Chapter 69: h.e.l.lo, Comrade

This chapter is by Lianyin of BC Novels.

The faint sound of trickling water rang in his ears.

Chu Yu could dimly hear the sounds of footsteps. He gave a sudden start, as his thoughts gathered. He woke up.

He could vaguely see the darkened roof of a cave above him as he opened his eyes. He blinked, but before he had managed to take a clearer look, there were sudden stabs of pain all over his body. It hurt so much that Chu Yu could not even move. He could scarcely breathe and could only lay paralyzed on the ground as if on his deathbed.

It was as if his spiritual pulse had been ripped apart. There was searing pain all over his body. When the pain reached its peak, Chu Yu"s brain buzzed, and his eyes grew dim. He had just regained consciousness, only to faint again from the pain. After a while, the pain pulled him back into consciousness again. This went on a few times until Chu Yu clenched his teeth and finally managed with some difficulty not to fall back into unconsciousness. He glanced to one side; there seemed to be a shadowy figure beside him.

Demon Lord Yan Heng?!　　

……Then he was a sure goner.
　　
Chu Yu closed his eyes, resigned to his current situation. He did not dare to move at the moment. After all, his body was in such a terrible state; it was as if his bones would shatter like fragile gla.s.s if he moved even a little.

While it was strange that Demon Lord Yan Heng had not killed him yet, all his energy was currently focused on withstanding that agonizing pain, and thus, he did not feel any fear.

Chu Yu heaved a sigh internally.
　　
It seemed that the protagonist"s law of invincibility was not exactly set in stone……　

"The host cannot question the law~"

A small voice suddenly sounded in his ear. Chu Yu was shocked. The next moment, he flew into a rage and growled, "You still dare to show up!"

The System laughed, "Host, please calm down~ The system was only undergoing maintenance~ The maintenance is now completed~ The loyal 007 System is at your service~"

After yelling and venting his anger, Chu Yu had calmed down a little. He listened to the System again, kept his anger back, and said coldly, "Loyal? Then please explain, what is this plot regarding Demon Lord Yan Heng all about?!"

The System acted cute and played dumb, "Exactly what it"s about~"

Chu Yu"s face was expressionless.
　　
The System was silent for a moment before it replied in an embarra.s.sed tone, "Actually, this plot is the ending of the original novel~"

That meant that the protagonist"s invincibility mode was gone.
　　
"The ending?" Chu Yu chewed over the words several times. But the more he thought about it, the more he felt that something was off. He frowned and said, "This plot is now over, so it can no longer be considered a spoiler. Tell me exactly what"s going on."

The System faltered and demurred for a long time before ​finally ​revealing the outline of the original work"s plot.

Chu Yu"s face was already black by the time he finished listening.

​​It had to be said that the author of this book was ​a complete farce, one so idle and bored that it makes his b.a.l.l.s ache, no wonder he ​even ​used a perfect posture to drop dead on the streets.

The original plot was that the Demon Lord Yan Heng would be reborn, but the protagonist had already killed all of the people in the Chu ​clan who would be able to seal Demon Lord Yan Heng, and so no one could stop ​Demon ​Lord Yan Heng. He then slaughtered everyone in Tian Yuan Sect, including Lu Qingan who had come to stop him. The protagonist had also been seriously injured, and the female leads fled with him to Qingtu.

The awakened Demon Lord Yan Heng hated the righteous path cultivators and demonic cultivators equally to the core. He wiped out all those presumptuous demonic cultivators who thought he could be controlled. Crossing the eight Righteous Path boundaries, he finally found the Soul Summoning Banner. With a wave of the banner, there was boundless miasma, overflowing with Yin energy and br.i.m.m.i.n.g with resentment, that emanated from the Soul Summoning Banner. Whether they were the common folk or cultivators, they all died soon after coming into contact with the miasma. Their souls were then absorbed by the Soul Summoning Banner, to be used as fuel as it continued to grow in strength and power.

The demonic cultivators finally realized that they were in over their heads. Demon Lord Yan Heng had to be subdued, and so they wept bitter tears as they joined forces with the righteous cultivators. With the few remaining righteous cultivators, they devised a scheme, only to find themselves at their wits" end.

The descendants of those who had originally sealed Demon Lord Yan Heng were all dead. And upon his return, the remnant soul of Demon Lord Yan Heng had been going about absorbing the spiritual energy and vitality of countless people. His strength and power had thus recovered rapidly. Even if all the remaining people a.s.sembled, their numbers would still not be enough to fill the gaps in-between his teeth.

Just when the miasma was about to spread to Yun Cuo, someone thought of an idea.

In the past, someone had sacrificed themselves with the help of a magic weapon to seal the remnant soul of Demon Lord Yan Heng. So perhaps they might be able to seal Demon Lord Yan Heng again if another person was willing to sacrifice themselves, even if they had no magic weapon……

The protagonist, whose cultivation had improved by leaps and bounds during this time and was nearing the DemiG.o.d stage, stepped forward.
　　
As he was the one who killed the only people who could seal Demon Lord Yan Heng, he felt that he had a responsibility to pick up the mantle.

When the female leads had heard that the protagonist was going to go to his own doom, they wept and tried to dissuade him. After several rounds of disagreements, the heroines eventually resolved to follow the protagonist, even into death. The protagonist was then moved to tears from their resolution and ended up leading them all to their death together……

In the end, all the protagonist"s beloved ladies all died, but he successfully managed to seal the remnant soul of Demon Lord Yan Heng and his Soul Summoning Banner. Yet because of his invincibility mode, he was the only one who survived……

The surviving cultivators shed tears of grat.i.tude and came together to create a prominent sect with the protagonist as the sect master.

Sitting all high and mighty on the roof of his palace hall, the protagonist had been looking at the vast lands which have been given a new lease of life amidst all the destruction. Yet, his heart gradually withered until he finally gave a laugh of desolation and sealed himself off in a coffin, entrusting someone with the task to bury him together with the remains of the people he had loved in the tomb of the heroines.

Heaven did not want him to perish, but there was no longer anyone in the world who truly cared about him, and so, he no longer had the desire to live.

In this world, a withered tree would always get a new lease of life in Spring, flowers would always bloom, and the sun would still continue to s.h.i.+ne. Yet, nothing could thaw the boundless, freezing snow in his heart.

The author"s conclusion was that: there were no spring and autumn in the protagonist"s entire life, only winter and summer. If it wasn"t the freezing cold freezing his heart, it was the scorching heat setting his soul alight. He would never be able to break free from this cycle between extremes.

Chu Yu"s eyes were slightly moist, and there was a choking sensation in his throat. For an instant, he felt like crying, but he managed to hold back his tears.

Getting his emotions under control was not easy. When he saw the words on the system interface, he exploded in anger and used all the words he could momentarily think of to curse and swear at the author.

Screw you!

Where"s the gratifying content expected of a stallion novel?

Never mind if he didn"t have the golden finger, but the author even wrote Xie Xi"s fate out to be so tragic!

Fortunately…… fortunately, he had come to this world.

He must not let Xie Xi live through such tragedy again like in the original story; he must definitely leave this d**nable place alive.

Chu Yu ranted at the evasive System again, then opened his eyes, clenched his teeth, and slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position with his hands on the cold ground.

There was indeed a man sitting in the shadows quietly beside him. Chu Yu was unable to see him clearly on the gloom.

Despite that, he could feel that this man did not have any murderous or malicious intent.

Perhaps, it wasn"t Demon Lord Yan Heng?

Were there actually still people around in this abyss?

With some difficulty, Chu Yu let himself lean back against the cave wall. He moved his lips, and after a moment, said in a hoa.r.s.e voice, "……Who are you?"

The man did not answer and simply remained still. If Chu Yu had not heard the footsteps earlier, he would have thought the man had merely pa.s.sed away in his current seated posture.

Chu Yu gave a few light coughs. There was a faint aftertaste of blood in his throat. Inevitably, he ended up coughing even harder in discomfort. He almost spat out a mouthful of blood but managed to keep the urge down. It took him quite a while to catch his breath. In between short gasps of air, he asked, "Who are you? Are you Demon Lord Yan Heng"s minion? "

Other than one of Demon Lord Yan Heng"s subordinates, Chu Yu could not think of anyone else who would accompany Demon Lord Yan Heng in his eternal slumber here in the demonic abyss.

The man finally spoke, but his voice was even more hoa.r.s.e and deeper than that of the severely injured Chu Yu. His speech was even somewhat choppy, as if he had not spoken to anyone else for many years, "No."

After a pause, he continued, "Demon Lord Yan Heng, was previously sealed, within a large array in the bottom of the abyss. Three days ago, he was suddenly roused. He broke through the large array and left the abyss. Before long, he was sealed again. And you fell down with him."

So he had been lying here for three days.

Chu Yu weakly laughed and said, "I was the one who resealed him. Ain"t I awesome?"

His body felt like a pool of stagnant water. Chu Yu went silent for a while before he continued, "Were you the one who found and brought me back here?"

"Mhm."
　　
"……Then, do you know what happened to me?"

Chu Yu felt the man"s gaze sweeping over him before he said in a bland tone, "Mhm. Your body was devastated by the violent spiritual forces, but something seemed to have protected your heart"s meridian, which saved your life. Your spiritual pulse, is also very lucky, to have escaped unscathed. However, your Dantian has been sealed off. Thus, your cultivation has been rendered invalid."

……Invalid?

Did that mean he was now a mere mortal?

Chu Yu looked up and sighed.

No matter how bad it was, he had not lost his life, so that did not seem to be too bad. Other than Demon Lord Yan Heng, there should not be any other dangerous things in the Demonic Abyss. Now that Demon Lord Yan Heng had fallen into a deep sleep again, he could surely find a way to get out of here.

As if he could read Chu Yu"s mind, the man continued on in a tone that was near callous, "Don"t even think about it. Your body is now frail, and it is inconvenient for you to move. Besides, your cultivation has been disabled, and there are countless restrictions in the abyss. It is impossible for you to even think of flying back to the top."

Once you fall, you may never, ever be able to leave the abyss.

After a moment"s silence, Chu Yu tried to open his interspatial storage ring. As expected, he was unable to open it without using some spiritual energy.

It was a pity since there were numerous life-saving ​elixirs and miraculous pills in it……

The man in front of him should be a cultivator too, but this ring ​only recognized ​its own master. Unless he took the initiative to erase the soul imprint which would allow others to activate the ring….. But now he was just a mere mortal, it was impossible to even erase the imprint……

Chu Yu felt a little suffocated and let out a sigh, "How long have you been here?"

The man calmly replied, "Hundreds of years."

That was really darn long.

Chu Yu struggled internally for a moment, then made a last-ditch attempt, "Aren"t there any other ways to leave the demonic abyss?"

Almost immediately, he felt like an idiot. If there was another way out, why would this man stay on for hundreds of years?

As expected, the man did not answer.

Chu Yu sighed again, "Seems like I have to play the good neighbor for quite some time…… My surname is Chu, and my name is Yu. May I ask your surname?"

The man paused and then said, "Fu."

Fu?

Chu Yu"s heart skipped a beat. He hesitated, then said tentatively, "Fu? I know of this surname. There is a big family in Linlan with the surname Fu too. I have yet to ask, but your first name is? "

The man suddenly chuckled, as if mocking himself, "There"s no need for Junior to sound me out. You must have heard of me too. My name is Fu Lanxue."

Chu Sheng had once said that there was a man named Fu Lanxue in the neighboring domain. His qi deviated while he was cultivating, and in a misstep, he hacked his kinsmen to death. In the end, and in agony, he threw himself off a cliff…… So it turned out that he had jumped off into the demonic abyss? And what"s more, he didn"t even die?

Chu Yu was too embarra.s.sed to simply say, "Oh Elder, of course, I"ve heard of you; my eldest brother used you as a bad example to follow……"

Chu Yu stewed in embarra.s.sment for a long time before he said dryly, "This junior has certainly heard a little about…… Elder."

The atmosphere suddenly became a little awkward.

Thank you for reading this story at the BC Novels website. The edited and latest version of the story and its extras can only be found at the translator"s website, BC Novels.

Chu Yu sat back idly for a moment, his mind wandering until he finally could not help but think about what he had deliberately not let himself think about before.

Who knew how unhinged Xie Xi would become after having to helplessly watch him fall into the abyss with Demon Lord Yan Heng…… And Chu Sheng too, how lost he would be once he woke up after being caught unaware and knocked unconscious by Chu Yu…… Lu Qingan had always thought highly of him, he probably would not feel good either……

He could only hope that this demonic abyss was not like the ​Mausoleum ​Ruins that would cut off all contact and even erase the soul imprint he left on his Soul Jade……

As long as his soul imprint was still there, he believed Xie Xi and Chu Sheng would not have a mental breakdown. Just that…… he hoped that they would not be so agitated that they would jump in right after him. The bottom of this demonic abyss was not exactly that comfortable……

Chu Yu rested quietly for the entire day. His forehead was full of cold sweat after constantly enduring the intense pain. Once Chu Yu got used to the pain and was able to take a step forward, only he fell to his knees again when he tried.

……His cultivation was useless now, even his body had reverted to that of a commoner"s; he would have to eat and drink. But while he could find water in this demonic abyss, where could he find food……?

He wouldn"t starve to death, would he?

Chu Yu agonized about it for a long time. Seeing that Fu Lanxue was still motionless, he reluctantly s.h.i.+fted to the pool in the cave. He first took some water aside to wash his hands before he cupped more water to drink. It was like a welcome rain after a long drought when his dry lips touched the water. He drank a few more mouthfuls before he more or less recovered some of his strength. Stumbling as he stood up, he then politely asked, "Elder, is there anything to eat here?"

​​After​ he had brought Chu ​Yu back to this cave, ​​Fu Lanxue ​​​paid him no attention. It was only when he heard Chu Yu"s question that he replied softly​, "​​There are some edible red fruits​ ​outside​ the cave, just half a mile to the left, between the mountain walls​.​​"​ ​

​​Chu ​Yu thanked him​. Rummaging​​ around his waist, Chu Yu ​took Xun Sheng down and patted this old partner of his. ​He then wrongfully used it as a crutch​ and limped out of the cave.

​It was silent at the bottom of the demonic abyss. ​Everything was still and lifeless around him. ​The only consolation ​was that ​there was still some light ​​even if it ​was dim, ​so he could still see ​with some difficulty.​ This place was really too stifling and oppressive; Fu Lanxue ​was truly admirable to be able to ​spend hundreds of years in this​ kind of​ environment.

When he was in ​​the ​Mausoleum ​Ruins, ​​he was ​almost driven to depression by the gloomy weather ​there​, even though ​​Shen Nian​ had been around to​ guide him​ around​.​ ​​It was still not possible for him to wander around here​, so it was even worse compared to the times in​ ​​the​ ​Mausoleum ​Ruins. ​He would probably go mad if he ​stayed​ in this place for​ too long.

​​Chu ​Yu slowly moved to the place Fu Lanxue ​mentioned. ​His movements, however, were slow, and he grew bored. Thus, his mind could not help but wander to those people above the ​demonic abyss.

​The​ desperate cries of Xie Xi before he fell into the ​demonic ​abyss ​echoed in his mind​.​ He also ​recalled the ending of Xie Xi in the original ​novel which the system had recounted to him. Chu Yu"s step​s​ ​faltered​. His eyes ​felt hot, and ​the ​​tears that ​he had held back for a long time suddenly ​trickled down.

If ​he were fortunate enough to leave this place and return to Xie Xi, ​he would never leave him again. ​No matter what happened,​ he would always stay by his side​.

​His heart ached for Xie Xi.​
　　
​The system Sighed​ too, "Ah~ Among the earthly mortals, I ask, what is ​Love​~"

​Chu Yu expressionlessly cut it off, "Shut up." ​

After limping​ for half a mile, ​he finally saw the fruits​ ​which Fu Lanxue said were growing between the mountain walls. Chu ​Yu was now ​​feeling faint from hunger​. Ignoring everything else, he went over, picked ​a ​fruit​,​​ and took a bite after wiping it down.

​……He had never tasted​ such​ bitter fruit before​​.

To ​preserve his life, Chu ​Yu carefully gnawed on the fruit and swallowed ​it with some difficulty. ​Just as he was thinking of picking a few more to stock up on them​​, a sudden sound ​from behind him​ broke the silence​. Something was rus.h.i.+ng ​at him.

With a ruthless intent to kill.

Reika"s Notes: