Chapter 134: The Kun Bird

Chen Jin descended lightly from the rafters and exhaled a plume of fire. In an instant, the flames engulfed the entire room, coating the spellbound people on the ground in a mantle of fire.

Then, with a dull thud followed by a continuous series of explosions—resembling the bursting of a bloated, distended belly—the room erupted.

Chen Jin paid no mind to the explosions. He wrapped himself in his Primordial Energy to deflect the shockwaves.

It was a success.

When Chen Jin emerged from the ruins of the house, he held a curiously shaped bronze artifact. It was neither sword nor blade, and it seemed to be guided by a mysterious force, constantly struggling to break free from his grasp. But Chen Jin would never let something he had finally acquired escape so easily, especially after he had expended so much effort and left the ordeal covered in soot. He was determined to master this object.

He summoned a fragment of the Divine Edict and channeled its power of suppression to subdue the bronze piece.

However, as the two objects met, one suddenly turned into a purple light, the other into a cyan light. They fused together, coalescing into a strange, dark-gray, cube-like object marked with both cyan and purple veins.

Chen Jin scanned the object carefully, wrapping it in his Primordial Energy in an attempt to imprint his consciousness upon it and gain control.

Barely a quarter-hour after his energy enveloped it, Chen Jin was flooded with a vast stream of information.

The contents were not simple; they were the fragmented memories of an ancient civilization, along with the entire life stories of the members of that caravan.

By the end, Chen Jin felt his spirit grow significantly stronger. He felt as if he could reach the Realm of Settled Spirit at any moment; even without the aid of his Five-Qi True Essence, he felt a measure of confidence in his ability to trigger a transformation of his soul and consciousness.

Yet, Chen Jin chose not to do so. He sensed the peril inherent in the process. If he were to breakthrough relying solely on this sudden surge of spiritual power, his future cultivation would become dependent on harvesting the spiritual essence of others. This was not the path he wanted, as the source of such external power usually meant the destruction of other lives.

Chen Jin had no desire to become a reviled mass murderer, so he fed the spiritual energy back into the gray cube.

As he did, the purple and cyan veins on the surface of the cube began to glow brilliantly. The light wove into a passage of text hovering ten centimeters above the cube. Chen Jin could not recognize the characters, assuming they belonged to that ancient civilization. He committed them to memory, intending to translate them when the opportunity arose.

The radiance lasted for a minute before dissipating like fireflies, leaving the gray cube restored to its original state, with only the faint, lingering glow of the interweaving veins remaining.

Chen Jin tucked the cube away and began to reflect on the information he had received. His primary focus remained on the ancient civilization; as for the memories of the caravan members… he could only offer a silent prayer.

The caravan members had died on their way here. Just as in the question Chen Jin had posed to them earlier, they had all starved to death.

Driven by the mysterious pull of the bronze artifact, they had set out from Chengdu toward Mount Emei. They had traveled without pause or sustenance, starving to death along the way—they hadn’t even had the chance to scavenge for scraps.

Even after they died, the artifact refused to let them go. It required a vessel to carry it to its destination, so it imprisoned the souls of the dead within their own corpses, using its mysterious power to sustain their bodies and force them to continue their journey until they reached their goal.

Fortunately, the nature of a soul is miraculous. Because they had died of hunger, they harbored a deep, lingering obsession. Chen Jin had exploited this obsession to awaken them, effectively shattering the artifact’s plan.

As for why a man like Luo Xiangbao—who remained aware of his own predicament—existed among them, perhaps it was because the Way of Heaven is impartial and leaves a glimmer of hope.

The artifact’s history, and that of the ancient shamanic tribe—the Kun-Niao (transliterated)—that created it, was revealed as well. Situated between Mount Emei and the Min River, the tribe had existed for centuries before finally perishing in a tribal conflict. The artifact had been taken as spoils of war by an opposing tribe.

Given that it had come from Chengdu, Chen Jin boldly guessed that the Kun-Niao tribe had been destroyed by the Sanxingdui culture. Though he didn't know the name the artifact used for them, he was certain they were also a powerful shamanic tribe that worshipped the Sun Bird, the Golden Crow.

With this knowledge, Chen Jin felt he had stumbled upon something miraculous—a stroke of luck, a greeting from the ancient past.

The artifact itself was a simple tool for soul manipulation—a funerary object, a creation of the gods from an era when spirits, ghosts, and humans coexisted. Of course, these "gods" were likely nothing more than local land or mountain deities. Its function had been to guide souls to the underworld. In those days, the underworld was not the organized realm it is today, nor was there a Ghost City of Fengdu; it was merely an empty, accessible interdimensional space. Since souls were not drawn into the underworld automatically, many wandered the mortal realm, encountered Yin-Shattered Essence, and became ghosts. As these ghosts were often harmful to the living, such funerary objects were created to guide them.

It was an effective method, but it exacted a heavy toll on the shaman’s lifespan. Consequently, the tribe had fixed times for processing souls, accompanied by grand sacrificial rituals to seek the aid of their deity.

Among the memories, Chen Jin saw a vision: a shaman using this blade-like, sword-like funerary object to cut open the chest of a savage, ripping out the heart and liver to hold them high as an offering to the tribal god.

Chen Jin replayed the image in his mind and suddenly felt a pang of hunger.

Pork liver sounded quite good, after all.

As Chen Jin pondered, the flames in the house began to spread outward. He did not stop them, allowing them to burn wildly until they engulfed the entire village.

He did this because he felt it was the perfect opportunity to draw out the fox demons.

Naturally, he had to prepare to put on a good show.

Chen Jin allowed his aura to dim, letting a shroud of Yin-Shattered Essence envelop his body.

Now, he would wait for the fox demons to take the bait.