Nine Nether Cave (2)

"I'd like to see how you're going to make me unhappy?" A line of fire-shaped characters flashing with blue light appeared again, full of contempt.

Yan Tuo laughed wildly, his protective Gang Qi slowly receding, and his flesh and blood shrinking. In the blink of an eye, he became skin and bones, while his abdomen gradually swelled up.

This scene caused Yue Qianchou's pupils to shrink sharply, and he could no longer look down on them. He immediately remembered a terrifying thing—self-destructing his Dantian.

For cultivators, the Dantian is the body's energy reservoir; the consequences of self-destructing the Dantian are unimaginable. Upon reaching the Nascent Soul Realm, the Nascent Soul within the Dantian becomes a solidified entity of pure energy. At this point, the Three Souls and Seven Spirits of the body are gathered in the Nascent Soul, no longer in the physical body. Therefore, for cultivators at the Nascent Soul Realm, ordinary external evil invasions generally cannot cause substantial harm; at most, they will damage the physical body, and healing is not particularly difficult.

However, while self-destruction at the Nascent Soul Realm is more powerful, it also obliterates the Three Souls and Seven Spirits. In other words, once a cultivator at the Nascent Soul Realm self-destructs, they lose even the chance of reincarnation. If it's a self-destruction before the Nascent Soul Realm, this life is over, but there's a next life. Yan Tuo, currently at the early Tribulation stage, has consumed a significant amount of his True Essence, but the explosion of his Tribulation Transcendence stage Nascent Soul is still formidable. Yue Qianchou will definitely suffer. Moreover, judging from his appearance, it seems he's worried the self-destruction won't be powerful enough, as he's concentrated all his energy in his abdomen.

For an ordinary person, this cave is only about ten feet wide, and in this situation, both moving forward and backward are difficult. Being Tribulation Transcendence stage is like having a bomb explode next to them. Fortunately, Yue Qianchou is no ordinary person either; he has a third way out than others: Utopia. However, it's still quite frustrating for him. He finally made it this far, but he didn't have a chance to leave behind any teleportation coordinates. With Yan Tuo's self-destruction, he has to start all over again.

Damn it! I always thought I was pretty ruthless, but today I've met someone even more ruthless. It's one thing to not want to live this life, but there's someone who doesn't even want to live the next! What a load of crap! Yue Qianchou's expression twitched, and his flying sword swiftly drew a few words: "Are you crazy?!"

Yan Tuo Yan Tuo looked like a skeleton, let out a dry, hoarse voice and cackled, "It's Yue Qianchou too far." As he spoke, suddenly, the protective Gang Qi around his body instantly retracted into his body; he was about to self-destruct.

"Bastard! Beast!" Yue Qianchou closed his eyes and shrank back, about to flash back to Utopia, when he heard Yan Tuo making painful "hehe" sounds in his throat. Before leaving, Yue Qianchou opened his eyes and glanced at him, then his eyes widened immediately, and he decided not to go any further.

It turned out that Yan Tuo, having Yan Tuo his protective Gang Qi, was immediately subjected to the furious blowing and erosion of the Yin wind and black evil. His clothes vanished like ashes, followed by his body hair, and then his skin was scraped off from back to front as if he were being undressed. Subsequently, chunks of his bloody muscles, which had just been exposed, slid off his limbs and bones and were blown away.

Yue Qianchou, who had been hiding in the back, was suddenly presented with Yan Tuo's flesh and blood as a reward, followed by his internal organs—it was truly disgusting. The azure flames surrounding Yue Qianchou surged, turning all the attackers to ashes. Yan Tuo's stubbornly upright bones immediately withered upon encountering the black Sha Qi, shattering into pieces under the onslaught of black baleful energy and yin wind, and drifting away with the wind.

"Just like that, he died? What the hell was that thing?" Yue Qianchou couldn't help but shudder. Anyone who saw someone die like that before their eyes would feel a chill run down their spine. Looking around, he was all alone, with only the mournful howling of the wind lingering in his ears.

Seeing how powerful the yin wind and Sha Qi were, he hesitated to retreat, but a surge of fierce determination within him made him grit his teeth and continue forward without hesitation. However, he now held two cyan flying swords in each hand, and the cyan flames surrounding his body had grown considerably larger.

The people on the cliff outside the cave looked grave and uneasy. The bearded man, Sai Zhang Fei, strode up to Yu Ji, clasped his hands in a fist salute, and said, "Madam, we can no longer stand idly by. While the master hasn't gone too far, I am willing to go and call him back. If we wait any longer, I fear we will find him too late. If that happens..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but everyone understood his meaning: if Yue Qianchou died, and the Punishment Envoy became enraged, no one would be able to escape responsibility. All eyes turned to Yu Ji hesitated briefly before finally nodding and saying, "Zhang Ling and Fu Ze, you two, listen to my command!"

"Here!" A burly general stepped forward and, together with Sai Zhang Fei, clasped his hands in greeting. It turned out that Sai Zhang Fei's surname was indeed Zhang, but his name wasn't Zhang Fei; it was Zhang Ling.

"I order you two to bring the master back immediately. If he is unwilling, you may forcibly bring him back if necessary, and I will bear all the consequences." Yu Ji gave the order decisively, showing her strong and capable side as a woman who had followed Meng Yan for many years.

"Your subordinate obeys!" After receiving the order, the two nodded to each other, enveloped their bodies in Gang Qi, and immediately sprang into two phantoms, shooting directly into the Nine Nether Cave opposite them. They disappeared in the blink of an eye. Based on this alone, the two were clearly much more powerful than Yue Qianchou and Yan Tuo.

"I'll go too!" Ziyi had barely finished speaking when Yu Ji stopped her again. Yu Ji shook her head helplessly and said, "Miss, from your conversation with the master, I know you are no ordinary person. If something happens to you... In short, I will not let you in no matter what."

Yu Ji waved her hand gently towards the Nine Nether Cave, and immediately ten late Ghost King stage the Ghost King realm flew out, landing directly at the Nine Nether Cave entrance. Each of them emitted a pale black orb of light from their bodies, enveloping themselves and guarding the entire Nine Nether Cave. The disciplined training of the army was immediately apparent. Ziyi Yi glanced at them silently, knowing that she couldn't handle these Ghost Kings alone. She sighed, gently freed herself from Yu Ji's hand, and stood there quietly without saying a word.

After walking for a while, Yue Qianchou discovered that the only dangers in the cave seemed to be the yin wind and Sha Qi. There were no other hazards. Rather than slowly exhausting himself, he decided to... After making up his mind, Yue Qianchou gritted his teeth and started jogging. The black evil energy became denser and denser, and the fire element was consumed faster and faster.

He didn't know how far it was underground. After jogging for nearly a kilometer, the passage turned another corner. As soon as he turned, he felt the pressure suddenly increase dramatically, and the wind became even stronger. He let out a strange cry of "Damn it!" as the wind blew the sound behind him, and he scrambled and dodged back to the corner. A swarm of black wind blades shot out, striking the stone wall at the turn with a series of clanging sounds, before dissipating into black energy that was carried away by the eerie wind.

Yue Qianchou hid around the corner, staring blankly at the black demons blown away. He then realized that the black demons he had encountered on the road were formed from the dissipation of these black wind blades. He wanted to use his Divine Sense to investigate, but he dared not, because he had already tried once before. The Sha Qi could actually corrode his Divine Sense, causing him to howl in pain. It was truly bizarre.

After waiting for a while, several waves of wind blades flew out one after another, one wave every few seconds. After timing it perfectly, he took out a piece of black iron and threw it out. With a few clangs, the whole piece of black iron was cut into several pieces and fell to the ground, rolling and tumbling back the way it came, and was blown away by the cold wind.

"Damn it! What the hell is this wind blade formed by the black evil? It cuts through black iron like it's tofu, it's too powerful! Who can get past here?" Yue Qianchou was frustrated. His gaze fell on the dark stone wall and he paused. The stone wall here seemed different from the places he had passed through before. Under the light of the azure fire, it seemed to have a metallic luster. Yue Qianchou's eyes lit up. He took out the Ghost King Token that Yu Ji had given him from his Storage Bag. Comparing the two, it was indeed exactly the same.

This passage was actually constructed entirely of Nether Iron! Yue Qianchou silently tossed the token back into his Storage Bag; now was not the time to deal with Nether Iron.

A wave of wind blades shot out, followed by a flash of azure light carrying fierce flames. A series of clanging sounds rang out as the wind blades that were struck turned into Sha Qi and were blown away by the yin wind. Yue Qianchou retrieved his Azure Fire flying sword, feeling confident. Since the Azure Fire flying sword could counter the wind blades, things would be much easier.

In the blink of an eye, dozens of Azure Fire flying sword swirled around him. Yue Qianchou turned and went out, only to see a wave of wind blades coming. A dozen Azure Fire flying sword quickly flashed out, breaking the oncoming wind blades. As for the others, as long as they didn't hurt his body, he let them fly away.

Seeing that the attack was effective, Yue Qianchou immediately increased his speed, with more than a dozen cyan flying swords clearing the way ahead.

Zhang Ling and Fu Ze ventured forth in the dark. Being ghost cultivators, darkness had little effect on them, and ghost cultivators were not afraid of the yin winds, only the Sha Qi. Normally, this Sha Qi had no effect on ghost cultivators of the underworld, but the two were not true underworld ghost cultivators. Having fallen to the mortal realm for too long, they had accumulated a great deal of human energy within them. If they encountered that Sha Qi, they might be annihilated. Cultivators like Yan Tuo, who originally possessed mortal bodies, naturally had even more human energy within them, but upon encountering the black malevolent energy, their fate would be tragically bleak.

Having reached this point without seeing Yue Qianchou, the two grew anxious. In their telepathic exchanges, they avoided discussing the possibility that Yue Qianchou had likely met with misfortune. Suddenly, the two exclaimed in unison, "Eh!" They could see in the darkness and saw several pieces of debris tumbling towards them in the wind. When one of them landed at their feet, they simultaneously stepped on it. Lifting it up, they saw it was a piece of black iron, with a clean, freshly cut surface and spots of corrosion from Sha Qi.

"To our surprise, it seems you've already arrived there," Fu Ze transmitted his voice. Zhang Ling nodded and transmitted back, "Let's go, let's go see if we can catch up." The two ran forward quickly. They could have flown, but flying would consume too much of their ghost cultivator's vital energy, and they were afraid they wouldn't have enough energy to support their protective aura when they returned. The same applied to teleportation, and besides, one couldn't carry their protective Gang Qi with them when teleporting.

After some time, the two generals reached the turning point, and the clanging sound of the wind blades colliding before them made them stop in their tracks...

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