Chapter 583: The Bottom of the Abyss

With a thunderous boom!

The sky above the abyss suddenly trembled violently. Wisps of visible worldly spiritual energy gathered from all directions, converging and swirling high in the air to form a massive funnel of spiritual energy, channeling a vast amount of worldly spiritual energy down into the abyss.

Inside a valley not far from the abyss, a giant face emerged on a lush green tree. Its gaze shifted toward the abyss, and the roots beneath it suddenly trembled violently. The entire tree trunk shook as it began to move forward.

Within the valley, the ground and rocks cracked open, and dense ancient trees on both sides retreated, clearing a wide path for the lush green tree to advance rapidly.

The face on the giant tree was filled with confusion. After sprinting nearly a hundred miles, it suddenly noticed that in the sky above the abyss, besides the vast worldly spiritual energy continuously gathering downward, billowing baleful qi was also rising from within the abyss.

The writhing roots beneath it abruptly stopped, and a look of wariness appeared in its eyes.

After hesitating for a moment, the tree demon, whose aura had already reached the Taiyi realm, turned its body and moved back into the valley without looking back.

Meanwhile, in the void nearly a thousand miles below the abyss, Han Li stood suspended in midair, like a golden sun. His entire body radiated dazzling golden light, pushing all the dense baleful qi back to a distance of over ten zhang.

The dazzling golden light coalesced into strands of golden threads, weaving together like a golden cocoon that enveloped his entire body, revealing only a vague silhouette.

The vast sea of worldly spiritual energy, like an enormous golden waterfall, cascaded down from above the abyss, pouring onto the golden cocoon and forming a massive spiritual energy vortex, from which emanated rippling waves like tidal surges.

In the abyss, which had not been illuminated by light for countless millennia, the dense baleful qi had not yet fully dissipated. Now, under the golden light, a layer of hazy radiance rose like mist, scattering a dazzling brilliance.

This phenomenon of the golden waterfall continued for a full three days before its momentum gradually subsided.

At that moment, a cheerful, long howl suddenly rang out from within the abyss. A blazing golden light rose from within the giant golden cocoon, slicing through it like a long sword, splitting the entire golden cocoon in two.

Han Li's figure flashed out from within. Golden light shimmered in his eyes, and he opened his mouth to inhale in all directions.

A whistling wind suddenly arose. All the golden light within the abyss immediately reversed like a river, converging toward his mouth and being completely absorbed into his abdomen. Even the golden cocoon's light dissipated, turning into specks of golden starlight that flew into his mouth.

At the same time, a golden light spot emerged on Han Li's back, flickering on and off as it continuously absorbed the residual spiritual energy from the surrounding world.

As of today, the eighty-fourth immortal aperture had finally been opened!

Like the previous immortal apertures, this one also contained a wisp of black baleful qi, even thicker and more pronounced than before.

Han Li's expression was calm as water. With a wave of his hand, a patch of golden light appeared before him. A giant golden wheel materialized, spinning rapidly and emitting golden ripples.

On the golden wheel, over four hundred time dao patterns lit up, radiating dazzling light. The wheel itself was entwined with time crystal threads, which upon closer inspection numbered as many as eighteen.

Han Li raised his hand and beckoned. The eighteen time crystal threads immediately straightened like needles and shot toward him.

As they approached his palm, the golden threads softened again and wound around his fingers.

Feeling the fluctuations from the time crystal threads, Han Li murmured to himself, "I didn't expect that cultivating the fourth layer of the 'True Word Wheel Sutra' to great completion would unconsciously condense so many time crystal threads. This way, the power of the True Word Wheel can be enhanced a bit more, giving me a better chance when facing that Metal Devouring Immortal."

With that, he waved his hand and withdrew the True Word Wheel back into his body.

As all the golden light dissipated, the surrounding dense black baleful qi surged back, engulfing him.

Because Han Li had absorbed a considerable amount of the baleful qi here, it was no longer as thick as when he first arrived. However, deeper into the abyss, it remained pitch-black, with little change in the concentration of baleful qi.

Han Li took a deep breath, sat down cross-legged, and flipped his hand to produce a pill for stabilizing his cultivation realm. He swallowed it and closed his eyes to regulate his breathing.

...

After three full days and nights, Han Li opened his eyes again and stood up from midair.

"There isn't much time left before the deadline that person mentioned. It's time to discuss countermeasures with Fellow Daoist Crab and the others..." he murmured to himself, looking up toward the top of the abyss.

Just as he was about to fly upward, a familiar voice suddenly appeared in his sea of consciousness: "Fellow Daoist Han, since you've come this far, don't you want to go deeper into the abyss and see what's so strange about this place?"

Han Li's expression changed slightly, and he frowned, saying, "Demon Light, haven't I already sealed off your external perception? How do you know where we are?"

"Fellow Daoist Han, please don't misunderstand. It's not my fault, really. It's because the baleful qi accumulated in your body suddenly surged, which strengthened my connection to the outside world a bit. But that's all," Demon Light quickly explained.

"Baleful qi? Isn't Fellow Daoist Demon Light an otherworldly demon? How can baleful qi be of use to you?" Han Li raised an eyebrow and asked.

"Baleful qi isn't exclusive to humans or demon beasts; anyone who takes life can condense it. Our Heavenly Demon race is far more sensitive to such negative energy than you humans," Demon Light said with a light laugh, explaining thus.

While conversing with him, Han Li secretly checked his own and Demon Light's condition, finding nothing unusual, so he relaxed a bit and asked, "Fellow Daoist Demon Light, you suddenly suggested I explore the bottom of the abyss—have you discovered something?"

"Well... to be honest, I haven't made any definite discovery. I just have a faint feeling that there's something very special down there. I'm only offering a suggestion. If Fellow Daoist Han thinks it's not worth a look, then forget it. Don't take it seriously," Demon Light said, then fell silent.

"Since Fellow Daoist Demon Light has a feeling, it wouldn't hurt to go down and take a look," Han Li said after a moment of silence.

With that, he leaped up and continued flying down into the abyss.

After descending several hundred li, the surrounding baleful qi grew even denser, making even Han Li, with his current cultivation and formidable spiritual sense, feel somewhat uncomfortable.

He had now cultivated to the late Golden Immortal stage and, through prolonged use of baleful qi to impact his immortal apertures, both his physical body and soul had undergone subtle changes, gradually allowing him to blend into this baleful qi environment.

But time was running short, and he didn't intend to continue using baleful qi to increase his cultivation. So he had already decided that if the baleful qi became too dense and exceeded his tolerance, he would stop descending and immediately return.

Just then, however, an enormous emerald-green skeleton appeared in his field of vision.

Compared to the one he had seen earlier on the cliff wall, this skeleton was so massive it was no different from that Devouring Gold Immortal.

Its body was elongated, with a central spine arching like a mountain ridge, rows of ribs on either side, and the limb bones below still standing upright, none of them toppled, as if it were still maintaining its standing posture from life, unchanged.

Han Li flew down along the skeleton's spine and finally landed on the ground.

By his estimate, he was now at least two thousand li from the pit entrance above.

A pit two thousand li deep—this was something unheard of in the past.

As he pondered, he circled around the mountain-like skeleton and came to the front, where he saw the enormous head of this strange beast skeleton drooping to the ground. From the hollows of its huge eyes, pitch-black baleful qi continuously rose and dispersed into the surrounding void.

Its head was wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, with two door-plate-sized giant teeth protruding from the front of its long snout, making it look like a giant rat.

Han Li immediately thought of the green giant rat he had seen in the baleful qi illusion and thought to himself, "Could this be the remains of that giant rat?"

In the center of the giant rat's forehead, there was a clean-cut wound that ran all the way to the back of its head, pierced by some unknown weapon, likely the fatal blow that killed the giant rat demon.

There was clearly no trace of spiritual power fluctuation left on its bones, yet when Han Li stood before it, he still felt his heart tremble, overcome with a sense of insignificance as if facing a mountain.

Especially the giant rat's two door-plate-sized teeth, which differed from the jade-green color of the body—they were darker, showing a layer of duckweed-like dark green, with obvious fluctuations of law power emanating from them.

As he wondered about this and was about to step forward for a closer look, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he was startled to discover that behind the giant rat's head lay a male corpse dressed in a purple robe.

"This is..." Han Li raised an eyebrow and murmured in surprise.

The male corpse, though still in human form, had blue-purple skin and a withered appearance. His clothes were already tattered, covered with a layer of black granular matter like dust.

Han Li walked around the giant rat's head and approached, immediately feeling a wave of intense baleful qi rushing toward him, making him stop in his tracks and frown deeply.

His eyes flickered as he looked at the male corpse's face, only to find that his features were not old, but his sunken cheeks and eye sockets made him look like an octogenarian.

In his deeply sunken eye sockets, his eyes were not closed, as if he had died with his eyes open. What surprised Han Li most was that his pupils were a murky white, like a dead fish's eyes, utterly devoid of any luster.