Chapter 170 – Splitting from the team
All the swords stabbed into the filament, causing it to vibrate. The filament shone brightly as it resisted the sword energy, but a dent soon appeared on it.
Wang Lin’s eyes lit up as the crystal sword suddenly appeared and repeatedly stabbed into the concave spot. Soon, the filament began to become even more concave.
At this moment, the snake-like creature seemed to realize something was wrong, so it began to twist its body violently. Wang Lin was now alarmed. He waved his hand and hundreds of flying swords began to attack again.
Finally, after a loud noise, the filament broke, and a strong fishy smell wafted out. Wang Lin quickly moved to the side and hugged the wall. The pill in his mouth began to work, blocking the fishy smell.
After the fishy smell disappeared, Wang Lin immediately entered the hole he had dug. At that moment, the body of the small snake inside the large body began to shrink. Wang Lin had a feeling that this creature wouldn’t be easy to kill. If the large snake had a small snake inside it, could it be that the small snake had another snake inside it?
More importantly, Hunchback Meng said that this snake was a desolate beast, equivalent to a late-stage Soul Formation cultivator. It had to be said that late-stage Soul Formation cultivators were the most powerful people in tier 4 cultivation countries.
Unless the Ancient Emperor and they were also at the peak of the late stage of Soul Formation, they wouldn’t be able to kill him. Based on Hunchback Meng’s previous words, Wang Lin was certain that none of them were at the peak of the late stage of Soul Formation. At most, they were at the middle stage.
As a result, there was no chance of fighting it at all, and everyone could only flee on their own. Wang Lin’s initial plan was to flee, but after observing it, he realized that aside from having an extremely strong body and being able to spit out that black smoke, the snake didn’t seem to have any other abilities. This greatly surprised Wang Lin.
He looked at everyone. Although none of the old men said a word, they were all filled with doubt.
Wang Lin had a wild guess that this beast only had a beast-like body but no beast-like techniques.
He became even more convinced of his suspicions after seeing a smaller snake in its mouth. That’s precisely why he dared to enter the creature’s mouth to extract its marrow.
In his mind, a beast would have a strong outer body, so if he were inside, there shouldn’t be any danger. Wang Lin began to have an even stranger idea. Perhaps this was a type of creature where there was a snake inside a large snake, and a smaller snake inside that snake, and finally the smallest snake at the very end was the true beast.
As for the bodies outside, they are only used for show, which is why they have the bodies of beasts but no techniques.
Thinking of this, Wang Lin’s heart tightened and he immediately regained his focus. He soon arrived at the point where the head and neck met. The thread had disappeared, revealing the white bone beneath. Wang Lin touched the bone and pulled it with his attraction technique, causing the snake to roll around frantically.
At the same time, the smaller snake head emitted a black light as its skin and body rapidly melted. Hunchback Meng looked terrified as he quickly jumped away in a miserable state and flew towards the large snake head.
When he passed the area where the head and neck met, he saw Wang Lin. After hesitating for a moment, he quickly shouted, “Hurry and leave! This is a parasitic dragon snake. There are a total of nine snakes inside, and the one inside is a true beast with a beast technique!”
With that, his right hand slammed into the wall of flesh. The flesh that the flying sword couldn’t pierce turned black, causing the snake immense pain. The snake opened its mouth in agony, and Hunchback Meng jumped out.
Wang Lin’s eyes lit up. Not only did he not leave, but he instead hugged the wall of flesh to hide himself.
Just at this moment, a smaller red dragon emerged from the dried-up little snake. It quickly passed Wang Lin and chased after Hunchback Meng.
Wang Lin remained motionless as he hugged the wall. After Hunchback Meng and the dragon passed by, his eyes lit up. Hunchback Meng didn’t have good intentions when he told Wang Lin to escape. He most likely wanted Wang Lin to go with him so that Wang Lin could help distract the red dragon.
Wang Lin sneered in his heart. He didn’t want to get involved with these people. If he could open the third trial, there wouldn’t be a problem, but he didn’t really know the death spell. If he couldn’t open the third trial, those demonic cultivators would definitely kill him to vent their anger.
And even if he somehow opened the third trial, although they wouldn’t kill him immediately, he would likely be used by the Six Desires Devil Sovereign technique. Wang Lin had a very clear memory of the young man’s confused eyes.
Wang Lin had originally wanted to try to find an opportunity to escape during the first two trials, and if he couldn’t find one, he would cause trouble in the third trial. When everyone was running for their lives, they wouldn’t have time to pay attention to him.
However, Wang Lin changed his mind because with the red dragon out there, the inside of this snake’s body was probably the safest place. His eyes lit up as he placed his hand on the snake’s spine and sucked it in with his attraction technique. The snake’s body suddenly began to tremble. Wang Lin felt his blood rush to his head as his body floated uncontrollably.
With a grim expression on his face, he used the spiritual energy within his body to stabilize himself. He still felt his blood rushing, so he spread out his divine sense. His divine sense followed the snake’s throat to its mouth and peered out through the gaps between its teeth. He was stunned by what he saw.
The large snake-like creature quickly fell into the dark void.
It took half an hour before the fall finally slowed and the snake hit the ground. The impact sent a shockwave that rumbled for a long time before everything fell silent again.
Wang Lin took a deep breath and wordlessly continued to absorb the bone marrow. The snake was no longer trembling, and nothing unusual happened. After a while, a drop of golden liquid flowed out of the beast’s spine, accompanied by a fragrant aroma. Wang Lin became very serious. He carefully took out a jade bottle.
He carefully placed the drop of golden liquid into a jade bottle and finally breathed a sigh of relief. After storing it in his storage bag, he quickly moved towards the snake’s head and escaped through the gap between its teeth.
Before him, there was complete darkness without any light source. Wang Lin formed a seal with his hands as he shouted, “Forward!” Suddenly, a fireball the size of his head appeared and floated forward.
Using the light of the fire, Wang Lin observed his surroundings. His expression gradually became strange.
This place is also another pillar floating in the void, only this pillar is hundreds of times larger than the previous pillars.
The large, snake-like creature rested its head on this stone pillar while its entire body dangled into the void. Its eyes were closed and it showed no signs of life.
Wang Lin assumed that when the red dragon left, it was like when a Nascent Soul cultivator’s new soul left their body. The beast most likely lost its vitality temporarily and fell here.
This also explains why the creature didn’t move at all when it took the marrow.
Wang Lin stared at the snake with sparkling eyes before finally sighing and giving up on his idea. This giant snake before him was like a mountain of treasure waiting to be harvested. Its core and skin alone were worth a fortune. However, Wang Lin wasn’t blinded by those things. He wasn’t even sure if he could penetrate the flesh to reach the snake’s brain or if he even had the ability to separate the skin from its body. The biggest problem was that the red dragon would most likely return soon, and if Wang Lin encountered it, then even if he had 100 years of life left, he would lose it all in an instant.
Wang Lin took another look before taking out the pill Hunchback Meng had given him. The pill had shrunk to half its original size, but Wang Lin still carefully placed it inside his storage bag. Without a word, he extinguished the flame and leaped forward. In this endless void, the light of the flame was too obvious. For safety, Wang Lin had no choice but to fly in the darkness.
Gradually, his eyes began to adjust to the darkness. Although he couldn’t see his surroundings clearly, he could make out the outlines of objects.
Besides the fact that the stone pillars were hundreds of times larger, their movement speed was also slightly faster. Furthermore, he could sense danger coming from all sides.
Wang Lin walked very carefully. Often, he would only move a few meters before stopping to observe his surroundings. Only after he was certain it was safe did he dare to move. At that moment, he had just landed on the stone pillar when his body froze. A black figure flashed before him.
Wang Lin held his breath and remained motionless. All he did was stare straight ahead. After a while, he could see its outline. In the center of the pillar was a mass with countless tentacles extending from its body and moving randomly.
The black figure that passed by was one of its tentacles.
After Wang Lin saw this, he began to retreat. If this creature could survive here, then it must be extremely powerful, so he couldn’t afford to mess with it. He retreated several meters and arrived at the edge of the pillar. He continued to stare at the figure in the center as he jumped off the edge and slowly floated up.
Wang Lin only dared to exhale after he was more than 100 feet away. He stared at the endless void above him and couldn’t help but smile bitterly. Only by returning to the stone pillar he had been standing on before could he find the halo to leave this place.
Wang Lin pondered for a moment. He didn’t dare to spread his divine sense too far for fear of attracting powerful creatures that would harm him. His body slowly flew upwards and immediately stopped as soon as he saw the black figure. After confirming that it was a stone pillar, he slowly approached it.
But just at this moment, a ray of red light suddenly appeared above him and shot down with a strange whistling sound. Wang Lin’s body quickly moved to the side. He hugged the bottom of the stone pillar and remained motionless.
The only thing he saw was a red light streaking past the stone pillar. It continued to fall and disappear without a trace. Wang Lin felt his scalp go numb. He realized that the red light was a red dragon emerging from the snake and chasing Hunchback Meng.
The dragon had returned, but he didn’t know if Hunchback Meng and the others were alive or dead. Wang Lin sneered as he slowly flew up the stone pillar. Once he arrived at the top, he carefully observed his surroundings.
There were no signs of life on this stone pillar, so after a long time, Wang Lin relaxed, sat down, and drank a mouthful of spirit liquid before carefully looking at what was beneath him.
Once the red dragon returned to its body, it would definitely notice something was wrong. Wang Lin buried himself in the stone pillar and then touched his forehead to take out the Heaven-Defying Bead. His eyes lit up before quickly entering the Heaven-Defying Bead’s space.
Not long after he entered the heaven-defying bead, an angry howl rang out from below. The red dragon flew like lightning and shattered a pillar several hundred feet wide with its body. Its gaze was cold as it began searching around.
This red dragon had acquired a certain level of intelligence and knew that the person who stole the marrow couldn’t have gone far, so it continued searching with its sharp gaze. After finding nothing for a long time, it bumped into several more stone pillars before reluctantly lying down on one and calming down.
But soon he moved again and charged toward the figure with countless tentacles that Wang Lin had previously seen.
As the dragon rushed towards him, its tentacles formed a cone with the creature’s core as the base and faced the dragon without any sign of fear.
A series of rumbling sounds rang out from below, and at the same time, various colored lights flashed in the darkness. Powerful spiritual energy fluctuations spread out like a storm. One by one, the nearby stone pillars shattered. Even the stone pillar Wang Lin was on was affected; half of it shattered.
This epic battle lasted for about a day before gradually subsiding. The angry shadow dragon was finally defeated and forced to retreat. The dragon was also severely injured. It let out several roars before lying down on a stone pillar.
Ten days later, Wang Lin came out of the heaven-defying beads and landed on the stone pillar. He immediately spread his divine sense and observed his surroundings carefully.
It was obvious that the surrounding stone pillars were becoming fewer and fewer, and the stone fragments were becoming more numerous. Only after a long time did Wang Lin let out a sigh of relief. He pondered for a moment before flying upward.
After passing several stone pillars, Wang Lin suddenly stopped. He saw that one of the stone pillars in front of him had suddenly disappeared.
Wang Lin’s expression became serious as he slowly retreated. He waved his hand, and several shattered rocks came toward him. He pointed at one and whispered, “Go!”
The broken rock quickly flew forward. Wang Lin stared straight ahead and saw that after the rock flew forward for a while, it suddenly disappeared.
Wang Lin took a deep breath. He saw that the moment the rock disappeared, a black hole opened up in an instant. Because the speed was too fast and difficult to see, the rock appeared to have mysteriously disappeared.
Wang Lin pondered for a moment as he looked ahead and took out a flying sword. When the flying sword appeared before him, he pointed it forward and shot out.
Suddenly arriving at the spot where the rocks had disappeared, the black hole suddenly reappeared to devour the flying sword, but just at that moment, Wang Lin shouted, “Destroy!”
The sword shattered into pieces and scattered in all directions as the black hole closed. Wang Lin stared at the scene before him. He waved his right hand and ordered one of the sword fragments to change direction and return to his hand.
There were a few drops of black liquid on the shattered sword, and upon closer inspection, he found signs of decay where the black liquid had come into contact.
“It’s not a spatial crack!” Wang Lin was now certain of this. The reason he had tested it so many times was because he was afraid that there would be a spatial crack here. If there really was a spatial crack here, then the danger of this place would increase by another level.
Wang Lin was no longer a soul devourer; he had a physical body. The power of the spatial rift would destroy him completely.
Wang Lin relaxed slightly and stretched out his hand. He suddenly waved his hand, causing the shattered rocks around him to gather and revolve around him like a stone ring.
He flew sideways for a long time before moving forward again. Every time he saw a rock disappear, he would change direction. After gaining a better understanding of the situation through various tests, Wang Lin understood that it wasn’t a spatial crack but rather a mysterious, invisible creature.
The biological structure of these creatures is very strange. Even with his divine senses, it is difficult to find any clues. Wang Lin can only come to this conclusion because he has been a soul eater for many years and has experienced spatial rifts many times.
Wang Lin was extremely cautious throughout the entire journey. Every step in this place was dangerous. If he were careless for even a moment, he could die. This was especially true for a Core Formation cultivator like himself. It was safe to say that he was in a forbidden area where the slightest carelessness could result in his death.
After spending a considerable amount of time, Wang Lin calculated that he had only moved about 10,000 feet. This 10,000 feet would have only taken him a few moments to traverse normally, but now it took him several days.
Wang Lin could no longer count exactly how many days had passed because all his energy was spent on being alert.
Time passed slowly. Wang Lin himself had already forgotten how long he had been here. Constantly vigilant, he had escaped dangerous situations many times.
On this day, Wang Lin was sitting on a stone pillar to rest. Although he hadn’t used much spiritual energy, his mind was extremely tired. This was all thanks to the fact that Wang Lin had been extremely cautious before ending up here. If it were anyone else, they would have already worn themselves out from being so cautious and died.
After resting for a moment, Wang Lin took a deep breath and stood up. He pointed in the air a few times to summon a crystal sword. The sword circled the stone pillar, chipping away at the small pieces of rock that were sticking out.
Wang Lin waved his hand, and stone fragments gathered around him. For the past few days, he had been using these stone fragments to pave the way for him. Now that they were all gone, he needed to get more from the nearby pillars.
After the broken stones formed a ring around him, he jumped off the pillar and flew forward slowly.
Once he had flown a little, he stopped and looked around carefully. The darkness here wasn’t that bad. The higher he flew, the brighter it got.
As for where the light came from, he didn’t have time to think about it. He was currently observing his surroundings carefully, as he sensed something bad was about to happen.
His eyes were already accustomed to the darkness, so with this amount of light, he could see everything clearly. He counted briefly and realized that within a radius of about 100,000 feet, there was only one floating stone pillar.
Everything in this area was too different from usual. Wang Lin knew that there should be a stone pillar every few hundred feet. Even if the pillars were destroyed, there would still be debris floating around. However, there was nothing here.
There were only two explanations. The first was that a major battle had taken place here at some point, and the shockwave was so powerful that it pushed everything except the stone pillar away, resulting in what he saw now.
Secondly, there are a lot of invisible creatures here and they have cleaned this place after years of devouring it.
Wang Lin thought this because he had just witnessed a huge stone pillar being devoured by a huge mouth. He had witnessed a 700 to 800-foot-tall stone pillar vanish without a trace in less than an hour.
Wang Lin frowned. If this was really how it was, then he had no choice but to go around. Otherwise, he would be in great danger.
After pondering for a moment, Wang Lin pointed to one of the shattered rocks around him and it began to slowly float forward. The rock immediately entered the area and moved for quite a while without being eaten. Wang Lin pondered for a moment. He pointed around and then all the rocks surrounding it began to move forward.
Wang Lin wasn’t in a rush, so he patiently watched the rocks slowly move forward. Gradually, all the rocks approached the only stone pillar around him.
Around the stone pillar, one of the rocks suddenly disappeared. Wang Lin’s pupils shrank as he carefully observed what was happening. The rocks began to disappear one by one as they approached the stone pillar.
Wang Lin’s eyes lit up as he recalled the various spots where the rocks had been eaten. Based on his experiences over the past few days, he assumed these creatures were immobile and locked in one place.
However, he didn’t discount the fact that they might be able to move. After pondering for a while, Wang Lin gave up on the idea of passing through the quiet area. This place was too strange, and Wang Lin didn’t want to risk entering. He decided that he would rather spend the extra time exploring. After all, the price of failure was something he couldn’t afford.
After making up his mind, he retreated and used the crystal sword to get more broken rocks to surround himself before flying to the side.
Wang Lin’s face gradually became more and more gloomy. He had flown a very long distance, but this empty area seemed endless.
After flying for several days, he was forced to abandon his plan to tour the creatures.