The little skeleton suddenly barked at Shi Yan, waving its snow-white bone arms, signaling him to keep his distance from Nazario and Bastos.

Even when Mei Ji was on the verge of death, she could still muster potential, forcing Bastos to keep his distance at the cost of mutual destruction.

Both of those men were at the pinnacle of the Immortal Realm. If they realized they couldn't escape and chose to perish violently, the sudden surge of power would be enough to shatter Shi Yan into pieces.

"He tells you not to get too close, beware that the two might drag you down with them in their mutual destruction," Mei Ji shouted from afar, understanding the little skeleton's warning.

Shi Yan's expression remained unchanged, and without turning his head, he replied, "Self-destruction techniques aren't necessarily effective against one who cultivates the mysteries of Space."

Mei Ji was surprised. After thinking it over, she silently nodded, tacitly accepting Shi Yan's confidence.

If Shi Yan could instantly shift like he did when dodging her, it wouldn't be easy for Nazario and Bastos to kill him even if they self-detonated.

A dozen massive skeleton warriors, wielding bone blades, encircled the two old men of the Devouring Race in the valley. Those bone blades were immense; with every swing, streaks of white light shot out, and under the chopping of the blades, the valley was crisscrossed with deep knife marks, resembling a gigantic spider web.

Blood streaks also appeared on Nazario and Bastos's bodies, some so deep they exposed the bone, presenting a gruesome sight.

"You've doomed us!" Nazario's face contorted with extreme anguish. He and Bastos huddled in a corner, gnashing their teeth with fierce gazes, "You didn't grasp how terrifying this little bastard is before daring to attack rashly, and now I'm suffering alongside you."

"Talking about this is useless," Bastos was calmer. "The Divine Body... should be beyond saving. We’ll wait for a good opportunity to escape using the Soul Altar. We'll temporarily attach ourselves to an external Corpse Slave and settle the score later."

"That's all we can do..." Nazario snorted softly.

Up to this moment, neither of them felt that this battle could threaten their lives. They believed that no matter how bizarre Skeleton Island became, they could still withdraw calmly.

After all, regardless of how peculiar the little skeleton's techniques were, they hadn't detected any profound treasures or potent laws that could obliterate their Soul Altars. At their pinnacle Immortal Realm, escaping this place via the Soul Altar shouldn't be a difficult feat.

The reason they hadn't done so was the lingering hope that perhaps their Divine Bodies could still be preserved.

Especially when Shi Yan flew toward them and the skeleton warriors slightly loosened their encirclement...

Their eyes brightened, and they exchanged a look, thinking an opportunity had arrived.

Although their current Divine Power was only about one-tenth of its peak, they were confident it was more than enough to deal with a martial artist at the first level of the Immortal Realm.

The white eyeball that Nazario held tightly suddenly emitted an eerie, sinister fluctuation, rippling outwards.

Shi Yan descended smoothly from the sky. Watching the ripple approach, his expression was indifferent, and he raised a hand to grasp the fluctuation.

Wisp after wisp of the fluctuation quietly vanished!

Nazario was instantly stunned. He distinctly sensed that the fluctuation from the white eyeball had actually slipped into Shi Yan's palm!

This was utterly inconceivable!

The fluctuation released by the white eyeball was based on Corpse Force and subtly contained a trace of Corrosive Power, which was added by one of his close friends who cultivated the mysteries of Corrosion. This was supposed to enhance the ripple's might, yet it had dissolved into Shi Yan's palm. How could he accept this?

Bastos's face also changed drastically, realizing something was terribly wrong. The few Profound Yin Corpse Worms beneath his feet shrieked and suddenly flew out, charging toward Shi Yan.

Shi Yan grinned.

Those few Profound Yin Corpse Worms, as if sensing an extremely terrifying aura, immediately recoiled. Upon closer inspection, one could see that every single one of those worms was trembling and crawling on the ground.

The aura emanating from Shi Yan instilled in them a primal fear, an apprehension branded into their life imprints, utterly extinguishing any thought of resistance.

Bastos and Nazario stared blankly, suddenly feeling a chill run through them, and instinctively looked toward the void above.

It was as if an existence at the Domain Ancestor level of their race was suspended in the hidden reaches, and only the aura exuded by a Domain Ancestor level expert of the Devouring Race, carrying a trace of the primordial 'Devourer,' could force the Profound Yin Corpse Worms to prostrate themselves motionlessly.

They looked up at the sky, a mixture of shock and joy on their faces, believing their guess was correct.

In the distance, Mei Ji of the Phantom Race also had her alluringly charming face covered in astonishment as she watched the scene from afar, unsure of what was truly happening.

Shi Yan stopped before Bastos and Nazario. The Profound Yin Corpse Worms trembled beneath Shi Yan's feet, too afraid to move. The white eyeball in Nazario's hand continuously flashed its light fluctuations, yet it seemed to have no effect on Shi Yan.

Even with Mei Ji's breadth of knowledge, she was momentarily bewildered, her mind filled with disbelief.

At that moment, Shi Yan turned back to the little skeleton and spoke, "I have some things I wish to discuss with these two. I don't want... I don't want anyone else to hear. Don't worry, I have the power to protect myself. Can you manage it?"

The little skeleton's eyes became peculiar. After a pause of several seconds, it suddenly mounted its bone dragon and retreated.

The other bone dragon smoothly landed beside Mei Ji, signaling her to depart as well.

Mei Ji was inwardly furious, knowing that Shi Yan must have private matters to discuss with Nazario and Bastos, and that those words might be critically important for her to understand Shi Yan. However, Shi Yan's guardedness prevented her from knowing the details, naturally making her quite frustrated.

Not far away, the little skeleton paused temporarily and looked at her, making her spine tingle.

After cursing a few times, she could only obediently board the bone dragon and be dragged far away from that location.

"Take the skeleton warriors away too," Shi Yan called out again.

As his voice fell, the little skeleton chittered in the ancient language of the Bone Clan, and those massive skeleton warriors hopped away, gradually receding from the valley.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Three bone spurs shot out with a sharp whistle, embedding themselves into the shoulders of Nazario and Bastos like steel spikes.

These three bone spurs were refined by Shi Yan long ago, containing the true essence of the mysteries of Space, allowing them to shuttle unpredictably through the void. Unleashed suddenly as a surprise attack, they often achieved remarkable results.

The two old monsters of the Devouring Race cried out shrilly as their shoulders were pinned to the stone wall by the bone spurs, but they quickly fell silent, their eyes strangely fixed on the horizon.

Shi Yan looked above him inexplicably, even using his dark energy to sense, finding nothing amiss. Then he focused on the expressions and movements of the two men. Seeing them looking first at the sky and then at the Profound Yin Corpse Worms, he suddenly understood.

"No one is here. Stop overthinking it; only I am present," Shi Yan stated coldly.

Long ago, he had secretly speculated that the mystery of Devouring possessed a subtle restraint over the Eight Great Evil Forces, but lacking the opportunity to fight his own people, he couldn't confirm it.

Also, because he wasn't certain of his guess, when the two old monsters of the Devouring Race besieged the little skeleton and tried to kill Mei Ji, he merely watched coldly, not intervening immediately.

On one hand, he wasn't sure if his guess was correct; on the other, Nazario and Bastos still possessed full strength at that time, and even if their mysteries were suppressed, they weren't people he could easily contend with then.

Now, with nine-tenths of their Divine Power depleted, leaving only one-tenth, and having confirmed that the mystery of Devouring indeed curbed the Eight Great Evil Forces, he immediately grew bold and confident.

"No one?" Nazario was bewildered, a strange feeling surfacing in his heart. He looked at the white eyeball in his hand and suddenly roared, "Why? Why can't my mysteries, my condensed Corpse Force and Corrosive Power, harm you?"

"First, your current strength is too weak. Second... hehe."

Shi Yan suddenly raised his hand, unleashing all the negative energy within his body. Frenzy, bloodlust, tyranny, despair—all these auras condensed into a single malevolent energy that shot from his pupils toward the two.

In an instant, Nazario and Bastos’s eyes were filled with an endless sea of blood and piles of rotting bones, seemingly spreading infinitely and threatening to drown them.

However, to Shi Yan's surprise, Bastos and Nazario did not immediately lose their sanity. Instead, they displayed expressions of fanatical, religious madness. "The map of the Holy Land left by the Progenitor! This, this is the Progenitor's mind! What is happening?"

Their words made Shi Yan pause too. The illusion condensed from negative energy was modeled after the forbidden Blood Sea of the Bloodthirsty lineage, yet they called it the Map of the Holy Land, the Progenitor's mind.

His heart stirred, and he suddenly understood, his expression changing slightly.

The forbidden Blood Sea he had visited, that mysterious black hole, was actually the mind of the Primordial Being, 'Devourer.' After Devourer departed, it must have left some pattern for the Devouring Race. The pattern of Devourer's mind was what they called the 'Map of the Holy Land.' The relationship between the Bloodthirsty lineage and the Devouring Race was indeed curiously close.

However, the Bloodthirsty lineage and Devourer were destined not to align.

Two bloody handprints suddenly materialized, falling toward Nazario's and Bastos's chests, respectively. Striking while they were mentally shocked and their Divine Power was weak, though somewhat ignoble, it offered Shi Yan greater safety.

"Boom!"

Nazario and Bastos were at the lowest point of their lives, extremely weak, and their attention was slightly scattered by Shi Yan's malevolent intent. Being struck squarely in the chest at this moment, their Divine Bodies seemed to fall apart, and blood sprayed from their wounds.

Their physical bodies were now virtually ruined, with little hope of full recovery.

"Mystery of Death!"

Nazario and Bastos screamed together, their expressions growing more shocked. The various means of this martial artist they had overlooked completely dumbfounded them.

They couldn't fathom why the mysteries of their own race were manifesting on Shi Yan, nor why the Profound Yin Corpse Worms acted so timidly upon seeing him.

They couldn't figure it out.

"Your physical bodies are beyond saving, and escaping with your Soul Altars will be difficult too. Cease futile hopes; I won't give you the chance," Shi Yan mercilessly crushed their spirits.

...(To be continued)RQ