Chapter 262: Ruling the World (31) - Abyss

"Return home?"

Bai Xuanyi repeated the two words in a low voice. A sharp light flashed in his eyes. He could no longer maintain his composure, and his tone carried unmistakable excitement.

"Return to what home? Whose homeland? Could it refer to the Upper Realm? Does this ancient Blood Demon entrenched here also harbor an obsession with returning to the Upper Realm? Or... does it actually hold the method to transcend this world and return to the Upper Realm?"

His expression grew more solemn with every word. For those who had cultivated to the Soul Formation Realm, trapped in this world for eons without a breakthrough, their greatest obsession was shattering the shackles of heaven and earth. If they could pry even a shred of Upper Realm secrets from the Blood Demon, even if they never found the ascension pathway, leaving future cultivators a sliver of hope for transcendence would make this perilous journey into the secret realm worthwhile.

Spiritual light flickered at Jiuyou's fingertips as he recorded every ancient pattern condensed on the mountain of white bones. His expression remained as calm as water, revealing not a trace of ecstasy.

"That remains unknown for now. But we can be certain that our path forward is not wrong."

He glanced over the ceaselessly churning bloody mist around them. Spreading his divine sense in secret, he kept his guard up against any hidden ambushes and spoke with measured calm. "However, the fierce malevolence gathered here is incredibly bizarre. We absolutely cannot stay here for long. Let us leave immediately and reunite with Myriad Manifestations and the other two first."

Hongce gave a slight nod and carefully put his jade slip away. Bai Xuanyi forcibly suppressed his churning thoughts, gathered his focus, and fell silent. The three moved out, continuing their rapid flight forward.

Behind them, the entire blood-colored lake boiled and churned. The bloody water surged violently, constantly emitting shrill, piercing demonic howls as if countless living beings were suffering extreme agony. Pillars of blood erupted one after another along their path. Demonic creatures formed of bloody water continuously tore through the air to ambush them, their forms ferocious and their hostility soaring to the heavens.

But these desperately charging monsters were ultimately nothing before three Deity Transformation grandmasters. Their flight speed was utterly terrifying. In a flash, they threw off all obstructions, leaving the sky full of blood demons and the boiling sea of blood far behind.

The three flew at full speed for about an hour before an end finally appeared in their line of sight.

Yet they felt no joy. Instead, they all stopped their flight at the same time, frowning deeply.

This did not seem to be the end of the road; rather, it looked like the boundary of the entire secret realm.

Deep within their line of sight lay a boundless, bottomless, and desolate canyon. It was pitch-black, like an eternal abyss whose bottom could not be seen. The rock faces on both sides were deathly silent and barren, radiating a bone-piercing chill.

But the most heart-palpitating sight was the dense, crisscrossing web of spatial fissures hovering directly above the abyss.

Countless pitch-black fissures hung in the void, opening and closing erratically. They looked like dormant, pitch-black eyes coldly looking down at the uninvited guests who had intruded upon this place. Wisps of spatial turbulence leaked out, forcibly shredding even the surrounding bloody malevolence.

A ghastly chill—the distinct feeling of being intensely watched—instantly enveloped the three of them.

Behind that peering gaze, deep within a patch of darkness, a figure sat in an incredibly arrogant posture.

The figure was wreathed in impossibly thick, eerie blood qi, seemingly fused into one with the bloody malevolent power of the entire secret realm, obscuring the contours of his body. His eyes were a crimson red. He sat motionless upon a throne built from thousands of white bones, looking as if he had been entrenched there since the dawn of time.

A floating mirror of bloody water before him clearly reflected the figures of Jiuyou and the other two rushing forward.

"The remaining three have arrived as well."

Those scarlet eyes shifted slightly, locking precisely onto Jiuyou. A low, hoarse murmur slowly echoed in the darkness. "It really is you."

As his voice faded, overlapping echoes rippled from all directions. An ancient, bizarre voice faintly reverberated throughout the entire abyss. "You recognize this man?"

The corners of the throne-bound figure's mouth curled into a cold, sinister smile. It was none other than Fang Buxin, the man who was supposed to have perished long ago.

"Naturally." A hint of hidden dread and ruthless malice flashed through Fang Buxin's eyes. His tone carried a mix of reminiscence and harshness. "When I first awakened back then, I nearly fell at his hands. Hundreds of years have passed; that he could step into Deity Transformation is only to be expected."

His tone abruptly turned indifferent and cold.

"None of this matters. The origin essences of six Deity Transformation cultivators are top-tier nourishment. All of them will become the stepping stones for my return to the Returning Spirit Domain, the keys to shattering the shackles of this world." The bizarre echo sounded again, carrying a hint of treacherous mockery.

Fang Buxin gave a cold sneer, his eyes filled with mockery.

"At first I was worried that the Dao foundations of five Deity Transformation cultivators might not be stable enough to tear open the pathway. I had originally intended to secretly cultivate another Deity Transformation cultivator to shore up our foundation. Unfortunately, that idiot surnamed Fang was far too impatient and proved completely useless."

"At the juncture of life and death, he actually believed the so-called Nirvana Rebirth method I told him. In the end, he sacrificed himself for nothing, reduced to mere nourishment for me to restore my origin. Utterly laughable."

His gaze slowly shifted, sweeping past Bai Xuanyi and Jiuyou in the mirror before finally stopping on the composed, calculating figure of Hongce. His eyes narrowed slightly.

"This man, however, does have some skill."

"To think he could rely on divination arts to see through the second layer of divine soul traces I split off. What a pity that I am not that piece of trash Fang Buxin. How could a mere native of the Lower Realm ever compare to us?"

"Indeed." The instant that voice faded, the thick blood qi surrounding "Fang Buxin" abruptly retracted. The surroundings were once again plunged into total darkness, and his expression slowly turned solemn the moment the blood mist vanished.

...

Meanwhile, Jiuyou and the other two stood in the void, staring at the scene before them with grave expressions.

Bai Xuanyi frowned deeply, his voice laced with lingering fear and a heavy sigh. "We truly spent our time calculating a thousand times and figuring ten thousand times, yet we still missed the hidden danger here. To think that so many spatial fissures would be entrenched above this abyss."

He inwardly marveled at the ancient Blood Demon's terrifying layout; defenses were set at every step, and layers of killing intent followed one after another.

First, it had secretly destroyed the Ancient Teleportation Array, cutting off their path forward, all while polluting the spiritual energy of the entire region to suppress the cultivators' spiritual power. Then, it had created a boundless sea of blood, rearing countless bizarre remnant souls of blood demons to stall their advance layer by layer. And now, it had laid out an inescapable vacuum trap here, densely packing it with spatial fissures. Killing intent was truly omnipresent.

"This demon's schemes are meticulous. Its methods stack layer upon layer, striking at the heart at every step," Hongce sighed, stroking his beard. "The foundation and divine abilities of a creature fallen from the Upper Realm are indeed far beyond what we cultivators of this world can fathom."

Jiuyou stood in silence, quietly gazing into the pitch-black abyss below. The crisscrossing spatial fissures were terrifying, and chaotic spatial power streamed wildly through the area.

In his eyes, this deathly silent, fathomless abyss was no ordinary secret realm hazard. Instead, it looked like a massive, bloody maw that had lain dormant for eons, quietly entrenched here as it waited for them to walk right into its trap.