Trials of the Abyss-Chapter 524: The Sunken Crypt

Jiang Cen!

A chill surged through Pang Jian's heart at the revelation.

Pang Jian immediately attempted to retract his divine sense from the strange realm, fearing the Ghost Sacrifice Sect's Second Elder would erase it.

Based on Xu Yu's information, Jiang Cen was already at the peak of the Immortal Realm.

This was an opponent Pang Jian knew he had no chance of challenging at this time.

The Second Elder of the Ghost Sacrifice Sect was in Imperial Dominion City. Despite this, he not only did not assist Jiang Ran in slaying the heretical cultivators but was even secretly killing the orthodox rogue cultivators to refine his eerie flames.

Does the Ghost Sacrifice Sect tacitly approve of his actions?

The Ghost Sacrifice Sect...

Surely, they wouldn't align with the Outer Gods like the Demon Sect...right?

A foreboding feeling crept along Pang Jian's spine.

The Ghost Sacrifice Sect had two True Gods within its ranks and had a foundation far surpassing the Demon Sect.

If even the Ghost Sacrifice Sect had betrayed the human race, the heretical cultivators' ascension to godhood would become an insurmountable disaster for the human race, more so than Pang Jian had already thought.

"I gave the Blood God Technique to Dong Tianze," Jiang Cen said casually, gently exhaling a gray mist toward Pang Jian's golden divine sense.

The wisp of gray mist swirled ominously, and Pang Jian soon realized that his divine sense was frozen in place.

There was a subtle shift as his divine sense became a tether that pulled on his divine soul.

Whoosh!

His golden divine soul flew out before Jiang Cen in the eerie realm.

Jiang Cen clicked his tongue in amazement as he studied Pang Jian's divine soul as if gazing at a priceless treasure.

"I've never seen a divine soul brimming with as much divine consciousness as yours," he remarked casually. "You could become the strongest ghost cultivator in the Abyss if you cultivated the Dao of Ghost."

Meanwhile, in Imperial Dominion City, more rogue cultivators were still casually being killed as the flames of hope within them burned at their brightest.

Eerie flames continued to wrap around the souls of the fallen and pull them into this strange realm.

"Pang Jian, the upheaval in this fragmented land has been long in the making. No one can stop it," Jiang Cen said leisurely. "The Sovereign will stir the seven Heaven Ascension Tribulation Pillars in the Fifth World to create six hidden Mirror Tunnels outside this fragmented land.

"These Mirror Tunnels will be so well concealed that even True Gods will find it difficult to detect them.

"It's a trap for the True Gods. When they step into the Imperial Dominion, there's a high chance that they will inadvertently fall into one of the six hidden Mirror Tunnels.

"The True Gods will then be transported to the most polluted regions of the Fifth World, where elite Rank Ten warriors lie in wait." Jiang Cen chuckled softly.

At that moment, Pang Jian's golden divine soul abruptly lost all connection to his physical body.

Shock and dread filled every fiber of his being.

Despite this, Pang Jian instinctively tried to use the golden bees to alert Qi Qingsong and the others so they could relay the message to Xu Yu. The True Gods had to be warned of the traps awaiting them in the Imperial Dominion.

If any of the True Gods fell into the hidden Mirror Tunnels, they would be faced with Rank Ten foreign race warriors alongside Outer Gods like Luo Hongyan and the Flame God Yan Lie. Not to mention other hidden Outer Gods or Outer God Puppets.

That True God would be slain in seconds.

The death of even a few True Gods would tip the balance of the Abyss. If that happened, the foreign races would no longer have to wait for the murky energy to continue its rise to launch an assault on the First and Second Worlds.

Simply put, the upheaval in the Imperial Dominion could destroy the human race's thirty-thousand-year legacy in a matter of days!

What should I do? How can I get the message out?

Pang Jian had no desire to linger and listen to Jiang Cen's monologue. His golden divine soul drifted aimlessly, desperately searching for a way out of the eerie realm while also trying to reconnect to his physical body.

***

Rogue cultivators fell one after another in Imperial Dominion City. The deaths started with the weakest in the Innate Realm, then moved up to the Profound Abode Realm, the Spirit Condensation Realm, the Soul Wandering Realm, and even the Nirvana Realm.

Their deaths were instant, and many lay with eyes wide open like gateways to another dimension.

City Lord Shang Xiuchun had just been rallying the crowd in an attempt to boost morale. Jiang Ran's arrival lifted his spirits, only for it to be crushed as another disaster abruptly struck.

He watched as one familiar face after another fell lifelessly to the ground.

Among them were decade-long residents of Imperial Dominion City.

Street vendors and laborers fell alongside cultivators in the Soul Wandering Realm and even the Nirvana Realm.

It seemed none could escape the nightmare of death that swallowed them whole.

Even Lin Miaojin of the Soughing Wind Pavilion and Huang Qi of the Providence Sect could not escape the wave of death sweeping through the city.

"They're all dead." Shang Xiuchun let out a bitter laugh. "Even if not yet, they will be soon. And there's nothing I can do."

An unnerving calm settled within him as he took in the dead bodies around him. Although he had no idea what had caused their deaths, he was certain that his time would come soon as well.

Shang Xiuchun raised his head and let out a mournful howl, like the sorrowful cry of a lone wolf.

"The Blood Prison Sect, the Blackwood Sect, and the White Bone Sect!" he roared, soaring up to join the battle against Xie Tong, Lu Qinghe, and Mu Weifeng.

He was ready to lay down his life to ease Jiang Ran's burden, even if only slightly.

As he ascended, he glanced down to see that Imperial Dominion City had become a dead city.

Something had snuffed out the flames of hope and life within all the other rogue cultivators. The city he had painstakingly built for years reeked of death.

The same fate awaited the Imperial Dominion, the Second World, and the rest of the human race in the Abyss.

In that instant, Shang Xiuchun foresaw a vision of the human race's extinction.

A haunting voice whispered in Shang Xiuchun's mind, This is the unchangeable future. It's the destined fate of the human race. Nothing can intervene or prevent this future from unfolding.

This inner voice was a sigh of lament, a murmur born of despair.

Although this voice was in his head, Shang Xiuchun knew with absolute confidence that this voice was not his own. It was not a thought truly born from within but one that an external force had created from twisting his will and thoughts.

At that moment, he noticed a black star pulsing within his chest, where his heart once rested.

That was the last thought he ever had.

Shang Xiuchun ascended toward the battle above, body shrouded in greenish-black demonic radiance, throwing himself mindlessly at the Celestial Gate.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Cracks spread across the Celestial Gate with each collision.

Streams of greenish-black light seeped into the cracks, eroding the auspicious divine creatures conjured from Jiang Ran's sword intent.

***

A dilapidated vessel lay anchored in one corner of the fragmented land.

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Yang Luo—the Outer God with the face of a woman and the body of a spider—slowly ascended from the vessel as a host of heretical cultivators knelt in reverence below.

Her cold gaze swept across the sky beyond the fragmented land as if waiting for something.

Elsewhere, a wooden figure with a withering presence silently stared out toward the sky.

Disciples of the Blackwood Sect knelt in submission around it.

The cracks forming in the Celestial Gate had drawn out the Outer God Puppets hiding in the deep mountains, river valleys, and caves.

They waited silently, attention fixed on the skies beyond the Imperial Dominion as they waited for the True Gods to arrive.

All it would take was a single misstep for a True God to slip into one of the six hidden Mirror Tunnels and meet a swift demise.

***

To the north of the Imperial Dominion, in a valley shrouded in crimson mist, Dong Tianze successfully ascended to the Nirvana Realm using the Blood God Technique.

Within the valley were the ruins of the Blood Spirit Sect, and it was there that Dong Tianze fulfilled Jiang Cen's expectations of breaking through.

Dense crimson mist drifted with his every breath, alternating between seeping into his body and spreading outward in a wild surge.

"I hope he's already left," Dong Tianze muttered, blood-red eyes gleaming with terrifying intensity in the swirling mist.

***

Deep beneath the barren wasteland in the southern region of the fragmented land, Zi Mo, the high-ranking God of the Ghost Race; the Outer God You Kui; and the ghost cultivator Zhou Yi, had finally found the legendary Sunken Crypt.

Profound Yin energy veiled a grand palace in thick fog.

The palace was built entirely from high-grade Profound Yin Stones, spanning thousands of mu and standing at a hundred zhang tall.

It had thirty-six entrances through which Profound Yin energy streamed like water.

In ancient times, the souls of the deceased across the Abyss would pass through the thirty-six entrances. The palace's Pool of Reincarnation would then cleanse them of their karma and memories, allowing them to be reborn with purified souls.

The cycle of life and death in the Abyss flowed perfectly back when the Dark Capital was intact, and the Sunken Crypt was still functional.

Unfortunately, all that remained of that continent was a fragmented land known as the Imperial Dominion and a Sunken Crypt that had long ceased to operate. The Ghost Sacrifice Sect had even pried away its Pool of Reincarnation.

"If I can seize control of the Sunken Crypt and restore it, rebuilding after the war will become much easier," Zi Mo muttered. "When that time comes, everything will return to how it once was.

"The foreign races, the Fey Race, the human race, and spectral entities will all follow the natural order of reincarnation once more."

As the high-ranking God of the Ghost Race, Zi Mo was naturally aware of the other worlds with the character "Abyss" in their names.

Each of these worlds had its own special areas akin to the netherworld, with Sunken Crypts containing artifacts capable of governing the cycle of life and death.

With the Sunken Crypt, Zi Mo could summon the Pool of Reincarnation and the artifacts tied to the palace.

Zi Mo would become the God governing the cycle of reincarnation of the Abyss, possessing the power to stand against Gui Mu head-on.

This body's ascension to godhood would naturally also be within reach.

"Wait for me here."

With that, Zi Mo stepped into the Sunken Crypt.