Chapter 397 - 164: Turmoil in the Mountains, Li Xinggang! The Toad Reveals Its Head
"Ah!"
He flailed in mid-air, trying to grab onto something.
But what could a common mortal grab onto in the empty air?
He could only plummet down the cliff in utter despair.
’At the bottom of the cliff?’
Chen Shaoyou had been watching Li Xinggang the whole time, and his eyes suddenly lit up.
He crossed several hundred feet in a single step, then leaped off the cliff as well, catching the falling Li Xinggang.
’I saved the lives of your father, brothers, and a dozen other men. In exchange for a fated opportunity you might have received, that should be enough, shouldn’t it?’
Chen Shaoyou stared at Li Xinggang, and a flicker of hesitation passed through his eyes.
’A fated opportunity is what it is because it’s a chance to completely change one’s destiny. Even if I take Li Xinggang’s opportunity, he’ll never know.’
Still, he felt a pang of guilt.
But in the next moment, the legendary "World-Ending Great Collapse" surfaced in his mind.
According to legend, three to four hundred years after the Netherworld Venerable Lord Sacrifice, the Seven Heroes and Three Li would emerge. They would seek to exterminate all living beings, unleashing a catastrophe of indescribable proportions.
Few people knew the specifics of that disaster.
It was only known that after the calamity, the Elder Celestial Master who had sealed the Seven Heroes and Three Li let out a melancholic sigh. Like an old ferryman, he guided a lone skiff, carrying a scattered few survivors across to the future Twenty-First Epoch.
The legendary records of this great calamity were also brief.
"At dawn, the rising sun shattered. The great moon fell in its wake, and the stars were extinguished—their numbers in the tens of millions, hundreds of millions, or perhaps even more. In an instant, the heavens collapsed and the lands sank. The seas evaporated. In the blink of an eye, the Ten Thousand Spirits and all of creation were annihilated..."
’If my cultivation bears fruit in the future, I will surely see you through this life...’
As the thought flashed through his mind, Chen Shaoyou’s resolve hardened. With a flick of his hand, he tossed the man back up onto the cliff.
He, for his part, had already disappeared over the side of the cliff.
"Young Hero Chen!"
Li Xinggang scrambled to the edge of the precipice, his heart pounding with shock as he watched Chen Shaoyou continue to fall.
In his thirty-odd years of life, he had never seen someone who would risk their own life to save another.
"Young Hero!"
"Young Hero Chen!"
The other Medicine Gatherers all snapped back to their senses as well, each one of them utterly stunned.
They had suspected him of having ulterior motives.
Only now did they realize how narrow-minded and petty they had been.
Li Yunfeng, in particular, was so overcome with shame that he dropped to his knees and kowtowed repeatedly.
’Strange...’
Not far away, Ye Xiaoyu, who had arrived by walking on air, frowned slightly as she witnessed the scene.
She couldn’t quite figure him out.
In her estimation, it was highly likely that this Chen Shaoyou had been the victim of Possession by some old monster, which had affected his mind.
’But would such a person really sacrifice himself to save others? Would he risk his own life for a few villagers?’
She didn’t believe it for a second.
As her thoughts churned, she glanced at the dissipating aftershocks of energy. With her right hand, she activated a Dao Talisman to protect the Medicine Gatherers, and then vanished in a flash, already in pursuit down the cliff.
WHOOSH!
Ye Xiaoyu’s movements were unbelievably fast.
In a single flash, she had already arrived at the bottom of the thousand-zhang-high cliff.
Here, deep below the cliffs and between two mountain ranges, there was no flat ground—only a Celestial Abyss.
This Celestial Abyss was incredibly deep; it was impossible to tell if it was thousands or tens of thousands of zhang.
A foul stench wafted up from a pool of stagnant water below.
’This place is...’
Ye Xiaoyu covered her nose with her sleeve.
The putrid smell was so strong that not even her Magical Presence could completely block it out. This was clearly no ordinary place.
GLUG GLUG GLUG!
Suddenly, emerald-green bubbles began to rise from the pool of stagnant water.
Ye Xiaoyu’s gaze froze.
She saw a small toad.
Slowly, it poked its head out of the stagnant water!