Chapter 731 - Reappearance
Holding on to the last glimmer of hope, Ye Qingyu descended until he stood in front of the entrance to the Fallen God Abyss.
What he saw was an unfathomably massive sinkhole of a kilometer in diameter.
Extremely hard rocks which were black and gray in color were piled all around the sinkhole.
This was an extremely rare type of rock which could not only withstand the corrosion by the evil qi, but also slowly absorb the Black Demon qi and continually make use of it. After many years of accumulation, the originally spiritless and breathless rocks would begin to discharge traces of an extremely peculiar blood vessel qi and become as hard as divine iron.
Boom!
Billows of Black Demon qi spewed out.
Amid roars which sounded like they came from ancient beasts, Black Demon qi erupted from the abyss ceaselessly.
Standing less than a hundred meters from the edge of the sinkhole, Ye Qingyu frowned slightly.
Demon qi mist, which was as pitch-black as thick ink, reached into the clouds, the evil and cruel qi within spurting terrifying flames of suppression and slaughter, as though it was holding countless revenants captive. The entire place seemed to be saturated with a wicked aura and power.
The place gave one a feeling which was completely different from that in any other zone along the way.
The Fallen God Abyss was just like an entrance to hell.
Ye Qingyu's expression became a little grim as he looked at the Fallen God Abyss which was spurting black-colored demonic flames non-stop.
He did not have much of a choice whether or not to take this risk and explore below, for he could not possibly give up the only chance to find the Black Demon Herb.
Fortunately, he still possessed a few trump cards that could save his life.
If he truly suffered a mishap, the [Flash] and the [Ghost Shadows of Hell] could help him to escape from danger.
He slowly walked to the edge of the abyss.
Because of the suppression which the Black Demon qi enacted on an expert's yuan qi, it was highly likely that he would gradually lose his flying ability while diving down. To be safe, he opted to climb down the walls of the abyss instead.
With every flash of his figure, he would grab hold of a protruding rock below as if he was rock climbing. In this fashion of utmost caution, he entered the sinkhole slowly but surely.
After the time it took to drink a cup of tea.
He had descended approximately a kilometer along the cliff walls.
The abyss below him remained unfathomable.
The furiously surging Black Demon qi became increasingly dense and frightening. It resembled a savage demonic beast with its bloodied mouth wide open, frenziedly jumping up and down as it eagerly waited to devour the entire universe.
The power of this demon qi is becoming increasingly strange...
Ye Qingyu's heart turned heavy and his expression stiffened.
With both his legs treading on a seam that was only half a palm wide, there was a chance of misstepping if he shifted slightly. At the same time, because of the growing intensity of the Black Demon qi, his vision had become less than five meters in range. He certainly brought to mind a dinghy that was engulfed in a storm and could not make out its direction.
As he descended, he increasingly felt that the Black Demon qi, which was as if tens of millions of tentacles were wrapping around him and pulling him apart continuously, contained an extremely frightening power that was close to being a mystical law. By this time, the yuan qi in his dantian had become completely suppressed and inoperable, and was showing signs of freezing, like a surging boundless ocean which had suddenly turned into a dead sea.
It was as if his entire body had become entangled and trapped in a huge and tenacious spider web, and was completely unable to break free.
Good thing my powers of lightning and storm, as well as the [Supreme Ice Flame], haven't been suppressed...
Carefully inspecting the powers in his body, he discovered that, aside from his yuan qi, his other powers did not seem affected by the Black Demon qi.
He once again discharged consciousness power to observe the situation in the surroundings.
Although the Black Demon qi did engender some suppression on his consciousness power, his spirit had long attained the pinnacle of the Immortal Step realm and he was thus able to perceive all things within a kilometer of him as usual.
After roughly surveying the terrain, he discovered no apparent danger.
Feeling slightly at ease, he continued to descend along the cliff walls.
However, his speed had clearly lowered ever since his yuan qi was completely suppressed.
A full two hours later, he had descended only another two kilometers.
The Black Demon qi below him had been repeatedly quenched until it was extremely pure and rich. Compared to the thick smoke earlier, it was more like a material black flame which continually changed form and licked upward before devouring him in an instant. The skin and muscles throughout his body felt pain as though they were being continually cleaved and ground, while even his bones and vessels felt like they had been tightly seized by the Black Demon qi and were being pulled apart and twisted.
He had no choice but to turn into a dragon and rely on the silver dragon form's powerful physical body to withstand the Black Demon qi.
But even so, the demon qi that wrapped around his body in black flame form felt like an ancient divine mountain which was holding him down and making movement extremely difficult.
Moreover, the closer he got to the base of the Fallen God Abyss, the clearer he could hear the devilish and bestial howls that came from the depths.
This was an extremely shrilling noise that sounded as if thousands of demons were howling and wailing.
"Judging from the noise, the ground shouldn't be far..."
He clenched his teeth and operated the powers of lightning and the [Supreme Ice Flame].
A thin layer of ice mist and purple lightning emerged on his dragon scales, serving as a film layer that emitted an ice and electric mist to keep the Black Demon qi out of his body.
His dragon body then took a leap and continued to proceed down.
...
At the same time.
At the entrance of the Fallen God Abyss.
Two beams of flowing light suddenly came through the void.
Two figures undulated briefly before materializing.
Standing on the left side was a middle-aged man dressed in a pale yellow and black brocade robe. He had a lean and extremely pale face, and below his chin were three long strands of black beard. As his oblique and long eyes squinted, an extremely malicious cold light flashed across his pupils.
This was none other than Huang Tayun, one of the supervisors of the Violet Gold Divine Office front court in Sunrise City.
The woman beside him was wearing a scarlet-red silk dress. She had a slim and graceful body, an enchanting beauty, and eyes which gleamed with a charm of their own. At the same time, as a strange woman with a frosty dignity, she combined charm with iciness into an extremely peculiar temperament.
This was none other than Ye Qungyu's childhood sweetheart - Jiang Xiaohan.
"Heh heh, I've finally lured that son of a bitch into this trap." A delight flashed across Huang Tayun's eyes. "I've succeeded in my plan and completed your request. The rest will be up to you, Miss Jiang."
"You've done well this time. My master's advance payment of a third of your reward hasn't been in vain..." There was a stateliness and chill in Jiang Xiaohan's voice as she stared fixedly at the entrance to the Fallen God Abyss. "However, if you want to claim the other two-thirds, you'll have to listen carefully to my instructions for the next task. You'd better make sure to not act on your own accord and spoil the whole plan. Otherwise, don't blame me for being uncivil."
"That's natural..." Huang Tayun's pupils flashed as he readily consented.
He was clearly a little afraid of Jiang Xiaohan's strength.
However, it was unclear whether his reply meant that he wanted the other two-thirds of his reward or that he would listen to her instructions.
The statuses of these two people at present were completely different from those at the beginning.
After several rounds of cooperation, Jiang Xiaohan's vigor seemed to have gradually and imperceptibly suppressed Huang Tayun, allowing her to take over the dominant role.
Her fiery dress danced in the air.
She suddenly flew up as trippingly as a fire butterfly fluttering its wings.
"Ye Qingyu, let's bring a nice ending to our mutual grievances right here and now..."
The next moment.
She turned into a cloud of Black Demon qi and blended perfectly with the spewing Black Demon qi before plunging into the Fallen God Abyss.
An astoundment flashed in Huang Tayun's eyes as he remained standing where he was and watched the figure jump into the abyss.
It had not even been a month since the first time he met Jiang Xiaohan. He never imagined that this demoness' strength would advance by such leaps and bounds, completely surpassing the progress limits of a common expert.
"It appears that this demoness has mastered the Black Demon Race's magical abilities to a great extent. Could she be one of them? That's impossible... she's simply too eccentric... I must be careful..." Amid his shock, Huang Tayun seemed to think of something that caused a sinister smile to emerge on his face.
His figure flickered and turned into a beam of flowing light that disappeared from the Fallen God Abyss.
...
A while later.
In the camp of the Black Armor Race.
A harsh smell of blood and a murderous spirit shrouded the air above the hill.
The slope on which tents had gathered had by this time been turned into a blood lake.
The crippled bodies and corpses of the Black Armor Race experts were scattered everywhere together with their broken scale armors, from which wisps of Black Demon qi effused and rose into the demon qi, which was like a black sea of clouds, in the void, accompanied by a shrilling and terrifying hissing noise.
In the distance.
Huang Tayun walked while holding his sword behind him.
Soaked in fresh blood and bursting with cruel qi, the longsword continually dripped blood water onto the ground.
Containing Black Demon qi, the blood water seeped into the black mud and gave off a putrid smell.
Huang Tayun trod on the strewn corpses of the Black Armor Race experts as he walked forth with eyes that gleamed with an extremely vicious brilliance.
After taking dozen-odd steps, he arrived in front of the Black Armor Race leader's body.
The latter's face had turned green and his facial orifices discharged an extremely odd dark-red liquid, indicating that he had been badly poisoned.
"You... We trusted you so much... How dare you..." Laying crumpled on the ground and gasping feebly for air, the elder desperately struggled but could neither stand up nor retaliate, and thus revealed an expression of extreme shock and anger.
It turned out that the person whom the elder had divulged to Ye Qingyu to be purchasing the Black Demon Herbs at a high price was none other than Huang Tayun, who was walking toward him with a sword in hand right now. The Black Armor Race's mention of the Fallen God Abyss to Ye Qingyu was actually also arranged by Huang Tayun, who had paid a high price to buy their cooperation over.
However, the leader of the Black Armor Race totally did not expect Huang Tayun to return after the matter was done and conduct a surprise attack. The latter had silently poisoned the Black Armor Race with a toxin which had an inhibiting effect on them, causing them to become completely resistance-less, before he struck out and exterminated the entire race.
His eyes flickering a bloodthirsty red glow, Huang Tayun did not respond to the leader's rebuke.
A piercingly cold sword light.
The longsword in his hand slowly perforated the leader's chest bit by bit like a blunt knife sinking into a piece of meat.
"Ahhh..." The leader wailed in pain.