When Su Ming rushed to the logistics camp, he found it completely sealed off by a dark red formation light barrier.

This was not the Fortress Wall formation for defending against external enemies, but a “Spirit Locking Barrier” meant to prevent internal energy from leaking out.

The air was filled with a nauseating smell of rust, not the rust of weapons, but closer to the scent of old, dried blood, yet mixed with an indescribably cloying, sweet, and fishy stench.

“Do not approach that red line!”

A black-armored Enforcement Team cultivator sharply stopped a menial post disciple who was trying to crane his neck for a look.

Su Ming stopped walking, his gaze sweeping over the edge of the sealed area.

On the snowy ground there, several low-level menial post disciples wearing gray numbered uniforms lay scattered in disarray.

They had no visible external injuries, but each of their bodies was twitching at an extremely unnatural frequency.

Su Ming narrowed his eyes slightly.

Even from over a dozen zhang away, he could clearly see that the disciples’ eyeballs had rolled upwards, the whites of their eyes covered in spiderweb-like blood vessels, and white foam continuously spilled from the corners of their mouths. More terrifying were their hands, which were digging desperately into the frozen earth, fingernails torn and bloody, yet they seemed to feel no pain. They only made strange “heh heh” sounds in their throats, like drowning people desperately trying to breathe.

“This is a sign of their souls being impacted.”

Within his Consciousness Sea, Lin Yu’s voice carried a rare trace of gravity.

Su Ming’s fingers curled slightly within his sleeves as he activated the Aura Concealment Art, suppressing his own energy fluctuations to the minimum. Only then did he walk quickly towards the entrance of the sealed area.

The cultivator on guard recognized the Formation Hub token at Su Ming’s waist. After verifying it, his face pale, he let him pass, whispering a final warning, “Formation Cultivator Su, be careful. The thing inside… is very sinister.”

Su Ming nodded and stepped over the red line.

The moment he entered the barrier, that oppressive feeling suddenly multiplied.

In the center of the ruins of Warehouse C, several figures stood in a circle, the atmosphere so heavy it felt like water could drip from it.

Leading them was none other than Spiritual Hub Hall’s Golden Core Formation Master, Elder Mo.

This old man, who usually always smiled amiably like a wealthy merchant, now had his brows tightly furrowed. He paced back and forth among the piles of charred magical implement fragments, the formation plate in his hand spinning wildly, unable to settle on a fixed position.

Beside him stood two red-robed Vessel Hall stewards, as well as several Foundation Establishment stage formation masters whose faces were ashen.

And at the focal point of everyone’s gaze was a section of… bone, mixed among a pile of shattered formation plates and broken flying swords.

It was a section of pale white thigh bone.

It didn’t look very long, roughly only two chi, its entire body white as jade. Its surface even shimmered with a fine, glaze-like luster, appearing completely out of place amidst this pile of charred, filthy ruins, so clean it was eerie.

But the moment Su Ming laid eyes on it, a sharp pain stabbed between his eyebrows.

“Bzzz—”

No sound actually entered his ears, but a sharp, piercing shriek instantly echoed in Su Ming’s mind.

The sound was like countless steel needles simultaneously stabbing into his brain marrow, or like the screech of fingernails scraping across glass, causing an inexplicable surge of irritation and nausea.

“Do not probe it directly with your divine sense!”

Elder Mo suddenly turned his head and barked at Su Ming, who had just entered, “That thing will ‘bite’ onto your divine sense!”

Su Ming immediately reined in his focus, performing an act of staggering back in fright, his face appropriately turning a few shades paler. He cupped his hands and said, “Elder Mo, what is this…”

“A ‘trophy’ transported back from the front lines.”

Elder Mo snorted coldly, his gaze sweeping towards the two Vessel Hall stewards beside him, his tone carrying undisguised anger. “The people from the Vessel Hall said it was excellent artifact forging material, suspected to be the life-bound bone of some high-level demon beast. They wanted to strike while the iron was hot and use the ‘Earth Fire Mingyi Formation’ to refine the murderous aura within it. The result…”

The slightly plump Vessel Hall steward next to him wiped cold sweat from his forehead and awkwardly defended, “Elder Mo, we were just following procedure. Who knew this bone would react so violently when exposed to fire? That tremor just now nearly shattered the entire warehouse district’s defensive formations…”

“Following procedure?” Elder Mo laughed in extreme anger. “Your procedure is to indiscriminately set a fire first? Well done. Not only did you fail to force out the murderous aura, you activated the vicious nature within it instead. Now who dares to touch it? You go?”

The plump steward shrank his neck, not daring to respond.

The several menial post disciples lying on the ground earlier were a cautionary tale. They were merely responsible for moving waste materials, got a little too close, and had their souls scattered by the leaking energy.

“Su Ming, you’ve come just in time.”

Elder Mo took a deep breath, suppressing his anger, and beckoned Su Ming over. “Your ‘water grinding’ technique is delicate, and water-attribute spiritual energy is best at containment. Stand three zhang away and try using a gentle force to probe the energy field flow around this thing. See if you can find a point of entry for sealing it. Remember, do not force a confrontation!”

“Yes.”

Su Ming responded and carefully moved forward a few steps, stopping at a spot three zhang away from that section of white bone.

He did not act immediately, but first adjusted his breathing.

“Master, activate ‘observation micro state’,” Su Ming silently recited in his heart.

“Activated. Be careful, this thing smells wrong.” Lin Yu’s voice carried a hint of disgust. “Wrap your divine sense in water spiritual energy, don’t let it go bare.”

Su Ming closed his eyes slightly. When he opened them again, the depths of his pupils had turned a deep blue.

The originally pale white bone instantly transformed in his vision.

That was no white jade-like beast bone.

Under the microscopic view, that fine, glaze-like surface was actually densely covered with minute, invisible patterns.

Those patterns were not naturally formed, but man-made carvings.

They twisted and coiled, like countless tiny venomous snakes entangled together, forming ferocious, agonized human face patterns.

What made Su Ming’s scalp tingle even more was that the interior of this bone section was not solid, but filled with honeycomb-like pores.

Black murderous aura flowed rapidly within these pores. Every impact against the pore walls would trigger a vibration. These vibrations, amplified through those eerie human face patterns, formed that soul-targeting shriek.

“This is… a curse bone… This is an evil object ‘refined’ by the Demon Tribe!” Lin Yu’s voice carried a mix of sudden realization and disgust. “I remember now! A similar thing was mentioned in the fragmented scroll ‘Records of Southern Border Wonders: Evil Entities Chapter’ in the sect’s Transmission Pavilion! Among the Demon Tribe, there is a ‘Soul Sacrifice’ lineage specializing in soul curses. They sometimes select specific living creatures’ bones, process them with secret methods, carve malevolent curse patterns into them, and refine them into ‘curse bones’ or ‘grudge bones’. This thing is usually used for casting curses or setting traps!”

Su Ming remembered that after becoming an outer sect disciple, to broaden his knowledge, he had indeed borrowed many jade slips and ancient texts on geographical records, strange tales, and exotic objects from the Transmission Pavilion. Lin Yu had also eagerly read along at the time, and with his far superior soul and insight, had memorized many obscure pieces of knowledge.

“Curse bone?” Su Ming’s heart tightened.

“Yes. This is not some artifact forging material at all; it’s a ‘trap’ specifically designed to harm people.” Lin Yu quickly analyzed. “See those pores? If any cultivator tries to probe it with divine sense, or refine it with spiritual fire, their divine sense will be sucked into these pores. Inside, it will be infinitely stretched, torn apart, and finally become nourishment for this bone.”

“The fools from the Vessel Hall refining it with fire was like feeding it a meal, directly activating the self-destruct restriction inside.”

Su Ming was inwardly horrified.

This thing being mixed in with the wreckage and transported to the rear was a conspiracy in itself.

If the Vessel Hall people had added more fire earlier, probably everyone in the entire Warehouse C district would have suffered severe soul trauma, possibly even affecting the nearby Formation Hub Tower.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep