Dao Chapter 36: Restriction-Breaking

“Demonic Technique!” Shiao Chen’s face changed. What Wu Wanli carried out was exactly the demonization of demonic cultivator, so it was no wonder his power could soar in such a short period.

At this moment, One Finger Devourer came roaring!

The demonized Wu Wanli had lost most of his insanity, but he growled out of instinctive sense of danger, and a layer of pitch-dark frog suddenly burst out surrounding him like a thick protective screen.

All in silence, the One Finger Devourer fell on the dark frog. And in the fearful eyes of the demon, it began to shake violently and finally it was swallowed by the Finger. After absorbing the dark frog, the formerly crystal finger turned ink-black, demonstrating an even stronger dominance and giving out mighty demon spirit.

Boom!

After a pounding bang, a sudden wave of gravel powder rose in the corridor, obscuring Shiao Chen’s sight; but scanning the place with his divine sense, he got a clear view of what had happened. There appeared a pit of over three meters in diameter and half a meter in depth in the formerly smooth corridor. Wu Wanli had shaken off his demonization and passed out with wounds all over his body. However, it was his very carrying out of demonization that had saved his life from the One Finger Devourer.

After the dust settled down, Siao Chen slowly walked to the hole, waved to seize Wu Wanli in his hand, and closed his eyes to forcibly enter, by divine sense, Wu Wanli’s mind to carry out Soul Dementing Technique. After some time, Shiao Chen slowly opened his eyes where a strangeness flashed by.

Wu Wanli was already dying, so after forced soul dementing by Shiao Chen, there was no way he would return to life. 

Taking off the storage bag and dropping his body in the hole, Shiao Chen meditated for a moment and walk ahead with a sneer on his face.

Far from here in the depths of the ground, a painful sigh came through. A moment later, a seducing and charming laughter went off, “An interesting little buddy this time. Killed my demon slave and use your life to pay off. Hahahaha…” The laughter was pleasant and touching but with infinite coldness of bloody-thirst.

Within the garden, Chu Kuang’s face suddenly turned gloomy. Just now, he had lost his sense of Wu Wanli's spirit and there was only one explanation, that was, he had been killed.

“How is it possible? Even if Liu Yun was killed by the two puppets, Wu Wanli’s strength was way enough to keep his life. How could he be killed?” Chu Kuang foreboded an upcoming crisis. His eyes looked so dismal that they were foretelling killing. 

“Chu Kuang my younger brother, what happened?” The Di brothers exchanged glances, detecting nervousness in each other’s eyes. 

Chu Kuang sneered to himself, and answered poker-faced, “Nothing. Speed up and continue to break the restriction.”

“What a robust xenogeny from the wilderness! It has a body of over sixty meters, twice the size than the recorded Millipede Demon. It must have undergone some mutation.” At this moment, the millipede demon with sickle-sharp feet that Shiao Chen and the others had seen before was growling from now and then. Its titanic body spiraled around like a serpent.

At this moment surrounding it were three people standing in the air. One was a skinny old man with green eyes like zombies, and he was gazing with all zeal at this millipede demon like it was the apple of his eyes. 

Another was a flush-faced middle-aged man like a worldly plump businessman. Smile was on his face, but no warmth could be found in his eyes. 

The last person was gray-haired old woman with a gloomy face as if the whole world owed her something. 

By the formidable dominance from them, they were all Gold-Core Cultivators! 

“We’re not yet to reach the depth of the Desolate Mountains, but already met with such wilderness xenogeny and countless demons and monsters on the journey. I suppose there must be some hidden secret.” The plump middle-aged man frowned and said slowly with mild smile on his face. 

“Let’s just go ahead and explore it, but now please help me deal with this millipede. I thought that only in the depth of the Desolate Mountains could I rape something. How lucky I am this time!” The zombie-like old man licked the corners of his mouth; a flash of green shimmered in his eyes and coldness gave off from all over him. 

The old woman frowned slightly, showing a bit of impatience, “Corpse Rider, take away your corpse smell and quickly knock down this thing.” 

This skinny old man turned out to be a corpse-cultivator. Hearing her words, he didn’t get mad. An explosive of pure corpse spirit burst out from him and plunged to seize the millipede. 

Hovered by ear-deafening bellow and earthshaking corpse spirit, the forest was shortly turned into a hellish place. 

In a while, the Corpse Rider joyfully put his hand on the millipede’s head; and after flashes of dark light, the titanic body of the millipede withered visibly and drops of green blood were absorbed into a jade bottle.

Pow!

The body of the millipede turned into ashes. Looking at the full bottle of green essence blood, the Corpse Rider complacently smiled, sending out a sound more than harsh. 

“Let's go. I’ve been sensing something weird. Go on exploring and we may find more.” 

The three glowed of transporting technique and slowly flew forward.

Shiao Chen walked out of the corridor and was greeted with a small single-plank bridge. The bridge was 11.1 meters and pitch-black all around. Its material seemed like wood. The river below flow in low pace, and swirls were made as waterflows crashed on the gravels on the riverbed. 

“Really, it is exactly the same as recorded in Wu Wanli’s memory. The person coming out of the corridor will immediately enter a secret realm. All in front of me is illusion created by the restriction. If I want to enter the next level, I have to break the restriction.” Shiao Chen frowned a bit and was hesitant.

The priority of his journey was to find the approach to Foundation-Establishment, but at the moment nothing was achieved. Therefore, though knowing the road ahead would be thorny, Shiao Chen would never quit halfway. 

His gaze  sweeping over the bridge in front of him, Shiao Chen couldn’t help but sigh. The ancient cultivator’s restriction indeed had a well-deserved reputation. At first glance, it was impeccable. But for his knowledge in advance, he could have been trapped. 

He closed his eyes and closely screened the whole space with his divine sense. After quite a while, Shiao Chen opened his eyes in a sudden and walked to his left, right, front and rear respectively in special footwork. Nothing changed. The bridge was still pitch dark and the water clear.  

His tight body slowly relaxed, and a layer of sweat appeared on his forehead. 

“It seems that I’ve laid the right wager. This place is the starting point to break the restriction.” Shiao Chen smiled. The restriction was so powerful as to kill almost everyone trying to break through that Shiao Chen’s divine sense, which was no weaker than that of a Mid-stage Foundation-Establishment cultivator, could only figure out partial clues. The four steps risked Shiao Chen’s life. Any misjudgment might have triggered the restriction and blasted him into ashes. 

Shiao Chen looked up and his face turned grave. Although the beginning was smooth, there were still nine steps yet to reach the bridge. The distance, from Shiao Chen’s perspective, was full of peril; one mere error could take his life.

He raised his left foot and took a step forward.

In a blink, everything changed. In front of him was an abyss of inferno with raging flames and burning heat. Waves of rolling fire were trying to reach out as if to swallow him in a second.

The horrible heat came head-on, instantly tearing up Shiao Chen’s spirit shield surrounding him. The scorching heat immediately soaked his clothing in sweat. In his eyes, however, reflected perseverance and determination. He moved forward two steps in a row and walked directly to this abyss of inferno. 

The moment flame was to touch his body, everything disappeared all of a sudden, as if the abyss of raging inferno had never appeared. Shiao Chen looked up and found himself standing in a world of snow and vast whiteness. Coldness came out from within his body and the sweat produced just now was frozen into ice in a split second. Even the spiritual power within him moved slowly and difficultly.

Boom!

Like a roar from heaven, the whole snowy world trembled fiercely. Shiao Chen was amazed by waves of rolling snow confronting him and tried to collect himself to forge ahead for one more step.

He seemed to walk into a pool of water, stirring up countless ripples. As the ripples trembled, the snowy icy world dissipated. A greyish space appeared in front of Shiao Chen. There was a shadow of man in black, holding a dark sword. Though fake as an illusion, the terrifying sharpness of the sword madly came forth as if to tear up the sky and earth, making Shiao Chen’s hair prickled with fear.

Hiss!

As the man in black with a black sword looked up, two flashes of sword light flew by. His eyes were so dark without any other color as if they were able to absorb everything in the world.

The hand was raised, and the sword lifted up and cleaved down.

The shadow moved extremely slow but was enough to arouse unlimited terror within Shiao Chen’s heart. A life-and-death crisis took complete seize of him. 

The shadow was illusive, but the sword intent was real! 

Shiao Chen’s pupils violently contracted. He took a rapid while steady step to the left, then backward, then left, and left, and finally three steps forward to lean sideways. 

The sword stopped right in front of Shiao Chen, nearly touching his nose. The man in black dissipated after releasing a sword intent. Shiao Chen seemed to have detected a sense of relief from him. Could a mere product of a formation have its own consciousness? 

Shiao Chen felt a bit confused. In a while, the greyish space in front of him broke into countless pieces like a shattered mirror and presented before was exactly the bridge over the flowing stream. It seemed nothing had changed except for he launched a few steps forward. Only two steps away from the bridge.

Shiao Chen slowly looked up, staring at the place where the sword in the illusion had swept over, and his pupils contracted fiercely.

The pitch-black bridge suddenly began to shake violently, and the water below the bridge kept rolling up, but the weirdest part was that no sound was made as if the scene happened in a picture. You could view but not hear it!

Shiao Chen smiled, knowing that this illusive formation was about to break.

As expected, the black bridge and the rolling water became more illusory, and eventually disappeared. Shiao Chen felt dazzled, and then stood up steadily, landing on the ground.

Chapter end