Chapter 304

Chapter 304: Illuminating Death

The sensation was incredibly faint.

Had the White Jade Skeleton not chosen to come near the Reincarnation Well, Zhang Yang might have missed it entirely.

Standing at the edge of the well, he focused all his attention on sensing it.

The subtle call, elusive and distant, stirred something ancient within his bloodline.

Yet, no matter how he concentrated, it remained just out of reach.

The Reincarnation Well appeared rather ordinary, resembling a simple well dug by an average household.

Zhang Yang walked to its edge and peered inside.

As the birthplace of skeletal life, it naturally contained endless mysteries. For the skeletons, the Reincarnation Well was the foundation of their existence, without it, they would never have been born. Its significance was extraordinary.

Standing close, he leaned down to get a better look.

A misty gray fog filled the well.

Even with his sharp vision, he couldn’t clearly discern what was resonating with his bloodline.

Activating the Nine Extremes True Essence, he infused power into his eyes, suddenly enhancing his vision.

The fog below became transparent, his sight extending deeper than before. Yet, what he saw remained hazy. But this time, he vaguely saw…

A lamp!

It looked exactly like the lamp that had once illuminated the Heavenly Court.

A small oil lamp. The lampstand was cracked and damaged. The flame flickered like a tiny green bean.

"It’s another Tiny Flame. Could it be that what the Black Tiger said was true? That my complete bloodline awakening requires me to seek out various flames across the Falling Star Mountain Range? And they all look like this?"

A sudden realization flashed across his face. His expression changed slightly.

He abruptly lifted his gaze, turning toward the vast River of Death, where the Ghost Ship of the Buried Immortals drifted forward slowly.

"A coincidence? How could it possibly be a coincidence! It’s the Great Terror in the Cabin!"

At that moment, he understood something crucial.

The Great Terror in the Cabin’s supposed revenge against the ghostly figure made no sense. Would a soaring dragon in the nine heavens ever concern itself with the provocation of an ant?

Of course not. So then, why had it acted?

The idea that it had taken revenge on the ghostly figure for its impersonation didn’t hold up. Then what about the breathing sounds from earlier, the ones that had made Ghost Island feel so transparent?

Transparent!

Most of Ghost Island’s mysteries had been revealed, except for the Reincarnation Well. It hadn’t yet become transparent enough to unveil the figure of the Supreme Emperor, the founder of the Taixu Dynasty, who had emerged from nowhere and submerged the Ghost Ship of the Buried Immortals in the river.

"What if I look at it from another perspective?"

"What if the Great Terror in the Cabin was awakened by my bloodline, catching a glimpse of some grand mystery, one that led it to help me find this lamp. While the Supreme Emperor is trying to prevent the birth of that lamp?"

"Is that possible?"

His intuition strongly affirmed this hypothesis.

Zhang Yang had always possessed sharp instincts, and at this moment, he felt that he might be close to the truth.

Of course, there was also the possibility that he was simply thinking too highly of himself, letting his own presence distort his perception of events.

After all, why would the Abyss of the Buried Immortals undergo a mutation just for him?

"Supreme Emperor… Great Terror in the Cabin…"

He murmured to himself.

He had the distinct feeling that there was a deeper secret buried beneath all of this, but he couldn’t yet grasp the full picture.

For now, he shook off his distracting thoughts and returned his attention to the Reincarnation Well.

The mist inside remained thick, obscuring his view.

Ignoring any potential danger, he leaned in closer, determined to see more clearly.

The hazy image slowly sharpened.

The lamp was dark green, radiating an eerie aura, with a powerful ancient presence seeping from its shattered lampstand.

Beneath the lamp, there appeared to be a massive stone, brimming with an even older energy, as though it had been left there since the dawn of time.

"It seems this Tiny Flame has impurities."

His eyes narrowed.

"Are those… black impurities?"

Though his vision wasn’t perfectly clear, he could vaguely make out dark streaks contaminating the Tiny Flame.

He pondered for a long time before making a decisive move.

Activating his bloodline, he released a surge of blood energy.

Like a roaring river, his ancestral power flowed outward.

Just like when the first Tiny Flame had lit up the Heavenly Court, his blood energy shot forward uncontrollably, flooding toward the dark green flame deep inside the well.

The flame trembled violently in response.

It struggled to surge upward, illuminating the surrounding mist, and for a brief moment, Zhang Yang saw everything clearly.

But then, the dark impurities suppressed it once again.

The flame, which had been on the verge of exploding forth, was forced back, its light restricted.

The black impurities appeared as tiny dark specks, suppressing the flame’s brilliance.

Zhang Yang frowned.

These black specks looked exactly like the corruptive essence that had seeped from the Dark Immortal Sword, the same sword that had pierced through the corpse on Ghost Island.

The two were connected. So, was the corpse somehow linked to this lamp? Was it guarding it? A deep sense of dissatisfaction crept over him. As his blood energy continued to surge, his bloodline’s connection to the flame intensified. Yet, the dark impurities were far too powerful.

Even with his ancestral power, he could only slowly chip away at the darkness.

A complete purification was still far out of reach.

Zhang Yang clenched his fists.

"Am I still not strong enough?"

His bloodline had yet to fully awaken.

The help he could offer the Tiny Flame was limited.

He sighed, contemplating his next move.

Then, his thoughts shifted—

He recalled the Tiny Flame he had seen within the Xiao Hall of the Shattered Heavenly Realm.

Even though he hadn’t seen the flame itself, its light had been enough—

Illuminating the entire Heavenly Court.

He tried to think, envision, communicate, and draw upon his bloodline, hoping to awaken the power of the flame. The light that could shine down on the dark green flame below and determine if it had any effect.

That was merely his thought.

Yet, as soon as he envisioned it, it was as if he had issued a command to his own body.

The light blossoming in the “Xiao” Hall suddenly flared, illuminating the Heavenly Court and surging into his bloodline.

At the same time, the blood energy he had released began to glow faintly.

Then, to his astonishment, the blood energy transformed into sharp swords, radiating a terrifying sharpness as they tore through the void, and in the next instant, they crashed into the dark green flame.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The dark impurities that had previously left Zhang Yang powerless were instantly shattered into dust and vanished completely.

The dark green flame surged.

Its once-weak response transformed into something astonishing, just like the first Tiny Flame.

Now, Zhang Yang no longer needed to consciously activate his bloodline.

His vast blood energy surged forth uncontrollably, causing the dark green flame to blaze high, scattering the surrounding mist.

Even the massive stone upon which the lamp rested seemed to ignite, radiating a faint glow that revealed three ancient patterns.

When enough blood energy had poured in, the dark green flame erupted with a deafening bang.

It shattered into countless tiny sparks, each one like a falling meteor, streaking toward Zhang Yang’s body.

One by one, they merged into his bloodline, drifting like fiery meteors across the high skies of the Shattered Heavenly Realm before descending into the pitch-black abyss beneath it.

Before, when Zhang Yang had observed the Shattered Heavenly Realm, it had seemed like nothing more than a broken fragment of what once was.

But now, he realized that the Shattered Heavenly Realm was only a part of something far greater. Beneath it, something else existed, yet it was too dark to see. Even the light from the “Xiao” Hall could not reach that depth. As the Tiny Flame from the Reincarnation Well gathered within that shadowy abyss, it condensed into a small, flickering flame and then, without warning it erupted with a searing brilliance, illuminating from below.

And in that moment, Zhang Yang saw within his bloodline… a multitude of corpses.

What lay within him was not just power, but something much deeper, it was the fragmented remnants of a world.

Above, the skies rained with falling corpses, the bodies of slain immortals.

The heavens, stained with immortal blood, had turned a dark, ominous red.

The earth below was too dim to see, but rivers of blood flowed, formed entirely from the lifeblood of immortals.

Mountains rose from the ground, constructed from piles of immortal corpses.

This Tiny Flame from the Reincarnation Well had unexpectedly illuminated death itself.