Chapter 352: Opening Of Asura Desolate Realm [2]
The air above the sunken basin turned suffocating as the three Middle-Stage Nascent Soul experts took their positions around the hundred-yard spatial rift.
Elder Wu Min stood bathed in blazing crimson light, a nine-petaled phantom lotus unfurling behind his back.
To his left, the pale beauty from the Glacial Moon Empire raised a slender jade scepter, instantly freezing the atmospheric moisture into crystalline shards of azure frost.
To his right, the hunched elder of the Thousand Poison Sect cackled raspily, summoning a roiling serpent of pitch-black, corrosive miasma that gnawed at the outer edges of the void.
Suddenly, Elder Wu Min flicked his wrist, hurling a black circular token laced with glowing blood-red fissures straight toward the spatial tear.
"Break!" Elder Wu Min roared, his voice echoing like rolling thunder.
Simultaneously, the three Nascent Soul powerhouses slammed their condensed pillars of spiritual energy directly into the suspended token.
BOOM——!
The collision unleashed a blinding shockwave that flattened ancient trees for miles across the valley basin.
Yet despite enduring the concentrated might of three Nascent Soul masters, the token remained completely intact.
Instead, it ignited with a fierce, ominous crimson radiance.
A spiraling column of intertwined blood-red and pitch-black Qi erupted from the artifact, hammering directly into the primordial runes guarding the void fissure.
The jagged spatial wound shuddered violently under the immense impact, its edges twisting and groaning before the stubborn ancient runes shattered like brittle glass.
Swallowed by the tear, the black token vanished into the abyssal depths.
After half an incense stick of time, the erratic spatial turbulence finally settled, locking into absolute stability.
In place of the chaotic void storm, a smooth, vortex-like portal of swirling blood-red and pitch-black light opened wide, exhaling an ancient, desolate wind scented with iron, withered earth, and long-forgotten battlefields.
"The entrance is stabilized!" Elder Wu Min’s commanding voice boomed over every war ark and encampment in the valley.
"The laws of this ancient realm strictly permit cultivators at or below the Early Golden Core Realm to enter! Anyone exceeding this threshold will be crushed instantly by the realm’s spatial backlash! The outer portal will remain open for exactly thirty days, though the temporal flow within is distorted, you will have half a year’s time to explore the realm!"
"All trial participants, enter now!"
The moment the decree fell, the silence of the valley was instantly obliterated.
"Charge!"
"The opportunities inside belong to our Great Venomous Empire!"
"Out of my way, trash!"
Hundreds of silhouettes shot into the sky like a ravenous swarm of locusts.
Sword-beams, venomous mists, and shimmering flight treasures streaked toward the crimson vortex in a chaotic, frenzied stampede.
Aboard the imperial vessel, Prince Wu Zichen snapped his fan shut, a cold, calculating ambition flaring in his grey eyes.
"Pojun, let us enter. We cannot allow the foreign factions to seize the ancient heritage sites before us."
"Understood, Brother," Wu Pojun grunted, his muscular frame vibrating with violent, eager Qi as he stepped off the deck.
Princess Wu Yuning followed closely behind.
Before vaulting toward the portal, her large, mesmerizing amethyst eyes cast a quick, hesitant glance back toward Shen Yu.
With a subtle flick of her slender wrist, she sent a translucent green jade slip gliding through the air toward him.
A soft, breathless smile graced her delicate lips, her lush, generous chest heaving with nervous anticipation before she vanished into the swirling light alongside her brothers.
Shen Yu caught the jade effortlessly.
A faint flicker of surprise crossed his golden eyes as his divine sense skimmed its surface, before he smoothly slipped the jade into his spatial ring.
Nearby, City Lord Wu Shan noticed the exchange, a flicker of concealed envy passing through his eyes as he looked at the green jade slip before he quickly masked it.
Turning to his son, Wu Shan placed a heavy, reassuring hand on Wu Junjie’s shoulder.
"Junjie, remember what is at stake. Stay cautious, and never let greed blind your judgment."
"Yes, Father," Wu Junjie replied with solemn resolve, bowing deeply before offering a respectful nod to Shen Yu’s group and taking to the skies.
Down on the observation deck, young Lu An’’s small hands trembled with sheer, uncontainable excitement.
"Big Brother Shen..." Lu An’er looked up, his fiery, rebellious grin returning in full force.
"Can we go now?"
Shen Yu looked down at the eager boy, then shifted his gaze toward Lixue and Li Na.
"The spatial distortion within an ancient realm like this will almost certainly scatter us upon entry," Shen Yu instructed calmly.
Turning specifically to Lu An, he added, "The moment your feet touch the ground, activate the resonance talisman I gave you. It will point you directly toward my general location. Move carefully toward me, and I will head your way as well."
As for Lixue and Li Na, Shen Yu didn’t need to give them extra instructions.
The Primal Mark etched into their bodies allowed them to naturally perceive his precise direction and presence across great distances.
Meeting their focused gazes, Shen Yu gave a decisive nod.
"Let’s go."
With a leap, Shen Yu took the lead, with Lixue, Li Na, and Lu An’er trailing close behind as they plunged directly into the colossal spatial rift.
The moment Shen Yu crossed the threshold, the crushing spatial pressure of the ancient Desolate Asura Realm bore down upon him like the depths of a suffocating ocean trench.
Circulating his dense Qi, Shen Yu withstood the turbulent gravity without faltering.
In an instant, a blinding flash of crimson brilliance consumed his vision, and in the very next heartbeat, the mortal realm vanished completely behind him.
Witnessing Shen Yu disappear into the portal, Lu An’er, Lixue, and Li Na braced themselves, took a synchronized step forward, and vanished into the churning crimson depths right after him.
The blinding crimson radiance receded, replaced by an eerie, heavy dimness.
When Shen Yu’s boots touched the solid earth, the spatial turbulence dissolved instantly, leaving behind an absolute, suffocating silence.
He found himself standing within a petrified forest on the vast outer perimeter of the Desolate Asura Realm.
The landscape was desolate and devoid of life.
Skeletal trees rose like twisted spires of charred obsidian, their bark blackened and split, their jagged branches completely stripped of foliage.
Beneath his feet lay pale, ashen grey soil fine as powdered bone, while overhead hung a perpetual sky of bruised, dark crimson.
A heavy, lingering atmosphere saturated the air, a profound sense of melancholy, ruin, and ancient destruction that weighed upon the soul, carrying the silent grief of a fallen epoch.
Shen Yu closed his golden eyes for a single breath, his formidable willpower effortlessly dispersing the gloomy haze attempting to seep into his mind.
Reaching into his spatial ring, he retrieved the translucent green jade slip Princess Wu Yuning had secretly passed to him.
Channeling a wisp of his divine sense into the jade, he found it to be a Memory Jade, an exceedingly rare artifact capable of storing vast, intricate volumes of information.
A glowing, three-dimensional mental projection unfolded within his sea of consciousness.
While it did not detail every hidden valley or ancient ruin, it clearly outlined some of the realm’s overarching geography, major territorial zones, and expansive plains.
It was obvious that over previous cycles, the Crimson Lotus Empire had thoroughly explored a good portion of the Desolate Asura Realm.
According to the cartography, he had materialized in the outer perimeter known as the Desolate Obsidian Forest.
Closing his palm, Shen Yu slipped the jade back into his spatial ring.
Unknowingly, he now owed a favor to Princess Wu Yuning.
As a demonic cultivator, such debts weighed little on his conscience, yet he still inwardly commended the clever little princess for her subtle, sharp initiative.
Turning his attention inward, he focused on the intimate soul-brands linking him to his women and the distinct talismanic resonance of young Lu An’er.
Li Na was the closest to his current coordinates, roughly a hundred and fifty miles to the northwest.
Keeping his divine sense fully active across a wide radius around him, Shen Yu circulated his celestial Qi into his legs.
Activating Phantom Steps, his figure blurred into a series of illusory afterimages, dashing swiftly across the powdery grey earth and weaving through the jagged, petrified trunks.
As he swept past a cluster of abnormally twisted, hollowed-out obsidian trees, the stagnant air suddenly rippled with a sharp, blood-soaked killing intent.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
From the hollow trunks and the thick canopy above, four sinister shadows dropped down in a coordinated ambush.
They were feral, hound-like beasts with bodies forged of cracked obsidian bone and razor-sharp spinal crests, their hollow eye sockets burning with malevolent crimson fire, Tier-1 Asura Nether Hounds, lunging directly for his vitals with bared, razor-like fangs.
Shen Yu didn’t even pause his stride.
With a casual flick of his sleeve, four golden needles of pure, condensed Qi whistled through the air, piercing the hounds’ skulls with pinpoint accuracy before they could even hit the ground.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
The beasts shattered instantly into piles of blackened bone dust, scattering across the ashen earth.
Yet, before Shen Yu could even take another step forward, the ground beneath him convulsed with violent, earth-shattering force.
CRACK——!
The entire clearing fractured in two as a bottomless, pitch-black abyss ripped open directly under his feet.
Before he could circulate his Qi to leap to safety, an overwhelming, suffocating gravitational force surged from the dark depths, seizing his entire body like an invisible titan’s grip and dragging him ruthlessly down into the unknown darkness below.
-x-
A/N:
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