Trials of the Abyss

Chapter 69: Appearance of Strange Treasure

In Eight Trigrams City stood a luxurious mansion with an interior courtyard decorated with flowing streams, pavilions, and elegant structures.

In this courtyard, Dong Tianze used his Ghost's Cry to slit the throat of a female disciple from the Radiant Sun Sect. His eyebrows knitted as he waited for her soul to be drawn into Ghost's Cry.

As the female disciple breathed her last breath, her soul was instantly pulled away by the slabs beneath him.

"It's all the same." A hint of uncertainty flickered in Dong Tianze's cold, sharp eyes as he used the female disciple's clothes to clean off the blood on Ghost's Cry.

Beside him, a woman with a cold demeanor silently observed his actions.

In the elegantly renovated courtyard, numerous corpses lay scattered haphazardly.

These corpses all belonged to members of the Radiant Sun Sect.

Dong Tianze had found the members of the Radiant Sun Sect hiding in the courtyard and led five cultivators from the Sinister Soul Temple to slaughter them all.

After observing silently for a while, the woman could not resist asking, "Junior Brother Dong, why are you so fixated on hunting down the members of the Radiant Sun Sect?"

This woman was Leng Yuan, an ordinary disciple in her twenties from the Sinister Soul Temple, and the leader of the Sinister Soul Temple's expedition to Eight Trigrams City.

At least, she used to be.

Leng Yuan relinquished her leadership position to Dong Tianze after encountering him in Eight Trigrams City. He had shown off his Ethereal Ghost Token, so she stepped down to become the second-in-command.

Dong Tianze possessed incredible individual combat prowess and often employed brutal means, quickly earning the confidence of other members of the Sinister Soul Temple.

Leng Yuan was eager to reach the city center. However, Dong Tianze was determined to search and hunt down others along the way.

Dong Tianze seemed to be searching for someone specific and was not in a rush to move forward.

Including the one in the courtyard, six teams had already fallen to Dong Tianze's hands on their way to the city center.

Dong Tianze took his time, intent on hunting down the teams lurking on both sides of the street before he was satisfied.

His eyes glinted murderously. Glancing at Leng Yuan's graceful figure, he said coldly, "You don't need to concern yourself with my affairs. All you need to know is, if you stick close to me you stand a chance of surviving until the end."

Under his intense gaze, Leng Yuan could not help but shiver. She no longer dared to inquire further.

Suddenly, Dong Tianze stared vigilantly into the distance from the courtyard.

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On top of a towering stone hall, stood a figure with a glass bottle in hand and a reed straw hanging from their mouth. They seemed to have been secretly observing Dong Tianze and the others for a long time.

With a sneer, Dong Tianze soared to the rooftop like a hawk and activated his Nine Ghost Melodies Technique, intending to chase after the figure.

"What a madman." Startled by Dong Tianze's actions, Li Jie hastily turned and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

He enjoyed watching commotion but had no desire to be entangled in one. Therefore, he chose to avoid engaging with Dong Tianze.

"I wonder who'll make it out alive if that group of five from the other street and the lunatic leading the Sinister Soul Temple cross paths," Li Jie murmured to himself.

***

On another wide street, a group of five cautiously made their way forward.

As they made their way to the city center, Luo Hongyan mused out of the blue, "The souls of those who perish in Eight Trigrams City instantly vanish into the walls and stone slabs. It's quite strange,"

She had planned on refining Spirit Devils from the souls of Jian Yaoyang and the others earlier, so when Zhou Qingchen and Han Duping were drinking and chatting at the door, she never called them in.

Su Meng was afraid of blood and had remained on the upper floors, presenting her with a perfect opportunity to do so.

Unfortunately, before she could execute her plan, the souls of Jian Yaoyang and the others vanished underground and disappeared without a trace.

Sensing that something was amiss, she observed her surroundings along the way to the city center. Even after carefully releasing her divine sense, she failed to detect the presence of any spirits or ghosts.

This was a brutal battlefield, where cries of slaughter echoed everywhere. In such an environment, the absence of souls or spirits was abnormal.

"We're not like those folks from the Sinister Soul Temple. We don't need to collect souls and spirits," Zhou Qingchen said in a carefree tone. He exclaimed, "Pang Jian, have you made some progress in your cultivation of the Earth Blaze Technique?"

"Yes," Pang Jian replied succinctly. He was his normal quiet self and paid no attention to their conversation. Throughout their journey, he remained focused on familiarizing himself with the Earth Blaze Technique.

Occasionally, flames would burst from his fingertips, accompanied by the smell of sulfur. It was clear that he had been diligently cultivating.

"Eight Trigrams City is always bright, with no sun, moon, or stars to mark the passing of time. Yet, in the brief period we spent sorting through the belongings of Jian Yaoyang and his group, you can already release intense flames with it. It seems you're well-suited for this technique," Zhou Qingchen affirmed with a smile.

The young master from the Zhou Clan glanced at Luo Hongyan and said, "The spirit art you selected for him is quite impressive."

Luo Hongyan replied disinterestedly, "Enough with the chatter."

Zhou Qingchen grunted in response and said no more.

"Although Eight Trigrams City had disappeared for three thousand years, I have a feeling it has secretly revealed itself multiple times!" Han Duping said with a gleam of contemplation in his small eyes as he observed the buildings on both sides of the street, "It's one thing not to have any living beings around, but even within all these stone buildings, there isn't a single valuable spiritual material!"

He had searched through them earlier and was disappointed to find nothing remarkable in any of them.

"Ning Yao, according to you, Eight Trigrams City should be brimming with treasure. If what you said is true, someone must have come and looted all the precious spirit materials before us," remarked Han Duping.

Luo Hongyan could not be bothered to explain to him in detail and simply said, "I've only heard about the legend of Eight Trigrams City from others. This is my first time entering it myself."

Han Duping sighed despondently. "Isn't it rather pointless to reach the city center without finding anything of significant value? It's meaningless to return to Black Orchid Lake through the Mirror Tunnel like this."

Jian Yaoyang and the others were all poor and had nothing of value on them. Even if he were to take everything they had, it did not even come close to providing enough materials for his bone forging, marrow cleansing process.

Without fortuitous windfalls, one could not easily amass wealth. If he could not gather a vast fortune in Eight Trigrams City, he would have to rely on Zhou Qingchen's gradual accumulation of bone forging, marrow cleansing spirit materials once he established himself in the Red Mountain Sect.

Whoosh!

As if in response to Han Duping's lamenting words, an eye-catching beam of divine light burst forth from the center of the city.

The street they were on stretched endlessly onward, and that divine light appeared all the more dazzling against its vast emptiness.

The light pierced through the sky of Eight Trigrams City, captivating the gaze of everyone present.

Ancient bronze chests, dazzling robes, and gleaming weapons seemed to float within the radiant beam of divine light.

Numerous divine weapons and treasures materialized within the beam of light. All the onlookers were dazzled, longing to immerse themselves in its radiance and grasp each coveted item.

"This..." Han Duping wore a dumbfounded expression. He paused, then hastily bowed toward the radiant sky. "Oh, Divine Spirits above, I sincerely apologize for any offense. My words were merely spoken in jest!"

Luo Hongyan's eyes lit up as she stared at a glowing, white jade bottle floating in the divine light.

The white jade bottle contained a drop of light blue blood, which rolled continuously inside the bottle as it bobbed up and down.

Within this light blue blood bloomed a crystal-clear lotus flower.

Crystal Snow Lotus!

It was a treasure that could help Luo Hongyan refine her physical body. She danced excitedly in Ning Yao's sea of consciousness.

"It seems like—it seems like many treasures have appeared!" Su Meng clenched her fists as her small face flushed with excitement. She yearned to rush over and seize them.

"There truly are amazing treasures here!" Zhou Qingchen exclaimed in awe, unable to contain his amazement.

Pang Jian turned around and looked back at the North Gate where they had come from. He vaguely noticed the light there dimming.

He pondered in silence, expression turning grim.

He could imagine the boundless darkness of the Fifth World spreading from the North Gate toward the center of Eight Trigrams City, gradually devouring its light.

The acrid and murky sinister energy would inevitably surge forth with the darkness, engulfing the entire Eight Trigrams City.

"The darkness is encroaching upon Eight Trigrams City!" Pang Jian shouted.

As Pang Jian's words rang out, Zhou Qingchen and the others broke out from their trance. Turning away from the mesmerizing pillar of light to look behind them, they too noticed the light behind them diminishing.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Figures darted out from both sides of the street ahead, each racing toward the city center.

Han Duping was startled.

He realized more than a dozen groups similar to Jian Yaoyang's had been waiting along their path to the city center!

If the towering pillar of light had not appeared, they would have walked straight into countless perilous ambushes on their way.

"It seems like we're the last group to arrive. It doesn't seem like anyone else has appeared at the North Gate after us," Zhou Qingchen said.

"Li Jie was the last to enter the city from the North Gate," Pang Jian interjected calmly. Recalling the young man sipping green fruit juice and leisurely watching the scene unfold from a high pagoda's window, he added, "I forgot to mention this. While we were fighting tooth and nail with Jian Yaoyang and the other members of the Star River Alliance, Li Jie was observing us from up high."

"Li Jie, facing tribulation.[1] Could this calamity in Eight Trigrams City be somehow related to him?" Su Meng's big eyes sparkled with curiosity.

Han Duping shook his head and shouted in disbelief, "How is that possible?"

"Let's not waste any more time," Pang Jian said, tightening his grip on the Dragonwood Spear. "We're already behind. If we don't reach the city center soon, we'll be the first to be engulfed by the darkness."

With that said, the group did not hesitate to hurry onward. "Let's go!"

***

Eight Trigrams City, with its eight wide streets leading to the city center, witnessed the same events simultaneously on each street.

Numerous groups of cultivators from the Third World and the Second World no longer concealed their presence as the sight of all the treasures within the pillar of light caused them to abandon their stealth.

Nearly a thousand figures darted out from the buildings and rushed toward the center of Eight Trigrams City.

Leng Yuan saw Dong Tianze's murderous intent as he glared at the sudden appearance of some figures up ahead. She hurriedly pleaded, “Junior Brother Dong, don't act recklessly! They're formidable figures from the Second World! You have to trust me. They're beyond our league. Please don't endanger everyone."

Dong Tianze sneered. "Afraid of dying? Then you shouldn't have set foot on the path of cultivation!"

"At most, they're in the Marrow Cleansing Realm. There's nothing to fear. Either we die, or they do!" He paused, casting a cold glance ahead as he shouted, "Pang Jian, I hope you're here too!"

1. His name, 李劫, has the same pronunciation as facing tribulation (历劫) ☜