Chapter 100
Chapter 100
“What, scared?”
Ye Piaoling said coolly, “As her elder brother, you won’t even risk your life to save her, yet you have the nerve to demand it of others?”
For a moment, everyone’s eyes fell on Xiao Chengxu.
The hand Xiao Chengxu had wrapped around his sword creaked from the force of his grip. He was caught between a rock and a hard place.
In this situation, going to save her was no different from courting death.
But if he refused, he would be branded a cowardly, selfish man…
After a long silence, Xiao Chengxu gritted his teeth and finally strode toward the dangerous black night.
“She is my own younger sister, after all. If something truly has happened to her…”
At that point, he hurled the torch in his hand with all his might. “Then I’ll consider myself never to have had such a sister!”
With that, he returned to the crowd with a dark expression and sat down.
Everyone: “…”
What a spectacular performance. Truly, their eyes had been opened.
The torch flashed once, then vanished like a shooting star into the boundless darkness.
Ye Piaoling sighed inwardly.
Xiao Chengxu’s choice was rational enough. It was just that he had always doted on Xiao Mei, yet in the face of danger, he could abandon family ties without the slightest hesitation…
Ruthless. Absolutely ruthless!
“What do we do now?” someone asked uneasily.
Ximen Chunqiu pointed in one direction. “There’s a cave over there. We’ll rest inside for a while.”
Ye Piaoling looked over, and her eyes lit up.
That cave was exactly the same as the one where she had encountered the man in black back in the secret realm!
She had finally found a place connected to the original world. In that case, the mechanism to return should be there too, right?
The group carried the severely injured disciples and raised their torches as they entered the cave, where they lit a large bonfire.
Under the warm, bright firelight, everyone finally reached their limit. One after another, they collapsed to the ground, their mental states utterly shattered.
Someone was crying quietly.
Not long ago, they had clearly still been in a secret realm filled with birdsong and fragrant flowers. Then, after a mist swept in, they had arrived in this horrifying place, and the trial had inexplicably turned into a nightmare…
But compared with the disciples who had been separated and left outside, the fact that they could gather here was already a blessing.
Ye Piaoling had no time to rest. Holding a torch, she walked straight to the center of the cave. Sure enough, there was a stone stele there of the exact same design.
Earlier, she had not been able to make out the words on the stele. Now, by the firelight, she could finally see them clearly.
Eight words were carved on the stone stele:
Eternal night through all ages, drifting forever through every life.
Ye Piaoling: ???
What was that supposed to mean?
It sounded like some kind of curse…
The others all looked over curiously. When they saw the words on the stele, confusion appeared on their faces as well.
They couldn’t understand it.
They couldn’t make sense of it.
Only one person’s reaction was different: Xiao Changye.
He stared fixedly at the stone stele not far away, lost in thought.
Eternal night through all ages, drifting forever through every life…
In those few short words, his name was clearly contained!
Then he looked toward Ye Piaoling.
In a certain sense, this woman’s name was contained in them too!
This… was it a coincidence?
Ximen Chunqiu frowned. “Does anyone understand what this line means?”
Everyone shook their heads.
Not a clue.
Ximen Chunqiu sighed, then sat down wearily as well. “I don’t know either. But those ghosts and monsters outside seem to be the Heavenly Evil Creatures that vanished long ago.”
Ye Piaoling’s gaze sharpened. “Heavenly Evil Creatures?”
“Yes. Several decades ago, a large number of monsters suddenly appeared in Dali. People called them Tianxie. I’ve seen them in illustrated books. They were exactly like the things we encountered today.”
At his words, everyone sucked in a sharp breath.
The calamity of the Tianxie was infamous in history.
Those monsters had come to the Glazed Continent through inexplicable rifts in space and time, slaughtering living beings and wreaking havoc everywhere. The imperial court’s armies and the cultivators of every sect battled them for decades, yet still could not eradicate them.
In the end, Di Xiulan appeared and sealed away all the Tianxie in one stroke. From then on, they never appeared again.
Because of this, Di Xiulan became a god in the hearts of Dali’s people, and the late emperor clung to him for support, appointing him as Regent King…
Ye Piaoling frowned. “So the Eternal Life Origin Realm where we are now is the Tianxie’s homeland?”
“Correct. Clever.”
Along with that cold, eerie confirmation, the Black-robed Figure appeared like a ghost before the stone stele.
Ye Piaoling’s pupils constricted. “You again!”
Ximen Chunqiu was stunned. “Who is he? You know him?”
Ye Piaoling said, “I saw him in the cave back in the secret realm. He’s the one who released the mist and brought us here…”
The disciples were shocked by this and nervously tightened their grips on their sword hilts.
The Black-robed Figure laughed faintly. “No need to be afraid. If I wanted to kill you, none of you would still be alive.”
Ximen Chunqiu drew his sword and glared at him. “You! Just who are you?”