The Sacred Ruins

Chapter 615: Netherworld

Translator: Alsey Editor: Chrissy

A lone stream of smoke rose from the vast desert as the round sun set slowly over the long river.

The wide desert under the setting sun normally felt vast and desolate.

But in the blink of an eye, the entire land was filled with blooming with spider lilies. All of a sudden, the desert was filled with blue crystalline flowers. The scene was as intoxicating as it was ephemeral.

The thin smoke rose up to form a blue mist. It was as though a mysterious kingdom had opened up or an ancient world had connected to the desert.

Chu Feng stood there in a daze as the scenes of the past appeared before his eyes. His heart was shaken at the scene.

At this moment, the red sun over the horizon turned a mysterious blue. It hung right over the horizon, emitting a peaceful blue light.

Chu Feng was still deeply astonished to see the spider lilies in the desert even though he had experienced it before.

What were they formed of?

He could no longer be compared to his past self. He now had the Fiery Eyes with which he observed in detail. As the blue pollen flew into the air, he saw an ancient land trying to connect itself to this desert.

This wasn’t an illusion. The blossoming of the other shore flowers had actually opened up an ancient land, a mystical nation baptized by the passage of time

Chu Feng gasped. He couldn’t see these things in the past. Did he miss a great fortune or did he escape a disaster? That he didn’t know.

He didn’t want extra problems at this moment. He might’ve shown an intense desire to explore under normal circumstances, but after spending over a month in hell, he wanted to return as quickly as possible to meet his friends and family.

That was because he would fall deep into that ancient land if he were to explore.

“Eh?!”

Chu Feng revealed an odd expression as the blue light surged into the sky and formed some scenes in the air. The silhouette grew clearer—it was a bridge leading to the ancient nation.

What was going on? Was he being invited in?

Chu Feng didn’t move. He merely stood in place, staring at the blue mist before him and the land left behind since time immemorial.

He smelled a faint fragrance. Was this the smell of spider lilies?

“Not all pollen is beneficial to the human body. Back then, I encountered a sea of blue flowers but wasn’t affected at all.”

Chu Feng frowned. He was quite cautious because these flowers were too strange. The timing of their appearance caused him to feel serious.

Chu Feng had mentioned the blue flowers to Yellow Ox before. Back then Yellow Ox told him seriously that there was only one type of blue spider lily and that all others came from them.

Moreover, it was said that the blue spider lilies were related to a glorious and earthshattering expert. The waters were quite deep there.

Afterward, the blue spider lilies grew resplendent and the pollen mist grew denser. It had almost turned into waves that refused to disperse.

At this moment, the bridge formed of pollen grew more realistic. There were even patterns of flowers, birds, fish, and insects upon it. There were also divine birds, flying rocs, and immortal beasts.

Additionally, one human figure after the other appeared in the air, also formed from the blue mist. A chariot drawn by a host of eight qilins drove over from the bridge, seemingly here to pick up Chu Feng.

Chu Feng inhaled deeply. How weird, was this real? He suspected whether he was in dreamland.

The spider lilies and blue pollen mist had actually given rise to these things. Was he being invited into the ancient kingdom?!

“Huh!?”

Chu Feng revealed a shocked expression. His spirit was about to leave his body and float toward the bridge. At the same time, the divine beast chariot stopped there, seemingly waiting for him to board.

His spirit was about to leave his body? Chu Feng was astonished, he absolutely mustn’t go!

Chu Feng circulated the Robbery Induction Breathing Technique to protect his spirit. His soul immediately integrated with his body, spread to every inch of his flesh.

At the same time, he took out the stone box and black talisman. He was awaiting with great vigilance.

He was somewhat scared just now because it felt like he was about to lose his soul. Who knew what would happen if his soul had left?

“Local legends state that some ghosts from the netherworld are in charge of drawing out spirits and lead the dead to their afterlives. Am I encountering such a thing?”

“That’s not right either since I’m full of vitality. Even if those things and land really do exist, what right do they have to draw my soul away?” Chu Feng’s eyes were deep.

Afterward, he recalled a certain local legend. The powerhouses of the netherworld would sometimes invite some famous characters from the living world to a feast. They would invite their souls over to attend banquets.

An odd expression appeared on Chu Feng’s face. Could he have encountered such a thing? Was a powerhouse about to invite him to dinner in this land of mysterious spider lilies?

He was bewildered because such a thing was unimaginable. One had to know that no one would believe such things before the upheaval. These things were weird elements that existed only on paper.

But now he was actually encountering it, and it seemed there really was such a peculiar land. Did the Netherworld really exist?

He had visited the land of reincarnation and seen the Radiant City of Death. Now that such a strange underworld realm had appeared, it caused his emotions to fluctuate wildly. It was truly astonishing.

The reincarnation land and the netherworld, as Chu Feng, saw it should’ve been one and the same. But now it seemed that they weren’t in the same place despite being related.

He had never expected to encounter such a thing right after escaping the land of reincarnation.

Chu Feng pondered for a moment and felt that he had a “fateful connection” with the land of reincarnation and the netherworld. He had also encountered the field of spider lilies here back then. Then, he went over to Mount Kunlun where he picked up the stone box.

Now, it had been proven that the stone box was related to the land of reincarnation. Those mountain and river diagrams were even more so. They were extremely mysterious—there were actually dozens of golden runes on its side identical to those in the giant millstone in the land of reincarnation.

Presently, he had just walked out of the reincarnation world and then arrived at the land of spider lilies.

This was like a cycle.

Back in the year, he had left this place, and today, he had returned.

At this moment, the blue mist in the air grew denser, and the bridge that it formed grew clearer. The latter connected toward the mysterious ancient land upon were eight blue qilins neighing as they shook their heads and tail.

There were also some people dancing and singing, shrouded in blue light.

Chu Feng stabilized his spirit to prevent his spirit from moving away. He didn’t want to be spirited away out of the blue like this because who knew what would happen from here on out.

However, he was shaken the next moment. A divine power from the bridge surged into the skies and this time, it wasn’t just his spirit, but even his physical body was lifted and fell onto the bridge.

Entering the netherworld in the flesh? In legends, this was a sign of physical sanctification—meaning that the body had so much yang power that his spirit and flesh couldn’t be separated. Such people were not afraid of the netherworld’s corrosion and could enter just like that.

“Oh my!”

Chu Feng cried oddly. He had just escaped from the purgatory and left reincarnation behind, but now he was once again entering a place that seemed like the netherworld. This caused him to arch his tense body in preparation to escape.

“Little friend, why not dine here since you’ve already come?”

A voice appeared through the blue mist that caused his anxious heart to calm down. He then discovered that he was already sitting on the qilin chariot.

He could sit on it with his physical body?

He had been struck by a fair amount of lightning at Hell’s Gate and even now, his body was in great pain with burns all over it. Now that he was approaching the mysterious land, he discovered that his entire body was wracked with pain as though he were being cut apart.

People of the living world couldn’t enter the netherworld—that was a widely accepted fact. But now he was entering the place in his corporeal body. This made Chu Feng feel truly inappropriate.

“If you temper your body frequently in this manner, you might just reach physical sanctification. You can enter the netherworld in the flesh and walk about here just like in the world of the living.”

Finally, Chu Feng fell down from the bridge and entered a mysterious world. This place was like a different realm with black soil and surging yin affinity.

Along the way, he saw many people who had come to attend the banquet. For instance, there was a group of ants dragging a praying mat upon which sat a pale, old daoist.

There was also a flood dragon, shrouded in blue mist and respiring the nether qi. Apparently, it was a spiritual body that had come to attend the banquet.

There was a stone Buddha the size of a palm. It was flowing with blood from head to toe as it moved toward the netherworld.

These spirits came in all shapes and sizes. Many of them were special and had probably died for many years. However, their spirits didn’t disperse and were coming here to attend the feast.

Chu Feng, with his corporeal body, was like a crane in a flock of chickens. He traveled toward the depths of the mysterious ancient land with the special entities. He then saw a gigantic blue spider lily that had taken root here like a colossal tree reaching into the sky.

As he saw it, this must be the main body of the blue spider lilies. It turned out that the true body was here.

There was a man sitting cross-legged under the blue spider lily tree. His entire body was hazy and enveloped in blue light. He was completely different from the rest of the entities and precisely the owner of this land.

The banquet had begun, and all the spiritual bodies drank and conversed enthusiastically. Everyone seemed to be in great cheer.

However, Chu Feng couldn’t understand a single word. That was because these were all ghosts of the nether world. Their language was different from the cosmic common language.

What surprised him the most was that even the spiritual fluctuations weren’t the same, so he couldn’t crack their intentions.

Chu Feng was dumbstruck. He just sat there in a daze, his body feeling extremely uncomfortable in the netherworld.

Fortunately, the owner of this place spoke with Chu Feng from under the blue spider lily tree.

“I had a familiar feeling since the first time I saw you when the upheavals began. I had deep suspicions whether that person had come back and appeared in this world.”

Fortunately, Chu Feng could capture the spiritual fluctuations of this person. He was using the common cosmic language.

“You... what do you mean? Could it be that someone is reincarnating and you think I’m that person?”

“No, you’re not that person.” The blob of light under the spider lily tree sighed. “How can there be a true reincarnation in this world?”

Chu Feng was astonished when he heard those words. If there was no reincarnation nor a netherworld, what was he seeing right now? What was that giant millstone he had seen in the Radiant City of Death? How was he to explain that reincarnation path?

So much so that he had personally carved words on some of the super souls to prove that there was indeed a reincarnation.

“There’s only evolution in this world. In a strict sense, there’s no reincarnation, only a transition in ranking, a change in the form of life. As for what you saw and experienced, that is ultimately the work of a grand evolver who had used a method transcending the comprehension of the people. For instance, you sacrifice offerings to him and make an exchange. He would then protect you as you reincarnate, starting a new leg of your journey.”

Chu Feng was dumbfounded after hearing these words.

He pondered for a long while but felt that it was useless. That was because many things were still unexplained.

Chu Feng thought about it for a moment and recalled the clay idol at the end of the reincarnation path who sat there enjoying the rare offerings. Could that be the grand evolver?

“You’re not at that level yet, so you can just consider it as reincarnation. Some matters are easier to understand in this manner.” The figure under the spider lily tree said thus.

Afterward, he informed Chu Feng that this region of the cosmos was in trouble. Outer realm transmigrators were arriving here and people everywhere were restless.

That was because some people from other cosmos had discovered these cosmic ruins.

“What? Cosmic Ruins?!” Chu Feng cried out in surprise.