Archfiend Chapter 56

Chapter 56: A Fleeting Life Like an Empty Dream (One)

However, the lower Xu Yangyi went down, the heavier his heart became.

There was no end...

This lotus pond seemed to be as deep as a bottomless pit! He had exhausted his full capability, and the blue veins of his neck bulged, yet he couldn't even see the end! The dark-jade pond water in his surroundings fluctuated. Apart from the dark green, there was also dark blue. According to his eyes' abilities, he had reached up to about ten-odd meters, but there simply was no trace of the pond's bottom.

"Fuck!" He drilled through the surface of the water, rested for ten seconds, and clenched his teeth. Without hardly any hesitation, he moved towards a lotus.

His body was still dreadfully sore, but this pain right now couldn't match up to the deep worry of his heart.

He didn't know where this was, searching all in his memories, yet he didn't discover a place that would match a name. This lotus pond like an ocean was certainly fresh water, but which great lake had such a vast lotus pond?

The sky was washed in jade, without wind nor cloud. He couldn't even see a distant mountain or dry land. To say this was an ocean of lotuses wouldn't be the least bit of an exaggeration. It wasn't possible to have such a large ocean of lotuses inland. He needed dry land. If there was dry land, it represented a possibility there might be people. If there were people, he would know where this place was located. Even more important was...

If he continued to follow dry land, he could edge along it and slink beneath the water! Even if he had to scour this lotus pond, he had to find the source of his foundation!

A cultivator could only master a single arcane effort in their lives. The rank of this arcane effort would directly determine a cultivator's heights. In the future, it wasn't something that could be replaced, however, to replace a mastered arcane effort wasn't limited to the need of washing meridians and raking marrow; countless heavenly treasures were also required! After the meridians were cleaned and the marrow sundered, a period of twenty years of recuperation was still needed!

Not even to mention Qi Condensation cultivators, even Foundation Establishment cultivators wouldn't be able to endure these two decades!

He swam towards a lotus, yet discovered the lotuses here were particularly large. The petals that unfolded were approximately around a meter, and the lotus leaves below were one to two meters. There some that even grew up to three to four meters.

Resting on the lotus leaf for a moment, he jumped into the water again with a splash. As if it was the same moments ago, there was still a boundless green and drifting lotus stems. However, at this moment, he didn't know if whether it was because of his blurred vision, but he seemed to notice a whole pool below him move!

Xu Yangyi narrowed his eyes, and a sliver of azure light swept past. In that twinkling, he almost believed in himself to have seen the pond's bottom! Nonetheless, it was only a careful glance of a second. His heart skipped several beats, and he immediately covered his mouth, stifling his breath to use the gentlest of movements to get there.

He was like a frog exposed on the water's surface, even causing minute ripples to rise. He swam to a lotus leaf and gently lied down, motionless. His gaze twinkled, his ear pressing closely to the lotus leaf, listening to the each and every movement beneath the water.

It wasn't the pond's bottom. Within this great sea of lotuses like like an ocean, there was something… This was because… he could clearly see that the glimmer of azure light just now was...

A scale!

A boundlessly infinite scale! An azure scale! A scale thats ends could simply not be seen! In a place a hundred meters beneath his feet, there was a creature that could send a person's head swimming in fear. It was quietly concealed beneath the surface, as if the beast was a silent god of death! At the present, he was pretty much walking on this creature's back!

"Rooaaarrr…" Extending onwards for ten minutes, a water-jostling sound could be heard from the water below. Because the sound came from the extreme deep, it was unable to be deciphered whether the lotuses on the surface moved. Even if they did, one would believe it to be the blowing of the wind. If Xu Yangyi wasn't lying down on the lotus leaf and carefully listening, he wouldn't be able of hearing it distinctly at all!

Xu Yangyi used the smallest width to stand up. He felt that the beautiful lotus pond had become embroiled in great danger from all sides in an instant.

A demon? He pursed his lips and leapt to another lotus leaf like the one beneath his feet was a cushion. An old Foundation Establishment monster had a hundred-meter-long demon form… Just from his startled glance, this beast was absolutely more than a hundred meters! There was a possibility it was a thousand meters!

Pressing down on his heart's impatience, he used his softest movement to leap between each lotus leaf. There was no point being anxious now. If there was water, there was fish. He couldn't just starve to death, and while he didn't have qi, he still had his hands and feet. As long as he was careful in the short term, there should be no dangers.

He didn't know how long he walked, but his surroundings was still a boundless sea of lotus leaves. However, he discovered he wasn't hungry or even tired in this place.

"I've walked for roughly eight hours…" He sat down on a lotus leave, a shred of doubt finally emerging within his heart. Was this place… the real world? In these eight hours, the color of the sky had not changed, he didn't grow tired, and he wasn't hungry. This was like spiritual sense yet not in itself.

"Have I entered into an illusory realm?"

This was also a possibility. He had heard that awesome talismans and formations could render a person incapable of sensing anything whatsoever. However… what about that gigantic creature?

He wasn't aware whether or not the other was a demon, but if it was, what realm was it at?

While talismans and formations were amazing, his instructor had said it could only simulate the capabilities within oneself. Otherwise, wouldn't Foundation Establishment be able to trap Core Formation? This was not realistic.

He dared not to sense the aura of that creature, but he dared to be certain that even Vermillion Snow couldn't be simulated! A chilliness overtook his heart, and followingly, it burned once again without equal.

The coldness was that if this was true, this world was a surviving secret. One of few secrets that had carried on since several millenniums ago, too frightening and too astonishing.

In a place unknown to humanity, perhaps at the bottom of a river or perhaps underground, an eternal pair of eyes and an endlessly long body had watched humanity on the surface.

What was burning was that no matter the number of concealed secrets in this world, they were all waiting for him! So long as Xu Yangyi advanced, he could truly participate in these secrets, in a top-secret ancient remnant that was claimed as "sealed" in all of China and explore ancient cultivation ruins and probe his fortune and destiny.

"Huff…" He sucked in deeply and his gaze settled. Everything else could wait for him to leave to be revisited later. Walking untiringly, he didn't know how long he walked. Maybe it was a day or perhaps it was three days. It might've even been a month...

Finally, after he leapt onto the tallest lotus, he discovered there was a sole location within this sea that was different. A tremendous lotus appeared in the horizon, approximately ten meters in diameter. There weren't any lotus leaves set off from it, making it appear as if floated like so on top of the water. However, there was surprisingly a ruined pavilion constructed on the center of that lotus!

No one could be consulted, and moreover, there wasn't any other choice. Sucking in deeply, he immediately jumped forth without a second word. All his movements were incredibly soft. He hadn't forgotten that there were some things beneath the water that couldn't be given voice to. In no way did he desire to awaken the slumbering death god.

"This…" Just as he jumped, his gaze brightened because… there was a jade chest placed on top. This jade chest was rather familiar. It was the Burning Heavens Revelation's jade chest!

"Huff…" The massive boulder in his heart finally fell to the ground. He extended his hand to take it, but at this time, he suddenly discovered countless gentle golden lights seemed to be floating off of his "body". Appearing like muslin and resembling mist, it was as if his entire person was formed from these gentle golden lights!

In the next second, the jade chest that was almost within reach exploded with a bang, fragmenting into numerous pieces! An ornamented book appeared amidst the collapse of the jade chest, and he knew that the Burning Heavens Revelation hungered to the extreme by countless people was recorded within, the key leading to Core Formation.

Not waiting for him to react, the ornamented book suddenly flew towards the top of his head with a whoosh.

"Swish…" At the same instant, in the vast, cloudless sky, the sound of bamboo and silk rang out. Hanging beneath endless golden rays, a nearly inexhaustibly large bamboo scroll was followed by golden light gently stirring about! It wasn't known how long it was and its width was a mystery, as if it was able to uphold both heaven and earth!

The bamboo scroll wasn't tangible, but rather it appeared to be a qi structure. At this moment, it undulated like a wave in the sky. In comparison to the bamboo scroll thats ends could not be seen, the boundless gold seemed to be the most ordinary black at this moment. Merely, it served to set off the most dazzling white.

Xu Yangyi didn't know what its appearance should've been like, but if it was necessary to find a word from his dictionary, it was divine. The golden light that constructed this bamboo scroll was much more "divine" than other lights! It even caused a feeling of insignificance to be birthed at the bottom of one's heart. At this instant, he seemed to be standing beneath the Heavenly Court, a mortal gazing up at the Heavenly Temple in hope.

"Swish!" The ornamented book opened by itself, free of the wind. The ink characters on the book seemed to dance in the breeze, as if through spiritualism, and they swiftly flew onto the endless bamboo scroll! In a flash, a milky-white ray of light bloomed at the core of the golden expanse! It seemed to be the primordial light from when Pangu hefted his axe and split the heavens and the earth apart.

Subsequently, lines of script shockingly appeared on the bamboo scroll. The headline read: Burning Heavens Revelation. However, the proceeding characters fluttered incessantly as if there were a pair of formless hands controlling their "typesetting."

There was a word that suddenly broke away from the middle, and in the wake of this, golden light danced like a dragon. Grains of golden dust that seemed like butterflies silently fell onto the bamboo scroll, wordlessly bringing forth many more words. There were no lack of characters that were rejected, transforming into golden dust and gradually dissipating in the air.

Xu Yangyi looked at all of it, his gaze twinkling. He didn't say a word.

"Fifty-nine… Fifty-seven…" He softly read these numbers out loud, from sixty to zero. Appearing to be brimming with patience, he continuously repeated these digits. From the beginning, he counted sixty forty times. He suddenly stood up and said heavily: "This not the real world!"

"I had suspicious before that there couldn't possibly be such a great ocean of lotuses inland. Just now, I counted a whole forty minutes, but not a single person showed up!" He sat upright on a lotus leaf: "It's impossible that the entire world's cultivation satellites haven't captured a formation this large! Humanity's seven Core Formation cultivators oversee seven directions. Regardless of which direction, they would've definitely arrived within half an hour!"

"At the moment… there's no one else…" He narrowed his eyes: "I'm not tired and I'm not hungry. This in itself is already removed from the rules of a Qi Condensation cultivator. In that case…"

"Who pulled me here?"

"Is this place a secret realm of the legends? Or perhaps someone is manipulating my spiritual sense?"

"Swish!" As Xu Yangyi's thoughts revolved at an extreme speed, the gigantic bamboo scroll formed from golden light finally ceased to move. It wasn't known how long the bamboo scroll was or how many bamboo slips constituted it. Among the ten-plus slips, there were shockingly more lines of tiny golden script!

The first bamboo slip had a lone line of large characters. Xu Yangyi had clearly remembered this was originally the position for the Burning Heavens Revelation, but… now, it wasn't. Five grand characters radiated a resplendent golden light from every single brush stroke to flourish and replaced the characters for Burning Heavens Revelation with incomparable tyranny. Magnificent and imperial, these words resided at the head of the bamboo slip!

Eternal Pill Sutra King!*

T/N: Something is weird with the formatting that I keep trying to fix but meh

* Eternal Pill Sutra King, can also be translated as Myriad Ancients Pill Scripture King/whatever. Myriad ancients is a mouthful and really just to denote he's reaaaaly old.

Chapter end