Alone into the Depths

Chapter 21: Alone into the Depths

Golden light drifted through the clouds for about half an hour before Taiyi gradually slowed.

The closer he got to Buzhou Mountain, the more pungent the baleful aura became, like entering an old slaughterhouse, its stench mingled with the smell of rust until it made his head ache. He hovered in midair and looked down.

Buzhou Mountain stood a hundred li ahead, dark and heavy, like a spine bent beneath the weight of heaven yet stubbornly refusing to break. A faint layer of gray mist floated over its surface—Chaos Sha Qi left behind from the creation of the world. After countless eras, it had yet to disperse completely. Instead, it had mingled with the mountain rock, dyeing the entire mountain a dull gray.

Specks of firelight could be seen at the mountain's foot.

The Witch Race encampments.

Taiyi narrowed his eyes and counted. There were no fewer than thirty of them, with vague figures gathered around every fire. Patrols crawled along the mountain paths like ants. Even from this far away, he could sense their domineering, unreasonable presence.

"This formation..." he muttered, "they really spared no expense."

A system panel appeared before his eyes:

[Arrived at the outskirts of the target area]

[Recommendation: immediately switch to infiltration mode]

[Current Witch Race patrol density: extremely high]

[Detected outer fluctuations of the Twelve Capital Gods and Fiends Formation]

Taiyi took a deep breath and formed a hand seal.

The golden light around him gradually dimmed, like dying embers. The dazzling Golden Crow of the sun became an inconspicuous shadow, blending into the night. Even his aura was concealed to the utmost degree, the pressure of a Grand Unity Golden Immortal entirely withdrawn into his body. At this moment, he looked no different from a flying stone.

This was the Hidden Radiance Art, one of Eastern Emperor Taiyi's most closely guarded aura-concealing techniques.

It had originally been used for ambushes or escape, but now it was an excellent means of infiltration.

He descended, flying close beneath the cloud cover. Wind whistled past his ears, carrying Buzhou Mountain's distinctive earthy stench mixed with baleful aura. It smelled like rusted iron soaked in old blood.

While flying, Taiyi suddenly remembered something and sank his consciousness into his sea of consciousness.

"System, bring up the exchange list."

A semi-transparent interface with a Chaos Background unfolded in his mind, dark golden runes twisting across it. Taiyi's gaze settled on the [Temporary Items] section:

[Witch Blood Powder (three hours) - 8 points: Simulates the aura of a Great Witch; effective against Golden Immortals and below.]

It was exactly what he needed.

"Exchange for Witch Blood Powder."

[Confirm exchange for 'Witch Blood Powder (three hours)'?]

[Yes/No]

"Yes."

The instant he spoke, Taiyi immediately felt a change.

First, 8 Taboo Points were deducted—this was not an energy transfer, but a "credential of authority" that allowed him, as an "anomaly," to operate here by "violating conventional laws." His Taboo Points dropped from 57 to 49.

Immediately afterward, the system began operating.

Taiyi could clearly sense the system retrieving complete data from its database regarding the Great Witch Essence Blood Law Structure and Illusionary Herb Property Information. This information flowed into his consciousness, allowing him to instantly understand the composition of Witch Blood Powder—it was a technique that simulated Witch Race bloodline fluctuations to create an illusion of "shared origin" on the level of laws.

Then, the system began extracting environmental energy.

Taiyi was currently flying among the clouds, where there was mainly pure spiritual energy of heaven and earth, along with a small amount of Tribulation Sha Qi. However, these materials were insufficient—Witch Blood Powder required Earth Vein Turbid Qi as its primary ingredient.

[Insufficient environmental materials detected]

[Adjusting plan...]

[Plan One: Exchange after entering an earth vein region (recommended)]

[Plan Two: Use the host's own Blood Fiend Power as substitute material, but effectiveness will be halved and duration reduced to one and a half hours]

[Please choose]

Taiyi frowned.

Half the effect? Only an hour and a half?

He calculated quickly. From entering the earth veins to reaching Pangu Hall and checking in, the system estimated it would take two hours. Even if everything went smoothly, an hour and a half might not be enough.

"Delay the exchange," Taiyi decided. "I'll exchange it after entering the earth veins."

[Exchange process paused]

[8 Taboo Points have been frozen and will automatically be deducted once conditions are met]

Taiyi withdrew his consciousness and continued flying.

After another twenty li, the system suddenly beeped:

[Patrol approaching thirty li to the front left]

[Recommendation: evade]

Taiyi immediately veered right, dropped lower, and plunged into the thick rain clouds below. The clouds were damp, and moisture clung coolly to his skin. He hovered within them, holding his breath and suppressing even his heartbeat to its lowest level.

About ten breaths later, the clouds to his front left burst apart with a crash.

Three figures swept past. They were all members of the Witch Race, dressed in worn leather armor and carrying crude stone spears. The leader had a face full of flesh, with a scar across his left cheek that stretched from the corner of his eye to the corner of his mouth.

"Damn bad luck," the scar-faced witch cursed. "Patrolling the mountain in the middle of the night, and those feathered bastards have probably already fled without a trace."

"Say less," the younger one beside him said in a muffled voice. "It was Lady Xuan Ming's order. You dare disobey?"

"I'm just saying..." Scarface muttered, his voice growing distant.

Taiyi waited until they had completely vanished from sight before emerging from the clouds.

[Danger eliminated]

[Continue forward]

He continued onward, this time even more cautiously. Every ten li, he stopped and swept the area with his divine sense. The airspace around Buzhou Mountain was filled with fine spatial folds—traces left behind by Di Jiang's constant tearing of space. They were like invisible spiderwebs. If he carelessly ran into one, the alarm would sound.

After evading another three patrols, he finally reached the foot of Buzhou Mountain.

Taiyi landed on a field of jagged rocks. Beneath his feet were rugged black stones, with dark red moss growing in their cracks, gleaming eerily under the moonlight. Ahead, the mountain was like a colossal wall without a visible peak, rising straight into the night sky.

Now that he was here, he could no longer fly.

He would be too obvious in the sky, and the Witch Race were not blind. He had to travel on the ground, then burrow underground.

Taiyi crouched and pressed his right hand against a black stone. His palm felt its icy hardness. The stone contained dense earth-element spiritual energy, as well as... a faint, almost imperceptible pressure.

Pangu's pressure.

Even though this was merely a mountain formed from his fallen body, it still retained the aura of the one who had split heaven from earth. This pressure was a tonic to the Witch Race, but poison to the Demon Race—stay too long, and even one's bloodline would be suppressed.

Fortunately, Taiyi was not a pure member of the Demon Race.

He was a Golden Crow born from the Sun Star, his essence closer to that of the Innate Deities. In addition, the Blood Fiend Power of a Chaos Demon God had mixed into his body, greatly increasing his resistance to Pangu's pressure.

But he still could not linger for long.

He stood and approached a stone wall. Vines crawled across it, their leaves deep green and thick as leather. Taiyi pushed the vines aside, revealing the dark mountain rock beneath.

Then he extended his index finger and drew a circle on the stone wall.

A dim golden flame lit at his fingertip. The moment it touched the wall, the stone melted like wax, silently opening into a hole roughly three feet wide. The edges were smooth, and not a speck of debris fell.

Taiyi slipped inside and wiped his hand behind him.

The melted stone solidified again. The opening vanished, the stone wall returned to normal, and even the vines grew back into their original positions, as though nothing had happened.

The cave was so dark that he could not see his hand before his face.

Taiyi stood still, waiting for his eyes to slowly adjust. The cave was not large, just enough for him to stand in. Ahead lay a pitch-black passage leading to an unknown destination. The air carried an earthy smell mixed with something else... the scent of decay.

"System, navigate."

[Scanning earth vein structure...]

[Scan complete]

[Detected seventeen main earth veins and more than three hundred branch veins]

[Target: Pangu Hall, located at the earth vein convergence on the shaded side of Buzhou Mountain]

[Planning route...]

A three-dimensional map appeared before him. Within the gray-black mountain, tangled earth veins spread like blood vessels. Some were as broad as rivers, while others were as fine as hairs. One dark red main vein extended from the mountain's base deep into its shaded side, branching into dozens of smaller veins along the way.

The system marked a winding blue line across the map, following the branch veins and avoiding the main veins—there were surely restrictions planted by the Witch Race in the main veins.

[Route planning complete]

[Estimated travel time: two hours]

[Warning: Turbid Qi concentration in the earth veins is extremely high. Please take protective measures.]

Taiyi nodded. The environmental conditions were now met.

"System, continue the exchange for Witch Blood Powder."

[Environmental conditions met]

[Sufficient Earth Vein Turbid Qi detected]

[Resuming exchange process...]

Taiyi immediately felt the Turbid Qi in the surrounding environment begin to be drawn in by the system. Those gray currents containing chaotic impurities surged toward him as if pulled by an invisible force.

At the same time, the law information retrieved by the system began to take effect. The information guided the reorganization of the Turbid Qi—not through simple compression, but through reconstruction at the level of laws, simulating the unique fluctuation frequency of Witch Race bloodlines.

A trace of Taiyi's Blood Fiend Power was also drawn out and injected into the process as a "catalyst." The dark red power mixed with the gray Turbid Qi, weaving and restructuring.

The entire process lasted about one breath.

Before him, a small pinch of dark red powder "precipitated" out of thin air. It resembled dried blood scabs and emitted a faint scent of blood mixed with the strange odor of decaying vegetation. The powder floated in the air, glowing faintly.

This was Witch Blood Powder.

Taiyi reached out and caught it. The powder fell into his palm, fine-textured and slightly warm. He examined it carefully—this was a single-use disguise item temporarily synthesized using 8 Taboo Points, environmental Turbid Qi, and the system's knowledge base.

The cost was clear:

· 8 Taboo Points consumed (already deducted)

· The Turbid Qi concentration within one zhang of the area had dropped by roughly twenty percent

· The system had consumed a trace amount of Demon God Origin to maintain the law reconstruction

· It might leave behind a faint Causal Trace

He scattered the powder over himself.

The powder dissolved the instant it touched his body, seeping into his skin.

Taiyi felt a faint prickling pain, as if countless tiny needles were stabbing him. A dark red glow spread over his skin and vanished only after three breaths. When he looked down again, a layer of distinctive Witch Race totem patterns had faintly appeared on his arm—simple and rough, but convincing enough.

The Witch Blood Powder had taken effect.

He took a deep breath—within the earthy smell of the air, he now sensed a hint of familiarity. The discomfort brought by Pangu's pressure had also eased considerably, as if he had truly become half Witch Race.

"Three hours..." he murmured. "I need to hurry."

He stepped deeper into the passage.

The cave was terrifyingly silent, with only the sound of his own footsteps. The stone walls were wet, dripping water downward, drip by drip. The farther he went, the narrower the passage became. In some places, he had to turn sideways just to squeeze through.

After walking for about the time it took an incense stick to burn, a fork appeared ahead.

Three passages led in different directions. The left one carried the faint sound of water, the right had the sound of wind, while the middle one was completely silent.

Following the system's navigation, Taiyi chose the middle path.

The moment he entered, he sensed that something was wrong.

The concentration of Turbid Qi in the air abruptly surged. This was no ordinary polluted air, but chaotic impurities accumulated in the depths of the earth veins over countless ages, mixed with death aura, resentment, and all manner of other foul things.

One breath made his lungs feel heavy.

Taiyi activated True Sun Fire, spreading a thin golden barrier over his body. The Turbid Qi struck the barrier with sizzling sounds, like water droplets falling onto red-hot iron, sending up wisps of green smoke.

But this consumed too much magical power.

After only a hundred or so steps, half a tenth of his power had already been consumed. At this rate, he would not even reach the shaded side of the mountain, much less Pangu Hall, before exhausting himself.

He stopped and frowned in thought.

Then he suddenly remembered something. With a thought, he withdrew the True Sun Fire barrier.

The Turbid Qi immediately surged over him like thick mud, wrapping around his entire body. His skin stung as if countless tiny needles were piercing it. Taiyi gritted his teeth and endured it while simultaneously drawing upon the dark red Blood Fiend Power within his body.

Once the Blood Fiend Power was activated, the dark red patterns beneath his skin lit up.

Something strange happened.

When the incoming Turbid Qi touched those dark red patterns, not only did it stop eroding him, it seemed to find its own kind and became docile. It coiled around the patterns and was slowly absorbed, transformed into pure Chaos energy that replenished his dantian.

Taiyi froze for a moment, then understood.

Blood Fiend Power was the strength of a Chaos Demon God, while Turbid Qi was an impurity from the Chaos era—they belonged to the same source. Using orthodox Great Wilderness magical power to resist it was like water and fire clashing head-on; using the power of a Chaos Demon God to absorb it was instead like a fish returning to water.

"So it can be used like this..." he murmured, then continued forward.

This time, it became much easier. The Turbid Qi was no longer an obstacle; instead, it became nourishment. With every step, he could feel the Chaos energy in his dantian slowly increasing. It was not much, but even a mosquito leg was still meat.

The passage wound downward.

The farther down he went, the hotter it became. The stone walls changed from black to dark red, scorching hot to the touch. The Turbid Qi in the air also grew denser, thick as slurry, making even breathing difficult.

The system periodically displayed prompts:

[An Earth Fire fissure lies fifty zhang ahead. Recommendation: detour.]

[Witch Race restriction fluctuation detected in the branch vein to the right. Avoid.]

[Attention: Pangu's pressure continues to intensify.]

Following the navigation, Taiyi traveled through the tangled earth vein network. Sometimes he had to squeeze into crevices barely wide enough for one person; sometimes he had to climb steep stone walls; on several occasions, he even had to cross underground rivers—their water was boiling hot and reeked of sulfur, while pale beast bones lay submerged along the riverbed.

After walking for about an hour, the passage ahead suddenly opened up.

It was a natural stone chamber, over ten zhang wide, with stalactites hanging from the ceiling and dripping water below. At the center of the chamber was a pool filled with deep green water, its depths unfathomable.

The instant Taiyi stepped into the stone chamber, the system issued a fierce warning:

[Warning! Life signature detected!]

He immediately stopped, held his breath, and focused.

Ripples spread across the pool's surface. One circle, then two, growing larger and larger. Then, with a loud splash, an enormous head emerged from the water.

It was a dragon.

Its entire body was pitch black, its scales as large as palms and gleaming metallically in the dim light. A single horn rose from its head, the tip blood-red. Its eyes were like two lanterns, staring coldly at Taiyi.

Taiyi's heart sank.

This dragon's aura was at least that of a Grand Unity Golden Immortal. And judging from the wounds across its body—where missing scales revealed not flesh and blood, but condensed dark red baleful aura—this thing was not a living creature at all. It was a spirit monster nurtured by earth vein Sha Qi.

A fiendish wyrm.

A creature that specifically guarded earth vein nodes, attacking without distinction anything that entered.

The fiendish wyrm stared at Taiyi for three breaths, then suddenly opened its mouth.

A soundless, visible gray ripple sprayed from its mouth. Wherever it passed, even the air froze into frost flowers. It was an attack of incomparably pure fiendish aura; an ordinary cultivator would have their soul frozen stiff by a single hit.

Taiyi did not dare take it head-on. His figure flickered, and he vanished from where he stood.

He reappeared on the other side of the stone hall. Where he had stood moments ago, the ground was covered in thick gray frost, and even the stone had cracked from the cold.

The fiendish wyrm turned its head, a trace of confusion flashing through its lantern-like eyes—it had not seen how Taiyi had dodged.

Taiyi frowned as well.

This thing would not be easy to handle. The fiendish aura attacks were secondary; the main issue was that he could not make too much noise. If a fight broke out and alerted the Witch Race restrictions within the earth veins, or drew a patrol over, everything would be ruined.

He had to end this quickly.

His thoughts raced as his gaze swept across the system shop list.

[Chaos Pacifying Mark (Beginner)] - 80 points

Too expensive. He only had 49 Taboo Points left, which was not enough.

But...

"System," Taiyi asked quickly in his mind, "is there a cheaper option? Something that can make this thing temporarily blind or disoriented for a few breaths?"

[Searching...]

[Found: Chaotic Divine Script (Basic Ten Characters) - 20 points]

[Effect: A script used by Chaos Demon Gods. When written, it can slightly disrupt the order of local laws for ten breaths.]

[Note: Doubled effectiveness against creatures with chaos attributes, capable of causing temporary sensory confusion.]

Twenty points!

Taiyi's eyes lit up.

"Exchange for Chaotic Divine Script. Write a character related to 'confusion.'"

[Confirm exchange for 'Chaotic Divine Script (Basic Ten Characters)'?]

[Yes/No]

"Yes. Specify the meaning of 'confusion.'"

Twenty Taboo Points were deducted. Taiyi's balance dropped to 29 points.

This time, the exchange process was even more "direct."

The system retrieved the complete law information regarding the "Chaotic Divine Script: Confusion Character" from its database. This information was not merely a glyph; it contained the fundamental principle of how this chaotic writing disrupted order and created confusion.

As the information flowed into Taiyi's consciousness, the system began drawing upon environmental energy—mainly the surrounding turbid and fiendish aura, with a trace of Taiyi's Blood Fiend Power as a catalyst.

A point of dark red light gathered at Taiyi's fingertips, then began to "write" on its own.

Taiyi was not controlling it. The law information retrieved by the system guided the flow of energy, naturally forming the character's strokes. A twisted, intricate rune filled with disharmony took shape at his fingertips—it resembled no known writing, and merely looking at it made one dizzy, as though a few more glances would throw the mind into chaos.

The entire process took only one breath.

Taiyi raised his hand and flicked the newly "written" Chaotic Divine Script rune at the fiendish wyrm!

The rune cut a dark red trail through the air and silently sank into the fiendish wyrm's forehead.

The fiendish wyrm's movements suddenly stiffened!

The reflections in its lantern-like eyes, once clear, began to twist and shatter like a broken mirror. It shook its head, seemingly trying to see the scene before it clearly, but everything in its vision spun, overlapped, and dissolved into chaos.

This thing was originally a chaotic creature condensed from fiendish aura. Its thoughts were simple, and it relied entirely on instinct. Chaotic Divine Script had limited disruptive effects on creatures of order, but against a chaotic creature like this, it worked exceptionally well—like how a drop of ink was obvious in clear water, but adding more mud to muddy water only made it murkier.

The fiendish wyrm stood there in confusion, swaying from side to side and completely losing its target.

Taiyi seized the opportunity, quietly circled past it, and slipped into the passage opposite.

The price of this exchange:

· 20 Taboo Points consumed

· A small amount of the surrounding turbid and fiendish aura extracted

· Negligible system consumption

· Perfect effect

Leaving the stone hall, he continued onward.

The road ahead was much smoother. He occasionally encountered earth vein spirits, but most were minor creatures that fled at the slightest intimidation from his Blood Fiend aura. Twice, he ran into warning talismans placed in the earth veins by the Witch Race, but he detected them in advance and temporarily blocked them with the power of chaos.

The closer he got to the shaded side of the mountain, the fiercer Pangu's pressure became.

Eventually, every step felt like carrying a mountain on his back. The True Sun Fire within Taiyi was suppressed to the point of nearly being extinguished, and only his Blood Fiend Power could barely circulate. The Witch Race totems on his skin began to flicker as the effects of the Witch Blood Powder were rapidly consumed beneath the pressure.

[Distance to Pangu Hall: Thirty li]

[Estimated time remaining: Half an hour]

[Warning: Witch Blood Powder efficacy remaining: Two hours]

He had to move faster.

Taiyi gritted his teeth and stopped holding back, driving all his mana. His body turned into a shadow that raced through the passage as stone walls, branching paths, and underground rivers flew past behind him.

After evading three more restrictions and passing through a corridor covered in glowing moss, he finally saw light ahead.

It was not natural light, but a dim red glow leaking from the end of the passage.

Taiyi slowed his steps, concealed every trace of his aura, and inched forward.

At the end of the passage was an opening.

He lay at the edge of the opening and carefully peered outside.

Beyond it was a vast underground space that stretched beyond sight. At its center stood a palace.

Pangu Hall.

Taiyi held his breath.

The hall was not magnificent. It could even be called crude. It was built from the most primitive black stone, square and plain, without the slightest decoration. Yet this crude stone hall radiated a pressure that made one's heart tremble.

It was the pressure of opening heaven and creating earth.

The ultimate manifestation of "strength."

A dark red barrier covered the area around the stone hall—the core restriction of the Twelve Capital Gods and Fiends Formation. Dense Witch Race script flowed over the barrier's surface, every character writhing like a living creature and giving off a destructive aura.

There was a plaza before the hall, and twelve stone pillars stood upon it. Each pillar bore the totem of an Ancestral Witch: Di Jiang's chaos, Gou Mang's wood, Zhu Rong's fire, Ru Shou's metal, Gonggong's water, Xuan Ming's rain, Qiang Liang's lightning, Zhu Jiuyin's time, Tian Wu's wind, Xi Zi's electricity, She Bishi's weather, and Houtu's earth.

There was no one in the plaza at the moment.

But Taiyi could sense at least a dozen auras lurking in the shadows. They were the Witch Race's hidden sentries, none of them weak; even the lowest-ranked among them were Great Witches.

He withdrew into the opening, leaned against the stone wall, and calmed his racing heart.

He had arrived.

What came next was the hardest part—breaking through the restriction and entering the hall to check in.

But how was he supposed to get in?

Forcing his way through was definitely impossible. With the strength of that restriction, even if he were truly at the peak of Quasi-Saint, charging in would be no different from courting death.

He needed a trick.

Taiyi closed his eyes and communicated with the system. "Scan the restriction and find its weak points."

[Scanning...]

[Warning: The restriction contains Great Dao laws. Scanning may trigger backlash.]

"Scan it."

[Yes]

An invisible ripple spread from Taiyi's body and reached toward the dark red barrier. The Witch Race script on the barrier's surface suddenly lit up before returning to normal.

[Scan complete]

[Restriction structure analysis: 87%]

[Three periodic fluctuation nodes discovered]

[Node One: Located at the eastern pillar. Weakens once every three hundred breaths and lasts three breaths.]

[Node Two: Located at the southern pillar. Weakens once every six hundred breaths and lasts two breaths.]

[Node Three: Located at the western pillar. Weakens once every nine hundred breaths and lasts one breath.]

[Recommendation: Break through at Node One]

Taiyi opened his eyes and looked toward the stone pillar in the east.

Di Jiang's totem was carved upon it—a twisted mass of chaos. At that moment, the totem glowed faintly, its brightness rising and falling in a regular rhythm as though it were breathing.

"Three hundred breaths..." He calculated the time. "About five minutes."

He had to wait.

He crouched in the shadows of the opening, perfectly still, even suppressing his breathing to the lowest possible level. His eyes remained fixed on that stone pillar as he counted silently.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths...

The underground space was silent, save for the low hum of the restriction in operation. It sounded like the breathing of an ancient beast, carrying a primitive rhythm.

Time passed bit by bit.

Suddenly, the totem on the eastern stone pillar dimmed.

Now!

Taiyi shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, racing toward the barrier. The instant he touched it, he drove all his Blood Fiend Power into a dark red cone before him.

"Pfft—"

The cone pierced the barrier and actually tore open a gap!

The gap was tiny, only large enough for one person to squeeze through sideways. And it was closing rapidly.

Taiyi did not hesitate in the slightest and forced his way inside.

The instant his body passed through the restriction, it felt like passing through a layer of sticky glue. An omnipresent repulsive force surged at him from every direction, trying to squeeze this "foreign object" back out. The Witch Race totems on his skin flickered madly as the effects of the Witch Blood Powder were rapidly consumed.

He gritted his teeth and endured. Finally, his entire body passed through.

"Thud."

He landed lightly on the stone slabs of the plaza.

The restriction closed behind him, and the dark red barrier returned to normal.

Taiyi lay on the ground, gasping for breath. Just that single breakthrough had consumed thirty percent of his mana and nearly an hour of the Witch Blood Powder's efficacy.

But he had made it in at last.

He raised his head and looked toward Pangu Hall ahead.

The stone hall's doors stood open, and the interior was pitch-black, like a gaping maw. Two ancient characters were carved above the entrance—not the writing of the present Great Wilderness, but even older chaotic divine script—

"Pan" and "Gu."

Taiyi stood and brushed the dust from his clothes.

Then he stepped forward, walking toward that sacred place no outsider had entered since heaven and earth were first opened.

His footsteps echoed across the empty plaza.

Lonely, yet solid and resolute.