829 Bottom of the Abyss

Whoosh—

They fell faster and faster.

Zhang Ruochen gritted his teeth and immediately activated the power of the dragon pearl. Golden dragon wings unfurled on his back. He used these wings to decelerate while falling.

The further he fell, the greater the weight Zhang Ruochen had to withstand. Soon, even the dragon wings weren't very effective.

Plus, the space in the lower part of the abyss was even weaker. Every few meters would have one or two huge spatial cracks. Anyone who fell in would meet definite death.

There were many instances where Zhang Ruochen almost fell into the bottomless void.

"Haha! Zhang Ruochen, let's die together!"

Feng Han was below Zhang Ruochen. His bloody face was twisted into a menacing laugh.

"Even if we die, you must die before me." Zhang Ruochen's eyes were cold.

The next moment, he cast the Dragon and Elephant Prajna Palm. A dragon and elephant's roars sounded inside him. Shadows of the animals surged out of his arms. They formed palm prints that kept hitting downward.

Boom, boom.

Seventeen palm prints consecutively landed on Feng Han.

Even with the Hundred Beast Tripod blocking it for him, blood still flowed out of Feng Han's lips. Dozens of bloody veins appeared on his chest as if it was about to shatter.

Just as Zhang Ruochen was about to attack with his 18th palm, the dark ground appeared behind Feng Han. They were at the end of the abyss.

"Haha! Master, your favorite disciple is going to die as well! He can't inherit your role. He won't become a Sword Saint!"

Feng Han laughed even louder. Even if he was going to die here, Zhang Ruochen would accompany him. But under Feng Han's shocked eyes, Zhang Ruochen took out the Universe Spiritual Map. He opened a spatial door and jumped into the scroll world.

As soon as the spatial door closed, the Universe Spiritual Map landed on the ground.

"No…" Feng Han roared.

He landed on the ground and shattered the hard rock. Of course, his strong Half-Saint body also turned into a mangled mess. Only the silver skeleton remained. It became embedded in the ground.

If it was only an abyss, even the highest heights wouldn't have been able to kill a Half-Saint. However, the downward force and the Monk's own gravity put together meant that the Half-Saint's full power would hit himself when he reached the ground. Even a defensive treasure couldn't help him.

The next moment, Zhang Ruochen walked out of the scroll world and landed on the ground. He took the Universe Spiritual Map out of the crater and brushed off the dust with his hand.

The scroll was undamaged.

"Unfortunately, I haven't comprehended spatial rules yet. Otherwise, I wouldn't have needed the Universe Spiritual Map to save me."

Zhang Ruochen put the Universe Spiritual Map back into his Sea of Qi, feeling grateful. No matter what, staying alive was still the luckiest thing.

Zhang Ruochen raised his head, looking up the cliff. He could see that various spatial cracks above him. The cracks opened and closed randomly. They were very unstable.

With his current cultivation, he could only jump 900 feet upward. When he landed, his legs sank into the ground. It was like his body was about to fall apart.

I wonder if Senior Sister Duanmu has returned to the top.

Zhang Ruochen calculated it in his mind. If nothing unexpected happened, it would take months to climb up the cliff. It was also filled with danger and the probability of nothing unexpected happening was too low.

In other words, it was practically impossible for Zhang Ruochen to return to the top with his current cultivation. This would make most people hopeless. But Zhang Ruochen was open-minded. He just shook his head and looked to the ground.

There were dozens of ditches on the ground. Each one had a skeleton in it. Most of them were human skeletons, but there were beastly bones too. Zhang Ruochen could even find broken silver ropes and chains at the edge of some of the ditches.

Evidently, they'd come to find the Pill of Resurrection and god's corpse as well. They'd wanted to reach the bottom of the abyss, but something had happened, making them fall to their deaths.

What terrifying thing had happened to them? What kind of dangers were there on the cliff?

There were some complete skeletons on the ground. The weakest ones were Monks in the Ninth Change of the Fish-Dragon Realm with the Liuli Treasure Body. Some were even Half-Saints. They had definitely been powerful figures in Kunlun's Field.

The rumor about the Pill of Resurrection has killed so many people. Who can the mastermind be? No…

Zhang Ruochen suddenly discovered something. He looked to the ditch again.

How come they're all skeletons? Where is their flesh? Are there living creatures here?

Zhang Ruochen put up his guard. He cast both his Space Domain and Spiritual Power, just in case.

At that moment, he felt a pair of eyes staring at him through the darkness.

"Who is it?"

Zhang Ruochen pointed. A sword ripple burst from his finger like a pillar of fire, shooting into the direction of the eyes he felt. But as soon as the sword ripple burst out, it was shattered by the fragile space.

Zhang Ruochen had to collect his power and retreat hurriedly. Then he pursued even more quickly and disappeared into the darkness.

Not too long later, the ghostly fog above the abyss shook. A huge shadow of a phoenix descended. A few hundred feet from the ground, it transformed into a beautiful figure—it was Mu Lingxi's delicate frame.

The beautiful phoenix wings disintegrated into bits of light and flew into her back.

Mu Lingxi first looked around. She walked to the edge of a crater and saw that it was filled with blood and mangled flesh. The blood hadn't dried yet. It radiated with slight heat.

Her legs wobbled and she fell to her knees. Mu Lingxi felt pain in her chest as if knives were turning inside her heart.

"Why…why…why do I have to experience this…pain twice…." she sobbed.

Mu Lingxi pressed her hands onto the ground, her fingers digging into the rocks. She pressed her porcelain face, streaked with tears, against the dirt. The horrible sadness surged within her.

This pain made her want to die.

If she'd known this would happen, she wouldn't have done something as stupid as jumping off the cliff. If Zhang Ruochen didn't try to save her, he wouldn't have died with Feng Han.

"It's all my fault…it's me… I killed you…I'm sorry…"

Entirely in a mess, Mu Lingxi sprawled out on the ground. Tears flowed out of her eyes and she gasped for breath. Her eyes grew dull. "Since you've died, my life has no more meaning."

She pushed off the ground and sat up. Taking out the Abyss Ancient Sword, she was about to stab herself. But when she raised her head, she saw a handsome figure across from the ditch. He was staring at her curiously.

It was none other than Zhang Ruchen.

Mu Lingxi froze as if fossilized. The sword stopped abruptly in the air.

Pursing his lips, Zhang Ruochen asked, "Senior Sister Duanmu, what are you doing?"

Fat drops of tears rolled out of Mu Lingxi's eyes. She tossed down the Abyss Ancient Sword and rushed forward, throwing herself into Zhang Ruochen's arms.

Zhang Ruochen looked at the Abyss Ancient Sword and then at the bloody dirt. He guessed what had happened; complicated feelings arose inside him.

He closed his eyes and lowered his head slightly. Breathing in at Mu Lingxi's neck, he reached out and hugged her tightly. Mu Lingxi abruptly raised her head. Her soft lips pressed against Zhang Ruochen's.

After a long kiss, they separated. Mu Lingxi breathed heavily and clenched her fists. Pounding against Zhang Ruochen's chest with her soft hands, she asked pitifully, "Where did you go? I thought…"

"I ran into something strange, so I went to investigate, but it was too fast. I couldn't catch it." Zhang Ruochen caressed Mu Lingxi's cheeks and sighed. "Don't do anything stupid again. If I had come back a bit later…I can't imagine what would have happened."

"Okay." Mu Lingxi batted her lashes and giggled. "I won't do anything stupid as long as you're alive."

Zhang Ruochen made a soft sound as he stared at the point between Mu Lingxi's eyebrows. There was a blood-red mark of a phoenix. It was small, but it was extremely vibrant and surged with saintly energy waves.

It was only a mark, but it seemed that it could come to life at any moment.

Mu Lingxi must have felt something too. She touched the spot and thought about how she'd suddenly turned into a phoenix earlier.

She immediately took her Spiritual Energy back into her and started investigating.

Holy Qi had formed a phoenix shape inside her Sea of Qi. It flapped its wings as if it was alive and made low sounds.

"Did I activate the Phoenix bloodline within me?"

Mu Lingxi didn't know everything that had happened. Thankfully, she could use the meridian map of the Vast Universe Gong and control the movement of her Holy Qi.

Whoosh—

A pair of icy wings rushed out of her. The wingspan was more than ten meters long and the feathers were beautiful, shining with many colors. The rule of wind, speed, ice… hundreds of Rules of Saintly Way flowed through the two wings.

Mu Lingxi seemed extremely divine. Her porcelain-like skin shone with faint saintly light. It was as if she was a phoenix goddess that could fly into the sky at any moment and disappear.

Her phoenix wings were real; they weren't illusory things made of Holy Qi.

Zhang Ruochen couldn't believe this. "Is the Mu Family a Phoenix-Human Clan?"