Chapter 1016: Array of the Heaven and Earth
“Phew–Phew–”
A wind blew gently in a seemingly weak fashion. And high in the sky, the sun was burning even more fiercely, as though there were ten suns hanging in the sky! Even as warriors, they began to slowly find it blistering hot.
Yi Yun was fully focused as he surveyed the scrambled rocks around him. When he used the Purple Crystal to look at these rocks that seemed devoid of life, Yi Yun realized that these rocks formed a series of patterns, like they were burning fire plumes.
“What’s going on?” Someone in the group asked. Many people remained prudent when inside the Door to the 33 Skies.
“Isn’t it just a stronger sun? Even in the Ten Thousand Fey Empyrean Heaven, there are situations when the weather changes on a whim, what more a world on the brink of collapse. There’s nothing surprising for the sun to suddenly burn fiercer,” said the youth dismissively. He was the one that had talked back to Granny Yin. Granny Yin’s expression turned extremely grim as she yearned to kill this rascal that did not know better.
“Shut up!” Granny Yin suddenly attacked him as her wrinkled palm grabbed the youth!
“What are you doing!?” The youth’s master took a step forward and grabbed Granny Yin’s hand.
“Pa!”
The two elders exchanged blows, causing energy surges. However, neither side used much of their strength. In the strange Blood Desert, none of them dared to battle too seriously.
At that moment, Granny Yin was like an infuriated old beast. She said sharply, “The Blood Desert is an ancient battlefield. Large numbers of primordial creatures died here, along with the blood or fragmented treasures of ancient mighty figures. Everything that was destroyed here left the Blood Desert as a treacherous zone. The countless nomological fragments and the blood have formed a Heaven and Earth array of death after hundreds of millions of years. Anyone that enters it will definitely die!”
“Nomological fragments forming an array by themselves?” The youth laughed disdainfully. He did not believe it at all.
He had studied array formations from his master, so although his attainment in array formations was lackluster, he knew very well how intriguing array formations were. Even an array formation master might fail at setting up an array despite his painstaking efforts, so how could it be formed naturally? That would be too much of a coincidence.
“Let me go.” The youth had also turned nervous when he was grabbed by Granny Yin. A cold look flashed in Granny Yin’s eyes before she released her grip.
The youth took a few steps back as he opened up a distance from Granny Yin. He straightened his clothes and just as he wanted to say something, he suddenly felt something amiss.
When he tugged at his clothes, which were enchanted, they tore off easily. The enchanted clothes he wore was resistant against the elements. It had been so easily torn apart despite its ability to withstand a full-powered strike from a warrior at the Dao Manifestation realm?
He looked down and the clothes he had torn apart became scorching. However, it was not burning, but melting. It was like metal that had been placed into a furnace!
Not only was the cloth in his hand melting, even the clothes on his body were suffering the same fate.
Next was his flesh, hair, and skin!
“Ah Ah Ah Ah!”
Only then did the youth realize that he was in great peril as he yelled tragically.
It was painful! When the burning pain reached his bone marrow, it nearly drove him mad!
Upon seeing this scene, everyone, including Yi Yun, was dumbfounded from shock. The unforeseen event had happened too suddenly! All they felt previously was a balmy heat, but who would expect that a person would melt?
“Master, save me!”
The youth screamed for help, but at that moment, most of his flesh had melted away. Large quantities of blood and bodily fluids were dripping down from his body. The eyes in his eye sockets had already melted, leaving behind empty eye sockets. Only his bones were left where his limbs were, as his flesh and blood had already melted clean.
He staggered towards his master as his bones were dripping with blood and other fluids. In his heart, his master was the last life-saving straw. But at that moment, the eyes of his master, the purple-robed elder, were filled with horror. Although he knew that the Door to the 33 Skies was extremely dangerous, he had never seen such a horrible scene before.
A person had melted for no reason. What was going on?
Seeing his disciple about to reach him, the purple-robed elder immediately felt greatly threatened. He suddenly struck out with his palm, sending an immense energy blast that struck straight into the youth’s chest.
“Bam!”
With an explosion, the youth was sent flying away as blood and bodily fluids splattered!
Granny Yin roared as she conjured an energy barrier, blocking all the fluids. She had a nagging feeling that the fluids were extremely dangerous.
“Bam!”
The youth, that was reduced to a skeleton, slammed heavily into the ground, splattering blood and bodily fluids everywhere.
Next, his bones seemed to burn at extremely high temperatures as they issued sizzling sounds. Following that, his bones began to melt. Some of them had melted before evaporating dry.
Finally, all that was left on the ground was a humanoid outline. It was dark red in color, and there was nothing left other than that.
This…
Everyone drew a cold gasp of air. The way the youth had died was too startling.
Yi Yun also shuddered in fear. He had previously seen the demonic eggs that were slumbering deep underground, but they were living creatures after all. It was still acceptable that they could reduce people to a decaying mess through their bites.
But now, the youth had died in a completely baffling manner.
“Everyone, do not move. In this land of danger, any wrong step will be your last! He died because he had taken a few steps back, stepping into a fatal zone.” Granny Yin’s hoarse voice sounded. Although the youth had been arguing with her, his death did not make Granny Yin feel any better. Instead, she felt a chill running down her spine.
Was the interior of the Door to the 33 Skies so dangerous? The descriptions in the records did not sound as bad as this!
“What do we do now?”
“We shall retrace our steps and leave this place.” Droplets of sweat began oozing out of Granny Yin’s forehead. She took out the Great Heavenly Compass once again to envisage the path back.
At that moment, no one had any other thoughts. The death of the youth had chilled their hearts. The Blood Desert was just too peculiar.
Furthermore, what left everyone puzzled was the mechanism behind the person’s death without any living creatures. Where did the danger come from?
But at that moment…
“Ah, ah, ah!”
Screams resounded once again as the group turned their heads. The screams came from the Immortal Rain Sect members. They had been following closely behind the Azure Wood Manor and had been fine, but now, they had suddenly entered a land of danger, causing them to fall into peril.
Yi Yun stared at them. Under the blazing sun, two people had been reduced to liquid. Even their bones were quickly melting.
The other members of the Immortal Rain Sect had ashen expressions. Their expressions were as ugly as they could be.
Amongst them, Yi Yun saw Marquis Wu Yun. In the terrifying Blood Desert, Marquis Wu Yun was stronger than the rest, but it did not seem to increase his chances of survival in any way.
The expedition to the Azure Wood Great World was probably a disaster instead of an opportunity for most of the factions that entered it. Even a team from a powerful faction like the Immortal Rain Sect was left in shambles.
The people from the Immortal Rain Sect were completely trapped. They could neither retreat or advance.
And at that moment, Yi Yun had begun to carefully observe the surrounding sand and rock around the Immortal Rain Sect disciples. What he noticed to be identical were the fire-like patterns.
After a long and intense observation, Yi Yun finally confirmed that it was not a fire plume pattern, but…Dao patterns!
Just as Granny Yin said, this was naturally formed Dao patterns from over hundreds of millions of years in the Blood Desert!
The Blood Desert was an array of the Heaven and Earth, to begin with. It was also a terrifying array of death.
It was unknown how large the Blood Desert was. Just the thought of it was astounding. An array formation formed naturally by the forces of nature, formed over hundreds of millions of years. What sort of amazing power did nature have?
The more one practiced in martial arts, the more one could unravel the secrets of the universe.
Yi Yun kept looking at the Blood Desert as he constantly extended his vision range. It might have been a limitation of his cultivation, but even the Purple Crystal’s energy vision made it impossible for him to see every single Dao pattern. Furthermore, the ones that were slightly further away were completely blurred.
Yi Yun could only confirm that these Dao patterns condensed various laws that were infinite in variety. The fire Dao pattern he saw was only just one of the myriad possibilities. The people that had evaporated previously probably had to do with that Dao pattern. However, Yi Yun had not fully understood what the connection was.