The Purgatory Calamity
Chapter 257 - 242 Ancient Ruins_1

Chapter 257: Chapter 242 Ancient Ruins_1

Pang Jian immediately summoned the Astonishing Spear and began chiseling into the rock with the sharp spear tip, causing a "kkkk" sound as he pried out the cracked fragments.

This towering stone pillar, which he stripped of stone fragments as if peeling corn kernels, kept getting thinner as more pieces were removed.

"Dang!"

A clear, metallic sound suddenly emanated from the tip of the silver spear as if it had struck against metal.

Seeing hope, Pang Jian accelerated the removal of the rocks.

After a while.

A stout grey ape with lustrous black hair and holding a black iron rod was fully uncovered by Pang Jian inside the stone pillar.

The nearly ten-foot-tall ape, covered in lock armor around its waist, abdomen, and chest, seemed as if it had been dead for countless years, yet it still exuded a fierce aura, untouched by time.

Its apelike hand gripping the black iron rod was as powerful as an iron claw; its tightly closed eyes were creased with scars, with dried, congealed blood clots.

Gazing at it within the stone pillar, Pang Jian couldn’t help but think of the grey ape in the Solitude Mountain Range possessed of ice-blue eyes.

Yet, this one wore lock armor and held a black iron rod, clearly different from the grey ape.

Because only high-level intelligent beings understood how to use objects for protection and knew how to harness them.

The grey ape in the Solitude Mountain Range didn’t possess such power before Pang Jian left, otherwise, it wouldn’t have been captured by the Shangguan Family.

Suddenly!

The stout ape sealed or frozen within the stone pillar began to collapse rapidly like a sand sculpture.

In an instant, the ape with its intense, fierce aura crumbled into a pile of bone powder.

It gave Pang Jian the impression that it had been locked in the stone pillar for eons, which preserved its body from decay.

However.

As soon as the stone pillar shattered, exposing the ape to the outside world, the power of the long passage of time swiftly consumed it.

And thus, in the blink of an eye, it turned into a heap of ash.

Still, the black iron rod, once revealed from the pillar, was not affected by the backlash of time.

Pang Jian, without any hesitation, reached out to take the black iron rod to examine it closely.

However...

The iron rod, used by the ten-foot-tall ape, was so thick that he couldn’t grasp it in one hand; he had to encircle it tightly with both hands.

He pulled with force, but the black iron rod, as if embedded in the rock, didn’t budge.

After his complexion changed, he gathered Spiritual Power in his arms and body and exerted force to pull again.

"Boom!"

Rock fragments exploded, and the black iron rod finally moved slightly.

But when Pang Jian tried to infuse the rod with Spiritual Power, not a trace could enter; it seemed to be insulated against pure Spiritual Power.

"Rise!"

Frowning, Pang Jian exerted his strength again.

Qi and Blood from the "Creation Divine Pool" were utilized, he activated the power of the "Phantom Bone Realm," his skin shimmering like silver, as he tried once more to lever the black iron rod.

"Crack, crack!"

The black iron rod, taller than the ape, accompanied by a barrage of exploding stones, was pried by him directly smashing downward.

A mighty force capable of shaking heaven and earth erupted from the black iron rod, giving Pang Jian a chill in his heart.

He quickly released his grip on the rod.

"Boom!"

The iron rod smashed into the ground heavily, creating a long, narrow trench, with spiderweb-like cracks all around it.

Pang Jian, looking worse for wear, eyed the fallen iron rod with terrifying might, then compared its length to his hands and confirmed that he could not use it no matter what.

"This item cannot be used by a normal member of the Human Race, I’ll store it away for now."

Not bothering to examine it further, Pang Jian reached out to touch the iron rod and, with a soft shout of "Store," successfully collected the peculiar black iron rod.

"An ape of unknown age, a strange iron rod, this Stone Forest..."

Turning his attention back to the upright stone pillars, he suddenly felt that perhaps other pillars might house different kinds like the ape.

"Pass Through the Mountain!"

Quietly employing the mysteries of the Mysterious Turtle Shell, he cautiously passed through each stone pillar as he moved forward.

Yet, he found nothing more.

Even as he crossed this Stone Forest and arrived at an empty wilderness, there were no new discoveries.

Now, he glanced back and decided not to turn around to check each pillar.

He took out the Sword Command, infused it with Spiritual Power, and tried to contact that extraordinarily powerful girl from the Heaven Treasure Li Family.

After a while.

"It’s no use, the Array inside the Sword Command is completely immobile," he muttered.

Pang Jian’s expression darkened slightly.

He then summoned the Star-shattering Umbrella, took out the Astonishing Spear, and also the Spirit Sword gifted by Lei Kun.

He tried them one by one, infusing them with Spiritual Power, attempting to trigger their wondrous powers.

The fabric of the Star-shattering Umbrella, which used to shine bright with the radiance of the stars and the moon, no longer flickered; the Array within the Astonishing Spear ceased to function, and the might of the Spirit Sword given by Lei Kun was significantly weakened!

All the Arrays within these artifacts, upon leaving the Stone Forest and stepping into the wilderness, seemed to have become useless.

Arrays are a way in which Human Race cultivators have understood the rules of heaven and earth and represented them differently.

Flying Spirit Artifacts contain Spirit Arrays; magic artifacts also contain Spirit Arrays; the great arrays that protect Sects, as well as the Talisman Seal God Text, are all part of the essential arsenal that cultivators of the Human Race rely on to survive!

But in this world, all the Arrays inside the many Spiritual Artifacts in Pang Jian’s hands had failed.

"Li Yuqing must be here!" he declared.

At that moment, he suddenly became certain that it was because he had come here that the young miss of the Li Family could not operate her Sword Command properly, and that was why he could not communicate with her.

"Hoo!"

An all too familiar Unstable Ferry, whistling from the distant sky, intruded recklessly into the airspace of the Prayer Spirit Forbidden Land.

But...

The Unstable Ferry, while mid-air, experienced a sudden failure of its propelling Array and crashed with a loud bang ahead.

Streaks of blood-red light immediately shot up into the sky, where silhouettes of the Blood Moon Gate’s members emerged within.

Faintly, terrified and indistinct shrieks came through.

This scene left Pang Jian astonished.

Then, a Golden Coach of the Star River Alliance also approached from another direction high above the Prayer Spirit Forbidden Land.

"Boom!"

The Golden Coach too crashed into the depths of the Forbidden Land.

The bizarre expression on Pang Jian’s face intensified.

The Blood Moon and the Star River Alliance, these two major Sects, were right next to the Prayer Spirit Forbidden Land.

They had explored the Prayer Spirit Forbidden Land countless times; how could there be such an error as Flying Spirit Artifacts suddenly losing control and falling?

Unless, the anomaly of the Prayer Spirit Forbidden Land had occurred only recently, without the Blood Moon or the Star River Alliance knowing about the chaos there!

Only this could explain the odd incident unfolding before his eyes.

"There’s no nature’s spiritual energy to use, nor any other special forces, and the thin air contains no toxins that infiltrate and contaminate organs..."

Pang Jian took a deep breath, his mood becoming somewhat heavy, and he hurriedly tried to establish a connection with the Mysterious Turtle and the Sapling.

Thankfully, as soon as he focused his thoughts, he sensed the presence of the Mysterious Turtle and the Sapling.

He breathed a sigh of relief and once again channeled Spiritual Power into his Astonishing Spear and Spirit Sword, finding that the transmission of Spiritual Power was not an issue, only that the Arrays that amplified the artifacts’ power were no longer working.

"Bang! Boom boom boom!"

The silver spear tip released a series of intense light orbs, which also brought down silver bright ice thunder.

However, those light orbs and ice thunder, due to the absence of the multiplying Arrays of the Astonishing Spear, were only the size of a child’s fist, their power greatly diminished.

"The ineffectiveness of artifacts, the inability of the Spirit Arrays to operate, the absence of a trace of nature’s spiritual energy—it’s fair to everyone."

Putting away his spear, Pang Jian carried his Spirit Sword and officially advanced into the Forbidden Land.

Shortly after, he saw an incomplete black-winged stone statue, shattered on the desolate land.

If the statue were erect, it would probably be dozens of feet high, comparable to the Cyclops of the Fifth Realm.

The black stone-carved statue resembled the Devil Scale Tribe warriors of the Fifth Realm, yet had wings much broader than those of the Heaven Clan.

Only, the statue had a pair of huge black wings instead of the several pairs common to the Heaven Clan.

The stone statue, with its head and torso broken, its limbs also severed, seemed to have been gruesomely disassembled into many pieces scattered over the land, presenting a sight of desolation and sadness.

Pang Jian slowly approached, coming before the head of this peculiar stone statue, looking at its ghastly face.

Suddenly the sound of howling wind arose.

"Woo woo! Waa waa, waa waa!"

The strange howling of the wind, like the murmurs of Evil Spirits, caused goosebumps and blurred consciousness.

Pang Jian’s spirit tensed.

Upon closer inspection, he discovered that the eerie howling came from the hollowed-out eye sockets and the open mouth of the statue.

The statue’s eye sockets and mouth appeared to have been pierced by some blade, and when the wind blew through them, a peculiar and sharp howl was formed.

After listening for a while.

"Something’s not right..."

Pang Jian saw strands of Divine Sense within his Sea of Consciousness rapidly shrivel, indicating that a significant amount of his mental energy had been consumed.

After silently swallowing a Soul Nourishing Pill, he passed the shattered stone statue with black wings and continued pressing forward.

Gradually.

The destroyed Fragmented Altars, stone pillars that exploded from the ground, stone statues of wildly differing designs, and bizarre wood carvings, began to appear in large numbers.

All along the way, they were everywhere to be seen.

It wasn’t difficult to imagine that in some ancient era, many different intelligent life forms than the Human Race might have erected altars, stone statues, and wood carvings in this special boundary formerly known as the Land of Prayer Spirit, each to communicate with the God Spirits they believed in, somewhere out of sight.

After the Alien Tribes were defeated, once the Human Race became the Sovereign of Purgatory, they destroyed the Land of Prayer Spirit.

All the altars, stone statues, and wood carvings used by the Alien Tribes to communicate with their God Spirits were eradicated by the Human Race.

The Alien Tribes were either wiped out, or they were sealed in the Fifth Realm’s Eternal Darkness.

Two hours later.

Pang Jian, who had hardly paused along the way, stopped at a severely shattered circular altar, looking at the six broken stone pillars next to it, with murals carved on them.

Unfamiliar Talisman Seal God Text, murals of the Cyclops performing heaven-sacrifices, all on the broken surfaces of the pillars.

This place, evidently, was another altar used by the Cyclops for communicating with the Ice Demon.

Pang Jian had previously achieved Innate status through the practice of "Unity of Heaven and Man" at a similarly destroyed altar beneath Ice-Rock City.

Moreover, he had seen how the Cyclops of Ice-Rock City used Yanshan to extend the life of his young son, Aman.

After hesitating for a while, he stood on the even more severely damaged altar, looking at the broken pieces of the six stone pillars on the ground.

He sat down on the spot.

"Ice Demon..."

He murmured softly, just like he had beneath the underground palace of Ice-Rock City, closing his eyes to sense.

The next moment, he was shocked and pale.

...