A bitter smile appeared on Huang Xiaolong’s face.
He hadn’t expected to remember his family from Earth in the last moments of his life.
Huang Xiaolong thought that he was really done for this time as the cave’s death qi came in contact with his skin, wanting to drill into his body through his pores, to devour him. But suddenly, bright burning flames burst out from his body and the cave’s dark environment was instantly lit up like it had never been.
Four sources of fire flew out from his body.
Black Tortoise, Vermilion Bird, Azure Dragon, and White Tiger, the four great divine fires circulated around Huang Xiaolong, with one fire spirit guarding one direction. When these four divine fires’ spirits opened their mouths, the terrifying death worms that even frightened Hei Luo, rushed into their mouths like moths to fire.
The four divine fires’ spirits devoured on!
The death worms rose like a great flood from all around, obscuring everything else in sight. However, no matter how fervidly these death worms swarmed towards Huang Xiaolong, and how shocking their numbers were, before they could reach Huang Xiaolong, they were clearly ‘eaten’ by the four divine fires’ spirits. Not one death worm got past them to reach Huang Xiaolong.
Huang Xiaolong was totally dumbfounded.
These…!
The four divine fires!
Death worms that Hei Luo was terrified of were devoured so easily by the four divine fires!
To Huang Xiaolong’s astonishment, after these death worms were devoured by the four divine fires, death qi was immediately incinerated and turned into a very high-quality, pure energy that was in turn absorbed by the four divine fires.
The more the four divine fires devoured these death worms, the brighter the four divine fires’ spirits grew. It was as if they were regaining a new life and were being resurrected.
Despite having his opinion about the four divine fires’ powers being refreshed several times in the past, Huang Xiaolong was deeply jarred after watching the four divine fires dealing with these scary death worms.
The four divine fires’ origin had once again exceeded his imagination!
These death worms could even bite through a Primal Ancestor’s dao physique, but they were being devoured by the four divine fires! Didn’t that mean, the four divine fires were existences that transcended Primal Ancestors?!
Their existences were absolutely above the Primal Ancestor Realm experts!
Even Huang Xiaolong himself felt that his conclusion was unbelievable.
Even though these kinds of existences surpassed the Primal Ancestor Realm experts, Huang Xiaolong had found these divine fires in the lower mortal worlds. Was it merely a coincidence for him to find them? Or had someone arranged all of it?
An hour went by.
The death worms still swarmed towards Huang Xiaolong in great waves, and their momentum only began to weaken half a day later, and then stopped altogether.
When the death worms were devoured clean by the four divine fires, Huang Xiaolong’s heart was still palpitating in fear. The back of his robe was wet with cold sweat. In the last moments, if it weren’t for these four divine fires, he would have probably been a pile of rotten bones by now.
No, more accurately, not even a pile of rotten bones would be left of him.
Huang Xiaolong stood up and scanned his surroundings. The four divine fires had returned to his body after devouring the death worms and death qi in the cave, hence, the cave fell into darkness once again.
Earlier, potent death qi had roiled turbulently within the cave, but now that the death qi was gone, there was only darkness all around.
Not to mention, the overpowering suction force that dragged him deeper down the cave was also gone.
Huang Xiaolong wanted to return the way he had come by leaving through the cave mouth. But to his horror, there was a tremendous pressure boring down from above as if there were several million mountains pressing down on him. With Huang Xiaolong’s strength, he actually failed to ascend up the way he had come.
Huang Xiaolong was shocked as he made several attempts. In the end, he had to give up.
What should I do now?
Finally, he accepted that he couldn’t return the way he had come and exit through the cave mouth.
So, Huang Xiaolong turned his gaze towards the bottom of the cave.
There seemed to be only emptiness below, and it was darker than where he was. Not to mention that his three holy souls were useless in this Death Cave, except for the tens of meters around him.
After some hesitation, Huang Xiaolong began to descend slowly to the bottom.
At the moment, going down seemed to be the best chance of finding a way out of here, and he had no other choice but to explore it.
Slowly and cautiously, Huang Xiaolong descended, but the Death Cave felt like a bottomless hole. He had been descending for an hour, yet he still hadn't seen the ground at the bottom.
Another half a day later, there were still no signs of reaching the bottom of the cave.
A day later, finally, he seemed to hear some noises coming from the cave’s bottom…
Huang Xiaolong listened carefully. A rushing river?!
Huang Xiaolong accelerated and saw a river. The churning river water vaguely revealed a hint of turbid yellow, as if it was the world’s dirtiest entity in the world, exuding an unbearable foul stench.
This stench was so foul that it even nauseated Huang Xiaolong’s holy souls.
Huang Xiaolong was stupefied and quickly retrieved his divine sense. Inextinguishable rays rippled from his chest and formed a protective barrier over him, blocking off everything from outside. Despite that, Huang Xiaolong still felt dizzy and nauseated.
He was almost jarred senseless. What river is this? It’s a million times more horrible than the Yellow Springs River he had come across in the lower worlds.
Could it be the Xuanhuang Turbid Water?
According to some, places with xuanhuang qi, there would also be Xuanhuang Turbid Water. The Xuanhuang Turbid Water was one the Holy World’s most poisonous dead water, and it was rumored to be capable of melting dao physique. If a Primal Ancestor fell into this Xuanhuang Turbid Water, he would be reduced into rotten bones in less than a second. If his holy soul didn’t escape immediately, even it would be corroded.
Thinking this might really be Xuanhuang Turbid Water, Huang Xiaolong nearly jumped out of his skin, and his face grayed as he stopped approaching abruptly. This kind of thing, forget about touching it, even seeing it gave him goosebumps.
How the h*ck did this Death Cave come about, that it actually contains things like Xuanhuang Turbid Water?
Huang Xiaolong’s composure returned slightly after a moment. I can’t go up now, and can’t get down as well. What to do? Is this Death Cave really the end?
What could be at the end of this Xuanhuang Turbid Water? After some thoughts, Huang Xiaolong cautiously flew forward following the river current. In this situation, he could only pray and hope the end was his hope of surviving and not a dead end.
If the end of the Xuanhuang Turbid Water river was a dead end, then he would be trapped to death in this Death Cave.
He continued flying forward along the river. However, he became more apprehensive from time to time, as there were pieces of dao bones floating on the water surface!
The bones of a Primal Ancestor Realm expert!
Apart from dao bones, there were also broken pieces of dao artifacts! Even dao artifacts couldn’t withstand the Xuanhuang Turbid Water’s corrosion!
I wonder how the four divine flames compare with this Xuanhuang Turbid Water? Huang Xiaolong thought inwardly. But there weren't any more movements from the four divine fires after devouring the death worms and death qi, even when Huang Xiaolong tried summoning them. More often than not, would the four divine fires appear only when he was on the verge of death?
Huang Xiaolong’s mood fell further after several days of flying along the river for he still hadn’t seen the end or the start of the river. It was just like coming down the bottomless Death Cave.
When it was half a month later with no end in sight, Huang Xiaolong was half-despairing. There would’t really be no end to this Xuanhuang Turbid Water river, would it? Or is this river actually flowing in circles, thus there is no beginning and no end?
As Huang Xiaolong’s despair deepened, suddenly, up in front, were faint rays of light. Although it wasn’t very clear, in this endless Xuanhuang Turbid Water river, in this endless darkness, it lit up hope in Huang Xiaolong’s chest.
Huang Xiaolong increased his speed.
Qumu's Thoughts
Chapter 12/14
Editor: A.Lily
p/s: Typos? Please ping autumnlily on Discord.
