Archfiend

Chapter 230: Danxia Temple (49)

“What the hell is this thing?!” In an instant, Mao Ba’er started to jump, and the fur all over his body stood on edge. He looked at the surroundings in fright.

Zhao Wuye took Zhao Ziqi behind him and protected him. He was wet with cold sweat. Releasing all of his spiritual sense, he felt everything in the environment.

Nothing… There was nothing! There wasn’t the slightest indication of a spiritual-force fluctuation in the environment. It seemed as if this scene had never occurred!

Fahui appeared to lose his soul and sat down with a thump. It would’ve been better had he not sensed anything… In that instant moments ago, he felt a qi like that of a devil god! Perhaps… this demon truly hadn’t met anyone in too long, or perhaps… it was because this entity deliberately revealed this qi. Nonetheless, that shred was enough to kill him a billion times over!

After ages, his complexion grew ashy-white as he shivered while joining his hands together. He murmured: “Buddha above…” 

Silence… After ten seconds, the flames in the lotuses suddenly leapt up several meters high! Each lotus flower was akin to an ancient lamp! Now, this area was like the inside of the desolate imperial palace, not a soul in sight. All that remained was a room full of azure lanterns accompanied by a palace maid—her face unseen—and an azure lamp with an ancient Buddha statue.

Such tranquility constrained the deathly stillness of the heart. It didn’t bring serenity but rather great terror in silence!

All of Xu Yangyi’s spiritual force cycled to the peak. He was the same as Fahui. Just now… he had also captured a wisp of desperate qi! It wasn’t that he hadn’t met a high-level cultivator, but even the the gathering of twelve Core Formation on that day hadn’t given him such pressure! It seemed… that so long as he felt this spiritual pressure, his entire body would be crushed!

Buuuuzzz… In the wake of the countless azure lotuses igniting with flame, they transformed from a speck on the ocean surface into an azure fire sea. In the sky, all the violet talismans collapsed with a rumble!

Rustle rustle rustle… A sound like rain echoed. A beam of violet light carrying a violet talisman fell down. Immediately, there was a second beam… a third beam… an endless number of beams!

In a fleeting moment, the sky rained down like a meteor shower! All the talismans fell at the same time and transformed into violet qi, vanishing. Nevertheless, the enormous secret realm’s super formation collapsed. It appeared as if there was a violet meteor shower descending! With the azure fire lotuses below, a picture scroll of hell was reflected!

In the night, fireworks blossom along the eastern wind in the style of a thousand trees. Further blowing and falling, starry fire falls likes rain. [1]

“This is…” 

No one knew why… but all of them understood the connection of the words that the female voice had just spoken.

“The seal… The seal has shattered…” Xuan Chengzi watched the stars falling in the sky like rain, shocked. In this moment, there was no one that didn’t understand. “The bottom of Danxia Temple… was sealing a creature… A catastrophic thing…” 

“It… strew the corpses of all who entered across Danxia Temple… It also caused Ancestor Ancientpine to retreat without any merits in that year… This… is Danxia Temple’s true… final secret…” He painfully closed his eyes: “We… were too naive…”

Quan Ningyue looked at the sky lifelessly. She hadn’t sensed the spiritual pressure just now, but even so, she knew that the current situation had already become hopeless.

It wasn’t important whether or not it was felt… What was important… was how could something suppressed for so many years possibly be simple?

“God..” Mao Ba’er gulped many times, dumb as a wooden chicken: “I don’t want to become fish food…”

Glub… Glub… At the same time that stars fell down in the sky like rain, a series of air bubbles gurgled up from under the water!

Immediately, in this five-thousand-meter region without any lotuses or lotus leaves, violently surging waves rushed forth without limit. They squeezed down towards the central region with great speed.

In an instant, not needing a second, the waves had already rose upwards from several meters to ten meters! There were even waves at a hundred meters! It could be said to be the peak of a giant wave!

Rushing tides reached the sky and stormy waves swept the earth. The vast snowy earth flattens and shifts, and the silver mountain presses down in surging chaos. Grand might echoes like racing thunder and fiercely bubbling waves curl towards the summit like snow. Cold like spring jade, billowing akin to the cry of a bow. Touching stone, vast azure waters spray out shattered jade. Water rushes back to the vast maelstrom. [2]

Boom! Heaven-flooding waves smashed the ocean surface over and over. Stones were in disarray and clouds fell to ruin. Raging waves battered against the shore. Afterwards, another spraying peak transformed into a thousand snowfalls scattering. It formed an indescribable torrential downpour. Amidst the rainstorm that filled the sky, an incomparably gigantic vortex slowly took shape in the water!

Screaming and spinning… it seemed as if the door to hell had opened! Even the edges of their lotus leaves suffered. However, the lotus leaf that they were standing on wasn’t affected.

“God…” Zhao Wuye’s lips were trembling, and he looked at the incomparably gigantic maelstrom before his eyes. At this moment, the power of nature appeared boundlessly majestic. As long as anyone entered this vortex, the only end was to be pulverized!

“Heavens…” Mao Ba’er’s mind was in chaos. His eyes wide and tongue tied, he watched this scene in front.

Strange noises resounded from the vortex’s bottom. After ten seconds, a loud rumbling followed! A water pillar, no less than several thousand meters wide, madly rushed out from the vortex! But… the water pillar wasn’t the only thing to charge upwards! There was also… the infinite number of fish! They blotted out the sky and concealed the earth!

In the wake of the maelstrom’s rising jubilation, azure fishes jumped out from the water’s surface. After falling, they charged up and fell down again, the cycle returning to the beginning. It appeared to form a fountain of fish!

Time seemed to still in this moment. There was no speaking and breathing. There wasn’t even the beating of a heart. Everyone’s eyes saw that among the fish, under the binding of millions of azure carps, there was a giant silhouette that was nearly 5,000 meters long! The scales on Its body beared an azure light reflected from azure flame. From the seabed, It leaped upwards!

An incomparably colossal figure occupied everyone’s eyes. A pitch-black shadow shrouded everything below in darkness.

Presently, It was a devil god that seemed like a ruler overlooking the world. Due to extreme excitement, Its entire bodily spiritual pressure was wildly released! Swoosh swoosh swoosh! It actually became solid! Lotuses and lotus leaves were blown everywhere in disarray! Fiery scars filled the sky! It appeared to swirl up a small typhoon!

“Spiritual… Spiritual pressure solidification… This is spiritual pressure solidification…” In the tempest, Fahui was suddenly blown away along with his flying magik artifact, but unexpectedly, he landed on a lotus leaf. After he stood up, he put his palms together in despair: “Buddha… how could you allow this fiend… to even exist in the world…”

“Is there even someone on Earth… that can subdue It…?

Xu Yangyi’s pupils suddenly needled.

This was It… This was definitely It! This was that giant azure carp!

“This…”

“This is…”

“Heavens… what are we looking at…”

“Is this the thing truly hidden at the bottom of Danxia Temple…? We… Is there even someone able to get out alive?”

Everyone’s gazes almost turned lifeless. Regarding Wei Zhongxian, they had still possessed the power and also the heart to fight. But against such a thing… the thought of resistance wasn’t born in anyone whatsoever!

“This… can’t be called a demon. It is… a god…” Xuan Chengzi’s eyes flashed with a wisp of battle intent, but it immediately died away into scattered ash and flying smoke.

As if they were watching a play, the ten people observed everything in front. At this point, resistance was already useless. Nonetheless, this was merely the starting gasp! As this fish soared into the air and jumped several hundred meters into the sky, a joyous screech of finally escaping Its cage was made from the carp’s mouth. Afterwards… 

The scales all over the carp’s body began to twinkle with whistling azure light! In the next second, each man-sized scale transformed into equally large feathers!!! Its fish’s mouth also started to turn long and pointed. Its fins grew long as if they would cloak the world! In the blink of an eye, It broke through 5,000 meters in size! Its fins transformed into enormous wings!

The demon’s tail fin started to come apart and the scales on Its belly split apart with a swoosh. A hundred meters in size, two giant claws extended. Everyone clearly saw that in less than ten seconds, this azure carp had already transformed… 

Into a Kun Peng!!!

The Kun Peng strikes the water for 3,000 li, forming white silk that drives forward like a hundred thousand men! [3]

BOOM! The Kun Peng slammed into the water again. Storms and tsunamis followed. It no longer required the use of any divine ability. Its body Itself was the greatest divine ability! 

“Wuuu…” A low cry bearing unconcealable excitement echoed. In the water, a giant tail no less than a thousand meters hoisted up! 

“Kun Peng… This is a Kung Peng! This is a Kun Peng!!!” Because of excessive horror, extreme excitement, and great indescribable terror, Zhao Wuye had already lost his voice from screeching: “S-such a thing t-t-truly exists! A Kun Peng! A legendary Kun Peng!!!”

“Daofather above…” “Buddha above…” Xuan Chengzi and Fahui spoke in concert. Apart from being entirely shocked, they were already unable to say a word.

In the Northern Dark, there is a fish known as Kun. The Kun is so large that the thousands of li It measures up to is a mystery. It transforms into a bird known as Peng. It is unknown how many thousands of li that the Peng’s back is. As It soars and gallops, Its wings are like the hanging clouds of the sky. [4]

In the sky, It was a bird, and in entering the ocean, It was fish. At this moment, a Kun Peng had actually emerged before everyone!

To all of their surprise, none had expected that at the bottom of Danxia Tempe, such a mythical thing was hidden!!!

Xu Yangyi didn’t speak. Although he was also shocked, his heart was prepared because he had already seen It once. He wasn’t like the dumbstruck crowd. On the contrary, his entire body’s qi was mobilized to the peak.

This was because he saw… that there was still a chain, a golden chain. In the same vein, along with the Kun Peng’s leap, this chain was pulled out from the ocean surface! It couldn’t be clearly seen how far the chain had been pulled. It made this carp appear to be like a kite set loose from the seabed!

Now still wasn’t the time for absolute despair… This azure carp still hadn't been completely freed of Its bindings! Presently… there was a sliver’s chance to live, an opportunity to win a minor chance at survival!

Furthermore… Xu Yangyi’s gaze was deep. Already, the first of Danxia Temple’s several riddles that caused him to feel as if a fish bone stuck in his throat had been solved!

Who had caused Danxia Temple’s strange transformations? Apart from It, no one else could accomplish this! Apart from this Kun Peng, who was able to cause the Core Formation ancestors to turn alarmed? Who was able to force the government to seal off Longsu Province?

Perhaps… even the distant and lofty Core Formation ancestors and the Chinese government didn’t expect this. As China’s Core Formation Dao Masters left to search for Quetzalcoatl, a true Kun Peng was concealed at the bottom of Danxia Temple! 

The second… was that giant fish molt!

That… was certainly the fish molt left behind by this azure carp as It evolved into a Kun Peng!

[1] Poem from Southern Song Poet Xin Qiji (1140 - 1207). Describes the scene of many fireworks during the Lantern Festival. 

[2] If not obvious this entire section is a poem about tsunamis. Unfortunately, I could not find the poet.

[3] Poem from Song dynasty poet Su Shi (Su Dongpo) (1037 - 1101)

[4] Excerpt from Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi.