Chapter Eighty-Nine: The Small Cavern

Chapter Eighty-Nine: The Small Crystal Cavern

Within the stone hall, the atmosphere was unbearably heavy, and silence reigned. Though the great hall had stopped moving, everyone’s hearts were burning with excitement.

The Star Core Realm. At that point, one stood above the masses, gazing down upon ten thousand beneath. Only then could one truly be said to have made something of one’s cultivation.

Including Chu Jie, all of them wished to reach the Star Core Realm. But Chu Jie wanted to rely on himself, not on outside force.

Now it was obvious that the peerless fiend intended to use external means to elevate one among them to the Star Core Realm. And very likely, the price would be freedom itself. Yet that price seemed to have been ignored by the martial artists within the hall.

Perhaps they could guess that their freedom would be restricted, but they still longed to become Star Core Realm experts. More importantly, only one among them would have that chance.

Very possibly, there would even be a fight among them, and only the victor would obtain the chance to become a Star Core Realm martial artist.

Everyone was ready to spring into action, yet the stone gate remained shut.

“Another empty cavity,” came the ethereal voice of the peerless fiend from within the hall.

The stone hall trembled again and continued forward underground. Beneath the earth, there seemed to be a vast passage large enough for the hall to travel through.

The voice of the peerless fiend made everyone tense. They could see that the fiend was likely searching for some crucial location, and only in such a place could they become Star Core Realm martial artists. Yet they had already passed two places, and if all the places had long since fallen into ruin, what then?

At once, the people in the hall grew conflicted and uneasy.

Another half hour passed before the stone hall stopped again.

The entire Divine Demon Abyss likely held many hidden mechanisms within it. Chu Jie had been wondering all along how the second cavern had been abandoned.

If it had been discovered by someone, how could the first cavern still have survived? Once such a place was exposed, it would likely be stripped bare in one sweep. Back then, he had not continued exploring because he had never imagined there could be so many secrets hidden within.

So it was also possible that, through some oversight, it had simply been forgotten.

If he had the chance, Chu Jie truly wanted to carefully investigate those secret passages himself.

There were surely some rare treasures inside, and he might even find another place like the Mysterious Crystal Cavern.

However, this time the stone gate still did not open. The stone hall kept moving forward.

It stopped more than ten times in a row, and yet the stone gate never opened.

Everyone inside the hall began to feel some despair. Could it be that not a single place here could help them achieve the Star Core Realm?

The black-faced martial artist no longer had the excitement he had shown at the beginning. Now he looked uneasy, his expression restless and agitated.

As for Zhou Jie, he had remained seated in meditation the entire time, as though trying to steady his mind through quiet cultivation. Yet the muscles between his brows twitched from time to time, clearly showing that he could not control the turmoil in his heart.

Some of the others fixed their eyes on the stone gate, while others paced anxiously about the hall.

Chu Jie and the other nine were much better off. Chu Jie and Duan Kun had never intended to rely on outside force to enter the Star Core Realm, and although some among Wu Long’s group wanted it, they were not particularly desperate for it.

Just then, the stone hall stopped again.

“The last one,” said the voice of the peerless fiend.

Everyone grew tense. If this place was also an empty cavity, then there would be no hope left for them.

After waiting a moment, the stone gate of the hall suddenly began to tremble and slowly opened.

The atmosphere inside the hall immediately eased.

“Haha, looks like my luck isn’t bad. The last place is actually usable.” The black-faced martial artist laughed loudly and wildly once more.

Zhou Jie suddenly opened his eyes, excitement flashing within them. He clenched both fists, obviously extremely tense.

The expressions of the others also relaxed.

“This time the peerless fiend didn’t say anything. This place should be usable,” Chu Jie and the others still did not move down at once. Meanwhile, the others could not wait and rushed outside.

Their figures turned into streaks of light as they shot out, followed by several strange cries of alarm. Just as before, the moment they left the hall, they fell into a cavern below. Judging from the sound, however, this cavern did not seem large.

In the end, only Chu Jie’s group remained in the hall.

“Boss, should we go down?” Wu Long asked.

Chu Jie said, “Yes. Let’s go. If we wait any longer, the peerless fiend will force us down anyway.”

With that, he led the others into the cavern below.

Since they had already prepared for this, and with the help of the Heaven-and-Earth Treasure Wheel and the shuttle-shaped treasure, none of them crashed to the ground. They landed steadily on the cavern floor.

This cavern was different from the previous ones. It was dazzlingly bright inside, and upper-grade mysterious crystals lined the cavern walls on all sides. Though the people who fell down were very tempted by the crystals on the walls, none of them dared make a move.

They vaguely guessed that these mysterious crystals might be the key to becoming a Star Core Realm expert. But now there was a very important question: only one person among them could become a Star Core Realm martial artist. So how would that one place be decided?

Chu Jie looked around the cavern. It was far too small, only about a quarter the size of the original cavern. By his estimate, there were probably only a little over three thousand mysterious crystals on the walls. Such a tiny crystal cavern left him speechless.

Still, if not for the peerless fiend’s deterrence, then even if the cavern were smaller, Chu Jie would have brought his people here and stripped it to the bone.

He still had more than ten thousand upper-grade mysterious crystals inside his Savage Desolation Cauldron. Once he reached the outer city of Blood Slaughter City, they could be used to buy all kinds of cultivation resources. Though he already had quite a few crystals, who would ever complain of having too many?

Just like Chu Jie, the others felt the same way. If not for the fact that this place was the key to becoming a Star Core Realm expert, someone would already have started mining the crystals.

At that moment, a blazing red figure descended from the top of the cavern. A sky-shaking aura burst forth instantly, enveloping everyone below.

The peerless fiend had appeared, still with his back to the crowd. No one had ever seen his face; they could only see his back and that long scarlet robe, upon which flames flickered from time to time. It was clearly an exceptionally powerful defensive treasure.

Everyone held their breath and watched every movement he made.

Countless streaks of light flew out from the peerless fiend’s body and shot into the cavern walls. Instantly, the cavern underwent a drastic transformation. Beginning from the lowest point, innumerable red patterns started spreading outward until they covered the entire cavern.

The red patterns kept flashing, even beginning to shift and transform into mysterious runes, as if some ancient spirit array had been awakened. Yet everyone present was only at the Spirit Fusion Realm; not a single one of them could recognize those runes.

When the runes had covered the entire cavern, countless beams of spiritual light shot out from the mysterious crystals in the walls, converged in midair, and formed a glowing ball of spiritual energy at the center of the cavern. The luminous sphere was about two zhang tall, floating in the air. The spiritual power it released made everyone feel noticeably more comfortable in their bodies.

The spirit energy sphere in the air was blindingly bright, while the mysterious crystals on the walls all turned to powder and ceased to exist. Only then did Chu Jie understand that the previous caverns had surely been drained of their spiritual power, which was why they had become abandoned.

As for the crystal cavern he had originally excavated, and this exceedingly tiny cavern, they likely had remained unused for the same reason.

After the spirit energy sphere appeared, more than thirty streaks of light emanated from the peerless fiend’s body and entered the sea of consciousness of everyone present.

Chu Jie immediately received some information from those streaks of light. It was an explanation of how one might become an Abyss Guard. This spirit energy sphere was only enough to turn one person into an Abyss Guard. More precisely, it could only create the weakest kind, because the large caverns had already been ruined. There were no longer enough resources.

“To become an Abyss Guard, you have to stand beneath this spirit energy sphere?” the black-faced cultivator muttered. He stepped forward and stood below the sphere.

But the sphere gave no reaction at all.

The black-faced cultivator was quite depressed.

“Come down. Didn’t you see what the information said? If the spirit energy sphere doesn’t react, it means you have no fate with becoming an Abyss Guard,” another martial artist said coldly, stepping forward and standing beneath the sphere.

The black-faced man looked through the information again, confirming that the other martial artist was right, and withdrew in dejection.

The atmosphere became oppressively heavy. It seemed that becoming an Abyss Guard also depended on one’s chance, but who would possess such chance? Everyone hoped it would be themselves, yet feared in the end that it would all come to nothing.

“Haha, I will definitely become a gold-armored warrior. Just wait and worship me,” said the martial artist who had replaced the black-faced man, now standing squarely at the center beneath the sphere. His expression was full of smug confidence, as though it were already in his pocket.

More than ten breaths passed, and there was still no change.

The man’s face turned extremely ugly.

“What gold-armored warrior? That’s ridiculous. Get down already,” the surrounding people jeered.

Meanwhile, the peerless fiend remained with his back to them, seemingly entirely unconcerned.

The man stepped down with a sullen face. His chance to become a Star Core Realm expert had slipped through his fingers, and his eyes were filled with unwillingness.

Chu Jie watched all this with cold eyes. He had an uneasy feeling that becoming a gold-armored warrior was probably not a good thing.

Though one’s cultivation would rise, there would surely be many restrictions. It was very possible that, like the peerless fiend, one would be forced to remain here forever, unable to leave.

Moreover, the many strange things about the peerless fiend made one wonder whether he was still truly alive, or whether it was merely a corpse that was moving.

Everything was a mystery.

By now it was Duan Kun’s turn to step forward. Duan Kun also did not much want to become a gold-armored warrior, but with the peerless fiend’s deterrence before him, he had no choice but to steel himself and go.

He stood beneath the spirit energy sphere for more than ten breaths, yet the sphere gave no response. Only then did Duan Kun finally let out a breath of relief and return.

The other martial artists all showed looks of joy. If someone were to trigger the spirit energy sphere, then the rest would have no chance.

Next came Wu Long. He stood under the sphere for a while, and again there was no reaction.

Then several other martial artists went up as well, and none produced any response.

“Could there be something wrong with this spirit energy sphere?” someone asked in doubt. So many martial artists had gone up to test it, and still there had been no reaction. There had to be something wrong.