This was Li Tianming’s first time at Heaven’s Sanctum’s Bottomless Pit. In preparations for the Abyssal Trials, the Bottomless Pit had been sealed off. They could only pass through the tight security with Mu Yang leading them. They crossed a wasteland and arrived at a mountain, where a pit, ten metres in diameter, lay at the peak. If one were to toss a pebble in here, it would take a nice journey to the Abyssal Battlefield.
When they arrived, Mu Yang looked at Li Tianming and Jiang Feiling. “Spiritual Attachment.”
Mu Yang was calm, having apparently forgotten the small interlude with Lin Xiaoting. However, anyone would be feeling depressed if a disciple they taught for years treated them like that.
“Yes, Vice-Potentate.” Jiang Feiling obediently transformed into a spiritual body that merged into Li Tianming.
“Remember, don’t come back out after you go in,” Mu Yang exhorted one last time.
“Don’t worry.” Li Tianming said. He knew how to act, and it was to cover up Jiang Feiling’s existence. The spiritual body completely entered Li Tianming’s body. That way, Li Tianming wouldn’t glow, so there was no visible difference to him. Now, even Mu Yang couldn’t tell someone was inside Li Tianming.
“Enter the Abyssal Battlefield.” Mu Yang was the first to jump in. He was the only one who could enter and wait for them in the Azure Domain. Without a sound, he vanished. The rest followed him in without another word. Li Tianming was the one with the least experience, as the rest had all entered countless times before. Before he went down, Li Tianming flashed a bright smile at Mu Qingqing. Her reply — a cold glint in her eyes — went unnoticed, as he had followed up immediately by jumping into the pit.
“The Bottomless Pit really is a wondrous place.” Li Tianming continued to accelerate downwards.
“I’ve been here before with Qing’er.” Jiang Feiling’s voice sounded like it was right beside his ear.
“I see. Ling’er, how did you know where the manna was that time at Red Twill Mountain?” Li Tianming asked.
“I’ve always been sensitive towards manna. When we come, I’ve always helped Qing’er obtain manna. Though, I’ve never found royal manna before.”
Royal manna could let lifebound beasts evolve to seven stars and become royal beasts.
“That amazing?” Li Tianming was surprised.
“Well, there is an element of luck to it.”
“Look, my Ling’er really is a treasure!”
“That’s true!”
As they interacted more, her style of speaking was starting to resemble Li Tianming.
“Is it one of your ten abilities?”
“Nope, I’ve only unsealed three so far.”
“How do you unseal more?”
“I’m not sure. However, I feel that as long as I stay by your side, these seals will continue to loosen.”
“Sir, stop, sir! You are under arrest on suspicion of having an illicit affair!” The little chick’s vulgar voice rang out from inside the lifebound space.
“Shush. Don’t play gooseberry!” Li Tianming said.
“Bastard!” Within the lifebound space, the little chick cursed. It rolled around for a few moments, and then picked up the shaking Primordial Chaos Beast egg gloomily. “Lazy thing, when are you coming out? I have to suffer through their flirting day after day. You have to come out to share the burden!”
The egg rattled noisily several times, before coming to a stop.
“Hmph! Do you believe big brother here will peck your dumb shell open?”
The rattling started again, but silence soon returned.
“I bet even if you do one day actually make it out, you’ll just be a lazy bum!” The little chick rolled its eyes and tossed it to one side. The crack that formed as it landed went unnoticed, and though small, it began to spread. From the looks of it, its birthday wasn’t going to be far away.
As for Li Tianming outside, he had already reached terminal velocity! The mountain walls around him seemed to have disappeared, as he fell through a void.
“This must be the midpoint between the Flameyellow Continent and the Abyssal Battlefield.”
He began to lose speed, his speed dropping towards zero. Li Tianming lifted his head. There, the sky of the Abyssal Battlefield greeted his eyes, which were filled with black clouds. The dense cloud cover hung low, like some massive beast. Lightning danced between the clouds, leaving thunder in their wake. This was an everyday sight for the Abyssal Battlefield. Furthermore, the lightning was black, making it hard to pick out from among the clouds. The black lightning was extremely dangerous, and many a disciple had died to it, and such incidents could only be explained away with ‘horrible luck’.
After all, unless you flew into these clouds, the chances of being struck by lightning weren’t that high.
Apart from the black lightning, the most spectacular sight of the Abyssal Battlefield was the ‘Calamitous Sun’. It was a pitch-black sun that didn’t radiate light, but instead absorbed it. The sky was already dark enough, but the unique qualities of the Calamitous Sun rendered it near-invisible with a casual scan. A long look at that sun would leave people palpitating in terror, as if it was an eye, an eye of a ghost god!
Li Tianming’s speed had already fallen to the lowest possible. He had finally reached the ground level of the Abyssal Battlefield. Scaling the mountain walls at the side with ease, he hopped onto the black ground of the Abyssal Battlefield.
Mu Yang and the rest had also arrived.
Finally, Mu Qingqing, the last person, jumped out from the pit.
“Let’s go to the Azure Domain.” The Azure Domain roughly corresponded to the region northward of Ignispolis. To the south was the Ginblue Domain.
After half a day, the group reached their destination. The Abyssal Battlefield was never a place of calm, what with the constant rumbling of thunder and the never-ending gales. Wildbeasts could pop up at any moment as well. Li Tianming had been to the Azure Domain before, but this time, there were some changes.
“What’s that?” Li Tianming noticed a nearly-unnoticeable transparent membrane right at the border of the Azure Domain.
“That’s a Heavenly Pattern Barrier. It’s created by a beastmaster of the Heavenly Will stage. It’s how Heaven’s Elysium sealed off Azure Domain. Only they can accomplish such a huge undertaking,” Mu Yang explained.
Heavenly Pattern Barrier?
Supposedly, the Heavenly Will stage was a miraculous stage with many things that needed to be understood. Among them included the heavenly patterns of spirit ores, spirit herbs and spirit hazards. The Flameyellow Rock's interactions with Li Tianming had made him aware of just how mysterious heavenly patterns were.
“You six can cross the Heavenly Pattern Barrier. Others can’t. However, you can’t come back out until the Abyssal Trials ends,” said Mu Yang. “Once you cross over, I won’t be able to help, as I’m also equally clueless to what’s inside.”
However, no one would choose to retreat at this point.
“The disciples of the other two Heaven’s Sanctums need to come over from their countries. They’ll have set out earlier, and may already be inside,” Mu Yang said.
“Why did the three Heaven’s Sanctums decide to use our Azure Domain as the venue?” Li Tianming wondered. It should be quite a distance from the nations of Torch Dragon and Aquamarine, since distances were a constant for both the Abyssal Battlefield and Flameyellow Continent.
“I’m not sure myself. Perhaps, it has to do with the uniqueness of the domain.” Mu Yang looked at Li Tianming. After all, this was where he had found the Saintbeast War-Soul. He cast Mu Qingqing a glance too, as it was that soul that had caused them to walk two different paths.
Ironically, they now had to enter the Azure Domain together.
Only Heaven’s Elysium would understand why the Azure Domain was chosen.
“The barrier has teleportation effects. After you go in, you will appear in different places inside. Hence, you won’t be able to work together. However, you all still come from the same Heaven’s Sanctum. Helping one another and fighting side by side is the best course of action. Understand?”
Everyone nodded. Still, without knowing the situation inside, perhaps they wouldn’t even get the chance to.
“Go in.” Mu Yang waved his hand.
“I’ll go first.” Mo Lin, the second of the Heavenly Leaderboard, was a straightforward person, stepping across the membrane without hesitation. The others began to enter at that sight.
“Li Tianming, remember my words!” Jiang Qingluan glared at him, before stepping in as well.
Mu Qingqing was the third to enter. She hadn’t said anything for a while, but no one would overlook her fighting spirit this time.
Only Li Tianming was left.
“Tianming.” Mu Yang called out. He wanted to say something, but hesitated. In the end, he simply waved him ahead.