Trials of the Abyss

After an incense stick’s worth of time[1], an enchanting spectral figure floated through the forest and arrived at the bone of the Celestial Phoenix.

Whoosh!

The ghostly, blood-red figure slipped into the bone as soon as they arrived, searching for something inside.

Their graceful form became more apparent as they floated inside the withered bone. This figure was a beautiful young woman in her prime, with exquisite features and bare feet akin to jade.

The bone of the Celestial Phoenix did not seem to pose any threat to her as she descended to its base. There, she caught sight of a withered ancient vine, with its lifeless branches.

"The essence of the Celestial Phoenix isn’t here." The enchanting blood shadow within the withered bone looked at the ancient vine. Her captivating face revealed a hint of doubt.

Whoosh!

In an instant, she flew from the bottom of the withered bone to its top.

The eerie woman glanced at the corpses littered around the Formless Sailboat, as well as the bloodstained skeletons of the Shangguan Clan.

"Someone actually obtained the essence of the Celestial Phoenix! The cultivators in this world, with their insignificant cultivation, shouldn’t be able to extract its essence from its remains. It would only end up killing them," The woman muttered in annoyance.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The Spirit Devils accompanying her howled along the fissures on the ground, acting as her eyes and helping her search for clues.

Before long, these Spirit Devils dragged out several gray shadows from the depths of the fissures. These gray shadows were in the middle of dispersing. Their forms were faint and would have been barely discernible to anyone but her.

With a slight wave of her hand, the fading gray shadows converged into one. This new, tall shadow took on the form of Luo Meng.

"The Spirit Devils formed from the souls of Meridian Opening Realm cultivators need to be slightly stronger," The woman said, beckoning the shadow over with her hand.

The gray shadow resembling Luo Meng drifted lifelessly toward the woman with an expressionless face.

Using her spiritual consciousness, the woman glimpsed into the deceased Luo Meng’s memories through his soul.

She learned about Luo Meng’s arrival at the Solitary Mountain Range with Shangguan Qin, their meeting with Zhou Qingchen and the others, the anomaly of the Eye of Imprint, the tremors on the ground, and Pang Jian’s warning.

Luo Meng had passed away before Pang Jian and Ning Yao returned, so there were no memories of the pair and what they had done here.

"The Blood Moon Sect’s Eye of Imprint chose that young man? Strange. It doesn’t make any sense," The woman muttered to herself. Waving her hand, she ordered, "Find them."

The Spirit Devils and Luo Meng’s shadow scattered like birds, spreading out to carry out their search.

***

Ning Yuanshan sighed with relief when he heard the sound of horse hooves. "They’ve returned."

He gazed in the direction where Pang Jian and Ning Yao had disappeared. As anticipated, he soon spotted the approaching crimson warhorse.

As before, Ning Yao was seated behind the bamboo basket on Pang Jian’s back.

In Pang Jian’s hands was a bundle of bloodstained weapons.

Pang Jian threw the bundle in front of Shangguan Qin. "This is what remains of your Shangguan Clan. If anything’s missing, the vines probably dragged it into the fissures. I’m not capable of retrieving everything for you."

Shangguan Qin’s expression fluctuated between gloomy and uncertain as she eyed the bloodstained weapons. She did not collect them and instead stared at a giant axe with a melancholy look on her face.

The giant axe belonged to Luo Meng, who had sacrificed his life for her.

Pang Jian appeared as majestic as a towering mountain atop his warhorse. Zhou Qingchen chuckled as he cast an admiring look at him. "Pang Jian, are you alright?"

Pang Jian nodded. "Everything went well."

Ning Yao dismounted Pang Jian’s horse. As she wanted to avoid drawing attention, she refrained from retrieving the sack from under the horse’s belly and returned directly to her white warhorse.

"Alright, then. Let’s continue our journey to the northernmost area where the bizarre mist is," said Zhou Qingchen.

The mournful Shangguan Qin screamed, "You want to go to the northernmost area? Young Master Zhou, are you planning to explore the bizarre mist?"

She no longer addressed him as "Qingchen", indicating the souring of their relationship.

"Correct," Zhou Qingchen responded calmly. He then added indifferently, "Senior Shangguan, we weren’t even traveling together in the first place. If you had prior arrangements, we can part ways here."

He was prepared to leave Shangguan Qin behind.

Shangguan Qin’s expression turned grim.

All of her companions were dead. She would never have chosen to cozy up to Zhou Qingchen if she had any other choice, but she did not. She dared not venture into the vast and dangerous Solitary Mountain Range alone.

Shangguan Qin awkwardly smiled. "I don’t have any prior arrangements. It’s good to have company for mutual support. I’ll accompany you all."

"All of our Zhou Clan’s one-horned rhinoceros died a few days ago. Only the Ning Clan’s warhorses are left, and all of them are taken," Zhou Qingchen said with a troubled expression on his face, clearly reluctant to take her along.

"It’s alright, we can squeeze a little." Shangguan Qin no longer cared about her pride. Her eyes searched through the crowd and eventually fell on Ning Yao.

"Our clans haven’t interacted much in the past. Besides, I’m not in the habit of sharing a horse with others!" Ning Yao preemptively rejected.

"Little Sister Qin, I already told you, I’m not afraid of your reputation as a husband killer." The chubby Han Duping patted the saddle in front of him, squeezed his horse with his legs, and grinned. "You can ride with me."

Looking at his meaty face and the lecherous gleam in his tiny yellow eyes, Shangguan Qin felt very uncomfortable.

Without giving Han Duping the chance to further persuade her, she went straight to Pang Jian and mounted his horse, taking the place where Ning Yao had previously sat. She even threw the bundle of bloodstained weapons into the net under Pang Jian’s horse, where Ning Yao had placed her sack of spirit stones.

Ning Yao glared at her, displeased her sack of spirit stones was now going to be stained with blood.

However, those spirit stones came from the Formless Sailboat of the Blood Moon Sect. If she were to make a scene, she would expose the existence of the spirit stones and give Shangguan Qin a reason to claim a share.

Zhou Qingchen would probably want a cut too.

Swallowing her anger, Ning Yao could only glare at Shangguan Qin and curse her silently.

Shangguan Qin had reluctantly chosen Pang Jian because of the bamboo basket behind him. However, she soon noticed the inexplicable coldness in Ning Yao’s eyes. Immediately, her female intuition told her something was going on between Pang Jian and Ning Yao, and her action had aroused Ning Yao’s jealousy.

Although she harbored deep hatred toward Pang Jian, Shangguan Qin could not help but feel a sense of delight at Ning Yao’s frosty expression.

She wrapped her hands around Pang Jian’s waist and said, "Take it easy later, okay? Don’t bump around too much."

"Little Brother, you’re so lucky," Han Duping teased with a strange tone in his voice. "First, it was Miss Ning, and now it’s the beauty of the Shangguan Clan. I wouldn’t even dare to dream of being treated like that."

"Haha!" Zhou Qingchen also found it amusing and laughed as he waved his hand. "Let’s go."

Even if Shangguan Qin harbored ill intentions toward Pang Jian, he believed she would not dare to act recklessly in front of him. After all, he even dared to use Ning Yuanshan’s life to threaten Ning Yao for Pang Jian. It went without saying that he would not hesitate to deal with Shangguan Qin.

"They’re leaving," Shangguan Qin urged.

Pang Jian cursed under his breath as he spurred his horse forward. When Shangguan Qin wrapped her hands around his waist, he felt the same subtle spiritual power in her hands as he did with Ning Yao.

As with Ning Yao, this woman could not be trusted.

Ning Yao was only dissatisfied that he was getting too close to Zhou Qingchen. However, Shangguan Qin placed the blame for all the deaths of the Shangguan Clan on him.

Thus, Shangguan Qin was naturally more ruthless and troublesome to deal with than Ning Yao.

Pang Jian was scared witless but put on a brave face as he led the crowd to the northernmost part of the Solitary Mountain Range.

Shangguan Qin pressed closer to Pang Jian and used the sound of the horses’ hooves to mask her threat. "Brat, you’d better pray you don’t lose sight of Zhou Qingchen. If the opportunity ever arises, I won’t hesitate to kill you to avenge Luo Meng and the others."

The bamboo basket between them and Shangguan Qin’s comparatively more ample body meant she had to exert herself significantly whenever she wished to speak to Pang Jian.

Pang Jian chose to ignore her provocation.

"Why did the Eye of Imprint choose you instead of me?" Shangguan Qin refused to give up despite Pang Jian’s silence. "You say nothing now, but when I get my chance, I’ll make sure you scream your lungs out!"

Pang Jian still did not utter a single word.

After some time, Pang Jian felt a sudden itch on his chest.

It felt like something had made its way into his flesh, entered his ribcage, and was roaming through the crevices of his bones. Soon, he felt a painful sensation akin to tens of thousands of ants gnawing at his ribcage and his temperature rose as if he was about to fall seriously ill.

Pang Jian did not know what was happening to him. The pain in his ribcage grew stronger and his body temperature continued to rise.

Not long after, his whole body was scorching hot and his face flushed red.

Shangguan Qin also noticed the peculiar changes in his body.

She was stunned, assuming her presence had caused Pang Jian’s mind to wander and have dirty thoughts.

"You weren’t like this when the Ning Clan girl was behind you." Shangguan Qin’s lips curved in a shallow smile, her eyes were filled with cold severity. "What, so you like a mature, ample woman like me? That girl is still young and her body isn’t fully developed yet. How could she compare to me?"

Seeing Pang Jian like this, she considered how to extract the desired information from him and avenge Luo Meng and the others. However, before she could devise a plan, Pang Jian suddenly fell from the horse, head plummeting straight to the ground.

"Shangguan Qin! You dare to ignore my warning! Don’t blame me for not giving face to your Shangguan Clan!" Zhou Qingchen erupted in fury as he leaped into the air like a hawk, lunging straight at Shangguan Qin from where he had been riding behind them.

Shangguan Qin’s face paled and her composure shattered. Zhou Qingchen not only harbored a genuine intent to kill but was also willing to act upon it without hesitation. "No! I didn’t do anything!"

She was well aware of Zhou Qingchen’s temper. Contrary to his name, he was extremely volatile and difficult to deal with. He always acted without restraint and she feared falling victim to his wrath for no reason.

"It’s his impure thoughts that led him to loss of control over his qi and blood!" she screamed in panic.

As soon as these words left her lips, Zhou Qingchen suddenly changed directions mid-leap.

He chose to ignore Shangguan Qin for the moment, opting to land beside Pang Jian to check for signs of breathing.

Pang Jian’s breathing was steady and he appeared to be uninjured. Zhou Qingchen’s expression turned strange, but he refrained from asking further questions.

The others had come to a stop behind them and were left stunned at Shangguan Qin’s words.

"Hehe, this little brother seems to be on the same page with me." Han Duping grinned with a wicked expression.

Ning Yao stared at the fallen Pang Jian from afar with disdain in her eyes.

1. “An incense stick’s worth of time” is roughly 15 to 30 minutes. ☜

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