Chapter 1150, The Fall

Translator: Silavin

  

*Roar!*

 

The moment that Dangerous Territory stirred, it was as though the entire Silent Forest answered in kind, for from every direction came the thunderous howling of innumerable Demonic Beasts.

 

That howling was the sort that made the whole of Silent Forest seem to shudder and tremble. In that instant, the faces of the countless experts who had been picking their way through it with the utmost caution changed dramatically, all at once.

 

Not a Soul knew what on earth had happened inside Silent Forest, nor why it had caused such an enormous commotion.

 

Could it be that the sheer number of experts who had entered this time had driven those Demonic Beasts into a frenzy?

 

Those experts currently locked in battle with various Demonic Beasts made a rather startling discovery, that the creatures they were fighting suddenly let out a mighty roar and bolted away with all the urgency of legs that had developed opinions of their own.

 

The manner in which they fled suggested they had encountered something of truly terrifying magnitude.

 

…

 

And at this very moment, Qin Yichen, caught squarely in the torrent of scorching heat, came perilously close to being blasted into unconsciousness. Even with his focused effort to guard his Spiritual mind, his thoughts were still thrown into considerable disarray.

 

*Crash!*

 

Then, without warning, the black liquid below surged violently upward, rising like the gaping maw of some tremendous dark beast, swallowing downward towards him in an all-consuming lunge.

 

[Damn it!] Qin Yichen cried out inwardly, his heart flooded with alarm.

 

At this juncture, he could not so much as summon his Yuan Energy, and his body was held suspended in the air as though some peculiar force had seized complete dominion over it. He was utterly unable to move and could only watch with wide-open eyes as that enormous black maw bit down towards him.

 

In no more than an instant, that black maw swallowed Qin Yichen whole, and his senses plunged directly into a boundless, lightless darkness.

 

As the black liquid settled back into place, Silent Forest, which had been thrown into such turbulence, grew quiet once more, and that dangerous zone appeared to have returned entirely to its former state.

 

Enveloped by that black liquid, Qin Yichen’s robes were reduced to ash in virtually no time at all, and his physical body, which was several times more formidable than that of any expert at the same Realm, began to wither and dry out at a terrifying rate.

 

Across the bare skin of Qin Yichen’s body, crack after crack split open in rapid succession, and the blood that seeped through them congealed almost the moment it appeared, forming layer upon layer of thick scabs that encrusted his skin.

 

His body was a map of wounds. Yet just as his consciousness was on the verge of sinking entirely into darkness, a peculiar humming sound arose from somewhere within him, and a gentle radiance bloomed from his hand, wrapping his body inside it like a cocoon of light.

 

This cocoon of light appeared exceedingly fragile. Yet when that searing heat, the kind that seemed capable of overwhelming even a Saint, surged again once more. It did no more than cause the surface of the cocoon to ripple ever so slightly.

 

Under the protection of that cocoon of light, the black liquid seemed unable to seep through and erode any further, and Qin Yichen’s body gradually sank downward, eventually disappearing into the boundless darkness below.

 

…

 

When Qin Yichen finally opened his eyes, there was nothing but darkness before him. Only a faint ring of white light enveloped him where he lay, and that seemingly fragile ring of light appeared utterly indestructible.

 

Qin Yichen furrowed his brows. A sensation of extreme weakness radiated from within his body, the kind that reminded one of an ordinary person laid low by grave illness, so depleted that even the desire to move felt beyond reach.

 

His body, moreover, was blanketed in a thick crust of blood scabs, a rather sorry sight by any measure.

 

Faced with this unknown place, Qin Yichen made the effort to retrieve several Pills from his Space Ring and swallowed them. After resting for a good while, the Yuan Energy within him, which had all but evaporated to nothing, gradually began to refill.

 

Thereupon, Qin Yichen shook off every last scab from his body and changed into a fresh set of clean robes.

 

Sensing the Yuan Energy within him, which now felt as though it had returned to his command, Qin Yichen’s heart steadied somewhat.

 

In an unknown place such as this, having power was having security. After all, no one could say whether danger might not materialise in the very next moment.

 

“Where is this place?” Qin Yichen furrowed his brows slightly and began to survey his surroundings.

 

“Can these things really be that black liquid from the swamp?”

 

When he caught sight of that boundless darkness, Qin Yichen’s pupils shrank sharply.

 

For he found that this dark substance carried the distinct flavour of something he had encountered before.

 

These black things were, as he suspected, not the flowing liquid that appeared on the surface of the swamp. They were, in fact, composed of countless black worm-like entities that seemed to possess life of their own. Without careful observation, one would readily mistake them for black liquid.

 

Furthermore, Qin Yichen discovered that these things were identical to what he had encountered before, carrying with them a profoundly sinister quality.

 

Whether it was the arm guards or the knee guards of the Myriad Dao Divine Armour, both were wreathed in this very same terrible black energy.

 

The difference was that the black energy he had encountered previously possessed a dreadful devouring force, while the black liquid here was saturated with a fearsome, extreme heat.

 

Yet his instincts told him plainly that this black liquid and what he had encountered before shared the very same root and origin.

 

He also noticed that the ring of light enveloping his body appeared to be emanating from the Space Ring on his hand.

 

[Can it be that a part of the Myriad Dao Divine Armour is here?] Qin Yichen’s pupils contracted, and within his heart, which had been teetering close to despair, a wave of turbulence suddenly surged.

 

The Myriad Dao Divine Armour was, without question, the most deserving set of divine armour across the entire continent. It was a set so extraordinary that even the Dwarf Race, famed for their craft in forging all manner of weapons and armour, could not forge its equal.

 

Yet after that catastrophic great battle, which had shaken Heaven and Earth, Master Lu Ban had gradually vanished without a trace, and the Myriad Dao Divine Armour, that legendary artefact of mythical renown, had likewise disappeared from the eyes of the world.

 

By a stroke of fortunate circumstance, Qin Yichen had obtained the Master Craftsman’s Hammer, and had also located the arm guards and knee guards of the Myriad Dao Divine Armour. However, in all the time since, even having exhausted every resource at his disposal amongst the Human Race, he had found no further trace of any remaining parts.

 

And yet the situation before him now bore a remarkable resemblance to a sealed-away part of the Myriad Dao Divine Armour undergoing purification.

 

*Click…*

 

After a brief pause for contemplation, Qin Yichen solemnly produced the Master Craftsman’s Hammer from his Space Ring. As expected, the moment the Master Craftsman’s Hammer appeared, that gentle ring of light grew brilliantly radiant, dazzling and magnificent, and appeared even more utterly unbreakable than before.

 

An uncanny sensation also spread through Qin Yichen’s heart alongside the appearance of the Master Craftsman’s Hammer.

 

Without a second thought, he followed that sensation, walking in a certain direction through the boundless dark.

 

He walked with no sense of time whatsoever, as though time itself had become irrelevant. After an indeterminate period, Qin Yichen finally noticed that at the far end of his vision, within the darkness, something different had begun to stir.