Trials of the Abyss

Pang Jian became increasingly dizzy as he swayed along with the rocking Black Iron Mountain.

However, the soles of his feet remained firmly planted on the Black Iron Mountain as if the turbulence did not affect them.

As he watched Dong Tianze's figure swaying violently in the thick smoke, Pang Jian asked, "Why did you come after me?"

Dong Tianze exerted great effort to control the Black Iron Mountain with his spiritual power and mind. Although he heard the question, he did not turn around.

After a brief pause, he asked in return, "Did you help me kill that rogue cultivator on that unnamed fragmented land?"

Pang Jian said nothing.

Neither answered the other's question.

After some time passed, Pang Jian and Dong Tianze felt as if they had broken through one dimension and barged into another.

The Black Iron Mountain was back on the Sword Boat!

Zhuang Yuyan and Qi Qingsong's spirits lifted.

The reappearance of the Black Iron Mountain, with Pang Jian and Dong Tianze unharmed, boosted their morale.

"Luo Yuan" had since merged back with his clones and was visibly surprised at their return. "They came back..."

Swinging his spirit sword, he sliced through Qi Qingsong's azure rivers of stars and steadied his mind.

Whoosh!

He teleported away to dodge Zhuang Yuyan's attack.

"Luo Yuan" appeared outside the Sword Boat, a storm of lightning and snow enveloping his body like a celestial being commanding two Heavenly Dao.

Frowning, his gaze swept over Pang Jian, Dong Tianze, Zhuang Yuyan, and Qi Qingsong, as he seriously contemplated his next move to break the deadlock.

"Senior Sister Zhuang, Qi Qingsong, are you two okay?" Pang Jian asked loudly.

"I'm fine," Zhuang Yuyan replied, shaking her head with a smile.

Her long and short spirit swords had transformed into a Vermilion Bird and a Fiery Qilin that floated by her sides.

A fiery miniature world spread out behind her, with the Vermilion Bird and Fiery Qilin crouching within and glaring at the impostor.

A small flaming figure floated in the center of Zhuang Yuyan's forehead. It was the manifestation of her divine soul.

Having comprehended the Dao of Fire and advanced to the Spirit Condensation Realm, she used the manifestation of her divine soul to connect with the fiery realm behind her.

Whoosh!

She burned off the man's hair and eyebrows.

"I'm fine too," Qi Qingsong assured with a smile.

He noticed Pang Jian did not address him as "Senior Brother Qi" but rather by his full name.

Pang Jian had acknowledged him and thus treated him with less formality during a critical moment.

"This guy is malicious and full of dirty tricks. The two of you better be careful," Qi Qingsong warned.

Pang Jian was taken aback.

He had assumed Qi Qingsong and Zhuang Yuyan were in a dire situation and would not last long.

After all, the man had struck down Lu Lingchan with such terrifying swiftness and effortlessness that it left a lasting impression.

Pang Jian had hurried back, fearing they could not hold out, only to find them looking surprisingly calm.

"Pang Jian, this man isn't as powerful as we thought!" Zhuang Yuyan's cheeks were flushed and her bright eyes blazed with fiery intensity as she snorted. "Lu Lingchan died so quickly because he countered the Ascension Flute. Or perhaps he simply knows how to break through the Ascension Flute's Celestial Ascension Domain!" 𝐑äNỖΒƐs

"Pang Jian, he's not even at the Spirit Condensation Realm. He's in the Profound Abode Realm like us!" Qi Qingsong added.

Only Qi Qingsong and Zhuang Yuyan remained on the Sword Boat as Fang Boxuan had long since disappeared.

They had stood their ground on the Sword Boat to fight against the impostor, and it did not take long to realize that many of the man's claims were false.

He was far less formidable than he claimed and was not even in the Spirit Condensation Realm.

"He's from the Eastern Land of the First World, someone from the Boundless Sky Divine Kingdom," Dong Tianze revealed, eyes cold and sharp. "He killed Lu Lingchan of the Black Valley Sect and gave us one incense stick's time after because he wanted to sow discord among us.

"His real aim was to prevent us from working together. He wanted to pick us off one by one."

Qi Qingsong nodded in agreement. "Indeed, we almost played right into his hands. The smoke sent Pang Jian away and you followed after. Not to mention, Zhao Yuanqi and Zhou Qingchen left."

The man clapped with a smile. "Not bad, not bad. You guys are smarter than you look."

As he spoke, his burned hair and eyebrows regrew in a surge of vitality.

Rip!

He tore his black outer garment and casually discarded it, revealing tight-fitting golden battle armor underneath.

The golden armor was smooth and reflective like a mirror, and bright golden light radiated from each armor plate.

Crack! Crack!

His bones cracked sounds and his body twisted as he transformed into a handsome man with thin eyebrows; narrow, elongated eyes; and a slender frame.

He exuded a delicate and melancholic elegance, like a young noble who had grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth and was untouched by the hardships of the mortal world.

"I'm Li Yuanchen of the Boundless Sky Divine Kingdom. Pleased to meet you all," he greeted with a polite smile.

Li Yuanchen held a large silver hammer entwined with lightning in his right hand and casually discarded the borrowed spirit sword.

A cold, crystalline square seal rested in his left palm like a miniature ice glacier.

Li Yuanchen was already striking, but the silver hammer in his right hand and square seal in his left gave him an imposing appearance that resembled legendary celestial beings.

"We entered the bizarre mist before you guys, intending to explore Absolute Heaven, but unexpectedly..." Li Yuanchen sighed sorrowfully. "Hundreds on our warship lost hope and died before my eyes.

"We went through everything you did. I watched them slaughter each other and vent their twisted desires. The collapse of order on our ship was even more severe. Suspicion and old grudges erupted into unspeakable atrocities on that ship steeped in despair."

He shook his head as if unwilling to recall such memories.

"Enough. My identity is exposed, and you guys are hard to deal with. Now that things have come to this…"

He extended his hand and gently pulled. The grayish-blue smoke vortex from which Pang Jian and Dong Tianze had emerged flew where he hovered in the boundless bizarre mist.

Standing atop the smoke vortex, he waved. "Farewell. I wish you the best of luck. I hope you can escape from this place."

The swirling smoke vortex then carried him into the dense bizarre mist.

"You killed the members of my Sword Pavilion. I don't care which Divine Kingdom you're from. You're not getting away!" Qi Qingsong chased after Li Yuanchen on his spirit sword.

"You won't be able to catch up with me." Li Yuanchen turned his head, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "The four of you together are quite troublesome. You're too difficult to handle all at once, so I'll just go after those who ran away first!"

The grayish-blue smoke vortex merged with the bizarre mist and accelerated, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Pang Jian's heart trembled. Activating the innate abilities of his black turtle scute, he pursued the smoke vortex.

Whoosh!

Qi Qingsong, forced to stop his futile pursuit, watched as Pang Jian flew past him from above.

"Pang Jian!" Qi Qingsong and Zhuang Yuyan cried out in surprise.

"He's going to save Zhou Qingchen!" Qi Qingsong realized.

Zhuang Yuyan hastily sent out her short sword, which was connected to her mind, to search. "I've lost sight of him already!"

Finding someone in the bizarre mist was no easy task.

Qi Qingsong stopped Dong Tianze as he made to fly past him.

"If we want to find Pang Jian, it's best for us to stick together. If we split up, we could get lost ourselves," Qi Qingsong said seriously.

Everyone's vision was limited to about fifty zhang in the bizarre mist, roughly the length of the Sword Boat. As a result, they could still see fairly well while on the Sword Boat.

It was difficult to see each other once they were over a hundred zhang away.

Their divine sense was useless and there was no sense of direction in the bizarre mist. It was likely they would never meet again once they separated.

"I'll go with you to search," Zhuang Yuyan said as she floated over.

She left her long sword on the Sword Boat. Lifting the short sword in her hand, she explained, "These are a pair of mother-child swords. They're linked to each other. I'll leave the mother sword on the Sword Boat so we can find our way back."

"That's a good way of doing it!" Qi Qingsong agreed.

***

Li Yuanchen's light laughter echoed in the vast bizarre mist.

"You won't catch up to me, Pang Jian. I'll kill those who escaped the Sword Boat. They're my whetstones to sharpen my cultivation realm. After I deal with them, I'll advance to the Spirit Condensation Realm and refine my divine soul. I'll then return to the Sword Boat and eliminate the rest," he taunted, voice gradually fading into the distance.

Pang Jian was lost.

By the time he realized something was wrong, it was too late.

All around him was the endless bizarre mist and Pang Jian had lost his sense of direction.

He could not turn back even if he wanted to.

Pang Jian drifted through the dense bizarre mist alone. It was like the entire world had turned into a desolate void and he was the last being in existence.

An overwhelming sense of loneliness filled his heart. It was an intense, profound solitude.

He had experienced this before—on that shattered altar beneath Ice Rock City where he had absorbed the cold energy and when he entered the copper chest without wearing the Gate of the Abyss.

Thus, he was more accustomed than most to the eerie solitude and could still think calmly.

What should I do?

Unwilling to give up, Pang Jian repeatedly used his blood essence to activate the abilities of the black turtle scute, drifting through the bizarre mist in search of those who had left the Sword Boat.

Pang Jian wandered for a long time, but his surroundings did not change.

Not only did he not find the people he was looking for, but he was also consuming his energy in vain.

Frowning, he stopped.

This isn't working.

He thought hard for a solution to his predicament.

Time passed, but the profound loneliness did not corrode Pang Jian's will, and he continued to think of a solution.

Buzz!

A golden bee flew out from the Gate of the Abyss on Pang Jian's chest.

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