Chapter 1173: 1172: Abyss Elder, Trade

Chapter 1173: Chapter 1172: Abyss Elder, Trade

At the bottom of the Cangwu Abyss, darkness engulfed everything.

Countless branches jutted horizontally from the cliff walls of the Abyss, packed with a dense mass of crows.

Their murky eyes gleamed as they let out eerie cries, showing no fear of humans as they fixed their gaze tightly on Xu Zimei and his companion.

The two leaped downward, plunging into the depths of the Abyss.

The deeper they went, the heavier the malign aura became.

The evil energy seemed to constantly corrode the pair, inching ever closer to invading their bodies.

They shielded themselves with Spiritual Energy, forming a barrier that kept the foul aura at bay.

Descending further and further, they had no sense of how deep the Abyss truly was until their feet finally touched solid ground, where rows of tombstones greeted them.

The place bore a striking resemblance to a Chaotic Burial Mound.

Spectral and chilling, the air itself seemed carved from icy dread.

The tombstones were all nameless, each marked only by mounds of earth stacked as high as small hills beside them.

Overhead, vultures circled once more, clutching unrecognizable chunks of flesh in their beaks, devouring the raw meat greedily.

“Look around,” Xu Zimei commanded.

Xie Changliu gave a small nod.

The two began walking along the rows of nameless graves, exploring the eerie surroundings.

Xu Zimei stopped after a while, his gaze fixed upon a wall standing before him.

The surface of the wall was engraved with countless characters.

Each word etched upon it spelled out one thing: “Hate. Hate. Hate!”

A multitude of “Hate” carvings filled the wall, each one brimming with a palpable, ominous resentment that seemed as though it might erupt violently at any moment, threatening to devour Xu Zimei whole.

He followed the wall, discovering the hateful inscriptions scrawled densely along its entire length.

Suddenly, a sharp “splat” shattered the foreboding silence.

A vulture flying midair was abruptly seized by a massive hand and crushed into a gory pulp.

Blood and flesh splattered in all directions.

The enormous arm, stretching dozens of meters long, extended from below the earth.

“New visitors have arrived, hahahaha,” a sudden burst of laughter echoed chillingly through the air.

The voice was eerie, sometimes raspy with age, sometimes unnervingly childlike.

“Who are you?” Xu Zimei asked with a frown.

“You can call me the Abyss Elder,” the voice drawled slowly.

As the words fell, the ground trembled violently.

A deep fissure split open beneath their feet, spreading like a spiderweb across the terrain.

From the crack emerged a grotesque mass—a colossal head made of countless bone fragments fused together.

The ghastly form was adorned with innumerable eyes, mouths, and nostrils, an entity beyond human comprehension.

Meanwhile, from the nameless tombstones, countless skeletal arms extended outward.

The number of arms was equal to the number of graves, each limb stretching several dozen meters long.

“I have dwelled within Cangwu for a million years—undying and unyielding—and I have dubbed myself the Abyss Elder,” the voice chuckled softly.

“Never heard of you,” Xie Changliu’s voice came faintly from the distance as he treaded air with effortless ease.

“It’s expected you haven’t,” the Abyss Elder sneered. “After all, few who have stepped foot in the Cangwu Abyss have walked out alive.”

“In the past million years, there have only been two.”

“Which two?” Xu Zimei asked.

“The Mountain Ghost Kui from seven hundred thousand years ago, and his malevolent spirit,” the Abyss Elder intoned.

“And why are you here?” Xie Changliu pressed.

“That’s a question even I cannot answer. I have existed here as long as the Cangwu Abyss itself has existed.

To me, this place is home,” the Abyss Elder replied.

“What do you want?” Xu Zimei asked.

“To propose a deal,” the Abyss Elder chuckled sinisterly.

“Similar to the deal I struck with that malevolent spirit, I can grant you safe passage out of this place.”

“And the price?” Xu Zimei’s voice turned guarded.

“Half of your Divine Soul, for me to consume,” the Abyss Elder grinned wickedly.

“That’s out of the question,” Xie Changliu interjected before Xu Zimei could offer a reply.

A person’s Divine Soul is among their most vital essences.

Even a trivial portion of it being extracted would cause grave harm, let alone half—the damage would be irreversible.

Such consumption is permanent, difficult to recover from through any means.

“No need to rush; take your time to decide,” the Abyss Elder said, his tone undisturbed. “After spending tens of thousands of years in the Cangwu Abyss, you’ll come around.

I’ve seen many like you before,” he added smugly.

Xu Zimei and Xie Changliu exchanged glances.

Soon after, Xie Changliu leaped into the air, Sword Intent surging around him. He unleashed a strike so fierce it seemed to pierce through the Nine-layered Heaven itself as it slashed downward in a devastating arc.

As the approaching Sword Qi closed in, the Abyss Elder extended a single arm leisurely, catching the invisible attack in his palm and squeezing it tightly.

The Sword Qi dissipated instantly between his fingers with an anticlimactic burst.

With a casual flick of his wrist, the remnants of the Sword Qi were hurled away, crashing into a nearby wall.

With a deafening “boom,” the wall crumbled as though made of brittle tofu.

“Don’t waste your efforts; you cannot harm me,” the Abyss Elder said flatly.

Xie Changliu, unwilling to admit defeat, swung his right arm again, and this time the longsword hovered above his head.

Infinite streams of Sword Qi coalesced around the blade.

The void began to fray and crack, and the Sword Intent surged eternal, exuding an ancient determination.

“Die!” Xie Changliu roared, charging at the Abyss Elder with the longsword in hand.

This time, the Abyss Elder extended both hands, each hand carrying overwhelming force.

Malign energy erupted, condensing into an all-encompassing Power of Dark.

Explosions rang out like rolling thunder.

The massive hands clapped together, trapping Xie Changliu’s deadly sword between their palms.

For a moment, they remained locked in stalemate.

Fouler and fouler auras intertwined with the sharp, unyielding Sword Intent.

When the building power reached its breaking point, the Abyss Elder swung his hands wide, sending Xie Changliu hurtling backward.

A secondary explosion sounded as Xie Changliu collided violently with one of the nameless grave markers.

“Relying solely on brute force is futile. Surrender half your Divine Soul for eternal freedom; this is a bargain you won’t find elsewhere,” the Abyss Elder teased with a sinister grin.

Xu Zimei smirked faintly, asking, “If we offer half of our Divine Soul, how could we possibly trust you?

What assurance do we have that you won’t go back on your word?”

“Trust or doubt—it’s your gamble to make,” the Abyss Elder replied.

“At the very least, you’d need to tell us the method of escape first,” Xu Zimei countered.

“That would make it more convincing.”

“I suppose there’s no harm in telling you, as only I have the ability to enact it,” the Abyss Elder said.

“When the Cangwu Abyss came into existence, it housed countless soul-binding Mysterious Medicines.

This attracted many to seek them out. Naturally, as the numbers grew, conflict, thievery, and war followed.

Millions of years ago, two mighty kingdoms clashed over dominance of the Cangwu Abyss.

The war they waged left millions dead, their corpses scattered throughout these lands.

In the entanglement of death energy and malevolence, I was born.

I am one with this Abyss.

Seven hundred thousand years ago, the Mountain Ghost Kui used a Seal Array to confine his own malevolent spirit here.

Though the array is potent, it is, after all, a foreign creation.

I hold the ability to manipulate the Abyss, forcing open a pathway. But such an act would exhaust immense energy.

Thus, consuming Divine Souls is the price I must demand for the effort,” the Abyss Elder explained.

“How charitable of you,” Xu Zimei said with a sly laugh.

“It seems to me you’re not as powerful as you claim. You can’t overpower us, so you resort to feeding off our souls through trickery.

If you truly were strong, why bother negotiating at all?”