Ascension Day

Huang Siping, Wei Chu, and the Snake Demon Yuan Qi saw Xu Ying frozen in place, staring fixedly at the bottom of the well, and they too peered inside.

The man, the god, and the demon’s gazes met the great eye in the well. Their own eyes turned vacant as they stared, transfixed, at the massive eye.

The great eye seemed to possess a strange power, making it impossible for them to look away after a single glance.

Suddenly, a deafening toll from the Bell rang out, jolting Xu Ying and the others back to their senses.

The two men, the god, and the demon looked down and saw their hands and bodies were covered in blood. They were gripping the thick Chains from the well and heaving with all their might!

The Snake Demon Yuan Qi, having no hands, had coiled his tail around the Chains to drag them out!

They had already pulled out over a hundred feet of the Chains. The sections emerging now were caked in black blood, its foul, nauseating stench assaulting their nostrils.

To their horror, a dozen or so human skeletons had been dragged up along with the Chains!

A chill of pure horror ran down their spines.

They had no idea when they had lost their senses, what had taken control of their minds, how long they had been pulling, or what monstrous thing was shackled at the other end of the Chains!

All they knew was that the Chains felt impossibly heavy, and they were getting heavier still, as if something massive was tethered to the end.

The great eye in the well had vanished, replaced by churning, bloody water. GURGLE, GURGLE... it bubbled, rising rapidly until it reached the lip of the well!

Xu Ying and the others scrambled to let go of the Chains. The Bell tolled again. With a deafening CLATTER, the Chains plummeted back into the well, and the bloodwater receded along with them.

Suddenly, a soft, delicate sigh drifted up from the well. It was a hauntingly beautiful sound, like that of a young maiden lamenting her failure to escape her unfortunate fate.

The more beautiful the sound, the more their blood ran cold.

Xu Ying stood at the edge of the well and peered down. As the bloodwater retreated, he saw that the Chains were shackled to a coffin, which was now plummeting straight down along the well’s wall.

A moment later, the coffin hit the bottom.

At the bottom of the well was a sharp, triangular maw filled with razor-sharp teeth. It swallowed the coffin in one gulp. The Chains dangled from the corners of the behemoth’s mouth like whiskers.

Xu Ying’s heart hammered in his chest. He watched as the behemoth, having swallowed the coffin, positioned itself directly beneath the well’s opening and opened its maw.

Xu Ying yanked his head back, grabbed the Snake Demon Yuan Qi by the tail, and ran for his life!

Huang Siping and Wei Chu were still confused when a world-shaking roar erupted from the mouth of the well. The force of it made them both grunt in pain as blood poured from their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths.

The behemoth in the well, enraged by its failure to get the coffin out, roared with heaven-shaking fury. Even the Big Copper Bell was buffeted by the blast, swaying precariously like a willow in the wind!

The entire Stone Mountain began to shake violently. RUMBLE... RUMBLE... It felt as if the very mountain was about to be shattered by the force of the sound!

Although Xu Ying and Yuan Qi had dodged the initial impact of the roar, the aftershock from the sound wave colliding with the Copper Bell still sent them flying, flinging them dozens of feet away!

At the same time, the Naihe River outside the ruined temple grew turbulent. Its waters rose higher and higher, as if some colossal fiend within its depths was churning the waters, assaulting the bell-shaped barrier of light projected by the Copper Bell!

Under this coordinated assault from within and without, the light from Da Zhong in the pavilion grew faint. Even the bell-shaped barrier enveloping Stone Mountain grew thinner and dimmer!

Xu Ying summoned every ounce of his strength, surging his Qi Blood to resist the roar. He did everything in his power to drag the Snake Demon Yuan Qi toward the Great Hall.

His Qi Blood churned so violently that tiny beads of blood began to seep from his pores, staining his clothes red!

The Snake Demon Yuan Qi had already been knocked unconscious by the concussive force.

Xu Ying gritted his teeth. Blood trickled from the corners of his eyes, and the hot, metallic tang of it filled his nostrils as it flowed from them as well.

The roars from the deep well were incessant. Blood now flowed from Xu Ying’s ears, and his heart pounded like a drum, threatening to burst from his chest. He left a trail of bloody footprints as he staggered toward the Great Hall.

Xu Ying finally struggled into the Great Hall and collapsed, his body going limp.

Inside the Great Hall, the roaring was much fainter, finally giving him a chance to catch his breath.

CRACK!

A cold light flashed high in the sky, like a sharp, impossibly massive weapon. It cleaved a huge gash in the bell-shaped barrier of light!

The waters of the Naihe River immediately began pouring through the opening.

Xu Ying struggled to his feet and looked outside. He saw towering, majestic figures materializing around the light barrier above the Naihe River. They were humanoid, but not human, and they wielded gigantic weapons, striking the barrier and creating even more fractures.

Their forms were as immense and majestic as Celestial Gods, completely different from the likes of Grass Gods or Demon Gods. A single glance at them filled one’s mind with a chaotic flood of thoughts and an overwhelming urge to kneel in worship.

A ghastly white hand reached down from above the Naihe River, extending through a gash in the barrier and into the sky above the ruined temple. Each finger was dozens of feet long as the hand swept over the Great Hall.

Xu Ying hurried to the back of the hall. He saw the ghastly hand reach into the pavilion, grasp the Copper Bell, and attempt to rip it from its place.

GONG—

The Bell’s toll vibrated through the air. The massive hand shattered, sending flesh and gore flying. One of the severed fingers shot toward Xu Ying, and with a loud THWACK, it pierced through the Great Hall and impaled the temple door!

A fiery light flared across the dilapidated temple door. Strange, writhing characters, like squirming insects, appeared on its surface. They pulsed with an incredible Energy, setting the ghastly white finger ablaze!

Just as Xu Ying was reeling in shock from the characters on the door, a long whip suddenly shot out from the river. It flew over his head and, with a SWOOSH, wrapped around the loop atop the Big Copper Bell, yanking it outward.

The pavilion that held the great Bell was instantly torn to pieces!

As the Big Copper Bell was pulled away from the mouth of the well, the roaring from within grew more frantic.

Xu Ying looked up at the long whip speeding over his head. It was segmented, each section formed from a human face with a solemn expression. Every face was unique, and all had their eyes clamped shut.