We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real? Chapter 538: This Heartless Man Escaped in the End (2 in 1)
Previously on We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real?...
“Master...”
A faint, ethereal voice quietly echoed through the depths of Xiao Mo’s heart-lake.
Xiao Mo froze slightly. He lowered his head by instinct, yet saw nothing at all—only the seal torn open by a narrow slit.
The pitch-black abyss seemed as if it were devouring everything.
“Was I hearing things?” Xiao Mo frowned, a trace of doubt rising in his heart.
Logically speaking, with his current realm, he should have been able to tell whether he had truly heard something or not.
And yet that call just now had left him momentarily dazed, unable to distinguish truth from illusion.
“Elder Xiao, we should set off.”
Elder Jin walked to Xiao Mo’s side and spoke with a smile.
At the same time, many cultivators had already begun throwing themselves down from the sky one after another, scrambling madly into the Phoenix-Bird Secret Realm as though they had no regard for their lives.
“Let’s go.” Xiao Mo nodded, then leaped down with the others beside him, plunging toward that dark abyss.
The closer they drew to the abyss, the hotter and more scorching the surrounding spiritual power became.
It felt like wind set on fire, whipping wildly across his cheeks, as if every inch of skin on his body were about to be burned black. Even breathing carried a searing pain.
The instant Xiao Mo swept through the barrier, his vision went abruptly black, and he could see nothing at all.
The next moment, he felt as though his entire body had melted, as though he had dissolved into endless emptiness, unable even to sense his own existence.
But very soon, Xiao Mo’s vision gradually cleared.
By the time his mind had just steadied, he was already standing in a barren, deathly silent world.
“This place is...” Chen Jue stared blankly upward, looking at everything around them. His eyes could not help trembling, and his expression was full of disbelief.
This was an independent small world.
The firmament was a bloodlike dark crimson. There was not a single white cloud in the sky, only an endless, oppressive red gloom pressing down, suffocating to the point of breathlessness.
The earth was nothing but scorched-black soil. There was not a trace of grass or trees, not a single beast in sight. As far as the eye could see, not even an inch of grass grew. There was no life at all.
A clear breeze blew past, and everyone could even smell a faint trace of blood. The scent was subtle and lingering, as if it had drifted here from the ancient years, sending a chill through the heart.
Aside from that, the vast expanse of scorched earth was covered in dense cracks.
These cracks had not formed from the natural splitting of the land. They had been hacked open by blades, swords, and other sharp weapons, leaving crisscrossing marks shocking to the eye.
The group turned their heads again and looked toward the blazing sun hanging in the firmament.
That blazing sun was like porcelain on the verge of shattering, its entire surface covered in fine cracks, as though it might collapse and scatter at any moment.
“This place looks like an ancient battlefield,” Song Xiu said with a frown, his voice low and solemn.
“What kind of ancient battlefield could have been fought into this state...” Elder Jin stood with his hands behind his back and swept his gaze over the barren, deathly silent world around them. His tone carried a shock he could not quite conceal.
It was as if that world-shaking battle had almost destroyed the entire world.
“Who knows? Everyone, be careful.” Song Xiu said this in a deep voice, then stepped forward, trying to search this secret realm for opportunities that might belong to him.
Xiao Mo and the others naturally followed close behind.
The five of them carefully explored this secret realm, their minds taut at every moment, not daring to relax in the slightest.
In the end, they reached a conclusion together—this small secret realm was a fragment that had broken off after the main world had been shattered.
Generally speaking, secret realms were born in two ways.
One was an independent small world naturally nurtured by heaven and earth. Such small worlds were spread throughout the world. Because of the laws of heaven and earth, they would periodically merge with the main world and then separate from it again. When they merged, people called it an “opening.”
The other was the situation before their eyes.
Because of a great battle, a location had been directly shattered, passively becoming a small secret realm.
After opening several times, this kind of secret realm would gradually merge back into the main world and finally become part of the world once more.
“Uncle!”
Chen Jue walked beside Elder Jin and transmitted into his heart-lake, his tone filled with barely restrained urgency.
“Don’t rush.”
Elder Jin gave a soft sigh and inwardly shook his head. Why was this nephew of his so unable to keep his composure?
“Right now, the situation in the entire secret realm is still unclear. We do not even know what we will encounter. Xiao Mo is a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, at the very least. If you attack him now, would that not be throwing away one Nascent Soul fighting force for nothing? If one or two of us are injured afterward, it will become even more troublesome.”
“Rest assured, Xiao Mo will die without a doubt. He absolutely will not leave this secret realm. This is not only my intent. It is also the intent of that Grand Elder of Tushan. Do you understand?”
“Yes...” Chen Jue drew a deep breath and also felt that he had indeed been somewhat impatient just now.
“Rumble, rumble, rumble!”
Just as everyone who had entered the Phoenix-Bird Secret Realm was cautiously exploring different areas and searching everywhere for opportunities, the entire secret realm suddenly let out one earth-shaking boom after another.
The ground trembled violently. The red soil loosened, and suffocating killing intent kept surging out from the cracked fissures.
One undead after another slowly crawled up from the depths of the earth.
Among these undead were humans, and there were also demons.
Some wore broken armor.
Some wore faded blue robes.
Some were wrapped in ragged monk robes.
Every undead body was riddled with wounds. From the look of them, they had experienced an incomparably brutal battle before death.
“Rooaaar!”
Above the firmament, the remnant souls of Bian, Lushu, Dread Beast, Qilin, Soaring Serpents, and other ancient strange beasts roared, then pounced straight down at the cultivators who had intruded into the secret realm.
“What is going on?!”
“Run!”
“Don’t kill me!”
“Ah—”
“No!”
Shrill screams rose and fell one after another. Cultivators collapsed under the undead in succession.
None of them recognized the cultivation methods used by those undead. They were simply not techniques inherited by any present-day sect in the world.
Xiao Mo leaped into the air, formed a spell seal, recited an incantation, and lightly pointed a fingertip toward the remnant soul of a true dragon.
The remnant soul of that true dragon abruptly froze. In an instant, it broke apart, turning into motes of spiritual power that scattered into the world.
Xiao Mo lowered his head, his gaze dark and steady.
He looked at the dead cultivators. Their blood flowed down in thin, continuous streams, seeped bit by bit into the cracks in the earth.
The blood spread constantly along those crisscrossing fissures, winding and twisting.
It was as if someone were using brush and ink to draw an ancient, uncanny spell formation across the land.
As more and more cultivators died, the cracks in the earth were gradually filled by that dark-red blood, like a dried riverbed welcoming rain once more.
Xiao Mo was beginning to understand why Tushan Hongxia and the other two Immortal Realm cultivators had not sealed off the news after discovering such an ancient secret realm, but had instead announced it to the public.
Perhaps those three had long since explored part of the secret realm’s laws and knew that cultivators’ lives had to be used for a blood sacrifice before certain seals buried within this small world could be opened.
“Hold on! At the very least, we cannot become sacrifices!”
Elder Jin shouted sternly at Xiao Mo and the others, his voice ringing like a great bell.
None of the people present were fools.
At this point, everyone understood what exactly had happened.
Yet even so, none of them felt any regret.
The greater the danger, the greater the opportunity.
If they feared this kind of danger, they would never have reached this point, much less stepped into the Nascent Soul Realm.
One hour later, of the hundreds of thousands of cultivators who had rushed into the secret realm without regard for anything else, fewer than five thousand remained.
And in the instant the cracks in the earth were completely filled with blood, those seemingly irregular, chaotic fissures suddenly bloomed with blood-red light.
“Underground!”
No one knew who shouted first, but the voice was full of terror.
In an instant, the earth began collapsing continuously.
A tremendous suction force surged abruptly from deep underground, swallowing every remaining living cultivator into the depths of the earth!
Once there was no longer a single living person left on the surface, the collapsed earth actually closed again, returning to its former scorched appearance.
The undead also vanished one after another. The corpses of the dead cultivators quietly turned into windblown sand, leaving not the slightest trace behind.
A long while later, a woman in a black dress, her pale and delicate ankles bare, slowly stepped onto the earth.
Her skin was as white as snow, forming a stark contrast with the long black dress she wore.
Her hair was extremely long, falling just to her heels, swaying gently with her steps like flowing night.
At the center of her brow was a golden forehead ornament, bright and resplendent.
Her golden eyes resembled neither a demon’s nor a human’s. They were more like the eyes of a god high above, looking down upon all living beings.
With a cold expression, she looked toward the depths underground.
That was precisely the direction in which Xiao Mo had fallen just now.
After a long time, the woman slowly spoke. Her voice was exceedingly pleasant, yet her tone was steeped in the vicissitudes of who knew how many tens of thousands of years, all the way until they vanished at the end of time.
“Sister, look. This heartless man, in the end, cannot escape.”
...
“Drip...”
“Drip...”
Drop after drop of spiritual milk quietly fell from the inverted stalactites, striking the back of Xiao Mo’s head with a trace of coolness.
As Xiao Mo’s consciousness gradually cleared, he felt softness beneath him. It did not feel as though he were lying on hard, cold ground. It felt more like...
Xiao Mo opened his eyes.
What entered his sight was a pair of fox eyes, incomparably alluring, yet carrying a trace of coolness.
The woman’s curved, upturned lashes blinked lightly as she carefully studied Xiao Mo.
“Miss Gui?” For a moment, Xiao Mo wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him. His tone was full of surprise.
“Mm.” Gui Junmeng nodded lightly, her expression as calm as still water. She said faintly, “Young Master Xiao, could you get up first? You are a little heavy...”
“Oh, sorry.” Xiao Mo came back to himself and hurriedly rose.
Gui Junmeng also pushed herself up from the ground and sat kneeling properly before Xiao Mo.
“Miss Gui, what is this place? Why are we together?” Xiao Mo looked around and asked, full of questions.
“I am not sure either.” Gui Junmeng shook her head, her tone still indifferent. “I only woke up a little earlier than you did. When I opened my eyes, I saw you pressing down on me.”
“Sorry... I absolutely will not speak of this matter.” Xiao Mo sighed helplessly. He truly had not intended to tarnish her innocence.
“It is fine. In any case, the two of us will marry sooner or later.” Gui Junmeng stood, unhurriedly patted the dust from herself, and spoke as though it were nothing at all.
Xiao Mo did not pick up Gui Junmeng’s words.
He took out a jade bottle and carefully collected the spiritual milk dripping continuously from the stalactite.
This spiritual milk was likely ten thousand years old and would be greatly beneficial for restoring spiritual power. Every drop was precious.
Unfortunately, the spiritual milk fell far too slowly, and lingering one moment longer in this unknown secret realm meant one more portion of danger.
Thus Xiao Mo only had time to collect two bottles. He gave one of them to Gui Junmeng.
“Would Miss Gui be willing to travel with me?” Xiao Mo asked.
“Yes.” Gui Junmeng nodded lightly and did not refuse.
“After you, Miss Gui.” Xiao Mo turned aside and made a gesture of invitation, then walked ahead of Gui Junmeng, leading her deeper into these ruins.
The farther they walked, the more Xiao Mo felt that this place resembled an ancient tomb.
In every corner of the ancient tomb, there were many burial objects. There was even a small marketplace.
The marketplace was lined with all kinds of vendor signs, wine houses, courtyards, and other such things.
Stone-carved mannequins stood silently among them, giving off an indescribably eerie feeling.
Xiao Mo and Gui Junmeng found quite a few weapons, formation flags, and ancient texts in the marketplace.
However, these burial goods were fairly ordinary to the two of them. At most, they copied down the contents of several ancient texts and did not take much else.
The two passed through the marketplace and continued forward along the ancient tomb’s underground passage.
“Young Master Xiao, look.” Gui Junmeng’s eyes suddenly brightened, and she raised a hand to point ahead.
Xiao Mo looked in the direction Gui Junmeng indicated and saw that murals had been painted across the dim stone wall.
These murals were drawn in a relatively simple style, and after who knew how many tens of thousands of years of erosion, most had already grown blurry.
Still, Xiao Mo could vaguely make them out.
Upon the murals, tens of thousands of human sword cultivators stood on flying swords, charging without hesitation toward the towering golden dharma form above the firmament.
Azure dragons, true phoenixes, black tortoises, Vermilion Birds, Soaring Serpents, and other ancient divine beasts were locked in a deadly struggle with a giant elephant that carried the sun and moon atop its head.
Scholars in blue robes held books in their hands and formed a battle formation, surrounding a military general clad in golden armor.
Monks holding Buddhist staffs and prayer beads chanted scriptures, joining forces to suppress and kill a giant as towering as a mountain. That giant gripped a true dragon in one hand, then opened its mouth and bit through its spine.
Daoists in robes laid down a mysterious spell formation, trapping a woman wreathed entirely in raging flame.
Xiao Mo and Gui Junmeng continued walking forward.
Xiao Mo saw, on the mural, a man holding a long sword, its point aimed straight at a woman’s throat.
Xiao Mo could not see the man’s or the woman’s features clearly, but the woman had slightly raised her slender neck. Her posture was resolute, as though she were earnestly hoping he would thrust the sword down.
Behind that woman lay two other women on their sides. They seemed to be her sisters, and they were staring fixedly at the sword-wielding man with eyes full of hatred.
At the very end of the mural, the war seemed to have ended.
As for who had won or lost that earth-shaking battle, there was no longer any way to know.
But that sword-wielding man stood with both hands braced on his sword. He seemed to have remained standing like that with his eyes closed, as though he were already dead.
And before him, five feather-clan women spread their wings in unison and knelt on one knee before the man.
As though sending off their Master.