Trials of the Abyss

Crackle! Crackle!

Pang Jian swiftly pulled the golden lightning back into his golden glowing eyes.

"An Outer God!"

"We've seen that thing before!"

Zhou Qingchen and Fang Boxuan cried out in shock.

"Do you see that?" Qi Qingsong reprimanded sternly, staring down the stunned Nie You, the frowning Lu Lingchan, and the disciples from the Sword Pavilion and the Black Valley Sect. "When you come across something you don't understand, learn to think about the reasons behind it."

Nie You nodded and the disciples of the Black Valley Sect fell silent.

Pang Jian had precisely located the tattered banner, which meant everything he had done was purposeful.

"The opening of the Abyss this time is different from before."

"Every hundred thousand years, a grand event spanning multiple worlds and dimensions unfolds within the bizarre mist."

"Now that you're fortunate enough to have entered, prepare to witness this grand event."

Murmurs echoed from the holes of the banner. It was like several different consciousnesses were conversing with each other.

Suddenly, the banner floated away.

It vanished into the bizarre mist and could no longer be sensed.

Every hundred thousand years, multiple worlds, multiple dimensions...

Pang Jian's heart trembled.

Glancing behind him, he saw the confused faces of Qi Qingsong, Lu Lingchan, and Zhao Yuanqi. They could not grasp the deeper meaning behind the Observer's words.

"Senior Brother Qi!" Pang Jian called.

"Here! I'm here!"

"How long has it been since the human race dominated the Abyss and became its rulers?" Pang Jian asked solemnly.

Qi Qingsong shook his head uncertainly. "Around...maybe twenty or thirty thousand years?"

"Thirty thousand years," Lu Lingchan interjected, staring in the direction the banner had disappeared before turning her gaze to Pang Jian. "Junior Brother Pang, I was hasty in my judgment earlier. I don't know you well and may have been slightly rude."

Lu Lingchan had initially held some contempt for this stern young man from the lower worlds.

She was a personal disciple of the Black Valley Sect's Valley Master and a descendant of a powerful clan in the Second World, while Pang Jian was from the Fourth World. Ꞧ𝐀ＮŐВËŜ

Despite this, Li Zhaotian, the strongest cultivator from the Second World, had taken him in as a personal disciple by Li Zhaotian.

From the moment she saw Pang Jian, she could not help but compare herself to him, no matter how much she tried to suppress it.

Her comparisons only made her more certain that her cultivation realm, talent, and combat prowess surpassed Pang Jian's in every way.

She simply could not understand how someone like him had become a personal disciple of the leader of the most powerful cultivator in the Second World.

Fang Boxuan stared at Lu Lingchan from a distant corner with an odd expression. "So, she knows when to apologize."

The Lu Clan was the most powerful clan in the Second World, and the proud, arrogant Lu Lingchan was one of their most outstanding members.

As far as he knew, the Black Valley Sect highly favored Lu Lingchan, and she had never had to suffer any grievances or apologize to anyone.

"Thirty thousand..." Pang Jian said with a contemplative expression.

Thirty thousand years ago, powerful foreign races like the Celestial Race, the one-eyed giants, the Flame Race, and the Radiant Race dominated the Abyss.

The human race had a shallow understanding of the history of the Abyss beyond thirty thousand years.

Events from a hundred thousand years ago were even less likely to be known.

If a grand event spanning multiple worlds and dimensions truly took place in the depths of the bizarre mist every hundred thousand years, this would be the first time the human race of the Abyss had encountered it.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Seven figures dressed in blue flew out from the windows of the rooms on the Sword Boat, launching attacks on the Sword Pavilion and the Black Valley Sect disciples.

These seven had lowered their protective shields in their private rooms, meaning Pang Jian did not burn them, allowing them to slip through the cracks.

They started wreaking havoc as soon as the Observer departed.

Blinding sword lights danced through the air. The alarmed disciples of the Black Valley Sect and the Sword Pavilion joined forces to besiege the seven attackers, piercing their bodies and stabbing holes through their hearts.

Despite this, the seven continued to fight relentlessly.

Using his rejuvenated golden divine sense, Pang Jian noticed small green ants still moving within the empty brain cavities of the corpses.

"Each of them has a tiny green ant in their head that is invisible and undetectable to you," Pang Jian said coldly.

"Green ant?"

Nie You and Ye Fei glanced at Pang Jian while fighting, awaiting his instructions.

"You must sever or blast their heads off, or they'll just keep fighting," Pang Jian instructed.

Nie You, Ye Fei, and others quickly summoned their spirit artifacts and targeted the heads of the seven.

The seven figures were soon destroyed and the green ants hiding in their brain cavities were crushed with spiritual power.

The green ants were terrifying only because they were invisible.

They were neither strong nor fast, and once their existence was known, they became much easier to kill.

Zap!

A wisp of golden lightning shot from Pang Jian's eyes and absorbed the faint divine consciousness leaving the dead green ants.

"Pang Jian, what kind of soul technique are you cultivating? Why is your divine sense so blindingly gold?" Qi Qingsong questioned. "Can you see things we can't? No wonder you could track down the banner's location!"

"So, you're also in the late-stage of the Profound Abode Realm," Zhao Yuanqi sneered coldly. "Earlier, you said you were mid-stage of the Profound Abode Realm. I guess you just didn't trust us."

Pang Jian was taken aback.

Extending one's divine sense beyond one's sea of consciousness was a hallmark of the late-stage Profound Abode Realm.

However, only his golden divine sense could leave his sea of consciousness. The rest could not.

This made him unsure of his true cultivation realm.

"If not for Pang Jian burning those other bodies, the consequences would have been unimaginable," Fang Boxuan said.

His words sent a shiver down everyone's spine.

Pang Jian's flames had incinerated over a dozen bodies before, preventing them from rising and attacking everyone.

Unlike the seven, those bodies were not hiding in rooms. They would not have burst out and attracted attention like the seven had.

After all, their corpses were right at everyone's feet!

There would have been no time to prepare for their ambush.

Everyone's heart raced just imagining it.

"Pang Jian, we misunderstood you before." Nie You bowed deeply, expression apologetic.

"Junior Brother Ye, how does this Pang Jian compare to the Luo Yuan you encountered in the Cloud Lightning?" Lu Lianchen, an outer disciple from the Black Valley Sect, asked softly.

"I can't say for sure, but I feel the two are…very similar."

"Very similar?"

"Yes, they're alike in many ways. The only difference is their appearance" Ye Fei said softly, a hint of doubt in his voice.

Pang Jian returned to the third floor of the Sword Boat.

Pointing at Dong Tianze and Lu Lingchan, he said, "We need to talk privately."

Dong Tianze had been keeping to himself and was visibly stunned at Pang Jian's summons.

"Come, Big Brother Zhou, let's go together."

Pang Jian made certain not to leave out his closest companion, Zhou Qingchen.

Soon, Dong Tianze, Lu Lingchan, Zhou Qingchen, and Qi Qingsong were gathered in Pang Jian's room.

"Dong Tianze, what did you feel when those green ants tried to enter your mind?" asked Pang Jian

"Not much, just a chill all over before the Celestial Phoenix Imprint on my forehead reacted," Dong Tianze recalled. "After that, I activated my protective shield. My Celestial Phoenix Imprint probably killed the green ants."

"Alright, that's all I needed from you. You can leave now." Pang Jian waved him away.

Dong Tianze snorted coldly. He did not get up as instructed, staying seated with an indifferent look.

Pang Jian did not force him out and simply continued with a serious expression, "The banner you all saw harbors an Outer God known as the Observer. This Outer God can release invisible insects that eat away at your brain matter before leaving one behind to take over your body.

"Now, this isn't too terrifying because I can still see them. But if what it said about the grand event held every hundred thousand years is true..."

Pang Jian paused to sweep his gaze over everyone in the room.

"As we venture deeper into Absolute Heaven, we may face more than just the beings we're familiar with from the Abyss."

Zhou Qingchen shot to his feet, breath quickening as he asked, "Are you serious?"

"Couldn't the banner just be saying things at random?" Qi Qingsong exclaimed at the same time.

Lu Lingchan remained silent.

Dong Tianze was equally shocked.

The mysteries beyond the Abyss were an enigma the human race had yet to uncover even after thirty thousand years.

A restriction binding the Abyss allowed only True Gods to attempt to break through, and these mighty True Gods that broke free never returned to reveal what lay beyond.

Furthermore, boundary walls shrouded in bizarre mist also surrounded the Abyss like a well.

It was like an enormous cage imprisoning the inhabitants of the Abyss, leaving them no option but to break through to godhood and pierce the heavens to seek answers.

But now, they had the chance to encounter intelligent beings from other worlds within Absolute Heaven.

"Who knows what awaits us? I have a feeling that only a few of us will survive if we keep going deeper," Pang Jian said after giving them a moment to digest the information. "Think it over. Do we press on into Absolute Heaven, or do we head back to inform the sects in the First World?"

"Go back? I don't even know how to go back," Qi Qingsong said with a frown. "According to my master, the bizarre mist covering Absolute Heaven is thin. We should've passed through it with the Spirit Boat fifteen minutes after entering.

"But now, we're lost. I can't even tell whether we're moving further in or out.

"So, there's no need for anyone to agonize over whether we should retreat or press on. The Sword Boat will go wherever it leads us," Qi Qingsong concluded helplessly.

Zhou Qingchen sighed in resignation. "In that case, all we can do is prepare ourselves to face beings from other worlds. We can consider it our job to learn what's out there. After all, we have no other choice."

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