Chen Zhou reined in his death qi, warning bells ringing in his mind.
Evil spirits.
These three seemingly leisurely anglers were actually evil spirits!
Any one of them possessed an aura that far exceeded his own.
Even Chen Zhou's trump card, the Ghost Domain, was suppressed under the sheer weight of their presence.
He stopped in his tracks, not daring to draw any closer to the blood pond, and merely observed with vigilance.
The trio seemed to have noticed his arrival long ago, yet they appeared to not care in the slightest.
Only the woman dressed in magnificent palace attire showed a flicker of surprise in her eyes when Chen Zhou appeared.
She sized him up with great interest.
Then, her vermilion lips parted as she chuckled, seemingly talking to herself. "I didn't expect that after all these years, someone would actually find their way to this Immortal-Slaying Land."
But she only said that single sentence before turning her head back, no longer paying Chen Zhou any mind.
Chen Zhou remained inconspicuous. He found a massive boulder in the distance and quietly stood behind it, carefully observing these three eerie existences.
He watched for a long time and discovered that their methods of fishing were extremely peculiar.
The young man remained as still as a mountain, as if only the blood pond before him existed in this world.
A green bamboo fishing rod was suspended in the air. The fishing line hung three feet above the surface of the blood pond, let alone having a hook that was completely empty, without a speck of bait.
He simply sat there in meditation with his eyes closed, his mind wandering far away. It carried a sense of "The grand duke fishing, waiting for the willing to be caught."
Chen Zhou watched for quite some time.
The young man was like a statue, motionless. Even the suspended fishing line didn't quiver in the slightest.
The thumping sounds inside the ceramic pot suddenly ceased, becoming silent.
The woman in palace attire was even more incomprehensible to Chen Zhou. She seemed to treat fishing as a game, occasionally using her toes to draw circular ripples in the blood-water.
Sometimes, she would use her five-colored ribbons to lightly tap the surface, causing the pond water to fluctuate.
Chen Zhou had never seen such a way of fishing. It would be a miracle if anything was actually caught.
As for the middle-aged man, he had only raised his eyelids to cast a casual glance when Chen Zhou first entered, and after that, there was no further movement. He focused intently on the vibrating ceramic pot before him.
Chen Zhou narrowed his eyes; he felt that the ceramic pot looked somewhat familiar.
Disciples of the Corpse Soul Sect were each equipped with a corpse-refining pot used to nourish malevolent ghosts or corpse guards.
The shape and style of this ceramic pot were seventy to eighty percent similar to a corpse-refining pot, but the material and the talismans inscribed upon it were completely different.
The corpse-refining pots of the Corpse Soul Sect were mostly made from graveyard soil, and the inscriptions were primarily ghost path talismans, filled with an eerie and ominous aura.
In contrast, the pot before him had a texture more like bone china—smooth and warm yet carrying a chilling air. The talismans engraved on it were extremely ancient, with complex lines that Chen Zhou could not recognize at all.
While the yin qi of the Corpse Soul Sect's pots was heavy, it was superficial, acting more like a tool.
However, the middle-aged man's ceramic pot felt like a living thing; it was breathing on its own.
The mouth of the pot was half-submerged in the blood pond, and the viscous blood was being sucked into it bit by bit.
Gurgle... Gurgle...
Violent shaking occasionally came from inside the pot, as if something was desperate to break out, yet it was being suppressed so tightly that it could only make muffled thudding sounds.
The middle-aged man seemed a bit impatient. Without looking back, he simply slapped the body of the pot heavily with his palm.
"Keep shaking, and I'll refine you."
Chen Zhou recalled the words of the woman in palace attire.
The Immortal-Slaying Land...
Was she referring to that great battle outside? The place where demons and fiends slaughtered immortals and gods?
This thought made his heart skip a beat. If that was true, then what exactly was this place inside the shrine?
And who were these three?
Just as Chen Zhou's thoughts were racing, the rod in the hands of the palace-dressed woman—who had been playing around until now—suddenly sank, pulled taut!
"Oh! There's a bite!"
Her face lit up with joy, and her previously lazy expression instantly became focused.
The woman raised her slender hand and recited, "Rise."
Her five-colored ribbons transformed into streaks of light, instantly wrapping around the fishing rod.
In an instant, five-colored divine light flowed, slowly dragging the heavy catch out of the blood pond.
The surface of the blood pond boiled violently as a bloody, mangled thing was forcibly pulled out of the water.
The thing wasn't very large, about the height of a person, but it was wrapped in a layer of death qi so thick it was impossible to see through, blocking all perception.
Chen Zhou strained his eyes to the limit, but he could only see a distorted human-shaped silhouette. He couldn't make out its specific appearance at all.
The thing seemed extremely unwilling, struggling crazily in mid-air as death qi spread in all directions.
"You still want to run?" the woman hummed softly.
The light from the five-colored ribbons intensified, the glow flowing as it firmly locked the mass of flesh and blood, causing it to gradually disappear.
The ribbons then lost their luster and drifted back to the woman's shoulder.
The entire process happened in the blink of an eye, lasting no more than a dozen breaths.
After finishing all this, the woman seemed a bit tired.
She let out a soft sigh and shifted to a more comfortable position, suspending the fishing rod back in the air without letting it touch the water.
Then, she turned her head, and from across the vast distance, her gaze landed precisely on Chen Zhou.
"Young man, you've been watching for so long. Have you figured out any of the secrets yet?" The woman's voice was clear and pleasant, carrying a hint of a smile.
Here it comes.
Chen Zhou's heart stirred, knowing that the other party finally intended to communicate with him.
None of these three seemed like ordinary evil spirits that possessed only the instinct to kill. They clearly had their own consciousness and thoughts, just like himself.
He stepped out from behind the boulder, his posture natural and neither humble nor arrogant.
Chen Zhou's mind worked quickly. The auras of these three were unfathomable, yet they showed no obvious hostility. This woman, in particular, seemed to possess the casualness of a senior giving guidance to a junior.
He suppressed the wariness in his heart and responded with a steady voice: "This place is profound, and you three seniors are truly unfathomable.
"This junior is dull. I have only seen that this pond seems to hold a world of its own, connected to the outside. The things being fished are likely nothing ordinary."
Chen Zhou spoke vaguely, neither asking about their identities nor showing too much curiosity; he only stated his observations.
Upon hearing this, the woman chuckled softly, seemingly satisfied with Chen Zhou's caution and perceptiveness.
"You needn't be so nervous. We won't eat you," she said.
"This place has been desolate for a long time. Ordinarily, besides us three old fossils, it's rare for anyone to find their way here.
"Since you were able to enter this Immortal-Slaying Shrine without being crushed by the golden-armored soldiers outside, and without being rejected by the rules inside the shrine, you must possess our divine bloodline and be considered one of us.
"We have been here for many years. It is a rare occasion to see a living soul, so it's not a big deal."
Chen Zhou listened with a composed expression.
"Senior said that few people ever find this place. Does that mean that before this junior, others have visited here?"
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