Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 165 - 158 - Organizing Below

Chapter 165: 158 Chapter Organizing Below

Over a month later.

On the border of Song State, at Red Sun Slope.

The sky subtly glowed blood red, with no sun, only layers of blood-red clouds drifting and swirling low, as if they were countless swollen cotton pieces about to fall any moment.

The ground was barren, covered only with some sticky black soil.

In the middle of the black land, there was a straight grey road leading to a tall, dilapidated black watchtower in the distance.

Lin Xin walked slowly along the grey road, with no one around, not even an insect or a small animal in sight. Looking around, both sides were endless expanses of black barren land.

On the wasteland, there was nothing but densely packed mounds of grave hills, so many that Lin Xin, who initially planned to count them, had to give up.

The wind howled loudly, eerily like some strange human crying.

Lin Xin had arrived here non-stop, following the method recorded in the Jade Slip.

Three days ago, he hadn’t seen any human habitation around, remembering the numb, emotionless gaze of a few peasants living by the road, looking almost like dead people.

Since five days ago, all the people Lin Xin encountered had been just withering old people; desolate, aged, sick, decayed, lacking life force, not even attractive enough for monsters to bother with.

Regaining his senses, Lin Xin realized he had unknowingly arrived next to that abandoned watchtower.

The watchtower stood over ten meters tall, cylindrical, with auxiliary towers on both sides. The black stone walls were pitted, and traces of swords and claws were clearly visible.

Walking forward, he lightly touched the claw marks on the walls.

The walls were very hard. He pressed hard, channeling spiritual energy, but it barely dented.

It was amazing to think that some creature could leave claw marks on it.

"This is now the border of the Yang Membrane. How do I get out?"

Lin Xin passed the watchtower and continued walking, but no matter how he walked, he didn’t seem to get too far.

After walking ten more steps, he looked back, and the watchtower was still just a few meters behind him.

He stamped his feet, propelled himself into the air, and shot forward. After covering some distance, he looked back, and the watchtower hadn’t moved, still just a few meters away.

"This is the edge of space..."

Lin Xin stopped and didn’t waste any more effort.

"I specifically chose a region between two patrollers, it should be a while before anyone comes by."

He recalled the content inside the Jade Slip.

’Methods to exit and enter the Yang Membrane: one, an Alchemical Taoist Master forcefully tears it, the Yang Membrane can self-repair, and a small tear won’t have a big impact. Two, established entry and exit built by major sects of the Immortal Sect. Three, enter the gaps, leap out.’

"It seems I have to choose the third option..." Lin Xin took out the spirit jade he had prepared beforehand, lining up thumb-thick pieces of spirit jade on the ground to form a somewhat complicated pattern.

Entering the gap required a lot of spirit jade. Lin Xin was wealthy enough, having obtained more than a dozen pieces of spirit jade from the White Tiger Demon King. Usually, a formation only needed one piece, but this formation required ten pieces.

"Such a formation can only be opened for a few blinks of an eye, I must seize the opportunity."

He arranged the formation, his fingers slowly drawing out linking formation patterns and some slightly twisted basic talismans between the spirit jade.

Spiritual energy slowly linked up the pieces of spirit jade like threads.

Crouching down, Lin Xin finally drew the last stroke of the formation, slowly standing up.

"With the power of the spirit jade formation, I can only break through to somewhere in the gap, then I still have a distance to cover." He watched as the formation on the ground slowly began to emit white light.

Sss!

The white light shot up over two meters high, forming a white line, erect in front of Lin Xin.

Lin Xin quickly stretched his hand out, digging into the middle of the white line, tearing it apart.

With a tearing sound.

Following the white line, space was torn open, revealing the dark, grey-misty space inside.

It was like peeling back a layer of an oil painting to reveal the canvas underneath.

A large amount of grey mist seeped in from the gap; Lin Xin hurriedly dove in, letting go of the white line.

In the blink of an eye, the gap closed back up, the white light dimmed, and the formation on the ground collapsed, all the spirit jade instantly turning to white ash, scattered by the wind.

**************************

In the grey misty sky, a huge red moon, resembling an eyeball, slowly released a misty red glow similar to a sheer curtain.

Lin Xin stepped into the gap, just touching the ground, when he suddenly staggered.

Looking down, the ground was actually slanted.

He seemed to be standing on a slope, a seventy-degree slope covered with black soil, where black withered trees and grasses grew vertically as if defying gravity, unlike the slanted ground.

At a glance through the hazy fog, continuous black soil hills stretched in the distance, and one could vaguely see a small square stone house standing not far away.

Like those withered trees and grasses, the stone house and hills were the same; it was as if he had suddenly entered a slanted oil painting placed askew by someone, where only he was upright; all other things were positioned at a slanted angle.

Lin Xin’s shoes stomped hard into the ground as he stood upright, the crack behind him created by the opened Formation instantly closed and repaired itself.

He looked around; the area was shrouded in a gray fog with dark skies above, lit only by a hint of a moon’s red light.

"Is this the gap?"

He focused his sight, scanning the surroundings, and noticed a creature with four legs slowly crawling on the ground in the darkness to his right.

It was his first time in the Outer Regions; Lin Xin wanted to try interacting with the creatures in the gap, a place affected by the contamination of the Outer Regions but not severely so. It was a buffer zone where the creatures should not be too strong, suitable for adapting to the environment.

He walked gently towards the creature.

The gravity of the slanted ground was also skewed, making him cautiously prevent himself from sliding down the other side of the slope. Fortunately, his Qinggong was excellent, and with Spiritual Energy running under his feet, he easily adapted and clung to the ground,

As he drew closer, the creature seemed to notice Lin Xin.

It suddenly paused, turned sideways, and abruptly started running straight towards Lin Xin.

He... He... He...

A series of heavy, gasping sounds came through.

Lin Xin grasped the handle of the Spiritual Heart Sword standard to the Manor, and as the creature approached, he was taken aback upon seeing its full appearance.

The creature was not an animal at all but a person on all fours.

The person’s skin was grayish-green, wearing only a tattered gray leather pants. The moment they saw Lin Xin, the bald head burst into a weird laugh, the neck elongated like a noodle, and the whole head flew at Lin Xin’s face with its mouth wide open.

Facing a foul stench, Lin Xin didn’t even look, just a flash of Sword Light.

The strange person’s head was cleaved in two by the sword, falling to the ground and struggling for a few moments before turning into white smoke and scattering, and its body followed suit, dissipating into white smoke.

"The speed is decent; even a regular innate practitioner of the Sixth or Seventh Layer might not be able to react in time," Lin Xin assessed, "The blade feels stronger than an Eighth Layer Spiritual Light Shield when chopping. Indeed impressive; overall, it’s equivalent to a Seventh Layer innate cultivator."

This was just the first creature he encountered, and it was already so tricky.

Lin Xin finally understood why the Sect did not pay much attention to disciples below the Innate level; here, in the gap, even a regular creature would outmatch them, sending them to the Outer Regions would only send them on a path to certain death.

After inspecting the remains left by the creature, Lin Xin found a small white object that seemed to be a bone fragment. He picked it up carefully and continued cautiously along the slanted ground.

Arriving at the black stone house he had seen earlier, its door was wide open, containing nothing but some straw.

Moving on, Lin Xin recalled the landmarks mentioned in the Jade Slip, heading straight towards the northeast.

Soon, another crawling creature appeared ahead; before it could react, Lin Xin effortlessly swept past, piercing its forehead with a swift sword stroke.

The creature turned into white smoke and vanished, leaving behind a piece of white bone.

Lin Xin was gradually getting used to the slanted ground here, continuing in one direction.

All around were endless rises of black soil hills; strangely, he often saw sparse little stone houses, some empty, some still containing remnants of pots and pans and other household tools.

After travelling for several hours, the gray fog ahead began to thin out.

Lin Xin stopped, found a stone house to enter, and gathered some dry wood from around to start a fire with flint.

The red glow of the fire lit up the dim gap. Just after the fire started, it wasn’t long before Lin Xin faintly heard a series of popping sounds outside, as if something was hopping towards him.

He stood and looked outside the stone house doorway, only to see several vague figures in the distance hopping towards this side.

"What are these...?"

He looked carefully and suddenly realized that these figures included men and women, old and young, but they all shared one feature: only one leg on the lower body.

A single leg that was thicker and longer than that of an ordinary person; these people were naked, their skin tattered and hanging on their bodies like rags, revealing the white muscles underneath. They moved by hopping forwards, like fleas.

"Humans can’t have white muscles. It seems these are not people." Lin Xin slowly drew his Longsword.

With a hiss, Sword Qi shot from the sword tip, striking the ground and creating a small hole.

Hiss!

Lin Xin, holding his sword with one hand, sliced out an arced Sword Qi, aiming at these one-legged people.

Bang!

The Sword Qi did not cut the opponents as Lin Xin had imagined but instead exploded with a great force, flipping the two one-legged people onto the ground before dissipating.

The flipped one-legged people got up again; they continued hopping towards him with only minor scratches on their bodies.

"Even Sword Qi of the Ninth Layer isn’t effective..." Lin Xin frowned slightly. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it on Qidian (qidian.com), where your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)