Archfiend

Chapter 56: A Fleeting Life Like an Empty Dream (1)

However, the lower Xu Yangyi went down, the heavier his heart became. There was no end… 

This lotus pond seemed to be as deep as a bottomless pit! He had exhausted all of his ability. The veins of his neck bulged, yet he couldn’t even see the end! The dark-jade pond water in his surroundings fluctuated. Apart from the dark green, there was also dark blue. According to his eyes’ abilities, he had reached up to about ten-odd meters, but there was simply no trace of the pond’s bottom. 

“Fuck!” He drilled through the water’s surface, rested for ten seconds, and clenched his teeth. Without almost any hesitation, he moved towards a lotus. His body was still dreadfully sore, but this pain right now couldn’t compare to the deep worry of his heart.

Xu Yangyi didn’t know where this place was. He searched all of his memories, yet he didn’t discover a place that could match a name. This ocean-like lotus pond was certainly fresh water, but which great lake had such a vast lotus pond?

The sky was washed in jade, without wind or cloud. He couldn’t even see a distant mountain or dry land. To say that this was an ocean of lotuses wouldn’t be the least bit exaggerated. It wasn’t possible to have such a large ocean of lotuses inland. He needed dry land. If there was dry land, it represented that people might be here. If there were people, he would know where this place was located. Even more importantly...

If he continued to follow dry land, he could edge along and slink beneath the water! Even if he had to scour this lotus pond, he had to find the source of his foundation!

A cultivator could only master a single arcane effort in their lives. The rank of this arcane effort would directly determine a cultivator’s heights. In the future, it wasn’t something that could be replaced, however, replacing a primary arcane effort wasn’t limited to the need of washing meridians and raking marrow; countless heavenly treasures were also required! After the meridians were cleaned and the marrow sundered, a period of twenty-years recuperation was still needed!

Not to even mention Qi Condensation cultivators, even Foundation Establishment cultivators wouldn’t be able to endure these two decades!

Xu Yangyi swam towards a lotus, yet discovered that the lotuses here were particularly large. The unfolded petals were around a meter long, and the lotus leaves below were around one to two meters long. There some that even grew up to three or four meters. 

Resting on a lotus leaf for a moment, he jumped into the water again with a splash. Like the same thing moments ago, there was still a boundless green and drifting lotus-stems. But now, he didn’t know whether it was because of his blurred vision, but he seemed to notice a whole pool below him move!

Xu Yangyi narrowed his eyes, and a sliver of azure light swept past. In that twinkling, he almost believed in himself to have seen the pond’s bottom! Nonetheless, it was only a careful glance of a second. His heart skipped several beats, and he immediately covered his mouth, stifling his breath to use the gentlest of movements to get there.

He was like a frog exposed on the water’s surface, even causing minute ripples to rise. He swam to a lotus leaf and gently lied down, motionless. His eyes glimmered, his ear pressed closely to the lotus leaf and listening to each and every movement below the water.

It wasn’t the pond’s bottom. Within this great sea of lotuses, there was something… This was because he could clearly see that the flicker of azure light just now…

Was a scale!

A boundlessly infinite scale! An azure scale! A scale simply unseen in limit! A hundred meters below his feet, there was a creature that could send a one’s head swimming in fear. It was quietly concealed beneath the surface, as if the beast was a silent god of death! At the present, he was pretty much walking on this creature’s back!

“Rooaaarrr…” Extending onwards for ten minutes, a water-jostling sound could be heard from the water below. Because the cry came from the vast depths, one couldn’t tell whether the lotuses on the surface moved. Even if they did, one would believe it to be the blowing of the wind. If Xu Yangyi wasn’t lying down on a lotus leaf and carefully listening, he wouldn’t be able to hear it clearly at all!

He used the smallest width of the lotus to stand up. In an instant, he felt that the beautiful lotus pond had become embroiled in great danger from all sides.

A demon? Xu Yangyi pursed his lips and jumped to another lotus leaf, using the one beneath his feet like a cushion. An old Foundation Establishment monster had a hundred-meter-long demon form… Just from his startled glance, this beast was absolutely more than a hundred meters! It was possibly a thousand meters!

Forcing down his heart’s impatience, he used his softest movements to leap between each lotus leaf. There was no point being anxious now. If there was water, there was fish. He couldn’t just starve to death, and while he didn’t have qi, he still had his hands and feet. As long as he was careful in the short term, there should be no danger. 

Xu Yangyi didn’t know how long he’d walked, but his surroundings was still a boundless sea of lotus leaves. However, he discovered that he wasn’t hungry or even tired in this place.

“I’ve walked for roughly eight hours…” He sat down on a lotus leaf, a shred of doubt finally emerging within his heart. Was this place… the real world? In these eight hours, the color of the sky hadn’t changed, he didn’t grow tired, and he wasn’t hungry. This was like spiritual sense in itself but not. “Have I entered an illusory realm?” 

This was also a possibility. He had heard that awesome talismans and formations could render a person incapable of sensing anything whatsoever. And yet… what about that gigantic creature? He wasn’t aware whether or not this beast was a demon, but if it was, what realm was it at?

While talismans and formations were amazing, his instructor had said it could only simulate the capabilities within oneself. Otherwise, wouldn’t Foundation Establishment be able to trap Core Formation? This wasn’t realistic.

He dared not sense that creature’s aura, but he dared to be certain that even Vermilion Snow couldn’t be simulated! A chilliness overtook his heart, and followingly his heart burned again without equal.

The coldness was that if this was true, this world was a surviving secret. One of few secrets that had carried on since several millenniums ago, too frightening and too astonishing. In a place unknown to humanity, perhaps at the bottom of a river or perhaps underground, an eternal pair of eyes and an endlessly long body had watched humanity on the surface.

The burning was that no matter the number of concealed secrets in this world, they were all waiting for him! So long as Xu Yangyi advanced, he could truly be privy to these secrets. In a top-secret ancient remnant that was claimed as “sealed” in all of China, he could explore ancient cultivation ruins and probe his fortune and destiny.

“Huff…” He sucked in deeply and his gaze settled. Everything else could be revisited in the future as soon as he left. Roaming untiringly, he didn’t know how long he walked. Maybe it was a day or perhaps it was three days. It might’ve even been a month...

Finally, after he leapt onto the tallest lotus, he discovered there was a sole location within this sea that was different. A tremendous lotus appeared in the horizon, approximately ten meters in diameter. There weren’t any lotus leaves set off from it, making it appear as if floated like so on the water. However, there was surprisingly a ruined pavilion constructed on the center of that lotus!

No one could be consulted, and there moreover wasn’t any other choice. Sucking in deeply, he immediately jumped forward without a second word. All his movements were incredibly soft. He hadn’t forgotten that there were some things underwater that couldn’t be given voice to. In no way did he desire wake the slumbering reaper.

“This…” Just as he jumped, his gaze brightened… because there was a jade chest placed on top. This jade chest was rather familiar. It was the Burning Heavens Revelation’s jade chest!

“Huff…” The massive boulder in his heart finally fell to the ground. He extended his hand to take the chest, but at this time, he suddenly discovered countless gentle golden lights seemed to be floating off of his “body”. Appearing like muslin and resembling mist, his entire being seemed to formed from these gentle golden lights!

In the next second, the jade chest that was almost within reach exploded with a roar, fragmenting into numerous pieces! An ornamented tome appeared amidst the jade chest’s collapse. He knew that the Burning Heavens Revelation, hungered to extremes by countless people, was recorded within, the key leading to Core Formation.

Not waiting for him to react, the ornamented tome suddenly flew towards the top of his head with a whoosh.

Swish… At the same instant, in the vast, cloudless sky, the sound of bamboo and silk rang out. Hanging beneath endless golden rays, a nearly inexhaustibly large bamboo scroll was followed by golden light gently stirring about! It was unknown how long the scroll was, and its width was a mystery. It seemed as if it could uphold both heaven and earth!

The bamboo scroll wasn’t tangible, but it appeared to be a qi structure. At this moment, it undulated like a wave in the sky. In comparison to the endless bamboo scroll, the boundless gold seemed to be the most ordinary black at this moment. It merely served to set off the most dazzling white. 

Xu Yangyi didn’t know what it should’ve looked like, but if a word from his dictionary had to be found, it was divine. The golden light that constructed this bamboo scroll was much more “divine” than other lights! It even caused a feeling of insignificance to be birthed at the bottom of one’s heart. At this instant, he seemed to be standing under the Heavenly Court, a mortal hopefully gazing up at the Heavenly Temple.

Swish! The ornamented tome opened by itself, free of the wind. The ink characters on the book seemed to dance in the breeze. As if through machinations of spirits, they swiftly flew onto the endless bamboo scroll! In a flash, a milky-white ray of light bloomed at the core of the golden expanse! It seemed to be the primordial light from when Pangu hefted his axe and split the heavens and the earth apart. 

Subsequently, lines of script shockingly appeared on the bamboo scroll. The headline read: Burning Heavens Revelation. Nevertheless, the proceeding characters fluttered incessantly as if there were a pair of formless hands controlling their “typesetting”.

There was a word that suddenly broke away from the middle, and in the wake of this, golden light danced like a dragon. Like butterflies, grains of golden dust silently fell onto the bamboo scroll, wordlessly bringing forth many more words. There were no lack of characters that were rejected, transforming into golden dust and gradually dissipating in the air. 

Xu Yangyi looked at all of this, his gaze twinkling. He didn’t say a word.

“Fifty-nine… Fifty-seven…” He softly counted these numbers aloud, from sixty to zero. Appearing to be brimming with patience, he continued to repeat these digits. From the beginning, he counted sixty forty times. He suddenly stood up and said heavily, “This isn’t the real world!”

“I was suspicious before that there couldn’t be such a huge ocean of lotuses inland. I just counted for a whole forty minutes, but nobody showed up!” He sat upright on a lotus leaf. “It’s impossible that the entire world’s cultivation satellites haven’t captured a formation this large! Humanity’s seven Core Formation cultivators oversee seven directions. Regardless of which direction, they would’ve definitely arrived within half an hour!”

“Right now… there’s no one else…” Xu Yangyi narrowed his eyes. “I’m not tired and hungry. This in itself is already removed from a Qi Condensation cultivator’s rules. In that case…”

“Who pulled me here? Is this place a legendary secret realm? Or maybe someone’s manipulating my spiritual sense?”

Swish! As Xu Yangyi’s thoughts revolved at lightning speed, the gigantic bamboo scroll formed from golden light finally ceased to move. It was unknown how long the bamboo scroll was or how many bamboo slips constituted it. Among the over a dozen slips, there were shockingly more lines of tiny golden script!

The first bamboo slip had a lone line of large characters. Xu Yangyi clearly remembered that this was originally the position of the Burning Heavens Revelation’s title, but now… it wasn’t. Five grand characters radiated a resplendent golden light from every single brush stroke to flourish and replace the characters for Burning Heavens Revelation, with incomparable tyranny. Magnificent and imperial, these words resided at the head of the bamboo slip! 

The Eternal Alchemy Canon! [1]