Chapter 168 – Land of the Ancient God
“Even if old hunchback dies, he will drag the entire Giant Demon Clan with him!” A hoarse voice came from the sky. In the horizon, a giant, green toad slowly came closer.
The toad landed on the ground far away, causing the earth to shake. Even though Wang Lin was very far away, he could still feel the ground shake. Shortly after, that toad kicked with its hind legs and disappeared from sight. When it appeared again, it was already close by.
The toad descended from the sky like a small mountain falling down. It landed about 100 feet away from them, creating a shockwave that sent the fog in all directions.
After the fog was pushed apart, it revealed the giant toad. There were countless pustules on the toad’s body, each one slowly moving, and every one of them emitted a powerful spiritual energy fluctuation.
As the toad’s eyes moved, it revealed a powerful desire for blood. There was a person sitting on the back of the toad. He was wearing a green robe and was very short. His back bulged out like a hunchback. His eyes were triangular, his chin was sharp, and his mouth was like a monkey’s.
He touched the pustule on his face as he laughed and said, with a hoarse voice, “Those old guys from the Giant Demon Clan that chased me for more than 300 years were all poisoned to death by me. If it wasn’t for the fact that the 1000 year time limit was coming up and this place was about to open, I would have gone to the Giant Demon Clan for revenge.”
With that, he took a step on top of the toad. The toad seemed to know what he wanted as it stuck out its blood-red tongue and touched the ground with it. The hunchback walked down the tongue toward the ground. As he walked, he would sometimes cough.
After he landed, he casually waved his right hand and the giant toad quickly shrank until it was the size of his palm. It then jumped onto his shoulder. Its stomach rapidly expanded and shrank while it crocked.
When he landed on the ground, everything within three feet of him immediately began to sizzle and a stream of black gas rose from the ground.
Wang Lin calmly retreated a few a steps as he coldly observed the person. This person used poison, so his caution was raised by another level.
Six Desire Devil Lord Xu Liqing frowned and said, “I haven’t seen you in 1000 years. Why is that poisonous stink on you even worse now?”
The old hunchback rolled his eyes and said, “Others might be afraid of your six desire spell, but I’m not. One thousand years ago, we fought to a stalemate. Could it be that you want to fight again?” With that, he touched the toad on his shoulder and creepily laughed.
Six Desire Devil Lord coldly stared at the hunchback. Soon, the spiritual energy between them began to go crazy, but the fluctuations soon calmed down as the two withdrew their spiritual energy.
Just at this moment, Ancient Emperor, who had been looking coldly from the side, suddenly said, “Looks like everyone is here. I have stolen the Icy Wind Shield from a rank 4 cultivation country. It should help us finish more than half of the first trial.”
Six Desire Devil Lord coldly said, “I’ll deal with the second half of the first trial.”
Hunchback Meng touched the pustule on his face and said, with a hoarse voice, “Just watch this old man for the second trial.”
Duanmu Ji looked toward Wang Qingyue and said, “That person is Wang Qingyue. He knows the five element escape technique, which is useful to us. This little friend knows the death spell. The third trial’s divine sense attack will depend on him.”
Hunchback Meng’s foggy eyes swept past Wang Lin, but he didn’t say a word.
Six Desire Devil Lord’s hand formed mysterious seals as he walked toward the transfer array. After sending out several seals, the entire formation began to shatter from the inside. Bursts of green gas came from the transfer array until no more came out and the array was completely shattered. Then his body disappeared as he began to walk through the shattered array.
Every time he took a step, he would leave a trace of spiritual energy on the ground. He began to move faster and faster and more and more traces of spiritual energy were left on the ground. Finally, he began to leave behind afterimages. Now it looked like there were several people walking around the array.
After a short period of time, all of the afterimages disappeared. Only the original body remained at the center of the array. Then his hand began to move, taking out a lot of precious materials. Finally, he spat out a purple flame. All of those materials melted when they were touched by the fire.
Six Desire Devil Lord pointed with this finger. The liquids of various colors began to move and entered the array in a certain order. When the final liquid entered the array, it began to rumble.
A different transfer array appeared where the old one was. This one contained at least double the number of symbols the previous one had, plus ten pillars of light that shot into the sky.
One by one, disembodied creatures let out silent screams as they moved within the pillars of light. Six Desire Devil Lord took a deep breath and shouted, “The transfer array has been opened. Quickly toss over the top quality spirit stones that we agreed upon. I will use four pieces this time.”
With that, four top quality spirit stones appeared from his bag of holding. The four stones each flew into one of the pillars and stayed in place.
This change attracted the attention of Wang Qingyue, who was still fighting with his own avatar. He was losing the fight at the moment. The avatar’s endless attacks, along with it being one level higher than him, meant that he could die if he made one mistake, causing him to be in a sorry state. He was pushed out of the Chaotic Broken Stars many times, but the more he fought, the more his eyes lit up, and the bloodlust in his eyes became even stronger.
After seeing the change in the transfer array, he began to hesitate and backed out of the Chaotic Broken Stars. He arrived next to Duanmu Ji as he stared at the four top quality spirit stones. A hint of greed flashed across his eyes.
After he returned, his avatar slowly faded away and returned to rocks that slowly rotated around the area.
Wang Lin also stared at the top quality spirit stones with temptation in his eyes. The Sea of Devils was very large. If not for the ancient transfer arrays allowing people to teleport across it, it would take too long to travel through it. It was also filled with danger.
However, the only way to use these ancient transfer arrays was to have top quality spirit stones. Since top quality spirit stones were so rare, all of the ancient transfer arrays in the Sea of Devils were in a state of disrepair, and many of them were completely useless.
At this moment, Ancient Emperor took out two top quality spirit stones and looked at them with great importance. Then he threw them toward the pillars of light, where they remained unmoving.
Duanmu Ji clenched his teeth as he took out his last two top quality spirit stones from his bag of holding. His heart ached as he threw them toward the light. Of the ten pillars, eight of them had top quality spirit stones.
The last person was Hunchback Meng. He patted the toad on his shoulder. The toad’s belly expanded as it spat two things into the light pillars.
At this moment, all ten pillars had top quality spirit stones in them. The light pillars suddenly disappeared. All of the light had gathered on the top quality spirit stones.
These ten spirit stones were shining like ten bright suns. They slowly descended onto the transfer array, causing it to slowly spin.
Six Desire Devil Lord revealed a look of excitement as he shouted, “1000 years ago, more than 100 of us entered, but we didn’t even really get to enter the inner area. Just the restrictions on the outside made us struggle, and we were forced to retreat on the third trial, which only the four of us managed to survive through luck. 1000 years later, all of our cultivation levels have increased quite a bit. We must break through the restrictions and see what’s inside!”
Even Ancient Emperor’s eyes couldn’t help but sparkle as he stepped into the transfer array.
Behind him was Hunchback Meng, Duanmu Ji, and the young man who came with Six Desire Devil Lord. As for Wang Qingyue, he pondered a bit before walking into the array. Wang Lin lowered his head. His eyes sparkled as he walked in.
After all seven of them had entered the transfer array, Six Desire Devil Lord let out a roar and the array began to move. The ten top quality spirit stones shattered, creating a powerful surge of spiritual energy. All of the surrounding mountains turned to dust and even the Chaotic Broken Stars shook.
It took a very long time before the spiritual energy dissipated. The transfer array was completely broken and unable to be used again.
There was a plain inside the Chaotic Broken Stars, and in the sky above the plain was an oval-shaped ring of light. The inside of the ring was completely dark.
Below the ring was a transfer array. At this moment, the transfer array started shining, and seven figures appeared.
Ancient Emperor was the first to walk out. He stared at the oval-shaped ring in the sky with a hint of obsession. He jumped up and appeared next to the ring of light before circling around it for a bit. He said, “It seems that no one else has come here in these past 1000 years. The seal we left is still intact.”
With that, he opened his arms and moved around before the ring. Every now and then, there would be black slivers that came out and entered his hand.
Wang Lin could clearly feel Duanmu Ji, Six Desire Devil Lord, and Hunchback Meng let out a breath of relief after hearing those words.
He looked around and saw that the plain inside the Chaotic Broken Stars was completely empty. It looked endless and was covered by a similarly endless dark sky. Wang Lin understood that this was some kind of powerful restriction.
There was complete silence in this plain without any signs of activity.
Six Desire Devil Lord looked at Wang Qingyue and Wang Lin before saying, in a heavy tone, “Welcome to the Chaotic Broken Stars. No matter if Duanmu has talked to you two about this place before, I must emphasize again.”
“After passing through the oval ring, you will enter a mysterious space. According to the information we got from an inheritance, the corpse of an ancient god is there. The ancient gods’ power came from their bodies, so their bodies were extremely large. Even the weakest ancient god was at least the size of planet Suzaku. I can tell you that this ancient god is a fully grown adult. Its size is like countless planet Suzakus.”
“The reason why there are countless treasures inside is because although the ancient god is dead, its divine sense is not destroyed but remains in a hibernating state. If we can get inside and obtain its memory, then any technique from its memories will be an unimaginably powerful technique today.”
“As for magic treasures, because none of the magic treasures used by the ancient gods can fit inside a bag of holding, all of them are held within its body. If you are lucky, you will be able to find one.”
“There are also pills. The ancient god’s cultivation requires pills, and the things they consume are far more valuable then we can ever imagine. However, they don’t absorb 100% of the pills, so some of the remains are stored in their bodies. Our goal this time is the Soul Transformation Pill, which can be found inside the ancient god’s veins.”
Wang Qingyue’s eyes lit up as he stared at the oval ring in the sky and began to ponder.
Hunchback Meng touched the pustule on his face and said, “Six Desire, Duanmu, this won’t matter if we can’t break through the restriction, but if we do manage to break through, how will we split the items?”
Six Desire Devil Lord looked at Wang Qingyue and said, “As for items, they will be distributed equally, but if there is a Soul Transformation Pill, then let our skills decide.”
Duanmu Ji let out a sly chuckle and said, “It is a bit too early to talk about this matter. It won’t be too late to decide once we break the restriction.”
Hunchback Meng’s gaze landed on the young man following Six Desire Devil Lord. He said, “I wonder what this little friend will do to help us break through the restriction?”
Six Desire Devil Lord looked at Wang Lin and coldly said, “Same as him; this person will be of use in the third trial. This person is a cultivator from the rank 3 cultivation country Tian Zhu. He is good at ghost techniques that might be useful against the creatures inside the third trial. I spent quite a few years to find him.”
“So it’s like that, hehe… the third trial. Back then, we were stopped at the third trial. I hope we can break through that trial this time!” Hunchback Meng let out a strange smile as his gaze swept between Wang Lin and that young man.
Ancient Emperor, who was in front of the oval, began to move his arms even faster, causing black slivers to appear like rain. His expression became serious as he closed his hand and pushed forward. Suddenly, countless black slivers came out from the ring. They gathered and formed the shape of a dragon. It let out a roar before shrinking down and landing in Ancient Emperor’s palm.
“It is ready. Come in!” Ancient Emperor took a deep breath. After putting away the dragon, he took out two jade bracelets. The larger bracelet was red while and the smaller bracelet was grey.
Holding the two bracelets, Ancient Emperor hesitated for a bit before stepping into the ring and disappearing.
Six Desire Devil Lord’s eyes narrowed as he grabbed the young man and jumped in. Wang Qingyue licked his lips and followed in.
The last two remaining were Duanmu Ji and Hunchback Meng. After they looked at each other, they turned to Wang Lin. Without a word, Wang Lin flew into the air and stopped before the ring of light. He extended his hand to Duanmu Ji and said, “Since I have arrived at this place, I hope senior can keep his promise.”
Duanmu Ji laughed and said, “There is no rush. Once we have broken past the third trial, I’ll naturally give it to you.”
Wang Lin coldly looked at him and didn’t say a word.
Hunchback Meng let out a sly chuckled as he watched them. He was done watching the two of them, so he walked past Duanmu Ji and into the ring.
Duanmu Ji stared at Wang Lin. He pondered for a bit before taking out two pills and threw them at Wang Lin. He said, with a heavy tone, “Take them!”
Wang Lin caught them and examined them. They were indeed as Li Muwan had described. The smaller one was the earth transformation pill and the larger one was the Nascent Forming pill.
After carefully putting them away, Wang Lin walked into the ring without a word. When he entered, he felt like he had walked through a thin film.
The scene before him made him suck in a breath of cold air and stare at what was before him dumbfoundedly.
This place was very similar to the world of decay. It was also a place of endless darkness. The only difference was that there were countless large, stone pillars here. These stone pillars were being kept afloat by a mysterious force and were slowly moving forward.
Wang Lin was standing on one of the stone pillars. The top of the pillar was 300 feet wide and he was the only one on it.
Under the stone pillar was endless void.
He looked around and saw that everyone who had entered was just like him. Everyone was standing on a stone pillar by themselves.
From Wang Lin’s observation, he could see that Duanmu Ji, Six Desire Devil Lord, Hunchback Meng, and Ancient Emperor were very calm. Wang Qingyue was pondering as he looked over the edge of the pillar into the void.
Finally, there was the young man. He was sitting on the stone pillar as he stared dumbfoundedly at the surroundings with shock in his eyes.
Wang Lin took a deep breath and slowly spread out his divine sense. There was no force stopping his divine sense, but considering the powerful old monsters around him, he didn’t spread it out too far. He only covered the stone pillar he was on and stopped.
At this moment, Six Desire Devil Lord’s voice came in from the distance. “There are no dangers here as it is just a passageway. You only need to remain on the stone pillar.”
After Wang Lin heard this, he sat down and looked at the stone pillars slowly moving forward. He noticed that no one was paying attention to him, so he put his hand into his shirt and touched the bag of holding he had gotten at the Hou Fen Union.
His divine sense entered the bag but there was no reaction. Wang Lin was startled, but it was not the time to test it, so he slowly withdrew his right hand and looked at his surroundings.
Wang Qingyue, who had been looking over the edge of the stone pillar, suddenly shouted, “What is that?”
In the endless void below them, two bright lamps suddenly lit up. These two lamps were several feet wide. Wang Lin spread out his divine sense and found that they weren’t lamps at all but a pair of eyes.
Shortly after, the pair of eyes disappeared but soon reappeared, only this time they were even larger. Hunchback Meng walked to the edge of his pillar and looked down with a gloomy expression. He waved his right hand and blue powder fell down from his palm. As the blue powder descended, it released a ghostly light. The more it descended, the brighter the ghostly light became, and when it finally landed on the pair of eyes, a scene that caused everyone to suck in a breath of cold air unfolded.
The creature below was a very large, snake-like creature. Its size was impossible to estimate. With just what was shown by the ghostly light, it was at least 10,000 feet long and at least 1000 feet wide. A body covered in a reddish-purple shined under the ghostly light.
There were nine horns on its big head, and when it opened its mouth, the sharpness of its teeth would cause anyone to shiver.
Hunchback Meng’s expression became very ugly as he waved his hand. The light immediately disappeared and the darkness covered the area again.
Hunchback Meng pondered for a bit before slowly saying, “At the weakest, it is a desolate beast, which is the same as a peak late stage Soul Formation cultivator!”
Six Desire Devil Lord’s expression was gloomy as he calmly said, “Don’t anger it. We were able to pass safely last time, so as long as we don’t anger it, it should be fine.”
Just as he finished speaking, a roar came from below him. The pair of eyes became larger and larger as a curtain of foul smell came towards him.
Everyone immediately stood up. Hunchback Meng quickly took out several pills and threw them out. He shouted, “Holding them in your mouths will prevent the poison from killing you.”
Six Desire Devil Lord jumped and arrived next to the young man he had brought with him. He grabbed the young man, caught the pill, and quickly escaped into the distance.
At the same time, Duanmu Ji looked toward Wang Lin. When he saw that Wang Lin’s expression was calm, he hesitated a bit before sending a voice transmission saying, “Follow me!” With that, he quickly flew into the distance.
Wang Lin caught Hunchback Meng’s pill, but he didn’t immediately take it. He looked around and after seeing everyone else take them, he put it into his mouth as he jumped into the air.
Everyone quickly escaped by jumping from one stone pillar to the next. The pillars seemed to go on endlessly. Wang Lin stayed close behind Duanmu Ji. The roar from below became louder and louder and the surrounding stone pillars seemed to tremble.
At this moment, one of the stone pillars behind them shattered as the snake’s head smashed into it. After the pillar shattered, the giant head came up, revealing its cold gaze.
A wave of fishy smell came from behind them. Wang Lin held the pill in his mouth as he jumped as quickly as he could behind everyone. As for the abnormality behind them, no one but the young man turned back to look. Everyone else was focused entirely on moving forward.
As a result, everyone was traveling at top speed. The fastest person was Wang Qingyue, who knew the five element escape technique. This person was half transparent and flew in a different arc than everyone else. He flew straight ahead, and whenever there was a stone pillar blocking him, he would charge right toward it. His body would disappear the moment he touched a pillar and reappear on the other side.
The snake-like desolate beast coldly stared at the people jumping before it. After letting out waves of roars, it raised its body immediately, revealing its more than 10,000 feet length, and slammed down.