by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
Just at this moment, a huge gate appeared in the air, and a figure walked out from a crack. Long Chen was startled. It was someone from a race he had never seen before.
He was three meters tall with a body covered in scales. He had a single horn on his head and a fish-like tail on his back.
A member of the ancient races? No, his aura was completely different. A Xuan Beast? Also wrong. This person had a dark aura that was different from any of the lifeforms on the Martial Heaven Continent.
Long Chen suddenly understood something. A Netherpassage expert who entered the Netherworld had their own gate. This person’s gate had appeared not far from Qu Jianying’s gate.
That person’s gaze swept around, even going past Qu Jianying. However, he didn’t see her. Qu Jianying must be hidden very well.
Long Chen praised Qu Jianying inside. This attention to detail was definitely far superior to the old man. If it had been him, he would definitely not have thought of hiding and observing things first.
This tailed person walked forward. He quickly reached the center of the bridge and saw the monstrosity killing the souls.
The tailed person snorted and sent a punch at the monstrosity. His punch was incredibly powerful, but he was sent flying by a punch from the monstrosity.
Long Chen was startled. “It’s possible to activate magical arts and Battle Skills here? Then the spiritual body that enters this place is actually also a physical body. What a strange place.”
Just at this moment, a blood-colored rune appeared in that monstrosity’s eyes. The chain in its hand shot toward the tailed man.
The tailed man sneered and began muttering something Long Chen couldn’t understand. He once more sent out a punch.
However, this time, the tailed man’s arm exploded and blood mist flew out. He was actually a solid body.
The tailed man let out a miserable cry. Only at this moment did Long Chen see countless barbs on the chains that were pulling out that tailed man’s flesh. Those barbs were like teeth.
The tailed man turned to flee back to the gate he had come out of. Unfortunately, he had just gotten there when the monstrosity’s chain explosively grew. It smashed through the tailed man’s body, causing him to scream.
His body then rapidly withered until he was nothing more than dust. The monstrosity returned to its original appearance, but now it went to another orb. Its chain had a dozen drops of essence blood that dripped onto the orb.
“Damn, so it’s gathering essence blood.” Long Chen was startled. This thing was gathering souls and essence blood at the same time. Just what was it doing?
At this moment, Qu Jianying walked out of the place she was hiding and crept forward, carefully going past the monstrosity.
It completely ignored her, and she continued onward. The bridge was very long, and she encountered over ten of them that she carefully went around.
After an unknown amount of time, a blood-colored pool appeared ahead. Dense mist swirled out of it and into the sky
Chapter 1591 Yellow Springs Path, Gates of Hell
The blood-colored pool stretched as far as he could see. When Long Chen approached it, he was shocked to find that this lake wasn’t filled with water but was truly formed of blood. Furthermore, it was the terrifying essence blood.
The powerful fluctuations coming from the lake gave Long Chen chills. This kind of power was something he had only sensed from the Alldevil monster’s essence blood.
Dense mist swirled out of the lake so that he couldn’t see far; however, he saw floating logs on the lake that formed a strange bridge.
This bridge was not steady. There were many random logs in constant motion, and it seemed he was supposed to jump across them to reach the other side. That was very dangerous.
Eventually, Qu Jianying stepped forward to try it on her own. Even after a long time, she didn’t see anyone else come to try it.
Qu Jianying jumped onto one of the logs, and it rocked in the water. There was danger of falling in at any moment.
Long Chen guessed that there was no way to fly in this region, or Qu Jianying would have just flown right there.
As he looked deeper into the mist, the water suddenly surged. A strange lifeform jumped out of the water and at Qu Jianying.
It was a humanoid with a fish tail and eight horns on its head. It opened a huge mouth full of sinister teeth as it tried to bite Qu Jianying.
Qu Jianying slashed with a sword. However, it wasn’t a true sword but one condensed of her Yuan Spirit energy. She killed the creature in one attack.
As soon as she killed it, the surface of the lake exploded. Countless other blood-colored creatures charged at her.
Qu Jianying quickly retreated to the shore where the creatures were unable to cross. After a few furious roars, they unwillingly retreated.
“Damn, what are these? How could they be so terrifying? Furthermore, that resentment coming from them, they don’t seem like a real species. They’re quite similar to the resentful spirits in stories.”
Qu Jianying didn’t dare to touch this lake water. It was too strange. As for those monsters, although they weren’t very powerful, at the end, they had come at her in such terrifying numbers that it was all too possible to end up falling into the water.
Qu Jianying didn’t dare to try it again. She found a place to hide herself by the shore.
After an unknown amount of time, someone finally appeared. It was a humanoid, but his body was small. He was like a dwarf and was only three feet tall.
He looked at the lake for a long time. It was unknown whether or not Qu Jianying had used some secret art to conceal herself, but he didn’t notice her.
After examining the blood lake carefully, he slowly touched the surface of it and immediately let out a shrill scream.
The finger he had used to touch the lake had turned to mist, and that mist continued to burn away the rest of his body. His hand instantly vanished. The speed at which it spread was shocking.
The dwarf immediately cut off his arm at the shoulder. By that time, his arm up to his elbow had vanished.
Less than half a breath’s time after his arm landed on the ground, it vanished into mist. The elder’s face was pale.
All he had done was touch the lake, but if he hadn’t been decisive enough, he would have died.
He stopped by the shore for a long time. His arm slowly recovered. Only then did he slowly jump onto one of the floating logs and continue onward.
At first, things went very smoothly, and he advanced several miles. Just as he was about to vanish into the mist, one of the fish monsters inside the lake attacked him.
Just like Qu Jianying, the dwarf easily killed it. Based on its attack speed, power, and spatial fluctuations, Long Chen estimated it to be around the power of a Soul Transformation expert.
To an expert on Qu Jianying’s level, such a creature could be slain with the wave of a hand. However, right after the dwarf killed it, countless more of them suddenly sprang out of the lake, attacking him.
Although the dwarf killed as many as he could, there were too many, and they filled the air.
However, Long Chen noticed one secret. These monsters never touched the floating logs no matter what attack they used.
The dwarf was fighting with all his power and wanted to retreat. However, he had gone too deep, and his path was blocked. Just at this moment, a tentacle wrapped around his ankle.
He was instantly pulled underwater. A miserable cry rang out for just an instant before it disappeared. The lake returned to calm.
Long Chen could feel himself sweating. Fortunately, Qu Jianying had been lucky. She had been attacked just after jumping onto the logs and had time to retreat. If she had been in the dwarf’s position, she would probably have died.
This lake was too terrifying. Even someone as strong as Qu Jianying was miniscule in front of it.
No wonder it was said that advancing to the Netherpassage realm was an incomparably dangerous venture. This
place was filled with danger.
The image he saw stayed still for a long time. Long Chen guessed that Qu Jianying was waiting for someone else to test this place.
However, in the end, no one else came, and Qu Jianying moved. She once more jumped onto a floating log and continued advancing.
Although he knew that Qu Jianying had managed to pass and advance to the Netherpassage realm, watching what she had gone through still gave Long Chen chills.
Eventually, Qu Jianying was so deep into the mist that when she looked back, she couldn’t see the shore. Everything around her was mist. Long Chen couldn’t help sighing inside. The path of experts was always so difficult. There were no shortcuts, and they had to face death.
Even someone as strong as Qu Jianying seemed so weak in the face of the ephemeral existence known as fate. However, she still chose to advance.
Eventually, one of those monsters appeared and attacked her. This time, she didn’t strike back. Instead, a runic barrier appeared around her.
She stayed motionless as the monster tore at her barrier. It was unknown what kind of special ability it had, but her barrier began to crack.
However, Qu Jianying was not taken by surprise. She slowly passed more energy into her barrier. As long as it was just one, these monsters were unable to harm her.
The monster bit and tore at her barrier for a long time without drawing more monsters. Long Chen suddenly realized that as long as these monsters weren’t attacked, it was possible to pass safely.
As expected, after blocking the first one, she didn’t draw more. As she advanced, ripples began to appear on the calm lake.
As the surface of the lake rose, Long Chen saw some splashing. Eventually, he saw the mouth of a spring from which the blood water was flowing out. There was a stone tablet there with three crooked words. They didn’t seem like immortal characters. In any case, Long Chen didn’t recognize them.
“Yellow Springs Path.”
“What? Doesn’t the Yellow Springs Path only exist in folklore? Plus, shouldn’t it be yellow?” asked Long Chen.
“I don’t know either. I just recognize those three characters. That damn Yun Shang, return my memories!” raged Evilmoon. It was more and more sure that Yun Shang had taken away a portion of its memories.
Alright, perhaps the Yellow Springs weren’t yellow. Among the common folk, there was a saying to stop digging if you struck yellow water when digging a well, because that well would lead to the land of the dead.
But wasn’t that just nonsense? The soil people lived on was yellow. It was only natural that when the first water came out, it would be yellow. If that saying was true, wouldn’t there be no wells?
That was why this saying was not trustworthy at all and was mostly only told during stories. However, now that Evilmoon had said what those characters were, Long Chen’s heart thumped. For some reason, he felt a chill.
Qu Jianying continued to advance. There was no way to sense the flow of time here, but eventually she reached a giant whirlpool.
Now Long Chen saw an even more shocking scene. There were nine lakes, all different colors.
Red, orange, yellow, green, azure, blue, violet, white, and black lake water was gathering here, forming a gigantic whirlpool.
“This is the legendary Nine Springs? Below the Nine Springs is the land of the dead?” Long Chen’s hair stood on end. Were the stories told by the common people actually true?
If they were, what of the Ox-Head and Horse-Face guardians of the underworld? What of the Black and White Deities of the Dead? What of the Asuras of Purgatory?
Long Chen felt like he couldn’t accept this. Having cultivated to this point, he now saw things on his cultivation path that were only spoken of in stories by the weakest commoners of the land.
Qu Jianying paused where the nine springs gathered. The water was flowing, but the wooden logs didn’t move. The strange monsters of the lake had also vanished.
Long Chen carefully examined the nine springs. He felt like he was close to grasping some kind of mysterious element to them, but then that feeling vanished.
“These nine springs are definitely hiding some kind of secret.” Long Chen was sure about this. This was a kind of intuition that he felt very clearly.
Regretfully, all he was seeing was some memories. Many things could not be transmitted through just the five senses. He was also only able to experience it as Qu Jianying had experienced it.
Qu Jianying continued forward. A straight set of stairs appeared descending into the center of the whirlpool.
When Qu Jianying reached the bottom, Long Chen saw that the waterfall of lake water was actually flowing in reverse here, forming a strange cycle.
Continuing on the path, he suddenly saw a giant gate. This gate also had three characters on it.
“Gates of Hell.”
Evilmoon recognized them again. What it said caused Long Chen’s heart to pound.
Chapter 1592 Bring Me In
There was a huge castle ahead, with giant gates opened outward. The gates had huge rivets that were many miles long.
Standing in front of this giant gate, humans seemed as miniscule as ants. What was beyond the gates was shrouded in primal chaos. It was impossible to see anything inside.
The Gates of Hell did not have the guards of legend like the Ox-Head and Horse-Face. There was nothing around except primal chaos.
Just as Qu Jianying was not far from it, she saw two figures enter it, vanishing within without a trace.
Due to the great distance, Long Chen hadn’t managed to see whether those two were human or some other species.
Suddenly, a figure appeared not far from Qu Jianying. It was a giant colorful tiger. When it passed by Qu Jianying, it glanced at her and then ignored her, going straight into the gate.
Even its huge, mountain-like body was miniscule in front of the giant gates.
Qu Jianying hesitated for a moment before also entering.
Just at that moment, the vision faded. The dark aura vanished, and the sun appeared in the sky again.
Long Chen and the old man both took a deep breath. Only now did Long Chen realize he was covered in sweat.
The atmosphere of the Netherworld was too nerve-wracking.
“It really is a damnable place.” The old man wiped some sweat off his forehead.
“Old man, why did the vision end? Did you run out of energy?” asked Long Chen. This memory was not complete.
“It’s not that I ran out of energy but that this memory was only this long. You might not know this, but it’s very difficult to remember anything about passing through the Netherworld. Practically, everyone has their memories of that time stripped away by some mysterious energy. Jianying’s Spiritual Strength is exceptional, and I don’t know what technique she used to preserve some of her memories, but doing just that is already extremely heaven-defying. As for what’s behind that gate, even she is powerless to remember anything about it. However, this is already very helpful to me. Without it, I would probably fail to get past that bridge.”
The old man felt some lingering fear. Qu Jianying’s caution had just saved his life.
With the Heaven Splitting Battle Sect’s men’s characters, that bridge was too dangerous. At the very least, these memories had guaranteed his safety for the first part.
“When are you planning on attacking the Netherpassage realm?” asked Long Chen.
“I was interrupted this time, and seeing these memories has almost been an impact. Since I used up some of my life and death energy, I would need a month to recover to my peak state. I’ll only attempt it at that time.”
Activating the memories Qu Jianyinng had left behind had taken quite a bit of energy. The old man would need to fully recover before attempting his breakthrough.
“Then… can I discuss something with you?” probed Long Chen.
“What?”
“Well… I just want to ask, can you bring my Yuan Spirit with you when you make your breakthr
ough?”
“Are you insane?!”
The old man immediately jumped up. This brat really was crazy. Could someone come back alive from the Netherworld?
“Don’t panic just yet. I was thinking that I could have my Yuan Spirit enter your mind-sea. When you attack the Netherpassage realm, I’ll come along too. That way, I’ll be able to stroll around the Netherworld,” said Long Chen.
“Absolutely not! You saw how dangerous the Netherworld is. Your Yuan Spirit might be powerful, but you’re just at the Soul Transformation realm. What if some law exterminates you?” The old man shook his head vehemently. This brat’s guts were too big.
When attacking the Netherpassage realm, the body would die. However, there would be a small seed of life left behind. Without this seed, it would be impossible to return from the Netherworld. Only a Netherpassage expert who had succeeded would be able to return and activate the seed of life, completing a full nirvanic rebirth.
However, if you died in the Netherworld, that seed of life would vanish. That was true death.
Long Chen’s method might sound plausible in theory, but it was definitely impossible in reality. Who knew what would happen?
“Old man, just listen to me. My cultivation technique is a bit special and is very sensitive to danger. In all these years, the reason I could brush so close to death constantly is thanks to my cultivation technique. There’s something I need in the Netherworld, and I couldn’t sense any danger. In other words, other than whatever is beyond that gate, I should be absolutely safe. Do you not understand my character? I’m more afraid of death than anyone. I have so many hot-blooded brothers and beautiful women to return to. I can’t just throw my life away,” said Long Chen solemnly.
Now that Long Chen put it this way, the old man reconsidered. Although Long Chen was young, he was meticulous. He rarely made a mistake in his plans.
Since Long Chen was so set on doing this, on taking such a giant risk, he had to have his own reasons.
