Chapter 73 – Don’t Be Afraid
Brown Chicken was busy talking to Fang Chaozhou and didn’t pay much attention to the surroundings. Since they were flying on their swords, Brown Chicken wasn’t familiar with the scenery above.
Only now did it notice something strange.
“We can’t fly forward anymore!” Brown Chicken shouted, “That place ahead is where that guy’s seal is. We can’t go there!”
“What guy?” the sixth junior brother asked, turning back.
At this moment, Brown Chicken’s feathers were all ruffled, clearly in a state of panic. “Are we getting close to the center of the Underground Demon Realm? There’s a legend about the Underground Demon Realm, saying that there’s something incredibly powerful sealed deep in the center. Anyone or any demonic beast that approaches it will die.”
Everyone present heard what it said. The eldest senior brother immediately said, “Let’s change our route.”
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As soon as its voice fell, rustling sounds came from all directions, startling everyone. Almost simultaneously, a demon cultivator suddenly fell to the ground and was swiftly dragged away in a certain direction. When everyone focused their gaze, they found that a vine had appeared around the ankle of the dragged demon cultivator.
The disciples from the Abyssal Soul Gate quickly went to rescue, but countless vines emerged from all directions and swiftly entwined around everyone present. The first demon cultivator who was dragged away initially tried to use his sword to cut the vines and burned them with spells. However, before long, the vines tightened around him, and his blood stained the green vines red. A long trail of blood was left where he was dragged.
That demon cultivator was a Golden Core cultivator, but he unexpectedly died in a matter of moments. This scene was truly horrifying. When everyone looked at each other, they saw fear in each other’s eyes. They had no intention of continuing the fight and only wanted to quickly leave this obviously wrong place.
Fang Chaozhou hastily dodged one vine, but another vine came from the side. He quickly wielded his sword to resist, but the vines took away his sword. In his haste, he could only take out the celadon umbrella.
As soon as the celadon umbrella was in his hand, Fang Chaozhou realized that it was much more useful than his sword. With a light twist of his wrist, numerous green needles shot out from the celadon umbrella, pinning the vines in place. However, there were too many vines, too numerous to count. Even if he pinned down one, four or five more came at him simultaneously.
The usually mighty Brown Chicken was now extremely frightened, burying its head under its wings, being held by Fang Chaozhou. As a demonic beast, it was probably suppressed by the formidable aura of the sealed great demon here and dared not move.
“No, there are too many vines. If this continues, we will definitely die here,” the eldest senior brother shouted.
The sixth junior brother said, “Where are these cursed vines coming from? Should we cut down a nearby tree?”
These words seemed to inspire the demon cultivators from the Abyssal Soul Gate. While avoiding the vines, they crazily chopped down the trees around them. However, with each chop, the vines became even more ferocious. As Fang Chaozhou watched their actions, a strong sense of foreboding surged in his heart.
The original novel did not mention anything about something being sealed in the Underground Demon Realm.
He couldn’t help but look up, and above the Underground Demon Realm, it was filled with fireflies emitting a yellow-green light. They were densely packed, resembling a gathering of stars. But at this moment, these stars seemed to be faintly descending, dispersing on their own.
In just a glance, the wrist holding the celadon umbrella was suddenly entangled, and at the same time, a sword light flashed.
It was Xue Danrong.
He used the Sword of Severed Water to cut off the vine entwining Fang Chaozhou’s wrist and said in a low voice, “Stand beside me.”
Fang Chaozhou dared not be distracted anymore, but the feeling of unease in his heart grew stronger. When the eldest senior brother and the sixth junior brother saw the actions of the demon cultivators, they also chose to cut down the trees. When the surrounding trees had almost all fallen, the speed of the vines gradually slowed down.
This sign seemed to give them a glimmer of hope, and they intensified their tree-cutting efforts.
As for Fang Chaozhou, he didn’t even need to look up to see the fireflies. It wasn’t an illusion; those fireflies really flew down. They danced around everyone present, as if performing a dance around their bodies.
Fang Chaozhou’s unease grew heavier, and he couldn’t help but raise his voice and say, “Stop cutting! The vines have slowed down. We need to quickly…” leave.
Before he could finish his sentence, the ground began to shake. It started with slight tremors, then gradually intensified. Small cracks appeared in the ground they stood on. In an instant, with a heavy thud, a large section of the ground collapsed, revealing a huge pit. Everyone was caught off guard, and even if they reacted quickly, as the ground collapsed, they tried to fly up, but the vines that were about to retreat suddenly became ten times more ferocious than before. They instantly wrapped around their legs and dragged them downward.
As they were being dragged down, the fireflies that had descended surrounded the opening from above. They covered it densely, and they could even hear the sound of fireflies crawling on their own companions.
“Crack, crack…”
It was chilling.
A demon cultivator saw the swarm of fireflies above, gritted his teeth, and charged upward. However, as soon as he reached the opening, the swarm of fireflies surrounded him. They crawled all over his body in an instant, and when the swarm dispersed, only his clothes remained, fallen on the ground.
The person was gone.
This scene was even more horrifying than the vines strangling people before.
Fang Chaozhou had been an ordinary person twenty years ago, and even after being transmigrated into the novel for more than two years, he had never witnessed such a chilling scene. He stared blankly at the clothes on the ground, and someone beside him held his hand.
The grip tightened, and although the tone was more nervous than before, it could be considered quite calm. “Don’t be afraid. I will definitely make sure you make it out alive.”
Fang Chaozhou, upon hearing those words, couldn’t help but look at the person beside him. Though their face was stained with blood, it didn’t hide their beauty in the slightest. Those beautiful phoenix eyes still held a captivating charm as they stared at him.
“We will naturally make it out alive.”
After all, he was an important character, so he should make it out alive. However, the plotline was clearly in disarray now. The things they were experiencing were not mentioned at all in the book.
In the book, the Underground Demon Realm was only mentioned to allow Xue Danrong to level up, and he made a contract with a Qilin cub here.
But now, the Qilin cub has yet to appear.
However, as soon as he finished speaking, a voice suddenly sounded. The voice was indistinguishable as male or female, hoarse and unpleasant.
“Escape? How delightful. This seat hasn’t seen a living person in a long time, and I’ve devoured so many living souls. The ones who came in previous years were all worthless, but I didn’t expect this time… No, two individuals with acceptable talent.”
Upon hearing those words, Xue Danrong immediately shielded Fang Chaozhou with his body, but they couldn’t discern where the voice was coming from.
“Oh, you’re protecting each other. It doesn’t matter; I will devour both of you later.”
Only then did Fang Chaozhou, belatedly, realize that one of the individuals with acceptable talent mentioned by that entity was him.
After the voice disappeared, dense fog suddenly surged from all sides. The mist seemed to seep out from the walls, first gathering into clusters and then twisting into ropes, instantly attacking everyone.
Fang Chaozhou immediately used the celadon umbrella to resist. The attacking mist was difficult to deal with. When hit by their spells and magical artifacts, although it scattered, it immediately reformed. Once entangled by the mist, one lost the ability to resist and would quickly suffocate.
At this moment, the eldest senior brother shouted loudly, “We are trapped now and can only work together. Everyone, gather in one place and don’t separate!”
The demon cultivators also protected Li Zhu, recognizing the situation. If they fought among themselves again, they would all perish in this place. By joining forces to deal with the strange creatures here, there might still be a slim chance of survival.
Indeed, when they gathered back to back, the pressure decreased suddenly. Several of them were responsible for driving back the mist, while others attacked the swarm of fireflies from above.
They tried various spells and discovered that the fireflies were afraid of fire. Instantly, several of them employed fire-based spells, using fire as their weapon. When the fire hit the fireflies, they turned into ashes. However, there were too many fireflies, and even though they burned a large group, there were still more, seemingly endless.
But their cultivation had been greatly depleted from the previous battles.
Brown Chicken had been cowering in Fang Chaozhou’s embrace all along, but now it finally lifted its head. It glanced at the fireflies above and suddenly flew out of Fang Chaozhou’s embrace. Its body instantly grew several dozen times larger. With a powerful leap, it flew near the opening of the pit and opened its mouth. The fireflies swarmed into its mouth until its belly bulged, then it closed its mouth and flapped its wings. When it opened its mouth again, it spewed out a huge flame, instantly incinerating all the nearby fireflies.
Brown Chicken’s actions brought joy to everyone. With each gulp and spew, it eliminated nearly half of the fireflies in an instant.
“You’re seeking death!” The voice that was neither male nor female rang out again, this time filled with annoyance. “An immature little bird like you thinks you can save my prey?”
As soon as those words were spoken, the black mist ropes attacking them suddenly grew more than ten times larger, thick as the body of a python. The joy in everyone’s eyes disappeared, and they had to be on high alert to deal with these black mists.
Fang Chaozhou had never encountered such a perilous situation. He could clearly feel that his hand holding the celadon umbrella was becoming heavier and that he was nearing exhaustion. If they continued like this, even if they weren’t ensnared by the black mist, they would be worn down and perish here.
“All things have their corresponding strengths and weaknesses. I refuse to believe that there isn’t a weak spot to defeat this thing. If you want to survive, search for it quickly,” said the late Nascent Soul stage demon cultivator who spoke earlier.
Not long after the voice of the late Nascent Soul stage demon cultivator fell, a cultivator suddenly exclaimed, “Look, there seems to be something on the wall.”
Upon hearing his words, everyone’s gaze turned to the wall and indeed found something there. Strange red patterns appeared faintly on the wall. As the mist thickened, the patterns grew darker, and as the mist dissipated, the patterns lightened.
“Try destroying the wall!” someone shouted.
Fang Chaozhou saw the peculiar patterns and a sense of foreboding flashed in his mind. He suddenly recalled Brown Chicken’s words—
“There’s a formidable entity sealed at the very center of the underground realm…”
Sealed? Red patterns?
“No!” Fang Chaozhou shouted, but it was already too late.
The walls on all sides shattered, and the fireflies above quickly scattered. The group couldn’t help but feel joy, but before their elation could fully rise, they heard laughter.
“Hehehe, I didn’t expect you to destroy this seal, how interesting.”
As it spoke, Fang Chaozhou suddenly glanced at the ground beneath him. In that momentary glance, without time to think, he forcefully pushed Xue Danrong, who was standing beside him, away.
Xue Danrong was abruptly pushed back and quickly turned around, only to see the ground where he and Fang Chaozhou had been standing splitting open. A white mist swiftly entwined around Fang Chaozhou’s ankles, dragging him downwards.
Meanwhile, the entire pit began to tremble, or rather, it wasn’t just the pit shaking, but the entire underground realm. The scattered fireflies started flying everywhere. Normally, they made no sound, but at this moment, they emitted the voices of children.
Using the voices of children, they chanted a sentence—
“The seal is broken, the realm collapses, myriad spirits emerge, chaos reigns.”
All of them heard these words, especially the phrase “the realm collapses.”
As the voices faded, the surrounding rocks and mud started collapsing, and countless panicked cries of demons resounded through the sky.
Xue Danrong had no time to worry about the collapsing realm. He only saw Fang Chaozhou being dragged down, but at this moment, the ground shook violently. The crevice that swallowed Fang Chaozhou was instantly blocked by falling rocks. When he rushed over, he couldn’t see the person beneath the crevice, only the entrance blocked by rocks. He used his spiritual power to move the rocks aside. Just as he managed to clear a corner and see the crevice again, it was quickly sealed by another batch of falling rocks.
“Younger Junior Brother, the realm is collapsing!” someone grabbed Xue Danrong.
It was the eldest senior brother trying to pull Xue Danrong up.
Xue Danrong pushed his senior brother away with his backhand. His eyes were bloodshot, on the verge of collapse. He even used his sword to dig, “He’s inside, he’s inside!”
In just a moment, his hand, which could be described as beautiful jade, became blood-soaked along with the sword.
“We don’t have time. If we stay here any longer, we will die.” Sixth junior brother rushed over from the side, grabbing onto Xue Danrong. The other demon cultivators beside them were already protecting Li Zhu and preparing to leave.
Li Zhu, being held by several demon cultivators, looked back in a panic and said, “Fang Chaozhou… Fang Chaozhou, he was dragged down…”
“Young Master, it’s too late. This place is about to collapse. If we don’t leave now, we will all die here. It’s fine if we die, but if anything happens to you, we won’t be able to face the Sect Master even in death.”
Meanwhile, Xue Danrong continued digging at the rocks. He knelt on the ground, his blood staining the rocks red. “Senior brother, don’t be afraid. I will save you soon…”
Before he could finish his words, he was knocked unconscious.
The eldest senior brother looked at the crevice completely sealed off by rocks, clenched his teeth, and uttered a single word—
“Go!”
*
Fang Chaozhou, struggling to hold onto the wall with his Celadon Umbrella, was momentarily dazed upon hearing the commotion above. In that daze, his hand completely lost strength, and he was pulled further into the depths.
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Translator’s note: This was supposed to be yesterday’s updates. Sorry for the late upload.
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