Maiden Galaxy

Along with their probing into the Black Hall, the immense gravity became heavier and heavier. This kind of frightening pressure could easily grind a God Transformation cultivator into paste. Chen Mo felt all the bones in his body seemed to be squeezed tightly into a single mass. In order to protect his elder sister, Chen Mo circulated his Star Energy, intertwining his body's six Black Meridians with one another, seemingly forming a serpentine shape.¹

Following the crushing gravity, Chen Mo was astonished to discover the last Black Meridian of the Book Of Changes Black Turtle accept the pressure, gradually coming into shape, surprisingly.

…

Chen Luan slowly opened her eyes. Her consciousness seemed to have finally escaped a vortex, breaking free of that unbearably painful dizziness. She felt her forehead. It was only after resting for a moment that she pieced together the smashed and confused thoughts in her mind, recalling what had happened a moment ago.

She and Chen Mo had jumped down into an even larger underground shaft, but the deeper they descended, the stronger the pressure this tunnel emitted.

Right, her magic treasure, the "Red Sparrow Skirt," had crumbled under this gravity, leaving her clothing in a state of ruin.

Chen Luan looked in a panic, but she immediately sighed in relief. Her body was covered with a snow-white brocade.

"Brother Mo!"

Chen Luan thought of Chen Mo and looked all around.

Chen Mo was currently sitting across from her like a Buddha in meditation. He was bare-chested, and seven glowing Black Meridians appeared over his skin.

"Big Sister, you're awake." Chen Mo opened his eyes.

"En, how long was I out?"

"A few hours. Do you feel a bit better right now?" Chen Mo asked, concerned.

Chen Luan gathered a bit of True Qi, sending magic energy coursing through all of her meridians; she did not have very severe internal injuries. This was all thanks to Chen Mo firmly protecting her earlier. Otherwise, she perhaps would have been pulverized. Chen Luan was well aware of this. "I'm truly thankful for earlier, Brother Mo."

"Do we siblings still need to say thanks?" Chen Mo feigned being upset. "Your life is mine."

Chen Luan showed a sweet smile: "Yes, if you can't protect Big Sister, then Big Sister won't forgive you."

"You turn around."

"Hm?" Chen Mo was confused.

Chen Luan suddenly took off the white brocade. Chen Mo gasped and immediately turned his head around. "Big Sister, wear the Heavenly Silkworm Snow Brocade, I don't need it."

Chen Luan shed the Heavenly Silkworm Snow Brocade and changed into a skintight long shirt, saying: "You ought to treasure this Heavenly Silkworm Snow Brocade, right. Big Sister cannot have it." She could see that this treasure clothing absolutely was not an item from the Outer Star Fields. Against the intense pressure just now, she was unable to guard even with her God Transformation magic energy, but the brocade nevertheless was completely unscathed. There was not even a single wrinkle, leaving it pristine as snow.

"It's only a piece of clothing, it could never be more important than Big Sister." Chen Mo's words warmed Chen Luan's heart.

"Big Sister is really happy with your words. However, Big Sister doesn't want to rely on you for everything." Chen Luan smiled.

Chen Mo could not decline.

After changing into a new set of clothes, Chen Luan activated an illumination talisman. The cavern was lit up, and they saw countless skeletons all over the floor. They were crushed to bits, and all kinds of broken Flying Swords and magic treasures were visible as far as the eye could see. This was practically a garbage dump. These clearly were all cultivators and warriors who were unable to escape being crushed by the Black Hall; this was their final resting place.

If it was not for Chen Mo possessing the Black Turtle body, he would perhaps have faced poor odds just now.

"Looks like this Black Turtle holy ground truly is something else." Chen Luan pondered.

"Yes. With great virtue, one can take charge of the world. The pressure was very severe in the place we just passed. I think this place really does have some kind of treasure in existence to produce this phenomenon." Chen Mo took a deep breath, his expression even more determined. Originally, he was worried that Wang Sengbian was merely recounting a beautiful legend. After all, among the Four Divine Beasts of Heaven and Earth, the Black Turtle was rarely seen.

"Then let's hurry and find it."

The two of them stepped past the shattered bones, following the cave's tunnel forward and deeper in. The surrounding mountain faces were full of gouges from claws. This trek also lasted a slow and boundless dozen illumination talismans.

And the further in they went, the larger the cavern became. At first, it was only fifty to sixty square meters. Towards the end, it was several hundred, maybe even a thousand, such that an illumination talisman could not see the end.

"These corpses are still very fresh."

Chen Mo stopped and looked at one body in front of them. Along the way, they found the carcasses of many warriors and Demon Beasts. Too many of them had already decayed into skeletons, but the decomposition of the body in front of them was only a few months underway.

"I didn't expect the Northern Barbarians would have a warrior who could make it to this place."

"This is their holy ground. Top-notch warriors may treat this as experience to truly reforge themselves." Chen Mo was not very bewildered, but he noticed that the wounds of this corpse were very odd. It seemed to have been torn apart using brute force, with the ribs split open. It was not like the bodies from before.

"Was it killed by other warriors?" Chen Luan wrinkled her brow. It was honestly inconceivable that there would be internecine strife after making it to this place.

Chen Mo felt this was strange. Afterwards, they discovered this spacious cavern had hundreds upon thousands of warriors. This place was like a tomb, and these warriors had died wretched deaths. The vestiges of expressions of despair could even be seen on some of the more intact heads. All of their deaths, without exception, had the signs of being slaughtered by someone else. This was not the work of a Demon Beast at all.

Strange, too strange.

Could it be mutual slaughter in the midst of despair.

As Chen Mo pondered, he suddenly noticed something was not right with his big sister, "Sister, what's the matter?"

"The atmosphere in this place isn't right." Ever since they entered this chamber, although the pressure had lessened greatly, Chen Luan very quickly felt that breathing was becoming a bit difficult.

Chen Mo took a deep breath and also discovered this place was practically devoid of spiritual power. A cultivator who had not yet trained to a level that broke free of the mundane or became an immortal would still need to breathe to maintain the meridians in their body and the movement of their Qi-blood. Without it, they would suffer exhaustion.² Magic energy could stave off this exhaustion, but if magic energy itself was depleted as well, then death was inevitable.

This is bad.

"I fear these people died in this way." Chen Mo vaguely guessed this already. "Big Sister, don't waste magic energy."

Chen Luan also sensed this point. Although she brought magic energy recovery medicines, they were completely useless without spiritual energy to absorb.

The two of them walked several hundred meters more. Corpses were everywhere, and countless weapons were strewn along the way. As the number of bodies grew, Chen Mo's thoughts turned more and more grave. He had an unshakeable feeling of foreboding.

Not long after, Chen Mo's thoughts finally came to fruition.

A black wall obstructed them. There were no more roads as far as he could see.

The end?

The end of the holy grounds?

Chen Mo was shocked.

"What?" Chen Luan was astonished. She ran before the wall, unfurling her Divine Intent in all directions, which did not penetrate in the slightest.

A dead end!

"Is this place the end of the Black Turtle holy grounds?" Chen Luan did not dare believe this.

Chen Mo looked around. Corpses were everywhere, the form of the Black Turtle holy grounds were completely nowhere in sight, much less a shadow of the legendary Black Turtle True Spirit.

"Let's look first." Chen Mo calmly said.

They searched the cavern and found no exits. Actually, there were many man-made holes, however, these holes were not very deep, approximately a few centimeters in depth.

"Little Brother, take a look at this." Chen Luan leaned over one of these holes and shouted to Chen Mo.

Chen Mo walked over. Chen Luan opened her palm to show some black grit. This grit was like powder, glistening and lustrous. This grit had come from the rock strata. Chen Mo looked at his Big Sister's somewhat surprised expression and grabbed some.

The moment these seemingly miniscule grains were placed in his palm, Chen Mo immediately felt an extreme weight. This weight nearly crushed his wrist, as if each grain was several thousand catties heavy.

"So heavy." Chen Mo tightly grasped them: "This is Black Turtle Armor Sand!"

"What, this is actually Spirit Sand." Chen Luan was taken aback.

Black Turtle Armor Sand was an extremely rare Spirit Sand in Star World. Reportedly, it was formed over a thousand years from the power of the Black Turtle. Each grain would be several thousand catties in weight. Regardless of whether it was forged into Flying Sword or armor, this Black Turtle Armor Sand would enormously boost the item's defensive capabilities.

In the Outer Star Fields, each Black Turtle Armor Sand grain was valuable enough to be exchanged for a city. It could be said to be truly priceless.

However, a Spirit Sand like this was very scarce in the Great Chong Dynasty.

"There's so much, Little Brother."³ Chen Luan looked carefully, finding that the surrounding walls surprisingly were full of this Spirit Sand.

"It seems this place really does have the Black Turtle True Spirit. Otherwise, it'd be impossible for there to be so much Black Turtle Armor Sand." Chen Mo creased his brow.

"But where is the Black Turtle True Spirit?" Chen Luan saw no sign of it whatsoever.

"Let's still look around for any clues, to find out just what happened in this place. Wang Sengbian said no warrior had ever returned from here alive, so this will not be simple." Chen Mo said.

After a brief search, Chen Mo finally found a journal from a corpse. The journal's owner recorded everything that happened prior to their death.

Chen Mo's heart grew even heavier from reading this journal.

According to the journal, the Northern Barbarian warriors who broke through the myriad dangers of the "Black Hall" from earlier thought that they had found the True Spirit. Their joyous result was the same as Chen Mo had found; they had reached a dead end.

The desperate warriors began to devise ways to locate the Black Turtle True Spirit. These leftover holes were the result of them using every kind of martial force. The Black Turtle Armor Sand had once made them enthusiastic, but the entire cavern being filled with this sand then made them feel fear. Exhausting every possible means and physical strength, they could hardly dig into the mountain to open a new path.

Therefore, some warriors dismissed thoughts of finding treasure. They attempted to first bring the Black Turtle Armor Sand back to the Northern Barbarians, but later, they discovered that because they had wasted their magic energy, to pass through the Black Hall once again was practically impossible. Thus, they were stuck ten million meters underground. Without spiritual power, there was no way to recover magic energy.

As a result, all of the warriors who came here fell into despair and began to kill one another.

Apparently, that was an exceptionally bloody battle. It seemed only one person managed to escape.

After reading everything, Chen Mo's expression was even more grave.

"What do we do?" Chen Luan wrinkled her brow. She never imagined this area would be so vicious.

"No, the Black Turtle True Spirit must be here, it must be hidden somewhere, there must be a way to find it." Chen Mo examined the surroundings. His eyes were decisively ice-cold. It was so difficult to just have this one opportunity to be able to confront the Yellow Court Realm Huan Wen. Chen Mo did not want to lose it like this.

The Black Turtle Armor Spirit Sand's appearance proved that this place indeed had the power of the True Spirit.

But just where is it?

Gazing at this tomb, Chen Mo was at a loss.

1. But Chen Luan should also have a Servant Star contract. Why isn't she using Star Energy? ↩
2. 衰竭 Technically, this can be "organ failure." I guess the point here is that their bodies begin to shut down. ↩
3. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ↩

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