Chapter 119: The Way of the Northern Abyss

Page (1/3)

Before Hu San could even rejoice, he saw a somewhat dizzy Jiang Nansheng rise to his feet. Discovering the enemy’s trace in this eerie place evidently stirred his excitement. Without launching a prior strike, the flames on his body ignited directly, instantly surging into an overwhelming blaze that covered the sky.

Hu San was momentarily dumbfounded. This power far exceeded anything he had faced before.

“Could this be the true killing move of the Bone Warrior? Hiss, it’s formidable. Luckily, he didn’t unleash it earlier, or I’d have been left without a burial place.”

Confronted with the raging and utterly destructive bone ‘Yin’ fire, Hu San’s spiritual phantom form didn’t even get a chance to use his fish step technique before being completely consumed. Only then did Hu San understand why the white-robed elder had said that the Bone Warrior could contend with late-stage spellcasters.

Fortunately, supported by the Black Wind Formation, the spiritual phantom Hu San transformed into was an undying presence here. Although Jiang Nansheng’s Bone Warrior form was powerful, lacking a commander, it revealed no weakness in the Black Wind Formation and only circled within it. For now, Hu San was not in immediate danger.

After several attempts, Hu San discovered that the Bone Warrior’s combat strength seemed to have different levels. Perhaps due to the absence of control, each battle only unleashed attack techniques corresponding to the opponent’s cultivation ceiling at a certain tier. When the enemy’s cultivation rose a level, its methods strengthened accordingly.

If Hu San’s spiritual phantom did not display the terrifying force of twenty men, Jiang Nansheng would never have unleashed that all-consuming bone ‘Yin’ fire. But once unleashed, Jiang Nansheng showed no mercy.

Judging by the extent of the bone ‘Yin’ fire Jiang Nansheng released, he could probably unleash it a dozen times in succession with ease. The key problem was that Hu San’s Black Wind Formation would never allow him to reform his body more than ten times.

Hu San didn’t know how long the ten low-grade water-element spirit stones could sustain the formation, but after the third body restoration, he sadly noticed the surrounding black wind thinning. From here, he could faintly see the moonlight battle arena below. If Jiang Nansheng was controlled by someone, a single punch now could break the formation.

With no choice, Hu San ceased provoking Jiang Nansheng and withdrew his mind from the Black Wind Formation. Since he couldn’t kill Jiang Nansheng, his only option was to temporarily imprison him. As for whether he could reclaim the Black Wind Formation, Hu San had no time to consider that; he had to find an escape route before Shen Fang and the others returned, or his fate was sealed.

Fifteen minutes later, Hu San slumped gloomily beside the Black Wind Formation on a patch of barren ground, his gaze fixed blankly on the endless abyss at the end of the moonlight battle arena, his heart filled with indescribable frustration and restlessness.

Although he had doubted his chances of escaping safely after hearing the white-robed elder’s words, facing the reality was still difficult to accept.

During that quarter of an hour, he tried every method. Once he left the moonlight battle arena and entered the moonlight land, no matter what he did, his movement was as slow as a crawling snail.

The worst was that no matter how far he crawled, looking back, the moonlight battle arena remained close at hand, while the mountain path ahead seemed forever unreachable. It was as if he had fallen into a nightmare, trapped inescapably despite all efforts.

After a full circuit of attempts, Hu San sadly realized that three sides of the moonlight battle arena were surrounded by the moonlight land. Only the side facing the boundless ‘Jade’ Wall was free of the moonlight land, but there lay an endless abyss.

Even Shen Fang and the white-robed elder required the Phosphorescent Passage to enter that endless abyss. Just imagining the danger was enough: to leap directly into it would mean that out of ten thousand people, nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine would perish, and the survivor would suffer worse than death.

Hu San never trusted his luck, but now it seemed he had few choices left.

Due to his limited knowledge of the Black Wind Formation and the previous damage to the formation plate, combined with Jiang Nansheng’s strength, after some time of attrition, the formation was becoming unstable. Soon Jiang Nansheng would break free, and Hu San would hardly escape death.

Even if he could delay Jiang Nansheng for a while longer, once Shen Fang emerged from the Boundless ‘Cave’ Mansion, Hu San wouldn’t stand a chance, no matter how fast he tried to flee. Thinking this, Hu San’s gaze flickered towards the endless abyss.

“Do I really have to jump off the cliff and gamble on luck? Damn it, I am unwilling!”

Clenching his fists tightly, Hu San’s eyes shifted, suddenly resting on the boundless ‘Jade’ Wall at the abyss’s end. At that glance, his heart jolted, as if he saw two characters etched on the jade.

But when he looked closely again, nothing was there.

“Did I see it wrong?”

A flicker of doubt rose in his heart. Once life and death were cast aside, Hu San felt his mood brighten and began to study the mysterious boundless ‘Jade’ Wall carefully.

This time, Hu San could not divert his gaze.

Page (2/3)

To an outsider, the boundless ‘Jade’ Wall appeared unchanged, but to Hu San’s eyes, it revealed an entirely different scene.

Amid endless darkness and distortion, Hu San saw a small boy — none other than himself. Although he couldn’t discern the boy’s features, he felt deeply that it was himself.

From the moment he saw the boy, Hu San noticed he was training, constantly practicing martial arts: ordinary martial arts, the Great Flood Fist from the mountain stronghold, the linear saber technique he had secretly learned, then the Ten Killing Moves of the Po Sha Sect, even his self-taught archery technique.

Unlike his own training, this boy’s every movement and stillness were perfectly harmonious, as if each action was in tune with heaven and earth, touching the essence of the world.

“So this is how one can practice martial arts!” Hu San thought, his inner feelings mirrored. The Great Flood Fist, linear saber, Ten Killing Moves—all the same moves he knew, yet seemingly entirely different. Watching these, Hu San seemed to understand something, yet also nothing at all.

Just when he thought that was all, the boy suddenly paused, then his figure began to flicker, as if vanishing from the entire world. Strangely, Hu San’s gaze could still clearly follow the boy’s silhouette.

It wasn’t that his body disappeared, but his aura vanished. When stepping the strange footwork, Hu San suddenly realized the boy’s aura instantly merged with the surrounding heaven and earth, becoming completely undetectable.

“Fish step!!!”

After watching for a while, a sudden flash lit Hu San’s mind. The footwork the boy used was none other than his own fish step, only far more profound and mysterious.

Just as he marveled, the scene shifted again. The boy’s speed increased, and as he displayed his movement techniques, all the previously practiced fists and strikes burst forth from his hands. Gradually, the boy formed a phantom figure.

Hu San could no longer clearly see the boy’s movements but seemed to feel every move and strike. In the profound silence, Hu San slowly sank into contemplation.

How long passed, or how much the boy’s techniques had evolved, he did not know. At a certain moment, the boy stopped moving. Hu San could finally see clearly again: the boy’s arms floated as his body hovered midair. His right hand suddenly curved, and a giant bird’s phantom appeared behind him, while his right hand pecked forward like a bird’s beak.

In an instant, the sky above shattered completely, revealing a dark hole filled with seven-colored glowing clouds.

At that moment, Hu San instinctively knew the name of this move: Bird Strike! It was the Bird Strike he had deeply comprehended, yet the boy’s execution far surpassed his imagination.

Moreover, Hu San clearly felt that the sequence of moves and divine techniques before Bird Strike were interconnected, as if forming a complete divine skill—from Fish Step to Bird Strike!

Just as Hu San thought it ended there, the boy’s figure suddenly shifted. The strange bird with a fish head from Hu San’s dream appeared. With a flap of its wings, the world’s colors changed abruptly, and the entire boundless ‘Jade’ Wall shattered explosively. Both the boy and the strange bird vanished.

“So Bird Strike is only the beginning!”

The thought had just formed when the boundless ‘Jade’ Wall suddenly emitted myriad bright lines. Countless human figures, postures, and divine techniques surfaced momentarily then vanished, all sharing one feature: they were the same person!

When the figures completely dispersed, the boundless ‘Jade’ Wall returned to its original form, but now it was no longer a clear mirror, but a plain blank scroll.

At the top of the scroll were five golden characters: Northern Darkness Illumination Map!

Below the five characters was a passage written in purple script: “North’s extreme, darkness’s distance. Northern Darkness signifies the utmost depth, utmost distance, utmost vastness, utmost obscurity. From chaos, I received this celestial scroll, arrogantly displaying the Northern Darkness Way through infinite cycles, yet only attaining the words ‘boundless.’ Alas! Alas! May those with fate in later generations attain the fruit of the Northern Darkness Way; though I face nine deaths, I shall not regret. Boundless Dao Elder leaves this!”

“What... does this mean?” Hu San’s mind barely caught the thought when the entire boundless ‘Jade’ Wall, no, the Northern Darkness Illumination Map shattered instantly. The once impervious moonlight battle arena collapsed outright.

Immediately, a sharp, inhuman howl echoed from the endless abyss: “What is happening? No, I don’t want to leave here, ah!!”

The wailing ceased, and the entire world seemed to repeat. Hu San noticed a pale crack suddenly appear in the dim sky, enclosing a giant mirror similar to the boundless ‘Jade’ Wall. Within it was a white-clothed man, lifted higher and higher by a force, soon swallowed entirely into the white fissure.

Page (3/3)

Then the fissure vanished. A gust of wind swept through, and the entire world instantly restored. The moonlight land beneath Hu San’s feet was shattered, all anomalies vanished. When Hu San finally recovered from the shock, he found himself in an unknown place, standing beside a water pool in a deep mountain canyon.

The Black Wind Formation and the Bone Warrior Jiang Nansheng were hanging from a treetop not far away. The ghostly light in the Bone Warrior’s eyes had vanished, and he hung stiffly in the Black Wind Formation. If not for his fierce armor, one might mistake him for an ordinary skeleton.

“That must have been Shen Fang just now, right? Could that mirror be the Boundless Divine Mirror? What on earth happened? Why did they leave, and even abandon this Bone Warrior?”

Hu San hesitated briefly before retracting the Black Wind Formation and releasing the bone skeleton. On this ordinary terrain, free from the moonlight battle arena’s restrictions, Hu San had every reason to believe that if he wished to flee, the bone skeleton—without control—could never catch him.

Though cautious as if facing a great enemy, Hu San relaxed his control over Jiang Nansheng, though it proved unnecessary.

As soon as the Black Wind Formation dissipated, the bone skeleton dropped from the treetop like a wooden club, crashing into the grass with a loud bang, startling a mountain’s worth of birds.

After waiting a while with no sign of movement from the Bone Warrior, Hu San cautiously approached and found the spirit fire in the skeleton’s eyes had completely vanished. The whole body was stiff and rigid, lying lifeless in the grass, lacking any of the former dominance or signs of activity.

“Could he be dead? That can’t be!”

Hu San frowned and hurriedly searched beneath a large tree, finally finding what he sought.

It was none other than his Black Wind Formation plate! Having witnessed the formation’s power, Hu San treasured the plate dearly and naturally sought it first. But looking at the plate riddled with cracks, Hu San shook his head slightly, recognizing it had only one use left before it would utterly break.

More importantly, he currently had no way to find the ten spirit stones required to activate the formation plate. In other words, the Black Wind Formation could not be used at all.

With a sigh, Hu San painfully stored the plate in his empty stone. He had already checked once; the ten spirit stones embedded in the plate had vanished completely.

After handling what he deemed most important, Hu San squatted before the Bone Warrior Jiang Nansheng again. He had truly experienced the Bone Warrior’s power. If it weren’t for the lack of control, it could have easily ended his life. Such a creature was a formidable weapon for raiding or home defense.

Now that Shen Fang and the white-robed elder were missing, this Bone Warrior was no longer convenient for Hu San.

Yet, he was utterly clueless about how to command the warrior. As Jiang Nansheng now resembled an ordinary skeleton, Hu San did not know how to proceed.

However, he was certain this warrior could be reactivated; he just didn’t know how. But his ignorance didn’t mean the cultivation world lacked the knowledge.

“Let me try putting it into the empty stone!”

With that thought, Hu San wrapped Jiang Nansheng in his Divine Spirit Technique and placed him inside the empty stone. To his surprise, the spirit light flickered, and the massive Bone Warrior vanished before him.

Probing with his divine sense inside the empty stone, Hu San happily discovered a bone skeleton lying quietly in a corner. If not Jiang Nansheng, then who else?

“Hehe, looks like this trip wasn’t in vain. Compared to the Black Wind Formation, the Bone Warrior is clearly more precious. But my most important gain this time is a set of divine techniques—no, an unfinished set—and I shall name it Northern Darkness!”

“Northern Darkness, Northern Darkness. Fish Step is the beginning, Bird Strike the continuation. I wonder what lies at the end? My current task is to complete its gaps. Judging from my past experience, if I can peruse all the cultivation manuals and experience myriad divine techniques, there is a great chance to complete it. If successful, who knows—perhaps I will achieve some fruit of the Northern Darkness Way!”

With thoughts turning thus, Hu San gazed at the moon slowly drifting southward. After a night of fierce battle, it seemed time for him to rest well.