The Purgatory Calamity-Chapter 109 - 96: The Bronze Medal Phenomenon_1

Another voice of Li Jie echoed within Pang Jian’s body.

He reminded Pang Jian to return to the Dark Alley, using the Darkness of the Fifth Realm to hide from Yuan Shishan and avoid being affected.

Pang Jian looked astonished, gazed deeply at Li Jie on the high platform, nodded slightly, then grabbed Luo Hongyan and retreated.

Luo Hongyan looked at him, puzzled.

Pang Jian whispered, "Follow me."

"Oh."

Luo Hongyan didn’t ask any questions, she truly followed him back, regardless of his intentions.

Pang Jian immediately felt a sense of affinity.

From the moment he became aware of the anomalies in the pool, Li Jie advised them to leave for the first time, and Luo Hongyan insisted on leaving early.

However, he first returned to the Darkness to inform the girl named Li Yuqing, which delayed him for some time.

In the meantime, Luo Hongyan stayed in the same spot waiting for him.

After his return, driven by his curiosity and the recent surge in strength, he lingered much longer, despite Luo Hongyan’s dragging.

This led to Yuan Shishan, the City Lord of the Bagua City, stepping out of that Copper Box, temporarily sealing the Mirror Tunnel.

And it also got Luo Hongyan and himself into a predicament.

However.

Throughout it all, Luo Hongyan didn’t utter a word of blame, did not complain about his lingering that caused them both to end up in this situation.

Soon, Pang Jian brought her to the entrance of the Dark Alley shrouded in Darkness.

Luo Hongyan did not protest, letting him pull her along, accompanying him to the previous resting place of the Astonishing Spear.

When he stopped, Luo Hongyan sighed, freed herself from his grasp and said with a smile, "Pang Jian, I can only stay here, I can’t withstand the power within the Darkness."

She already knew what Pang Jian intended to do.

Pang Jian was taken aback.

"There’s no way around it, we are different after all."

Luo Hongyan shook her head, her beautiful eyes filled with dejection, "Not everyone can adapt to the Darkness of the Fifth Realm like you. Once I delve deeper into it, it won’t be long before my soul gets tainted and dissipates."

Pang Jian suddenly remembered Li Yuqing’s words.

She said that after he ventured into the Darkness, Luo Hongyan also tried to follow, but was forced to retreat due to the unbearable Filth Alien Power.

Pang Jian contemplated for a moment and said, "This Yuan Shishan, his main target isn’t us, here I can exert my powers to the fullest."

Luo Hongyan smiled and nodded, "That’s why I came with you."

"Whoosh!"

The pool water suddenly flew into the air, hovering above Yuan Shishan’s head like an otherworldly timespace.

Yuan Shishan smiled indifferently and, along with that battered Copper Box, landed on another high platform.

He walked out of the Copper Box, looked up at the pool water, akin to a Sky Curtain, filling up the sky above the courtyard.

"Back then, I accepted their tribute of Spirit Food because I was quite proficient in the way of Soul Spirits and Ghost Objects," Yuan Shishan reminisced as he spoke.

Many soul shadows began to appear above his head in the Sky Curtain waterway, going from blurry to clear.

Members of the Demon Sect Lan Xi, Black Valley Lin Beiye, Star River Alliance Jian Yaoyang...

Soul shadows of individuals Pang Jian and Luo Hongyan either recognized or didn’t, emerged one after another within the water.

A sinister and mysterious aura was released through the Sky Curtain waterway, filling up every space within the mansion.

Pang Jian suddenly felt as if he had returned to the highest floor of the Heavenly Spirit Tower, standing before that skull-shaped Soul Array.

"This is what true Soul Spirits and Ghost Objects are like!"

Luo Hongyan’s face slightly changed.

Standing shoulder to shoulder with Pang Jian, she gently pushed him and whispered for him to return to the Darkness, "This City Lord Yuan Shishan, who commands the souls of those who’ve undergone tribulations, perhaps I can hold out for a bit longer."

Pang Jian did not move but frowned and looked towards the sky.

"Whiz, whiz!"

Two streams of pool water wrapped around the souls of Lan Xi and Lin Beiye, like two branches of the nether river, flew towards Li Jie from the left and the right.

Yuan Shishan smiled and said, "Let me see what’s different about this Calamity Master."

"Alright."

Li Jie flicked his hands to the sides and rings flew from his fingers.

Rings set with various gemstones radiated brilliant divine light, bobbing and weaving in the air above Li Jie’s head.

Some rings as they whizzed by, dispersed powers that cleansed the filth of the heavens and earth, some rings shone with a clear light as if solidifying into mountains and rivers.

Others stirred up a sea of raging fires.

The rings thrown by Li Jie unleashed all kinds of Divine Skills, not only scattering the streams carrying the souls of Lan Xi and Lin Beiye into countless droplets but also aimed towards that Sky Curtain-like water area.

"Boom! Rumble!"

The Sky Curtain water area suddenly burst, the pool water cascading down like a dragon waterfall, mostly falling into the pool and onto the surrounding stone slabs.

"Indeed, from Heaven Treasure Li Family."

Yuan Shishan hummed lightly and said, "Three thousand years have passed, the Li Family is still as prosperous as ever, with each member being more outstanding than the last. If I’m not mistaken, you must have chosen the path of artifact refinement."

"Heaven Treasure Li Family, artifact refinement..."

Pang Jian suddenly looked towards the Darkness.

The girl also had the surname Li, and she had mentioned that within her family, there were two paths to choose from.

One path focused on cultivation, the other required the refinement of various Strange Treasures and Spiritual Artifacts.

He immediately guessed the girl’s identity.

"Heaven Treasure Li Family!"

Luo Hongyan exclaimed with a bright gleam in her eyes.

Pang Jian was surprised, "You’ve heard of this family too?"

Luo Hongyan nodded lightly and said, "Heaven Treasure Li Family, in the Upper Realm, is known to everyone."

"You’re right, ever since I was young, not liking to fight and kill, I chose the path of artifact refinement," Li Jie admitted openly, annoyed, "But I never thought that artifact refinement would also require the cooperation of realms! If not for this, I wouldn’t have bothered coming to this fifth Heavenly Tribulation Pillar, to bicker with someone like you who’s been dead for three thousand years."

"Who said I was dead?!"

Pang Jian’s expression turned grave.

"You, with the blood and bones of your descendants, branded with a soul seed, have been resurrected by possessing a corpse. Yet you are still merely a remnant soul. A remnant soul is just that, and unless the soul is whole, it remains a ghost bound to the Soul Spirit."

Li Jie sneered mockingly, "Pang Jian, do you think the old folks who can make Bagua City disappear overnight are fools?"

"The only reason a shred of your spirituality has lingered, that a fragment of your soul has not perished, is that Bagua City needed an Array Eye!"

"The very box that allows your remnant soul to persist is Bagua City’s Array Eye. They give you a sliver of false hope because within the Array Eye, a Spiritual Artifact Soul is needed!"

"Just with you, Pang Jian, a Lord of a remote city in the Second Realm, did you really think you could escape their meticulous schemes?"

Li Jie couldn’t be bothered to waste words with him and in the bluntest of ways, exposed the harshest of truths.

Full of vigor, convinced that it was by his strategic finesse that his soul seed was preserved, and that he had at last awaited its fruition, Pang Jian suddenly stood dumbstruck upon hearing these words.

His heroic appearance, the gentle smile on his face, gradually twisted into something horrendous.

"Only because they need it, only because Bagua City needs it, that’s why I have a shred of spirituality..."

Pang Jian’s fleshly resurrected hands rubbed his head in confusion, his complexion growing increasingly ghastly.

In a flash.

"I don’t believe it!"

"I, Pang Jian, am clearly alive! I can be manifested in the world again!"

"My Bagua City will certainly break free from the Fifth Realm’s Heavenly Tribulation Pillar and return to the Second Realm!"

"Splash! Splash splash!"

The water in the pool flowed over the stone pavement, and those soul spirits of those who had perished were suddenly spreading everywhere, wrapped in the water.

The water became a body for the ghostly soul spirits, turning them into semi-transparent alien objects within it.

Such strange objects also charged towards Pang Jian and Luo Hongyan.

More alien objects, along with the water, climbed frantically up the high platform where Li Jie was, towards the top.

"This is my Bagua City!"

With a roar from Pang Jian, all sorts of artifacts left behind by cultivators from various realms, sunken on the pool’s bottom and outside the pool, rose in response to his shout.

Swords, treasure vases, feather fans, and shields.

Each artifact suddenly shone brilliantly, as if they had drunk deeply of the rich Spiritual Energy inside the residence, and instantly engulfed Li Jie.

"Bang!"

The high platform where Li Jie sat abruptly shattered.

The water climbing up the platform, mixed with the alien objects inside it and with many artifacts, ensnared Li Jie, a Calamity Master from the Heaven Treasure Li Family, in a tight trap.

"Kylin Bell!"

With a flick of his hand, Li Jie revealed a large, cyanish-grey bell floating above his head, shining with a pale green brilliance.

On the surface of the bell, a lifelike kylin emerged, roaring at the attacking swarm of alien objects.

The alien objects with water as their body popped like bubbles at the kylin’s roar. The pale green light released by the bell even shielded Li Jie underneath, protecting him from the bombardment of the various artifacts.

"You two better get moving."

Underneath the Kylin Bell, Li Jie still had the leisure to wave at Pang Jian, urging him to retreat into the Dark Alley.

"Swoosh! Swoosh swoosh!"

Suddenly, with a casual point from Pang Jian, a Spirit Sword and a bone hammer shot towards Pang Jian and Luo Hongyan.

Seeing Luo Hongyan still by his side, Pang Jian didn’t hesitate for a moment. He immediately shook the Astonishing Spear and swiftly drew a pitch-black halo in front of him.

The Silver Moon Ring turned into the Black Moon Ring, brimming with Darkness, swelling with the Filth Alien Power of the Fifth Realm.

The Spirit Sword and bone hammer fell into the pitch-black ring in an instant.

The artifacts commanded by the City Lord Pang Jian, containing might far superior to that of Yuan Lengshan and the like, caused the black ring to explode with a "bang."

Pang Jian, holding the Astonishing Spear, was struck by this terrifying force and plummeted into the darkness.

"Pang Jian!"

Luo Hongyan screamed, about to rush into the alley to check, but suddenly remembered the Filth Alien Power within the darkness.

Therefore, she could only look longingly into the dark.

"I’m fine!"

Pang Jian responded from within the darkness, but his voice couldn’t penetrate out, and Luo Hongyan couldn’t hear him.

Still separated by the darkness, she anxiously asked, "Pang Jian, how are you?"

Pang Jian, with blood leaking from the corner of his mouth, promptly stood up, casually wiped the bloodstain on his mouth, and prepared to return to the light to withstand the next barrage of attacks from Pang Jian.

The resurrected Pang Jian, perhaps only a fragment of a soul, but the power he could exhibit was certainly incomparable to that of Dong Tianze, Lan Xi, and others.

"Hm!"

As he was about to step out of the darkness, he sensed something strange within his body.

The Filth Alien Power filling his Spiritual Sea was drawn strongly towards his chest.

Among the Filth Alien Power, two distinctive characteristics stood out: corrosion and destruction.

These also formed the source of the two streams of Evil Power Waterfall in his "Earth Demon Spell."

At this moment, it was these two robust evil powers within the Filth Alien Power that were funneling into his chest through his meridians.

Heading straight to the quaintly shaped bronze plaque!

The bronze door, which was always tightly closed, was now in a state of being partially open, something unprecedented!

Pang Jian, submerged in the darkness of the Fifth Realm, lifted it before his eyes and witnessed an extraordinary sight.

Inside the bronze door, dense gray fog billowed, and it seemed as though it was the "Mysterious Fog" that terrified all cultivators in the world.

Within the dense "Mysterious Fog," four odd objects floated.

A pitch-black Strange Snake, a beehive, a vine that resembled a small Sapling, and a Mysterious Turtle the size of a palm.

The black Strange Snake, several times larger than the other three objects, was greedily absorbing the corrosion and destruction Alien Powers of the Fifth Realm.

As if swallowing streams of delicate rivers.

...