Chapter 75
It should have been a sunny day, but as soon as Lu Chen stepped into the Barren Valley, all he could see were ominous clouds in that circular sky shaped by the towering mountains around him. These pitch-black clouds were dense and low-lying. They seed to be pushing down against the earth, creating an extrely stifling feeling.
Lu Chen's gaze swept across the gloomy and dull Barren Valley. There was not a single space where his gaze fell upon that had a single stalk of grass. All that was within his sight were either the steep, towering cliffs or the cracked earth. Gust after gust of sinister wind blew from the depths of the Barren Valley, raking up a storm of gray dust.
Further in the distance, as the wind traveled through the crevices ford after a long period of weathering, a mournful, shrill sound could be heard. It was reminiscent of the resentful and vicious wailings of the dead who had t their demise here very long ago.
The young black hound, Ah Tu, followed Lu Chen into the Barren Valley. Even though its instincts as a demonic beast induced an innate abhorrence for lifeless places like this one, its desire to be with Lu Chen overpowered all other feelings. However, barely after traveling a few ters into the valley, Ah Tu suddenly stopped.
It whimpered softly in pain, and its entire body was trembling slightly in discomfort. Even so, glancing at Lu Chen's back, it hesitated montarily before deciding to push on.
But the worst had yet to happen. Barely after a few more steps, Ah Tu began to lose its balance. Its entire body swayed weakly with every step it took, and it didn't take long before it collapsed onto the ground. By this mont, its four limbs were already convulsing vigorously
Suddenly, a shadow appeared before it. With a soft wail, Ah Tu lifted its head to take a look. Lu Chen had returned back to its side. Stroking Ah Tu's head lightly, Lu Chen carried it all the way back to the entrance. After placing Ah Tu on the ground, he said softly, "Wait here for ."
After a short mont of panting, the unnatural conditions Ah Tu was afflicted with gradually faded away. Returning back to its feet, it glanced at Lu Chen before stepping forward to lick his palm.
Lu Chen chuckled before turning around to leave. Soon, he disappeared into the depths of the dark eerie mountain valley. A sinister wind blew, raking up a cloud of dust to veil the land.
A lone dog stood at the entrance of the valley.
It lay down for a mont, but perhaps due to boredom, or maybe it sensed that sothing was amiss, it stood up once more and examined the surroundings.
The area around it was desolate, and there wasn't any movent at all. After a brief mont of hesitation, Ah Tu attempted to proceed into the valley slowly. But barely after taking a few steps, that unnatural sensation from before began creeping onto it, so it retreated hurriedly.
Following which, it tried to travel by the corner of the valley, and to its surprise, the unnatural sensation wasn't triggered.
Ah Tu shook its body and stretched lazily. It waited for a very long ti, but for so reason, Lu Chen still didn't return. Thus, it continued to wait in boredom. Eventually, unable to hold itself back any longer, it stood up and made its way into the valley, walking closely alongside the steep cliff.
The stone cliff was rigid and coarse. Through innurable years of rain and wind, nature had created a bizarre art piece out of the cliff. There were even so parts of the cliff that was as sharp as a knife. Dodging those dangerous protrusions, Ah Tu advanced curiously but slowly.
Just as it was passing by a wall filled with nurous gaps, an abrupt but powerful gale suddenly blew. As air was compressed into these gaps, more than a dozen mournful, shrill wailings resonated behind Ah Tu.
"Houu... Ahh... Yii... Jii..."
In that instant, it was as if thousands of ghosts were screaming in agony, and it was an extrely frightening and eerie sight. Terrified, Ah Tu's hair stood on ends. With a frightened howl, it imdiately dashed forward, wanting to get away as fast as it could.
Ah Tu ran with all of its might. It was hard to tell how far it had run, but by the ti it was out of breath, the fearso wailings were no longer within range. Only then did it slow down to recover, panting heavily. With a discomposed expression, it glanced backward fearfully.
Panting heavily, Ah Tu stared anxiously in the direction where the bizarre howls ca from. It was as if it was afraid that a fearso monster might leap out from the dark corners any mont. At the sa ti, its instincts were nudging it to stay as far away as possible, prompting it to slowly back away.
But after a mont, Ah Tu's body suddenly ca to an abrupt halt. It felt as if it had bumped into an incomparably hard wall. Startled, it turned around to take a look.
At the sa ti, an eerie gust of wind carrying a cloud of dust blew over once more, veiling the land.
Behind the cloud of dust, Ah Tu could see a massive figure reminiscent of a small mountain. Due to the veil from the cloud of dust, it wasn't able to see for sure what it was, but its figure did look exceptionally small beneath the massive shadow.
Ah Tu stared blankly at the massive figure with widened eyes. At the sa ti, amidst the sandstorm, that massive figure also seed to have noticed sothing as well and slowly turned its gaze over.
Along with the movent from the massive figure, a dark shadow surged forward swiftly, covering the young hound under it in the blink of an eye. An enormous head descended from the sky, and before Ah Tu could process the happenings, it saw a pair of massive bell-like eyes with a fearso glint in them. As the sandstorm slowly settled, the bell-like eyes stared intently at Ah Tu.
Ah Tu howled in fear. Its limbs lost all strength, and it fell paralyzed on the ground.
Lu Chen advanced silently amidst a sandstorm. A sinister and desolate atmosphere drifted in the Barren Valley along with an intangible feeling of chaos, but surprisingly, he seed to be completely oblivious to it.
As he gradually approached the center of the valley, the geographical terrain of the valley grew even more erratic. Countless cracks of differing sizes intersected with one another on the ground, producing an extrely startling sight. It was as if a fearso natural calamity had once befallen this land, and a powerful and uncontrollable force had ravaged here, leaving behind permanent scars of suffering in this valley.
The color of the earth beneath Lu Chen's feet also slowly changed along with his advancent. From the initial lifeless color of ashen gray, streaks of charred black and dark crimson began to erge. And the deeper Lu Chen advanced into the valley, the more vivid these two colors beca. It created a peculiar illusion that the Barren Valley was a living being as well. But at so point, it was viciously stabbed with a dagger, and endless fresh blood flowed out from its depths. As ti passed, it gradually dried up, resulting in the current hideous and horrifying appearance.
And all of these fearso 'bloodstains' were shaped in a manner that seed to suggest that it had been spurted outward from a certain point-the very center of this circular world.
Lu Chen proceeded forward slowly.
A sandstorm blew at him, tugging at his clothes.
As the storm died down and the sand slowly settled, a human suddenly appeared in his sight.
That person was not standing, he was seated. But even when seated, he shared the sa height as an ordinary standing man.
The very spot where he was seated in seed to be the stem of all of the pain, monstrosities, tragedies, and power within this circular world. With his back against Lu Chen, he gazed at this world.
A mont later, another sandstorm brewed up and his figure blurred. Amidst the wind, a voice could be heard. It was gentle and smooth, resembling the tone which Lu Chen usually spoke with.
"You're here..."
...
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