Yang Hong could not see the human tragedy unfolding outside. The Zikun Mountains were completely stripped bare!
Although the [Black Despair] had only swept over the peaks of the Zikun Mountains for a thousand li, all life within that thousand li was annihilated. Even the seventh and eighth-grade spiritual plants meticulously cultivated by the sect disciples were destroyed!
No living being could escape the devastation of the [Black Despair]!
Time ticked by with the crackling sounds. Yang Hong, Zhu Yuyan, Wanwan, and Song Yuzhi's nerves remained taut until…
"Husband, I feel the turbulence of the heaven and earth spiritual energy seems to be weakening?"
Just as Yang Hong dug another three li deeper downwards, his meridians exploded again, blood profusely staining him, and he was once again on the verge of collapse, Zhu Yuyan suddenly said uncertainly.
"Is that so? I cannot sense it for the moment. Wanwan, Yuzhi, can you sense it?"
Yang Hong stopped digging, panting heavily, and turned to look at Wanwan and Song Yuzhi. He knew his physical condition; forget about sensing spiritual energy, even regulating his own True Essence was exceptionally difficult!
"Husband~ I can indeed feel that the turbulence of the heaven and earth spiritual energy is not as chaotic as before, but practicing cultivation techniques and casting spells still results in strong backlash."
"I can also feel the backlash, but it has indeed weakened considerably."
Wanwan and Song Yuzhi reported the good news with excitement.
"Wonderful! It seems the Black Despair is weakening. We have managed to survive it!"
Yang Hong exclaimed with joy, tossing the crescent shovel aside and leaning against the stone wall of the tunnel, breathing in large gulps of air.
This gradual calming of the heaven and earth spiritual energy was the correct way for spiritual energy to return to normal.
"Husband~ we are finally safe."
"We should be safe~ right?"
Zhu Yuyan and the other two walked over to support Yang Hong, their faces filled with relief.
"It should be over! Counting the time, it's already been 33 hours. No matter how powerful the [Black Despair] is, even if it's a sandstorm, once the wind stops, the [Black Despair] will naturally end."
Yang Hong sat on the ground, extending his divine sense with all his might, trying to observe the situation outside the mountain.
Unfortunately, they had burrowed too deep into the mountain. Even if Yang Hong were not injured, his divine sense could only extend eighteen li. After all, their current location was within a sixth-grade spiritual iron mine.
Now that Yang Hong was injured again, his divine sense could only reach a maximum of twelve li, naturally making it impossible to see the situation outside the mountain.
However, after a quarter of an hour of scanning with his divine sense, Yang Hong discovered that fewer and fewer sand particles were penetrating his divine sense's range.
The [Black Despair] was truly dissipating!
The nightmare of despair was finally coming to an end!
However, upon thinking of the deceased Mu Xiuhui, Li Xuefeng, Zhou Fengzhi, Li Lizhi, and Jia Yuanchun, Yang Hong couldn't help but burst into tears.
His tears flowed like a breached dam, unstoppable.
Seeing Yang Hong weeping silently in sorrow, Zhu Yuyan, Wanwan, and Song Yuzhi silently walked over, silently embraced Yang Hong, and silently shed tears.
All of them were deeply saddened.
These were their loved ones and partners with whom they had lived for nearly 200 years!
Especially for Yang Hong, this was the first time in his current life that he had experienced the death of loved ones.
He had not had much affection for Yang Guang and Yang Zhong from 200 years ago. His only deeply affectionate sister, Yang Zixuan, had never returned after joining the [Blazing Fire Sect], one of the Ten Great Immortal Sects, so their bond had faded.
As for the five people who died this time, apart from Mu Xiuhui, the other four were his wives and Dao companions with whom he had lived for 200 years and loved deeply!
"Husband, the deceased are gone. We must look forward and live well, living for them as well!"
Seeing Yang Hong still weeping uncontrollably, Zhu Yuyan gently cradled Yang Hong's head in her arms and comforted him softly.
"Mm~"
The soft sensation somewhat distracted Yang Hong from his grief and sorrow.
The four of them finally embraced each other, grateful for their survival and mourning the passing of Li Lizhi and the other four.
"Alright~ now is not the time for sadness. We must quickly circulate our energies and recuperate to deal with any potential accidents or enemies."
About two hours later, Yang Hong finally gathered his emotions and calmly stood up.
"Mm~ we don't have more information about the [Black Despair], so we must be cautious. Husband, you recover from your injuries first, and we three will take turns recuperating and standing guard."
"Very well."
Yang Hong did not refuse Zhu Yuyan's suggestion, nodded, sat down cross-legged again, and began to circulate the [Clear Breeze Breathing Technique].
…
At the same time, the [Black Despair] sandstorm, which had raged for a day, began to slowly subside. The endless colorful sands, having lost the power of the hurricane, started to fall.
First came the heaviest high-grade spiritual iron, then the ordinary spiritual iron, and finally the dust formed from torn spiritual and non-spiritual materials.
The western slopes of the Zikun Mountains, which had been shaved off by dozens or even hundreds of li, were once again covered and filled with sand. After the sandstorm, the entire mountain range not only did not diminish but even expanded slightly.
The height of the Zikun Mountains even increased by over a hundred zhang.
On the eastern slopes of the Zikun Mountains, millions of cultivators had spread out far and wide, preparing to enter the mountains to seize the various spiritual irons tempered by the sandstorm once the [Black Despair] completely ended.
However, no one dared to act rashly until the ninth-rank Great Powers gave the word, for fear of being killed directly by the Great Powers on some pretext.
Although the Great Powers had said before, to mobilize the low-level cultivators to fight desperately, they would "let them be," allowing all low-level cultivators to seize the spiritual iron, no one dared to naively believe the words of the Great Powers.
The ones who fled the fastest were precisely these Great Powers.
In the last counterattack of the [Black Despair], not a single cultivator above the seventh rank died, while tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of cultivators below the fifth-rank Nascent Soul realm perished.
Furthermore, the spiritual energy turbulence in the Zikun Mountains had not yet subsided, and no one could be sure if the [Black Despair] would erupt again!
…
Three days passed in the blink of an eye. The heaven and earth spiritual energy recovered to a level where it could be absorbed normally, but the world was still a hazy gray, with countless dust particles slowly falling.
Millions of cultivators populated both the east and west sides of the Zikun Mountains. Beneath the calm surface, under the cover of gray dust, various struggles for dominance were underway.
After the Black Despair, there was no ordinary sand left. A handful of sand was equivalent to fourth-grade or higher spiritual iron.
Spiritual iron below fourth-grade didn't even qualify to become sand; it had all turned into dust.
That sand represented wealth. Some cultivators below the Nascent Soul stage might not earn enough in their entire lives to possess the wealth of a handful of ninth-grade sand.
Therefore, conflict was inevitable.
However, these conflicts had nothing to do with Yang Hong. He had already recovered from his injuries by bestowing blessings upon spiritual plants. He was now preparing to perform a soul-summoning ritual for Li Lizhi and the other four.
"Husband, is soul-summoning really useful? We have been cultivating for so many years, and we know that once a person dies, if their soul strength is insufficient, they directly dissipate. Even those with strong souls are quickly pulled away by the rules of the underworld. Only traces of lingering thoughts and resentment remain in the world."
Hearing that Yang Hong intended to summon souls, Zhu Yuyan was very skeptical about its feasibility.
"I don't know either, but at least I will know after I've tried.
Alright, I'm going to begin. You two help me protect the Dharma."
Even without knowing the outcome, Yang Hong would not abandon his resolve.