of a thumb. Once they bite, they burrow into the flesh. You have to apply bone-protecting ointment to your ankles and wrists in advance to prevent this."

We still have enough ironwood powder to make three jars. I've calculated it; it'll be just enough for the round trip. Let's go.

She stood up and quickly and skillfully put the medicine jars on the stone table back into her medicine bag.

A bamboo cane, bone-protecting ointment, dry rations, water, bandages, and a substitute for a reincarnation talisman—she tore a strip from the black cloth left by Ya Jiu, braided it into a black wrist rope, and tied it in a knot.

"You didn't use the escape talisman he gave you. Wear this rope. Next time you encounter a situation where you can't escape, I'll know you need more time when the rope breaks."

Dongfang Weiwo looked down at the crookedly woven black rope on his wrist, remained silent for a moment, and then stood up, leaning on his bamboo cane.

"Walk."

From the mine to the southern edge of the Blackwater Swamp, a distance of 680 li, the hoofbeats of the Windhorse echoed a rapid rhythm on the ancient forest path.

The Windhorse left behind by Bai Wuchen waited for them all night in the dense forest outside the south gate of Iron Feather City, its horn still covered with bone fragments from their breakout attempt.

Lin Xiaoman sat behind Dongfang Weiwo, her arms wrapped around his waist. Her medicine pouch lay across the back of the saddle, and the night wind made her blue hair ribbon stand straight—the silver bells were wrapped in strips of cloth.

There was no sound, but she would occasionally tilt her head and press her ear against his back to listen to the sound of the dark gold substance flowing deep within his bones.

The gray bone hills came into view in the afternoon.

This hilly area is a transitional zone between the Blackwater Swamp and the inland. The terrain is gently undulating, the vegetation is sparse, and the ground is scattered with a large number of weathered bone fragments—not human.

Instead, it was the remains of some large reptile, with ribs several meters long and vertebrae as large as millstones, riddled with holes from wind and sand erosion.

This place may have been a habitat for giant beasts in ancient times. Later, the giant beasts became extinct, and their bones were left uncollected, slowly turning into this gray and white wasteland in the wind and rain.

The Yin Sha Sect had camped here—Dongfang Weiwo saw a patch of trampled grass and traces of several extinguished campfires, with fragments of iron plaques bearing the Yin Sha Sect's mark scattered around the fires.

The camp was empty; Yin Wuji had clearly continued onward.

Judging from the temperature of the campfire ashes, they had been gone for no more than half a day.

The windhorse continued galloping, and the Blackwater Ferry came into view at dusk.

The ferry crossing was small, with a simple pier built from the ribs of a giant beast extending into the Blackwater Swamp. A lame old man squatted at the pier, rowing the boat.

The old man's face was full of wrinkles, he was blind in one eye, and his other eye was cloudy like tea that had been steeped for too long. When he saw the two people on the Windhorse, he grinned, revealing his three remaining yellow teeth:

"Going to the Yin Bone Tomb? This is the third group today. The first group was disciples from a sect dressed in black robes. They were very fierce. They threw a piece of silver at the old man and made him row the boat without even asking for the fare."

The second group consisted of a lone traveler, riding a skinny horse and carrying an old sword with its scabbard worn down to the point of exposing the iron. Yet, he gave the old man a whole mid-grade spirit stone.

They said, "There's a young man with a bamboo cane behind you. You can ferry him across; you don't need to charge him."

Dongfang Weiwo dismounted and leaned his bamboo cane on the bone board at the ferry crossing.

Yan Fei. He said he had come to find him in the Blackwater Swamp seven days ago, but it turned out he hadn't started from Ironfeather City; instead, he had taken a shorter route.

Instead of going into the city to recuperate, he rode a skinny horse, carried an old sword, and arrived at the ferry crossing ahead of everyone else, paying the fare for those who came after him.

Even though his inner core was severely damaged by the backlash of the Heavenly Martial Law, and even though the seven-day period of weakness was not even halfway over, the sword of the number one swordsman in the borderlands was still at the forefront.

The lame old man slowly paddled the bone raft across the muddy waters of the Blackwater Swamp.

The water in the Blackwater Swamp wasn't black, but rather a dark green, thick like slurry, with a thin layer of marsh gas floating on the surface, giving it an eerie, oily sheen under the grayish-white sunlight.

The banks of the swamp are lined with dense black water willows, their branches drooping into the water and their roots wriggling in the mud like countless black snakes silently slithering.

Occasionally, a few low roars could be heard from afar, whether from strange beasts or something stirring up the mud.

Halfway across, the old man suddenly stopped rowing and stared for a while at the scabbard of the Reincarnation Sword at Dongfang Weiwo's waist with his cloudy one eye.

"Young man, you smell of old things."

He used his remaining three teeth to bite open the stopper of a wine gourd, took a sip, and the wine flowed down his chin into his wrinkled collar.

"The old man has been rowing at this Blackwater Ferry for sixty years and has seen many people enter the Yin Bone Tomb - some return fully loaded, some come out sideways, and some don't come out at all."

Thirty years ago, someone came here. His left hand was wrapped in a blood-stained cloth, his face was as white as a dead man, but he had a smell similar to yours.

He crossed the ferry on the old man's raft, but instead of going to the Yin Bone Tomb, he went into the deeper swamp. When he came out, he had a piece of bone the size of his palm in his hand.

"Bone fragments?"

"Yes, a bone fragment. Not big, with jagged edges, like a piece knocked off something."

Han asked him what it was, and he said it was "a broken version of himself".

The old man shook his gourd. "Do you know where he went afterward?"

"Returning to Tianxuan."

"Tianxuan?"

The old man smacked his lips. "That's right."

He said he had to go back, saying there were some things he couldn't take with him, things he'd leave for those who came after him. And that "those who came after him" was you.

He started rowing again, humming an off-key swamp boat song in a rough and desolate voice.

The lyrics are indistinct, with only one word appearing repeatedly—a syllable that sounds like it comes from an old dialect, "Suluo".

Dongfang Wei did not inquire about the meaning of the word, but he kept it in mind.

The Yin Bone Tomb is located on a low, barren hill on the southern edge of the Blackwater Marsh.

The tomb lives up to its name—the entire barren hill is a huge burial mound, with the top of the hill collapsed, revealing the dome of an ancient tomb half-submerged in the mud below.

The dome was constructed of an unknown dark gray stone, its surface covered with densely packed ancient forbidden runes. Most of them had become blurred by the erosion of the swamp mist, but some parts still emitted a faint blood-red glow under the illumination of the luminous stone.

Twelve decayed bone stakes were planted around the burial mound in a circular arrangement, resembling an ancient sealing array.

The runes on the bone stakes were identical to those on the dome. Although most of them had become ineffective, three bone stakes were still slowly rotating. With each rotation, a cold vortex of deathly energy would rise around the mound, repelling any living creatures that approached.

Below the dome, one could faintly hear someone chanting incantations to break the restrictions—Yin Wuji had arrived and was breaking the last few layers of restrictions.