Chapter 458: People from the Outer Domains (Two-in-One)

The two men got straight to work, rolling up their sleeves and digging into the dirt.

The heavy lifting naturally fell to Yan Jing.

Ning Wei was obviously far more skilled in the path of weird energy. He wasn't particularly known for his physical strength, and it wasn't long before he was panting in exhaustion.

Beside him, Yan Jing simply clenched his fists and smashed them viciously into the ground.

Sand and dust instantly blasted into the sky like a reverse waterfall. The surrounding visibility plummeted, plunging them into darkness.

"Fuck—"

Ning Wei hurriedly covered his mouth and nose. God only knew what would happen if this dust, which could channel weird energy, got inside his body.

Sand filled the air, completely blotting out the light of day.

Yan Jing continuously pummeled the earth blow after blow, his punching speed somehow still increasing.

This freak—

Ning Wei stared wide-eyed. He could feel himself continuously sinking as the sand across a radius of hundreds of meters was blasted into the air by the terrifying force, causing the entire ground to collapse.

Suddenly, a blood-red bone emerged from the dust and appeared at his feet.

Ning Wei quickly tore off a corner of his clothes and wrapped it up.

He felt even more astonished.

Yan Jing didn't just possess brute strength. The fact that he could launch the sand into the air while leaving objects of different densities right where they were proved that his direction and control of force had reached an unimaginable level.

He had read ancient texts and knew that in a distant era, there were experts who specialized in the path of the physical body. In their hands, strength could undergo endless variations, mimicking all living things to strike down other pathways.

That ancient text had cited a terrifying physical expert as an example, claiming the man could transform his strength into tens of thousands of threads. With what looked like a light punch, he could accurately assassinate hundreds of specific targets within a crowd of thousands, leaving the rest completely oblivious.

Back then, he had suspected the ancient texts were exaggerating. Looking at it now, they might have been conservative.

In this current era, even if someone wanted to comprehend the path of strength, there was nowhere left to seek its legacy.

Even if the man before him had encountered some fortuitous opportunities, he couldn't possibly compare to that distant, brilliant era.

Yet he could actually do this.

That alone spoke volumes.

Several hours later.

Yan Jing finally stopped punching.

By now, his clothes were drenched in sweat, his curly blond hair clinging wetly to his cheeks.

He hadn't stopped because he was tired, but because they couldn't go any deeper.

They were currently at the bottom of an extremely deep pit. At this depth, the pale gray sand had vanished, replaced by pitch-black stone devoid of any luster.

The stone reflected absolutely no light; at first, Yan Jing had mistakenly thought what lay below was a bottomless abyss.

But upon touching it, he felt solid reality.

Yan Jing struck it forcefully, but felt only an extremely faint tremor from the stone. Not a single crack appeared.

"It's Domain rock."

Ning Wei spoke up from beside him. "The density of this stuff is massive—but it's weird. We've only descended two or three hundred meters, and we've already hit Domain rock?"

"This place probably doesn't have much of a foundation," Yan Jing said.

"If this were a Domain with a profound history, this kind of Domain rock would be at least thousands of meters underground."

"Then let's gather the items."

Yan Jing made a prompt decision. The hundreds-of-meters-deep pit was currently littered with items, at least several hundred of them.

Most of the items looked dull and lackluster, while some still retained their original glow.

Mixed among them were one or two pieces that, although not dazzling, made even Yan Jing's heart pound.

Those items bore scattered motes of light, something Yan Jing had seen before.

He currently had a crystal on hand filled entirely with these exact specks of light.

Divine Source.

If his guess was correct, these items had been tainted with divinity.

This was also the objective behind the warden's trip here.

"Let's organize them based on the depth we dug them up from."

With only a few hundred items, the two quickly sorted them into categories.

Most of the objects had lost their luster, essentially dating back to before the severed era. Many were already as fragile as thin paper.

If they used even a little force, the items would likely crumble into dust.

This was understandable. First, they had endured the cataclysmic upheaval of the severed era. Second, even if they had survived the mutation caused by the Source of Mutation, the concept of a heart of reaching the summit didn't exist for the entities of that era, so they naturally wouldn't possess any luster.

There were only about a dozen items with a glow—meaning they contained a heart of reaching the summit. With a wave of his hand, Yan Jing split the items with Ning Wei in a seventy-thirty ratio.

Thirty percent for Ning Wei, seventy percent for him.

Ning Wei was naturally very happy with this.

He was already under another's roof and forced to bow his head. The fact that Yan Jing was even willing to give him a share completely exceeded his expectations.

Aside from the lustrous items, there were also two items that carried motes of light.

One was a broken sword with about eight or nine deep blue specks of light.

The blade radiated a chilling cold. When Yan Jing had reached the layer of soil burying it, he felt the dirt harden and thought he had hit the bottom. He only realized later that the sword had caused the surrounding soil's temperature to plummet, forming a layer of permafrost.

The other item was a command medallion.

It only had two sparse specks of light, but Yan Jing valued it even more than the broken sword.

That was because there was text carved into the medallion.

This medallion was also exactly how they confirmed which soil layer belonged to the severed era.

Yan Jing grasped the medallion in his hand, narrowing his eyes as he looked at the six or seven symbols on the back that looked like intertwined tadpoles.

"What does it say?"

Ning Wei leaned in from the side.

He actually couldn't tell where the severed era began either.

But Yan Jing was very certain, so all he could do was believe him.

"Direct Disciple."

"Giant Vein Immortal Sect."

Yan Jing read softly.

"Are you serious?"

Ning Wei stared wide-eyed.

The Immortal Pathway had not gone extinct. Inside the Great Prison, there were still people walking the path of immortality.

There were just very few of them.

It was a massive Domain called Immortal Anomaly, and it was extremely mysterious.

According to what the warden had vaguely disclosed, it wasn't a place he wanted to provoke.

Whether it was because of the people in charge or the Domain itself, the implications hidden in that information were terrifying to think about.

"The Giant Vein Immortal Sect, huh..."

Yan Jing closed his eyes, searching through Wen Xu's memories, and soon found this sect.

Back then, it was considered a major powerhouse in a Domain called the Vast Marsh Immortal Domain. Its sect leader had reached the so-called Celestial Immortal Stage; with a casual strike, he could annihilate a minor realm.

That was the final peak of the ancient era.

Although Yan Jing felt that the Celestial Immortal from the memories was still lacking compared to an imagined Deity, after comparing it repeatedly, he confirmed that the sect leader had been at least two major realms higher than him.

The realm of a direct disciple within the sect would be about one major realm lower than the sect leader.

That sect specialized in the physical body.

They possessed a method that allowed disciples to shed their innately deficient spiritual roots, turning instead to sanctifying their flesh and gradually tempering it.

During the severed era, the Wizard Tribe in the Vast Marsh Immortal Domain had already been driven to a dead end.

The path of the immortal wizard had been hunted down and eradicated hundreds of years prior.

They were condemned as false immortals.

The campaign to eradicate these false immortals involved a magnificent, epic saga.

A young heavenly prodigy rose to prominence out of nowhere, stood against the false immortals, and ultimately achieved victory.

But that story was for another time.

What drew Yan Jing's interest was that when the Source of Mutation descended, the Giant Vein Immortal Sect hadn't treated it as a world-ending catastrophe like most sects did. Instead, they had chosen to welcome and accept it.

In the end, the Giant Vein Immortal Sect developed a method capable of perfectly integrating weird energy with their own bodies.

Relying on this exact method, they managed to endure the severed era and survive.

However, the path of the immortal wizard completely died out shortly after the severed era ended, so Yan Jing didn't know if the sect had managed to survive all the way to the present.

Looking at the medallion in his hand, compared to the divinity that couldn't be absorbed, Yan Jing was much more interested in whether he could glean some techniques from it.

Even if it wasn't that specific method, it might still serve as a useful reference.

But after tinkering with it for a while, he turned up nothing.

Seeing the surrounding light growing ever dimmer as night approached, Ning Wei spoke up. "Let's move out."

"I took a look. Some of these relics seem to belong to Summit experts. That means there might be even more terrifying existences in this place that we just haven't run into yet."

"It's about to get dark. We should find a spot to hole up, observe the situation for a bit, and then take our time studying these things."

"Makes sense."

Yan Jing stored away the medallion and the broken sword. As for the items containing a heart of reaching the summit, there were simply too many; once Yan Jing absorbed the hearts of reaching the summit from within, he casually tossed the crumbling remains back into the dirt.

The two climbed out of the giant pit. After a brief discussion, they ultimately decided to head back to where they had first entered.

Soon, they returned to their starting point and quietly waited for nightfall.

The night didn't turn out to be as dangerous or thrilling as they had imagined.

Aside from the howling gales, billowing dust storms, and occasional massive shadows of unknown origin passing by, nothing else happened.

Neither of them slept.

Until early the next morning.

The wind had died down a bit.

The two set out once more, only to find that the giant pit they had excavated yesterday was completely filled in.

Everything looked exactly the same as it had the day before.

Yan Jing specifically went to the spot where he found the golden bone last night to check. He noticed some white ash left behind, looking exactly like the residue of the golden bone crumbling away yesterday.

"Does everything reset back to how it was?"

Yan Jing looked over at Ning Wei, who patted down his pockets and discovered that the items he had drained yesterday were gone.

The ones he hadn't absorbed yet were still there.

"Interesting."

Yan Jing's eyes narrowed. Staring at the dust before him, a bold idea suddenly sprang to mind.

Could all of this in front of them...

...be the ashes of the items?

After thinking it over, the two ultimately continued moving forward.

The difficulty near the second stone block was a bit higher than the first, but not by much.

The creatures residing here were silhouettes covered in multiple arms.

They looked very much like humans, but they had no facial features, no internal organs like livers, kidneys, or lungs, and no reproductive organs to speak of (a conclusion reached after Yan Jing and Ning Wei worked together to subdue one and examine it). They only possessed something resembling a heart.

However, it was a hard, spherical object.

Perhaps they were the remains of entities of the Buddhas.

Yan Jing came to this conclusion after repeatedly examining the body.

The subsequent stone block proved this point.

This time, Yan Jing, who received an A-plus rating again, obtained a scripture titled Thousand-Hand Buddha.

Once practiced, it would allow the cultivator to grow multiple controllable arms.

Unfortunately, Yan Jing had no way to practice it either.

Afterward, it was back to digging pits as usual.

The pit they needed to dig this time was much larger than the previous one, so they planned to divide the excavation into two sections.

Just like that, they worked straight for two days.

Then, the two fell into a routine.

Clear stages during the day.

Dig pits in the afternoon.

Wait for the pit to restore itself at night.

The items in the later soil layers were far fewer than in the initial layer. Objects with luster and divinity were reduced by about half, while the total volume was down by eighty percent.

The two theorized this was because the entities that died at the first stone block were caught off guard and fell victim to it unknowingly.

Those capable of passing the first stone block were much stronger in both strength and vigilance compared to those before them. Coupled with the fact that the difficulty curve between stones wasn't too steep, the mortality rate naturally dropped.

Still, it was considered a very bountiful harvest.

Just like that, the sixth day arrived.

The two successfully cleared the third stone block.

"Looks like there's only one stone block left ahead."

Ning Wei stared fervently at the final stone block in the distance.

He had reaped a tremendous harvest over the past few days. The hearts of reaching the summit he'd absorbed had even hit his personal limit.

If he wanted to absorb any more, he would either need a heart of reaching the summit from someone walking the same Pathway as him, or he had to comprehend more of the heart of reaching the summit himself first.

"We might have to stop for a while."

Yan Jing lightly closed his eyes.

"Why?"

Ning Wei was taken aback.

"Your annual leave is almost up."

Yan Jing spoke softly.

Ning Wei was speechless.

Never in his wildest dreams did he think it would be for a reason like this.

"What are you planning to do?"

"I haven't decided yet."

Yan Jing sighed. "The exploration progress here is slower than I imagined. If it comes down to it, I'll just have to tell the Wizard Tribe to go into hiding for now."

"But it still depends on how much importance that person places on this."

Ning Wei remained silent for a long time. Finally, with a conflicted look in his eyes, he spoke up. "I still have five days of compensatory leave saved up from working overtime."

"Excellent."

Yan Jing clapped his hands together and laughed. "Thank you for your generous gift."

"Did you do that on purpose?" Ning Wei asked, watching Yan Jing's previously gloomy expression vanish without a trace.

"It was a guess," Yan Jing replied breezily. "Just look at that burlap sack you're dragging around like a hoarding hamster. I figured you were the type of person who likes to save for a rainy day."

What kind of decent person spent every day scheming after someone else's vacation time?

Ning Wei felt completely helpless.

But he had no other choice.

Until they left this area, there was no chance for his weird energy to recover. Right now, he was completely dependent on Yan Jing for food, water, and survival.

Sometimes he was quite curious about where exactly Yan Jing was conjuring these supplies from.

Even the burlap sack in his hands, which currently held the items containing a heart of reaching the summit, had been produced out of thin air by Yan Jing.

Moreover, sometimes Yan Jing took things from his pockets, and other times he pulled them straight out of midair.

He suspected there was some sort of difference between the two methods.

What he didn't know was that the things Yan Jing pulled from his pockets were stored inside a Space Rift.

But a Space Rift couldn't cross into a different Domain.

So, Yan Jing's process for storing things was:

Carry the items on his person—cross into the Domain—open the Space Rift—put the items inside. Because of this, he naturally couldn't bring too much with him.

The bulk of his supplies were actually delivered by Xiao Xin.

Sometimes when there were a lot of things, Xiao Xin had to make several trips a day. Even though it was much faster now than before, each trip still took an hour or two.

Not only that, but Xiao Xin was also the one reporting on the status of his Painted Body and his leave of absence forms.

Sometimes, seeing Xiao Xin tired and sweating profusely, Yan Jing even felt a little guilty.

This gradually solidified his determination to use the Divine Source on Xiao Xin.

Xiao Xin was currently still too weak (not really).

Faced with Ning Wei's urging, Yan Jing remained silent for a few seconds before saying, "Let's rest for a few hours before we head out."

Without explaining why, he simply left Xiao Xin on watch and then severed his consciousness from the Surface World.

"Mr. Yan, are you listening to me?"

Sheng Xia spoke up, watching Yan Jing, who was reacting a little slowly for some unknown reason.

"I heard you."

Yan Jing chuckled softly. "You said people from the Outer Domains have arrived, and they're calling an assembly over there right now."

"Yes, it's mandatory," Sheng Xia sighed.

"The newcomers aren't here with good intentions."

"Alright, let's go take a look then," Yan Jing said.