Immortal Divine Tribulation

Chapter 185: Those Blood-Red Eyes

The world beneath the underground palace was dark and damp. Tian Fan hadn’t expected it to be so vast … it was eerily similar to the place beneath the small river by that little village. The same crimson earth, the same lifelessness … like an isolated realm of its own.

He walked deeper into the underground palace. From time to time, the crunch of shattering bones echoed, crack, crack, beneath his feet. Lowering his gaze, golden light gleamed in his eyes … and he couldn’t help but gasp.

Bodies lay strewn across the ground. Some had their eyes gouged out, others had their necks torn open, hearts ripped away. There were even skeletons still smeared with blood and shreds of flesh … clearly devoured alive. Even Little Dragon shrank back, trembling, swallowing hard.

Slurp…

Suddenly, a wet, disgusting sound came from one corner of the palace. Tian Fan’s eyes shot out two beams of divine light, illuminating the darkness ahead … and his pupils contracted sharply.

At the farthest edge, a shriveled, naked figure crouched with its back to him, its few strands of straw-like yellow hair swaying weakly. Slowly, the figure turned around … two bony claws clutching a human leg, blood still dripping from its mouth … and grinned at him, baring a twisted, ghastly smile.

Tian Fan flinched, a chill sweeping through his entire body. Every hair stood on end as he instinctively took a step back. But when he looked again … the figure was gone.

“Little Dragon, use your divine sense. Check where that old man went!”

Tian Fan spoke to the small creature on his shoulder. He had already swept the entire area with his divine sense … dozens of miles in all directions … but still, no trace of that strange old man. Even Heart Without Trace couldn’t detect him.

“Just now? Old man? Brother, what are you talking about?” Little Dragon asked, puzzled, his tiny brows furrowed.

“Over there, in the corner! There was an old man squatting there just now … didn’t you see him?”

“Nope. There’s nothing there. Did you… see something, Brother?”

Tian Fan felt a chill crawl down his spine. He was sure … absolutely sure … he’d seen a gaunt, eerie old man crouched by the wall. But how could Little Dragon … a divine dragon … not have seen or sensed it? That was impossible.

“Little Dragon, scan again with your divine sense!” Tian Fan urged. The little creature didn’t understand why but did as told.

“Brother, there’s nothing. A hundred miles ahead, though… someone’s fighting. And there are lots of… ugh, disgusting things there. Ugh…”

Little Dragon gagged and tugged on Tian Fan’s hair, retching.

“An illusion?” Tian Fan muttered. He frowned, glanced around once more, then continued toward the depths.

The deathly aura ahead surged like a tide, cold enough to pierce bone, slicing at him like dull blades. Even he felt the chill seep into his soul.

The subterranean world stretched endlessly … a boundless land of crimson soil. When he looked up, his eyes widened in disbelief. A black sun hung silently in the sky, spilling darkness and death like rain.

Aaaargh…!

A scream shattered his thoughts. Without hesitation, Tian Fan turned into a streak of divine light and rushed toward the sound.

The scene was hauntingly similar to the place where the Wind Spirit Orb had been … scarred by sword marks and slashes. The vegetation around was pitch-black, leaves withering under the oppressive aura of death.

Tian Fan frowned and accelerated, vanishing and reappearing in another place. The ground was torn and shattered … the aftermath of a brutal battle.

The Huangpu Family elder lay miserably broken, his arms ripped off, blood flowing like a stream. Even his skullcap had been torn away … a ghastly claw gripped his head.

“That’s…!”

Two beams of divine light shot from Tian Fan’s eyes, locking onto the ghostly figure ahead … its emerald eyes gleaming, its rotting face dripping chunks of decayed flesh. Red hair covered its entire body, and corpse worms squirmed across its skin. Waves of death rolled from it like tides.

Tian Fan was shocked. He would never forget this creature … the same corpse monster that nearly killed several people during their first venture into  Immortal Island of No Return. But how could it possibly appear here?

“Heh heh…”

The corpse let out a ghastly chuckle, like the wail of a demon from hell. Its green eyes glowed with savage malice as it crushed the Huangpu elder’s skull … squelch … blood and brain matter dripping to the ground.

“Hmph!”

Across from it, Shen Wuyue’s face was cold, half hidden behind his black hair. He moved his hands, tracing divine patterns in the air … Tian Fan’s attention sharpened. This… was the opening stance of Taiji.

Only those who had reached profound understanding of Yin and Yang could truly wield Taiji. Otherwise, it was mere form without essence.

Boom…

Shen Wuyue’s brilliance flared … truly a peerless genius. His Taiji Diagram formed in the air, Yin and Yang swirling like mist, filled with Daoist rhythm. The blast sent the corpse monster flying, its body writhing with fallen corpse worms as deathly mist rippled outward.

“Ugh…”

Little Dragon gagged again, worse than before, nearly vomiting bile. Tian Fan could only sigh and pat the little creature’s back, choosing not to step in. He stayed hidden in the void, watching from afar.

Roar…

Wounded, the corpse monster howled. Rotten flesh peeled off its face, exposing bone crawling with worms. Shen Wuyue remained expressionless, cold and focused. He flashed forward, moving faster than sight, appearing above the monster’s head … Taiji Diagram still glowing … and slammed it down.

Aaaargh!

The creature’s scream was piercing. Its green eyes flared with madness as half its body was shattered. Desperate, it fled deeper into the underground abyss. Shen Wuyue coldly snorted and pursued as a streak of golden light.

Boom!

The terrifying pressure ahead made Tian Fan’s body go cold.

Before him, countless ghostly soldiers stood in neat ranks, shaking the heavens. They looked like an army from the depths of hell, wielding rusted weapons, faces pale and lifeless, their eyes gray and soulless … more terrifying than any ghost.

Boom!

Divine power erupted. Five figures arrived … all formidable experts, the weakest at mid Hunyuan Realm. The first wave of ghost soldiers was torn apart, but even more poured from a massive black hole ahead. Their movements were mechanical, eerie … as if puppets controlled by unseen hands.

“This aura… feels familiar,” Tian Fan muttered.

There were at least ten thousand ghost soldiers, forming a disciplined army. Some carried strange banners, their symbols mostly tattered … only one corner remained, faintly showing a motif of white clouds against the sky.

“The Dark Abyss!”

Finally, Tian Fan remembered. He had sensed this same aura beneath the Dark Abyss … from the unique corpses and scattered bones lying there. The resemblance was unmistakable.

Banners fluttered, ghostly legions marched, rolling waves of death qi surging skyward. The five Hunyuan experts joined forces, unleashing divine might to suppress the advancing dead.

Black mist boiled across heaven and earth. Apart from the ghost soldiers, Tian Fan saw nothing else … until he activated the Heaven-Slaying Demonic Art. Faint, dark energy coiled around him as he finally perceived countless thin red threads … invisible even to Hunyuan cultivators … linking every ghost soldier together.

Then, suddenly, his instincts screamed. He leapt back just as a massive, red-furred monster appeared before him. Corpse worms crawled across its body, and a huge claw lunged forward … the corpse monster had reassembled and was attacking again.

Pffft!

Tian Fan stepped back, face calm, as the Heaven-Slaying Demonic Art surged. His eyes turned pitch-black, demonic lightning flashing within … and the red-haired corpse was blasted away. One of its arms disintegrated instantly, unrecoverable.

“How are you here!?”

Tian Fan’s tone was icy as he stepped forward, his body wrapped in dark demonic mist. At that moment, he looked like a Demon Emperor reborn … sovereign and unyielding, glaring down at the red-haired corpse.

The monster trembled, terrified. Though it had slain Hunyuan peak experts before, it couldn’t withstand even the faintest remnant of demonic will from the Heaven-Slaying Demonic Art. Its body shook uncontrollably, retreating in fear.

“I… don’t… know… don’t… know… aaah!”

Now able to hear demonic soul echoes through the Heaven-Slaying Demonic Art, Tian Fan caught fragments of its broken consciousness. The corpse clutched its head, howling in terror, retreating step by step before erupting into a streak of black light that vanished into the ghostly army.

Boom!

Ahead, the death aura erupted like a storm. The ghost army surged forward like an iron tide, radiating suffocating menace. Even the five great masters paled at the sight.

Tian Fan stood afar, frowning deeply. The corpse’s words lingered … its soul was fractured, like a puppet bound to unseen strings.

“That’s impossible… unless someone sent it here!”

A sense of dread crept into his heart. If the corpse monster had truly come here on its own, it would’ve been impossible for the Soaring Dragon Dynasty’s high command not to notice.

“Unless…!”

He froze, spine prickling cold. Turning sharply, he looked to the distant heavens … and there, dozens of miles away, two enormous blood-red eyes stared down at him, cold and emotionless, devoid of all humanity.