txolops Chapter 65 Ambush
Chapter 65 Ambush
The cold mist enveloped Huang Chen as he sank downwards.
Before his feet even touched the ground, a hollow sound of water echoed in his ears, like someone tapping the river surface with a rusty bronze bowl through hundreds of layers of stone walls. The black wind whistled and gathered behind him. He twisted his body in mid-air, his five fingers gripping a protruding rock corner. With a sway, he dissipated the remaining momentum of his fall and floated lightly into the shallow water at the bottom of the ravine.
The water only reached above the ankles.
The chill seeped straight into my bones from the soles of my boots, like fine needles piercing all the way up to my knees.
Huang Chen glanced down at the water, which was dark and covered with a thin layer of grayish-white oil. When he stepped on it, there was no splash, only a sticky "pop" sound, as if he had stepped on some kind of rotten flesh bubble.
Ahead was a stone path sloping inwards.
The stone path was half-submerged in black water, with towering stone walls on both sides, their surfaces covered with cracks and chisel marks from bygone eras. Some marks looked like knife cuts, others like sweeping strokes from a giant axe, and several deep pits had melted, curled edges, as if they had been forcibly burned out by some kind of high-temperature magic.
The air was filled with the smell of rust, salt, and the stench of old corpses; one breath made your throat taste bitter.
Huang Chen did not rush forward immediately.
He first raised his hand and formed a hand seal, slowly circulating the Ash Breath Convergence Technique. His chest heaved and gradually flattened, his qi and blood constricted to an almost deathly still state, even the dark golden light of the witch runes on his body disappeared. Then, he touched the shattered seal of the North Sea Mirage Palace in his sleeve.
The broken print was even hotter than before.
The heat was not intense, but steady, like a thin thread extending from the seal, pointing straight to the depths of the ancient road.
Huang Chen looked up following the resonance, his eyes narrowed slightly, and stepped into the black water, walking step by step.
The deeper you go, the quieter it becomes.
Later, even the sound of dripping water could no longer be heard, leaving only the faint sound of his boots rubbing against the stone surface. The stone path rounded a collapsed stone arch, and suddenly three corpses lay across the road, crookedly blocking the way, as if they had been carelessly thrown there.
Huang Chen stopped.
The first corpse was covered in dark blue scale armor, with coiled water snake patterns engraved on its shoulder armor, clearly belonging to a scout from the main branch of the Gonggong tribe.
His throat was slit, but there was not much blood in the wound. The edges of the skin were grayish and curly, as if they had been burned by poisonous fog.
The second figure wore a half-tattered Taoist robe with cloud patterns in the style of the Xuantian Sect's outer mountain on the chest, and his right hand was still tightly gripping a broken talisman.
His face was swollen from being soaked, his eyes bulged out, and a tiny hole appeared on his forehead, as if something like a needle had pierced through his sea of consciousness.
The third body was the most tragic.
Half of its body was torn apart, with bones exposed in the black water. A few translucent, seaweed-like things were wrapped around the ribs, but upon closer inspection, they were not seaweed, but rather hair-like black lines that slowly wriggled on the corpse.
Huang Chen squatted down, without drawing the Xuan Yin array flag, and simply picked up a strand of black thread with two fingers.
The moment that thing touched his fingertips, it snapped straight up, burrowing into his skin like a live snake.
Huang Chen didn't even lift his eyelids, and released a burst of pulse fire from his fingertips.
"laugh."
The black line immediately curled into a ball of ash, fell into the water, and emitted a foul-smelling white smoke.
"This is no ordinary water-related evil spirit."
He muttered something under his breath and looked around.
There were drag marks in the corner of the wall, and messy footprints in the water. One group went in, and another went out. The group that escaped stopped here, as if they had vanished into thin air.
On a nearby stone wall, half of an ancient character was carved.
狱。
Further down, the writing was shattered by something heavy.
Huang Chen reached out and touched the stone wall. It was icy cold.
Rough. When the palm touched it, a very faint muffled sound came from behind the wall, as if someone was dragging something heavy with chains in the distance.
Just as he was about to continue exploring, a soft laugh suddenly rang out from the darkness ahead.
"Huang Chen".
'
The sound was soft, with a damp, cold, and slippery quality, like a snake's tail slowly gliding through a crack in the rock.
"You came to this faster than I expected."
'
Huang Chen did not respond.
He stood up, his gaze falling on a section of broken bridge ahead.
The mist slowly gathered at the other end of the bridge, first the hem of a garment, then fingers, and then a pale, almost transparent face. The newcomer was tall and thin, wearing a long, gray-white robe with water-patterned patterns, the hem of the robe remaining dry. His face was covered by a half-covered blue mask, revealing only the lower half of his face, and his lips were a pale blue.
The strangest thing was his shadow.
Although there was no light on either side of the stone path, three overlapping shadows were cast under his feet, as if three people were walking close together.
The Fog Guest.
Huang Chen recognized that aura.
In the previous chapter, we only caught a glimpse of each other from afar, separated by chaotic shockwaves and the aftershocks of the shattered array. This time, however, we were colliding head-on. The opponent stood at the other end of the broken bridge, his entire being seemingly emerging from damp mist, even his breath carrying a faint, sweet, and metallic scent.
"You're leaving the crossroads to me, aren't you afraid I'll actually stumble upon the Mirage Water Palace?"
Huang Chen spoke, his voice flat.
The Fog Guest smiled, half of his face appearing and disappearing in the fog.
"Afraid?
'
"I'm more afraid that you'll die out there. If you die too young, there will be many things I won't be able to ask you."
As he spoke, he raised his hand and pointed to the several corpses on the ground.
"We tried to stop Gonggong and his bunch of good-for-nothings, and we also tried to stop those stray dogs from the Xuantian Sect. But we couldn't stop them either."
Isn't it strange? With your hot-blooded, reckless nature, wherever you go, chaos ensues.
Huang Chen glanced at him.
"You talk too much nonsense."
The Fog Guest wasn't annoyed; instead, he chuckled softly.
"You don't know yet, do you? Zhao Wuji has also set his sights on this ancient path. That old dog, following a wisp of flying sword energy, has already reached the outer edge of the main vein."
Between you and him, whoever reaches the Mirage Water Palace first will die first. The only difference is whether they die at my hands or at his hands.
'
When he mentioned the name "Zhao Wuji," his tone carried a hint of disgust, as if he were referring to something troublesome and dirty.
Huang Chen's eyes darkened slightly.
He was already familiar with the name Zhao Wuji. From Blazing Fire Ridge to the Sky-Hunting Flying Boat, and then to the ancestral mountain of the Xuantian Sect, that old man had been like a vicious dog that he couldn't shake off, relentlessly pursuing cause and effect and aura all the way to the present.
If the Fog Guest wasn't lying, this trip down the Water Prison Ancient Road was definitely not just a scheme by the Mirage Palace.
Just as the thought crossed his mind, the black water beneath the broken bridge suddenly churned.
It's not a joke.
It looked like something huge had opened its eyes underwater.
Huang Chen stepped forward and instantly retreated three zhang. The next instant, dark blue old patterns suddenly lit up on the stone walls on both sides of the broken bridge. The broken array lines seemed to be forcibly awakened and spread wildly along the walls. The water surface exploded with a "bang," and more than a dozen pale arms emerged from the black water at the same time.
There are people behind the arms.
It doesn't look like a human.
Those creatures were soaking and cracked, their skin and flesh embedded with rusted chains and copper nails. Their eye sockets were filled with black water, and when their mouths opened, instead of tongues, there were clumps of writhing, algae-like shadows. As soon as they crawled out of the water, the temperature on the ancient path plummeted, and even the stone walls were covered with a layer of sticky frost.
The water dungeon is haunted by evil spirits.
There are more than a dozen of them.
From the end of the black water, under the broken bridge, and through the gaps on both sides, they all began to crawl out. The chains dragged on the ground, making a grating metallic scraping sound, like a group of evil spirits that had been imprisoned for who knows how many years, finally smelling the blood of living people.
Huiwuke stood on the other side of the bridge, his sleeves fluttering lightly, like a spectator watching a play.
"Huang Chen, the Mirage Palace doesn't like to fight head-on."
'
"Using someone else to do the dirty work is much easier."
As the last word fell, the foremost ferocious spirit pounced on Huang Chen.
Half of its skull was shattered, black liquid gushed from its mouth, and its claws reached straight for its throat. Instead of retreating, Huang Chen advanced, throwing a punch that, the blade wrapped in condensed blood and qi, smashed the creature's chest apart.
"Bang!"
The upper body of the evil spirit exploded.
What exploded wasn't flesh and blood, but a large mass of cold, damp vapor. The vapor seemed alive, climbing up Huang Chen's arm and instantly causing a burning, cold, stinging sensation on his skin.
Huang Chen gave a low shout, and the Pulse Fire Battle Domain suddenly opened.
Crimson-gold fire patterns spread out from beneath their feet, forcibly pushing back the black water within a radius of several feet. The soul-binding yin energy that had accumulated for countless years in the ancient road was suppressed and vibrated wildly.
The three nearby ferocious spirits were roasted by the battle field, and their rusty chains turned red at the same time, emitting a mournful shriek.
Huang Chen raised his hand and grabbed one of the evil spirits by the neck.
It feels smooth to the touch and is icy cold.
The evil spirit struggled frantically, its ten fingers clawing wildly, sparking a string of sparks from the black and yellow armor.
Huang Chen didn't care at all. He twisted his waist and back, and used it as a heavy hammer to smash it hard against the stone door on the left.
boom!
The stone gate was smashed and developed large cracks.
The second time.
boom!
Uncontrollable screams came from behind the door, from both men and women, hoarse and panicked.
Huang Chen's eyes sharpened, and he smashed it again.
With the third blow, the entire stone door finally collapsed, and rubble mixed with foul water poured in.
Behind the door was a prison cell separated by black chains, where dozens of ragged human laborers, young and old, were huddled together. Their hands and feet were all bound by chains, and there were several empty wooden troughs at their feet, filled with the stench of sacrificial mud.
Some people had their foreheads scraped by pebbles, but they didn't dare to groan loudly; they just held their children tightly in their arms.
Some people stared blankly at the doorway, thinking that what rushed in wasn't a person, but another group of deadly creatures.
Huang Chen ripped the neck off the evil spirit in his hand, threw the mangled body into the water, and shouted in a low voice as he poured the water over the trough:
"Those who want to live, move closer!"
'
As soon as he finished speaking, the two evil spirits had already crawled into the broken doorway. Huang Chen stepped forward, drew his Asura Blood Blade, and with a dark red blade light that swept across the ground, he directly severed the two rotten heads.
The blade clanged as it slashed across the chains, the sound so loud it made several laborers' ears bleed.
The misty traveler clapped softly at the end of the broken bridge.
"Saving people, ending up in a place like this, that's really your problem."
"You ruined my plans at the Abyss Eye Sacrifice last time, and you still want to run away with this bunch of useless trash this time?"
'
Huang Chen didn't turn around. He raised his hand and flicked out a concealment talisman, sticking it to the inner wall of the prison cell. He then took out the outer ring control talisman of the altar and the mother talisman of the sacrificial field, using the residual array principles in the talismans to forcibly interfere with the surrounding soul-binding patterns. The two talismans were not from the same system, and when they were forcibly put together, they immediately buzzed and vibrated wildly, like two pieces of red-hot iron pressed together.
effective.
Within half a zhang of the prison cell, the ferocious spirit that pounced on them clearly paused.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Huang Chen shattered the outermost chains and said to a gaunt, middle-aged laborer inside:
"Those who can stand, help those who can't, and run out along the passageway behind the door. When you see a fork in the road, stick to the left and don't look back."
'
The middle-aged laborer's lips trembled twice before he finally managed to squeeze out a sound.
"There are ghosts outside... there are ghosts outside."
'
"run."
Huang Chen only uttered one word.
The sound seemed to strike the heads of everyone. The middle-aged laborer shuddered violently, rushed over and dragged the woman next to him up, and the people behind him seemed to be awakened by the heat, their chains dragging on the ground as they stumbled and pushed their way out.
Some people couldn't walk, so they were carried and pulled by those around them, and the stone path immediately became chaotic.
It was at this moment that the Misty Guest made his move.
Three shadows simultaneously dispersed beneath his feet: one remained in place, one clung to the bridge to the left, and one moved to the right along the stone wall. Huang Chen caught a glimpse of them out of the corner of his eye, and his bloodlust senses instantly ignited, a chill running down his spine.
He almost instinctively turned to the side, a wisp of grayish-white mist brushed past his ear, and behind him, the stone wall silently collapsed, revealing a fist-sized hole.
Around the cave entrance, all the stones turned into black water.
"The false body of cause and effect."
The word flashed through Huang Chen's mind.
This is not a simple illusion. At least one of the three shadows is real, and they may even all carry deadly power.
The Fog Walker doesn't rely on overwhelming people head-on; instead, he drags them into misjudgments and slowly erodes their lives.
"The response is good."
'
The shadow on the right-hand stone wall spoke.
The next moment, the shadow on the left side of the bridge suddenly raised its hand, and more than a dozen wisps of mist shot out.
Huang Chen swung his sword horizontally, slicing through seven or eight strands. The remaining strands suddenly disappeared halfway through, and when they reappeared, they were already stuck to his chest.
Huang Chen raised his palm and clapped.
The pulse fire burst forth, shattering the mist needles.
But within the exploding gray mist was a thin, black thorn, like a hairpin, piercing straight between the eyebrows.
Huang Chen's pupils contracted, and his Mountain and River Boots slammed into the ground, sending him sliding backward about ten feet. The black thorn grazed his forehead, leaving a trail of blood, before embedding itself with a thud into the prison cell doorpost behind him.
The stone pillar turned black and rotted in the blink of an eye, crumbling into a patch of wet mud.
The poison is ruthless.
Huang Chen wiped his forehead; the blood on his fingertip, which had just begun to darken, was instantly evaporated by the qi and blood within his body. He looked up and suddenly smiled.
Huiwu Ke's eyebrows twitched.
The fire battle domain beneath Huang Chen's feet suddenly contracted, no longer releasing pressure outwards, but instead condensing into a single point and blasting into the ancient array patterns on the ground.
The remnant formation, which had been propelled by the power of the Misty Guest, was thrown off balance by the raging fire vein, and several broken pillars on the side of the bridge simultaneously lit up with a blinding blue light.
The next instant, Huang Chen grabbed the broken half of the chain from the ground and hurled it fiercely at the shadow on the left.
The chains were thrown, accompanied by a sharp whistling sound.
The shadow neither flinched nor dodged, letting the chain pierce its chest.
fake.
But just as the chains passed through, Huang Chen used that moment as cover to lunge at the right-hand stone wall. Instead of attacking people, the Asura Blood Blade struck the wall first.
The blade cleaved diagonally, and the outer layer of the wall collapsed with a roar, revealing a thin, almost invisible mirage membrane underneath.
Behind the membrane, a hand is forming a mudra.
Huang Chen raised his foot and kicked.
"Bang!
'
The mist membrane shattered, sending the Venomous Fogman flying backward. His back slammed into the broken bridge railing, and he coughed up a mouthful of black blood. The half of his blue mask also cracked, revealing a thin, long scale pattern on his left cheek, a mix of blue and black, like a snake's molted skin that hadn't completely shed.
The Fog Walker looked down at the footprints on his chest and laughed even harder.
"No wonder the Mirage Lord mentioned you."
'
"People like you are just too stubborn to survive."
Huang Chen drew his sword and approached, but suddenly his footing sank.
He looked down and saw countless white faces rising from the dark water, all with open eyes, biting his shadow from below. They weren't biting his feet, they were biting his shadow.
Once the shadow was dragged down, the body's movements slowed down by half a beat.
Taking advantage of this moment, the Misty Traveler flipped his five fingers, and a series of "click-clack" sounds echoed at the end of the ancient road.
A massive, shimmering water curtain descended from the dome, completely obscuring the area behind the broken bridge. Within the curtain, the outline of a palace submerged in black water could be vaguely seen, its eaves long and pointed, its gate tower crooked, resembling a colossal beast lying at the bottom of the water.
The mirage hides in the water.
Only a corner was visible before it quickly blurred out.
The Misty Traveler took a half step back, disappearing completely behind the illusionary veil. Just before vanishing, he raised his hand and pointed at Huang Chen, his tone as if he were looking at prey whose name had already been noted.
"Remember that."
"The Mirage Palace has its eye on you."
'
"If that old dog Zhao Wuji comes first, I'll watch you two bite each other. If you barge in first, I'll skin you alive, rip out your soul, and feed it to that mirage body."
'
Before the words had even faded, the other person had vanished.
Outside the illusion, only a vast expanse of swirling fog remained.
Huang Chen's expression darkened, and his pulse fire surged down, burning the shadow-biting ghost faces beneath his feet until they screamed and rolled. Taking advantage of the loosening of the restraints, he slammed his fist into the first illusion array node in front of the broken bridge.
boom!
The entire ancient road trembled.
Spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the surface of the illusion array, and blue and white fragments of light scattered wildly. The black water under the bridge was blasted into the air by the shock. Several water prison spirits that did not have time to retreat were instantly swept back by the force of the array, their bodies twisted into pretzel shapes, and they crashed back against the stone wall with muffled "plop" sounds.
Huang Chen didn't stop; he struck again.
The Asura Blood Blade, imbued with pulse fire, slashed into the deepest part of the crack, and the first layer of the illusion array finally could not withstand it and exploded with a bang.
Mist swirled and scattered, revealing a deeper and narrower ancient path behind the broken bridge, along with the faint sound of the tide in the distance.
But the Fogman had vanished without a trace.
Only a pool of undried black blood remained on the ground, with half a shed thin scale floating in it, which felt cold and soft to the touch and was trembling slightly.
Suddenly, a jumble of cries and shouts came from behind.
Huang Chen turned around and saw that not all the laborers who had escaped had managed to get away. About a dozen of them were trapped by the landslide on the other side, huddled behind a corner, trembling. Two teenagers were dragging an old man with a broken leg, but they couldn't move him no matter what they did. When they saw Huang Chen looking over, their faces turned completely pale.
Huang Chen sheathed his sword, quickly turned back, and with a single palm strike, cleared away the rubble blocking his path.
"go out.
'
The old man with the broken leg had a hoarse voice, as if it were a rag doll.
"Hmm... my benefactor, there are still people inside. There's someone locked behind the second stone door..."
Huang Chen paused for a moment, then turned to look deeper into the ancient road.
The black water flowed slowly inward along the broken illusion array, like a silent opening. In the far distance, something gently tapped the surface of the water from a great distance away.
thump.
The remaining people in the cell trembled at the sound.
Huang Chen bent down and hoisted the old man onto his shoulder, then nodded to the two teenagers.
"lead the way.
'
After he finished speaking, he stepped over the rubble and the mangled remains of the evil spirits and walked quickly toward the other side to lock the door.
The black water sloshed gently at my feet.