Secret Technique

The 6th hour since discovering the breach.

By now, the breach had widened enough for an adult to enter. Chen Beixun stood beside the opening, gazing down into the world beneath.

It was pitch black inside; nothing could be seen.

Standing by the edge, Chen Beixun appeared restless yet brimming with excitement, much like a student waiting to check their exam results.

"Hoo—" He let out a long breath and leaped into the breach. His figure was minuscule, vanishing silently as the darkness swallowed him whole.

Whoosh—

Swirling winds battered his combat suit. Listening to the roar of the wind caused by his rapid descent, Chen Beixun couldn't help but exhale a few breaths of stale air.

He had no idea what lay below or what dangers awaited him.

Chen Beixun spread his spiritual consciousness, pushing it to its absolute limit. Even so, he still couldn't detect a single object.

"Damn it!" Chen Beixun frowned, sensing something amiss. "Just how deep is this place?"

Suddenly—

A cluster of eerie blue flames appeared out of nowhere. Using the blue fire as a center, it spread out, barely illuminating a range of several dozen meters.

With the keen vision of a Universe-level powerhouse, Chen Beixun narrowed his eyes to study the flames.

His descent speed remained unchanged.

"I feel something!" Chen Beixun discovered that his consciousness seemed to have brushed against an object.

"It looks like... stairs?" Chen Beixun inferred through his consciousness.

4,600 meters.

2,100 meters.

1,200 meters.

1,000 meters.

BOOM—

Chen Beixun slammed his feet onto the ground, his center of gravity shifting downward until he stabilized in a half-crouched position.

"So this is... the world below. A hundred thousand meters deep!" Chen Beixun looked around, his gaze eventually settling on the flickering blue phosphorus flames in the distance.

Under the light of the flames, several slabs of grey-green stone steps appeared in the pitch-black environment, extending downward.

Lying across the slick surface of the stone stairs was a skeleton, remarkably well-preserved.

Chen Beixun closed his eyes, and the Heng Divine Weapon behind him released 27 small white swords, which formed three long white blades circling his body; he then began to walk downward.

His steps were measured, and within seconds, he had crossed hundreds of stairs.

The deeper he went, the more stifling and humid the air became.

After walking for about twelve minutes, Chen Beixun stepped off the final stair and arrived in a space roughly 81 meters high, covering an area of one square kilometer.

Directly opposite the stairs, in the center of this space, sat a small silver-grey cube, held aloft by a skeletal human hand.

"Is that the secret technique?!" Chen Beixun's eyes lit up. He took a step forward, then pulled it back.

Chen Beixun probed the area with his consciousness, and finding no danger, he used his mental power to wrap around the object and bring it to his hand.

"Is it really this easy?" Chen Beixun was stunned. He weighed the small silver-grey cube in his hand, finding it to be roughly one ton in weight.

He tucked the cube away, but for some reason, he felt an inexplicable chill run down his spine.

"Time to leave." Chen Beixun turned to fly back, but just then... dull footsteps echoed from behind, accompanied by the sound of flowing water.

The sound of the water was rapid, appearing out of thin air, chilling to the bone, and reeking of the stench of riverbed silt.

The dull footsteps grew closer, and Chen Beixun's expression flickered with uncertainty.

Under the coverage of his spiritual consciousness, he hadn't detected any living creatures.

Hallucinations... The word surfaced in Chen Beixun's mind, repeating over and over.

The dull footsteps gave way to a ghostly silence, leaving only the sound of the rushing water.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

Chen Beixun froze in place. He couldn't move his legs, as if he were running in a nightmare.

Qishan roared, "Calm down! It's all fake!"

At this moment, it was as if Chen Beixun had been robbed of his hearing; he couldn't hear Qishan's voice at all. Even when Qishan used consciousness communication, it sounded like nothing more than muffled, indistinct whispers to Chen Beixun.

Beads of cold sweat rolled down his forehead. Behind him—or rather, like a nightmare—some hideous monster was lurking, waiting for him to turn around so it could pounce like a wolf and slit his throat.

"Who's there?!" Chen Beixun spun around violently. The Heng Divine Weapon on his back released 81 white swords, forming a crescent blade that slashed toward the source of the sound.

BOOM!

A massive impact echoed through the space, sounding like a thunderclap.

He panicked; those damned sounds grew even more rampant,肆意 echoing from every direction!

The fear of the unknown.

He could no longer suppress the instinctive trembling of his body.

"Run!" This was the only thought in Chen Beixun's mind. His usual calm and indifferent demeanor had vanished, replaced entirely by the primal instincts of a living creature.

Chen Beixun nearly tripped, scrambling toward the exit in a display of utter panic.

BOOM!

He slammed into a Formless wall, watching helplessly as the exit was sealed shut by two stone slabs—at that moment, he felt despair, as if an invisible tentacle had reached out to strangle his throat.

Deep within, the fear that had taken root in the icy abyss for endless years bloomed like a spider lily, crushing all reason and spreading to the deepest reaches of his mind.

He lay helplessly on the ground, struggling and clawing at the floor.

Muffled, heavy footsteps tore through his final mental barriers layer by layer.

Stripping away his ability to think, his sanity.

Finally, Chen Beixun lost consciousness.

Inside the space behind the bronze doors of Slanted Axe Tower...

Threads of blood fell from the void, forming a curtain of crimson rain.

Pavadode held a long staff, kneeling on one knee.

Suddenly—a melodic whistle drifted through the air. Pavadode looked up, using his staff to brace his body as he struggled to stand.

Pavadode stared at the figure approaching through the layers of blood rain.

"Don't come any closer," Pavadode shouted.

The figure stopped upon hearing this, head drooping, standing parallel to Pavadode.

The figure was a man wearing a long trench coat.

The man raised two fingers to the brim of his hood and pulled it back, revealing a face as fresh and youthful as a teenager's.

"Oi!" the man called out playfully. Two crescent-shaped blades appeared in his hands out of thin air, resembling sickles used for harvesting Maze.

"Universe Level 9? Did your elders never teach you to respect the strong?" Pavadode shouted, his tone laced with irritation.

The man lowered his stance and moved his hands behind his back, hilt to hilt, the tips of the two blades clicking together with a "ping." He looked ready to strike at any moment.

Pavadode keenly sensed a dangerous aura and quickly shifted from a one-handed grip on his staff to two hands.

Is this pressure coming from that guy?! Pavadode felt a flicker of surprise, not daring to be careless; he had to go all out. After all, no one could say for sure if the opponent was one of those terrifying monsters capable of cross-level combat.

It was true that Universe Level 9s could kill Domain Lords at Level 1 on their own, but it was extremely rare.

"So serious!" The man laughed wickedly, his eyes fixed on Pavadode with a fierce glint.

BOOM!

The man moved, and the blood rain stopped in its tracks, individual droplets suspended in mid-air as if paused.

Pavadode reacted quickly, blocking the man's attack with his staff, then stomped his foot.

The space trembled violently.

The area around Pavadode seemed to solidify, as if drenched in thick mud!

He locked eyes with the man. The man looked at Pavadode with a playful expression, his crescent blades dancing rapidly.

Each strike erupted with golden light.

Pavadode was forced into a passive defense, his arms numbed by the vibrations, but he gritted his teeth and held on.

"My name is Xiang Zhixing. What's yours?" the man asked teasingly, not taking his opponent seriously at all.

Pavadode shifted to the side, spun around to dodge an attack, and seized the gap in the man's offense to thrust his staff forward!

"Whoa, you're trying to kill me!" Xiang Zhixing's figure flickered like the wind, dodging the attack with eerie grace.

Xiang Zhixing was slightly annoyed by the move. He pressed his palms together, hooking his pinkies into the rings at the hilts of his blades.

BOOM—

A terrifying shockwave swept out, composed of countless wind blades.

Pavadode did not have the advantage in speed, and facing such rapid-fire attacks, he had no choice but to take them head-on.

Countless wind blades raked across his alloy armor, emitting a harsh, screeching sound.

The alloy armor could block the blades entirely, but the impact—though partially absorbed by the armor—left the rest to be borne by his own flesh and blood.

"How was that?" Xiang Zhixing asked cheerfully.

Pavadode was severely wounded, gripping his staff against the ground, struggling to stay upright in a half-kneeling position.

"You are strong!" Pavadode laughed. "I lost."

Xiang Zhixing pointed his blades at Pavadode and asked with a smirk, "What is your name?"

"Pavadode." Pavadode closed his eyes, quietly awaiting death.

"Mmm~~" Xiang Zhixing tilted his head back, his right hand gently waving his curved blade in small arcs, tapping it against his thigh covered in alloy combat armor.

"Oh!" Xiang Zhixing held up a finger, exclaiming in surprise as if seeing an old friend: "You are Pavadode, and I am Xiang Zhixing! Have you forgotten!"

After saying this, he slowly walked toward Pavadode, muttering to himself: "Good Friend Ice House."

Pavadode: "?"

"Good Friend Ice House! Haha!" Xiang Zhixing acted in a carefree manner, chattering incessantly: "On Emerald Star, I treated you to a drink!"

Pavadode: "?"

Xiang Zhixing suddenly struck, ending Pavadode with a single blade.

He continued to chatter on: "Dizziness is normal!"

"Hoo~~ hoo~~ blow on it and you won't be dizzy anymore! Ha! Ha! Ga! Ga!" Xiang Zhixing made binoculars with his hands and lay on the ground, blowing continuously at Pavadode's head.

"Ah! How did you die, hee! hee!" Xiang Zhixing wiped his eyes.

Not far away...

Two people were observing this battle.

"Captain, is this the genius secretly cultivated by the family?" A man dressed in battle robes tugged at the sleeve of the man addressed as captain.

"This... one." The man addressed as captain twitched the corner of his mouth.

Slanted Axe Tower, the world below.

Chen Beixun leaned against the corner of the wall with vacant eyes, while An Changyan whispered soothing words beside him.

After Chen Beixun fainted, he had woken up twice. The first time, he seemed to be suffering from full-body spasms and was unable to move, his consciousness dim. With his last bit of awareness, he had randomly released someone from his World Ring.

That person was An Changyan.

The second time he woke up, Chen Beixun had a mental breakdown, hiding in the corner and screaming like a madman.

An Changyan was quite bold, actually daring to go up and soothe him.

Under her comfort, Chen Beixun slowly recovered.

"An Changyan?" Chen Beixun weakly reached out his hand, touching An Changyan's neck.

He discovered...

"Stop choking me." An Changyan immediately stood up and retreated a few steps.

Chen Beixun: "Ah? I'm choking you?"

An Changyan couldn't help but touch the purple handprint on her neck, saying fearfully: "You choke me every once in a while. If it weren't for your Demon Island Vine protecting me..."

"I'm afraid..." An Changyan pursed her pale lips and retreated a significant distance in fear.

Hearing this, Chen Beixun said in surprise: "Demon Island Vine, you've done a great service!"

The intelligence of the Demon Island Vine is considered extremely high among auxiliary-type plants. It had long sensed that something was wrong with its master and had intervened.