"What a Buddhist paradise! Such a sight underground." Li Qingshan murmured. Every boulder forming the foundation was black and red, soaked in the dried blood of the demon saint. The surface of the stones was engraved with dense Buddhist demon-subduing runes, which still shimmered with a faint light and emitted refining power.
This is an ancient and cruel sealing method. It uses the flesh and soul of a powerful demon saint as a foundation to construct a suppression field. Even if the demon saint's main body has escaped or died, its remaining evil energy and Dharma form will still be activated and manifested.
Beneath the Great Thunderclap Temple, there are said to be eighteen levels of Hell, used to suppress unparalleled demons. When it was built, Shakyamuni put a lot of effort into it; otherwise, the entire temple would have been overturned by the demons underground long ago.
At the center of the foundation, a pitch-black hole more than ten feet in diameter was clearly visible. After clearing away the loose soil, wisps of pitch-black, ghostly energy, which stung the very soul, were rising from it!
"This is the entrance to the first level of Hell, the place where the Crocodile Ancestor broke free from its seal." Li Qingshan stared into the abyss. "Old Crocodile, you're probably still researching that Mars Demon Sea Eye."
He was highly skilled and daring, and since his purpose in this trip was to investigate the truth, he did not hesitate any longer. A faint layer of dark golden light emanated from his body to protect him, and then he took a step forward and leaped into the dark cave.
The cave, like the gaping maw of an ancient, ferocious beast, swallowed him whole in an instant.
No more than a few feet in, and a chilling killing intent, cold enough to freeze the soul of Mighty Figure being at the Second Heaven of the Immortal Platform, surged forth like a tide. But when it touched the Xuanhuang Qi three feet around Li Qingshan's body, it melted away silently, like ice and snow meeting the sun.
The underground was far more vast and empty than he had imagined. Darkness could not obstruct his divine vision; everything here was clearly visible. This place was...
The first level of Hell appears to be carved from a single, massive, demonic rock.
The surrounding walls are covered with golden Arhats, Bodhisattvas, and even ancient Buddhas with glaring eyes, appearing to subdue demons. Their gazes and the magical weapons in their hands seem to be aimed at the center of Hell, having accumulated a terrifying and incomparable demon-refining killing intent over countless years.
Li Qingshan secretly estimated that such an arrangement, accumulated over time, would be enough to refine a Dao-Slaying King to death over several hundred years. Shakyamuni's methods were indeed extraordinary.
At each of the four corners of Hell stands a massive stone pillar, so thick that it takes several people to encircle it, reaching the dome above and suppressing the demon earth below. The pillars are carved with various ferocious demon god patterns, and deep blood grooves filled with dried, blackened, viscous blood. These are Demon-Refining Pillar, specially designed to refine demon saint-level beings.
Scattered on the ground were some enormous scales, each as tall as an adult, with sharp edges and shimmering with a cold metallic luster. Even though they had lost their spirituality and their essence had been refined, the material itself still retained a trace of immortality.
"As expected of an ancient demon saint, even its discarded scales are extraordinary." Li Qingshan picked up a scale, feeling its indestructible texture through his fingertips.
Although he didn't harbor the same deep-seated hatred for the Crocodile Ancestor as Ye Fan, since he had returned to this place, if the old demon was still around and causing trouble, he wouldn't mind completing the unfinished "lesson" for Shakyamuni.
In one corner of Hell, another, deeper and colder black hole extends downwards, a path leading to the second level of Hell, where, according to legend, an even more bizarre being is suppressed— the Divine Thought that transformed from the evil thoughts of the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body after its death.
Li Qingshan turned around and, without hesitation, stepped into the second-floor entrance.
The darkness grew ever deeper, and the yin energy almost materialized into a solid black mist, but it all retreated under the illumination of the Xuanhuang Qi.
Not long after descending, a faint, eerie green light appeared ahead, like a ghostly lamp guiding the departed souls.
Before the lantern lay a rough, ancient stone coffin. On top of the coffin sat a gaunt, short old man dressed in tattered ancient clothes. The old man's face was wrinkled like orange peel, and his eyes had no whites, only deep black. He was now grinning, revealing an extremely eerie smile, silent yet chilling.
The air was thick with malevolent energy; this was an ancient ghost, its aura completely different from the demons and evil spirits of the first level of Hell, far more sinister and unpredictable.
Li Qingshan stopped and stared at the gaunt old ghost on the stone coffin. In an instant, the eerie smile on the old ghost's face froze, as if it had seen something in the depths of Li Qingshan's calm gaze that made it instinctively tremble.
With a soft "hiss," like water vapor evaporating, the gaunt old ghost on the stone coffin suddenly dissipated like a phantom under Li Qingshan's gaze.
The ghostly green light cast a somber glow around the stone coffin.
The withered old ghost, its vanished form suddenly reappeared as a viscous, dripping green light, and "whoosh" disappeared into the strangely styled bronze lamp with a human body and a ghostly face.
The wick, the long, scarlet tongue that the ghost had spat out, suddenly leaped several feet into the air, its light blazing brightly, casting shadowy shadows on the eerie walls of the second level of Hell, amplifying the sinister atmosphere.
Li Qingshan's eyes were sharp as he scrutinized the eerie ancient lamp.
The lamp body was icy cold, neither gold nor jade, and its tentacles seemed to echo with the howling of countless dead souls, yet they were firmly imprisoned within.
On the surface of the lamp, human figures are twisted and ghostly faces are ferocious. The carved patterns have long been blurred by the passage of time, leaving only an ancient and enduring sense of resentment and suppression.
These artifacts are by no means treasures for attacking or conquering, but rather sacred objects specifically used in tombs and burial sites to suppress coffins and subdue evil spirits! For people like Duan De who deal with ancient tombs every day, they are priceless treasures that they dream of.
"It's actually lamp oil refined from the oil inside Saint's body, and it's not something that one or two Saint could make." Li Qingshan sensed the extremely faint yet highly rank immortal resentment within the lamp oil with a slight touch of his divine sense.
The fact that this lamp could burn continuously for tens of thousands of years using this material as fuel is truly astonishing, given its extraordinary origins.
When Shakyamuni suppressed the Divine Thought that had transformed from his Great Accomplishment Sacred Body, he painstakingly sought out this ghost lamp, which may have been a relic from the Mythological Era, as the core artifact for suppressing these thoughts.
"Although it is an ominous and sinister object, tainted with too much death energy and resentment, it does have its unique uses. In the future, if we explore some Ancient Emperor or mythical burial sites, this lamp may prove to be a surprise weapon." Li Qingshan waved his sleeve and put it into the Bitter Sea.
Within the Bitter Sea, the primordial energy surged and churned, creating a chaotic and hazy atmosphere. In an instant, it suppressed the eerie ghostly aura of the ghost lamp, rendering it obedient and preventing it from making the slightest move.
At this point, the two layers of Hell on the Yinghuo Ancient Star have been explored.
The so-called eighteen levels of Hell are not concentrated in one place, but are scattered in pairs on nine specific ancient stars in the universe, jointly suppressing eighteen terrifying beings who wreaked havoc on the world in ancient times, each more terrifying than the last. In this place of Mars, the Crocodile Ancestor and the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body Divine Thought are imprisoned.
Li Qingshan gracefully ascended from the entrance of the second level of Hell and returned to the surface of the earth.
Beneath my feet lies that same desolate, crimson land, eroded by wind and sand. The Five-Colored Altar and the ruins of the Great Thunderclap Temple stand silently under the dim starlight.
Suddenly, "Boom!!!"
Without warning, a deafening roar of waves surged from the distant horizon, like a thousand horses galloping or a giant beast roaring in the starry sky, instantly shattering the silence of the stars! Li Qingshan suddenly looked up and saw a terrifying, pitch-black line of waves stretching to the sky and connecting with the earth on the horizon, surging forward with overwhelming force!
That was no illusion. In the blink of an eye, the crimson earth vanished without a trace, replaced by a boundless black ocean! The raging waves surged thousands of feet high, crashing against the Void and emitting a roar that made the Chen Zhan.
The murky, dark waves crashed against the sky, then slammed down with destructive force, easily shattering the exposed rock layers. The Five-Colored Altar and temple ruins were instantly swallowed and submerged by this sudden sea of demons.
On this turbulent and unpredictable black ocean, several ancient-looking ghost ships, their hulls shrouded in thick, ribbon-like mist, are cutting through the waves.
The ship had no sails or masts, only green will-o'-the-wisps hanging from its bow or stern. The flames flickered erratically amidst the thick fog and black waves, like a ferryboat on the River Styx, creating an indescribably eerie and sinister atmosphere.
Even more chilling was the sudden appearance of a thick, grayish-white fog that spread rapidly across the sea. This fog was so dense and viscous that it contained some kind of Daoist principle that disturbed the divine sense, making it difficult even for a cultivator's divine eyes to penetrate. The ghost ships became increasingly indistinct in the fog, and were it not for the flickering green ghost flames, they would have been completely obscured by the darkness.