Free Web NovelChapter 344: Completing the Shadow’s Task
Fang Hao felt a bitterness in his mouth, cursing Su Xuan’s ancestors for eighteen generations in his heart. If it hadn’t been for that old fox’s relentless pursuit, would he have been forced into this hellish place and forced to work for a damn pearl?
But circumstances were stronger than the man. Although the shadow didn’t say what the consequence of "not going" would be, anyone could guess it would definitely be Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, without even a chance for reincarnation. In contrast, going to that "Blood Fiend Purgatory" to take a gamble at least offered a glimmer of hope.
"I’ll go!" Fang Hao gritted his teeth, forcing the words out from between them.
"Very good." The shadow’s voice remained cold, devoid of any emotional fluctuation. He waved his hand, and the mirror condensed from gray mist suddenly expanded. The surface rippled like water, emitting a dark light and forming a portal to an unknown place.
"Pass through this gate, and you will be in the Blood Fiend Purgatory. Remember, you only have three days. After three days, whether you succeed or fail, this gate will close. If you fail to return by then, you will fall into the purgatory forever."
Fang Hao took a deep breath and did a final check on himself. He could still faintly sense the chaos pill cauldron and the Spirit Beast Bag, but he couldn’t take anything out; they were likely suppressed by the domain rules of the netherworld pearl. Besides the gray robe he wore, he only had a few high-grade Talismans hidden close to his body that he hadn’t had time to use, and... that faint wisp of Chaos Qi in his Dantian.
"Damn it, let’s do this!" Fang Hao steeled his heart and, without further hesitation, leaped into the dark portal.
The familiar feeling of dizziness struck again. This time, accompanying the dizziness was a nauseating, thick scent of blood and sulfur, along with countless fierce and crazed roars.
When Fang Hao’s feet landed on "solid ground" again, the sight before him made his stomach churn.
Beneath his feet was dark red, cracked earth that looked as if it were soaked in blood or scorched by lava. It felt soft and slightly warm to the touch. In the sky, three suns, black as ink yet emitting an eerie red light, hung high, bathing the entire land in a dim, crimson glow.
Looking around, the land was crisscrossed with ravines where lava flowed like rivers. Countless strange creatures Fang Hao had never seen before were fighting and devouring each other in a frenzy. There were giant lizards several zhang long covered in bone spikes; monsters rolling like balls of flesh but possessing countless fangs and claws; and flying Demon Beasts circling in the sky, letting out ear-piercing shrieks...
The air was filled with violent Evil Qi and Death Qi. The Spiritual Qi here was even more heterogeneous and chaotic than in the "Ancient Mine of Buried Gods" outside, making it impossible to absorb and refine directly.
"Is this... the fucking Blood Fiend Purgatory?" Fang Hao’s face turned pale, and he felt his scalp tingle. This place was simply a living meat grinder! Forget finding something; surviving here for a single day would be a stroke of luck!
"Roar—!"
A deafening roar interrupted Fang Hao’s thoughts. Not far away, a monster the size of a small mountain, shaped like a rhinoceros but with three heads and covered in dark red scales, was staring intently at him, the "uninvited guest," with its six crimson eyes.
This monster’s aura had actually reached the Early Nascent Soul Stage!
"Not good!" Fang Hao’s heart stirred with alarm. Without a second thought, he turned and ran! Fighting head-on here was pure suicide!
However, after he had only run a few steps, the three-headed rhinoceros-like monster let out a roar. Its massive body, like a moving mountain, charged toward Fang Hao, making the ground tremble beneath its feet!
Fang Hao pushed his Divine Spirit Steps to the limit, his figure darting left and right across the rugged, peril-filled red earth, narrowly avoiding lava rivers and sudden cracks in the ground. But the monster was incredibly fast, and the distance was closing!
"This can’t go on!" Fang Hao was anxious. In this hellish place, every bit of his spiritual power he used could not be replenished; he would eventually be worn down to death!
As he sprinted, he desperately used his suppressed, pitiful Divine Sense to probe his surroundings. Suddenly, his eyes lit up! Several hundred zhang ahead was a forest of jagged rocks. The terrain there was relatively complex; perhaps he could lose the monster there!
Fang Hao gritted his teeth, ignored the consumption of spiritual power, and increased his speed by another thirty percent. Like a streak of gray lightning, he dashed into the stone forest.
The three-headed monster followed closely. It seemed somewhat wary of the stone forest, stopping at the entrance. Its three heads let out angry roars that caused rubble to fall. But after hesitating for a moment, it finally roared and charged inside.
Inside the stone forest, jagged rocks stood tall like a maze. Using the stone pillars as cover, Fang Hao constantly changed directions, trying to shake off his pursuer. However, despite its massive size, the monster was exceptionally agile and seemed to be able to lock onto Fang Hao’s scent through some method, pursuing him relentlessly.
"Damn it, is this beast a dog?" Fang Hao cursed inwardly. Nearly thirty percent of the spiritual power in his body had been consumed. If this continued, he would be finished sooner or later.
Just as he was about to despair, a more intense and chaotic sound of fighting and roaring came from ahead. Fang Hao’s heart stirred, and he rushed toward the source of the noise.
Passing through several giant stone pillars, the sight before him made Fang Hao gasp. Deep within the stone forest was a massive clearing that looked like a coliseum. In the clearing, dozens of monsters of various shapes were in a frantic free-for-all! The weakest of these monsters was at the Late Golden Core Stage, while the strongest even reached the Middle Nascent Soul Stage!
And in the center of the clearing stood a... broken stone tablet.
The stone tablet was entirely pitch-black, about the height of a person, and broken into two pieces. Its surface was covered in complex and ancient runes, emitting an aura that was ancient, heavy, and carried a hint of suppressing power. Around the stone tablet, there seemed to be an invisible barrier. The monsters in the fray appeared wary of the tablet and didn’t dare get too close.
"Soul Suppressing Tablet Fragment!" Fang Hao’s eyes lit up! It was truly a case of finding what he sought without any effort after a fruitless search!
However, before he could celebrate, the three-headed monster from behind caught up and joined the battle with an excited roar. The melee became even more intense, with flesh flying and roars shaking the sky.
Fang Hao hid in the shadows, his expression extremely grim. To get the soul suppressing stele, he had to pass through the area where the monsters were fighting. In his current state, charging in would be certain death.
"I must find a way..." Fang Hao forced himself to calm down and carefully observed the battlefield. He noticed that although the monsters were in a frenzy, they weren’t entirely mindless; they were all intentionally or unintentionally avoiding the soul suppressing stele, as if it held some form of restraint over them.
"I’ve got it!" A spark of inspiration flashed in Fang Hao’s mind. He took out a high-grade Talisman—a "Thunder Induction Talisman." This Talisman was powerful and could summon heavenly thunder to attack. Using it in this place filled with Evil Qi might diminish its effect, but it would be enough to create Chaos!
He waited for the moment when the monsters were fighting most intensely, then suddenly activated the Thunder Induction Talisman and hurled it toward the center of the battlefield, right above the soul suppressing stele!
"Boom-Crack—!"
A thick bolt of lightning, tinged with blood-red, tore through the dark sky and struck hard near the soul suppressing stele! The violent thunderlight instantly exploded, charring several nearby monsters and making them let out miserable shrieks.
The sudden heavenly thunder threw the entire battlefield into Chaos! The monsters were startled and became even more violent, starting to attack everything around them indiscriminately!
Taking this opportunity, Fang Hao held his breath, suppressed his aura to the limit, and like a ghost, crept along the stone wall toward the soul suppressing stele.
He carefully avoided the battling monsters. A few times, a monster’s claws almost grazed his scalp, a truly perilous situation. Finally, he successfully crossed the chaotic battlefield and arrived before the soul suppressing stele.
Up close, Fang Hao could feel the extraordinary nature of this broken tablet even more. The runes on it were ancient and obscure, and the suppressing power it emitted even caused the Chaos vortex in his body to stagnate slightly. He reached out, attempting to touch the stone tablet.
Just as his fingertips were about to touch the stone tablet, a sudden change occurred!
A black shadow shot out from behind the tablet like lightning, heading straight for Fang Hao’s throat! It was a small snake, pitch-black and only as thick as a chopstick, but it was incredibly fast. Its fangs shimmered with a dark blue light, clearly containing lethal poison!
Fang Hao’s face changed drastically; it was too late to dodge! At the critical moment, the Chaos vortex in his Dantian jolted, and a wisp of Chaos Qi surged out spontaneously, condensing at his fingertip as he pointed at the small snake!
"Sizzle—!"
The moment the Chaos Qi made contact with the small snake, the snake let out a sharp hiss. Its body, as if splashed with sulfuric acid, instantly emitted black smoke and turned into a puddle of foul blood that splattered onto the stone tablet.
Fang Hao broke into a cold sweat. Before he could even feel relieved, he discovered that the puddle of foul blood was actually being... absorbed by the soul suppressing stele! Immediately after, the soul suppressing stele jolted violently, erupting with a brilliant black light! A powerful suction force came forth, and Fang Hao felt his body become weightless as he was sucked into the tablet!
The next moment, he appeared in a cramped, enclosed space composed of countless runes. In the center of the space floated a fragment... the size of a fingernail, pitch-black, and emitting a faint glow.
"This is... the core fragment of the soul suppressing stele?" Fang Hao was shocked. He could feel that this tiny fragment contained a suppressing power far more pure and powerful than the broken tablet outside.
"Time is running out; I must leave quickly!" Fang Hao no longer hesitated and reached out to grab the fragment. The fragment felt ice-cold in his hand, as if he were holding a piece of ten-thousand-year-old profound ice.
The moment he grabbed the fragment, the entire runic space began to shake violently, as if it would collapse at any moment. With a thought, Fang Hao tried to communicate with the chaos pill cauldron to put the fragment inside.
However, to his surprise, he found that this fragment could not be put into a storage space! It seemed to contain some special rule that rejected all spatial power.
"Damn it!" Fang Hao cursed, having no choice but to clench the fragment tightly in his hand and then throw a full-power punch at the boundary of the space!
"Boom—!"
The runic space shattered. Fang Hao’s figure reappeared in front of the stone tablet in the Blood Fiend Purgatory. By now, the melee outside was nearing its end. Only a few monsters were still standing, and the ground was piled with corpses.
Fang Hao dared not linger. He pushed his Divine Spirit Steps to the limit and sprinted for his life back the way he had come! He had to return to that gate before the three-day deadline!
Behind him, the surviving monsters let out angry roars, but they seemed wary of the Soul Suppressing Tablet Fragment in his hand and did not immediately pursue.
Fang Hao sprinted all the way. After an unknown amount of time, he finally saw the gray portal connecting to the netherworld pearl’s domain. Without hesitation, he plunged inside.
Returning to the gray mist space, Fang Hao’s legs gave way, and he almost collapsed to the ground. His clothes were in tatters, covered in blood and dust. His face was pale as paper, his aura weak, and the spiritual power in his body was almost depleted.
"I... got the item." Fang Hao panted, opening his palm to reveal the pitch-black Soul Suppressing Tablet Fragment.
The blurry black shadow appeared before him again at some point. The shadow "looked" at the fragment in Fang Hao’s hand, remained silent for a moment, and then slowly said, "Very good. You have completed the task."
"Now, you can let me go, right?" Fang Hao asked urgently.
The shadow did not answer but made a beckoning motion. The Soul Suppressing Tablet Fragment in Fang Hao’s hand flew up uncontrollably and landed in the shadow’s hand.
"This item is useful to the Master," the shadow said slowly. "In return, you may leave."
With that, the shadow waved its hand. Gray mist surged, and behind Fang Hao, a portal of light leading to the outside world formed.
Overjoyed, Fang Hao forced himself to stand up and walked toward the light portal. However, just as he was about to step through, the shadow’s cold voice rang out in his Sea of Consciousness once more:
"Remember, you must not mention everything you saw and experienced today to anyone. Otherwise... no matter where you flee to the ends of the earth, the will of the Netherworld will find you."
Fang Hao’s body stiffened, then he nodded and stepped into the light portal.
Outside the portal was the familiar, cold, and damp mountain cave. Fang Hao looked back, and the light portal had already disappeared as if it had never existed.
He let out a long sigh of relief and slumped onto the ground, filled with lingering fear. This experience was a hundred times more perilous than his consecutive fierce battles at the Debate!
"This place isn’t safe; I must leave immediately!" Fang Hao forced himself to pull his spirits together, identified the direction, and walked toward the cave entrance. He didn’t know if Su Xuan was alive or dead, nor did he know if those two Nascent Soul Cultivators were still outside, but regardless, he had to leave this damn Ancient Mine of Buried Gods as quickly as possible!
