Chapter 391: Chapter 143: Eerie Phantoms in the Stone Forest, a Blood Curse Strikes; The Zhang Family of Qing Province’s Secret Plot, Burial Immortal Valley Stirs Up a Storm

At the edge of the Chaotic Stone Forest, the wind began to die down.

Chu Fan paused, then unexpectedly turned back.

This Stone Forest looked even eerier than before. A gloomy aura, like waterlogged cotton, seeped into one’s very bones.

Jagged, bizarre stones jutted out like the fangs of starving beasts, piercing the gray, hazy sky. Even the light seemed to shy away, as if pricked by their sharp points.

The faint, intermittent stench of rot and decay drifted on the air, mixed with the smell of damp earth, creating a suffocating pressure in one’s chest.

The dense Evil Qi had almost solidified, clinging to every rock like a thin black mist. Not even sunlight was willing to fall upon this place.

’This place really is sinister,’

Chu Fan thought. He tapped the ground with the tip of his foot before cautiously stepping past the edge of the Stone Forest.

He and the woman from Medicine King Valley had fought a desperate battle here before, only managing to destroy that skeletal monster by joining forces.

Now that the monster was gone, he figured he would come back and search the area. He might find something valuable.

Even if he found nothing, his Nine Blood Soul Blades technique was excellent at absorbing Evil Qi, so harvesting some from this place would be beneficial.

But who was to say if other monsters lurked in the depths of this Stone Forest?

Chu Fan slowly drew his Long Saber, the blade letting out a soft *shing* as it slid from its sheath.

He silently focused his mind to perceive any movement in the Stone Forest, following the traces of yesterday’s battle.

He cautiously surveyed his surroundings, a sense of unease coiling in his heart—it was too quiet.

Though it had been gloomy yesterday, there was at least the howling of the wind. Today, it was so silent he could hear his own heartbeat, and even the sound of his breathing was exceptionally clear.

Moreover, the Evil Qi in the air had grown thicker. It was no longer dispersed but seemed to move slowly, like a living thing, surging toward the center of the Stone Forest.

’Strange.’

Chu Fan’s brow furrowed. His fingers tightened around the hilt of his saber, and he came to a halt.

He took a few cautious steps back, exiting the Stone Forest once more.

Then, he activated the Spirit Array Map from the Demon Dragon Celestial Spirit Scripture.

The next moment, a clear image lit up in his mind!

He saw the scattered White Bones within the Stone Forest beginning to move on their own!

Severed arms crawled across the ground, shattered ribs pieced themselves together, and loose Finger Bones squirmed like insects, emitting a grating CRACK-CRACK sound as they joined.

What made his scalp tingle was that even the bone dust, as if herded by an invisible hand, gathered from all directions and condensed back into the shape of bones.

A skull rolled onto a spine with a dull THUD.

The bones of the limbs connected themselves with a series of sharp cracks.

Even the smallest Finger Bones returned to their proper places.

Throughout the process, thick black Evil Qi coiled like threads through the cracks between the bones, as if remolding the skeleton into something Undying.

What made Chu Fan’s heart clench was that as soon as the skull settled into place, two crimson dots lit up in its empty eye sockets, like hellish Ghost Fire, staring straight in his direction!

WHOOSH!

Chu Fan didn’t dare to linger. With a twist of his body, he changed direction.

The Primordial Qi in his body surged through his meridians, and his speed instantly reached its peak. He shot out of the Stone Forest like an arrow loosed from a bow.

He had just dashed a few dozen yards when a deafening roar erupted behind him.

The skeletal monster, only half-assembled, was charging rapidly toward him, looking as if it would burst out of the Stone Forest in pursuit!

Chu Fan didn’t look back, focusing only on sprinting forward.

With the Spirit Array Map active, his speed was several times faster than normal, his figure blurring into a streak of light!

Suddenly, a loud RATTLE RATTLE came from behind him, followed by the skeleton’s furious shriek.

Chu Fan didn’t turn his head, but with the Spirit Array Map active, he could perceive everything around him.

He saw that the incomplete skeleton had been tightly bound by chains that erupted from the ground!

The red light in its eye sockets seemed ready to burst forth, but it couldn’t break the chains and was unable to leave the Stone Forest!

Chu Fan breathed a small sigh of relief, but his pace didn’t slow in the slightest as he continued to flee into the distance.

After he left, a dilapidated Array pattern slowly appeared on the ground in the center of the Stone Forest, glowing with a faint, eerie light.

The Evil Qi flowed slowly along the Array’s lines, as if powering an ancient, sinister ritual.

The skeleton was also dragged back to the center by the chains, and the White Bones scattered on the ground continued to swarm toward it.

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, an old man as withered as a skeleton sat cross-legged in a black cavern hidden deep underground.

The Demonic Qi in the cavern was so thick you could wring water from it, and it trickled down the stone walls.

The old man’s black robes were tattered beyond recognition, revealing a body that was nothing but skin and bones. His face was devoid of flesh, and his eye sockets were deeply sunken.

If not for the faint light that occasionally flickered in his eyes, anyone would have mistaken him for a corpse.

The moment the skeleton in the Stone Forest revived, the old man’s eyes snapped open.

Those eyes had no pupils, only a murky, dark yellow haze. Yet within that haze flashed a terrifyingly vicious light. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"Damn that brat! Damn that woman! How dare you ruin my Demon Puppet’s cultivation!"

The old man’s voice was as hoarse as two bones grinding together. "My years of hard work... nearly destroyed by your hands!"

He stretched out a twig-like finger and made a gesture in the air, causing a dark curtain of light to appear.

The light curtain displayed the scene in the Chaotic Stone Forest—the resurrected skeleton was shrieking madly within its chains.

A flash of pain mixed with fury crossed the old man’s eyes.

He had spent decades refining this Demon Puppet. He had used bones from ancient battlefields as its foundation, nourished it with Evil Qi from deep within the earth, and used a dilapidated ancient array to grant it an Undying Spirituality. It was on the verge of Great Success, yet it had nearly been destroyed by two impudent juniors who didn’t know their place!

Although the Demon Puppet could repair itself using the Evil Qi in this place, that single battle had cost him at least five years of hard work!

"I don’t care who you are or what sect you come from! I will never forgive you!"

The old man said through gritted teeth, the vicious glint in his sunken eye sockets growing even more intense.

He slowly raised his right hand. A drop of dark red blood seeped from his fingertip, twisting and turning in midair before transforming into two bizarre Runes that silently vanished into the void.