Chapter 862: 862

Yue Xiaoqian didn’t even look . Her sword slashed out behind, cutting the figure in two . It rapidly merged with the ground .

“The shadow ghouls are getting stronger and stronger, as well as more berserk . Injuring them isn’t difficult, but killing them would exhaust quite a bit of soul energy . It’s not really worth it,” said Yue Xiaoqian .

“Then it’s fine . You save your energy . If any shadow ghouls appear, just leave them to me . ” Long Chen smiled .

As expected, they had only gone a few more miles when another figure shot at them from a crack in the ground .

A bolt of lightning flew by and struck it, turning it into smoke . That shadow ghoul was killed in one attack .

“What terrifying thunderforce . It even contains an aura of annihilation . That’s something only heavenly tribulation lightning could possess . Is your lightning…” Yue Xiaoqian was shocked .

“Nothing can be hidden from you . Yes, my thunderforce was gathered from tribulation lightning . ” Long Chen found that Yue Xiaoqian was too learned . There was nothing she didn’t know .

“How is that possible? How could a human control heavenly tribulation lightning?” Yue Xiaoqian still found this hard to believe .

Long Chen explained how he had encountered tribulation in his first advancement and onwards . He also told her how he had raised Lei Long .

After her initial disbelief, she gradually came to accept this power that was beyond her understanding . This was her first time hearing that someone could control heavenly tribulation lightning .

The two of them continued . More and more shadow ghouls appeared, and each time, they would be killed in one shot by the pointing of Long Chen’s finger .

They saw quite a few more corpses on the way . They had all been killed by shadow ghouls . These shadow ghouls were also getting stronger .

But no matter how strong the shadow ghouls became, they were still weeds in front of Long Chen . His thunderforce was their bane .

“There’s an opening below . Let’s go take a look . ” Yue Xiaoqian pointed downwards . Long Chen looked and saw that the huge wall was concealing the fact that there was an opening here .

Yue Xiaoqian was just about to slash the wall apart when Long Chen stopped her . He simply grabbed and lifted it . The huge wall that was millions of pounds was easily lifted .

“We should do our best not to leave any marks, or others will find us . ”

This entrance was an underground entrance to some construction . Long Chen replaced the wall so that everything looked normal . That way it wouldn’t be likely for others to follow them .

“Do you want to go in front, or should I?” asked Yue Xiaoqian .

“You should stay in front . This place is too dark, so I’ll activate my thunderforce . ” Long Chen became covered in violet lightning . Those were his lightning runes . It was like he was wearing clothes made of lightning, making the underground room as bright as if it were daytime .

As they continued onwards, they saw that this passage continued at a slight tilt downwards . They hadn’t gotten far before a huge mouse suddenly attacked Long Chen .

The mouse’s fur ended in black, sharp points that made it look like a porcupine . Its eyes were scarlet, and its long tail was sharp like a blade .

“Careful . This is a Rockthorn Mouse and its quills are poisonous,” warned Yue Xiaoqian .

Bang! Long Chen’s broadsword slammed into the mouse . But it actually blocked it with its teeth . Sparks flew when they collided . The three-meter-long mouse slammed into a wall .

It let out a strange cry . Suddenly, it raised its tail and swung it at them . The end of its tail opened, and countless needle-like quills flew toward Long Chen .

Long Chen’s broadsword blocked all of them easily . They were clearly grown out of flesh, but they were harder than metal .

Long Chen unsheathed Flying Rainbow . Cold light flashed as that mouse’s head was severed .

Flying Rainbow was exceptionally sharp, so it was much easier to kill this kind of Magical Beast with it .

Long Chen picked up one of its quills . The quill was five inches long and around two hundred grams . There were little holes in its tip that were almost impossible to see with the naked eye .

“Those holes hide its poison . The Rockthorn Mouse is extremely special . It doesn’t have a poison sac . Instead, its quills are what store its poison . Although it’s just a sixth rank Magical Beast, its poison quills are very sharp and can easily pierce a seventh rank Magical Beast’s hide . Even if it can’t poison a seventh rank Magical Beast to death, it can poison it half to death,” said Yue Xiaoqian .

Long Chen’s eyes brightened . If it was this strong, then it was something good .

“Long Chen, what are you doing?”

“I’m gathering all these quills as they are natural weapons for Guo Ran . I’m sure he’ll faint from joy when he sees them,” laughed Long Chen as he gathered them . These were the things that Guo Ran liked the most .

As for the Rockthorn Mouse’s corpse, he tossed it into the primal chaos space . But he didn’t put it in the black soil yet . He needed to keep a few corpses in reserve for when he was running out of life energy . Then he could use the corpses .

Once Yue Xiaoqian learned that he had a use for these quills, she helped him . The two of them began a slaughter of the Rockthorn Mice that lived here . This seemed to be their nest . Long Chen actually killed over a thousand of them, and he had a mountain of their corpses .

Each one of them had over a hundred quills on their tails . So now he had over a hundred thousand of them .

“Wait a moment . Long Chen, we’ve entered a different channel now . There are murals here!” said Yue Xiaoqian .

Long Chen looked toward the wall . As expected, there were stone carvings . Long Chen couldn’t help being shocked . The carvings from such ancient times were extremely valuable . They might even be able to peer into some secrets of that era .

“Xiaoqian, what does this say?” Long Chen saw that whatever was carved was unclear . But there was a large mass of words . Long Chen could occasionally recognize a few characters, but he couldn’t comprehend it .

“This is the introduction of the trial . It clearly indicates Qi Wu . In today’s language, it means that a steel body must also be flexible . A strong body has a strong soul, a strong soul has a weak-” explained Yue Xiaoqian .

“Cough, Xiaoqian, could you explain it in simpler terms?” coughed Long Chen .

Yue Xiaoqian smiled . “To put it simpler, this should be a trial for the soul and will . It has high requirements for Spiritual Strength, so this should be a trial suited to soul cultivators . Only those with strong enough Spiritual Strength can handle the shadow ghouls here . However, everything has changed now that it’s broken down . If this was a trial only for people with powerful souls, those Rockthorn Mice shouldn’t have appeared . ”

Her guess was truly reasonable . If this was a trial of Spiritual Strength, in other words, a trial for soul cultivators, having soul cultivators face physical attacks was simply murder .

“Oh, why are the people in this mural so strange? They have a pair of bat-like wings?” As the two of them advanced, Long Chen saw a mural that was filled with those strange people .

“Those aren’t people . Those are winged devils, the same as the skeletons we saw in the Jiuli secret realm . Do you see that protuberance on their foreheads? That’s where their devil core is . They’re a mixed existence formed between depraved humans and the devil race . They’ve inherited the devil race’s fierceness and evil desires, while maintaining a portion of the human race’s intelligence,” sighed Yue Xiaoqian .

Long Chen was startled . These were members of the devil race? If she hadn’t said it, he would have thought they were members of the ancient races .

“The human race is that strong? They can not only integrate with Xuan Beasts but also with the devil race?” Long Chen didn’t know whether to laugh or cry .

Yue Xiaoqian looked at him helplessly . “Humans are the most complicated existence in this world . Their entire existence is a contradiction . They are sometimes kind, sometimes evil; sometimes noble, sometimes depraved; sometimes like a heavenly immortal, sometimes like a demonic devil . Humans are the ones least able to resist temptation, or perhaps it’s that their desires have no end . They like to take risks, have no respect for anything, and as a result… the human race has ended up in their current plight . ”

“Was the human race very powerful before?” asked Long Chen .

“Powerful? They couldn’t even be described as just powerful . Humans are the spirit of all things . Each human is a spiritual being, their own existence . They possess the pinnacle of the cosmos’s truth, the rulers of the world . Regretfully, the current human race’s bloodline is no longer pure, and they have fallen to the point of extinction . And yet, they still don’t seem aware of it and only know how to fight amongst themselves . ” Yue Xiaoqian shook her head with pity for the changing of the times .

Long Chen wanted to say that this was a good thing . If the human race fought to the point of extinction, there would be no one to make things hard for her original devil race . But then thinking of his own status, he swallowed his words back down .

Continuing to examine the murals, he saw that it was a story . Each mural was linked to the next .

At the next mural, a large group of humans had appeared and an immense battle was fought between them and the winged devils . It was a miserable battle, with corpses littering the bloodstained ground .

The human race was losing miserably, with heavy casualties . Those winged devils had powerful runes on their wings . Although these were just static images, Long Chen could feel just how fast they had to be .

Furthermore, their bodies were muscular like bulls . Their flesh bulged with explosive power . They were clearly both powerful and fast . The humans weren’t their match .

Thinking of Yue Xiaoqian’s words, Long Chen couldn’t help feeling it was satirical . The human race was the ancestor of the winged devils, but now the winged devils were mercilessly slaughtering them .

There were several consecutive murals of the winged devils slaughtering the humans . Towards the end, a group of people appeared . They formed hand seals, and illusory figures appeared behind their bodies .

Those figures held blades, swords, towers, bells . From their hand seals, they should be using a kind of soul art .

Once that soul art was activated, the bloodthirsty winged devils became immobile, unable to move an inch .

“The winged devils are afraid of soul arts?” asked Long Chen .

“Living ones are afraid of soul arts, but dead ones that have revived aren’t . Otherwise, we wouldn’t have had it so hard back then . ” Thinking of their previous cooperation against the winged devil skeletons, Yue Xiaoqian smiled in reminiscence . She held Long Chen’s arm .

“What… what is going on here?!” Long Chen didn’t notice Yue Xiaoqian’s gentle movements . Looking at the next mural, he was filled with disbelief .