The Heavenly Five Declines
Chen Fan casually pulled a black, withered blade of grass growing in the darkest part of the earth from a crack in the rocks and put it back in his mouth.
His gaze slowly shifted to the bottomless abyss of black blood beneath the broken bridge.
Lu Heaven-Burning was killed, the Millennium Death Fiend Qi was mostly drained away by the Millstone.
However, at this moment, after the churning black mist receded, an extremely eerie rhythm emanated from the deepest part of the Abyss.
That was neither the deathly aura commonly found in the cultivation world, nor the Yin Sha of the Great Wilderness.
Rather, it possesses a foul, bloody stench Dimensions with the dimension of corrosive laws!
This kind of energy...
Chen Fan's eyes suddenly turned cold, and a chilling smile slowly curved his lips, which were still holding a dry blade of grass in their mouth.
With a withered blade of grass growing in the most yin part of the earth's veins dangling from his mouth, Chen Fan lightly touched the charred ruins of the broken bridge with his toes, and like an inconspicuous pebble, he plunged straight into the bottomless abyss of black blood.
The descent was extremely rapid, with the cliff faces on both sides rushing past.
Within three feet, the energy of the Miniature Divine Kingdom flowed naturally, forming an extremely thin gray-white membrane that quietly dissolved the oncoming yin and evil winds.
Using the faint red light emanating from the bottom of the Abyss, Chen Fan looked down.
The steep, knife-cut rock walls on both sides are densely covered with pale human bones.
Those skeletons remained in a twisted, struggling-upward posture, their bone structure long since eroded into a honeycomb pattern by the passage of time, with fragments of broken Daoist robes faintly visible, indicating that they had been preserved for at least tens of thousands of years.
The deeper one goes, the stronger the stench and decay permeating the Void become.
This is not the death aura of an ordinary cultivator after their passing.
Ordinary death, in the end, follows the natural Life-and-Death Wheel, and even in death, there is still a glimmer of hope.
But this aura carried a corrupt and foul stench.
After a hundred breaths, Chen Fan's feet landed firmly on the hard ground.
The sole of the boot made a slight sound as it touched the wet, sticky, dark red blood.
The bottom of the abyss was not a fault line in the earth's veins, but a huge bronze altar with a circumference of more than ten miles.
The bronze was mottled and had long been covered with a thick layer of black and red blood stains.
At the very center of the altar stood nine hundred-foot-tall stone pillars with coiled dragons, their surfaces engraved with dense array patterns.
Chen Fan had previously seen the same brushstrokes on the Heaven-Piercing Gate stone pillars in the Immortal Alliance Divine City.
The Fundamental Spirit-Locking Grand Formation at the heart of the Southern Nation Immortal Alliance.
Glug, glug.
Around the altar, eight blood pools, each a hundred feet in diameter, were bubbling wildly, churning with a nauseating grayish-white viscous liquid.
Seven or eight young, mangled bodies floated in the slime.
Judging from the tattered brocade robes, they were disciples of a major sect from the Southern Nation who had entered the Fallen Immortal Ancient Plains. Among them were even two top geniuses who had reached the Golden Core stage and were half-step into the Deity Transformation Prodigies.
But by this moment, these once arrogant and overbearing Prodigies had already breathed their last.
Their Qi Sea was forcibly opened, and their natal nascent Nascent Souls and flawless Golden Cores looked as if they had been viciously devoured by some invisible monster, becoming shriveled and blackened.
The Pure Yang Qi and Blood that was as vigorous as a furnace around his body was forcibly drained by the eight blood pools and flowed along the grooves of the altar toward an ancient bronze cauldron in the very center of the altar.
"The Heavenly Five Declines."
Chen Fan stood by the blood pool, his amber eyes slightly narrowed.
He had lived for countless millennia, and had swept across countless realms in the war between gods and demons. He saw through the cruel truth of this small world at a glance.
In the cultivation system of this Cangwu Realm, to advance from the Deity Transformation stage to the Void Refinement, one must eliminate the evil influences from the physical body and Pure Yang the Primordial Spirit, passing through the five tribulations brought down by heaven and earth. "Decline of physical body, decline of Primordial Spirit, decline of lifespan, Dao Heart, and decline of magical power."
The Supreme Cangming, who lived for nine thousand years and was known as the ruler of the Southern Nation, did not die of old age at all. Instead, he was stuck between the peak of the Deity Transformation stage and the Void Refinement stage, and his Dao Foundation was completely rotten.
He cannot survive this great calamity.
The so-called Ascension Convention, which selects a new Alliance Leader, is nothing more than a scheme to lure thousands of the most Qi and Blood and purest young Prodigies from the Southern Region Dao Foundation even the Southern Nation into the Ancient Plains, treating them as a blood-nourishing elixir to delay his own decline from the Heavenly Five Declines!
The Prodigies Pure Yang died in place of the Supreme Being; Life Force of the People to prolong the old monster's life.
"Using the deadly trap of heaven and earth, they commit cannibalistic acts."
Chen Fan spat out the withered grass from his mouth, his eyes as indifferent as an ancient well.
In the world of cultivation, the strong prey on the weak, and there is no inherent right or wrong. However, to package such sordid activities as a sacred and flawless ascension ceremony is truly disgusting.
Right at this moment.
Buzz!!
In the dim Void surrounding the altar, several extremely subtle ripples suddenly appeared in the air.
Seven figures, shrouded in heavy black iron Battle Armor, stepped out of the spatial rift without warning.
The black armor was engraved with the unique three-legged golden crow pattern of the Immortal Alliance Inspectorate, exuding a cold, murderous aura.
The seven landed on the edge of the blood pool, their feet landing on the edge. At the same time, they swept their earth-rank black halberds across the area, sealing off any escape routes.
The leader, a black-armored commander, was extremely burly, with a powerful aura emanating from the gaps in his armor, suggesting he was at the mid-stage of the Nascent Deity Transformation. He held a compass in his hand, its pointer fixedly pointing at Chen Fan.
"Chen Fan, son of Chen Changqing, of the Azure Cloud Sword Sect."
The commander's voice came from behind the mask, low and hoarse, like two pieces of rusty iron rubbing against each other.
His gaze swept over Chen Fan, and seeing that the other man was all alone, with neither True Essence protecting him nor any magical light, except for a ridiculous yellowed talisman pasted on his left chest, he immediately sneered.
"Inspector's calculations are truly astounding. Your Azure Cloud Sword Sect was indeed hiding something. I thought it would take some effort, but I never expected you, you little brat, to seek your own death by daring to jump into this Bone-Melting Immortal-Burying Abyss."
The Ancient Plain World Barrier was sturdy, and a great formation sealed off both the inside and outside.
The order to retreat issued by Lu Jiuyuan outside the battle arena could not penetrate the barrier between the two worlds.
This armored suicide squad, stationed deep in the Ancient Plains, continues to mechanically carry out the initial orders.
Chen Fan stood before the pool of blood, not even lifting his eyelids.
He simply stretched out his fair, delicate fingers and gently smoothed the edge of the Tier Two Diamond Talisman on his left chest.
"It seems Lu Jiuyuan's eyes aren't completely blind yet."
Chen Fan spoke calmly.
Upon hearing this, the black-armored commander's pupils contracted sharply beneath his visor, his killing intent blazing. "Insolence! You dare to insult the Inspector even when you're about to die!"
He had no intention of lingering in this godforsaken place. The Death Fiend Qi aura at the bottom of the abyss could even corrode the magic treasures of a Nascent Deity Transformation cultivator; staying even a moment longer would shorten his lifespan.
"Form the Soul-Locking Spirit-Shattering Formation!"
The commander issued the order in a stern voice, showing no regard for chivalry or honor; even a lion would use its full strength to hunt a rabbit.
"Break his limbs, cripple his entire body, and stuff him into the Soul-Devouring Urn's still alive!"
Boom!
Before the words were finished, the other six black-armored assassins stepped forward simultaneously.
The immense True Essence of the six half-step Deity Transformation converged into a dark, raging torrent, tearing through the Void. Seven pitch-black Nascent-Soul-Breaking Iron Halberds, covered in countless barbs and resembling Nascent Soul cleavers, shot through the air.
The murderous aura, as black as ink, transformed into seven ferocious black dragons, sealing off all of Chen Fan's escape routes.
The sharp, piercing sound of air being torn apart was deafening. Before the iron spear even arrived, the vicious, malevolent energy had already torn the bronze floor tiles beneath Chen Fan's feet apart inch by inch!