Chapter 1205: Bone Curse

**Main Text**

The Twelve Demon Banners and the ebony sword protected Qin Sang, but he wasn't under attack; the tremors simply grew more violent. He steadied himself and cautiously surveyed his surroundings. The sealing power here was identical to that outside.

This location was the core of the seal. The secret realm on the opposite side was actually part of the overall sealing power, somehow extending beyond the Abyssal Ruins. The Heavenly Corpse Sect had used the connection between the altar and the seal to communicate with the trapped mysterious individual.

The source of the tremors was above. However, analyzing the prohibitions in the water based on previous experience, Qin Sang found that the sealing power converged in the opposite direction, deep beneath the surface. After a moment of thought, Qin Sang decided to explore the depths first.

He cleared a path with his flying sword and swiftly descended, soon locating his destination. Beneath the water stood steep, sword-like peaks. These mountains were barren, devoid of any life. At the summit of each peak was a dark, bottomless cave entrance. The seal seemed to be suppressing these mountains, or perhaps an unknown entity within them. These caves resembled open cages.

Qin Sang remained cautious, discreetly observing his surroundings with his Celestial Eye divine ability. If anything was amiss, it wouldn't escape his notice. Once he confirmed there was nothing unusual, Qin Sang approached the edge of a mountain peak and arrayed the Twelve Demon Banners outside, creating a potential escape route. Should there be anything strange inside the cave, a surprise retreat would be more effective.

The mountain peaks and caves appeared largely similar, so Qin Sang arbitrarily chose one at the edge and tentatively entered. Upon entering the cave, Qin Sang immediately felt a suppression. Although the seal had been broken, its residual power still attempted to suppress the prisoner. Qin Sang's protective divine aura fluctuated as he discovered that the seal was not merely suppressive; the sealing power manifested as fine, needle-like threads of lightning, forming a type of torture that still retained some of its potency. It was unimaginable how the person trapped here could have endured countless years of such pain if the seal had been intact.

Qin Sang protected himself with sword energy, resisting the torture as he slowly descended into the mountain's core. This was the end point: a regular, square-shaped chamber within the mountain. Inside, streaks of electrical snakes pulsed. The sealing torture specifically targeted living beings. Sensing Qin Sang, they furiously lunged at him, but he easily fended them off. This was where the sealing and torture power was strongest, yet the area was empty, with no unusual traces.

He explored several caves, all yielding the same result. Qin Sang then approached the tallest peak in the center, where the sealing power was at its absolute strongest. As soon as he entered, he noticed something unusual. Unlike the other caves, this mountain's core was not empty; Qin Sang had seen a deep white light from above. When he finally discerned the source of the white light, his expression subtly changed, and he abruptly halted.

On the ground, unlike the other caves, there was a stone platform, but it was empty. In front of the platform, however, there was a bone array! Qin Sang glanced at it and immediately confirmed that the array was constructed from human bones. The bone array had been there for countless years, its surface long devoid of any bloodstains. The stark white light emanated from the bones themselves, making the scene particularly eerie.

Humerus, tibia, clavicle, patella, phalanges, ribs... Every bone in the human body could be found here, even a complete spinal column, coiled and arranged in the center of the array, all refined and shaped like a Yin-Yang symbol. It was astonishingly composed of the bones of a single person! The array's creator was exceptionally malicious, having flayed and dismembered a complete human to construct this grand array.

However, as Qin Sang counted each bone, he couldn't find the skull. The bone array was somewhat disarranged, yet with Qin Sang's expertise, he could still discern some clues: this bone array was likely used to resist the seal's torture.

"Was the skull already damaged, or is it that..." Qin Sang paused, slightly bewildered. He might have misunderstood; perhaps the array's creator didn't dismember someone else's bones, but their own! In such a place, where would a second person appear for the trapped individual to refine into a bone array? Unless two people were initially trapped here.

The cultivation world held countless strange occurrences. It was entirely possible for a trapped individual, nearing the end of their life force, to refine their own body into a bone array to resist the torture, their soul clinging to life within the skull.

Seeing this, Qin Sang roughly understood why the mysterious individual sought help from outside at all costs. It was likely that the bone array was failing, and she was on the verge of death, making a desperate last stand. The broken seal and the absence of the skull indicated she had already escaped. Thinking of this, Qin Sang felt a chill down his spine; he wasn't sure if he could have made such a drastic decision, resorting to such a sinister bone array secret art.

Qin Sang focused his gaze on his surroundings, meticulously observing, hoping to uncover more clues. Otherwise, the trail might go cold again. As expected, Tan Hao had rescued the mysterious individual, but then they both vanished without a trace, their whereabouts unknown—this was Qin Sang's greatest perplexity.

This place, like the previous mountains, had flat ground and walls, completely devoid of any patterns or inscriptions. Finally, Qin Sang's gaze settled on the bone array.

"Oh?" Qin Sang made an unexpected discovery, then flashed to the side of the bone array. Each white bone was covered with winding patterns, resembling an unprecedented type of rune. These runes were directly carved onto the bones, seemingly a unique bone curse.

"Bone curse, corpse refining... could there be a connection?" Qin Sang mused. The path of white bones and the path of corpses were distinct, yet both involved manipulating cadavers. He suspected that the Heavenly Corpse Sect's legacy was obtained from the mysterious individual through the altar. Back then, the Heavenly Corpse Sect had Corpse King level refined corpses but failed to rescue the mysterious individual. Perhaps they were wary of her, only wanting benefits without releasing her, or perhaps the sealing power was too strong at the time, and even a Corpse King was powerless to break it...

Qin Sang's thoughts raced. He began collecting the white bones one by one. Since he couldn't find Tan Hao and the mysterious individual, these bone curses were a valuable find. He might be able to decipher something from them upon returning.

As he collected the spinal column, Qin Sang's eyes suddenly changed, fixating on a bone curse on a section of a vertebra. "This rune..." Qin Sang's heart stirred, and the Heavenly Corpse Talisman appeared in his mind. The rune on this section of the bone curse bore a striking resemblance to a rune on the Heavenly Corpse Talisman.

"There's a connection after all!" Qin Sang's heart filled with joy. The latter half of the Heavenly Corpse Sect's legacy might not be solely corpse-path secret arts, but a fusion with the path of white bones. No wonder he had been so clueless. Unfortunately, he still hadn't found a way to decipher the Heavenly Corpse Talisman.

As Qin Sang collected the white bones, he committed these bone curses to memory, hoping that studying them would help him decipher the Heavenly Corpse Talisman. Additionally, he could take them back for Bai to study. Bai had been in secluded cultivation for decades after obtaining the Corpse Soul Orb, yet he had never managed to refine it, his advancement to Corpse King seemingly indefinitely far off. Now, it appeared it wasn't a lack of strength but a wrong approach.