The Purgatory Calamity
Chapter 359 - 338: The Beehive Lands_1

Chapter 359: Chapter 338: The Beehive Lands_1

Pessimism permeated the mountaintop.

Several mournful individuals felt perplexed, not only about themselves but also about the future of the Human Race, uncertain where the path forward lay.

The Ice-thunder Fragment Land still moved toward the Mysterious Fog where the Sword Boat was anchored, albeit at a relatively slow pace.

It was when this Fragment Land approached the Absolute Sky Forbidden Land.

Pang Jian’s eyes flashed with golden light, banishing the influence of all the liquor, and he said, "Before the Fragment Land enters the Mysterious Fog, remind the Ice Tribe people to be cautious of the fog’s contamination."

"After gathering strength for a time, this Fragment Land will travel increasingly fast toward Purgatory."

"I will go and have a chat with that Ice Armor Eel Dragon."

"..."

After giving his instructions, Pang Jian disappeared on the spot.

At his previous seat, above a shattered piece of ice rock, there appeared a Golden Bee Insect.

Looking at that Golden Bee Insect, those familiar with Pang Jian’s mystery knew that Pang Jian, who had gone to the Absolute Sky Forbidden Land, was still using it as a marker.

...

Within the dense forests of the Absolute Sky Forbidden Land,

"Hu!"

A gigantic beehive was pulled by Pang Jian from the "Purgatory Gate" and dropped into the center of the forest where the Wood Tribe warrior Kaz had perished.

Nearly a hundred yards tall, the enormous beehive harbored countless bee pupae, as well as bees the size of golden nodules, their eyes shining with a strange glow quietly observing Pang Jian.

At the very top of the beehive, a golden pupa that overshadowed all the others was particularly conspicuous.

And within it was the Bee King.

The Bee King, undergoing transformation, showed no immediate signs of breaking out of its cocoon, yet it conveyed a thread of consciousness, indicating to Pang Jian to settle the beehive here.

"This place fosters the growth and mutation of more Bee Insects?" Pang Jian expressed surprise.

Without borrowing the view of the Bee Insects, he unfolded his Divine Consciousness, and a faint golden radiance spread from his forehead outward.

In just a few breaths, this palish golden light had swept through the entire forest.

Human Race Cultivators, Ferocious Beasts, and Spirit Beasts corpses, all impaled on tree branches, hanging mid-air.

In the silent woods, tiny insects and mosquitoes flies lingered, yet there were no powerful and vibrant life forms.

But...

Pang Jian, who had forged his Spiritual Soul and was pondering its peculiarities, keenly sensed that within the brains of those dead Humans, as well as in the skulls of the Ferocious and Spirit Beasts, there remained strange soul remnants.

Within the soul remnants, there were faint images, carrying resentment and unwillingness from life.

These soul remnants still retained emotions.

"Are there residual souls? Have they not dissipated into the heavens and earth?"

Pang Jian paused in surprise.

"Hu! Huhu!"

One after another, Bee Insects flew out, alighting upon the corpses of Humans and unusually intelligent Spirit Beasts, as if gathering honey.

After death, the Humans and Spirit Beasts suspended in mid-air by tree branches possessed fragmented residual souls that had not been extinguished by the heavens and earth, were harvested by the Bee Insects with their Bee Souls.

"Gathering residual souls, absorbing the mixed thoughts and consciousness within, giving birth to spiritual intelligence to the Bee Souls?"

Pang Jian gradually grasped the wonder.

Initially entering the forest to kill Kaz of the Wood Tribe was under the guidance of the Bee King.

When he was forced to go to The Frozen Land, obtaining vast quantities of Divine Consciousness with the "Heart of Winter," the Bee King also distinctly claimed there was a suitable place for it in the Absolute Sky Forbidden Land before it entered its new transformation cycle—

—— This forest.

All the Bee Insects bred within the beehive, as it said, were parts of its Divine Sense, capable of being its avatars and supposedly possessing independent Spiritual Intelligence.

Yet, Pang Jian always felt that, though Bee Insects had souls, they lacked complete and independent Spiritual Wisdom.

This was akin to the Ferocious Beasts and Spirit Beasts of the Purgatory World, who, due to insufficient Bloodline progression, could not awaken true intelligence.

"It seems that this place aids the Bee Insects in manifesting their true Spiritual Intelligence."

Pang Jian quickly came to a realization.

"I wonder how much longer your transformation will take."

Gazing at the Bee King in its pupa state, not planning to awaken immediately, Pang Jian performed another instant movement through the Bee Insect.

He instantly moved to the lake where the Ice Armor Eel Dragon was hiding.

Stopping amidst the grass by the lake, he narrowed his eyes and extended his Divine Consciousness, witnessing mild ripples emerge on the serene lake surface as his spiritual essence silently penetrated it.

After forging his Spiritual Soul, he felt an odd sensation as if he had become an Alien God from another realm.

At the merest thought, his Divine Sense could delve deep into the earth, vanish into the deep sea and rivers, spread to tens of miles outward, and perceive all hidden Soul Spirits!

This seemed to be the very authority of a God Spirit!

"Do other Human Race Cultivators who ascend to the Spirit Condensation Realm have abilities like mine after forging their Spiritual Souls? Qi Qingsong, Dong Tianze and the rest, advancing by incorporating parts of the Divine within their Divine Sense, their Spiritual Souls should have some God Spirit traits, but likely not as miraculous as mine..."

Pang Jian pondered while experimenting.

A moment later, he gathered his scattered Divine Sense at the bottom of the lake, where it coalesced.

"Hu!"

A golden divine image emerged, woven and constructed from his Divine Sense.

At the lake’s bottom there were palaces, many Spirit Beasts of lower Bloodline rank in the water, and piles of bone remains without any flesh, spanning Human Race and Alien Tribes alike.

The white bones of the Golden-Winged Roc from the Desolated Terrains, with its Divine Blood drained dry, lay fragmented at the lake’s bottom.

Centered around the palaces, bone remains were scattered all over the lake’s bed, with swarms of fish and underwater Spirit Beasts roaming amidst them.

A dozen sharp-toothed Spirit Beasts in the water all glared at this unexpected visitor without flesh, just a soul shadow, their eyes brimming with ferocity.

"Pang Jian!"

The angry growl of the Ice Armor Eel Dragon resounded.

All the Spirit Beasts in the water retreated, and the unintelligent fish scattered in response to the growl.

Soon, a young man stepped out from the palace at the bottom of the lake.

He was clad in shiny silver armor, with a green jade belt wrapped around his waist, a tall and slender figure, with dragon horns on his forehead glowing brightly.

He had silver whiskers on his cheeks, a rugged appearance, and walked with a vigorous demeanor.

"You..."

Pang Jian was taken aback.

"What’s so strange about transforming into a human form?"

The Ice Armor Eel Dragon snorted coldly and said, "When I don’t plan to fight and wish to rest for a while, I occasionally take this form."

"Your Spiritual Soul..."

The Ice Armor Eel Dragon was somewhat surprised as he stared at Pang Jian’s Soul Spirit form and looked again before suddenly saying, "Why do I feel like the scattered aura of your Spiritual Soul is somewhat similar to those annoying gods from the Outer Realm?"

"Won’t you invite me in for a sit?"

Pang Jian asked.

"There are family members inside; it’s not convenient!"

The Ice Armor Eel Dragon bluntly refused, stretching his scale-covered hand and pointing up, "Let’s talk above!"

"Sea God!"

"My Lord..."

From the palace behind him came alluring calls that sounded like those from the Sea Clan women who worshipped him as a deity.

"You sure know how to enjoy life."

Pang Jian nodded; his golden Spiritual Soul flashed and instantly returned to his Sea of Consciousness.

At the level of the Spirit Condensation Realm, and only in its early stages at that, he could already separate his Spiritual Soul from his body and freely soar through the heavens and earth nearby.

In Purgatory, even those strong enough to have reached the early stages of the Soul Wandering Realm might not be able to achieve this step.

A multitude of divine accumulations, the terrifying amount of three thousand Divine Senses, made his nascent Spiritual Soul different from ordinary people.

As he pondered the many mysteries of this Spiritual Soul.

"Splash!"

The human-shaped Ice Armor Eel Dragon leapt out from the bottom of the lake and immediately saw the flying Ice-thunder Fragment Land. In a deep voice, he said, "You used a divine object to propel those two pieces of Fragment Land; are you planning to go back to Purgatory?"

"Mm."

Pang Jian nodded, saying, "You mentioned that you were captured by someone from the Fifth Realm and thrown into this Forbidden Land. Did that person look very similar to me?"

"A little," the Ice Armor Eel Dragon perfunctorily glanced around and spoke vaguely, "But I was too weak at the time and had not yet developed extraordinary Spiritual Wisdom, so I don’t remember clearly. Eh, where are your glaciers? What about the Thunder Pond?"

"In the Ice-thunder Fragment Land."

Pang Jian said.

"And you still dare to come to the Absolute Sky Forbidden Land!"

The Ice Armor Eel Dragon sneered, exhaling a storm of ice and snow intertwined with thunder and lightning, enveloping tens of miles around Pang Jian, intending to obliterate him there.

"If you die, those two divine objects will belong to me! Haha, Pang Jian, you’re really too careless!"

"Boom! Crack crack crack!"

The thunder exploded; hundreds of blades of ice interwoven, and a deep pit suddenly appeared in that area.

And Pang Jian was at a loss.

"You can actually teleport!"

The Ice Armor Eel Dragon looked up and saw Pang Jian emerging from the void next to the Mysterious Fog.

Then, he clearly saw a golden Bee Insect the size of a finger floating behind Pang Jian.

"Hold on a second."

Pang Jian frowned.

The flying Ice-thunder Fragment Land, on the verge of crashing into the Mysterious Fog where the Sword Boat was moored, slowed down its flight momentum.

In the high sky of the Absolute Sky Forbidden Land, Pang Jian summoned with his Spiritual Soul and saw the "Heart of Winter," situated at the Altar of Praying to God of the Ice Tribe, fly out with three towering glaciers.

The "Heart of Winter" was especially fast!

In an instant, the divine object left by the Ice Demon in The Frozen Land hung suspended in the void behind Pang Jian.

"Whoosh!"

Pang Jian’s Spiritual Soul shot out like lightning, descending into the core within the "Heart of Winter" and lightly grasping the crystal core of the "Star of Winter" with his golden Spiritual Soul, which had taken on a tangible form.

Streams of memory light containing the complete Divine Tao of the Ice Demon flowed into Pang Jian’s Spiritual Soul.

Pang Jian, using his Spiritual Soul to probe, saw deep within the crystal core of the "Star of Winter" the complete steps of how the Ice Demon transformed from an ordinary member of the Ice Tribe and, through step by step bloodline refinement, understanding the mysteries of cold ice over thousands of years, and growing strong enough to become a God Spirit.

What to pay special attention to at each step, what materials He had collected, how to forge a Spiritual Soul, how to strengthen a divine body.

Every detail was there!

"The Bee King was right; it doesn’t suit me."

Pang Jian gently shook his head, his Spiritual Soul holding on to the crystal core of the "Star of Winter," manipulating the three towering glaciers.

"Swoosh! Swoosh swoosh!"

The extreme cold ice light descended like swords.

The Ice Armor Eel Dragon roared, transforming into an 800-zhang long massive dragon body, using scales that housed ice and thunder to desperately withstand the incoming ice light.

"Pang Jian!"

"Let’s talk this out properly!"

"I was just trying to have a little fun with you!"

The Ice Armor Eel Dragon’s roars quickly turned into pleas for mercy.

The ice light, like gigantic ice blades wielded by a Sky God, headed straight for the palace at the bottom of the lake he had worked so hard to maintain; he had no choice but to resist with his body.

Otherwise, his foundation would be reduced to nothing in an instant.

...