Archfiend

Chapter 398: Dharmadhatu (2)

“I can’t say for sure myself…” The Realm Spirit’s golden hair swayed in turmoil. “But I’m certain we walked onto a fork! This place… I’ve never been here, but it feels very familiar… just like… something is interfering and slowly separating us into another space.”

Xu Yangyi kept quiet, but his spiritual sense was fully unleashed as he continued to fly down.

Another thirty minutes passed, and he was finally certain that the situation was quite likely as the Realm Spirit had said! 

Shao Yufeng was late-stage Qi Condensation, so he couldn’t fly. By sliding down along the Gold-Banded Staff, he’d only taken forty minutes. Nonetheless… right now, Xu Yangyi had perhaps flown for an hour, but the bottom was still out of sight!

This was strange, too strange!

“Interesting…” His gaze flashed, and his speed increased, rather than slowing down. Swaths of black fog streaked past him like a cloak in the wind. “Is this the first showing?”

“Or… did the old monster down there feel that we were coming? It hasn’t woken up yet though, so can it only split us up this way?”

“Am I the only one separated, or is everyone else like this too?”

He didn’t continue thinking. After roughly another hour passed, he finally saw a white dot of light appear below.

“Ten Cardinals Purgatory.” His hands formed a seal, and ten fire-dragons screamed ahead and completely illuminated the surrounding area!

With this brightness, his gaze flashed, and he sharply gasped!

Corpses… 

The passage’s surroundings were all corpses! 

“This…” He suddenly raised his head to look up. The endless passage was alight, having turned entirely resplendent.

Above him, purple flame shone on green jade sculptures. At all sides, the passage was utterly filled with an inexhaustible number of corpses!

The corpses of the Yuenü Tribe!

From the beginning… he’d been accompanied by these corpses in his descent. From the beginning, the eyes of the innumerable deceased were quietly observing his flight.

Even if he was a cultivator, his heart still violently throbbed.

“A hundred-million-man pit…” He turned his head and glared down below. “I really want to see what demon is stirring trouble here… How much different are you… from Danxia Temple’s Myriad Waters Demon King or Death Valley’s Jade Firmament Demon King?”

He formed a seal with both hands, and Life Sacrification and Clutching Wind, Seizing Shadow took effect at the same time. In the black tunnel, his figure left behind a chain of afterimages and stormed down with all his power where the white light was located.

Black fog spread all around, engulfing the afterimages he left behind in the air.

Ten minutes later, the white light became brighter and brighter. With a following thump, he finally fell on the ground.

Boom! Without any hesitation, the Ten Cardinals Purgatory thundered everywhere! His vicinity was ignited into a purple sea. In a flash, his protective qi cover rose up to the utmost extent, and he stood there in the middle for another ten minutes, ready for battle. Only after his attack died out did he lift his head to survey the area. 

He was in a cave.

A full 400 square meters. There was no question that several dozen people could stand inside. The cave’s four walls were filled with countless marks from blades, swords, hatchets, and chisels. Yet as his gaze looked down, he stopped.

The surroundings… weren’t empty.

All around, there were no less than ten-odd buddhas were seated upright. Some lacked a hand, and some were missing half their bodies. These normal stone buddha sculptures had already stood tall here for an unknown number of years, and they were covered in mottled traces. At this moment, he was standing at the center of these ten-odd ten-plus-meter-tall buddhas.

And yet… none of them had heads.

From the neck up, their heads had been neatly chopped off. The damage everywhere else on them was badly ruined to various degrees, but only these buddha’s heads had been neatly cut away as if by a blade!

In this lonesome cave, these headless buddhas enjoyed the warmth of spring and the chill of autumn.

Huh? Zhao Ziqi’s voice suddenly rang out in his mind, Big bro, this buddha’s a little different.

Ordinary buddhas are bound to sit on a lotus seat. In Buddhism and Daoism, the lotus is the flower with the greatest meaning. But… 

Xu Yangyi looked carefully and also discovered that something was wrong.

This buddha wasn’t on a lotus seat, but rather… a kind of jade cauldron that was similar to foundation platform. He’d never seen a buddha of such style.

No… not just a foundation. Zhao Ziqi was already awake, having found an even stranger area.

The carving style of this buddha is completely different from China or India. His hand gently brushed the buddha. It’s… even more realistic. It’s nothing like China and India’s hazy, solemn freehand style. [1]

Xu Yangyi slightly nodded and memorized these seemingly minor points of doubt in his mind. In experiencing the Danxia Temple campaign, he’d already cultivated a habit. Overall, many seemingly unremarkable points of doubt were ultimately a sharp weapon linked together.

He looked past sculpture after sculpture. All of a sudden, as he saw the seventh one, his gaze flared with light. He took a large stride and darted over!

Each one of these buddhas were close to twenty meters tall. However… blood trickled down from between the seams of this specific buddha’s fingers!

He rushed forward. Just as he was about to fly, however, his entire body suddenly trembled. He was rigidly kept down on the floor.

“Sky Restriction…” he muttered to himself for a few seconds, and a streak of spirit light fired out of his hand, and the buddha statue’s hand was evenly cut off. As this hand crashed down, a round, slick object rolled onto the ground with a thunk.

Gasp… 

“Oh my god…”

Zhao Ziqi and Realm Spirit’s startled cries were heard almost in sync.

It was a head.

This head wore a mask, one in a dragon’s shape.

Fifth Dragon of the twelve high spirit-masters had been killed here!

How is this possible?! Zhao Ziqi cried out in fright, How could he get here before us? There’s no one here, who killed him?

Who had killed Fifth Dragon?

This question caused Xu Yangyi’s nerves to promptly stretch taut, and his protective qi cover became a shade stronger. Afterwards, he made a vague look of the eyes, and the Realm Spirit wordlessly disappeared from his shoulder.

His gaze began to scan the entire cave. The ground was covered in dust. No one had come in for ages. The only crack leading outside was like this as well.

“Since there’s a Sky Restriction here, Fifth Dragon definitely would’ve left footprints if he walked by…” he took a deep breath, “He was killed in midair.”

Who killed him? Zhao Ziqi asked, the wispy aura of his spirit form standing on edge.

Xu Yangyi’s gaze looked to all the headless buddhas with terrible graveness. “Maybe, we can ask them?”

Heavy layers of dust covered the headless buddhas. They were indeed inanimate. Their bodies were joined to the ground; they physically couldn’t move.

Them… Isn’t that impossible?

“No.” Xu Yangyi exercised his left hand. “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”

He slightly parted his lips, and an inch-long sword flew out of his mouth. It welcomed the wind and enlarged. A second later, a black three-foot-long sword was gripped in his hand.

That’s… Zhao Ziqi blinked and said excitedly, a magik treasure? A magik treasure embryo? Big bro, that’s your magik treasure embryo?

Xu Yangyi faintly smiled and flicked out a finger. The black longsword made a dragon’s cry. Its uninterrupted humming reverberated throughout the stone room.

“Originally, my left arm was the Ketu-Rahu Sword. It definitely has an upgrade blueprint, but that’s impossible now. This sword, though…” He flourished the sword in the wind, streaks of seemingly solid black qi curling upon the blade. “Is even more suited to be used as my magik treasure embryo.”

“I’ve already nurtured it for close to ten years. Now’s the time to let it see blood,” he laughed, “I once used a guandao called Falling Moon. Although it’s not very useful to anymore, I learned that magik artifacts can sustain divine abilities. So, I can assume…”

His finger softly traced the Animus Armament, and as if the sword was telepathic, it gently shivered in excitement. He laughed and said, “The might that a magik treasure can sustain isn’t any less different.”

At this time, Xu Yangyi and Zhao Ziqi turned their heads at almost in sync and looked towards a place. A thin, bloodthirsty smile revealed itself on Xu Yangyi’s face. “Found it!”

His silhouette then became a ray of azure twilight, arcing forth like lightning!

Curt, he wasted absolutely no words with Zhao Ziqi here!

In the same moment he saw Fifth Dragon’s corpse, he had the Realm Spirit look for corners that he couldn’t “see”. Via spiritual sense, he informed Zhao Ziqi, and the two of them acted out a play. If there really was something here, then the two of them had to draw its full attention!

No one would pay attention to a puppet. If they truly were the target, then a careless action would let Xu Yangyi take some precautions. But still… he certainly didn’t expect that the thing hiding in the darkness wasn’t any puppet! On the contrary, it was a real living creature!

Hiss… The Animus Armament hummed in bursts. Xu Yangyi’s gaze was like lightning, the Ten Cardinals Purgatory now fully coursing into the black sword. However… what surprised Xu Yangyi was that the Animus Armament wasn’t like Falling Moon in directly transforming his attack into black fire.

Swoosh… A domain of violet light glimmered, and the length of the Animus Armament… reflected the imprint of a purple fire-dragon! Although it wasn’t on fire, the surrounding air grew hazy as it rose up!

And the other creature… was hiding behind a buddha statue!

Bang! The statue blocking Xu Yangyi shattered in an instant! It was nothing like how an ordinary sword cleaved an object in two, the buddha instead exploding into fragments! It seemed to be in an invisible fire-dragon’s maw!

At the same time, a gray glint of light brightened in the buddha statue. Following a shriek, the gray light instantly disintegrated into pieces.

“This…” In the wind, countless gray fragments continuously danced before Xu Yangyi. He looked carefully. The light’s remains weren’t great fragments, no, they were… 

Gray butterflies!

They fluttered their wings and circled about, remaining in the air. At the same time, the Azurecloud Seed in Xu Yangyi’s qi sea suddenly swayed twice.

Since going below, Xu Yangyi didn’t have time to consider the cocoon. As he glanced at it now, though, his brows locked deeply together.

At this moment, the light-azure cocoon… was permeated with wisps of black qi. From all around, this qi surged forth and dyed it black. It revealed an extremely strong desire to engulf these butterflies!

“Butterflies…” Xu Yangyi murmured to himself as he studied the several tens of thousand butterflies circling an area of ten meters in front of him. “Don’t tell me… this place is related to Butterflymother Southflower?”

At this time, the Azurecloud Seed in his qi sea moved again, as if it was urging him.

Xu Yangyi didn’t react and took his spiritual sense out from his qi sea. However, as he simultaneously drew his spiritual sense out, all of his qi loudly erupted! On the Animus Armament, a purple fire-dragon was faintly visible.

Changed… 

In the instant, he closed his eyes, the surroundings had changed.

There was no stone room, no headless buddhas either… On the contrary, he was in a wooden room dimly lit by an oil lamp. The back of an old man eating something was facing him.

“Munch… Munch…” The sound was very crisp. In the moment he saw the old man, the other seemed to also feel them. The old man stopped moving.

How was this possible?

In the blink of an eye, heaven and earth had transformed! This was even more awesome than Zhang Wuji’s technique, the Cosmic Grand Shift! [2]

The qi changed, the environment changed, and man changed as well! No… these turn of events belonged to “Creation” and “Destruction”, the scope of immortals!

1. “Solemn” the exact term is an idiom: 宝相庄严. Used commonly to describe a stately Buddhist statue.

2. “The Cosmic Grand Shift”. You may recall Zhang Wuji was mentioned almost a hundred chapters ago. He is the main character of Jin Yong’s The Heaven Sword and the Dragon Saber. This is a super awesome technique that Zhang Wuji finds.