316: Chapter 313 Should we still go in?

Su Lin stood at the edge of the cliff, gazing out at the dark abyss ahead that seemed capable of swallowing everything.

The rolling black miasma was like a living creature, spiraling and twisting above the abyss to form eerie whirlpools. Occasionally, lightning flashed through the miasma, but it wasn't a normal silvery-white; instead, it was an unsettling dark red, like clotted blood tearing through the sky.

"Such thick Death Qi."

Su Lin narrowed his eyes. He could sense that the black miasma contained more than just simple toxins or corrosive power; it was something more fundamental—a bizarre energy formed from the accumulation of countless fallen beings' grievances, obsessions, and killing intent over ten thousand years.

"Revered Master, look over there."

Chu Weiwei pointed toward a spot on the edge of the abyss where several corpses lay scattered about.

The group walked closer and saw that the corpses were wearing tattered leather armor, clearly the bold scavengers Yan Rusi had mentioned. Strangely, however, these bodies hadn't rotted; instead, they looked as if all their moisture had been sucked dry, leaving behind shriveled human-shaped husks.

Most bizarre of all, the faces of these corpses were frozen in expressions of extreme distortion. It wasn't fear, but a near-manic ecstasy, as if they had seen something that made them deliriously happy before they died.

"This way of dying... is a bit sinister."

Su Hongling squatted down and poked one of the corpses with her scabbard. The body immediately disintegrated into a pile of black powder and scattered with the wind.

"It's a combination of illusion and soul-extraction." Chu Weiwei squatted by another corpse, a professional glint flashing in her purple eyes. "These people were likely lured by something in the abyss. Amidst an illusion of extreme pleasure, their Divine Souls were extracted bit by bit. This technique is very sophisticated; it allows the prey to offer up their lives voluntarily without any guard."

Yan Rusi's face turned pale as she listened, and she subconsciously took a few steps back.

"Then... should we still go in?"

"We're already at the door; there's no reason not to go in."

Su Lin took out some Materials he had previously scavenged from the Xuantian Treasury from his storage space and tossed them casually to Chu Weiwei.

"Weiwei, use these Materials to prepare some pills that can resist illusions and protect the Divine Soul."

"You got it, Revered Master!"

Chu Weiwei's eyes immediately lit up as she took the Materials. What she loved most was showing off her professional skills to her Revered Master.

She sat cross-legged and her slender fingers moved quickly through the pile of Materials. Soon, she had selected seven or eight types of Immortal Plants and Ores that emitted strange lusters.

"This one is an Extreme Cold Ice Lotus; it can calm the mind. This piece is a Soul Crystal Stone, which can stabilize the Primordial Spirit. And then this..."

As Chu Weiwei muttered to herself, she pulled out a familiar white jade mortar and pestle from her sleeve.

She placed the Materials into it one by one and then began grinding them with the pestle.

This time, she didn't ask Su Lin to help hold the mortar. Instead, she used her Medicine Immortal Origin power to lift the entire mortar, letting it suspend in mid-air.

Each time the pestle fell, it stirred up ripples of pale purple light. Those incredibly hard Immortal Plants and Ores were easily crushed in her hands like tofu.

In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, a refreshing medicinal fragrance wafted out.

Chu Weiwei took out a dozen or so longan-sized pills from the mortar that emitted a faint golden glow.

"Revered Master, these are the Mind-Clearing Soul-Guarding Pills Weiwei just formulated. After taking one, you'll be immune to most illusionary disturbances for an hour, and it also strengthens the Divine Soul to resist those strange soul-extracting methods."

As she spoke, she was the first to take a pill and put it in her mouth. Then, she naturally took a second one, stood on her tiptoes, and leaned in close to Su Lin.

"Revered Master, open your mouth, ah."

Her amethyst-like eyes were full of anticipation, and her pink little tongue even deliberately licked her lips, looking ready to feed him the medicine personally.

Su Lin's eyelid twitched, and he reached out to take the pill.

"No, no, Revered Master, your hands just touched those corpse powders; they're dirty."

Chu Weiwei playfully slapped Su Lin's hand away and then, with even more conviction, brought the pill to his lips.

"Weiwei will feed you; it's the cleanest way."

"Chu the Third, can you have some shame?"

Su Hongling couldn't stand it any longer. She strode over and yanked Chu Weiwei to the side.

"Old Man, don't listen to her nonsense. I'll feed you."

With that, she also picked up a pill, but her method was much rougher. She directly grabbed Su Lin's chin and unceremoniously stuffed the pill into his mouth.

*Gulp.*

Su Lin was forced to swallow the pill, his face full of helplessness.

These two girls were each more of a handful than the other.

Once the pill entered his stomach, it immediately turned into a cool stream of Qi that flowed through his Meridians and eventually gathered in his Sea of Consciousness, forming a pale golden protective shield around his Divine Soul.

"The effect is quite good." Su Lin nodded.

Chu Weiwei immediately tilted her chin up proudly, not forgetting to cast a provocative glance at Su Hongling.

"Hmph, you crude brute. You don't even know how to be a little gentle when feeding medicine."

"Who are you calling a brute?!" Su Hongling rolled up her sleeves, ready for a fight.

"Both of you, settle down."

Su Lin rubbed his brow, stopping the battle that was about to break out between the two.

He gave a pill to Su Hongling and Yan Rusi respectively, then turned to look at the bottomless black abyss.

"Prepare to go down."

"Wait, Revered Master."

Yan Rusi spoke up somewhat hesitantly, "How are we going to get down? We can't see the bottom of this abyss, and the miasma is too thick. If we recklessly fly on our swords, we might lose our way."

"Who said we were flying down?"

A smile played on the corner of Su Lin's mouth.

He walked to the edge of the cliff and took out a palm-sized jade compass from his robes.

This was a Magic Treasure he had conveniently taken from the Xuantian Treasury earlier called the Tracking Compass. It was originally used to track fleeing Half-Immortals.

But in Su Lin's hands, this compass had another use.

He dripped a drop of his own essence blood onto the center of the compass and then placed the slightly vibrating void spirit crystal on top of it.

The needle on the compass immediately began to spin wildly before finally pointing steadily toward a certain direction in the abyss.

"Interesting."

Su Lin narrowed his eyes. "The void spirit crystal's resonance indeed points toward the depths of the Forbidden Demon Abyss. It seems Revered Master really did leave something here."

"So we're following this direction?" Chu Weiwei leaned over to look at the compass.

"Not just follow it, but follow it carefully."

Su Lin put away the compass and took out an extremely long rope from his storage space.

The rope was pure white and emitted a faint immortal light; it was clearly no ordinary item.

"This is the 'Thousand-Zhang Dragon-Locking Rope' collected by that old dog Xuantian. It's incredibly tough and comes with its own protective Formation. Descending with this is much safer than flying on swords."

As Su Lin spoke, he firmly tied one end of the rope to a large boulder at the edge of the cliff.

"Hong Ling, you have the most strength, so you lead the way. Weiwei will be in the middle, Yan Rusi will be at the back, and I'll bring up the rear."

After making the arrangements, the group of four began to slowly descend along the rope.

As soon as they entered the range of the black miasma, the surrounding scenery changed drastically.

The faint daylight they could still see vanished instantly, replaced by an oppressive darkness that was absolute.

This darkness wasn't a simple lack of light; it was an absolute darkness that seemed to swallow everything, even suppressing Divine Sense to the extreme.

"So heavy..."

Yan Rusi gritted her teeth. She felt as if her body had been filled with lead; every meter she descended required an immense amount of effort.

"Don't panic, hold onto the rope." Su Lin's voice came through the darkness, giving her a bit of comfort.

Just then, bursts of eerie whispers suddenly echoed from the surrounding darkness.

The voices were unintelligible, but they possessed a magic that shook the soul, as if tempting them to let go of the rope and plunge into the endless darkness.

"Don't listen to those voices! Guard your mind!"

Su Lin shouted in a low voice.

He could feel these whispers testing their Divine Soul defenses, looking for a weakness.

Fortunately, the Mind-Clearing Soul-Guarding Pills Chu Weiwei had refined were indeed effective. The pale golden protective shield isolated the whispers, keeping their minds clear.

They descended another hundred meters or so.

Su Hongling suddenly stopped.

"Wait, there's something below."

Her red vertical pupils shimmered in the darkness as she stared intently downward.

The others followed her gaze and could vaguely see a massive object slowly swimming in the deeper darkness.

The creature was enormous; just the section of its body that was visible was dozens of zhang long. It emitted an aura of rot and death, leaving trails of dark red light in the darkness.

"What on earth is that?" Su Hongling licked her lips, a hint of excitement flashing in her eyes.

"It's likely a guardian of this abyss." Su Lin's expression was grave. "Don't provoke it; we'll go around."

However, just as they were preparing to quietly bypass it,

the behemoth seemed to sense something and suddenly turned its "head."

A pair of massive eyes emitting a ghostly green light suddenly snapped open in the darkness, staring fixedly at the four people on the rope.

"Crap, we've been spotted!"

A deafening roar echoed from below the abyss.

The behemoth suddenly opened its bloody maw, and a foul-smelling gale mixed with black miasma rushed toward them.

"Everyone, hold onto the rope!"

Su Lin shouted and swept his right hand out.

A brilliant starlight erupted from his palm, transforming into a massive light shield in the darkness that blocked the gale.

But the behemoth clearly wouldn't let things rest there.

Its massive body churned in the abyss, kicking up bursts of violent air currents.

Worse still, as it became restless, the surrounding black miasma began to roll violently, actually condensing into ghost claws that reached for the group on the rope.

"Revered Master, let Weiwei handle this!"

Chu Weiwei shouted. Holding the rope with one hand, she flicked out a dozen or so medicine bottles from her sleeve with the other.

The bottles exploded in the air, scattering clouds of multicolored poisonous powder.

As soon as the poisonous powder touched the ghost claws made of miasma, a violent reaction occurred.

*Sizzle sizzle—*

The ghost claws were like they had been splashed with sulfuric acid, instantly beginning to rot and dissolve.

But the behemoth's attacks didn't stop.

It suddenly whipped its tail, and the massive scale-covered tail carried world-destroying power as it slammed toward the rope the group was on.

"You want to touch my people? You'll have to get through me first!"

Su Hongling roared. She let go of the rope and charged toward the massive tail like a cannonball.

"Hong Ling!" Su Lin was shocked.

But it was too late to stop her.

Su Hongling gripped the no edge great sword with both hands, the blood energy in her body burning wildly to form a massive dark-gold phantom behind her.

"Mountain Splitter!"

She swung her sword.

A golden sword beam traced a dazzling arc through the darkness, slamming heavily into the massive tail.

*BOOM!!!*

A world-shaking explosion rang out.

The behemoth let out a shrill wail of pain, its massive body thrashing violently in the abyss, and the resulting gale was almost enough to blow the rope apart.

Meanwhile, Su Hongling's body was sent flying by the immense counter-shock, flipping several times in the air.

"Senior Sister!"

Chu Weiwei cried out in alarm, about to move.

But a figure was even faster than her.

Su Lin's figure blurred, and he appeared in mid-air, steadily catching the flying Su Hongling.

"Cough cough... Old Man, I'm fine."

A trace of blood leaked from the corner of Su Hongling's mouth, but her eyes shone with excitement.

"That beast's tail is tough, but I managed to wound it. Heh heh, now it knows what's what."

"You..."

Su Lin sighed helplessly but checked her injuries nonetheless.

Fortunately, it was just some shock to her Meridians; it wasn't a major problem.

After taking a hit from Su Hongling's sword, the behemoth seemed to realize these prey were not to be trifled with. After a few unwilling low roars, its massive body slowly sank back into the deeper darkness.

"Phew... it's finally gone."

Yan Rusi breathed a sigh of relief; she had truly thought she was going to die just now.

"Continue descending; don't waste time."

Su Lin carried Su Hongling back to the rope. This time, he didn't let the reckless girl lead the way again, instead sandwiching her between himself and Chu Weiwei.

They descended another three hundred meters or so.

The surrounding darkness finally began to thin, and a faint light could be seen ahead.

"We're almost at the bottom."

Su Lin's spirits lifted.

After descending for a moment longer, everyone's feet finally touched solid ground.

This was a desolate land covered in gravel and withered bones, and the air was thick with a stale, ancient scent.

To their surprise, the miasma here was actually much thinner than above, and their vision returned to normal.

"Is this... the bottom of the abyss?"

Chu Weiwei looked around, a hint of doubt flashing in her purple eyes.

Su Lin didn't speak. He took out the compass and looked at the needle, which was still spinning.

"No, this is only one layer. The true destination is still ahead."

He looked up toward the faint, pale-blue outline of a building in the distance.