Archfiend

Chapter 184: Danxia Temple (3)

“Let’s hurry up and go.” The sloppy Fang Cheng furrowed his brows. “Those things back there were pretty weird. If they chased after us, everyone might’ve been injured.”

“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.”

As he reached this point of conversation, 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 cause 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 in a heavy tone, “How long has it been since those alligator gars stopped chasing?”

Jun Man was faintly dazed, and his pale complexion exposed a wisp 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 flashed, and he stroked his pallid chin as he mumbled.

“It?!” Jun Man coldly exhaled. A nebulous premonition caused cold sweat to grace 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 weren’t able to chase us?” Not waiting for Jun Man to reply, he sneered as he took a quick glance at the dead-quiet surroundings. “No… they’re scared. But not 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 at full alarm.” He used his foot to stomp on his giant tortoise. “Those gars didn’t chase because they didn’t dare to! It’s because they know that their true predator is in this cave!” He laughed grimly as he surveyed the vicinity in a loop. “Alright… there’s a different food chain created by it inside this place.” 

The meaning in his voice wasn’t 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… Those monsters actually still had a predator? And he was unexpectedly on the back of this natural enemy!

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

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 everything from entering…”

“Then why is it inside?” Xu Yangyi shot him a look 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 stared blankly!

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

If one wasn’t fairly attentive, it simply wouldn’t be discovered!

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

“What’s that?!” 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 entire 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 isn’t limited to just 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 effect! 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! Tons of boys and girls will grovel beneath your camo pants!”

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

This really wasn’t a damn aphrodisiac?

“Fellow Daoist!” Zhao Fenglai also whirled his head over. “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 10,000-man pit. Moreover, it only grows in extremely moist places. In particular… before reaching special conditions to bloom, it won’t reveal its form no matter what! That’s also the reason why the Zhao Clan didn’t find it during the few times we’ve come. The inside of the flower harbors 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 suitable and proper.”

Not waiting on Zhao Fenglai to reply, he turned his head and looked at the man. “What special conditions have to be reached for it to bloom?”

“It’s already bloomed!” Zhao Fenglai’s voice was somewhat hoarse. Spiritual sense. To cultivators, spiritual sense was invisible and intangible, yet had many, many advantages! Anyone who had higher spiritual sense was stronger and more capable of discovering danger beforehand! One’s detection range would be even greater!

Why did each nation compete in satellites? Wasn’t this competition 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 magiks!

Forcing himself to cool down, Zhao Fenglai said with a fervent voice, “It’s extraordinarily special… Its 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?! The flower was too far, certainly unable to absorb this qi. In other words...

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

Everyone could hear the implicit meaning. No one spoke. Xu Yangyi contemplated for a short moment and looked at Zhao Wuye. “Is this Rootless Nine Bends Aqua 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… For example, if it ripened, we would’ve smelled it in less than a hundred meters when we entered this cave! But...” He carefully glanced at the flower a few times. “I’m afraid that it’s only a few days from ripening… The inside of the flower has already condensed dewdrops. That’s the sign that it’s about to ripen!”

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 the same, but if we go now, the frontal areas would’ve already been raked clean 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 left to the heavens. 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 suppressed the expectation in his eyes and licked his lips. Even if his bodily qi was no longer plentiful, he forced himself to summon all of it as he looked upon this heavenly spirit-object now.

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. If 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. Jun Man nimbly 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 burst from the water!

“ROAAR!!!” Following the lurking beast’s emergence, it turned upwards and bellowed with incomparable wrath! A solid ripple struck the surrounding lakewater and set off 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 pouring down 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 about a hundred meters in size! Its shape was a gigantic whale! However, its head was unusually protruded! Its eyes especially deep-set! Moreover… there were two rows of meter-plus sharp teeth that ordinary whales didn’t possess!

“Livyatan…” A giant fish tail pounded up waves of water that filled the sky. After Zhou Tingting clearly saw the creature, she was so scared that she nearly shrieked. “That’s a livyatan! A livyatan whale! A prehistoric creature that’s been 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 seas! Back then, it was the apex predator in the ocean!”

“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 demonbeast! A true demonbeast that still hadn’t become a demon cultivator! Furthermore… the spiritual pressure on its body fully informed them of its realm!

Qi Condensation… Great Circle!

“Huff.” Xu Yangyi punched out and exhaled, warming up. Below… if that titanic and omnipresent fish was truly here, was it no longer able to hold itself back?

Using its own boundless mist-like qi to shroud, that titanic fish 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… the lord of this secret realm had already dispatched true demonbeasts without the slightest concealment!

An ancient beast, extinct 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.” Xu Yangyi 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. 10,000-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 historical site originates from when the Japanese invaded during WW2.