"Damn it! He's not a living man! He is dead!
Run!"
Austin screamed abruptly.
"Humph! You're not going anywhere unless you take me with you," the old Taoist snorted coldly,
dropping the act and revealing his true colors.
In an instant, countless black swords appeared out of thin air. Strong murderous aura filled the space.
Austin and his companions froze; they couldn't move an inch due to the murderous will.
'We're done...'
A sense of despair enveloped everyone's heart.
At that moment, Austin caught a glimpse of the marks on the stone coffin through the corners of his
eyes.
Each of the marks emitted a faint sword aura.
"Master, lend us your strength!" Austin shouted to the sky.
He raised his hand and unleashed several bright streaks of sword aura.
The next second, the marks on the stone coffin began to tremble, and immense sword aura emanated
and leaked from it.
The powerful sword aura gathered within Austin's body and then started gushing out from him.
The overwhelming sword aura formed a dome covering Austin and his companions, engulfing them
under its protection. The black swords couldn't break the dome or reach them.
Austin mustered up his courage and made a call. "Everyone! Follow me, now!" he said to his
companions.
With that, he jumped into the blood inside the stone coffin.
"Austin, what are you doing?" Otis asked with a hesitant expression.
The other divine gods also hesitated and wondered if they should follow him into the blood.
"If you want to leave this terrible land of death, jump now!" Austin exclaimed.
As he spoke, his body sank slowly into the blood.
"Come on!"
Otis said, and the other divine gods gathered their courage and jumped into the blood.
"Don't move! Stay right there!
Take me with you!"
the old Taoist roared.
By that point, Austin and his companions were already in the blood.
The blood began to riot as if it got angry.
Soon, the entire stone coffin began to shake violently.
Blood oozed out of the stone coffin and dyed the sky red.
Austin and his companions, who were now completely inside the blood, could see nothing but red
blood all around.
They were frightened at first, but soon, calmed down.
"Oh!" one of them exclaimed. "I feel fantastic! It seems like the blood is acting like a tonic!"
"Yes, it contains a shocking amount of energy!"
"My body is not listening to me; it's absorbing the energy from the blood. My strength is rising sharply!"
Austin was astonished by the effect of the blood too.
"If I have to guess, I would say that the land of death was a test. We passed it, so we're being
rewarded with the blood.
Come on! Absorb as much of the essence of the blood as you can!"
Austin declared.
The Fallen Divine Valley was a mysterious place; all kinds of dangerous places seemed to have been
deliberately arranged inside it.
And if one passed the test, they would be rewarded accordingly.
Taking the cue from Austin, Otis and the others stood still and began to absorb the essence of the
blood.
'I should hurry up and absorb more essence of the blood while I can, ' Austin thought to himself.
He then readied himself to absorb the energy.
But before he could do that, a strong teleportation force blasted forth from the sky and enveloped
Austin within its rays.
He was caught unawares and couldn't react.
By the time he recovered from his shock, he found himself being transported elsewhere.
The surroundings changed quickly and he felt dizzy.
After a moment, Austin steadied himself.
"Where am I?"
He looked around and found that he was inside a secret channel.
In front of him was a staircase. He studied the infinite steps with awe.
Suspiciously, he looked around. There was nothing but empty space all around him.
Out of options, he decided to climb the stairs.
'Have I gotten myself into another dangerous situation here?'
Austin wondered, his heart beating fast, not knowing what to expect at the end of the flight of stairs.
After all, the Fallen Divine Valley was full of danger.
Readying himself and remaining on high alert, Austin kept moving up the staircase, step by step.
After a while, he found himself inside an old stone hall.
Nothing stood out, except the stone table in the middle of the hall, with a picture and a stone box on top
of it.
The picture drew his attention.
It was of a middle-aged man with a long sword on his back.
Austin stared at the picture; the middle-aged man stared back at him.
Austin grumbled uneasily, "I bet you are about to jump out of this picture."
And just as he said that, the middle-aged man materialized in front of him and was suspended in
midair.
The man moved, and he was quick.
"Wow!"
Austin was surprised and pleased; the middle-aged man's moves gave off a Taoist aura.
The man got faster and faster, and the trajectory of his movements became more and more
mysterious.
'This is a bodily movement skill. It looks like this elder is trying to teach me this skill, '
Austin realized.
He immediately jumped up, shrank his body and began to follow the man. He imitated his steps and
tried to keep up.
"This is a brilliant bodily movement skill!
Much better than the Omnipotent Lightness.
Moreover, it contains Taoist aura, which means that this footwork has something to do with Taoism!"
Austin was now completely dedicated to learning the man's steps.
He saw that the man released the power of the chaotic law as he moved around.
"If this bodily movement skill is related to Taoism, wouldn't it be better if I use the Taoist formula while
practicing this?" Austin murmured to himself.
He ran the Taoist formula while he mimicked the middle-aged man's steps intently.
Gradually, Austin cleared his mind off other thoughts and focused on the training.
Time elapsed.
One day... two days... three days.
Austin was totally immersed in the training.
At first, he just imitated the middle-aged man.
A couple of months later, he made a discovery.
"Oh! This skill makes use of the most important theories of Taoism, including the Five Taoist Elements,
the trajectory of the obscure fish and the bright fish and the Eight Trigrams,"
Austin murmured to himself in excitement.
As time passed, he became more familiar with this new skill.
He not only memorized the steps, but also got the hang of the essence of the skill.
It would have taken a long time for anyone else to learn this technique.
But Austin was different.
He was already well-versed in many Taoist skills. Not long before this, he had also comprehended the
Principle of Philosophy. Thanks to that, he had a deeper understanding of Taoist theories.
That was another reason why he could pick up the movement skill in such a short time.
"Well, well... This young man is pretty good. I hope he is the one my master had been waiting for, '
a voice boomed in the void space.
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