Gateway of Immortality

Chapter 1207: Abyssal Ruin

He carefully put away even the decayed white bones as if they were precious treasures.

Qin Sang still refused to give up. He wanted to search this place for more clues, to uncover Tan Hao’s whereabouts, and, if possible, find that mysterious person and settle the matter once and for all.

Inside this cave, other than the bone array, there were no other traces. Qin Sang went over every underwater peak, yet still found nothing. The barriers in the water seemed to exist for the sole purpose of sealing this one person. His search yielded nothing.

Qin Sang raised his head and looked upward. "I should take a look above the water. If nothing unexpected happens, this should be Abyssal Ruin..."

He activated the ebony sword to protect himself, suppressing the fluctuations of its sword qi to the faintest possible degree. Secretly on guard, he rose cautiously to the surface.

Rumble... What greeted him was a world-destroying storm. Above the water, the void was steeped in dim gray.

Qin Sang steadied himself and looked around, discovering that he seemed to be inside a lake. The entire surface was shrouded beneath dark, gloomy clouds that sealed it off completely.

Inside the clouds, it was like a realm of chaos, completely blocking both Qin Sang’s sight and his spiritual consciousness.

Yet standing here, Qin Sang sensed the tremors far more clearly. Back at Heavenly Corpse Sect's headquarters, it had felt as though there had been a layer in between, with only the aftereffects of the ripples reaching him.

Now, he could really feel those waves of shock surging one after another.

"I am certain that these are tremors from Sin God Palace. This place is inside Abyssal Ruin!" Qin Sang exclaimed.

Qin Sang looked up at the gloomy clouds and realized that they were actually formed from layers of powerful ancient barriers. They only seemed dark and murky, but in truth they were extremely dangerous, capable of devouring any intruder.

Then he rose into the storm and flew to the edge of the clouds, circling them back and forth for a while as though searching for something.

"So that’s how it is. Every tremor from Sin God Palace has struck both the ancient barriers in the clouds and the seal, so flaws have long since appeared. The barrier power here has actually been leaking away all this time. In the last few hundred years, Ziwei Palace has appeared frequently, and Sin God Palace must have been shaking often as well, causing the sealing power to weaken drastically. Back in the era of Heavenly Corpse Sect, the seal had been far more stable. Even if Heavenly Corpse Sect's leader had been a Spiritual Infant expert, he might not have been able to break it open." Qin Sang finally roughly understood why Heavenly Corpse Sect had failed to rescue that mysterious person.

After circling once, he tried to locate a flaw in the ancient barriers. He actually intended to pass through the gloomy clouds and enter Abyssal Ruin!

He was not doing this to search for Tan Hao.

Qin Sang guessed that after rescuing the mysterious person, Tan Hao had probably returned to Heavenly Corpse Sect's headquarters by the original route. Although the power of the ancient barriers in the clouds had been leaking away, they were still far from easy to pass through.

He wanted to enter Abyssal Ruin himself. The first reason, and the most important one, was related to the Killing Sword fragment.

When he had formed his Spiritual Infant, the Killing Sword’s sword spirit had sent out a thought urging Qin Sang to search for the other fragments. As long as he drew near one, the Killing Sword’s sword spirit would sense it and guide him.

Of the two fragments he had found before, one had been in Ziwei Palace, and the other had been in Seven-Kill Hall.

There was obviously an extremely deep connection between Sin God Palace and Ziwei Palace. Qin Sang guessed that, just like Seven-Kill Hall, Sin God Palace might also be hiding a fragment. But Sin God Palace was controlled by the cultivators of Sin Abyss, and the three domains were in the middle of a war. To infiltrate Sin God Palace unnoticed would require quite a bit of effort.

Still, no one knew into how many pieces the Killing Sword had shattered. They might not all be hidden in secret realms related to Ziwei Palace.

Across the vast Beichen Realm, among all kinds of forbidden lands and secret realms, only Ancient Immortal Battlefield surpassed Abyssal Ruin. Since he could not enter Sin God Palace for the time being, he naturally could not miss this chance to search Abyssal Ruin.

Sin Abyss still did not know this passage existed, but the power of the ancient barriers in the clouds was steadily draining away. Once it weakened to a certain extent, this place would definitely be discovered.

The second reason was that Qin Sang sensed the source of the tremors was not nearby. It was very far away.

The core of Abyssal Ruin was undoubtedly where Sin God Palace stood. That place was certainly the most heavily guarded area in all of Sin Abyss, while other regions would be far less tightly watched.

The tremors of Sin God Palace swept through the entire Abyssal Ruin, causing massive chaos. That made it the perfect chance to use the disturbances as cover and conceal his movements.

As long as he acted carefully, and with the Sky-Eyed Butterfly able to warn him in time, the chance of being discovered was very small.

As Qin Sang thought, he continued circling the gloomy clouds and searching for weaker points in the ancient barriers. At last, he selected a location.

He drew the twelve devilish banners into his sleeve and activated the ebony sword, preparing to break the barriers with all his strength.

The Sky-Eyed Butterfly stood on Qin Sang’s shoulder, its wings opening and closing as it focused intently on searching for flaws in the ancient barriers. Here, its Sky Eyes could be used to its fullest extent.

Its wings were glittering with light. Flickers from its Sky Eyes shone within them, along with faint threads of lightning.

In truth, after the Sky-Eyed Butterfly had broken through to the fourth metamorphosis, it had not only comprehended the Sky Eyes Divine Light, but had also gained the ability to protect itself. The lightning it wielded contained a trace of the true intent of tribulation lightning, and its power was not to be underestimated.

Even so, Qin Sang still protected it out of habit, doing his best not to let it face enemies directly. He was also considering the risk of letting others discover the Sky-Eyed Butterfly’s ability to devour tribulation lightning.

The Sky-Eyed Butterfly itself was still very fragile. If anything happened to it, Qin Sang would regret it.

Sword qi swirled around the Sky-Eyed Butterfly, thickest and most impenetrable at its side. It could feel its master’s care for it. The emotions it sensed were not just closeness, but also attachment and a childlike dependence.

The man and the butterfly worked together with all their strength to break the barriers.

They soon found a flaw in the ancient barriers, like a crack piercing deep into the gloomy clouds.

However, because it was affected by the tremors from Sin God Palace, the ancient barriers were unstable, and the crack appeared and vanished unpredictably. Qin Sang observed it for a long time, searching for a pattern. Once he confirmed that the danger was not great, his figure blurred and entered the crack.

The ebony sword hung upside down above his head, and sword qi draped around him like tassels for protection. Every time it swayed, it slashed out a beam of sword light that struck the gloomy clouds in succession.

Qin Sang was not attacking at random. Every place struck by the sword light was a critical point of the ancient barriers. As Qin Sang and the Sky-Eyed Butterfly came to understand the barriers better and better, they followed the flaws and carefully unraveled the barriers thread by thread, carving out a passage as their figures disappeared into the depths of the gloomy clouds.

These clouds are far thicker than I imagined... Qin Sang paused for only a moment as the thought flashed through his mind, then lowered his head and continued working.

After breaking through who knew how many layers of barriers, the clouds ahead finally began to thin. He quickened his movements, and the ebony sword instantly slashed out dozens of beams of sword light, finally splitting the clouds apart!

Whoosh! Qin Sang shot out of the gloomy clouds. Just then, another tremor struck, and he immediately felt an immense pressure slam into his body.

The ebony sword quivered lightly and helped him shed the impact.

Beyond the gloomy clouds lay an unknown land.

Qin Sang looked around and found the place incomparably barren. Beyond the clouds outside, another bank of gloomy clouds stretched onward. Ancient barriers were everywhere, and the dim sea of clouds extended without end.

Among the clouds, the silhouettes of mountain peaks appeared and disappeared. They were the same gray tone as the gloomy clouds. Abyssal Ruin felt like an abandoned wasteland, dark and lifeless.

"So this is Abyssal Ruin. The scenery is completely different from that of Ancient Immortal Battlefield, and its danger is second only to the deeper regions of Ancient Immortal Battlefield where space itself is shattered. Still, this kind of terrain makes it easier to hide my aura, and the tremors from Sin God Palace will continue for a long time yet. I can search slowly." Qin Sang carefully sensed the surrounding environment, then entered the gap between the two masses of clouds.