The night is as dark as ink.
Under the extremely dark sky, Ulan Lake is like a giant diamond embedded in the ground, shining brightly.
Bagua City is the most dazzling light source inside this diamond.
"Where's Sister Ning?"
Su Meng, who was standing by the island, saw Pang Jian walking alone out of the darkness, and hurriedly looked behind him.
But she didn't see the familiar figure.
Su Meng had never experienced a night with such thick darkness before, and she didn't know if there was any terror lurking in the dark, which made her secretly worry about her "Sister Ning".
"It was too dark on the mountain and she fell on the way."
Pang Jian responded indifferently, his eyes falling on the head of the black turtle that was engraved with dark green light and strange power.
Zhou Qingchen was stunned: "You didn't help her up?"
"She has hands and feet, why should I help her?" Pang Jian asked curiously.
"Well… "
Zhou Qingchen was speechless.
"Zhou boy, you and little brother Pang should learn from this. You should not be too nice to this woman. You should not take her feelings into consideration in every way! If you had half the ability of Pang Jian, the senior sister Jiang Li whom you admired in Hongshan would not have..." Han Duping exposed his shortcomings.
Zhou Qingchen's face turned red and he said angrily, "Shut up!"
Looking at the turtle head that appeared on the ice, which was made of dark green lines and strange power, Pang Jian asked in surprise: "Is this the entrance to the mirror tunnel?"
"Yes, that's what Ning Yao said."
Han Duping nodded first before expressing his opinion: "Based on my limited knowledge of formations, it should really be the entrance to the mirror tunnel."
Pang Jianqi asked, "After we go in, where should we come back from?"
Han Duping smiled bitterly: "You'll know when you get in."
"All right."
Pang Jian stopped asking for details and looked at the other three people beside him: "Do you want to go down?"
"Of course I'll go down!"
Zhou Qingchen shouted immediately.
"He insists on going, what can I do? I have to accompany Zhou kid." Han Duping hung his head, looking reluctant.
"Um."
Pang Jian gripped the dragon-patterned spear tightly and planned to be the first to jump to the lake where the turtle head was, acting as a pathfinder for everyone.
"Aren't you waiting for Sister Ning?" Su Meng shouted angrily.
Pang Jian, who had been waiting for this moment for a long time, did not respond to her at all. He jumped up with the dragon-patterned spear in his hand and landed directly on the turtle's head.
Above the crystal clear lake, the turtle head made of dark green light and strange power suddenly changed as he fell.
The turtle's head seemed to be raised high, but mysterious ripples were rippling on its neck, spreading outward in circles.
At first glance, the head and neck of this black turtle looked like they were surrounded by many collars.
"call!"
Pang Jian landed on the turtle's upward head and suddenly disappeared in the center of the rippling light circle.
"We have to hurry over there, lest we fall behind him and be forced to disperse after entering!"
Zhou Qingchen acted decisively, and as soon as he confirmed that it was an accessible passage, he jumped in immediately.
Han Duping followed him without hesitation.
In the blink of an eye, Su Meng was the only one left in front of the turtle head that was rippling with gorgeous ripples.
The dark island was completely silent. Su Meng's heart trembled slightly, and she timidly called out to the darkness: "Sister Ning, they've all gone in. Are you... still there?"
"exist."
Luo Hongyan's lazy and resentful voice came slowly from the darkness, making Su Meng breathe a sigh of relief.
Soon, Luo Hongyan appeared from the darkness and slowly came to Su Meng's side.
She frowned slightly, surprise flashed in her bright eyes, and suddenly stared at the north of Wulan Lake, where the other side was swallowed by darkness.
There, is where the thick "strange fog" first appeared.
"Sister Ning, what are you looking at?"
Su Meng said softly.
She felt very strange. After Luo Hongyan came over, she did not look at the black turtle representing the passage, nor did she look at the rippling waves. Instead, she looked towards the other end of the lake.
"It's not that I saw anything, I felt... there was something watching us in the strange fog."
Luo Hongyan felt inexplicably uneasy, as she always felt that there was some unknown creature standing deep in the "strange fog" that was permeating the lake with extremely cold energy.
This feeling made her hair stand on end.
Originally she was still hesitating whether to enter Bagua City, but now she suddenly had no hesitation anymore. She grabbed Su Meng's little hand, and they jumped towards the turtle head together.
The two of them also disappeared in an instant.
When there was no living creature on the island, an object slowly emerged from the darkness where Luo Hongyan had been staring, where thick "strange fog" was spreading.
It was a huge gray ape, exuding a cold and ferocious look, with a pair of ice-blue eyes.
If Pang Jian and Zhou Qingchen were still alive, they would recognize this gray ape at a glance as the one who was once captured by Shangguan Qin, imprisoned in an iron cage, and finally released at Pang Jian's request.
At this moment, its size has increased several times compared to when it said goodbye to Pang Jian.
It is like a small gray hill, slowly stepping out from the depths of the "strange fog", stepping on the thick and crystal rock ice, and slowly walking on the lake.
“Crack! Crack!”
It walked towards the turtle head step by step, and the thick rock ice under its broad feet began to crack into large pieces as it walked.
The rock ice, filled with extreme cold power, could not bear the terrifying force it exerted every time it landed, and it kept cracking fragilely.
In the "strange fog" deep in the darkness, it seemed as if it had been waiting for a long time, and it did not reveal itself until everyone disappeared.
Its dense gray hair had now turned silver-gray. As it shook its body lightly, the silver-gray hair glowed with a strange radiance like steel needles.
It came all the way to the front of the turtle's head and stood on the transparent lake surface like ice and rock, and finally stopped.
It looked coldly at the entrance and exit with its pair of evil ice-blue eyes, and also at the brightly lit Bagua City below.
After a while, it slowly squatted down here.
…
A different place.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Five figures fell heavily to the ground one after another, each of them feeling dizzy and dazed.
Zhou Qingchen touched his burning butt and yelled angrily, "Why did it fall from the sky?"
As soon as he opened his mouth he was stunned.
He stood in front of a huge city gate, which was more than ten feet high and built entirely of bluestone. It looked magnificent and grand.
"Bagua City, we have indeed arrived at Bagua City!"
When Zhou Qingchen exclaimed, he saw Pang Jian, who had arrived before him, also in front of the huge city gate.
Following Pang Jian's line of sight, he saw two eye-catching characters above the city gate, as if they were carved with a knife or an axe.
—North Gate.
"Pang Jian, can't you wait for me?"
Luo Hongyan, who came over a step later, was angry and wanted to call for an explanation.
Pang Jian turned a deaf ear.
He stared at the word "North Gate" in a daze, silently practicing the "Hutian Yangqi Jue", and said: "The spiritual energy of heaven and earth here is pure and rich. Compared with the island in the middle of Wulan Lake, the spiritual energy is many times stronger."
"Bagua City was located in the Second Realm back then. Naturally, its spiritual energy is richer than that of an island in the middle of a lake in the barren far north of the Fourth Realm." Han Duping said as a matter of course.
"But behind us..."
Pang Jian, who arrived first, turned around and turned his back to the north gate of Bagua City, looking at the extreme darkness that was the same as the island in the middle of the lake.
Everyone turned around one after another, all with looks of surprise.
Ahead was endless darkness, as if covering all the space outside Bagua City!
In the brightly lit Bagua City, the brilliant light coming from the walls seemed to be desperately trying to penetrate into the darkness outside, as if to spread the light into the depths of darkness.
However, the range within which these dazzling lights can spread is only about three meters.
Three meters away, there was endless darkness, and no trace of light could be seen.
Pang Jian said in a deep voice: "In the depths of darkness, there exists an aura that is completely different from that of Bagua City!"
He had just tried it before several people landed, and as soon as he entered the darkness, he quickly pulled back.
In the darkness, the air he could smell was filled with strange smells such as sourness and stench.
After those auras entered his internal organs, they seemed to be quietly corroding his flesh and blood, making him feel uncomfortable all over.
When he was practicing the "Hutian Yangqi Jue", he found that the "Spirit Pot" he visualized was no longer bluish-black, but a pure black.
Shiny black!
The power he took in from the darkness was full of filth and various impurities, and the spiritual power was so little that it was almost imperceptible.
At that moment, there were a lot of dirty things in the depths of his Dantian spiritual sea.
The operation of his spiritual power suddenly became slow, and the funnel-shaped vortex connecting his Dantian and spiritual sea gradually stagnated.
—He hurriedly retreated from the darkness because he felt something was extremely wrong.
"Colorless, blue, blue-black, black."
He frowned and pondered, and based on the color of the "Spirit Pot" when he was visualizing, he came to a conclusion.
When he was practicing, if what he guided was the spiritual energy between heaven and earth, even if it was the extremely thin spiritual energy of the fourth realm and still contained some impurities, his "spiritual pot" would not have a specific color.
When he practiced with pure and flawless spirit stones and spirit jade and absorbed the spiritual power therein, his "spiritual pot" turned green.
If it is a spiritual stone from the fourth realm that contains impure power, there are also some special ones such as stones containing the "Xuan Yin power", or the dark power in the black water pool.
Then his "Spirit Pot" will appear bluish-black in color. The more filthy things are inside, the darker the black part will be.
On the contrary, if the absorbed power and spiritual energy are obviously greater than the impure things, the color of the dark blue "spiritual pot" will be more bluish.
He had previously tried the "Hutian Yangqi Jue" in the dark, and the "Spirit Pot" actually revealed a rare dark color, just like the endless darkness.
This was something strange that he had never encountered before.
"In the depths of darkness, there is a very strong power, but it also has a strong sour, rancid smell. There seems to be spiritual power in it, but it is only a tiny bit, and it is not worth mentioning compared to the filthy power."
Pang Jian expressed his previous feelings.
Zhou Qingchen and Su Meng looked confused, but Han Duping and Luo Hongyan's expressions changed after listening.
"Pang Jian, never enter the darkness again. Everyone, listen to me, don't leave Bagua City, and don't try to explore the outside world!"
After a moment, Luo Hongyan suddenly shouted in surprise and signaled everyone to retreat and return to Bagua City as soon as possible.
"Listen to her!"
Han Duping was also shouting.
Pang Jian looked at the two of them and asked in confusion, "What is the origin of the darkness outside Bagua City?"
Han Duping licked the corner of his mouth and said in a difficult tone: "Maybe, I mean maybe, outside Bagua City... maybe it's the fifth world."
"The fifth realm?!"
Zhou Qingchen and Su Meng screamed in shock.
…
(End of this chapter)