The Purgatory Calamity-Chapter 116 - 102: The First Calamity!_1

Daytime.

The sky remained dull.

Once Pang Jian stepped out, he saw a damp, moisture-filled swamp right in front of him.

He then looked to the left.

That direction would take him to the lodgings arranged by Fan Liang for him, where many individual cultivators gathered, and it was also a stronghold set up by the Dark Ghosts in the Cloud Marsh.

He looked to the right.

This path led deeper into the Cloud Marsh, where many ferocious beasts such as the Single-horned Rhinoceros and the Black and White King Python roamed.

After hesitating for a moment, he didn’t choose to go towards the crowded area but went alone to the right.

Jungles, swamps, poisonous miasmas, ferocious and spirit beasts—these were the environments he was accustomed to.

...

At another location.

Rickety wooden huts were scattered sporadically.

Dozens of cultivators of varying realms gathered in small groups, discussing the ferocious beasts within the Cloud Marsh.

The new Hall Master of the Dark Ghosts, Meng Qiulan, suddenly appeared with two female disciples, causing the eyes of the cultivators there to light up with ill intent as they glanced over.

Meng Qiulan snorted coldly.

Suddenly, a dark-skinned and skinny man emerged from behind her, grinning bizarrely at the crowd.

"Ling Qing!"

Seeing the skinny man appear, the crowd’s expression changed, and they quickly withdrew their presumptuous gazes.

They were individual cultivators who had been active in the Cloud Marsh for a long time, with no backing of sect power behind them.

Ling Qing was different; although they were unclear about his real background, they knew that there was an organization behind him.

Moreover, Ling Qing was the actual controller of this stronghold.

Pleased, Meng Qiulan nodded and was then taken to the cleanest hut under Ling Qing’s arrangements.

"Master Meng, that kid only came by once, and afterwards, he disappeared without a trace."

After closing the door, Ling Qing bowed and reported, "He said he was going to stroll around the Cloud Marsh, and in the blink of an eye, half a month has passed without him showing up again."

Meng Qiulan frowned.

She had wanted to see if Hong Tai’s nephew was a worthwhile talent and, hearing that he had not shown up for a long time, she did not take it to heart. Instead, she asked, "I’ve heard that the Fragment Lands close to Sky Fortune have been acting strangely recently..."

Ling Qing’s eyes showed shock as he nodded vigorously, "To report to the Hall Master, not many know of this matter, but we Dark Ghosts just happened to find out."

He paused for a moment, organizing his words, with the shock in his eyes gradually turning into fear. He spoke in a grave tone, "The Fragment Lands governed by the Ouyang Family have Filth Alien Power seeping in slowly from the Fifth Realm."

Meng Qiulan took a deep breath and said solemnly, "The Fragment Lands that were most affected, did many people die?"

Among the many Hall Masters of the Dark Ghosts, Meng Qiulan was favored by the Ghost Leader. She had rushed to the Sky Fortune Fragment Lands urgently to verify the truth of the matter.

Ling Qing’s voice trembled, "It’s not that many died, but hardly anyone in the cities of the Fragment Lands contaminated with Filth Alien Power could survive. Those who did were said to have turned into terrifying different kinds."

"The Filth Alien Power from the Fifth Realm is entirely different from the Power of Filth in Cloud Marsh and other Forbidden Lands in the Fourth Realm!"

"The Ouyang Family’s City Lords in charge of those Fragment Lands and their families... It seems none of them survived!"

Ling Qing licked his dry lips and finally said, "The Ouyang Family has sealed off the news. Currently, the other families might not know. I just hope that the abnormalities in that region will not spread to the Fragment Lands under our feet."

Behind Meng Qiulan, her two female disciples changed color upon hearing this.

"It is strange; I heard the Ghost Leader say that such a disaster has not occurred in many years." Meng Qiulan shook her head with bitterness, "The Ghost Leader sent me here to figure out why the Power of Filth from the Lower Realm would suddenly drift into the Fourth Realm."

...

Within the Cloud Marsh.

Pang Jian traveled alone, occasionally encountering cultivators who were hunting ferocious beasts, all of whom would steer clear of him.

Half a month ago, soon after he had appeared in the Cloud Marsh, he killed a group of individual cultivators who were plotting treachery.

The "Spirit Evil" that Luo Hongyan had refined came from those dead cultivators.

It was that very act that made the nearby individual cultivators aware that he was Hong Tai’s nephew. And given the notorious reputation of Hong Tai in the Cloud Marsh, no one dared to provoke him after that.

Pang Jian, lacking a clear purpose, arrived at a murky swamp. The Heavenly Spirit Tower was now buried under the mud at the bottom of the swamp.

After watching for a while and making sure no one had noticed the White Tower, he continued deeper into the territory.

As night fell, he reached an unfamiliar jungle.

The trees and plants here grew extremely lush, with the moist air filled with the scent of plant life.

Breathing in the plant fragrance in the air, he suddenly felt an intense desire to cultivate using the surrounding spiritual energy.

Since his arrival in the Thousand Miles of Cloud Marsh, he had been cultivating with Spirit Stones and Spirit Jade because it was the most efficient way.

Such a sudden whimsy, an impulse to cultivate using the surrounding environment, was a first for him.

He sat down casually, entered a state of cultivation, and silently operated the "Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell."

Suddenly, he thought of the Dark Giant Python and wanted to check on it.

But recalling how the last time his mind and spirit were so severely drained that he fell into a deep sleep, he forcefully restrained the desire to peek into the Fifth Realm.

He excluded all thoughts of peeking from his mind and began to absorb the mixed nature’s spiritual energy with the "Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell." Instantly, he felt fresh and natural plant energy, mixed with some other strange energies, flowing together with the spiritual energy into his Dantian.

The proportion of pure spiritual energy was very low.

He had learned from Luo Hongyan that any power other than pure spiritual energy, no matter what kind, was considered mixed power.

Of course, there were some special Magic Spells, like the "Ground Flame Spell" or the "Mysterious Yin Spell," that could specifically utilize mixed power to enhance combat strength.

"Plant Spirit Energy should also have special Magic Spells that can utilize it, especially in cultivating medicinal herbs."

He tried condensing the richest plant spirit energy around him.

Suddenly, he felt that the strands of plant spirit energy he had absorbed, once they entered his Spiritual Sea, followed his meridians toward that piece of bronze plate.

This sensation was identical to that of the Dark Giant Python within the bronze plaque, absorbing the Filth Alien Power from his body.

Pang Jian, who hadn’t been able to uncover the mystery of the bronze plaque, immediately perked up and cultivated with even more vigor using the "Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell".

Time flowed like water as Pang Jian entered a state of self-forgetfulness.

Only when he felt that he had gathered nearly all of the Plant Spirit Energy from the plants around him did he open his eyes.

To his astonishment, all the trees and flowers within a ten-zhang radius of him had withered and died!

"Huh!"

A verdant sapling quietly emerged from the bronze gate, soaring through the void with a jade-like green luminescence.

Pang Jian was taken aback.

Without a second thought, he immediately followed the sapling that had flown out of the bronze plaque, fearing that it might be targeted and intercepted by individual cultivators.

It didn’t fly far.

The extraordinary sapling quickly chose another vibrant forest to playfully land in the grass.

It instantly took root there!

It no longer emitted that strange green luminescence, appearing ordinary and indistinguishable from the surrounding plants.

Pang Jian, who had followed all the way, would not have recognized its wonder if he hadn’t kept it in sight the entire time.

"First, the Dark Giant Python, and now this strange... vine? Could the sudden urge I felt earlier to absorb the Plant Spirit Energy have come from it?"

Pang Jian’s thoughts rapidly spun.

Suddenly, he felt the sapling, like him earlier, was also slowly absorbing the surrounding Plant Spirit Energy.

This was just like when the Dark Giant Python left the bronze plaque and no longer relied on him to draw Alien Power from the darkness.

"Strange..."

Pang Jian tried closing his eyes, and an astonishing new perspective immediately emerged in his mind.

He felt as if he had become that sapling; he saw ancient trees towering high, and flowers so large they were startling.

——Yet the grass beside him did not even reach his chest.

"It’s the sapling’s perspective!"

Pang Jian was overwhelmed with amazement.

Subsequently, the bronze plaque in his chest became extremely cold.

Glancing down, he noticed the plaque was encased in a layer of ice crystal, which greatly resembled the Mirror Tunnel on the surface of Wulan Lake.

At the same moment, another perspective suddenly emerged in his mind.

This perspective belonged to the Dark Giant Python in the Fifth Realm.

"Whoosh!"

Suddenly, the ice crystal enveloping the bronze plaque shot a beam of alien light towards the unassuming sapling.

After the alien light appeared, Pang Jian and the bronze plaque on his chest were drawn directly into the sapling along the light!

A pain as if his flesh and bones were being torn apart, and a swelling headache as if his brain were about to explode, enveloped Pang Jian in an instant.

When he adjusted to the pain, before he even opened his eyes, he first felt the loss of Spiritual Power within his body.

The Spiritual Power in his Spiritual Sea was once again polluted by the Filth Alien Power, just like the first time he stepped into a dark alley.

However, this time the Filth Alien Power was much weaker compared to that in Bagua City, and the speed at which his Spiritual Power was being polluted was also quite slow.

He finally opened his eyes.

He immediately realized that he was not in Cloud Marsh, not beside the sapling, and the sky above was not overcast.

Instead, it was extreme darkness!

"The Fifth Realm!"

Pang Jian was horrified.

The next moment, he saw the Dark Giant Python not far away, shaking the olive-green scales on its body, preying on an unknown Ferocious Beast.

The newly born Dark Giant Python, arising from the bronze plaque, sensed his presence and looked up at him in confusion.

Pang Jian, with his mind in turmoil, looked around.

Then he realized he wasn’t in Bagua City but seemed to be in the mountainous area he had seen through the eyes of the Dark Giant Python atop the Heavenly Tribulation Pillar.

As he continued to turn and gaze, he saw the grand stone pillar that matched its name, a pillar that seemed to stretch into the depths of the sky, standing solemnly in the desolate wasteland of the Fifth Realm as if it had suppressed countless beings for millions of years.

When countless creatures of the Fifth Realm attempted to ascend to the Upper Realm using the Heavenly Tribulation Pillar but all turned into corpses and skeletons,

This newly born Dark Giant Python somehow returned from Bagua City atop the Heavenly Tribulation Pillar to the land of the Fifth Realm!

It even crossed the vast, skeleton-littered wasteland, arriving in the sinister mountains to grow by hunting the Ferocious Beasts of the Fifth Realm.

"Ugh!"

Pang Jian cried out in shock.

In the depths of this pitch-black sky, scattered "raindrops" suddenly began to fall. When one of those "raindrops" crashed to the ground with a thunderous impact and broke into pieces, he realized it was a corpse.

It was a person just like him, and moreover, a cultivator!

Above.

The sporadic "raindrops" continued to fall, scattering across various lands of the Fifth Realm.

Pang Jian took a deep breath, realizing that an unimaginable, immense catastrophe had occurred in the world above.

That was the Fourth Realm he had come from.

...