Archfiend

Chapter 195: Danxia Temple (14)

Xu Yangyi was none the wiser… that behind him, the eyes on the countless wall carvings were all emanating a faint glint. Akin to a shadow following the body, they watched him in the wake of each of his steps and movements.

If a normal person encountered such a situation, they would certainly scream out in bloody murder. Turning back and glancing, they would immediately run off! This was also Xu Yangyi’s first reaction, but he endured it.

“Fuck you…” He clenched his teeth and cursed ruthlessly. The dream in his heart had been mercilessly torn to shreds, and he bit his lip so hard that he almost drew blood. Shutting his eyes, he continued to go along with the iron chain and advance onwards.

This path… was sinisterly frightening. As if… it could read and understand what he most desired in his brain. Everyone believed he wished for strength, but he himself knew that if he was granted the opportunity to start anew, he would choose affection! What of eternal life?! What of ascending the world?! In its entirety, he didn’t want it! He only wanted the once-ordinary him and to pass the days in total ignorance.

“Hiiissss….” At this time, a subtle sizzling noise was heard. His eyelids isolated, the originally moderate brilliance sparked a few times. With a subsequent pop, all brightness completely died out! Even though his eyes were closed, he could sense outside his eyelids that the faint lighting had gone completely pitch-black.

“Huff… Wheeze…” The sound of his light breathing reverberated in the empty corridor. It was as if he had been effectively separated from the world at this instant. Everyone had disappeared. All that remained was himself and the infinite darkness.

Crash… All of a sudden, his eyelids shivered because of a velvety soft voice. The iron chain in his hand slightly rocked downwards! It… resembled the sensation of someone ahead shaking the chain!

A normal person would’ve absolutely asked who it was. Nonetheless, Xu Yangyi kept silent. He firmly remembered what Zhao Wuye had said… No matter what was seen… what was heard… by no measure or pace could he turn his head back. Yet now… he didn’t even want to open his mouth and eyes. At this moment, sight, hearing, and smell were equally unreliable!

Like it was making him clearly shoulder it in his heart… five seconds later the rattling chain was heard again. Crash… Crash… In the darkness, this sound was level and tranquil. So level that it could drive a man insane! So tranquil that it brought one’s heart to tremble! Xu Yangyi grabbed the chain in his hand like it was the soul-reaping rope of the Black and White Impermanants. [1] 

“You wanna make me let go?” Under such circumstances, Xu Yangyi unexpectedly still pushed out a wan smile. “Screw off!” He gripped the iron chain and suddenly shook it back! However, he didn’t stagger at all. Even his heart at this moment was madly palpitating. Beads of cold sweat dripped down from his forehead, and the hair of his arms pricked up in a flash!

There was someone… There truly was someone! Someone was rocking the other side of the chain! Perhaps… it was an inhuman thing shaking the iron chain that extended out from the dark abyss! That was because… in this darkness, so black that it caused one’s guts to tremble… he felt something else’s hand! The other voice didn’t utter, not a word escaping its throat. Its hand was in front of him!

“Ssshhhaaa…” A weird voice echoed in front of him. It was like a strange, enormous creature was before him in the darkness and spreading wide its bloody maw that could devour a man whole! These heart-pounding rustles were akin to the sound of a strange creature trembling as it was strangled! [2]

Do you not want to live?! At this time, a furious roar echoed in Xu Yangyi’s spiritual sense. Hurry up and open your eyes for This Dao Master, boy!

Xu Yangyi didn’t open his mouth. This voice was familiar… very familiar… The pill spirit allowed him to never forget, and his thoughts raced back to the origin of this voice.

Daomaster Jadewave! He actually hadn’t died?!

Boy! Daomaster Jadewave’s voice carried terrible wrath and anxiety. How could you come to such a place?! Do as I say and don’t turn your head! You absolutely must not! Damn it… do modern cultivators even know what fear is?! Left foot, step back thirty centimeters! Right now, RIGHT NOW!

Xu Yangyi still didn’t move.

Silent, after a second passed, Daomaster Jadewave’s voice enraged. Boy… are you suspecting whether I’m real or not?! You sure have some gall!

“How aren’t you dead?” Xu Yangyi fired back with an incomparably cool voice. Jadewave’s death was too strange, however, with a Dao Master’s esteem and a millennium-long existence, if one said that Jadewave didn’t have a contingency, Xu Yangyi would have to suspend belief. Yet in this kind of place, with the echo of Daomaster Jadewave’s voice, he was even more skeptical! If it was true… it illustrated that Jadewave’s remnant soul had always been concealing itself within his body. If it was false… the consequences would perhaps be too awful to contemplate!

I’m talking directly to you through your spiritual sense! Jadewave’s voice was steeped with terrible worry. Boy, listen up clearly. This is a place that even I dare not step foot in...

“How. Did. You. Die?” Xu Yangyi enunciated each word, this sentence leaving through clenched teeth.

Silent once more, Jadewave forced down his fury and took a deep breath. I don’t care if you believe it or not, but I was killed by a person. Who killed me isn’t something you should ask. Why? You are still unworthy. Right now, you only need to know that Daoism states that a person has three Hun: the first is called the Nascent Light, the second is the Bright Spirit, and the third is the Nether Essence. My Nascent Light is hiding in your qi sea, intertwined with you in life and death. If it weren’t for your present harrowing situation, I absolutely wouldn’t have appeared!

“So you planned on possessing me?” Xu Yangyi didn’t fall back but advanced, taking another stride forward. He was uncertain. In the end, was this Jadewave real or fake? It appeared to be extremely real… The other’s words presented two options. A single chosen misstep in this place… He fundamentally couldn’t shoulder the consequences! In an endless kaleidoscopic realm… each mirror reflected his figure.

MONGREL!!! Jadewave’s voice was already hoarse. Xu boy… I’m telling you that on that day I first solved God Ming Eighteen’s puzzle and then yours afterwards! Isn’t this enough?! I looked on helplessly as the two of you acted to plunder my origin crystal, isn’t this enough?! I watched you finally succeed, and those old Core Formation ghosts arrive, ISN’T THIS ENOUGH?!

I died to the Seven Stars Executing Demon… Jadewave gnashed his teeth and inhaled deeply. Turn back NOW!

At last, Xu Yangyi halted. He still didn’t walk back, however.

“There’s no good in saying more… You’ll all know when you enter… This iron chain is a real, final life-saving straw… Remember, no matter when, no matter what happens, and no matter what’s heard… don’t let go at all costs… Pull it and walk. You absolutely don’t want yourself straying… Otherwise, you won’t walk out of this road…”

He clearly remembered the words of the Zhao Clan. But this Jadewave… Those few remarks just now had acquired a faint sliver of trust from him. It kept in line with all his conjectures about Core Formation Dao Masters. Besides… Jadewave had explained everything about him. It was linked seamlessly. If it wasn’t like so, Xu Yangyi absolutely wouldn’t waste any words with Jadewave.

That’s right… Jadewave’s voice sighed. Now, don’t turn back. Lean sideways by twenty degrees...

Xu Yangyi still didn’t move.

SWOOSH!!! At this very instant, the Animus Armament on his chest suddenly flashed with an expanse of golden light! It was scorching, a scorching that pricked the eyelids! Such a situation was unreservedly true. Xu Yangyi 100% confirmed that this was the Animus Armament! This definitely wasn’t an illusion!

No matter what, this sensation intimately joined to his heart and blood couldn’t possibly be erased! At the same time, a pointed screech echoed at Xu Yangyi’s ear side. As if a glass pane was shattered to pieces, Jadewave’s voice followed with a crash and completely faded away.

Xu Yangyi snapped his eyes open, looking at his chest in disbelief. The front of his chest emitted an endless golden light. It illuminated everything in the surroundings. In shock, he saw… 

That already, he’d mysteriously turned around by seventy degrees! If he turned another twenty degrees… he… would be looking back!

An illusory realm… He bit his lip unflinchingly. Moments ago… Jadewave had actually even been part of the fantasy! A double-layered fantasy… that could read the heart! Perhaps THIS was the Yellow Springs Path’s most horrible aspect!

In this illusory realm devoid of any light, there was a beckoning towards the longings, desires, and revulsions at the bottom of one’s heart. Terrible… Strange… Any bit of worry and concern that lay in the heart was boundlessly magnified here! It took the shape of an indistinguishable truth! As if there were thousands of mirrors in the darkness, this location transformed into a magical kaleidoscope. It reflected the inner heart of each person who entered.

“A path really can leave me between the choice of life or death…” Xu Yangyi took a deep breath and pacified his emotions with supreme force. “Just now, regardless if Jadewave’s still alive and hiding in my body or me turning around, all of it was a disaster for me. But… I’m positive that I was walking straight ahead. There’s no way I strayed away!”

Were it not for the Animus Armament’s abrupt display of might, and he turned twenty degrees… the consequences would simply be unimaginable!

“A second-layered illusion in an illusion.” He cautiously looked ahead and to the sides. “The hand that suddenly came from the darkness was fake and the trembling iron chain was also fake… The invisible creature standing in front of me was fake, as well! The introduction of old monster Jadewave’s voice was the Yellow Springs Path’s true killing blow… I was just a step away, one last step and I would’ve turned my head… Is this really something a secret realm can trigger? What level of super formation is required to create an illusory realm that can understand the human heart in such a way?”

Thump thump… In the cave, silent like a mortuary, his heart was madly pounding like a drum. Ultimately, the drumbeat gradually abated and settled.

“But… everything’s dissipated now…” Xu Yangyi took a long and deep sigh, studying the Animus Armament on his chest that had flown up on its own. A faint grin scraped out at the crook of his mouth.

His spiritual sense had detected with superb clarity… a kind of indescribable, gloomy, and cold thing like a heel-bone maggot… leaving him at lightning speed. It departed from where he was.

In the next second, the Animus Armament suddenly bloomed with flourishing golden light! It swooshed to the crown of his head, and immediately boundless rays of golden light sprinkled down! 

Following the illumination of light, the surrounding ten meters where he was standing erupted with fathomless splendor! At the same time, a strange noise like crackling fire pouring on oil rang out. The wind blew mysteriously. Weird voices that seemed to be weeping and laughing spread through the wind and gradually faded away at his ear side. It was uncertain to say what these voices were, but each one caused the head to split achingly.

A few invisible things… in the darkness, beneath the shining golden light, retreated little by little.

Once more, the area returned to a domain of silence.

1. Just a brief reminder that this creature/deity pair popped up way back in the auction arc. They’re based off afterlife deities in Chinese myth. “Heibai Wuchang”.

2. “As if it was strangled” - Some localization magic here. Sometimes, you’ll run across errors in the text that mess with your flow and make you translate incorrectly AND have a strange meaning. The exact term is “strangury”, which is a symptom in Chinese and Western medicine of difficult, constant urination that leaves on feeling “not empty”. Author miswrote it as “Lin Family”.