613: Chapter 613 The Other Shore is Perilous, a Place of Ten Deaths

"Holy shit, how strange!"

Ma Donghe slapped his forehead and muttered with a puzzled face:

"Where is the Buddha? Where is the temple? I was even ready to take out my New Year money to donate as incense offerings just now, how did it vanish in the blink of an eye?"

Hou Peng braced his hands on his knees, panting heavily, and looked around with lingering fear:

"What was that just now... a mental hallucination?"

At this moment, Grey Hawk's screams also stopped.

He scrambled backward in a panic, his eyes filled with extreme terror, and shouted hysterically:

"We can't walk any further! I felt it just now, that's not any Buddha at all; it's a giant mouth!"

"If we take another step forward, all of us will be eaten!"

Fang Cheng completely ignored Grey Hawk's raving nonsense.

He slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, reigning in the boiling, scalding Qi and blood surging throughout his entire Physical Body.

Then, he pulled his feet out from the deep mud pit and continued forward for a dozen steps.

Then, he stopped.

Fang Cheng raised his hand and reached forward with his palm.

What his fingertips touched was no longer the damp and cold mist.

Less than half a meter in front of him, a water-wave-like golden barrier was rippling with tiny concentric circles as he touched it.

Hiss, hiss—

A subtle, abnormal sound similar to roasting meat suddenly rang out.

A strong burning sensation came from his fingertips, and the pain spread all the way along his nerve endings, piercing fiercely deep into his mind.

That seemingly sacred golden halo actually contained highly destructive, high-dimensional radiation energy.

Relying on a powerful Physical Body strong enough to withstand heavy machine gun strafing, Fang Cheng was still unable to completely resist it at this moment.

The stratum corneum of his epidermis quickly blackened, emitting a wisp of pungent white smoke.

If it were an ordinary person, touching it for just an instant would likely have turned the entire finger into a pool of blood.

This also confirmed the terrifying death of the two assassins, Lynx and Bald Rat, whose Physical Bodies had melted previously.

Fang Cheng's eyes narrowed slightly, and he did not rush to withdraw his hand.

The next second, a trace of pure golden flame directly emerged from beneath the skin of his palm.

The overbearing and scorching True Sun Fire spewed out along his fingertips, colliding with the external corrosive energy trying to invade his body.

The two completely different forces crushed and devoured each other on a half-inch square of skin, emitting a muffled sizzling sound.

In the end, the golden flame prevailed, forcibly burning through and exhausting the attached radiation energy.

Immediately following, the necrotic black skin at the wound on his fingertip fell off in rustles, and the bright red granulation tissue intertwined and adhered to each other.

In just a few seconds, the corroded skin and flesh regrew and healed, returning to its smooth, original state.

Not even a trace of a tiny scar was left behind.

After testing out the bottom line of this golden light barrier, Fang Cheng slowly withdrew his right hand.

He raised his head, his eyes narrowing slightly as he gazed ahead.

Through this water-wave-like distorted halo, one could faintly see the bottomless, gloomy space behind the barrier.

"Is this the entrance to the different world?"

Fang Cheng murmured to himself.

Clack, clack.

A series of footsteps came from behind.

Ma Donghe and Hou Peng also plucked up their courage and crowded over.

"A-Cheng, what on earth is this thing? It looks rather creepy."

Ma Donghe peeked and pried at the glowing barrier, asking curiously.

"This should be the entrance to the Ancient Civilization Ruins."

Fang Cheng turned around, patted his hands, and said in a deep voice:

"I plan to go in and check out the situation."

"That's fantastic!"

Hearing this, Ma Donghe patted his chest with his cattail-fan-like big hand and replied boisterously:

"Since we've found the place, let's go in together and see what kind of mountains of gold and silver are hidden inside!"

Hou Peng also clenched the dagger in his hand and nodded in agreement, clearly unwilling to miss this massive Opportunity.

Fang Cheng looked at the two eager people, shook his head, and directly poured a bucket of cold water on them:

"This barrier can corrode even my Physical Body. Without a proper method to enter, given your current Physique, forcing your way in will only lead to a dead end."

Without waiting for Ma Donghe to retort, he raised his chin and motioned for the two to look around:

"Take a look for yourselves, where did Lynx and Bald Rat go?"

Hearing these words, the smiles on Ma Donghe and Hou Peng's faces instantly froze.

Their minds had been in a trance and shock just now, so they completely ignored the change in the number of people around them.

Now reminded by Fang Cheng, the two hurriedly turned their heads to scan around.

Sure enough, they didn't see the shadow of those two assassins.

Grey Hawk, sitting paralyzed not far away, also gave a sudden shudder upon hearing what Fang Cheng said.

He scrambled up from the ground in a panic, cupped his hands around his mouth, and shouted at the top of his lungs toward the thick fog:

"Lynx! Bald Rat!"

The grayish-white fog rolled slowly like a tide.

The surroundings were dead silent; apart from the sound of the wind, there was no response at all.

"Stop shouting."

Fang Cheng watched Grey Hawk's futile action and said in a calm tone:

"They were confused by the illusions just now and walked into this golden light. Skin and bones alike, they completely melted into blood and evaporated away."

As soon as these words were spoken, the air seemed to freeze instantly.

The excitement on Ma Donghe and Hou Peng's faces instantly faded away.

A layer of cold sweat suddenly broke out from the foreheads of the two, streaming down their cheeks.

If it hadn't been for Fang Cheng's explosive roar shattering the illusion just now, their fate would have definitely been the same as those two assassins, leaving not even a skeleton behind.

"Fuck it!"

Ma Donghe gasped a breath of cold air, took two big steps back with lingering fear, and cursed bitterly:

"This bald donkey wearing a Buddha's skin is too vicious, eating people without spitting out the bones!"

Hou Peng's face turned even paler. He took a deep breath and solemnly bowed to Fang Cheng:

"Brother Fang, your grace of saving my life is unforgettable."

Fang Cheng didn't care about these polite pleasantries, then stepped past the two and walked straight up to Grey Hawk.

"Since we have found the exact location, what is the method to enter the ruins?"

"The method to enter the ruins? I... I don't know."

Grey Hawk's gaze was somewhat vacant as he shook his head blankly.

It seemed he had not yet fully recovered from the shock of the Buddha light dissolving his companions.

"Is that so?"

Fang Cheng's eyelids drooped slightly, his tone revealing a terrifying coldness:

"If you can't even provide this, what use is there in keeping you?"

As he spoke, he crossed the fingers of both hands and squeezed them hard.

Immediately, a series of cracking sounds like roasted beans rang out, and the meaning of the threat was self-evident.

Grey Hawk's knees went soft, and with a crying expression, he waved his hands repeatedly:

"Brother Cheng, I really don't know how to get in! But don't worry, I'll contact my superior right now, he definitely has a way to get us in!"

Fang Cheng raised his chin, signaling him to do it.

As if granted amnesty, Grey Hawk immediately pulled the marching pack behind him to his front and unzipped it.

He rummaged through it flurriedly a few times and pulled out a heavy black communicator from the bottom compartment pocket.

Then he pulled out the antenna, and his thumb quickly pressed a string of encrypted channel buttons, preparing to contact someone.

However, not even a single bar of weak signal jumped out on the screen.

In the communicator's speaker, there was only the harsh, static blind tone of "buzz, buzz".

Grey Hawk was sweating profusely with anxiety. He slapped the instrument shell twice and unwillingly switched to several backup channels.

As a result, apart from static, still no response came out.

"Enough, don't bother."

Fang Cheng spoke up to interrupt his futile actions, his gaze sweeping over the piece of junk-like machine:

"The spatial barrier here is weak, and the leakage of high-dimensional energy causes severe magnetic field interference nearby. Ordinary radio waves simply cannot penetrate this barrier, and your signal has been completely blocked."

Grey Hawk dejectedly lowered the communicator, his face ashen to the extreme, as if his last bit of spirit and energy had been drained away.

Failing to contact the mastermind meant he couldn't get the method to enter the ruins.

They had risked their lives and racked their brains to find this place, only to be blocked outside by an invisible wall, staring blankly in frustration.

This feeling was like going through all sorts of hardships to find a treasure mountain piled with gold and silver,

only to find that you didn't have the key to open the door at all, leaving you with nothing to do but sigh in despair.

Fang Cheng turned his head and cast his gaze once more toward the golden barrier rippling like water waves.

The thick fog rolled outside the barrier, but could never cross even half a step beyond the boundary.

That halo containing terrifying corrosive power was like an insurmountable Wall of Sighs, isolating the present world from that unknown ancient world.

"Since there is no key to open the door..."

Fang Cheng's eyes were bright, and faint flames were leaping within his pupils.

The hands hanging at his sides slowly clenched into fists, their knuckles once again producing muffled cracking sounds.

He rapidly deduced various possibilities in his mind.

Afterward, he raised his head and made a bold decision.

Perhaps he could try out his newly acquired ability and verify its combat effectiveness along the way.

Fang Cheng deeply inhaled a breath of cold air mixed with a bloody scent.

Following closely, his Dantian shook abruptly.

The violent Qi and blood rushed roaringly along his extraordinary meridians like floodwaters from an opened gate.

Hum—

Dazzling golden flames spewed out from beneath his skin, flowing and spreading like boiling magma.

In the blink of an eye, the golden light expanded outward with a roar, propping up a huge spherical light shield with a diameter of fully six meters centered around him.

"Hunyuan True Domain, open!"

The extreme high temperature instantly dispelled the surrounding chill.

The air inside the light shield violently distorted under the high temperature, and the muddy ground beneath his feet was quickly roasted dry amidst a series of "sizzling" sounds, cracking into countless fine lines.

Ma Donghe, Hou Peng, and the others were forced to retreat repeatedly by this heat wave, and could only use their arms to block their faces while watching the man who seemed to have transformed into the sun in shock.

Fang Cheng did not look back, taking large strides and walking straight toward that translucent golden halo barrier.

Siss, siss, siss—

As soon as the two completely different energies came into contact, dense sparks and large swaths of white smoke erupted.

The high-dimensional radiation energy with terrifying corrosive power was like a group of piranhas smelling meat, frantically tearing and squeezing the golden light ring.

The surface of the Hunyuan True Domain violently churned, sending out circles of wild ripples.

Fang Cheng's eyes were calm, treating them merely as a breeze blowing against his face.

The muscles in his legs twisted tightly like steel cables, and his military boots crushed the roasted dry mud clods beneath his feet. Bearing the immense pressure that seemed capable of grinding a person to pieces, he forcibly squeezed through the gap in the barrier.

The instant he passed through the barrier, the sound of the wind behind him and the exclamation sounds of Ma Donghe and the others were cut off as if by a knife.

The surroundings instantly plunged into absolute dead silence.

That overwhelming resistance and the golden barrier also vanished abruptly along with it.

Fang Cheng leaned his upper body forward slightly, then pressed his center of gravity downward, standing steadily.

The light emitted by the Hunyuan True Domain barely illuminated the surrounding scene.

This place resembled a deep, gloomy passage.

All around were rolling black mists.

What was stepped on underfoot was a kind of cold and hard black rock.

The golden flames in Fang Cheng's pupils danced.

He maintained a steady pace, walking with composed steps deeper along the passage.

Not knowing how long he had walked, a faint, dim green fluorescent glow gradually emerged in the darkness ahead.

Fang Cheng slowed his pace, clenched his right hand into a fist, and slowly approached.

Taking advantage of the light, he saw the scene ahead clearly.

That was a dilapidated Buddhist pagoda more than a dozen meters tall.

The body of the pagoda was covered with traces of weathering and peeling, seeming to have stood here for an unknown number of years.

That dim green fluorescent glow was precisely emitted from a certain kind of moss growing in the cracks of the stones.

On the ground directly in front of the Buddhist pagoda, several incomplete withered skeletons were scattered haphazardly.

The surface of the bones presented a weathered grayish color, and even some places had grown together with the black rock; clearly, they had died here for a very long time.

Fang Cheng's gaze crossed the withered skeletons and landed on a half-broken stone tablet at the base of the Buddhist pagoda.

Several archaic and clumsy characters were engraved on the stone tablet.

Although the character structures were somewhat strange and sloppy, Fang Cheng could understand their meaning at a glance.

"The Other Shore is perilous, ten deaths and no life."

"If you wish to proceed, kowtow three times before the pagoda to prove your sincerity toward the Dao, and then the passage can be opened."

After scanning the inscription, Fang Cheng's eyelids drooped slightly, and his gaze lingered on those withered skeletons for two seconds.

Judging by the look of it, these unlucky fellows who died here should have also been explorers who wanted to enter the ruins during their lifetime.

As for this pagoda and tablet, perhaps it was a checkpoint left by some mighty figure, or maybe some sort of ancient, mischievous ritual.

Make him kowtow to a skeleton frame that had been dead for who knows how many years, or to some invisible clay figurine statue?

Fang Cheng's mouth twitched slightly, and instead of bending his knees, he directly raised his right leg.

The sole of his foot wearing heavy military boots hovered in mid-air, and then he stamped it down with a bit of force onto the ground directly in front of the broken tablet.

Bang!

A muffled sound echoed in the dead-silent passage.

Fang Cheng's expression was calm as he raised his leg again.

Bang! Bang!

Three kicks in succession, each kick heavier than the last.

The violent power poured out along the soles of his boots, causing the hard black stone ground to vibrate slightly and leaving three prominent footprints behind.

"There's no way I'm kowtowing. Stamping three times will just have to count as giving you a sound to hear."

Fang Cheng withdrew his right leg and stood his body straight.

He quietly gazed at the Buddhist pagoda ahead, waiting for changes.

A few seconds passed.

The surroundings remained dead silent. The dim green moss on the Buddhist pagoda didn't even glow a bit brighter, nor was there any sign of the passage opening.

"It seems clever little tricks can't fool the dead ghost who left this mechanism behind."

Fang Cheng shook his head.

Afterward, the five fingers of his right hand slowly spread open, and the golden flames began to converge toward his palm.

Since the other party didn't approve, he would try smashing this broken pagoda along with the stone tablet into smithereens and forcefully forging a path through.

Just at the moment when he was about to act,

the space directly above the Buddhist pagoda suddenly distorted violently.

Accompanied by the roaring sound of a fierce wind, a slowly rotating red vortex tore through the darkness and hovered in mid-air.