"These customs later spread to the Human World. In ancient tribal times, there was such a tradition. They firmly believed that doing so would enslave the souls of the vanquished."
She glanced with a hint of mockery in her eyes, "Which means letting those souls become a guarding army for them."
"However, the Ancient God Clan was not superstitious. They had their reasons for doing this."
Gu Jianlin suddenly spoke up.
"Yes, this was actually a special kind of ritual."
Tang Ling rarely turned serious: "That's why this place is called the Living Burial Area. Things buried here are likely alive and will crawl out of the graves, howling to devour you."
Gu Jianlin grunted in agreement.
Tang Ling stared at him and asked, "Aren't you afraid?"
Gu Jianlin thought to himself that he was the very thing crawling out of the coffin, so there was nothing to fear.
But being emotionally intelligent, he still said, "Afraid."
Tang Ling was silent for a second, "You don't seem so."
Gu Jianlin got up, searching the ground for traces and casually asked, "Are you afraid of these things?"
Tang Ling earnestly said, "I'm also a girl, of course, I should be afraid."
"By the way, what were you looking at just now?"
Tang Ling asked suspiciously.
Gu Jianlin found it inconvenient to answer because he was looking at his father's guide.
Although it was a document left by Old Gu before he disappeared and contained no detailed solutions for the Immortal Palace, it recorded a wealth of knowledge with invaluable worth.
Just then, an exclamation came from afar!
"Good news, brothers and sisters!"
Dawn said excitedly, "I think I stepped on a trap!"
After entering the Returning Burial Forest, this guy had been leading the way, facing the gale.
He prided himself on being thick-skinned and durable, and capable of self-recovery, making him the best choice for triggering traps.
At this moment, Nightmare rushed over with the Crystal Ball, shocked: "Impossible! I didn't foresee any danger!"
The Poison Master came over, glanced at his feet, and asked, "Are you sure you stepped on a trap?"
Everyone crowded around, scraping away the loose, damp soil on the ground.
But when they saw what was at Dawn's feet, everyone fell silent.
A bottle of drained nutritional drink.
The crowd exchanged glances, speechless.
This absurd scene in the ancient ruins truly felt like a dissonance of time and space.
Still, finding traces of human activity here gave a subtle sense of relief.
Although it was unclear whether they were enemies or allies, at least that feeling of loneliness and fear slightly diminished.
"This proves someone came here before us, possibly Independent Awakened who accidentally entered the Immortal Palace, but most likely other pioneers. From the traces, it looks fresh, no more than a day old."
Gu Jianlin came over, squinting: "There should be other clues nearby."
Tang Ling said lightly, "When we entered the Returning Burial Forest, we didn't see any signs of other people."
Suddenly, Nightmare's eyes turned pale, he stroked the Crystal Ball he held, sneered after a moment, and said: "Nineteen hours ago, a team of more than ten appeared in the Returning Burial Forest, well-equipped and well-trained. Without exception, all were Ascenders, and their Spiritual Concentration was not low, at least above the Third to Fourth Rank."
He added, "They are not affiliated with the association, nor are they the missing Omega."
He finished with a provocative expression.
Gu Jianlin squinted, sensing a strong sense of provocation from him.
Tang Ling hesitated for a bit, typed something on her phone, and handed it to him: "This might be my fault because their divination team's result differed from your profile. And since they backed the Judgement Court's faction, I couldn't help but mock them."
Gu Jianlin was taken aback; indeed, they were like-minded individuals.
Even the parrot's eyes brightened up.
Just then, Ji Xiaoyu's shout came from not far away.
"Come quickly, there's a grave here!"
The crowd looked towards the sound, seeing a black rock wall cut extremely flat, with a giant human face protruding from it, as if a desperate person were howling at the sky, covered in strange patterns.
Below the rock wall was a decaying ancient tree, with a person embedded within it!
It was a naked person, very small in stature, seemingly fused with the ancient tree, their body covered with twisted bark-like patterns, unknown how many years they had lain here, covered with dust, rotting and withered.
It was unclear if it was male or female, but there was no hair, only a child's face.
Numerous grim skulls hung down, eerily sinister.
The black soil was soft, actually burying many ancient broken burial artifacts.
Ji Xiaoyu stood beside the ancient tree, carefree and fearless.
However, the scene was indeed somewhat bizarre, striking at first glance.
Moreover, this unique burial style was unheard of.
Nightmare reminded: "Be cautious, there's an Alchemy Matrix in this tree, blocking my divination. I have no idea what or who this is, whether dead or alive. Don't approach recklessly."
He searched on the ground for a while and found a piece of a broken shield.
Closing his eyes for divination, he frowned, "An artifact from the Late Han Dynasty. From the residual information on it, I vaguely sensed that the tomb's owner died young, no older than twelve."