Chapter 628 – Bloody Lands
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“My leg? What’s wrong with my leg?” The Fey youth suddenly asked, jerking his head down. As he saw what had happened, a ringing panic settled in his mind.
At some point, without him knowing, on both his legs his flesh had started to rot into pus and blood, leaving behind only bloody foot bones to support him on the ground.
The pus and blood silently passed down. When it was absorbed by the dark gray ground, the ground became an incomparably crimson red!
“AhhhhhhHH!”
The Fey youth let out a frightened cry, his body falling backwards and directly onto the ground. But, as soon as his hands touched the ground, even those parts started to rot. His flesh turned gooey, soon changing into liquid pus and blood!
His hand and wrist bones were quickly revealed, dripping with thick vicious blood.
“No… no…!”
The Fey youth was completely horrified. He waved his hands and feet in front of him as if there were something terrible there. However, his flesh was turning completely rotten. With every inch he crawled back, he left massive amounts of broken meat hanging on the rocks under him. His thighs, butt, everything began to turn into thick bloody goo, a hideous stench emitting from it.
“Save me! Save me!” The Fey youth finally remembered Sada. He put out a pleading hand towards Sada, but Sada actually took two steps back. His face was full of alarm as he shouted, “No one approach him!”
In truth, Sada didn’t need to give out this warning. Nobody dared to approach. In fact, everyone was spreading out from the Fey youth.
Kacha!
The Fey youth’s legs cracked open, the bones crumbling apart like slag. Every other bone became similarly brittle; with just a slight bump, they would break apart. It was like thousands of years of bodily decay had been compressed into several breaths of time.
The Fey youth’s eyes began to sink back their sockets, his hair growing long and pure white. In just two breaths of time, his hair had withered into dry hay, his face becoming as wretched as the bark of an old tree. He stretched out his left arm in one final attempt, as if he were trying to grasp something. As a low and despairing moan emanated from his throat, in the end, everything he did was useless.
Then, as his arm shattered to pieces, the Fey youth’s entire body turned into a gooey puddle of blood in front of everyone’s horrified eyes, with even his organs turning into rotten bloody syrup. Then, the bloody goo was absorbed into the dark gray ground, the bones left turning into ash.
Another moment later, all that was left of the Fey youth was a small pile of red ashes. Besides that, it was as if he had never existed…
Those present were completely shocked. Even Lin Ming, who had an incomparably firm will and mindset, felt a chill spread out from his back, directly shooting towards the heavens.
These martial artists had all walked the killing path. Never mind seeing the dying, but everyone here had killed at least hundreds of people, if not more. But, seeing someone die in this manner before their eyes was truly appalling!
Even Sada, a veteran of the Eternal Demon Abyss, gulped a mouthful of saliva, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead. In the incomparably strange and bizarre Eternal Demon Abyss, there were a plethora of various ways to die. But, this was the first time that he had seen a way like this!
Nobody spoke. Everyone maintained full vigilance, keeping a careful eye on their surroundings.
Lin Ming traced his spatial ring, his breath caught in his throat. He had originally thought that the danger of the Eternal Demon Abyss came from the evil beings that lived here, and fighting with these evil beings would cause martial artists to perish. But he never thought that death could arrive in this manner. He had helplessly watched as a martial artist rapidly decayed in front of him without even his bones left, but he still hadn’t had any idea where this evil being was or what it had done!
The scariest thing in this world was the unknown. Martial artists did not fear ghosts or gods. The so-called ghosts were merely those that practiced ghostly cultivation methods, and those so-called gods were nothing more than exceedingly powerful martial artists. But right now, everyone felt as if they had returned to being a mortal, a mortal that was wading through the dark, frightened by the supernatural creatures of the night.
They had only gone 5,000 miles or so towards the Eternal Demon Abyss, so how could something so bizarre happen here?
“Sir Sada, what is this?” High Lord Bloodfire asked with a true essence sound transmission. Of everyone here, he was the only one who had entered the Eternal Demon Abyss before. Ten years ago, he had been one of the Heavenly Demon Seven Stars with a strength similar to Yan Chi. At that time, the Eternal Demon Abyss hadn’t erupted, and he hadn’t gone as deep into the Eternal Demon Abyss as others. Still, he had never seen such a scene like this.
“I’m ashamed to say it, but this is the first time that I’ve encountered something like this. That gray shadow just now, from my experience, should have only been a demonic ash fly that was condensed from infernal energy, with a cultivation of only a few hundred years, just a minor creature. But I never imagined something like this would happen. I think that the true essence storm just now must have aroused some ancient evil being from its deep slumber…”
Sada didn’t dare to speak out loud, instead using a true essence sound transmission to inform everyone.
A deeply sleeping evil being? Could this be an evil being that was shot out by the Eternal Demon Abyss’ eruption?
Thinking of this, everyone felt their backs go cold. No matter how confident they were, no one was confident enough to believe they could contend with an evil being that originated from deep within the Eternal Demon abyss. Especially this sort of invisible evil being. The death was inexplicable, shocking, alarming – there was no one who could even summon the courage to resist it!
“Demonshine, what’s going on here?”
Lin Ming could only ask Demonshine. Demonshine had followed the Demon Emperor to enter the Eternal Demon Abyss and stayed there for 20 some years. The Demon Emperor had even gone within the 1000 mile death zone radius around the Eternal Demon Abyss. He could only hope that Demonshine might have some inkling as to just what was happening.
Demonshine tried hard to recall the sealed memories within him. After a quarter hour of silence, he said, “It was my big brother who accompanied master to enter the Eternal Demon Abyss. I haven’t inherited too many of my big brother’s memories, so for this kind of situation, I can only make an approximate guess. I think that there was possibly some ancient powerhouse buried here who practiced blood demon cultivation techniques, or, there might possibly be some sort of extremely dangerous vicious beast that was sealed below. Regardless of what it is, when they were still alive, I fear that they were an existence that not even the Emperor level powerhouses of this Holy Demon Continent could deal with… but, after they died and had been buried for tens or hundreds of thousands of years they turned into a Demon God Bone, and not a normal one at that!”
Lin Ming had already heard Da Gu say that there were different ranks of Demon God Bones. The Demon God Bones that the High Lords of Skysplit Tower had were only the most ordinary and inferior kind.
Demonshine continued speaking, “If Demon God Bones are divided into human, earth, and heaven steps, then that Demon God Bone you have now is only a human-step one. Within Skysplit Tower, a human-step Demon God Bone is already extremely rare; I think that even the Polaris Tower Master doesn’t have an earth-step Demon God Bone. As for the even higher ranking heaven-step Demon God Bone, I estimate that not even the ruler of the Blood Slaughter Steppes has seen one. This sort of object probably has an inborn intelligence. Even if a martial artist has a lucky chance, unless they have a great destiny befall their bodies, it is impossible to obtain it. I have no idea just what sort of Demon God Bone was bred within this ancient powerhouse’s tomb underneath us, but you had best forget about it. This is a dangerous and ominous place. The faster we leave, the better!”
Lin Ming didn’t need Demonshine’s warning to know that he shouldn’t bite off more than he could chew and try to dig out the buried bones of this ancient Supreme Elder or extreme vicious beast. Otherwise, he really would think that he had already lived too long.
Everyone stood motionless for a full hour, on absolute guard. The fog gradually enveloped them and the light dimmed, but… nothing happened.
Was it over?
Everyone’s bodies were wet with sweat. They had a faint gladdening feeling that they were survivors of a catastrophe. But before leaving this unhallowed grounds, no one dared to relax even a bit.
“Let’s retreat first… everyone, do not make any noise!”
No one needed Sada to tell them not to speak, everyone was even trying to suppress their breathing as much as possible.
“I feel that… it’s becoming more and more dark…” The one who spoke was High Lord Black Ash, using a true essence sound transmission to speak. As he spoke, everyone discovered that the thick fog around them was becoming increasingly concentrated, dense to the point that one could take out a sword and cut through it. The darkness was also becoming increasingly suffocating. By all reasoning, the Eternal Demon Abyss was underground and there was no day or night here. The only light they had was from the vibrant and shining stars from up above, so there shouldn’t be a time as dark as this…
Sada sensed something. Looking up, he discovered that the starry skies had already disappeared into the vast, endless fog.
“Shit, without the stars to set our direction, we will become lost if we walk.”
“Should we fly up to get a better sense of direction?”
“Have you forgotten that flying is banned within the Eternal Demon Abyss? Even if flying wasn’t suppressed, I wouldn’t dare to fly. Flying up is only looking for death!”
“Then what do we do? Where should we go?”
Everyone was feeling weak at heart. Now that they were covered in this fog, they couldn’t walk away, nor could they stay.
But at this time, the air filled with a faint fragrance. Then, a dreamlike singing began to waft out…
The singing of a woman!
To suddenly hear the singing of a woman in this sort of place… everyone’s hairs began to stand on end.
This song seemed to come from the distant horizon, bringing with it an inescapable bitterness and utter anguish. As one listened to it, it felt as if their souls were trapped within, a strong sense of lingering and grief remaining in their hearts, telling them not to leave, not to go.
“Lonely…
“Lonely…
“Come down and stay with me…”
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“Do not listen to that singing! Seal up your ears with demon essence!” Sada’s expression suddenly changed, no longer having time to send out more true essence sound transmissions. With a shout, demon essence erupted from his body, forming an enchantment of energy around him, isolating himself from all sound.
The sudden eruption of energy shoved away some of the thick fog. Then, Lin Ming saw an appallingly creepy scene. A young Fey youth was standing there, his shoulders dangling down and empty green eyes glazed over, as if he had fallen under a spell. He started to use his hands to claw his body, and quickly, his body was covered with blood from self-inflicted wounds.
The more he clawed at himself the more brutal and violent he became. The Fey thrust his hands into his body, digging out his blood vessels, organs, completely pulling out everything. He even dug out his own eyes, his entire body flowing with blood.
Lin Ming instantly determined that this youth’s spiritual sea had fallen into the enemy’s hands; he had become a useless zombie that was being manipulated.
“Lin Ming, front left, break out there!” Demonshine’s voice hurriedly sounded out, “I know what we’ve met. The front left, as long as you have enough strength you can break out of this cage, otherwise you too will suffer the same fate if you stay!”
Hearing Demonshine’s sudden voice, Lin Ming no longer hesitated. He grabbed the Purple Comet Spear and true essence erupted from his body to the limit.
The Heretical God Force opened completely and the power of the Eight Inner Hidden Gates was also pushed to the extreme.
“Penetrating Rainbow!”
Spear and man became one. Lin Ming’s body was like a meteor as he shot through space and slammed into the front left fog. With a cracking sound, as if something were breaking and tearing apart, the thick black fog there was completely ripped asunder. In an instant, Lin Ming had crossed 10,000 feet and then continued to run straight forwards.
“Run away together!” Sada saw Lin Ming move and shouted out.