Trials of the Abyss

A golden bee clung to the large flag on the mast of the damaged Boundless Sky Divine Kingdom's warship in the bizarre mist.

It rested right on the character for "Boundless," calmly observing its surroundings through its compound eyes with incredible patience.

The golden bee stayed like this for a long time, firmly believing that keeping an eye on the warship would be vital due to its role as a positional marker.

Therefore, after Li Yuanchen left, it went to the flag to wait.

Time passed slowly, and eventually, a brilliant light suddenly flashed.

The ray of light was like lightning piercing through the gray bizarre mist!

Pang Jian teleported to the golden bee, swiftly hiding in the darkness, waiting for his prey to arrive.

Whoosh!

A grayish-blue smoke vortex appeared out of thin air.

Gasping heavily, he collapsed onto the deck in a mess of blood and tattered golden battle armor as the light in his eyes dimmed.

"That Spirit Condensation Realm cultivator was far stronger than Zhuang Yuyan. The eye on his forehead must be his divine soul!"

Li Yuanchen's scalp tingled just recalling it.

The man cloaked in woven feathers had made him feel utterly powerless.

That man had dealt with Li Yuanchen the way Li Yuanchen had once dealt with Lu Lingchan—with overwhelming superiority.

Li Yuanchen suffered severe injuries from that single blow, with multiple fractures in his ribs and his spirit artifacts all severely damaged.

"My Mystic Heaven Thunder Hammer, my Ice Essence Seal, my Vortex Spirit Funnel," he mourned, staring at the broken spirit artifacts in his hands.

He was on the verge of tears.

Buzz! Buzz!

The golden bee's wings flapped.

Li Yuanchen glanced up at it with a sigh. "The owner of this golden bee is terrifying. They found me so quickly. It seems there's no escaping this time."

The connection between his Vortex Spirit Funnel and the Boundless Sky Divine Kingdom's warship had been the only reason he could return. Unfortunately, his opponent seemed capable of easily locating him with the golden bee. Ꞧ𝒶ꞐỐ฿ЁꞨ

Despair filled him.

Li Yuanchen swallowed a pill in preparation as he stared despondently at the golden bee.

Boom!

A giant cauldron crashed into Li Yuanchen from behind. The intense flames from the nine blazing suns surrounding it instantly engulfed him.

Whoosh!

Pang Jian appeared with his spear and the Star Crushing Umbrella above his head.

"Are you Pang Jian or Luo Yuan?" Li Yuanchen asked sharply.

"Both."

The dazzling river of stars from the Star Crushing Umbrella descended, and Pang Jian swung his Startling Slaughter Spear to unleash the Chaos Sword Technique.

A sword intent that shattered the natural principles of the Dao and twisted the laws of the heavens and earth surged out of Pang Jian's silver spear.

Conflicting energies simultaneously erupted from the Nine Suns Cauldron, the Star Crushing Umbrella, and the Startling Slaughter Spear to converge on Li Yuanchen.

Li Yuanchen, already barely clinging to life, could only watch helplessly as his golden armor was destroyed.

The proud genius of the Boundless Sky Divine Kingdom was soon drenched in blood.

Whoosh!

The Nine Suns Cauldron flipped upside down and sucked Li Yuanchen inside to prevent the bizarre mist from reducing him to ashen bone dust.

Pang Jian descended and unceremoniously grabbed Li Yuanchen's spirit artifacts before infusing them with spiritual power to check their conditions.

"A silver hammer, a square seal, and an iron funnel. But most of the arrays inside are broken. No wonder you couldn't resist." Pang Jian shook his head in disappointment as he seized Li Yuanchen's spatial bracelet. "Of all people, you chose to impersonate me?"

Li Yuanchen wiped the blood from his face as he cried out in shock, "Pang Jian, you're Luo Yuan?!"

***

Fu Wangchen sat back down on the mystical bird's skull after he once again lost the golden bee.

"He's in the late stage of the Profound Abode Realm, and has yet to refine his divine soul..." he pondered aloud, hands on his knees and handsome face filled with confusion.

Much to his disappointment, the person following the golden bee had not even been able to withstand a few strikes from him before fleeing in defeat.

Li Yuanchen was simply too weak. Even if he could control those golden bees, he likely could not find a way out of the bizarre mist.

Thus, Fu Wangchen stopped caring about the matter.

He turned around to look behind him.

The vertical eye on his forehead gleamed brightly, with runes drifting deep within like a vast, mysterious sea of consciousness.

The doors and windows of the grand palaces and pavilions on the giant mystical bird's wing bones were tightly shut. However, the penetrating gaze of Fu Wangchen's divine eye allowed him to see the figures lying, sitting, and slumping motionlessly within them.

"I can only keep you unconscious and use the power of the mystical bird to protect your bodies, but..." Fu Wangchen trailed off, shaking his head with a sigh.

He had been lost in the bizarre mist for a long time.

Those who originally came with him had gradually lost their minds as they lost hope or started fighting each other as suspicions grew.

When he saw the imminent outbreak of large-scale conflict, he had no choice but to use the residual power in the mystical bird's skeleton to keep everyone comatose.

Even so, this was only a temporary solution that bought them some time before death.

"I'll wake you when I find a way out. If not, we'll all die," Fu Wangchen said helplessly.

***

Meanwhile, Qi Qingsong, Dong Tianze, Zhuang Yuyan, Fang Boxuan, Zhao Yuanqi, and Zhou Qingchen were once again gathered on the Sword Boat.

"How did Pang Jian transform into a golden bee?"

"It wasn't just one, but several!"

"He placed strands of his divine sense into the bodies of the golden bees to guide us back to the Sword Boat."

"Li Yuanchen left marks on our earlobes, which the golden bees removed."

Those on the Sword Boat engaged in heated discussions about Pang Jian.

Some were on the third-floor balcony and others were on the deck, but all were awaiting Pang Jian's return.

"Our junior brother has some tricks up his sleeve," Zhuang Yuyan said, putting away her two spirit swords. She gazed at the endless bizarre mist, lost in thought, and sighed. "If he hadn't released those golden bees, Li Yuanchen would've found and killed Zhou Qingchen and Fang Boxuan."

Fang Boxuan grimaced. "Don't blame me for running away without a fight. My fiancée died a miserable death. I could hardly muster the courage to stay and fight him to the end."

Zhao Yuanqi kept a cold face and said nothing.

She inwardly cursed the culprit after learning he had left marks on everyone that enabled him to track them in the bizarre mist.

Looking back, she realized her decision to leave the Sword Boat with Zhou Qingchen had been a grave mistake.

In truth, her chances of survival would have been much higher if she had stayed and fought alongside Qi Qingsong and Zhuang Yuyan.

Only through the appearance of the golden bees and Pang Jian's secret assistance was her mistake rectified, sparing her from a tragic end.

"The smartest decision I ever made was giving Pang Jian a sword token back in the Primordial Wilderness." Qi Qingsong laughed heartily. "That sword token not only earned me the Blue Dream Sword, which allowed me to comprehend the wonders of Dream Sword Technique, but also gained me a friend in Pang Jian."

Zhuang Yuyan's eyes gleamed with anticipation. "I still haven't seen how powerful our junior brother is."

Whoosh!

A cauldron surrounded by small blazing suns came flying from the distance.

The handle of the Star Crushing Umbrella had been inserted into the cauldron so its radiant canopy covered the cauldron's mouth.

Pang Jian stood atop the shimmering umbrella in his normal appearance.

"Pang Jian!" Everyone exclaimed in surprise and excitement.

Once the Nine Suns Cauldron was hovering above the Sword Boat, Pang Jian leaped down and put away the Star Crushing Umbrella.

Pointing at the steadily descending cauldron, Pang Jian said to Dong Tianze, "Go inside and use your soul-searching technique to search Li Yuanchen's thoughts."

"You captured Li Yuanchen alive?" Zhuang Yuyan exclaimed in disbelief.

"What?!" Qi Qingsong flew up on his sword and peered down into the cauldron.

The battered genius of the Boundless Sky Divine Kingdom lay weakly inside, covered in blood and looking miserable.

Not long ago, this same man had killed Lu Lingchan, hunted down the Black Valley Sect disciples, and turned the living dead into a bloody mist.

"Pang Jian, how did you capture him?" Qi Qingsong asked incredulously.

"It was just a stroke of luck, nothing worth mentioning." Pang Jian waved his hand and motioned Dong Tianze to come closer. "Li Yuanchen isn't anything special. I encountered a guy in the Spirit Condensation Realm, riding on the skeleton of a giant mystical bird with a vertical eye on his forehead.

"He was the one who severely injured Li Yuanchen, allowing me to capture him when he fled."

"A person in the Spirit Condensation Realm, riding on the remains of a giant mystical bird with a vertical eye on his forehead…" Zhuang Yuyan pondered aloud, deep in thought. Then, her body trembled. "His name is Fu Wangchen, from the Forsaken Expanse Sect of the Northern Ruin in the First World!"

She paused, then glanced at Fang Boxuan with a peculiar look on her face.

Clearing her throat, she added, "His master is—"

"I know." Fang Boxuan slumped down onto the deck, looking utterly exhausted. Gritting his teeth, he said, "His master is Li Chu!"

Zhuang Yuyan nodded silently.

"Li Yuanchen killed Lu Lingchan on the Sword Boat, and afterward, Fu Wangchen severely wounded him in another area of the bizarre mist and forced him to flee..." Qi Qingsong shook his head and sighed. "Should I call it karma or bad luck? The beloved of the person he killed almost killed him."

"Lu Lingchan wasn't his beloved!" Fang Boxuan snapped angrily.

"Uh, sorry, that's not what I meant." Although Qi Qingsong looked slightly embarrassed, he still continued in a frank tone, "The Lu Clan and the Black Valley Sect dissolved your engagement. Lu Lingchan caught Li Chu's eye and was intended to be given to his disciple, so…Fu Wangchen was supposed to be her husband."

"My Fang Clan never agreed to that!" Fang Boxuan said, voice lacking confidence.

Qi Qingsong replied bluntly, "Your Fang Clan is gone now. It doesn't matter whether you agree or not."

"In any case, without the Fang Clan's agreement, it doesn't count..." Fang Boxuan said weakly.

Bang!

Dong Tianze leaped into the Nine Suns Cauldron and released shadows from his Ghost's Cry that condensed into a gentle, flowing stream around Li Yuanchen's forehead.

As Dong Tianze started to perform his secret arts, he asked, "Pang Jian, does it matter if he lives or dies?"

"It doesn't. Whether he lives or not is irrelevant. The important thing is that we learn everything we can about him—his background and what happened before," Pang Jian said coldly.

Dong Tianze nodded in understanding. "That'll make things much faster."

The stream circling Li Yuanchen's forehead plunged into his mind, transforming into a chain that forcibly extracted his memories.

"His real name is Li Yuanchen. He's the only son of the Armor-Breaking Marquis, one of the three Divine Marquises of the Boundless Sky Divine Kingdom."

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