Immortal Path in the Palm of a Mortal's Hand

Chapter 18 First Entry into the Forbidden Area

The disciples of Tianque Fortress were the most diverse. Their cultivation levels varied, ranging from the tenth to the thirteenth level of Qi Refining, and their clothing lacked a uniform style, making them appear at first glance as a patchwork of independent cultivators. However, Chen Fan knew that the strength of Tianque Fortress was not to be underestimated. Located on the border of Yue Kingdom, it had been fighting against independent cultivators and demonic beasts for many years, and its disciples were all seasoned veterans who had survived countless battles.

Thirty against thirty-five. Spirit Beast Mountain against Yellow Maple Valley. Hidden Moon Sect against Giant Sword Sect. Pure Void Sect against Blade Transformation Valley. Heavenly Palace Fortress alone occupies a corner. The disciples of the seven sects combined number over two hundred.

Of the two hundred people who entered the forbidden area, fewer than one hundred came out alive.

Chen Fan's gaze swept across the seven sect camps, quickly assessing the characteristics of each sect's disciples and their potential threats. The Giant Sword Sect possessed the strongest offensive capabilities; a direct confrontation should be prioritized, or their strength avoided. The Hidden Moon Sect's illusions were unpredictable; during combat, one must constantly project one's spiritual sense and guard one's mind. The Yellow Maple Valley had a solid foundation and was the most troublesome. The Blade Transformation Dock's swordsmanship was ruthless; close-quarters combat was out of the question. The Pure Void Sect's spells were varied; one must be wary of their talisman formations. The disciples of Heavenly Palace Fortress were experienced and cunning, each a seasoned veteran; they were the most difficult to deal with and also the most dangerous.

As for his fellow disciples from Spirit Beast Mountain? Once inside the forbidden area, they become rivals. Spiritual herbs and opportunities are limited; in the face of profit, the bonds of camaraderie among disciples are as fragile as cicada wings. He wouldn't attack his fellow disciples first, but if anyone harbored murderous intent towards him, he would show no mercy.

"Chen Fan".

A detached voice suddenly resounded directly in his mind. It was a divine sense transmission.

Chen Fan's expression remained unchanged, his gaze still fixed straight ahead, but his divine sense had already followed the sound. The voice of True Person Chiyun continued to echo in his sea of ​​consciousness, calm and undisturbed.

"Remember what you promised me. In the forbidden area, there is a spiritual herb called 'Mysterious Soul Grass.' This herb is entirely black, with leaves shaped like ghost faces, and it mostly grows deep within the forbidden area where yin energy gathers. I need one, and it must be at least three hundred years old."

"Disciple understands," Chen Fan replied with his divine sense.

"The forbidden area is dangerous, and I don't expect you to come out alive. But if you do come out alive without the Mystic Soul Grass..." True Man Chiyun's voice paused slightly, with a hint of coldness at the end, "You should know the consequences."

Chen Fan frowned slightly, offering no further response. He knew that True Person Chiyun didn't need his reply either. This was a deal: he agreed to enter the forbidden area to find the Profound Soul Grass, and True Person Chiyun gave him the first four levels of the *Great Evolution Prison Suppression Scripture*. If he could bring back the Profound Soul Grass alive, the deal would be complete, with additional rewards. If he died within, the deal would end. If he survived but found no grass… the wrath of a Core Formation cultivator was beyond what a mere Qi Refining disciple like himself could bear.

The fluctuations of Chi Yun Zhenren's divine sense quietly disappeared, as if they had never appeared.

Chen Fan remained calm, silently reciting the characteristics of the Mysterious Soul Grass several times in his mind: pitch black, ghost-face leaves, a place where yin energy gathers, and three hundred years old.

Deep within the forbidden area. A place where yin energy gathers.

These two points combined mean that he must venture deep into the most dangerous core area of ​​the forbidden zone. That place is not only a place where the forbidden zone itself is restricted and where powerful demonic beasts reside, but it is also a place that the strongest and most ambitious disciples among the other six sects must fight for.

It's going to be another tough battle.

Night fell. Bonfires blazed across the Gobi Desert, and disciples from various sects sat around them, some meditating to regulate their breathing, others examining magical artifacts and talismans, and still others conversing in hushed tones. No one felt sleepy. Tomorrow would be the day the forbidden area opened; life and death, success and failure, all hinged on this moment.

Chen Fan sat cross-legged in a corner of the Spirit Beast Mountain camp, leaning against a weathered boulder. Ironclad poked its head out of its spirit beast pouch, its whiskers swaying gently in the night wind, as if sensing the unfamiliar and desolate atmosphere of the Gobi Desert. He reached out and pressed Ironclad back into its pouch, closed his eyes, and focused his mind, his consciousness sinking into his sea of ​​consciousness.

The Prison Guardian Wall stands majestically in the center of the sea of ​​consciousness, its silver-gray walls adorned with flowing patterns, as steady as a mountain.

Inside the storage bag, the black-scaled soft armor was already worn close to his body, and the golden flame spirit-slaying blade was placed in the most convenient position. There were over a hundred talismans, one talismanic treasure, one mid-grade earth escape talisman, and one mid-grade spirit stone.

……

Three days later.

Seven Nascent Soul stage cultivators each occupied a corner, their hands forming hand seals. Streams of spiritual energy of varying colors shot from their palms, converging about thirty feet above the Gobi Desert to form a massive vortex. The vortex slowly rotated, and a dark crack gradually opened at its center. The crack expanded continuously, eventually transforming into a hazy portal several feet high. Inside, everything was shrouded in a gray mist, making it difficult to discern anything. Only extremely chaotic fluctuations of spiritual energy surged forth like a raging tide, overwhelming everything.

"The forbidden passage is open. Enter in turn!" The voice of a Core Formation stage cultivator resounded through the spiritual energy, echoing across the surrounding area.

Before the words were even finished, the female cultivator from the Hidden Moon Sect, closest to the gate of light, had already transformed into a streak of light and swept in. Immediately following, disciples from the Giant Sword Sect, Pure Void Sect, Blade Transformation Valley, and Heavenly Palace Fortress filed in. Spirit Beast Mountain and Yellow Maple Valley were at the very back. Chen Fan mingled in the crowd, neither rushing ahead nor falling behind, maintaining a pace similar to everyone else.

When it was his turn, he took a deep breath and stepped into the portal.

The world is spinning!

The scene before my eyes shattered and reformed in an instant; the solid ground beneath my feet vanished, leaving only a weightless, suspended feeling. My five senses were completely disrupted at this moment; my ears were ringing and piercing; the light and shadows before my eyes were distorted; even my consciousness felt as if it had been turned into a mess by an invisible giant hand.

Fortunately, the feeling only lasted for a few breaths.

His feet touched solid ground. As soon as Chen Fan's body came to a stop, the Golden Flame Spirit-Slaying Blade silently slid into his palm, and half of his armored body emerged from the mouth of the spirit beast pouch. His divine sense reflexively spread outwards, and then his brows furrowed slightly.

The range of his divine sense was compressed to less than twenty feet!

Outside the forbidden area, his divine sense could easily cover nearly a hundred feet, and at its limit, it could even reach over a hundred feet. However, the spiritual energy here was abnormally chaotic, and the air was filled with a hazy mist, not water vapor, but rather some kind of unidentifiable residual spiritual energy. When his divine sense probed into it, it was like entering a quagmire; for every inch it extended, the energy consumed was twice that of the outside world.

Twenty zhang!

This distance means that if a cultivator were to launch a sudden attack from afar, he would have virtually no chance of warning.

Chen Fan didn't rush to move. He first checked the armor's status. The golden-backed mantis perched on his shoulder, its antennae standing tall and swaying slowly from side to side, trying its best to sense the surrounding atmosphere. The perception of spirit insects is quite different from that of cultivators' divine sense. The armor relies on the innate instincts of spirit beasts and its keen sensitivity to fluctuations in spiritual energy, making it relatively less affected by the environment of the forbidden area. With it around, it could somewhat compensate for the disadvantage of having his divine sense suppressed.

Immediately, he began to look around.

The place of teleportation was a desolate forest. The trees were sparse, their branches gnarled and twisted, their bark an unnatural grayish-white, as if some force had forcibly drained their life force. The branches were bare, not a single green leaf in sight, their withered twigs reaching towards the sky like ghostly claws. The ground was covered with a thick layer of decaying leaves, soft and silent underfoot, eliciting only a faint rustling sound. In the air, the stench of decay mingled with a faint, lingering smell of blood.

The sky was a stagnant, dark red, as if shrouded in a translucent veil of congealed blood. There was no sun, no moon, no clouds, no stars, only the even and oppressive dark red light. This light draped the entire desolate forest in a faint blood-red hue, making the grayish-white tree trunks appear even more eerie and sinister under its glow.

Forbidden!

Chen Fan stood motionless for about half a cup of tea's time, his body completely still, his divine sense and eyes repeatedly scanning every inch of land, every tree trunk, and every branch within a twenty-foot radius. Within this forbidden area, remnants of ancient restrictions were scattered everywhere, a danger repeatedly mentioned in the sect's scriptures. The number of these restrictions that had existed was unknown; some were already ineffective, some were still functioning, and some were even in a state of partial destruction—these were the most dangerous. Those that were completely ineffective left traces; those that were fully functioning clearly showed fluctuations of spiritual energy. Only those restrictions that were partial destruction remained, usually silent as inanimate objects, only unleashing their remaining power the moment they were triggered, making them impossible to defend against.

He quickly found the first spot.

About fifteen feet to the left, the distribution of decaying leaves on the ground between two withered trees was slightly unusual. The decaying leaves were evenly distributed all around, but in that small area, the decaying leaves were arranged in a radial pattern, as if a force was pushing outward from the center. Chen Fan crouched down, picked up a dead branch from beside his feet, and threw it towards that area.

The moment the withered branch touched the ground, a circle of pale blue runes suddenly lit up beneath the decaying leaves! The runes flashed slightly, and the withered branch was instantly pulverized by an invisible force.

Chen Fan watched expressionlessly, memorizing the location of the restriction. This kind of restriction had limited power; at most, it could injure a Qi Refining cultivator, but not be fatal. However, within the forbidden area, who knew the power of the next restriction? Perhaps it would be another low-level restriction, or perhaps it would be a mid-level restriction capable of severely injuring a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

He was powerless to solve it. The only thing he could do was to discover it and then avoid it.