Chapter 1105 Giant under the Giant Tree
The disappearance of the anonymous Quasi-emperor and the incident that drove the eight prodigies insane must have been connected to this place. If even a Quasi-emperor had fallen here, great danger must have been present in this dimension.
Ye Qingyu did not dare to let his guard down.
He saw many skeletons wandering aimlessly along his way. They were like harmless sheep and were not offensive threats.
Aside from the herds of skeletons, he saw shadows drifting in the air like mist in another area. They looked like wandering souls, and their gaseous, vapor-like bodies were very thinly formed. It looked as though a single gust of wind would blow their bodies into bits…
No, the spirits of powerful martial artists are not like ghosts. They are already very faint and insentient, as if they had forgotten everything about their past life. They exist in a very strange condition, and they would most likely be unable to exist in the world of the living, much less sustain a gust of wind!
Ye Qingyu felt that it was extremely strange.
Further away, on the horizon, he could see something changing to a bright red color.
He walked about five hundred meters to where he spotted the change in color.
There were flowers.
Bright red flowers.
They were planted close to each other and there were so many of them that it looked like a sea of red to Ye Qingyu. They spread out so far that he could not see where they ended, and they seemed like a firestorm that was raging on quietly but giving off a cold and deathly aura that pervaded the air.
Upon careful examination, he realized that there were no leaves, only flowers on the stems of the plants. The bare stalks and bright-red flower petals made them look extremely bizarre.
"These are… Hurricane Lilies!"
Love is fleeting and ill-fated. A couple might be willing to take the next step forward at different periods of their lives, but our lives will always end in death. A lifetime of memories is no match for Meng Po's mind-erasing soup.
Legend had it that bright-red Hurricane Lilies would line the path to the Underworld. It took one millennium for them to bloom and another millennium for their leaves to wilt. The flower petals and leaves would never grow together and never meet. It symbolized the life and death of all living beings; neither cycle would ever intersect with the other. Ye Qingyu had once read ancient texts from the time where gods and demons roamed. There were some records about the Underworld in them, but they were incomplete. The great powers during that era did not believe in the existence of the Underworld as well. They thought that it was a place dreamed up by scholars and that it could not possibly exist.
During that ancient era, the terms "gods" and "demons" was merely used to describe more powerful beings in the world. They were all living beings, and there were no Death Gods in the world then. Even if there were, they were just people who had been nicknamed as such and were remembered as a "god" or a "demon" by future generations. Take Ye Qingyu's moniker as the Killing God for example. Perhaps, in times to come, people would classify him as a "god" or a "demon", but it most definitely did not mean that he was truly a deity or a demon.
This was the belief held by Ye Qingyu all this while.
Now, however, he had arrived in this mysterious land, and he felt extremely emotional upon seeing so many legends proven to be true.
However, he still did not believe that he was in the real Underworld.
Death is like a flame extinguished. It just symbolizes the expiration of one's life-energy and that one's body had stopped working. One's corpse would then turn into ash over time, so what was the point of becoming a ghost?
If people turn into ghosts after death, why haven't we been seeing them forever? Do they really become reincarnated?
Ye Qingyu thought as he continued advancing. He stepped on the Hurricane Lilies with no fear.
He was a living being and unafraid of ghosts or spirits. Even if he was walking on the so-called path of Hurricane Lilies which led to the Underworld, so what?
He continued walking for one hour and lost track of how far he had traveled.
A huge, silent and still river was blocking his path.
"This river is very similar to that one in the Reincarnation Hall of the Chaos Demon Emperor," Ye Qingyu said after observing. It was filled with rapid currents and capable of sinking even a goose feather. Upon closer examination, he realized that the water was reddish-yellow, and there seemed to be something floating inside it. There were so many of the things that it was an alarming sight to behold.
Is this the River of Forgetfulness?
The legends of the time of Gods and Demons spoke of the River of Forgetfulness. After death, spirits would pass by Ghost Pass, the Path to Hell, and then the river itself. After that, they were considered to have stepped into the actual Underworld.
Ye Qingyu grinned.
"There is no Underworld. Everything here checks out with the legends of the God and Demon Age, but the more they are alike, the more suspicious I am. The legends say that anyone who crosses the River of Forgetfulness will forget everything about their past life and become a wandering soul in the Underworld. I want to see if that's true!"
With his current level of cultivation and battle prowess, Ye Qingyu was completely unafraid of all these things.
He strode up quickly and stepped onto the surface of the river. His feet seemed to be rooted and he could not land. The surface of the river bubbled and rippled, as if it was boiling. Figures who looked like water ghosts rose out of the river. There were ranks of them, and they reached their claws out and swiped at Ye Qingyu.
"Scram!"
Ye Qingyu shouted.
Instantly, countless "water ghosts" were blown away.
He walked on the surface of the river, as majestic as a divine king who was walking into the Underworld. Sheer light emanated from his body and an icy aura surrounded him. Each step he took caused the river water in a thousand-meter radius to freeze up. No more "water ghosts" dared to drag him down into the water, and they kept away at a safe distance.
Two hours later, he crossed the River of Forgetfulness.
Eight shadows stood on the opposite end of the river.
"You've committed a grave sin by forcibly entering the Underworld as a living being. Kneel down and repent now!" One of the shadows spoke up. Its voice was as loud as rumbling thunder and carried a divine authority with it, as if it were speaking on behalf of Heaven and earth.
Ye Qingyu looked calm as he stepped onto shore.
"So, it's the eight of them."
As he expected, the eight figures were the eight prodigies in the legends circulating around Heaven Connect City who had been driven insane after the weird incident in [Guanlan Mountain Manor]. They included the shadow of the Inugami and the voice of the Molo he saw earlier in the main hall of the manor.
The present condition they were currently in was a little strange.
This led Ye Qingyu to recall certain incidents in the ancestral tomb of the Dragon Humans. The aura of the eight prodigies was similar to some auras left behind in the tomb, and they were neither alive nor dead.
"Receive your punishment, sinner."
The shadow of the Molo prodigy flickered and the long black spear in his hand shot toward Ye Qingyu at lightning speed.
Ye Qingyu blocked it with his sword.
Clink!
Sparks flew.
The shadow of the Molo prodigy was extremely strong, even a few more times stronger than the shadow who wielded a black saber that he had fought earlier in the main hall of [Guanlan Mountain Manor]. He was utilizing the magical abilities of martial arts that was unique to the Molos.
At the same time, the shadows of the other seven prodigies moved and surrounded Ye Qingyu.
A battle erupted.
Ye Qingyu tried to observe their physical conditions as he fought with them. They looked strange, as did their powers. Undeniably, the battle prowess that they were displaying now was many times stronger than that described in the legends.
Ye Qingyu used the maximum power of the Divine Emperor sword will, but he still could not suppress them. He was barely managing to keep up with them.
In the legends, the eight prodigies were all driven insane but survived their ordeal. They should still be with their respective clans and be cared for by their loved ones. Why are shadows that look like them present here, and why are they so powerful?
Ye Qingyu thought as he continued fighting.
The prodigies instantly retreated when Ye Qingyu began to channel the power of the [Life Sword Mantra]. They kept retreating as the sword energy amplified while screeching, as if they were extremely afraid of it.
Ye Qingyu did not kill them outright.
After defeating all of the eight prodigies, he continued advancing deeper into this realm that seemed like the Underworld. He dashed forward like a bolt of lightning and cut through the dark void.
The shadows of the eight prodigies followed behind him, but did not dare come too close to him.
After a while, Ye Qingyu stopped.
That was because he had caught sight of a wizened tree. The span of its branches was extremely huge, stretching out with a radius of about a few hundred meters. It seemed to shoot up high into the heavens, but it did not look too healthy. Only numerous dried-up and wrinkled-looking branches were left on it, and Ye Qingyu could imagine how wondrous it must have looked in its prime. Now, however, the branches were barren and it looked like the corpse of an ancient tree. It looked very bizarre. It was extremely tall and huge but was left with only branches and had turned into a fossil-like object.
There was still a little green to be spotted at the very core where its branches stemmed from, and there seemed to be a faint lifef orce circling around there.
Piles of yellowed leaves could be seen beneath the tree.
Ye Qingyu could not tell its type just by looking at it.
He instantly recalled the ancient parasol tree that grew on the mountain ridge at the center of the 18th district of the Black Demon Abyss. Likewise, it looked as if it was about to dry up, but in terms of size and amount of branches, the parasol tree was not even 1/10th that of this giant tree that stood before him now.
It was the first time he had seen such a huge tree.
Is this a mutant species from the God and Demon Age?
Or perhaps, this tree has some connection to this mysterious dimension?
There was a strange feeling in his heart.
He slowed down and walked carefully up to the tree.
Gradually, Ye Qingyu could feel a strange ripple of life.
This was the first time since entering this weird dimension that he had sensed the presence of a life force. He was shocked and slowed down even more. He released a little of his divine sense to observe his surroundings. Shortly after, he had some findings.
"This…"
He was instantly shocked by the information gathered by his divine sense.
He walked forward and went over to the trunk of the giant tree.
He could see a human sitting cross-legged on the ground. His size was as huge as the legendary giants, and his eyes were gently shut, while his palms were closed together and placed before his chest. His expression looked as gentle as that of a respectable monk. The tree was actually growing within his body, and its trunk was growing out from his neck. Countless entangled roots were growing in his body and had pierced through his chest, abdomen, and limbs, and they were absorbing the energy within him.
The scene was simply too bizarre and shocking to behold.
It seemed like the giant had been subjected to torturous punishment. The giant tree was planted in his body and had burst through his body. Now, it seemed to have assimilated itself with his body.
Ye Qingyu could feel that the life force he sensed earlier was emanating from the body of this thousand-meter-tall giant.
Is he actually still alive?
Ye Qingyu was extremely shocked.
Who was this human?
