The black mist severely hindered visibility, even for powerful experts like He Yiming and Jin Zhanyi. However, sound within this domain suffered no obstruction whatsoever.

He Yiming could easily imagine that anyone capable of entering this place surely understood the art of discerning sound through the wind (Ting Feng Bian Yin). Yet, he was confident that unless their opponents possessed a natural affinity for the Wind element, their application of this technique would pale in comparison to the effectiveness of his Shunfeng Er (Wind-Following Ears).

This was the might of innate talent, displaying power in a unique environment capable of stunning all onlookers. His ears constantly twitched, absorbing countless sounds carried on the wind.

He Yiming slowly closed his eyes, relying entirely on the mysterious power of Shunfeng Er as he navigated through the dim black fog. The mountain winds in Ghost Cry Ridge (Guiku Ling) were considerable, the sound resembling the howling of ghosts and wolves audible everywhere.

Yet, strangely, despite such intense gales, this heavy fog showed no sign of dissipating—a truly perplexing phenomenon. Naturally, He Yiming couldn't afford to stop and investigate; he pressed on, traversing the area smoothly thanks to his extraordinary Shunfeng Er.

After nearly half an hour, he finally located a suitable spot for his cultivation. It was a hollow nestled halfway up the mountain, surrounded by jagged, bizarre stones.

Amidst these stones lay a relatively flat stone platform. With a subtle shift of his body, He Yiming leaped onto the platform and quickly settled his decision to remain there.

He sat down evenly, took a deep breath according to his usual practice, and began to draw in the surrounding primordial energy (Xiantian Zhi Qi). However, the very next moment, He Yiming’s movements abruptly froze.

He couldn't absorb even a trace of primordial energy. His expression instantly became utterly strange.

The muscles in his face twitched faintly, and He Yiming recalled the guidance Jin Zhanyi had provided, a look of bittersweet helplessness surfacing in his eyes. Although the natural energy (Tian Di Zhi Qi) here was incredibly dense, it was so because it had absorbed the life force of countless individuals from the battlefield, including an enormous amount of malevolent energy (Sha Qi) and Yin energy.

The natural energy had completely merged with these two energies. If one were to filter out the Sha Qi and Yin energy, the residual natural energy here would actually be far inferior to that found outside.

He let out a long sigh, finally understanding why Jin Zhanyi had cautioned him repeatedly. It turned out that the greater the benefit one sought here, the greater the pressure one had to endure.

The more benefit absorbed, the heavier the burden became. If the pressure eventually exceeded the limit an individual could bear, the only remaining consequence was becoming a lunatic stripped of reason.

He immediately felt a wave of hesitation, especially after sensing the chilling malevolent energy; he was filled with caution and dread regarding the power here. After a moment of contemplation, he tentatively released a fraction of his defensive power.

Although only a small aperture was exposed, the external Yin energy rushed in like ants encountering honey, surging forward in a frantic scramble. He Yiming calmed his heart and cleared his mind of all distractions.

Since he had entered this place, lacking the courage even to attempt this would create a massive psychological impediment, bringing countless disadvantages to his future path of cultivation. Therefore, he preferred to try, even if he had to retreat later if he couldn't endure it—that was vastly better than doing nothing.

Slowly, layer after layer of Yin energy enveloped him. The moment He Yiming began to absorb the first wisp of natural energy within it, the black mist started to churn violently, as if intent on completely swallowing him whole.

In an instant, He Yiming felt immense pressure assaulting him from all directions. His mind swam briefly, and the scenery before him shifted entirely.

He suddenly seemed to stand on a massive battlefield. On this battlefield, he was an Easterner, clad in the simplest paper armor, standing atop the city walls, fighting desperately against foreign invaders.

His saber violently cleaved off an enemy's head that had just emerged from below the ramparts, but almost simultaneously, a sharp arrow shot up from the siege below pierced his throat. He clutched the wound on his neck, seemingly trying to force the torrent of flowing blood back in.

But his body completely gave way, and he tumbled from the wall, instantly subjected to countless chaotic blades hacking into his flesh. In that final moment, he seemed to recognize the wall—it was the western rampart of Blood Slaughter City (Xue Tu Cheng).

In a daze, he transformed again, this time into a Westerner. Before his eyes was an equally massive but unfamiliar city wall, and he swung his greatsword in broad, wheel-like arcs, cleaving Eastern soldiers off the battlements one after another.

But this time, the number of Eastern soldiers seemed endless, climbing the wall like ants, one after the next. Finally, when his strength failed, he too was rent apart by countless heavy blades plunging into his body.

In a fugue, he became a high-ranking general for both East and West, directing battles, but in every instance, the battle was lost, and their lives were left upon that field. Vaguely, He Yiming began to understand something: within this Yin energy seemed to be contained the most profound memories of those who had died in their final struggles.

Since they had perished on the battlefield, their most vivid recollections must be of the moments leading up to their deaths. In the time it took a single stick of incense to burn, He Yiming experienced several cycles of life and death, and every outcome was agonizing—dismembered by indiscriminate blades or pierced through the heart by arrows.

A determined fierceness gradually appeared on He Yiming’s face. He clenched his jaw tightly, as if chewing on something, and a thin trickle of blood escaped his lips.

He was still young; a Three Blossoms expert at twenty had achieved an unprecedented level of martial cultivation. But his experience was undeniably shallow.

His resolve, under such circumstances, simply could not compare to that of the old veterans, at least a century old, who had seen through the vicissitudes of life. Thus, when the endless black mist flooded into his body, causing him to spiritually perceive the malevolent energy emanating from those dying soldiers, his spirit experienced a tremor of wavering.

However, at that very moment, the natural energy he had absorbed, after circling slowly a few times within him, finally entered his Dantian. The next second, his Dantian erupted into a boil.

The Dantian, which had been quiescent like a chaotic void, suddenly began to spin like a wind-and-fire wheel. A stream of incomparably cool True Qi followed the meridians into He Yiming’s mind.

After remaining stunned for a long moment, He Yiming’s expression slowly returned to normal. Although the surrounding malevolent energy remained incredibly intense, even fiercer than before, in He Yiming’s eyes now, this Sha Qi was nothing more than that.

He felt as if his spirit had detached from his body, viewing everything from a different elevation. Before him sat a figure—this figure was himself—and his body seemed to be wrapped in clouds and mist, with a chaotic, swirling power keeping him easily suspended in this state.

He saw that the Earth element energy had completely vanished, and the boundless black fog surged toward him, only to be sucked into his form like a bottomless pit. He could sense that the boundless Sha Qi and sinister ghostly energy continued to rush into his body, but the problem was that He Yiming’s spirit now seemed to exist outside his physical shell; no matter how violently the Yin and malevolent energies churned, they could inflict no harm upon this seemingly vegetative state.

It was like a peerlessly beautiful woman, whose smile could topple cities, whose beauty could charm the world; no matter how alluring her movements, even dancing on a pole, if the observer before her were blind, her seduction would utterly fail. Similarly, although the current Yin and malevolent energies were thousands of times stronger than before, He Yiming’s spiritual consciousness was no longer within his body, so naturally, these energies could no longer have any effect.

After a moment, He Yiming suddenly discovered that the Yin and malevolent energies had calmed down. This didn't mean they ceased entering his body, but rather that the Yin and malevolent energies, along with the black mist and the natural energy within it, were being completely absorbed by his Dantian without the slightest residue.

He Yiming hesitated, then with a slight movement of his mind, he re-entered his body. The instant he returned, he felt an unimaginable influx of natural energy pouring in from the outside.

His internal meridians seemed to have expanded countless times; even this wild surge of black mist and natural energy caused no problems whatsoever. Not only that, but He Yiming could even sense the strange transformation occurring within his Dantian.

A bizarre thought suddenly struck him. When he eventually departed Ghost Cry Ridge, would he also carry away the resentment energy (Yuan Qi) residing here?

The mere thought of countless grudges hiding within his Dantian sent a chill down his spine. Taking a long breath, He Yiming firmly pushed this concern aside.

In this situation, the only path was constant absorption and constant elevation of his power. To remain distracted would be self-destruction.

He paused for a moment, reached under his armpit, and a Five Elements Ring (Wuxing Huan) appeared in his hand. He focused his mind on the three marked points within the ring.

Although he located the three spots instantly, the power he had infused was far from sufficient to bring them to the point of overflowing saturation. With a flicker of intent, the True Qi in his Dantian surged outward, splitting into Fire, Earth, and Metal elemental powers, flowing ceaselessly into the three points.

In this environment, this was truly the optimal location for cultivation. The ceaseless supply of natural energy was more than ten times more potent than outside, and He Yiming’s Dantian, stimulated by this influx, accelerated its absorption to an unimaginable speed.

Absorbing external power, converting it through the Dantian into the purest three-elemental forces. After a full half an hour, an expression of immense delight surfaced in He Yiming’s eyes.

The Five Elements Ring in his hand began to rotate automatically, especially the inner ring, where the three evenly distributed points shone faintly. He Yiming’s power flowed continuously within the ring; every corner of this divine weapon was saturated with his True Qi.

His ears twitched slightly, and his expression instantly darkened; he let out a cold laugh. He extended his hand, and three invisible points subtly materialized upon it, a potent force of confinement suddenly shooting forward from his palm…