??Chapter 76: Chapter 63: Entering the City!_1
Chapter 76: Chapter 63: Entering the City!_1
The night was ink-dark.
Under the intensely dark sky, Wulan Lake resembled a gigantic diamond embedded underground, radiating a dazzling brilliance.
Within this diamond, Bagua City was the most eye-catching source of light.
“Where is Ning?”
On the edge of the island, Su ng, seeing Pang Jian co alone out of the darkness, quickly looked behind him.
But she did not see the familiar silhouette she knew.
Su ng had never experienced a night so thick with darkness and did not know if sothing terrifying might be lurking within it, which made her secretly worry for her “Ning.”
“It was too dark on the mountain, and she fell on the way.”
Pang Jian answered indifferently, his gaze falling on the head of the Mysterious Turtle, etched out by deep green light and strange alien power.
Zhou Qingchen was startled, “Didn’t you help her up?”
“She has hands and feet, why should I help her?” Pang Jian asked, puzzled.
“Uh…”
Zhou Qingchen was at a loss for words.
“Zhou, you and Pang should really learn this. With won, you simply can’t be too nice to them; you can’t always be considering their feelings! If you had half of Pang Jian’s capabilities, the Jiang Li you admire in Red Mountain wouldn’t…” Han Duping teased him about his shortcomings.
Zhou Qingchen’s face turned red with anger, and he shouted, “Shut up!”
Examining the turtle head revealed on the ice surface, crafted from deep green lines and alien power, Pang Jian exclaid, “Is this the entrance to the Mirror Tunnel?”
“Yes, that’s what Ning Yao said,” Han Duping nodded, then shared his own opinion, “From my limited understanding of formations, it seems to be the entrance to the Mirror Tunnel indeed.”
Pang Jian asked curiously, “After entering, how do we co back?”
Han Duping smiled wryly, “We’ll only know once we go in.”
“Alright then.”
Pang Jian did not inquire further but instead turned to the other three, “Are you going down?”
“Of course I’m going down!” Zhou Qingchen imdiately declared.
“He insists on going, what can I do? I have no choice but to accompany Zhou,” Han Duping said with his head drooping and a reluctant expression.
“Okay.”
Pang Jian gripped his Dragon Pattern Spear, preparing to be the first to jump onto the ice over the turtle head, playing the role of a pathfinder for the group.
“Aren’t you waiting for Ning?” Su ng called out, annoyed.
Pang Jian, who had waited eagerly for this mont, did not respond to her. Holding the Dragon Pattern Spear, he leaped toward the spot where the turtle head was located.
Above the crystal-clear lake surface, the turtle head crafted by deep green light and alien power suddenly changed as he descended.
It was as if the turtle head, tilting back, stirred up mysterious ripples around its neck, which spread outward in concentric circles.
At a glance, the neck of this Mysterious Turtle seed to be encircled by many collars.
“Whoosh!”
Pang Jian landed on the upturned head of the turtle just to vanish in the center of the rippling halo of light.
“We should hurry and follow, to avoid being separated after entering!” Zhou Qingchen made a snap decision, confirming that it was the passageway and jumped in right after.
Han Duping did not hesitate and followed suit.
In a blink, only Su ng was left before the rippling turtle head.
The pitch-black island fell silent, and Su ng’s heart trembled as she called hesitantly into the darkness, “Ning, they have all gone down, are you… still there?”
“I am.”
With a voice tinged with languid resentnt, Luo Hongyan replied leisurely from the darkness, giving Su ng a slight relief.
Before long, Luo Hongyan erged from the darkness and strolled leisurely to Su ng’s side.
Her brows furrowed lightly, her clear eyes revealing surprise as she suddenly gazed toward the north of Wulan Lake, the other side engulfed by darkness.
That was where the dense “Mysterious Fog” first appeared.
“Ning, what are you looking at?” Su ng asked softly.
She found it strange that Luo Hongyan, upon arriving, did not look at the Mysterious Turtle that represented the passage, nor at the rippling light, but instead turned her gaze toward the other end of the lake.
“It’s not what I’m looking at, but rather, I feel… there’s sothing in the Mysterious Fog watching us.”
Feeling a naless panic in her heart, Luo Hongyan always sensed that, within the depths of the “Mysterious Fog” where the Extre Cold Alien Power seeped into the lake, stood so unknown creature.
The sensation made her shudder to the core.
Initially, Luo Hongyan hesitated whether or not to enter Bagua City, but now, suddenly free of doubt, she grabbed Su ng’s hand, and the two leaped together toward the turtle head.
The two of them vanished in an instant.
Once the island was devoid of any living being, sothing slowly erged from the darkness where Luo Hongyan had previously gazed—the very place thick with “Mysterious Fog.”
It was a giant grey ape, emanating a chilling ferocity, with a pair of ice-blue eyes.
If Pang Jian and Zhou Qingchen were still there, they would have recognized this grey ape at once as the one that Shangguan Qin had captured, imprisoned in an iron cage, and that eventually had been released at Pang Jian’s earnest request.
Now, compared to when it bid farewell to Pang Jian, its body had grown several tis larger.
The ape was like a small grey mountain, coming unhurriedly out of the “Mysterious Fog,” stepping slowly with its solid crystalline feet on the ice of the lake.
“Crack! Crack!”
As it moved toward the turtle head, every step of its broad feet cracked the thick, crystalline ice beneath it.
The ice, filled with Extre Cold Power, could not withstand the terrifying force of its every step, and it broke apart fragilely.
However, whenever it left those crevices, the aura of extre cold perated once again and repaired the shattered icy rock layer, quickly restoring it to its original state.
Within the “Mysterious Fog” in the depths of that darkness, it seed to have been waiting for a long ti, only revealing itself after everyone had disappeared.
Its dense grey fur had now turned silver-grey, and as it lightly shook its body, the silver-grey fur shimred with an otherworldly glow like steel needles.
It finally ca to a halt in front of the turtle head, standing on the ice rock-like, translucent surface of the lake.
With its ice-blue, sinister beastly pupils, it indifferently watched the entrance and exit, as well as the brightly lit Bagua City below.
Monts later, it slowly settled down into a squat right there.
…
A different land.
“Bang! Bang Bang! Bang Bang!”
Five figures in succession crashed heavily onto the ground, each one landing so hard they felt dizzy and disoriented.
Zhou Qingchen rubbed his sore buttocks, cursing angrily, “Why did we fall from the sky?”
As soon as he spoke, he froze.
He was standing in front of a huge city gate that was more than ten zhang high, made entirely of bluestone, grand and majestic.
“Bagua City, we’ve really reached Bagua City!” Zhou Qingchen exclaid in amazent, seeing Pang Jian, who had arrived before him, also in front of the giant city gate.
Following Pang Jian’s gaze, he too saw two prominent characters carved above the city gate as if by knife and axe.
——North Gate.
“Pang Jian, couldn’t you have waited for ?”
Luo Hongyan, who landed one step later, ca over annoyed and ready to demand an explanation.
Pang Jian turned a deaf ear.
He stared blankly at the two characters “North Gate,” and silently circulated the Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell, saying, “The spiritual energy here is pure and rich, many tis stronger than that of Lake Heart Island in Wulan Lake.”
“Bagua City was once situated in the Second Realm; naturally, it has richer spiritual energy than the barren Extre North Land of the Fourth Realm or an island in a lake,” Han Duping said matter-of-factly.
“But behind us…”
Pang Jian, who had arrived first, turned around, his back to the North Gate of Bagua City, looking into the sa ultimate darkness as Lake Heart Island.
Everyone else turned around in succession, their faces revealing shock.
Ahead was boundless darkness, shrouding all the space outside of Bagua City!
In the brilliantly lit Bagua City, the bright light emanating from the walls seed desperately to penetrate into the darkness of the outside world, as if trying to spread the light deep into the darkness.
However, the range that these dazzling lights could extend was only about three zhang or so.
Beyond the three zhang, there was endless darkness where not a single ray of light could be seen.
Pang Jian spoke solemnly, “In the depths of the darkness, there exists an essence completely different from that of Bagua City!”
Before the others landed, he had already explored a bit; as soon as he entered the darkness, he quickly pulled himself back.
In the darkness, the air he could sense was filled with acrid, rotten, and other strange scents.
Once these scents entered his viscera, they seed to silently erode his flesh, making his whole body feel uncomfortable.
When he cultivated with the Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell, he found that the “Spirit Pot” envisioned was no longer dark green but a pure black.
Black and shining!
The force he absorbed in the darkness was full of filth and all sorts of impurities, with spiritual power so slight it was almost imperceptible.
In just that mont, many contaminants had accumulated deep within his Spiritual Sea.
The operation of his spiritual power instantly beca sluggish, and the funnel-shaped vortex that connected his dan tian and Spiritual Sea began to slow and grow stagnant.
——He had sensed sothing terribly wrong and hurried out of the darkness.
“Colorless, green, dark green, black.”
He frowned and pondered, coming to a conclusion based on the color of the “Spirit Pot” during his visualization.
When he cultivated, drawing in the spiritual energy of nature, even the sparse energy of the Fourth Realm containing so impurities rendered his “Spirit Pot” without any specific color.
When he used pure and flawless Spirit Stones and Spirit Jade for cultivation, absorbing the spiritual power within them, his “Spirit Pot” would be green.
If it was a Spirit Stone containing the Power of Filth from the Fourth Realm, or stones infused with Mysterious Yin Power, or the Alien Power of darkness in the Black Water Pool,
His “Spirit Pot” would show as dark green, with darker portions becoming more intense as the amount of contaminant increased.
Conversely, if the absorbed force contained significantly more spiritual power than filth, the dark green “Spirit Pot” would lean more towards green.
Previously in the darkness, he had briefly tested with the Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell and the “Spirit Pot” unexpectedly revealed a rare pitch-black color, much like the boundless darkness itself.
This was an anomaly he had never encountered before.
“In the depths of the darkness, there is an extrely potent force, but it has a strong acrid, rotten sll. It seems to contain spiritual power too, yet rely a smattering compared to the dominating Power of Filth,” Pang Jian shared his previous sensations.
Zhou Qingchen and Su ng wore puzzled expressions, while Han Duping and Luo Hongyan’s faces subtly changed after listening.
“Pang Jian, do not enter the darkness again. Everybody listen to , do not leave Bagua City, do not attempt to explore the outside world!” Luo Hongyan suddenly called out in alarm, signaling everyone to retreat and return to Bagua City as soon as possible.
“Listen to her!”
Han Duping was also shouting.
Pang Jian looked at the two, puzzled, “What’s the nature of the darkness outside Bagua City?”
Han Duping licked the corner of his mouth with a strained tone, “Possibly, I an possibly, outside Bagua City… might be the Fifth Realm.”
“The Fifth Realm?!”
Zhou Qingchen and Su ng exclaid in shock.
…
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