The zombie-like man found his body gradually stiffening, and even the circulation of his spirit power became somewhat sluggish, causing him to be interrupted multiple times when trying to use his Spirit Ability.
"Damn it!"
The zombie-like man couldn't help but curse, speeding away. In just two breaths, he rushed out of the range covered by Li Qing's Spirit Ability.
"Wait!"
"Don't you want to know the secret of eternal life? I'll tell you now. I promise I won't hold anything back. Believe me, the information I provide will definitely not disappoint you."
The zombie-like man tried to stabilize Li Qing while circulating his spirit power to force out the toxins in his body.
"Fourth Spirit Ability, Soul Annihilation!"
From the other party's reaction when he was corroded by the death aura, Li Qing knew roughly what his so-called eternal life was about, so he naturally wouldn't give him a chance to stall for time.
Two black mystical lights shot out from Li Qing's eyes.
The zombie-like man was greatly alarmed and flapped his wings to dodge, but although his energy wings were not disturbed, his gradually stiffening body made it difficult to maintain balance.
He only barely managed to avoid vital areas.
However, Li Qing's Soul Annihilation was a Spirit Ability targeting mental force. What difference did it make if it hit a vital area or not? As long as it hit the target, the effect was the same.
"Hmm?"
There were no flashy special effects, and the zombie-like man who was hit seemed fine, but his suddenly wide eyes and gradually dissipating energy wings revealed everything.
"Thump!"
The zombie-like man fell towards the ground, hitting it heavily.
He was a Spirit Emperor, and Li Qing wasn't sure if his mental force had directly collapsed or if he had only suffered some damage, so he immediately took out his compound bow.
"Whoosh!"
The arrow shot from the string, accurately hitting the zombie-like man's head. The other party's body trembled slightly, then completely lost all signs of life.
It was at this moment that a thick death aura spread from his corpse.
"As expected!"
Li Qing thought to himself, as expected. This guy's abnormality was likely related to those death auras. Thus, he dared not easily try to absorb them.
He didn't want to turn into that monstrous appearance.
Li Qing put away his compound bow, approached the zombie-like man's corpse, took out his longsword, and repeatedly stabbed him, finally digging out a black torso Spirit Bone.
The specific age of a Spirit Bone is difficult to determine.
Unless one knows which year Spirit Beast it came from, one can only compare the intensity of the spirit power fluctuations within the Spirit Bone to known-aged Spirit Bones.
Li Qing sensed the spirit power fluctuations in this Spirit Bone.
It wasn't strong, not comparable to any of the ones Li Qing had owned, and he didn't have low-aged ones, so this Spirit Bone's age should be less than ten thousand years.
At most, a few thousand years.
After putting the Spirit Bone into his storage spirit tool, Li Qing carefully searched the zombie-like man's body again, finally finding a purse-like storage spirit tool in his embrace.
"Holy crap, quite wealthy."
There were many spirit coins in the storage spirit tool, gold, silver, and copper. Judging by his familiarity, it was estimated that this guy had obtained them by killing and robbing.
Dugu Bo suddenly walked out from the shadows.
Li Qing quickly asked, "Grandpa Long, what's going on with this guy? Why didn't you tell me on the way here? This Death Canyon is clearly problematic."
Dugu Bo smiled, "Wasn't I just curious to see your reaction?"
Li Qing: "..."
Dugu Bo then explained, "I'm not sure of the specific reason, but I heard that Death Canyon seems to contain a very peculiar energy."
"This energy can allow people to achieve a form of eternal life."
"But the price, as you've seen, is that it gradually turns people into this inhuman, ghost-like appearance, and this is just the most insignificant price."
"The true price is that if you don't clear the special energy from your body, you cannot leave Death Canyon."
"But you don't need to worry too much. Although that energy is harmful, if it's absorbed into the body, Spirit Masters above Spirit Saint can sense it."
"If you can sense it, you can naturally clear it."
"However, Spirit Hall once sent many criminal Spirit Masters here for experiments, and the final result was that if one cultivated normally here for a month, that energy could no longer be cleared."
"Even a Titled Douluo couldn't do it."
"So as long as you don't stay here for long and have a high-level Spirit Master above Spirit Saint accompanying you, there won't be any major problems. But it seems you don't really need it."
Saying that, Dugu Bo gave him a meaningful look.
All the experiments Li Qing conducted during the day were seen by him, so it wasn't hard to guess that the peculiar energy might have some similarities with his death aura.
"What happens if you leave without clearing the energy from your body?"
Li Qing suddenly remembered Slaughter City, where it was also easy to enter but difficult to leave. The difference was that Slaughter City had people guarding it, while here there were none.
Dugu Bo said, "The moment you step out of Death Canyon, you will instantly die a violent death."
Li Qing's expression hardened.
According to this statement, this place was even more mysterious than Slaughter City. If no accidents occurred, this Death Canyon should also be the inheritance ground of a certain god.
Those death auras should be related to triggering a god's trial.
However, being related is just being related. To trigger a god's trial, it's certainly not as simple as just absorbing more death aura; otherwise, the zombie-like man wouldn't have turned into that monstrous appearance.
Li Qing asked, "Why isn't this information public?"
Dugu Bo shook his head, "I don't know the specific reason. I only know that this was the result of discussions between Spirit Hall and the major powers."
They said that too many living dead would become a huge hidden danger."
"The so-called living dead are existences similar to this guy."
"But that's just Spirit Hall's rhetoric. I suspect there's some unknown secret hidden here, a secret that probably only Spirit Hall knows."
Li Qing immediately understood.
Spirit Hall worshipped the Angel God, so they naturally guessed that this was a god's inheritance ground, but this place was different from Slaughter City.
So they could only use such a pretext to cover it up.
Li Qing asked, "Was Spirit Hall also the one who initiated using this place as a training ground?"
Dugu Bo nodded, "Precisely because of this, everyone speculates that there's some unknown secret hidden here, and the training is probably to find a Spirit Master who can uncover this secret."
"But over these years, there hasn't been a single one."
"Speaking of which, the state of these living dead is somewhat similar to the appearance of the recorded Spirit Master with the Raven Spirit before his death."
This was why Dugu Bo hadn't told Li Qing in advance.
This little fellow seemed young but was actually very cunning and didn't have absolute trust in him. If he had told him in advance, he might not have seen what he wanted to see.
Li Qing also guessed what he was thinking, so he didn't hide anything.
"The special energy you mentioned is indeed death aura, but there's a fundamental difference. I don't dare to try it deeply for now; I still need to do some experiments."