Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 220 - 213: The Lion Plain - Part 2

Chapter 220: Chapter 213: The Lion Plain - Part 2

Lin Xin was lying flat on his body, swiftly flying forward through a dark tunnel, drawn forth by an inexplicable pulling force.

The tunnel was like the intestines of some dark creature, with layers of folds on its inner walls that continuously vibrated and squeezed rhythmically.

After winding around for quite a while and turning countless corners, a faint red light finally appeared ahead.

Lin Xin widened his eyes, trying to make out what was at the exit. However, all that came into view was a blur of pale red. He could also smell a faint hint of sulfur in his nose.

He quickly stirred his spiritual energy, his attire slowly spreading an invisible spiritual field around him, transforming into a shield. He prepared for everything.

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

The sky was pitch-black.

The ground was covered with crimson rivers of lava, from which rivers continually emitted black poisonous gases, and in some places, violent surges of bright red lava erupted like tidal waves crashing against the shore.

The ground was as black as ink, except for the red lava rivers and clumps of leafless gray vines, each about the height of a man, covered with thorns, and waving about like the claws of monstrous beasts.

In the distance, a giant volcano was slowly erupting; its peak occasionally shot up flames, and vast amounts of golden-red lava overflowed down the sides, forming lines of gold.

This was a dark, burning plain with uneven small hills covered in gray, spiky vines, and here and there were boiling hot lava lakes.

Next to one of the oval-shaped red lava lakes, among a few gray boulders, grew a yellow flower over three meters tall.

The solitary yellow flower grew straight from the ground, with no clustering companion plants around it, nor any visible source of water. Its green stem, as thick as an arm, topped with petals that opened wide, was so large it forced the stem to bend down.

Cough...cough...!

Suddenly, the sunflower-like yellow flower started to cough violently as if it were a person, coughing several times before throwing its head back and giving a forceful sneeze.

Achoo!

Puff!

A glob of black matter was ejected from its pistil.

The black matter turned out to be a person dressed in black, covered from head to toe in yellow pollen. He sat on the ground for a moment before slowly getting up.

By the red light of the lava, the man appeared to be in his forties, with graying temples. He stood up and adjusted his clothes, exuding a composed and calm demeanor.

He shook his body, instantly dispersing all the pollen and returning to cleanness.

"So this is Lion Plains?" Lin Xin looked around, recognizing he was standing by the edge of an oval-shaped lava lake, its scorching, poisonous air continually attacking him, blocked by the spiritual field of his attire. Still, his nose couldn’t help but inhale a lot of sulfur odor.

Frowning, he scanned his surroundings, noticing the short-space flower by his side, its pistil already empty, revealing a black tunnel entrance.

He was standing on a black hillside, with a huge volcano in the distance continuously erupting, occasionally accompanied by rumblings and ground trembles.

"That strange woman said that once I find Lion Plains, I would find a way to escape from the netherworld. Now that I’m here, where should I start looking for it?" He furrowed his brow and stirred up his spiritual energy, which significantly enhanced his vision, as he looked into the darkness far away.

In the darkness, atop a distant hill, there seemed to be something protruding.

Lin Xin carefully noted the location of the short-space flower, took out several spirit jade pieces, and a pre-prepared array plate.

He buried the array plate in the ground, sprinkling some scent-masking powder on it.

"Transformation Realm."

He softly recited the decree syllables.

Instantly, a circle of silver array plate appeared around Lin Xin, including the short-space flower beneath him. Silver light burst forth from the ground like silver cords, which exploded all at once into silver dots, landing uniformly on Lin Xin and the short-space flower within the circle.

Gradually, both he and the short-space flower began to blur, their outlines growing fainter. Eventually, they completely disappeared, as if nothing had ever been there, just the pitch-black land.

Shhh!

With a faint noise, Lin Xin suddenly seemed to step out from nothingness. He turned back to look at the array formation, now completely unable to see the short-space flower.

"The Concealment Formation of the Golden Jade Sect is truly well-renowned," he remarked.

He casually walked toward the protrusion at the top of the distant hill.

Without employing Qinggong, the terrain was unfamiliar here, and it was unclear whether there were any hidden dangers.

Proceeding slowly, it took him over ten minutes to arrive in front of the hill.

The hill was not tall, just about four or five meters, and at its top seemed to be a grayish-white stele leaning sideways, half-buried in the ground.

Looking left and right, Lin Xin cautiously walked up the hill and came to the stele.

’Lion Plains, Ultimate Bliss.’

Seemingly, there were more inscriptions under the buried part of the stele. He dug around with his sword, revealing the bottom half of the inscriptions.

"Immortality, everlasting Ultimate Bliss." The unclear ghostly script was vaguely engraved on the lower half of the stele.

"Immortality...?" Lin Xin frowned.

Ah... Ah...

Suddenly, a faint moaning sound drifted from ahead.

He looked up and saw a figure vaguely sitting in front of a large rock.

"Who!"

He called out softly.

No one responded.

With the distance and darkness adding to the lack of starlight or moonlight, he couldn’t make out who it was in front of the rock.

Carefully placing his hand on the Red Flower Sword, Lin Xin slowly approached, maintaining vigilance at all times.

Soon, as he got closer, he could see clearly.

In front of the rock, there shockingly sat a figure entirely skeletal like a dried corpse, without clothes, its muscles and skin shriveled to just a black layer of skin clinging to the bones, hairless, merely a bald skeletal skull.

This person’s eyes were lifeless, continuously emitting painful and desperate moans, over and over again smashing his head against the rock.

He had just banged his forehead against the rock, then immediately lifted his head; the gash that had opened up on his head had already healed, then he would strike again, breaking open a new wound, then lift his head, and the wound would heal. This self-destructive cycle repeated endlessly.

Lin Xin could vaguely see the dry, gray, bloodless muscles and bones inside the wound right before it completely healed.

"Hey."

He called out to the other person.

The person had no reaction whatsoever, continuing to smash his head against the rock. It seemed he hadn’t heard Lin Xin calling him.

Lin Xin walked behind the person, not too far away, released his spiritual energy, and suddenly pulled in a chunk of molten rock, throwing it at the person.

With a thud, the fist-sized rock hit the person’s back, eliciting no reaction; the person continued his self-harming behavior, utterly ignoring him.

Lin Xin tried calling the person several more times, to no avail.

Having no other option, he just stopped watching and continued forward. He could faintly hear more sounds coming from further ahead.

Not far forward, a moderately-sized, ruined town appeared before him. It seemed that there were fires flickering inside. He could vaguely make out figures.

After crossing a dried-up riverbed bridge, a flock of crows was startled into flying, scattering in all directions.

Lin Xin looked up at the crows, surprised that there were still birds in this volcanic region.

After crossing the bridge, following the dimly remaining stone steps downhill across a slope full of black pumice stones, the entire town was fully revealed before Lin Xin.

Lava, like flames, was distributed all around the center of the town, casting a vast red glow.

The town’s buildings were all constructed from gray-black stone blocks, neatly and squarely, looking from a distance quite intact, but upon closer inspection, many etchings and scratches densely covered the walls, as if carved out forcibly by nails.

Lin Xin engaged his movement technique, lightly leaping, and in the blink of an eye he crossed dozens of meters, directly landing in the brightest part of the town.

In the town center, a several meters high giant bonfire burned, with five corpse-like figures continuously kneeling and bowing in worship around it.

They formed a circle, repeatedly lifting their thin, stick-like arms, bowing towards the giant yellow flames.

Lin Xin walked a circle around them, and these people didn’t notice him at all, just continuously, repeatedly bowing, their skeletal faces barely expressing their extreme piety.

Lin Xin looked at the bonfire; it was filled with thick logs, curiously appearing as if they had just been added, not blackening despite being scorched.

He walked behind one, watching as he tirelessly bowed to the giant bonfire, mumbling words in perhaps some ancient language, unintelligible yet sounding more like meaningless screams.

He frowned, feeling a slight oppression in the atmosphere.

Passing through the bonfire, ahead was a dark street, seemingly smoke-stained.

On both sides of the street, there were corpses making strange movements everywhere. Some were forcefully pushing against immovable walls, some squatting in corners as if laughing foolishly, some tilting their heads up to the sky as though watching something, but plainly, he had no eyes, just two bloody holes...

Lin Xin slowly walked down the middle of the street, occasionally observing these corpses, who repeatedly performed their actions, unresponsive to any change in their environment. Some still wore clothes, while others had skin so decayed it hung from their bodies like tattered cloth, fluttering in the wind.

Passing through the town, Lin Xin headed straight for the volcano, the only source of light here, which seemed to have been erupting for too long, appearing unusually stable.

Walking from the town to the volcano, following the desolate stone steps starting at the base of the mountain, Lin Xin saw many aimlessly moving corpses all the way up. (Continued. If you like this work, feel free to vote and provide monthly support at qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)