Chapter 128: Avici Hell
In the eyes of the cultivators patrolling Shigu Ping, the sun in the sky seemed to vanish in an instant. From the center of the distant village, a pillar of black qi erupted skyward, and countless fierce ghostly shadows roared as they spiraled outward.
Any mortal who touched the black qi was reduced to white bones in an instant, and from those bones, blood-soaked fiends crawled forth, lunging madly at other living beings.
In the blink of an eye, Shigu Ping had been transformed into an Avici Hell.
“…”
Liu Ciming gazed at Jin Tianya atop the bone mountain, the unwillingness and fury in his heart surging to their peak.
Under the sweep of his divine sense, he could tell that the other was merely borrowing the ink treasure’s power!
His heart eased slightly.
Jin Tianya had not yet fully merged with the ink treasure. If he could act quickly and bypass the painting scroll to slay him directly, the outcome would be the same!
His spiritual power surged, and his Foundation Establishment cultivation was no longer concealed.
In his palm, faint yellow thunder gradually coalesced.
“Three Corpse Yin Thunder!”
What he never expected then happened.
The moment he channeled his spiritual energy, his cultivation began plummeting rapidly!
What was going on?!
Liu Ciming was nearly at the very center of the Avici Hell.
He felt his cultivation level being slowly sealed by a layer of eerie mist.
In the span of just a few breaths, he had dropped from late Foundation Establishment to mid Foundation Establishment!
And it was still falling, heading toward early Foundation Establishment.
His realm was clearly still there, but it was like a painting—visible, yet completely unusable.
The Yin Thunder in his palm drained the spiritual energy it consumed, which scattered and dissipated. He could not even maintain the most basic form of a spell.
When had Liu Ciming ever witnessed such a thing?!
His mind shook violently. No longer hesitating, he immediately flew out of Shigu Ping.
Only after he had escaped beyond the boundaries of the Avici Hell did he finally stop.
“Truly a bizarre painting scroll…”
Liu Ciming’s heart still trembled with lingering fear. His eyes were filled with wariness as he stared fixedly at the center of Shigu Ping.
“So this is a Deity Transformation ink treasure? Just a single painting…”
“Can cause anyone who lingers within to suffer a drop in cultivation?!”
At the very center of the Avici Hell.
Jin Tianya watched Liu Ciming flee in terror and laughed aloud.
It was a laugh of exhilaration, yet tinged with something wretched.
Now that he had fused himself with the Hell Transformation Painting, he could be considered a half-spirit of this ink treasure.
He could only remain stationed atop this bone mountain, unable to move, barely able to control a portion of the Avici Hell.
In the future, he would likely only be refined by some Golden Core or late Foundation Establishment cultivator.
There was no longer any path to life or freedom.
However, he had come to fully understand its properties.
At the beginning, this had indeed been nothing more than a painting.
What the Golden Core cultivator in the Demonic Ruins coveted was the Deity Transformation power’s comprehension of the Dao as expressed through the Avici Hell.
But now that he had refined himself into the painting, what would happen next was beyond his own ability to predict.
The Avici Hell formed by this painting would continuously devour mortals and even Qi Refining Stage cultivators.
If it consumed enough living beings, perhaps his ghost generals within the painting could become more substantial, even rivaling Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Golden Core and Foundation Establishment cultivators would be affected by this Hell Transformation, their cultivation plummeting to the Qi Refining Stage.
To a Deity Transformation great power, the meager spiritual energy of the Qi Refining Stage was no different from that of a mortal.
However, a Qi Refining cultivator who lingered within would not fare any easier than a Foundation Establishment or Golden Core cultivator.
Because the true terror of this Avici Hell was not the fiends that filled every corner.
It was the reflection of all the denizens of hell, mirrored within the ink.
It was a trial of the will.
Within the hell’s reflection, the sins a cultivator had committed would emerge.
If one remained in one place too long, it would drag the cultivator inside to experience the true Avici Hell!
In the “Records of the Immortal Court’s Ink Paintings,” it was written that an old monk of Jingyun Temple once told his disciples:
“When Wu Sheng Daoxuan painted this temple’s Hell Transformation, among the cunning and wicked people of Chang’an, there were many who, upon seeing it, were struck with fear and repentance of their sins.”
Only one kind of person could walk through this Avici Hell as though on flat ground.
That was one who possessed both a flawless Dao heart and a clear, unshaken will!
Yet in the present day, let alone the small state of Chu— even in the great sects of the Central Domain and the Tang Court’s Immortal Dynasty, such individuals were exceedingly rare.
The Avici Hell was still spreading!
…
The disturbance at Shigu Ping was far, far too great.
Most of the six great sects’ elders had already arrived, hovering outside the Avici Hell.
Cong Yuzhen followed behind Elder Fu, her brow furrowed tightly. “Master.”
“Those mortals…” Fu Xiao sighed softly. His disciple was fine in every respect—except that she was far too compassionate.
“This ghost domain is exceedingly bizarre!”
Many Foundation Establishment cultivators had barely stepped inside before their cultivation was affected by the painting’s rules, plummeting wildly.
“To be able to influence the laws of heaven and earth within a localized space…”
“At the very least, this is a treasure belonging to a Deity Transformation cultivator!”
The bizarre effects made many Foundation Establishment cultivators extremely wary. Moreover, everyone had noticed one thing.
The Avici Hell appeared to still be gradually spreading.
In truth, Jin Tianya had spent very little time fully familiarizing himself with the treasure painting.
Foundation Establishment cultivators could no longer enter it.
Perhaps because all the mortals of Shigu Ping had already become fiends within the domain, the hell’s reflection spread very slowly—but it had not stopped.
Which meant that cultivators were still dying within Shigu Ping!
The six sects’ cultivators aboard their flying artifacts took in the full horror of Shigu Ping’s devastation.
Master Sanjue of Huadu Temple sorrowfully closed his eyes, actually sitting down and beginning to chant Buddhist sutras.
Behind him, his Buddhist cultivator disciples followed suit one by one.
Xu Ziqing’s expression was grave as he gazed at the faintly visible painting scroll hovering in the distant sky, murmuring with disbelief.
“The Hell Transformation Painting?”
He had seen this painting before in the Inner Sect library, within an ancient text called the “Records of the Immortal Court’s Ink Paintings.”
It had been part of his master’s—Eastern Abyss Sect Master Lijun Daoren’s—private collection.
He never expected to encounter the genuine article here.
“No… that is not right. This is not the original.”
In principle, the original Hell Transformation Painting should be housed in a temple somewhere in the Central Domain’s Immortal Court.
This must be a copy.
He suddenly came to his senses and hurriedly asked Dai Rui of the Sun-Shooting Sect beside him.
“Are there any Eastern Abyss Sect disciples among those patrolling Shigu Ping today?”
“Elder Xu, your sect’s Song Yan and Li Qingfeng are currently inside.”
“In addition, there are Shen Huai and Ji Chuanqiao of the Profound Abyss Sect, as well as disciples from the Hanging Sword Sect…”
Dai Rui, as captain of Team A-1, reported to the elders of the three involved sects one by one.
Xu Ziqing’s brow furrowed even deeper.
He focused his gaze toward Shigu Ping. Fortunately, the terrain of Shigu Ping was low and the residential buildings were uniformly short, so the scene within was laid out clearly.
He quickly spotted Song Yan and Li Qingfeng.
…
In truth.
Even now, Song Yan still had no idea what was happening.
His only thought was self-preservation.
Sword qi shot from his fingertips, slaying several of the fierce ghosts that pursued him relentlessly.
But the briefest pause was enough for skeletal black hands to reach out from the ink-like substance on the ground, seizing his ankles.
They pulled him downward.
Demonic whispers tormented his ears, and hazy phantoms danced before his eyes.
“What in the world is this?!”
Fortunately, within the Town-Dao Sword Manor, the small sword born of his Dao heart occasionally emitted a soft hum, dispelling the disorienting illusions before him.
“Xiao He, can you tell? Are these ghosts real?”
In Xiao He’s eyes, a blue-gold spiritual light flickered, her voice tinged with fear.
“They are real!”
Receiving Xiao He’s confirmation, she could not help but question reality itself.
He raised his eyes slightly.
Above Shigu Ping, the sky was filled with countless fierce ghosts and the faintly visible painting of hell.
A preposterous thought flashed through his mind.
Had he perhaps suddenly died…
And descended into hell?