The Purgatory Calamity
Chapter 141 - 126: Absorbing Starlight and Moonlight into the Dantian_1

Chapter 141: Chapter 126: Absorbing Starlight and Moonlight into the Dantian_1

By the Blood Pool.

The beauty of Luo Hongyan was breathtaking, her soul-snatching eyes shining with astonishing radiance.

She danced alone in the cave with joy.

Her graceful, bright red figure flitted through the red mist, like a fairy intent on ascending to the heavens, or a sprite descending to the mortal world.

Every so often, she glanced at the copper plate on the ground, and then her crisp, cheerful laughter would fill the entire cave.

The copper plate, placed beside the box, was originally her sole reason for approaching Pang Jian.

Now, Pang Jian was inside the box, presumably engulfed in darkness as she once was.

Since Pang Jian had not worn the copper plate, it was highly likely he couldn’t touch the lid of the box, effectively trapped in that secret domain of darkness.

At this moment, with Pang Jian confined and no external force to lift the lid, his escape would be difficult.

Yet the bronze plate was right before her eyes.

"You..."

Luo Hongyan’s laughter grew louder, a feeling of being completely trusted that she had never experienced in her life.

It was at this moment she felt that all her acts of kindness toward Pang Jian, her repeated initiatives to get close, and her recent companionship...

——Suddenly, everything she had done seemed meaningful.

"Wait for me, wait until I have remolded my body, and I will touch you in my most perfect form..."

Her heart was filled with anticipation.

"Clack!"

She opened the lid of the copper box, allowing Pang Jian to return from that deathly quiet void of darkness.

"I have lived through your experience."

After stepping out of the box, Pang Jian picked up the copper plate from the ground, put it back on, touched the plate with his fingers, and looked at Luo Hongyan, "You knew its mystery all along?"

Luo Hongyan nodded with a smile.

Pang Jian hesitated for a moment, ready to explain; he hadn’t fully understood the secret of the bronze plate either.

Seeing his troubled expression, Luo Hongyan pursed her lips and chuckled softly, "No need to explain, everyone has their secrets."

"To tell you the truth, the reason I possessed Ning Yao to get close to you was that I saw a drop of Phoenix Marrow slip into the copper plate back at Black Water Pool. Phoenix Marrow, just like the ’Crystal-clear Snow Lotus’, could become the main ingredient to remodel my flesh and blood."

Recalling the past, she laughed heartily and unrestrainedly.

Pang Jian snorted, "No wonder you, in the guise of Ning Yao, tried to get close to me on numerous occasions. It turns out you had an ulterior motive."

"At first, indeed, I had plans for this plate, but later on, it was no longer about the copper plate."

Luo Hongyan blinked playfully.

Pang Jian coughed, unsettled by the strange light in her eyes, so he re-entered the box and closed the lid again.

"Giggle!"

Luo Hongyan’s laughter became even more unrestrained.

Inside the box.

Pang Jian, who had laid back down, saw a bright full moon and countless shining stars reappear above him.

As if in another dimension, he admired the scene that Bai Zhi, Bai Wei, and Zhao Ling all longed for, feeling a bit entranced himself.

Enclosed in the sealed box, gazing at the vast and mysterious starry sky, he felt calm and serene.

He naturally practiced the "Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell," invigorating the vigorous life force within him, gathering the life vitality within the leaf and refining his blood.

A profound feeling suddenly emerged!

While cultivating with the "Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell," the envisaged "Spirit Pot" seemed to draw down the moonlight and starlight, capturing them into his Spiritual Sea!

The moonlight and starlight, becoming tangible and slightly cool, subtly merged into his dantian.

Not long after.

Above his Spiritual Sea, in his dantian, there appeared a dot the size of a grain of rice, like a miniature moon shrunken by billions!

Around the tiny moon, several points shone like pinpoint stars twinkling in the sky.

The moon and the stars, as if they had been captured in his dantian!

At the same time.

Luo Hongyan saw the box placed on the ground, now closed from the inside by Pang Jian, suddenly shine with dazzling brilliance!

The purity of light, like that of the stars and moon, brightened the originally dim cave significantly.

Luo Hongyan was immediately stunned.

For a moment, she felt as if she, in Ning Yao’s body, had returned to Bagua City in the Fifth Realm.

The light emitted by the walls and stone floors of Bagua City was remarkably similar to that now radiated by the box!

"Array Eye, Artifact Soul!"

She suddenly recalled what Li Jie told City Lord Yuan Shishan— that the box was the Array Eye of Bagua City, capable of preserving Yuan Shishan’s lingering soul.

Yuan Shishan was the Artifact Soul within the Array Eye.

If the box was indeed the Array Eye, then could that same box have been what illuminated Bagua City and dispelled the Darkness?

The light emitted by the box now seemed to brighten the cave walls, making the cave so much brighter.

"Clack!"

Pang Jian opened the lid, sat up in the box, his face full of amazement.

"While I was cultivating inside the box, it seemed I could gather the light from the stars and moon, integrating it into my Spiritual Sea."

He told Luo Hongyan.

"You should come out and see."

Luo Hongyan said softly.

Confused, Pang Jian hadn’t quite grasped what was happening yet. When he came out of the copper box as she had suggested, he saw the box emitting light that made the entire cave even brighter.

"Pang Jian, the copper medallion you wear may be related to Bagua City. It feels to me like a mysterious key that can unlock secrets! Originally, when I searched for the Mirror Tunnel on Lake Heart Island for a long time without success, it appeared as soon as you came out of White Tower."

Luo Hongyan voiced her speculation.

Pang Jian remained silent, thinking back to the time after he left Bagua City when the copper medallion had absorbed the ice crystal-like Mirror Tunnel.

Wearing the medallion and entering the odd experience inside the box also proved that this object was indeed related to Bagua City.

"Li Jie of the Heaven Treasure Li Family said that the trial in Bagua City was because of him."

Luo Hongyan looked at Pang Jian and said softly, "I don’t know why, but I always feel that he is just a front, and you are the key to causing the frequent appearances of Mirror Tunnels everywhere, triggering the trials of Bagua City."

"Impossible, right?"

Pang Jian was astonished.

"Forget it, let’s not talk about this."

Luo Hongyan offered a faint smile, shook her head as if to cast aside her many doubts, and said, "You took out the box to see if it could contain those people from the Dark Ghosts and whether there was any chance to save them, right?"

"Now, you’ve found a way."

Pang Jian immediately realized what she meant and said, "You mean, the light released by the box can disperse the Filth Alien Power of the Fifth Realm?"

"The Power of Filth in Bagua City is definitely many times more potent than what is about to spread to Sky Fortune Fragment Land. If the city’s radiance can block the Power of Filth from Bagua City, what about those coming from the Ouyang Family’s territory?"

After a pause, Luo Hongyan said with a smile, "Cold on the outside but warm on the inside, go find those who tried to save you, the burdens who weren’t much help."

Pang Jian was somewhat worried and said, "If they come, won’t you be exposed?"

"You can stay by their side and let them carve out new caves for themselves. Above us, there are no Cloud Sails to be seen, and Raging Sun Sect’s Fire Cloud Ships are high in the sky, invisible to them at night."

"The Ferocious Beasts and plants of Cloud Marsh have all been burned to death, and those in hiding will be overwhelmed by the Filth, so they no longer closely watch this place."

Luo Hongyan informed him of the current situation.

"Alright."

Pang Jian nodded and put away the miraculous Copper Box.

As soon as the Copper Box disappeared, the brightly lit cave immediately returned to its original state, no longer seeming so bright.

"I will get it done quickly."

He immediately stepped out of the cave.

Outside, it was yet another deep night.

Under the deep night sky, the vast land had become scorched earth, the trees turned to charcoal.

This Cloud Marsh, where people and plants had almost perished, showed no signs of life.

Looking into the distant sky, there were no flying vessels like Cloud Sails, and listening intently, there were no sounds of insects chirping.

The whole world had become eerily silent.

"When the Power of Filth invades, what will become of this quiet, withered land, now covered by the evil aura from the Lower Realm?"

Pang Jian sighed with emotion.

Thinking of a world once brimming with life, now reduced to dead silence in a matter of moments, and knowing that similar events would continue to unfold, he couldn’t help being moved.

...

Inside an underground cavern.

"Liars! They are all liars, they’ve betrayed our trust!"

Zhao Ling tore up small flags one by one and smashed the materials for constructing the Ghost Altar, angrily saying, "He’s not even willing to deceive us!"

Meng Qiulan sighed deeply, shaking her head without saying a word.

Wu Yi grimaced, sighing with a look of sorrow.

The sisters Bai Wei and Bai Zhi bowed their heads and wept.

Just moments ago.

Zhao Ling had once again started up the Ghost Altar and had asked the Ghost Leader whether the strong member of the Yin Spirit Temple who had attacked the Beast-Catching Ship had been sent by the Ghost Leader.

The Ghost Leader not only denied any connection but also inquired how much they knew about the strong member from the Yin Spirit Temple.

Zhao Ling immediately understood that the mysterious strongman who had helped them was not related to the Dark Ghost Leader at all.

Afterward, the Ghost Leader frankly informed them that the Filth Alien Power rising from the Lower Realm was spreading toward Sky Fortune Fragment Land.

Feeling utterly hopeless and helpless, Zhao Ling demanded to know if they would receive help, only for the Ghost Leader’s figure to vanish from the Ghost Altar.

Zhao Ling, who had clung to the last shred of fantasy, had her hope personally extinguished by the Dark Ghost Leader, and destroyed her Ghost Altar in an emotional breakdown.

Even Meng Qiulan’s altar was smashed to pieces in Zhao Ling’s fiery anger.

The group had lost all their spiritual support, seeing no glimmer of hope, and felt completely disillusioned with the organization Dark Ghost.

Suddenly!

"Hong Jian!"

Bai Zhi rubbed her eyes in disbelief, looking at the figure emerging from the water and screamed with joy, "It’s Hong Jian! Hong Jian is back!"

"Hong Jian?"

Everyone looked over in unison.

They soon saw Pang Jian crawling out from the extended waterway, drenched.

"You all are indeed still alive."

Pang Jian nodded at them and said, "Outside, everything is upside down, with beasts and plants extinct, and the seven great families and those from the Upper Realm no longer paying attention to this place."

"What does that matter?"

Wu Yi frowned, his eyes filled with bleakness, and said with a bitter smile, "The Power of Filth is about to invade; where can we flee?"

Zhao Ling stood up from the rubble, looking at Pang Jian, who had been missing for a long time, and asked in astonishment, "How come you’ve suddenly appeared now?"

Through the Ghost Leader, they knew about the impending invasion of the Filth Alien Power over Sky Fortune, thinking Pang Jian was hiding somewhere waiting to die, just like them.

"I’ve come to help you survive."

...