Chapter Twenty: The Underground Abyss

  Yunshan and his three disciples arrived at their own cave, each sitting cross-legged. Wang Qian's heart moved slightly as he noticed that his master, who had been beaming with joy just a moment ago, now looked somewhat solemn. He knew that during the two years he was in seclusion, something must have changed in the cultivation world.

  Just now he also saw many elders, core disciples, and even true transmission disciples, but those few in the Qingyun Gate who were calling the wind and rain, strong and unparalleled, didn't have a single one. This is very abnormal. Even if those disciples didn't put their minds on this unknown person, with Chi Lian Lei Jie's big commotion, it's impossible for not a single one of them to appear. There can only be one reason - these people are not in Qingyun Mountain.

  "Wang Qian, you've finally made it out of the pass and your cultivation has also made great progress, which is good. Recently, the Tianyuan Continent has been very turbulent, and the autumn of many events has arrived. If your cultivations are too low, even I don't dare say that I can guarantee your lives."

  Zhou Qing and Yunlu also had a solemn expression, Wang Qian understood that these two must have heard something, and Yunshan's words were probably specifically for himself.

  "Master, what's going on? Are we inner disciples unable to stay and cultivate on the mountain even after reaching the Innate Boundary?"

  Wang Qian's question was also very clever, because according to his understanding, in the Xiu Zhen realm, disciples of the Pre-Heavenly Boundary can be said to be everywhere, and are the most humble cultivators. Even if they have exceptional innate talent, they still haven't grown up yet. Generally speaking, these disciples usually take on some simple tasks to temper themselves every day, and only after successfully building their foundation can they be considered a true cultivator, and truly join the world of Xiu Zhen practitioners.

  "Hey, junior brother, you've been focusing on your cultivation for the past two years and have become quite pure. You don't know that in recent days, the Cultivation Realm has been turbulent, with many low-level disciples from various sects dying during their trials outside the mountain. Just one death can be a huge loss, even my own Qingyun Sect has lost several hundred inner sect disciples."

  Zhou Qing's face twisted into a bitter smile, and then his expression turned gloomy.

  Wang Gan was shocked in his heart. Since he came to the Tianyuan Continent, except for the time when he just became a zombie and killed several disciples of the Tianyuan Sect, it had been peaceful, with few things happening. It had only been two years since then, yet such a huge change had occurred, which was truly shocking.

  "Is the Great Devil War starting?"

  Wang Gan thought his conjecture was quite accurate.

  "Hey, it's not that simple. According to the great gods of various sects, the underground Yin-Yang clan has started to stir up again. Recently, many demonic heads of the Yin-Yang clan have begun to appear on the Tianyuan continent, and many places have been slaughtered by humans."

  Yun Shan's face was heavy with worry, and he couldn't help but sigh repeatedly.

  Wang Gan didn't know much about the Youming tribe, so he could only listen.

  Yun Shan simply introduced the situation and let them leave separately.

  Next, Wang Qian spent several days consolidating his cultivation. He broke through to the second turn of the Nine Turns Body Refining Technique and opened up the Sea of Suffering. His cultivation had a huge breakthrough, which was even more powerful than the Primordial Great Circle according to his own estimate. It could be compared to the foundation-building period cultivators. The divine power in the Sea of Suffering seemed weak but it was actually concentrated to an extreme point, constantly nourishing his physical body. His strength grew day by day and he almost became a humanoid divine beast.

  That day, he once again practiced the bitter sea seal, one move and one style, like a heavenly dragon, majestic and vast, yet like a divine crane, elegant and ethereal. The air continuously exploded, occasionally flashing with cyan-colored aura. Within a radius of several meters around him, the void shook violently, and whether it was rocks or trees, everything instantly turned to dust. The sharpness and ferocity reached an extreme point.

  "This bitter sea seal looks simple, even just one move, but it is vast and profound, communicating the great way, mysterious and unparalleled, the more you cultivate, the more you can feel the depth within."

  Taking a deep breath, Wang Qian gathered his breath and the boiling essence in his body slowly calmed down, concentrating on thinking about his previous actions.

  Zhou Qing suddenly came to the door, explained his intention, and asked him to go together to Bai Shi Temple to receive the task of going down the mountain, to the depths of the earth to behead the demon head of the You Ming tribe.

  Wang Gan did not dare to slack off, and the two of them hastily packed up and set off immediately.

  All the way, Wang Gan was listening to Zhou Qing's explanation. It turned out that during this period of time, the high-level leaders of the Qingyun Gate had issued an order, encouraging the disciples in the gate to go down the mountain and practice, and fight against the demon heads of the Youming tribe. On the one hand, they could hone their skills and cultivate themselves, and on the other hand, they could kill as many demon heads as possible and protect the ordinary people of the Tianyuan Continent from being slaughtered.

  They hadn't even reached the Baishi Hall yet, but Wang Qian had already seen many Qingyunmen disciples coming and going, some of whom were covered in blood, clearly having just finished fighting with the underground demon king.

  There were many disciples scattered around, their faces filled with sorrow. Zhou Qing explained on the side that recently everyone had been going out to hunt and kill in groups, some teams had gained a lot while others either lacked strength or had bad luck, encountering powerful demon heads and suffering heavy casualties. Many small teams hadn't even returned with one person, forever staying underground and becoming food for those demonic heads of the Netherworld tribe.

  At this moment, Wang Qian deeply felt the cruelty of the killings and the insignificance of life. In his past life on Earth, although it was also a tumultuous world, it was ultimately a peaceful era, which did not have the bloodiness and cruelty of the present time.

  When they arrived at the Pepsi Temple, there were already four or five disciples waiting for them on one side. When they saw Zhou Qing, each of them smiled and came forward to greet him. As for Wang Qian, he had few opportunities to show his face in the Qingyun Gate, so most people didn't recognize him. Even during the Battle Platform event, it was just a brief appearance, and he kept a low profile, so naturally no one recognized him.

  After the seven people gathered in a row, they immediately entered the Bai Shi Temple. The various officials there were also extremely busy recently, and the number of disciples receiving tasks was too many. Although it was monotonous, with several thousand inner door disciples in the Qing Yun Sect, counting merits and distributing tasks was not an easy task.

  The task about the underground ghost tribe was quite simple. A middle-aged attendant casually threw over a book, which recorded information about the ghost tribe and the task requirements. Wang Qian and his group took it and left without asking more questions, as there were already many people waiting in line to receive their tasks.

  All the way down the mountain, Wang Qian also understood the situation of his team. Except for Zhou Qing, the remaining five people were Wang Dao, Li Haoran, Zhao Changqing, Zhao Kuang and Huang Zheng, all of whom had pre-heavenly late-stage cultivation.

  As for Zhou Qing, after two years, he had also broken through to the Xiantian Dàyuánmǎn stage and was just a step away from successfully building his foundation.

  After listening to Zhou Qing's introduction of Wang Qian, the other five people were shocked one by one, staring at Wang Qian with piercing eyes, as if there were countless flowers blooming on his face, making Wang Qian laugh and cry.

  "What's going on here?"

  Wang Gan was puzzled and couldn't help but think that he was a homebody who rarely left his house, yet these people looked at him with eyes as if they were looking at a precious animal, which made him really uncomfortable.

  "Wow, you're actually Zhou Qing's junior brother, that demon king Wang Qian?"

  Among them, Huang Zheng was the most lively and talkative. As soon as they dismounted their horses, he began to shout loudly.

  "You don't know? You're now a big shot among the Qingyunmen disciples, breaking through the Xiantian boundary and being struck by heavenly thunder, it's unprecedented! That heavenly tribulation was crazy, with red clouds covering the sky, I saw it myself!"

  As soon as Huang Zheng said this, everyone else nodded continuously, even the coolest Wang Dao had sharp eyes.

  Wang Qian couldn't help but laugh bitterly, only then realizing that he had become famous, and not just ordinarily famous. He didn't know how many people were inquiring about him, and his heart felt deeply depressed. Who would be willing to endure being struck by lightning? Only he himself could understand the dangers hidden beneath the glory, which was truly a narrow escape from death.

  "Is being struck by lightning good? If not, you try it!"

  Wang Gan opened his mouth to refute, and others immediately stopped talking, no longer saying a word, all in unison.

  Several people have the strength of innate and acquired, plus the speed of the divine symbol is extremely fast, almost with a few degrees of air, leaving Qingyun Mountain range nearly ten thousand miles away in less than half an hour.

  "Alright, fellow disciples, just ahead is a ground fissure, get ready."

  Among them, Zhou Qing was always the first, and upon hearing this, everyone's face turned solemn, and the atmosphere was no longer as lively as before.

  Not long after, a dilapidated city came into view. The city walls had collapsed, the houses were flattened, and a musty smell wafted through the air, desolate and bleak.

  A huge city, now a dead city, everywhere is incomplete white bones, like a human hell.

  "This city was overturned by a group of underground demons half a year ago, and tens of thousands of people in the city were swallowed up, not one survived."

  Zhou Qing's face was heavy, and everyone else's eyes were red, although it is said that cultivators are high above, cutting off emotions and desires, but this is only relative. Those with deep cultivation, who have lived for hundreds or thousands of years, are one thing, but people like Wang Qian, who are at most thirty years old, are all young people, full of vigor and hatred towards evil. Seeing such a hellish scene, they gritted their teeth and had distorted faces.

  "This clan of ghosts is simply the most evil of all evils, and not killing them would be insufficient to prove one's Dao heart!"

  Wang Gan's face was also stern, and he had no good feelings towards this ghostly clan. In fact, they were not of the same kind as humans, their hearts were different, and this ghostly clan was not human at all. As soon as they were born, they took humans as food, and even these cultivators were their favorites. With abundant spiritual energy, swallowing a cultivator could greatly improve the cultivation of the ghostly clan's demon head, making them sworn enemies.

  Even the demonic cultivators were not as brutal as these monsters. Although the demonic path was notorious for being ruthless and poisonous, they were still human and would not be so depraved. Therefore, this time the emergence of the underground ghost tribe was not only a deep invasion of the righteous sects but also the various demonic factions sending their disciples to slaughter them.

  "Everyone, be careful when we dive deeper later. Although the first layer of the underground is vast and boundless, it's also full of demonic heads. Who knows, as soon as we enter, we might encounter a demonic head, so let's be prepared to use our full strength!"

  Zhou Qing's face was cold and unfeeling, completely unlike a cultivator, and everyone else was the same.

  The crowd responded in unison and then each of them displayed their skills, jumping into the fissure in the center of the city.

  Zhou Qing and the others, each with a colorful aura emerging from their bodies, displayed their magical abilities, some using talismans or treasures. Only Wang Qian wore a simple green robe, his palm striking out with a gust of wind, his body falling like a meteor. With another palm strike, cracks spread along the edges, and whether it was stone or wood, everything seemed to be pierced like tofu under his hands. His hands alternated in a clumsy-looking but swift motion, his feet stomping out a rhythmic pattern.

  The depth of the crack was unknown, and after half an hour, Wang Gan felt that he had already descended to a depth of 10,000 meters, but still hadn't reached the bottom. Looking around, it was still a vast expanse of darkness, as if it were a bottomless abyss, where ancient ferocious beasts were devouring them.

  As people became more familiar with the hand method, their speed of descent grew faster and faster. After a while, they finally saw a piece of dark gray land vaguely.

  Bang!

  A down-to-earth feeling came, Wang Qian deeply exhaled a breath. This moment, although not full force, was not too easy for him either. If it were a foundation-building cultivator who had achieved success in practicing Qi and could fly with their sword, it would be effortless. However, a pre-heavenly realm cultivator did not have such skills yet.

  Several people hadn't even had a chance to exchange a word when they heard a heavy footsteps approaching.

  Roar! Roar!

  Inhuman howls echoed, thick bloody smell made people feel nauseous, looking up, Wang Qian found that dozens of meters away, a group of monsters were rushing towards him.

  These monsters, shaped like humans, with one head, two arms and two legs, but their entire body is pitch black, covered in scales, under the gloomy light, emitting a faint glow, at first glance, they have strong defenses and are extremely difficult to break through.

  Look at these monsters again, their skulls are like apes, but they have no hair, covered with dense scales, four sharp fangs exposed, emitting a cold and sharp light, their palms are also shaped like beast claws, with long and thin fingernails, silver-white in color, curved like a hook, some even stained with dark red bloodstains, ferocious to the extreme.

  "Everyone be careful, this is a Ghost Monkey King, extremely fast, highly defensive, sharp teeth, fierce claws, and boundless strength! Be extremely cautious!"

  Zhou Qingping had read a lot of information about the Youming tribe before, and now it came in handy. He immediately introduced them, and others who knew or didn't know looked at each other with a hint of surprise.