Archfiend

Chapter 184: Danxia Temple (3)

“Let’s hurry up and go.” At this moment, the sloppy Fang Cheng furrowed his brows: “Those things back there were pretty weird. If they chased, everyone might’ve sustained injuries.”

“Might as well.” Zhao Wuye squeezed out a smile and pointed at the surroundings: “At the end, ancestor had a magik treasure called the Hundred Evils Repulser. In the Qi Condensation realm and below, only our Zhao Clan and people invited by us can enter. This includes creatures without qi.”

Speaking to here, his expression darkened: “It’s a pity about my old friend Mingfeng… no one would’ve even expected that Danxia Temple’s strange transformations would actually have such weird creatures appear.”

Xu Yangyi didn’t respond but rather leapt over to the final giant tortoise and bowed towards Zhao Mingfeng’s corpse. He asked Jun Man heavily: “How long has it been since those alligator gars stopped chasing?”

Jun Man was faintly dazed, and his pale complexion exposed a smidgen of deep contemplation. He responded: “Roughly three minutes ago.”

“In three minutes… we went several hundred meters… That’s to say, Its domain goes out beyond roughly 300 meters?” Xu Yangyi’s gaze twinkled, and he stroked his pallid chin as he mumbled.

“It?!” Jun Man coldly exhaled. A nebulous premonition caused cold sweat to secrete on his bald head: “Commander… what are you saying?”

“Can you still fight?” Xu Yangyi answered with a question and looked at him.

Jun Man gritted his teeth: “I can… but I won’t last long.”

“In that case… get ready to fight with your life.” Xu Yangyi breathed in solemnly: “You think… that those alligator gars really couldn’t chase?” Not waiting for Jun Man to reply, he sneered as he took a quick glance at the incredibly quiet surroundings: “No… they’re scared. But not scared of us!” Without warning, he fished out a jade slip and spread it open in the wind. On it, there were close to forty green dots, but all these green dots were on an enormous red dot!

“Starting from just now, the Vajra Formation was already completely alarmed.” He used his foot to stamp on the giant tortoise: “Those gars didn’t chase because they dare not to! It’s because they know that their true predator is in this cave!” He laughed grimly as he surveyed each side in a loop: “Alright… There’s a different food chain created by the other inside this place.” 

His voice was concealed at all. Everyone heard these words and were at first dazed. Soon after… a slightly bold Zhao Clan cultivator actually started to tremble from head to toe! The ordinarily lofty seventh uncle of the Zhao Clan… had half of his body taken a bite out of… Unexpectedly, that monster still had a predator? As for this natural enemy, to his surprise, he was on its back!

An unknown number of people, even the personnel of the Xingtian Legion, couldn’t help but to glance below their feet at the tranquil lake waters. Who could’ve foreseen that there truly was a terrible monster hidden below?

THIS was Danxia Temple! The eight great deadlands!

“H-how is this possible…” Zhao Wuye laughed, his voice trembling: “Ancestor’s magik treasure… can isolate all people from entering…”

“Then why is it itself inside?” Xu Yangyi glimpsed at him and said.

Zhao Wuye and Zhao Fenglai suddenly went mute.

“Besides… haven’t you guys noticed this?” Xu Yangyi pointed above his head. Everyone looked up and were all stunned!

A nearly transparent flower was hanging down from the cave top! Under the reflection of sunlight, it was almost without hardly any color. Looking at it from here, the cave top was at least a thousand meters tall! One simply couldn’t clearly see its full appearance, but sparkling and pure dewdrops followed in the wake of the petals’ faintly discernible opening and closing!

If one wasn’t remarkably attentive, it simply couldn’t be discovered!

“Rootless Nine Bends Aqua?!” After three seconds of silence, Mao Ba’er woofed and shouted: “My god… there was such a flippin’ item! T-this is too frightening! This is a deadland?! This is a deadland’s destiny?!”

“What is this?!” Quite a few people looked at each other in dismay. They hadn’t heard of this name at all.

“Rootless Nine Bends Aqua?!” Just as Mao Ba’er’s voice fell, Zhao Wuye’s whole face was smeared with confusion, but Zhao Fenglai coldly gasped and his gaze suddenly burned with fire!

“Spud! This item! You HAVE to get it!” Mao Ba’er approached Xu Yangyi’s side, his eyes flushed red in excitement: “This… is an A-rank spirit object on the Heavenly Treasure Ranking! It’s ranked thirty-seven in the top 100! However, its level of preciousness absolutely isn’t limited to this rank!”

He lowered his voice and said: “In the cultivation world, items capable of upgrading spiritual sense are very few! Almost nonexistent! But this Rootless Nine Bends Aqua is one of them! It can allow a cultivator’s spiritual sense to increase by 1% with each advancement! If you reach Core Formation… that’s a scary 10% growth! The higher the realm, the more obvious its efficacy! I don’t know how many cultivators have looked for news of this thing, but its got no price on the market!”

“I fucking guarantee! As long as you get it, it’ll be no problem for you to bang a hundred girls in one night! Hordes of boys and girls will grovel beneath your camo pants!”

...I keep on thinking something isn’t right here...

This really fucking wasn’t an aphrodisiac?

“Fellow Daoist!” Zhao Fenglai also suddenly turned his head: “The Rootless Nine Bends Aqua grows in regions of extreme yin… which matches the Zhao Clan’s conjecture. Underneath, there might be a grand mausoleum, a ten-thousand-man pit. Moreover, it only grows in extremely moist places. In particular… before reaching special conditions to bloom, it won’t reveal its form by any means! This is also the reason the Zhao Clan hasn’t found it during the few times we’ve come. The inside of the flower is harboring at least ten drops of fruit. Those dewdrops are its true fruit! If we join hands and get it, how is it to be divided?” [1]

“Not how.” Xu Yangyi said indifferently: “Whoever’s contributions are greater is whoever gets more. This is suitably proper.”

Not waiting for Zhao Fenglai to speak, he turned his head and looked at the other: “What special conditions has to be reached for it to bloom?”

“It has already bloomed!” Zhao Fenglai’s voice was somewhat hoarse. Spiritual sense. To cultivators, this thing was invisible and intangible, yet had many, many advantages! Anyone’s spiritual sense that was higher was stronger and more capable of discovering danger in advance! Detection range would be even greater!

Why did each nation compete in satellites? Wasn’t it in a satellite’s detection range and precision! A cultivator’s spiritual sense was their “satellite”! Especially… at high realms, even involving a few forbidden arts! Without extraordinary spiritual sense, one basically couldn’t think of using these magics!

Forcing himself to cool down, he said with a fervent voice: “It’s extraordinarily special… It’s ripening requires a colossal amount of demonic qi. In general, demon clans s-s-send…” He was unable to continue speaking. This was because… a fatal verdict emerged in his words!

The Rootless Nine Bends Aqua’s ripening needed a vast amount of demonic qi… In that case… this demonic qi… Who supplied it?! It was too far, certainly unable to absorb it. In other words...

The origin of the supplied demonic qi was in the vicinity! Or perhaps… it was below their feet!

Everyone could hear it and none spoke. Xu Yangyi contemplated for a brief period and looked towards Zhao Wuye: “This Rootless Nine Bends Aqua, is it ripe?”

“No!” Mao Ba’er affirmed: “A mature Rootless Nine Bends Aqua isn’t transparent but entirely dark-red. Furthermore, it produces a strong fragrance… As such, if it ripened, we would’ve smelled it in less than a hundred meters when we entered this cave! But...” He carefully glanced a few times: “I’m afraid that the time apart from ripening is only a few days… The inside of the flower has already condensed dewdrops. This is a manifestation that it’s on the verge of ripening!”

Xu Yangyi nodded: “Is there a way to bypass this place?”

“No.” Zhao Wuye said certainly: “If we don’t walk here, we can only go through that giant door. Right now, we no longer know how late it is. Perhaps our final destination is is the same, but if we go now, the frontal areas have already been raked empty by those other cultivators. Moreover, allow these old bones to be frank…” He glanced at Xu Yangyi: “In the secret realm, regardless of life or death, both are ruled by fate. Riches and honor in heaven. Presently, the Xingtian Legion’s development is very good, but if we’re discussing power, it’s far from comparing to the apex clans that have come this time.”

Xu Yangyi didn’t retort, facing towards Jun Man and nodding: “I’ll have to trouble, Fellow Daoist.”

“Okay!” Jun Man repressed the expectation in his eyes and licked his lips. Even if his body’s qi was no longer plentiful, as he looked upon such a worldly spirit-object in this instant, he forced himself to summon all his qi.

All that was visible was a slender creeping vine extending from his hand. Soon, it immediately climbed to a wall in the surroundings and crawled towards the cave top.

No one said anything, but everyone knew that there was a terrible monster below their feet. It they were capable of not fighting, it would be for the best. At the moment, all of them hadn’t seen this thing emerge. Maybe they might’ve been so very silent that they reached the cave on the opposite end. Still, it wasn’t out of the question.

Everyone’s gazes focused on Jun Man’s creeping vine. Ten meters… Five meters… Four meters… Zero meters. Jun Man nimly grabbed the transparent flower, and each person sighed softly. However! Not waiting for them to finish their sighs of relief, the serene lake, in a sudden moment… began to surge violently with great waves!

Without the slightest omen! An unexpected anomaly! The instant the vine touched the Rootless Nine Bends Aqua, a downpour seemed to rise from the great lake that was tranquil a second ago! Like a small mountain, a head suddenly arose in the water!

“ROAAR!!!” Following Its emergence, It turned upwards and made an incomparably furious bellow! A solid-like ripple struct the surrounding lake water and abruptly lifted up huge waves! Even the mountain cave was rocking incessantly! 

Crash! An enormous figure smashed out a boundless watery mist. It was as if a rainstorm was descending from the sky!

Not a single one of the cultivators shut their eyes, staring fixedly at the colossus that had appeared a hundred meters in front of them!

It… was roughly about a hundred meters in size! Its shape was a gigantic whale! However, Its head was unusually protruded! Its eyes especially deep-set! Moreover… It had a mouth full of two rows meter-plus sharp teeth that ordinary whales didn’t possess!

“Livyatan…” A giant fishtail pounded up waves of water that filled the sky. After Zhou Tingting clearly saw the creature, she was so scared that she had nearly shrieked: “This is a livyatan! A livyatan whale! An ancient creature extinct for millions of years!!!”

“What’s a livyatan?” Cheng Jianfeng at the side asked in shock.

“The ancestor of all whales…” Zhou Tingting gritted her teeth and studied the tremendous black head in fascination: “If said… the mosasaurus is the fresh-water overlord… then the livyatan whale is the hegemon of the ocean! Back then, it was the apex predator in the seas!”

“No…” Xu Yangyi took off his coat and revealed his solid muscle covered by a black singlet. As for the other Xingtian Legion cultivators, they all made preparations. This was because… anyone could see that the Vajra Formation was sparking with slivers of golden light now!

A reaction! This… was a demon beast! A true demon beast that still hadn’t become a demon cultivator! Furthermore… the spiritual pressure on Its body completely informed them of Its realm!

Qi Condensation… Great Circle!

“Huff.” Xu Yangyi punched out and exhaled, warming up. Below… if that titanic fish—concealing the earth and blotting out the sky—was truly here, was It no longer able to hold Itself back?

Using Its own boundless mist-like qi to shroud, It had created a kingdom of demon spirits belonging to Itself. The furthest surroundings had received the weakest influence, merely variations… Yet as the door approached… It had already dispatched true demon beasts without the slightest concealment!

An ancient beast, gone for millions of years, was even capable of emerging… A truly great expense!

“But… I’m afraid I’m going to have to send you back again ten million years in past.” He loosened up his joints, and they cracked. His heart was already seething with battle intent!

Retreat?

Ridiculous.

The great divine ability of the Spiritcleaver Pulse was in his hand; he merely feared that his spiritual sense wouldn’t be strong enough. The Rootless Nine Bends Aqua was right before him, why fall back?

It was nothing more than a fight!

[1] Ten Thousand Man Pit - I can’t remember if I made a note about this in the past, but this is a specific term referring to a mass grave found in Nanjing. From what I found, total body count was 28,730 people. This site originates from when the Japanese invaded during WW2.