Chapter 619: Stone Scorpions
“Sister, he knows the way out. We need to find the small hill and we can get out of here,” the youth explained with a smile.
“What?”
“It’s the information from the Red Souls. They told me Xiao Lin knew the way out of the Nine Souls Purgatory. I used a secret technique to learn the information. We need to find a small hill that’s roughly ten meters tall and dig down a hundred meters. That’s where we will find a compass that will aid us in escaping this place,” Long Chen explained.
“Is that so?” Long Yue was overjoyed. Long Chen had created a lot of miracles, but this would be the largest one of them all if they really escaped the Nine Spirit Purgatory.
“Let’s go find the small hill now.”
“Let’s rest for a bit first. Eldest Sister, you are still injured. I have some spiritual herbs here that can help you recover faster.” Long Chen took out some spiritual herbs and gave them to her.
They were clear on what to do next.
Find the small hill and escape.
It had taken them tens of days to find Long Yue. Long Chen estimated that they would need the same amount of time to find the small hill. The gray-shirted youth had come across it once, but due to how the Nine Spirit Purgatory worked, it was hard to find it again.“That’s strange. I know I saw it before. Why didn’t we see it in the past ten days?” The youth sighed.
“Don’t worry. We should be able to find it as long as we keep searching,” Long Chen said to console him. The Nine Spirit Purgatory was devoid of anything. Anyone stuck inside for a long period of time would’ve gone crazy if they were alone.
Ten days passed by in a flash. Thanks to Long Chen’s King Crystals and the spiritual herbs, Long Yue recovered completely. The three of them were at the Third Earthly Martial Stage, so their combined attacks could decimate anyone in the Divine Martial Empire. Even the Martial Overlord had to be wary of them if they escaped.
Even the Ancient Demon Domain only had a single person at the Third Earthly Martial Realm.
The Martial Alliance, on the other hand, only had two left.
The three of them spent their time talking as they searched for the small hill.
Because they needed to find it fast, Long Chen didn’t spend much time cultivating for the past ten days.
The Earthly Martial Realm could technically cultivate as long as their feet were planted on the ground and connected to the earth.
In those ten days, Long Chen removed his disguise as the Hundred-War Martial King and revealed his true self.
“The Nine Spirit Purgatory is truly a bleak place. There’s nothing here at all.” Long Chen huffed as he stared at the unchanged terrain.
“Other than the gray clouds and ground, there really is nothing else.” Long Yue sighed in exasperation too.
“There are also some strange stone scorpions. I haven’t seen one yet, but the others kept talking about how fearsome those scorpions were. The scorpions are a pile of animated stones and not demonic beasts. They are extremely durable, and most Earthly Martial Realm cultivators find it hard to destroy them. The stone scorpions are also exceedingly powerful. I think we would die from just a single jab from their tail or a single crush from their pincers. But the most fearsome trait is that they always appeared in groups of at least a thousand. Almost no one survives their onslaught whenever they appear.” The gray-shirted youth knew more about the Nine Spirit Purgatory as he had been imprisoned here longer.
“Oh? Is there really such a thing?” Both Long Chen and Long Yue were shocked to hear about the fearsome stone scorpions. To think that they may not be alive and yet have even stronger attacks than regular beasts.
“The scorpions are like the bringers of death in the Nine Spirit Purgatory. A lot of people die whenever they appear. Those without sufficient King Crystals are destined to be killed by a group of stone scorpions. Thankfully, we have plenty, and the stone scorpions usually appear once every few years. If not, there might not be anyone left alive—”
He suddenly paused, stopping mid-sentence.
“Wait, the ground is shaking.” The youth was stunned by what was happening.
Long Chen and Long Yue frowned. Long Chen focused on the ground to feel the vibrations. Sure enough, the ground was shaking, and it was steadily growing stronger. All of them had a bad feeling and looked around them with their guard up.
“Did I … Did I just jinx everyone?” the youth grumbled.
“Yes,” Long Yue and Long Chen answered at the same time. They saw a large cloud of dust on the horizon that blurred the line between the sky and the ground. Long Chen squinted and saw numerous tails high up in the air.
He had a horrifying realization that the scorpions’ tails were ten meters long if he could see them from so far away.
Ten meters was a conservative estimation.
“Holy shit. They really are the scorpions. Fuck!” The gray-shirted youth was dumbfounded. He was just talking about the scorpions, but then they really appeared.
The rumbling grew stronger. It was clear that the stone scorpions’ strength was immense from how the ground shook even though they were so far away. They didn’t know what kind of stone the scorpions were made out of, but they were certain that the scorpions were extremely durable.
The trio looked at each other and decided to run.
They didn’t know what the stone scorpions were, but they knew they would be dead if they got surrounded. There was no reason to risk their lives here in the Nine Spirit Purgatory, so they ran immediately.
To conserve their King Crystals, they decided to maintain a set distance from the scorpions. Thankfully, they had enough, or they would end up like the other survivors—butchered by the scorpions.
The cloud of dust was like a meat grinder as it approached the three. The stone scorpions somehow homed in on the trio because no matter where they ran, the scorpions were behind them.
“I understand now! The Nine Spirit Purgatory is a prison, and the stone scorpions spawned to eradicate us due to our essence …”
It was a plausible explanation to why the stone scorpions were chasing after them only.
Even though they had enough King Crystals to run, the search for the small hill had to be postponed.
Long Chen and the others tried to shake the stone scorpions off, but they refused to give up. The stone scorpions ground up any cultivators that were unlucky enough to run into them. The other cultivators they encountered ran as fast as they could too.
Three days passed…
All three of them were tired. The stone scorpions were closing in on them. Long Chen looked back and saw what they looked like. They were made from grayish-white rocks and they towered above Long Chen. Their tails were more than twenty meters tall and their massive pincers were raised high. The creatures were armed to the teeth with their fearsome appendages.
“I don’t think we should run anymore. They’ve killed countless people while chasing us and yet they are not stopping. Will they not stop until they’ve killed us?” Long Chen was curious.
“I don’t know. We’ve used a lot of King Crystals in the past three days. If we continue running like this, we will be dead long before we find the small hill.” The youth huffed as he spat out his words with difficulty.
Long Yue smiled bitterly and shook her head.
Two more days passed after that.
All three of them were very tired after running nonstop for five days, but the stone scorpions were still chasing after them. They were a hundred meters away now. The stone scorpions would close the gap significantly if any one of them were to stop even momentarily.
All three of them were panicking.
They never came across the small hill even though they’d been running for days.
Long Chen suddenly heard Long Yue cry out in surprise, “They stopped!” He looked back and saw that the stone scorpions had indeed stopped chasing. They were standing still, and the dust cloud settled down.
Thousands of the stone scorpions stood deathly still in a neat row just a hundred meters away from them. Long Chen could finally stop and take a closer look at them.
Other than the grayish-white stone making up the scorpions’ bodies, he also saw a strange black rune on each of their carapaces. The black runes pulsated and glowed when the stone scorpions were moving.
Is the black rune the reason why they can move?
“They’ve stopped moving. Why?” The youth circled around some of the stone scorpions and found that they didn’t have eyes. They completely ignored the youth despite how close he was.
“Maybe they ran out of energy after chasing us for five days? Maybe that’s why they aren’t moving.”
“Good. We can finally get away from them. Let’s go.” The youth smiled and turned around.
“Wait, they are digging into the ground. The Nine Spirit Purgatory is a bizarre place. Aren’t you curious about where they came from and what’s so special about them? Since we haven’t found the small hill yet, why don’t we follow them? We can run back up here if there’s any danger,” Long Chen suggested.
The stone scorpions were indeed starting to dig into the gray earth. Their bodies were massive, but they dug with surprising speed.
Long Yue hesitated before she said, “Alright, let’s chase after them. We can get out the moment we encounter any danger.”