Trials of the Abyss

Chapter 520: Ghost Cultivator

Pang Jian descended a hundred zhang underground, feeling dense Profound Yin energy deep beneath the wasteland.

Profound Yin energy is essential nourishment for spectral and ghostly entities. But why is there so much of it here?

Is the presence of Dead Spirit Town, Sinister Soul Town, and Ghost Spirit Town aboveground connected to the abundance of Profound Yin energy below?

Pang Jian extended his divine sense up toward the surface.

Ghostly entities, shrouded in chilling Profound Yin energy, hovered arrogantly above the heads of many heretical cultivators, commanding them to use their artifacts and construct arrays in search of a "Sunken Crypt."

Some of these ghostly entities were human souls, while others were the souls of the Fey Race.

Despite losing their physical bodies and becoming ghostly entities, they still retained the intelligence they had in life. Their eerie and powerful auras were unlike anything Pang Jian had ever encountered.

They're ghost cultivators, explained the Abyssal Demon. Ghost cultivators are cultivators who have forsaken their physical bodies.

There are several ways this can happen. It could be that they died in a special region where their souls did not dissipate, allowing them to regain the memories of their past lives over time.

Other ghost cultivators opt to abandon their physical bodies after refining their divine souls, transforming themselves into ghostly entities.

Regardless, ghost cultivators no longer rely on physical bodies and cannot draw sustenance from them. Thus, if they want to grow stronger, ghost cultivators have to absorb the souls of other beings, with rich Profound Yin energy as a supplement.

The only real difference between ghost cultivators and ordinary cultivators is the absence of their physical body, the Abyssal Demon concluded.

Pang Jian remained hidden underground, silently observing the surface through his divine sense.

Suddenly, Pang Jian caught sight of a familiar figure—or rather, a shadow.

It was Zhou Yi, formerly of the Nine Tribes Sect!

Pang Jian had killed him on the Fey Spirit Continent. His body and divine soul had been destroyed. Yet here he was, in pure soul form!

Zhou Yi had become a ghost cultivator and one of significant status at that.

"The Imperial Dominion was once part of the Dark Capital[1]. The legendary Sunken Crypt lies hidden beneath this barren wasteland. Spread out and search underground—find it for me," Zhou Yi commanded, hovering above the other ghost cultivators and heretical cultivators.

The ghost cultivators immediately dove into the ground like fish slipping into the sea.

Seeing this, Pang Jian carefully concealed his presence and descended deeper underground to avoid detection.

The deeper he went, the denser the Profound Yin energy became, chilling him to the bone.

Three hundred zhang underground, he quietly observed the ghost cultivators drifting above him.

What is the Dark Capital and the Sunken Crypt? he asked the Abyssal Demon.

The Dark Capital, also known as Ghost City, was once a complete continent in the Second World. From what I learned through Mo Nan, it was the final resting place for souls within the Abyss back when it was still around.

The Sunken Crypt was a sacred place in the eyes of departed souls.

The mysteries of the cycle of life, death, and reincarnation in the Abyss seemed to lie within that continent before it was destroyed. I never expected the Imperial Dominion to be a part of the Dark Capital.

Does the Sunken Crypt truly lie beneath this very region? the Abyssal Demon wondered in astonishment.

If its name rings true, it makes sense for the Sunken Crypt to be buried underground, Pang Jian said thoughtfully. The Profound Yin energy saturating the depths of this barren wasteland is incredibly unusual.

Whoosh!

A delicate figure appeared in the southern region of the Imperial Dominion.

All the heretical cultivators possessing physical bodies fell to their knees, expressions filled with devotion.

"Long live our God!"

"May our Lord reign for ten thousand generations!"

"We humbly welcome the sacred one!"

The high-ranking Outer God of the Ghost Race, Zi Mo, nodded lightly in acknowledgment of her reverent crowd.

Zi Mo's vast divine power transformed into countless specks of green light and scattered across the barren wasteland like a swarm of fireflies.

Plunging deep into the earth, the lights ravenously extracted the Profound Yin energy below.

The green lights appeared to be extensions of Zi Mo's divine consciousness. Each speck acted as an eye searching for the Sunken Crypt, relentlessly drawing in Profound Yin energy as fuel.

They diligently combed through the depths of the earth. It seemed no secret hidden below would be able to escape Zi Mo's all-seeing gaze.

Ling Yimo!

Dread gnawed at Pang Jian.

He dove deeper underground, not daring to linger. All thoughts of the mysterious Sunken Crypt left his mind as he decisively chose to retreat from the southern region of the Imperial Dominion.

Zhou Yi and Ling Yimo's unexpected appearances made him realize the danger was far greater than anticipated.

Fortunately, he could still tunnel through the earth and remain hidden while using his divine sense to observe the surface.

If he truly encountered a threat beyond his ability to handle, he could always use the Gate of the Abyss to escape to the Resolute Expanse.

With this in mind, he slipped into the shadows like a wandering ghost, quietly traversing beneath the different regions of the Imperial Dominion and observing as a massacre unfolded aboveground.

Bone puppets from the White Bone Gate roamed the dense forest and lakeside where Pang Jian had once battled Xing Heng in the northern region of the fragmented land.

These puppets—crafted from the human, Fey Race, and foreign race bones—mercilessly hunted orthodox rogue cultivators under the command of White Bone Saint Lu Qinghe.

In the west, the scarlet-robed Blood Prison Sect carried out their slaughter under the leadership of a middle-aged woman, leaving trails of carnage in their wake.

At the same time, disciples of the Blackwood Sect spread desolation and decay, leaving a path of withering death in the east.

The ghost cultivators in the southern region similarly joined the massacre against the orthodox rogue cultivators.

These heretical factions fully utilized every part of those they killed.

Members of the Blood Prison Sect cast the blood and flesh of the fallen into their Blood Prison.

Ghost cultivators devoured the souls of the dead, which left their spectral forms brimming with vitality.

Finally, the bone puppets tossed the stripped bones into the open maw of the White Bone Gate in the northern sky of the fragmented land.

The flesh, souls, and bones of the dead had evidently been divided between the factions in advance.

Even the lingering aura of death after the rogue cultivators died was not wasted, with disciples of the Blackwood Sect absorbing them through broken-off sections of withered branches.

A malevolent vitality would sprout within these branches as they soaked up the aura of death. When the branches absorbed enough of this aura, the disciples would plant them in the black forest, allowing a new Tree of Death to take root.

The ghost cultivators, the White Bone Sect, the Blood Prison Sect, and the Blackwood Sect had waited in the shadows of the Abyss for years for this bloody feast.

Orthodox cultivators were massacred mercilessly within their hunting grounds.

The Imperial Dominion had become a bloodbath.

***

Imperial Dominion City stood at the center of the fragmented land.

Heretical factions had blocked off the regions in the four cardinal directions. Those attempting to escape quickly fell to the slaughter of the ghost cultivators, the White Bone Sect, the Blood Prison Sect, and the Blackwood Sect.

Eventually, the surviving rogue cultivators realized that escape was impossible. They sensed that the invading heretical factions were herding them toward Imperial Dominion City.

Attempting to flee meant certain death.

While retreating to Imperial Dominion City would likely also result in death, it at least gave them a chance to delay the inevitable.

City Lord Shang Xiuchun, Lin Miaojin, Huang Qi, and nearly a thousand cultivators previously scattered across the fragmented land had since gathered within Imperial Dominion City.

"City Lord, what should we do?"

"Shang Xiuchun! Is there any way out of this?"

"You're the City Lord! We pay you plenty of spirit stones and spirit jades every year as tribute! How could you not have known that these heretical cultivators were planning to invade the Imperial Dominion? What kind of city lord are you?"

"Shang Xiuchun! Take responsibility for this disaster with your life!"

The voices of fear, anger, and desperation rose as the rogue cultivators surrounded the City Lord.

Curses and hurled insults were directed at the City Lord's manor from cultivators atop watchtowers, floating artifacts, and even perched on stone pillars.

Inside the manor, Shang Xiuchun's tired eyes were bloodshot as he listened to Huang Qi and Lin Miaojin explain the source of the upheaval plaguing the fragmented land.

Shang Xiuchun was a middle-stage Immortal Realm cultivator. Naturally, he had also sensed the abnormal flow of spiritual qi throughout the fragmented land.

It was not hard to deduce that two heretical cultivators were attempting to ascend to the True God Realm within the Imperial Dominion, even without Lin Miaojin and Huang Qi's explanations.

The curses and increasingly vulgar insults from the rogue cultivators outside fell on deaf ears.

"You're saying the True Gods have been informed?" Shang Xiuchun glared at Huang Qi. "All the sound transmission tokens linking to the outside world have been destroyed, how can you be so sure they know what's happening?"

"Pang Jian said so," Huang Qi replied.

Shang Xiuchun's eyes lit up. "If it's him...then perhaps it's worth believing."

Whoosh!

Shang Xiuchun appeared above the City Lord's manor, peering down at the panicking crowd as he announced, "Everyone, the catastrophe unfolding in the Imperial Dominion has already come to the attention of the True Gods of the Abyss.

"Do not leave Imperial Dominion City, and stop trying to flee. We need only wait patiently for the True Gods to descend.

"This upheaval struck without warning. I swear that I had no prior knowledge of it.

"You do not have to believe me and are free to curse me as you wish, but know this: I am as much a victim as you are.

"I have spent years painstakingly maintaining this city, and I do not wish to see it destroyed."

A sallow-faced young man in black robes stood among the crowd, grimly listening to Shang Xiuchun's meaningless assurances.

He had come to Imperial Dominion City because the Abyssal Demon had mentioned that one of the heretical cultivators seeking to ascend to the True God Realm was hiding in the city.

That person no longer needed to draw spiritual qi. They were now harvesting another type of energy from within Imperial Dominion City.

Nearly a thousand rogue cultivators, ranging from the Innate Realm to the Immortal Realm, had been driven to the city.

Their despair, anxiety, fear, and desperation were the nutrients the hidden heretical cultivator required to ascend.

The rogue cultivators were unknowingly feeding the heretical cultivator's path to godhood with their festering emotions.

1. In Chinese mythology, 幽都 is often portrayed as the underworld or the land of the dead, serving as the final destination for the deceased. It is closely linked to 酆都, a legendary ghost city believed to be the gateway to the afterlife, where souls are judged and guided to their next existence. ☜