Chapter 359 - The Devil on the Ninth Floor (Part 1)

The aura, overwhelming as it was, vanished in a split second. For some reason, Xiao Chen had the feeling that the strong aura wasn’t that terrifying anymore. It was an inexplicable feeling.

“Koo-chee! Koo-chee!” The Koo-chee beast continued to shake its head as if it had, too, detected the terrifying and powerful existence deep under the ground.

Xiao Chen nodded. Without his cultivation, he couldn’t move on boldly anymore. So he followed the Koo-chee beast back to the first floor above the surface. Once he was back up there, he immediately felt much more relaxed.

He put the shrub outside the straw shed. Laughing, he said, “Alright, Brother Koo-chee. I’ve got the fruits for you.” He looked around and said in alarm, “Oh no! Where did I put my sword?!”

“Koo-chee! Koo-chee!” The Koo-chee beast shook its head incessantly, indicating him not to go down anymore. Xiao Chen smiled wryly. “Oh, alright. We’ll get it next time.” He sat on a slab and started picking out the thorns in his right palm.

The Koo-chee beast kept running around the shrub, making Xiao Chen chuckle. He plucked one of the fruits and found it to be as light as a feather. It felt empty in his hand. He noted the fruit was the size of a walnut and had an incredibly tough exterior, but didn’t know what the flesh inside was like. With a smile, he handed it to the Koo-chee beast. “Here you go.”

“Koo-chee, Koo-chee!” The Koo-chee beast shook its head.

“You don’t want it?”

“Koo-chee, Koo-chee!” The beast nodded.

Xiao Chen forced a smile. “After I spent so much effort getting it, you tell me you don’t want it anymore. Brother Koo-chee, are you pulling a prank on me?”

“Koo-chee, Koo-chee!” The Koo-chee beast shook its head. It pointed to Xiao Chen and then to its mouth.

Xiao Chen pointed to himself. “You want me to eat this?”

“Koo-chee! Koo-chee, Koo-chee!” The Koo-chee beast repeatedly nodded as if it was overjoyed.

Xiao Chen observed the golden fruit. Well, it didn’t matter if this was poisonous. He was substantially handicapped, anyway. “Alright. I’ll accept your kindness, Brother Koo-chee.” He popped the fruit in his mouth and took a hard bite. Bitter juice immediately coated his mouth. It was as if he had bitten a snake gall. The taste itself was quite indescribable.

“Koo-chee!” When the Koo-chee beast saw him spitting it out the fruit, it immediately threw itself at him and forcefully covered his mouth.

“I’m eating it. I’m eating it, alright! Brother Koo-chee, stop pushing me! I’m going to… choke!”

Tears brimming in his eyes, Xiao Chen swallowed the whole fruit along with its flesh and juice. His stomach instantly churned. This thing was a hundredfold more bitter than snake galls. All he wanted now was a bowl of freshwater to wash the taste away.

“Koo-chee!” the Koo-chee beast cried out. It then plucked off another fruit and brought it to him. Xiao Chen shook his hand with a wry smile. “No more, no more. I’d rather die.”

“Koo-chee! Koo… Koo-chee! Koo-chee!” The Koo-chee beast widened its eyes as if it was furious.

Xiao Chen forced a smile. Even though this Koo-chee beast couldn’t speak, it was much more spirited than a human. He chose to accept its intentions and said, “Oh, alright then. I’ll eat just this one more.”

This fruit was too big to be swallowed whole. After he managed to eat one, he felt like retching. The joyful Koo-chee beast plucked off yet another fruit and presented it to him. Xiao Chen couldn’t help smiling bitterly. He stared at the shrub and saw that there were nine more of the same fruits. With a wry smile, he said, “Brother Koo-chee, don’t tell me you want me to eat all twelve fruits.”

“Koo-chee! Koo-chee! Koo-chee!” The Koo-chee beast repeatedly nodded, obviously happy. Xiao Chen forced a smile and took the fruit from its hand. His eyes were filled with tears by the time he finished eating this one. He couldn’t help retching, but all he could vomit was some gastric fluid.

“No more… I really can’t eat anymore.” Xiao Chen held onto the slab of stone and shook his hand with difficulty. He could feel all strength leaving his body.

Moments later, he suddenly felt physically and mentally refreshed. He tried circulating his energy and immediately felt his breathing becoming incomparably smooth. Even his Divine Sense had become much clearer. He stood up, feeling like he had an endless supply of force in his body. He thrust his palm, and a storm immediately followed. With a resounding thump, he crushed a large boulder nearly thirty feet away.

The sudden noise gave the faraway group of demons a fright. All of them looked around. When they saw it was Xiao Chen circulating his energy, their necks immediately shrunk, and they started hiding behind stones.

Xiao Chen stared at his palms. He was so agitated that his body was trembling. He could feel vividly that his cultivation had returned to the Foundation Building Realm. He was back at the Foundation Building Realm! In this past year, he had considered countless ways of restoring his cultivation but had only ever met failure. He never thought that this fruit would have such an effect.

“Koo-chee! Koo-chee!” The Koo-chee beast plucked off the remaining nine fruits from the shrub and presented it to him.

“Yes!” Xiao Chen nodded firmly. Even if these fruits were a hundred times more bitter, he would swallow them all as long as he could restore his cultivation.

After eating all nine fruits in a row, his stomach threatened to rot and hurt. But when he considered how he would soon regain his cultivation, this bit of suffering was nothing!

Suddenly, a burning-hot sensation filled his entire body as if he had dipped himself in Laozi’s Eight Divinatory Trigram Cauldron. His skin turned red from all the burning, and red glow flickered on his face. He could see all the arteries and veins under his skin.

“Argh!”

Xiao Chen yelled, clutching his head. He frightened the group of demons so much that they scrambled to hide. The Koo-chee beast kept running circles around him. “Koo-chee! Koo-chee!” it cried in apparent worry.

“Brother Koo-chee! Leave now! I don’t want to hurt you… Leave now!” Xiao Chen said before once again letting out a howl. A great force emerged from him, hitting the straw shed that he built more than half a year ago so hard that it turned into dust.

“Arghhhhh—” Xiao Chen held his head as if he was in tremendous pain. He felt like his body was about to explode when a fierce power suddenly rose from within him. It quaked the entire space, alarming the old monsters imprisoned on the few floors above. Countless monsters, deep in their slumber, slowly awakened after sensing his strong power.

Finally, Xiao Chen could no longer withstand the violent force surging within him and fainted. He didn’t know how much time had passed by the time he woke up again. All he could feel was dampness and warmth on his face. When he opened his eyes, he saw the Koo-chee beast licking his face.

“Brother Koo-chee…”

“Koo-chee! Koo-chee!” The Koo-chee beast appeared thrilled to see him awake and started running circles around him.

Xiao Chen sat up and tried circulating his energy. To his surprise, not only did his cultivation had returned to the Nascent Soul Realm, but it was even a level higher. Even his Divine Sense had become much clearer. He suddenly recalled what the Apostate of Heaven XVII, Great Devil Heaven’s Bane said. Dying was for the sake of reaching nirvana. Only when one died once, could one genuinely enter the Nirvana Realm and forever break away from the life-and-death restrictions of the Natural Law.

Could he… Could he have genuinely entered the Nirvana Realm?!

The thought was fleeting because, in the next second, the entire Devil Repressing Tower began to shake violently. He felt like he could hear a terrifying voice coming from deep within the ground. “Devil? Inner Demon? Whence come the Immortals, Demons, Buddhas, and Devils?!”

The quaking worsened, and space threatened to collapse. Overhead, quite a few crushed stones were beginning to fall. The group of demons was so frightened that they scrambled to run, all looking for a refuge. Xiao Chen stretched his hand, pulled the Koo-chee beast into his embrace, and shrouded it with a gentle power. He then put up a Barrier of True Energy above his head to protect himself from the stones.

Shortly after, he heard a wizened voice sighing outside. “The heart is born with all kinds of devils. When the heart dies, all kinds of devils perish too. Why bother clinging onto your obsession?” The moment the voice resounded, tranquility fell on the space and ended the quaking. The voice underground vanished along with it.

It took a long while before Xiao Chen recovered his senses. He gently put down the Koo-chee beast. There were as many experts in this world as there were clouds in the sky, he thought. The mysterious existence underground and the old monk speaking earlier were likely incredibly powerful cultivators that shouldn’t remain in the Human World.

But the existence of such a terrifying old monk at Wuyin Monastery also meant that it would be even harder for him to leave this tower.

For some reason, he had an inexplicable feeling about the faint voice from deep underground. He looked in the direction of the Barrier opening. He wanted to go down there and take a look at himself.

“Koo-chee, Koo-chee!” The Koo-chee beast kept shaking its head and ran up to Xiao Chen with his sword. “Koo-chee! Koo-chee, Koo-chee!”

Xiao Chen chuckled. So the Koo-chee beast had gone down to the sixth floor to recover his sword while he was unconscious. He laughed and said, “Thank you, Brother Koo-chee.” However, he was determined to go down there and take a look.

“Koo-chee! Boohoo… Koo-chee! Koo-chee!” The beast continued to shake its head. It was beginning to get angry.

Xiao Chen squatted down and chuckled. “Relax, Brother Koo-chee. My cultivation is back. I’ll be fine. Why don’t I wait a few more days before going down?”

“Koo-chee…” The Koo-chee beast contemplated this for a long while before nodding.

The next few days saw Xiao Chen interrogating the Siberian weasel demon about the kind of demons and monsters being imprisoned on the floors above. The weasel demon was so frightened by his cultivation that he shivered all over. He slapped himself on the face and cried, “It’s this lowly demon’s fault for not recognizing your greatness. Please forgive me for offending you before, Great Immortal…”

“Spare me the nonsense. I’m asking you a question. What kind of demons and monsters are imprisoned above?”

Seeing that Xiao Chen appeared to have let him off, the Siberian weasel demon whispered, “Great Immortal Xiao, those demons and monsters up there are simply formidable. On the eighth floor is a thousand-year-old Tree Demon, on the ninth is the Old Demon of the Black Mountain.”

Xiao Chen fell silent while Koo-chee beast ran circles around him. When the Siberian weasel demon saw the creature, he bowed with his hands in front of him and said with a laugh, “It’s this lowly demon’s fault for not recognizing your greatness. Please forgive me for offending you before, Great Pig Immortal…”

“Koo-chee! Koo… Koo-chee! Koo-chee!” The Koo-chee beast appeared furious.

Xiao Chen glanced at the group of trembling demons behind the weasel demon and said loudly, ‘I’ll find a way to split open the mystic domain here in a few days. When you get out, you cannot harm people, understand?”

The group of demons was elated when they saw that not only was he not killing them, but he was also letting them out. They immediately replied, “Understand! Understand! We won’t ever trouble people again!”

Xiao Chen turned around and returned to his spot. Before leaving, he said coldly, “If you want to trouble, trouble those so-called Orthodox sects and families!”

Back under the stone wall, Xiao Chen began falling asleep after six hours. He couldn’t when it was day or night here, nor could he determine if he was dreaming or if his Divine Sense was dissociating from him. Before he knew it, he was already at the ninth floor of hell: the Avici level.

He saw a cyan-robed prisoner with hair hanging over his face, making it impossible for Xiao Chen to see his face. There appeared to be a sea of Asura evil spirits surrounding him. However, Xiao Chen was unafraid and slowly made his way over to him.

“Don’t come here! Don’t come here even if it’s a dream! Your soul will disintegrate! Leave this place! Leave this place…”

The man’s warning suddenly woke Xiao Chen from his dream. When he regained consciousness, he found himself covered in cold sweat. That dream was so vivid that he felt that he was there. Moreover, he continued to have an inexplicable feeling about the man that he saw.

He made up his mind: today, he must personally go down there and check things out!