Chapter 1022: River Styx
“Elder Dagu! Master Uncle Mofei! Seize them!” bellowed Seven Plume angrily. He was no longer held back by the possible relationship with the orthodox Azure Wood Manor or the exploration of the Door to the 33 Skies, all he wanted was to vent his anger.
“Seven Plume! I just encountered a land of death which I barely escaped from. Fighting here would be akin to suicide!” Granny Yin guarded Yi Yun and Yue Yingsha with cold daggers shooting from her eyes.
“Hmph, do you think I’ll fall for such a feeble excuse?” Seven Plume gave a disdainful scoff. “Granny Yin, I’d have respected you if you had put up a fight, but now, it’s only laughable to see your attempts at playing tricks on me. Let’s attack them together! Seize them!”
“Haha! My pleasure!” A long howl was heard from behind Seven Plume. It was none other than Marquis Wu Yun. The Immortal Rain Sect disciples from before had been completely wiped out, but Marquis Wu Yun had managed to fortuitously survived.
He hated Yi Yun to the bone and wanted to skin him alive.
“Capture him alive. Don’t kill him for I have a use for him!” said Seven Plume again. He was very interested in the array mystic technique that Yi Yun knew. He wanted to know how Yi Yun had managed to walk out of the Blood Desert. If he could grasp such a secret method, it would be a great fortuitous event for him.
“You are courting death!” said an incensed Granny Yin. With the group of people obstructing her path, there was no way to tear through the blockade with the two people she was carrying with her. At that moment, Granny Yin suddenly felt an intense danger behind her.
“Behind! The black river!”
Yi Yun was able to clearly see the scene of the ground splitting apart a thousand feet behind him! The rift valley was encroaching towards them at a terrifying speed like an anaconda. And beneath the valley was a surging black river!
After the river flowed into the Door to the 33 Skies, it was very different from a mouth of a river. It was as if it had a life and a mind of its own while it consumed everything it encountered!
The black river was boiling like black lava. In that split second, Granny Yin bit at her tongue tip without even taking a look. She spewed out a mouthful of blood essence and she did not hesitate to burn it. She ignored the fact that her days were numbered, to begin with.
“Whew!”
Granny Yin transformed into a beam of light and vanished. And at that moment, the members of the Azure Wood Manor were too distracted to stop her. They had also caught sight of the rapidly emanating rift as well as the boiling water of death inside the valley.
“What is that!?”
The sudden turn of events left the Azure Wood Manor separatists in shock. Although they also had an inkling of possible danger, no one was willing to burn their blood essence without determining the actual threat.
But in that moment of hesitation—
“Puah!”
Black water erupted out of the fissure before turning into a mighty black torrent that swept towards the Azure Wood Manor separatists and Marquis Wu Yun!
The black torrent exuded a horrifying force that made even the warriors tremble. They were unable to muster any strength as they were paralyzed with fear.
“Ah!”
Seven Plume was the first person to be hit by the black torrent. He struggled frantically in the black torrent as he issued heart-wrenching screams!
However, everything was meaningless. His flesh and blood were being cleanly corroded by the black torrent and soon, he was reduced to bone.
He had extended his hands that were now only bone, desperately clawing towards the sky to no avail. Eventually, his remains were devoured by the black torrent.
Upon seeing that scene, Marquis Wu Yun was scared out of his wits.
He frantically fled from the path of destruction, but compared to Granny Yin, he had taken that critical step one moment slower. The time of that single step demarcated life and death. The black torrent branched out and wrapped itself around Marquis Wu Yun’s feet, dragging him back instantly!
Marquis Wu Yun got mired down by the black torrent. Although he was much stronger than Seven Plume, he was unable to create any miracles in the black torrent. The protective Yuan Qi barrier he conjured was dissolved by the black water before his flesh and blood corroded quickly. In a moment, he had been reduced to bone, sealing his complete death!
Even Marquis Wu Yun had succumbed to such a fate, so it was needless to mention the others. More than ten people from the Azure Wood Manor separatists and the Immortal Rain Sect combined had survived the Blood Desert, but they were nothing in the face of the terrifying black torrent. They failed to put up any form of resistance.
The black torrent seemed to temporarily cease pursuit of Yi Yun and company when it encountered fresh meat. This gave them a chance to finally escape peril.
While Yi Yun was being pulled along by Granny Yin, he had managed to clearly see the situation pan out. Even though he was usually composed, he realized that his back was drenched in sweat.
Granny Yin flew for dozens of kilometers without stopping. The moment she stopped, she was panting and her face was pale. It was demanding on the advanced Granny Yin to burn her blood essence. She looked even older from the intense stress that she was in while fleeing from the dangerous situation.
“Senior, what was that?”
Yi Yun had yet to recover from his fears as well. He was very grateful to Granny Yin. If she had not pulled him along, his low cultivation level might not have been enough for him to escape the onslaught. Furthermore, it was Granny Yin who had warned him of the danger initially.
“In the Azure Wood Manor’s canon, there is something called the Styx Whirlpool. It’s an unparalleled land of peril. It is situated in many regions of the Door to the 33 Skies, and every encounter with it leads to a tragedy.”
Granny Yin managed to catch her breath after consuming eating a pill she took out from a porcelain bottle. An abnormal ruddiness flushed in her old face.
“Styx Whirlpool?” Yi Yun was puzzled. It did not seem like it was an array formation that was formed by the forces of nature. What could it be?
The eye that was hidden in the night fog also gave Yi Yun the shudders.
“We might be in big trouble,” said Granny Yin with a worried look. “We flew so far out, yet there is no end to the fog. We might have lost our way.”
“Granny, I think it’s best we stay put. There are no guarantees on what’s lurking in the fog. The chances of us surviving would be slim if we were to encounter the Styx Whirlpool again,” said Yue Yingsha. It was equivalent to committing suicide to fumble around blindly without any clear indication of their position. It was best they waited for daybreak.
The night and day within the Door to the 33 Skies was extremely strange. That night was longer than what Yi Yun expected. What was more alarming was the thunderous sound of metal rubbing against metal in the distance within the fog. It sounded like the tightening of massive chains which was accompanied by a low and terrifying roar. The muffled roar did not sound like a beast’s but sounded more like a person’s if one paid attention.
“Could it be Master and the rest?”
Yi Yun thought to himself. Before the Apocalyptic Fumes stirred, Felicitous Rain Lord and company had headed into the core area of the Azure Wood Great World. Now, they had likely entered the Door to the 33 Skies, but it was unknown what they had encountered.
As for people other than Felicitous Rain Lord and company, they were probably already dead after entering the Door to the 33 Skies.
“Oh? What’s that?”
In the darkness, Yue Yingsha’s sudden words snapped Yi Yun out of his thoughts. Looking in the direction that Yue Yingsha was pointing in, he saw a black stone.
There were innumerable stones in the Door to the 33 Skies, but that stone was completely different…
Yi Yun could vaguely make out a line of text engraved on the surface of the rock…