Chapter 170 – Splitting from the team
All of the swords stabbed down at the filament, causing it to tremble. The filament shined brightly as it resisted the sword energy, but a concave soon appeared on it.
Wang Lin’s eyes sparkled as the crystal sword suddenly appeared and repetitively stabbed the concave spot. Soon, the filament began to cave down even more.
At this moment, the snake-like creature seemed to notice that something was wrong, so it started to violently twist its body. Wang Lin was now worried. He waved his hand and the hundreds of flying swords began to attack again.
Finally, after a loud bang, the filament broke and a powerful, fishy stench flooded out. Wang Lin quickly moved to the side and hugged the wall. The pill in his mouth came into effect, blocking out the fishy stench.
After the fishy stench had passed, Wang Lin quickly entered the hole he had created. At this moment, the body of the smaller snake that was inside the large body began to shrink. Wang Lin had a feeling that this creature wouldn’t be killed so easily. If the large snake had a smaller snake inside, could the smaller snake have another snake inside it?
More importantly, Hunchback Meng said that this snake was a desolate beast, which was the same as a peak late stage Soul Formation cultivator. It has to be said that peak late stage Soul Formation cultivators are the most powerful people in rank 4 cultivation countries.
Unless Ancient Emperor and them were also at the peak of late stage Soul Formation, they wouldn’t be able to kill it. According to Hunchback Meng’s words from before, Wang Lin believed that none of them were at the peak of late stage Soul Formation. At most, they were at the mid stage.
As a result, there was no chance for infighting it at all, and each person could only escape on their own. Wang Lin’s original plan was to escape, but after observing it, he noticed that aside from having a very tough body and being able to spew that black smoke, the snake didn’t seem to have any other abilities. This surprised Wang Lin greatly.
He looked at everyone else. Although none of those old guys had said a word, they were all filled with doubt.
Wang Lin had a wild guess that this beast only had the body of a desolate beast but not the techniques of one.
He was even more sure about this guess after seeing the smaller snake inside its mouth. It was precisely due to this that he dared to enter the creature’s mouth to obtain its marrow.
In his mind, a desolate beast would have a powerful outer body, so if he was inside, there should be no danger. Wang Lin began to have an even stranger idea. Maybe this was the type of creature where there is a snake inside the big snake, and a smaller snake inside that snake, and finally the smallest snake at the very end was the true desolate beast.
As for the bodies on the outside, they were only used for show, which was why they had the bodies of desolate beasts but not the techniques.
Thinking about this, Wang Lin’s heart tightened and he quickly regained his focus. He quickly arrived at the where the head and neck connected. The filament was gone, revealing the white bone underneath. Wang Lin touched the bone and pulled with his attraction force technique, causing the snake to roll around frantically.
At the same time, the head of the smaller snake released a black light while its skin and body quickly melted. Hunchback Meng had a look of terror on his face as he quickly jumped away in a sorry state and flew toward the head of the big snake.
When he passed the area where the head and neck connected, he saw Wang Lin. After hesitating for a moment, he quickly shouted, “Leave quickly! This is a parasitic dragon snake. There is a total of nine snakes inside and the innermost one is the truth desolate beast with desolate beast techniques!”
With that, his right hand hit the wall of flesh. The flesh that the flying sword couldn’t damage at all turned black, causing the snake a lot of pain. The snake opened its mouth in pain and Hunchback Meng jumped out.
Wang Lin’s eyes sparkled. Not only did he not leave, but he hugged the wall of flesh to hide himself.
Just at this moment, a smaller, red dragon came out from the dried up smaller snake. It passed by Wang Lin in a flash and chased after Hunchback Meng.
Wang Lin remained motionless as he hugged the wall. After Hunchback Meng and the dragon passed by, his eyes sparkled. Hunchback Meng had no good intentions when he told Wang Lin to escape. He most likely wanted Wang Lin leave with him so that Wang Lin could help him split the attention of the red dragon.
Wang Lin sneered in his heart. He did not want to get involved with these people. If he could open the third trial then there would be no problem, but he didn’t really know any death spell. If he can’t open the third trial, those demonic cultivators will definitely kill him to vent their anger.
And even if he somehow opens the third trial, although they wouldn’t kill him right away, he would likely become used for Six Desire Devil Lord’s technique. Wang Lin had a very vivid memory of that young man’s confused eyes.
Wang Lin originally wanted to try to look for a chance to escape during the first two trials, and if he couldn’t find a chance, then he would stir up some trouble in the third trial. When everyone runs for their lives, they won’t have time to bother paying attention to him.
However, Wang Lin changed his mind because with that red dragon outside, the inside of the body of this snake was probably the safest place. His eyes lit up as he placed his hand on the snake’s spine and sucked with his attraction force technique. The snake’s body suddenly began to shake. Wang Lin felt his blood rush to his head as his body uncontrollably flew up.
With a dark expression on his face, he used the spiritual energy in his body to stabilize himself. He still felt his blood rushing upwards, so he spread out his divine sense. His divine sense followed the snake’s throat to its mouth and looked outside through the gap between the snake’s teeth. He was stunned by what he saw.
The large, snake-like creature was rapidly falling down into the dark void.
It took half an hour before the falling finally slowed down and the snake hit the ground. The collision caused shockwaves that rumbled for a long time before everything finally became silent again.
Wang Lin took a deep breath and without a word continued to absorb the marrow. The snake was no longer trembling at this point, and there was nothing abnormal happening. After some time, a drop of golden liquid came out of the beast’s spine along with a fragrant smell. Wang Lin became very serious. He carefully took out a jade bottle.
He carefully placed the golden drop of liquid into the jade bottle and finally let out a sigh of relief. After putting it away in his bag of holding, he quickly moved toward the snake’s head and exited through the gap between the snake’s teeth.
Before him was complete darkness without any source of light. Wang Lin’s hand formed seals as he shouted, “Go!” Suddenly, a ball of fire the size of his head appeared and floated forward.
Using the light from the fire, Wang Lin observed his surroundings. His expression gradually became stranger.
This place was also another pillar floating in the void, only this pillar was hundreds of times larger than the ones from before.
The huge, snake-like creature had its head resting on this stone pillar while the rest of its body was dangling down into the void. The creature’s eyes were closed and it didn’t show any signs of life.
Wang Lin assumed that when the red dragon left, it was like when a Nascent Soul cultivator’s nascent soul leaves their body. The beast most likely temporarily lost its vitals and fell down here.
This would also explain why the creature didn’t move at all when he extracted the marrow.
Wang Lin looked at the snake with sparkling eyes before finally letting out a sigh and giving up on the idea he had. This giant snake before him was like a mountain of treasure just waiting to be harvested. Just its core and skin were already worth a fortune. But Wang Lin was not blinded by those things. He wasn’t even sure if he could get through the meat to get to the snake’s brain or if he even had the ability to separate the skin from its body. The biggest problem was that the red dragon was most likely going to come back soon, and if Wang Lin were to meet it, then even if he had 100 years left to live, he would lose them all in an instant.
Wang Lin took another look before taking out the pill Hunchback Meng had given him. The pill had already shrunk to half of its original size, but Wang Lin still carefully placed it inside his bag of holding. Without a word, he put out the fire and jumped forward. In this endless void, the light of the fire was simply too noticeable. For the sake of safety, Wang Lin had no choice but to fly in the darkness.
Gradually, his eyes got used to the darkness. Although he couldn’t clearly see his surroundings, he was able to see the general outlines of things.
Apart from the fact that the stone pillars were hundreds of times larger, the speed at which these stone pillars moved was also a bit faster. In addition to all of this, he could sense danger coming from all sides.
Wang Lin took each step very carefully. Most of the time he would only move a few meters before stopping to observe his surroundings. Only when he was sure that it was safe did he dare to move. At this moment, he had just landed on a stone pillar when his body froze. A black figure flashed by before him.
Wang Lin held his breath and remained motionless. All he did was stare straight ahead. After some time, he was able to make out an outline. At the center of the pillar was a mass with countless tentacles extending from its body and moving in a random fashion.
The black figure that flashed by was one of its tentacles.
After Wang Lin saw this, he began to back up. If this creature could survive here, then it must be very powerful, so it was not something he could mess with. He backed up several meters and arrived at the edge of the pillar. He kept his eyes on the figure in the center as he jumped off the edge and gently floated away.
It wasn’t until he was more than 100 feet away that Wang Lin dared to exhale. He looked at the endless void above him and couldn’t help but let out a bitter smile. Only by returning to the set of stone pillars he was on before could he find the ring of light to leave this place.
Wang Lin pondered for a while. He didn’t dare to spread out his divine sense too far in fear of provoking some powerful creature that would bring him a lot of danger. His body slowly flew upward and immediately stopped once he saw a black figure. Only after making sure it was a stone pillar did he slowly close in on it.
But just at this moment, a ray of red light suddenly appeared above him and charged down with a strange whistling sound. Wang Lin’s body quickly moved to the side. He hugged the bottom part of the stone pillar and remained motionless.
The only thing he saw was a red light darting by the stone pillar. It continued to fall down and disappeared without a trace. Wang Lin felt his scalp go numb. He realized that the red light was the red dragon that came out of the snake and chased after Hunchback Meng.
The dragon had returned, but he didn’t know if Hunchback Meng and them were dead or alive. Wang Lin sneered as he slowly flew up to the top of the stone pillar. Once he arrived at the top, he carefully observed his surroundings.
There were no signs of life on this stone pillar, so after a long time, Wang Lin relaxed, sat down, and drank a gulp of spirit liquid before carefully staring at what was below him.
Once that red dragon returns to its body, it will definitely notice something wrong. Wang Lin sank into the stone pillar and then touched his forehead to bring out the heaven defying bead. His eyes sparkled before quickly entering the heaven defying bead’s space.
Not long after he entered the heaven defying bead, a rage-filled howl came from below. The red dragon flew up like lightning and shattered a pillar several hundred feet wide with its body. Its gaze was cold as it began to search around.
This red dragon had already obtained a certain level of intelligence and knew that the person who stole the marrow couldn’t have gotten far, so it continued to search with a fierce gaze. After finding nothing for a long time, it smashed into a few more stone pillars before it unwillingly lied down on top of one stone pillar and started to calm down.
But soon it moved again and charged toward the figure with countless tentacles that Wang Lin had previously seen.
As the dragon rushed toward it, the tentacles formed a cone with the creature’s core as the base and faced the dragon without any sign of fear.
A series of rumbles came from below and at the same time various colored lights flashed in the darkness. Powerful fluctuation of spiritual energy spread out like a hurricane. One by one, the stone pillars nearby were destroyed. Even the stone pillar Wang Lin was in was effected; half of it was destroyed.
This epic battle lasted about a day before it slowly calmed down. The shadow that was angered by the dragon was in the end defeated and forced to retreat. The dragon was also seriously injured though. It let out a few roars before laying down on the stone pillar.
Ten days later, Wang Lin came out of the heaven defying bead and landed on top of the stone pillar. He immediately spread out his divine sense and carefully observed his surroundings.
It was very clear that there were fewer stone pillars around and a lot more pieces of shattered stones. Only after a long time did Wang Lin let out a breath of relief. He pondered for a bit before flying upwards.
After passing a few stone pillars, Wang Lin suddenly stopped. He saw that one of the stone pillars further ahead suddenly disappear.
Wang Lin’s expression became serious as he slowly backed up. He waved his hand and some of the shattered stones came toward him. He pointed at one and whispered, “Go!”
That shattered stone quickly flew forward. Wang Lin stared straight ahead and saw that after the stone flew forward for a bit, it suddenly disappeared.
Wang Lin took a deep breath. He saw that when the stone disappeared, a black hole opened up for an instant. Because the speed was too fast and it was hard to see, it looked like the stone had just mysteriously disappeared.
Wang Lin pondered for a bit as he stared forward and took out a flying sword. When the flying sword appeared before him, he pointed forward and it shot out.
It suddenly arrived at spot where the stones had disappeared. The black hole suddenly appeared again to devour the flying sword, but just at that moment Wang Lin shouted, “Shatter!”
The sword shattered with a bang and scattered in all directions the moment the black hole closed. Wang Lin stared at the scene before him. He waved his right hand and commanded one of the shattered pieces to change directions and return to his hand.
There were a few drops of black liquid on the shattered sword, and upon closer inspection, he spotted signs of decay where the black liquid had touched.
“It is not a spacial rift!” Wang Lin was now sure of this. The reason he tested it so many times was because he was afraid that there would be spacial rifts here. If there were really spacial rifts here, then the danger of this place would have increased by another level.
Wang Lin wasn’t a soul devourer anymore; he had a flesh body. The power of a spacial rift would destroy him completely.
Wang Lin relaxed a bit and extended his hand. He suddenly waved his hand, causing the surrounding shattered stones to come near him and orbit around him like a ring of rocks.
He flew to the side for a long time before moving forward again. Every time he saw a stone disappear, he would change directions. After getting a better grasp of the situation with multiple tests, Wang Lin understood that it was no spacial rift but a mysterious creature that was invisible.
The biological structure of these creatures were extremely strange. Even with his divine sense, it was hard to find any clues. Wang Lin was only able to come to this conclusion due to the fact that he was a soul devourer for many years and had encountered spacial rifts countless times.
Wang Lin was very careful along the way. Every step in this place was dangerous. If he was careless for even a moment, he could die. This was especially true for a mere Core Formation cultivator like himself. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that he was in a completely forbidden area where the smallest oversight could get him killed.
After spending a lot of time, Wang Lin calculated that he had only moved about 10,000 feet. These 10,000 feet would have only taken him a moment to traverse normally, but now it had taken him several days.
Wang Lin could no longer calculate exactly how many days it had been as all of his energy was spent on being alert.
Time slowly passed. Wang Lin himself had lost track of how long he had been in here. Being on full alert all the time had time and time again let him slip past dangerous situations.
On this day, Wang Lin was sitting on a stone pillar to rest. Although he hadn’t used up much spiritual energy, his mind was very tired. This was all thanks to the fact that before ending up here, Wang Lin had always been extremely cautious. If it was anyone else, they would have already been tired out from being on high alert for so long and died.
After resting for a while, Wang Lin took a deep breath and stood up. He pointed to the air several times to bring out the crystal sword. The sword circled the stone pillar and shaved off small pieces of stone that were sticking out.
Wang Lin waved his hands and the shattered stones gathered around him. Over the past several days, he had used theses shattered stones to pave the way for him. Now that all of them were used up, he had to get more from a nearby pillar.
After these shattered stones formed a ring around him, he jumped off the pillar and slowly flew forward.
Once he had flown out a bit, he stopped and carefully looked around. The darkness here was not as bad. The higher up he went, brighter it got.
As for where this light was coming from, he didn’t have time to think about it. Right now he was carefully observing his surroundings because he felt like something bad was about to happen.
His eyes had gotten completely used to the darkness, so with this amount of light, he could clearly see everything. He calculated for a bit and realized that in a radius of about 100,000 feet, there was only one floating stone pillar.
Everything about this area was too different from normal. Wang Lin knew that there should’ve been a stone pillar ever few hundred feet. Even if they had been shattered, there would still be rubble floating around. However, there was nothing here.
There were only two explanations. The first was there was a huge battle here at some point and the shockwave was so powerful that it pushed everything except for that stone pillar far away, resulting in what he was seeing now.
The second was that there were countless of those invisible creatures here and they had cleaned this place up after years of devouring.
Wang Lin thought this because he had just seen a large stone pillar being devoured by a large mouth. He watched a 700 to 800 feet stone pillar disappear without a trace in less than one hour.
Wang Lin frowned. If this place was indeed like this, then he had no choice but to go around. Otherwise, he would be in a lot of danger.
After pondering for a bit, Wang Lin pointed at one of the shattered stones around him and it began to slowly float forward. It soon entered the area and traveled for a long time without being devoured. Wang Lin pondered for a bit. He pointed around and then all of the stones that were surrounding him began to move forward.
Wang Lin wasn’t in a hurry, so he patiently watched the stones slowly move forward. Gradually, all of the stones came close to the only stone pillar around.
Around the stone pillar, one of the stones suddenly disappeared. Wang Lin’s pupils shrank as he carefully observed what was happening. The stones began to disappear one after another as they approached the stone pillar.
Wang Lin’s eyes sparkled as he memorized those few points where the rocks were devoured. From his experiences in these past several days, he assumed that these creatures weren’t able to move and were locked in one place.
But he didn’t discount the fact that they might be able to move. After pondering for a long time, Wang Lin gave up on the idea of going through the calm area. This place was simply too strange, and Wang Lin didn’t want to risk going in. He decided that he would rather spend the extra time to go around. After all, the price of failure was something he couldn’t afford.
After making his decision, he backed up and used the crystal sword to get himself more shattered stones to surround himself with before flying to the side.
Wang Lin’s face gradually became even more gloomy. He had already flown very far, but this empty area seemed to be endless..
After flying for several days, he had to give up on the idea of going around the creatures.