The Purgatory Calamity

```

"It looks like the 'Branded Eye' of the Blood Moon," Zhou Qingchen observed the slowly swirling blood-colored pupil on the pitch-black banner and suddenly remembered something.

"Blood Wheel Skill!" Shangguan Qin called out excitedly and a dark red halo suddenly emerged from the back of her neck.

The Shangguan Family of the Fourth Realm had a deep connection with the Blood Moon of the Upper Realm, much like the Zhou Family was connected to Red Mountain—this was common knowledge.

Within the Shangguan Family, those with the most outstanding talent for cultivation were often accepted by the Blood Moon.

Shangguan Qin, although not qualified to cultivate at the Blood Moon in the Upper Realm, did receive her entry-level spell from the Blood Moon.

Confirming that the 'Branded Eye' was revealed on the banner, she immediately activated her arduously practiced 'Blood Wheel Skill,' attempting to gain favor from the blood pupil with a technique of the same origin.

Once the "Blood Wheel Skill" was initiated, a crimson wheel slowly emerged, bearing a faint resemblance to the halo around the 'Branded Eye.'

As a core member of the Shangguan Family, Shangguan Qin knew the wondrous 'Branded Eye' of the Blood Moon could illuminate the surroundings and imprint scenes that occurred prior.

Great Cultivators from the Blood Moon could often gain key information through the 'Branded Eye,' thus making the right decisions.

When such unusual activity occurred with the 'Branded Eye,' it meant that it was searching for someone related to the Blood Moon to pass on extremely important information.

Considering all the cultivators of the Blood Moon present were dead, and only Shangguan Qin had cultivated the 'Blood Wheel Skill,' she naturally thought that the 'Branded Eye' would choose her to impart the vital information hidden within.

This way, she would be able to learn how those cultivators of the Blood Moon had died.

She would also know if the creature that cleanly devoured the corpses' flesh and blood was really a beast from the nearby woods and if members of the Zhou and Ning Families who arrived later gained any opportunities here.

Sacrificing several family servants to activate the 'Branded Eye' with fresh blood seemed worth it, she thought.

Thinking this, Shangguan Qin frantically stimulated the 'Blood Wheel Skill,' waiting quietly for the infusion of the message from the 'Branded Eye.'

However…

After waiting from left to right, Shangguan Qin, who assumed she would be the first and only choice of the 'Branded Eye,' failed to receive the desired message even as the blood-colored pupil swelled and burst open.

Following the explosion of the blood pupil, a spray of blood rained down, as if a shower of blood had fallen above the Unstable Ferry.

Shangguan Qin, who had waited a long time for the message, wore shock on her charming face, clearly unable to accept this outcome.

Roman, a towering and muscular man who had followed Shangguan Qin for many years, also knew about the peculiarities of the 'Branded Eye.'

Seeing the blood pupil explode, he thought Shangguan Qin had received the information she wanted and specifically approached to ask, "How is it?"

Ning Yao, Ning Yuanshan, and even Han Duping and the others all turned their eyes to Shangguan Qin.

They unanimously believed that Shangguan Qin, who had sacrificed the 'Blood Wheel Skill,' must have received the key message from the 'Branded Eye' and knew what had happened.

"It wasn't me!" Shangguan Qin suddenly screamed, frantically searching the crowd with an anxious expression, shouting angrily, "Who is it? Who got the most critical information from the 'Branded Eye'? Who exactly is it?!"

She shouted hysterically, unable to comprehend why the 'Branded Eye' had not chosen her.

Among those present, she was the only one who had cultivated a technique from the Blood Moon and had actively offered the 'Blood Wheel Skill.'

"Pang Jian, what did you see?"

Zhou Qingchen, who was close to Pang Jian, saw a strange look in his eyes and couldn't help but inquire.

"Pang Jian?"

"Pang Jian!"

A wave of incredulous and puzzled gazes suddenly converged on Pang Jian, eager to see right through him.

No one had expected that this young hunter from the Solitude Mountain Range would be favored by the 'Branded Eye' and be endowed with the most critical message.

Initially skeptical, upon closer examination, they discovered a subtle blood light fading from Pang Jian's pupils.

Within the blood light, there seemed to be a series of blurry images.

It really was him!

There were no more doubts among the crowd, and although not clear on the specifics, they all understood that the young hunter before them had replaced Shangguan Qin and received the grace of the 'Branded Eye.'

"First, I saw the shaking of the earth," Pang Jian declared.

Speaking as if bearing divine edicts, as he uttered these words, the earth beneath everyone's feet, already cracked from the fall of the Heaven Phoenix bones, dramatically shook and roared!

All eyes incredulously turned to Pang Jian.

Pang Jian was clearly startled, not expecting the earth to shake in response to his words so suddenly.

"What happened next?" Zhou Qingchen asked, full of amazement.

He suddenly felt somewhat fortunate for his keen insight and initiative in befriending Pang Jian, and for his strong prior support of him.

"Next…"

Pang Jian did not give a clear response but muttered to himself as he sorted through the chaotic images in his mind, trying to integrate those memories he had just received.

The ground continued to shake; the deep rumbling did not cease, and those cracked, deep ravines seemed to harbor some unknown terror.

"Go! Get away from here quickly!"

Having seen the next scene, Pang Jian's expression drastically changed. He looked at the cracks in the ground as if he saw some terrible thing about to burst forth from within.

"Mr. Zhou, believe me! Hurry!"

Pang Jian leaped onto his horse, jerked the reins fiercely, and urged his sorrel warhorse towards the forest where the grey ape had vanished.

The warhorse jumped high over a ravine that was tearing wider with each tremor from the earth's depths.

Zhou Qingchen's face shifted between hope and doubt, internally torn for a moment before he quickly chose to believe Pang Jian and shouted, "Follow Pang Jian, hurry!"

Once he moved, the Zhou Family servants dared not hesitate and immediately spurred their horses to keep up.

"Yao, what about us?"

Ning Yuanshan, having fallen one step behind in these perilous and unclear moments, urgently looked to Ning Yao.

"We'll leave too!"

```

As Ning Yao made her decision, the two from the Ning Family and the surviving Zhang Heng also hurriedly rode their horses to leave.

After the Zhou Family and the Ning Family people left, listening to the terrible "hissing" noises coming from under the ground, Shangguan Qin looked at the Unstable Ferry, suddenly seeming somewhat at a loss.

"Miss?" Roman asked urgently.

"Let's go as well!"

The people from the Shangguan Family who had no mounts, just like the Zhou and Ning families, chose to evacuate in the same direction.

...

"Hiss, hiss!"

From the vibrating crevices in the ground behind them, ear-piercing ghostly wails constantly echoed, as if demons were taking advantage of the earthquake to claw their way out, intending to exterminate all the living beings on the surface.

Pang Jian took the lead, continuously accelerating to leave.

Following him were Zhou Qingchen and Han Duping, and then the other Zhou Family members as well as Ning Yao, Ning Yuanshan, and others.

It didn't last very long; the earthquake and ghostly wails behind them gradually came to a halt.

At this moment, Pang Jian finally stopped and immediately turned his horse around.

The rest also stopped one after another, their hearts still filled with trepidation, and they looked back with puzzled expressions.

They didn't know what had happened after they left, but they instinctively felt a sense of foreboding.

"What exactly did you see through the Branded Eye?" Ning Yao was the first to question.

With her bright eyes filled with menace, her attitude towards Pang Jian suddenly became much less polite, and her tone was extremely icy.

"I'll tell you later, let's first see if anyone from the Shangguan Family managed to survive and get here," Pang Jian said indifferently.

A chill went down everyone's spine, realizing that a terrible catastrophe must have occurred on that cracked land.

Zhou Qingchen raised his hand, signaling everyone to not be in a hurry and to wait patiently.

"Whoo-hoo!"

From the area they had fled, gradually came chilling howls that sounded like cultivators from the Shangguan Family were being hunted by some evil creature.

Zhou Qingchen's face changed slightly, and he gave Pang Jian a deep look but didn't say much.

"That was close!"

Everyone was shaking with fear, secretly relieved that Zhou Qingchen had chosen to trust Pang Jian, allowing them to withdraw from that terrifying place in time.

Because of Shangguan Qin's indecisiveness, the Shangguan Family must have paid a heavy price, with who knows how many people dead over there.

They didn't have to wait too long; before long, they saw Shangguan Qin, her originally bright and colorful dress now torn and ragged, her fair skin partially exposed, looking terrified as she emerged from the woods.

Her alluring charm was difficult to maintain, and on the back of her neck, a snow-white patch of her back, it seemed drops of crimson blood were falling.

"Roman."

Shangguan Qin occasionally looked behind her, calling out in a soft voice full of expectation.

As if the tall and stalwart man, as majestic as a tower, who was loyal to her, would soon reappear.

She had always known that Roman's loyalty to her was actually born out of his admiration for her, hoping that one day he would gain her favor.

She was well aware of it, yet she deliberately avoided acknowledging it while exploiting Roman's feelings for her.

The result was that Roman had risked his life, sacrificing himself to send her out of that terrible slaughterhouse.

She had survived, but Roman... seemed like he would never appear again.

Those from the Shangguan Family who had come with her to the Solitude Mountain Range, hoping to explore the secrets of the Heaven Phoenix remains, had also all died behind her.

"Why is it you? Why did the Branded Eye choose to instill its messages in you instead of me?!"

Suddenly, she saw Pang Jian riding on a red horse, her mind flooded with cruel images of Roman's and the other servants' deaths.

She immediately became hysterical, flinging herself at Pang Jian with her teeth and claws barred, and screeched frantically, "You caused Roman's death! You killed the people of our Shangguan Family, you must pay with your life for them!"

She presumptuously believed that if she had been the one to receive the messages from the Branded Eye, those people would not have died.

"Aunt Qin, please calm down!"

Zhou Qingchen flicked his reins, cracking a dark red lightning in the air with a "snap" sound, blocking the frenzied Shangguan Qin.

"Please realize that it was your hesitation that killed the people of your Shangguan Family," Ning Yao said coldly.

With Zhou Qingchen and Ning Yao stepping in, the frantic Shangguan Qin finally realized that she was now alone, and no matter how much she caused a scene, she couldn't possibly be a match for the people in front of her.

Gradually, Shangguan Qin became quiet as well, but still looked at Pang Jian with eyes full of hatred.

"Alright, now tell us, what did you see through the Branded Eye?"

With full curiosity, Ning Yao, after Shangguan Qin fell silent, once again looked at Pang Jian.

"From the earth's crevices, along with the tremors, many vine-like tendrils that seemed to possess intelligence flew out, like living snakes, instantly assaulting the cultivators from Blood Moon, and devoured their flesh cleanly. Most of the people from Blood Moon are like you, likely at the Meridians Channeling Realm, yet they had no power to resist."

Pang Jian looked at Zhou Qingchen and the others, while recalling the visions in his mind, he narrated the bloody scene.

"They were not killed by wild beasts, nor devoured by them, but by the tendrils sprouting from the crevices. It seems that every horrifying attack of the tendrils is accompanied by tremors from the depths of the earth."

Pang Jian shared his conjecture after piecing together the images.

"Is that so?"

After hearing Pang Jian's description, Zhou Qingchen took a deep breath, immediately looking towards Shangguan Qin.

He too felt a chill in his heart.

Among their group, only he and Han Duping had reached the Meridians Channeling Realm, while the rest were only at the Qi Refinement Realm.

And the visiting guests from Blood Moon that were assaulted by the tendrils, as far as he knew, were uniformly at the Meridians Channeling Realm, with a Marrow Cleaning Realm leader leading the group.

Even a Marrow Cleaning Realm powerhouse had died, had he not chosen to trust Pang Jian, wouldn't he have met the same fate?

"It's as he said."

Shangguan Qin first provided a confirmatory response, shuddering uncontrollably, then proceeded to ask the question that puzzled everyone, "I just want to know, why did the Branded Eye choose you, and not me, who practiced the Blood Moon Skill?"

...