Looking down at the lantern, the Captain thought, Grandpa Heir Apparent and the others really didn’t tag along secretly? If they were here, could they really resist the urge to devour the dark souls in the abyss?

Sighing inwardly, the Captain ignored the struggling of the lantern. Quickly performing a left-handed incantation gesture, he pushed his hand onto the face. The vicious face let loose a howl. In response, the Captain bit the tip of his tongue and spat some blood onto the lantern. Instantly, the face became splattered with blood.

“Shut up, fool! You’re a past life face that I left here on purpose. How dare you yell at me!”

Around that time, Xu Qing sped onto the altar.

Exactly as he did, his candle burned out and the smoke vanished. Xu Qing looked around, eventually noticing the lantern in the Captain’s hand.

Looking very pleased with himself, the Captain held the lantern up high.

“I left this thingy hiding here years ago. It doesn’t have a brain, only a face, so it isn’t very smart. But I know it all too well. You see, from the moment we stepped foot in the mountains, I kept my mouth shut. This thingy, taking advantage of the fact that we couldn’t see anything outside of the smoke, said a lot. You probably heard it all.”

Meanwhile, everyone else was stepping onto the altar, and wondering why the journey had gone so smoothly.

Smiling, the Captain continued, “At first it told you not to look back, right? That was to gain your trust. The truth is that it was worried the things in the abyss would steal its food. After gaining your trust, it told you to speed up. That was its attempt to snatch you.

“It was on a fishing expedition, except, so was I. This thingy has no brain, but it’s still instinctively cautious. If it wasn’t trying to hook one of us, it wouldn’t have gotten close. Truth be told, this challenge is easy as long as we have those candles. The hard part was figuring a way to get my hands on this lantern.”

The Captain smacked the face on the lantern. After being sprayed with blood, the face had been gasping for breath. Now it opened its mouth and tried to bite the Captain, though he still managed to smack the face without being bitten.

“Give me that,” Nethersprite said, her eyes cold.

The Captain blinked a few times then tossed the lantern to Nethersprite. This was one of the promises he’d made to convince Nethersprite to come along.

After catching the lantern, Nethersprite looked at the face, which was about eighty percent the same as Chen Erniu’s. Eyes suddenly turning bloodshot, she viciously slapped the face. However, she didn’t stop at a single slap. She slapped it again and again, causing the face to howl in anguish.

Ning Yan, Wu Jianwu, and the others were all shocked.

Off to the side, the Captain cheered her on. “Great shot! Harder! Go, go, go!”

That just seemed to make Nethersprite angrier. Strangely, no matter how Nethersprite hit the skin lantern, it didn’t break. And though the face swelled up from the beating, the swelling went down almost immediately. It was a very bizarre scene.

Watching the scene play out, Xu Qing opened his mouth to speak.

However, before he could, a very familiar voice spoke into his mind.

“What a very interesting lamp.” It was the Heir Apparent’s voice!

Xu Qing’s mouth snapped shut. He was only slightly surprised to hear that voice speaking. Next, another voice spoke.

“Yeah, quite the treasure. What’s most interesting is that the construction method conforms to the style of Brilliant Heaven. This Chen Erniu really does have a mysterious background.” It was Princess Brightblossom.1

“I told you there’s something suspicious about the brat, which is why I suggested we secretly follow along. Earlier, it might have seemed like I was striking up a friendship with the little punk, but the truth is that I was pulling a fast one on him!” That was Eighth Sib.

“What I’m most interested in finding out is which mysterious high god actually chose to cooperate with him. And where is that god from? Is it really as our previous analysis indicated?” That was Princess Fifth.

The Heir Apparent chuckled. “We’ll get the answer here eventually. What’s more, the dark souls in the valley below contain a very ancient energy that could provide some rare nourishment for us.”

As Xu Qing listened to the voices, he surreptitiously looked around. The spot they’d traveled to was actually high in the sky. Looking down from that point, the dark canopy of heaven almost seemed like it was in the abyss.

When viewed from the base of the mountains, the ‘scar’ in the canopy of heaven wasn’t very noteworthy. But from this vantage point, it looked like an enormous valley. Lightning danced back and forth within it, but that wasn’t enough to dispel the darkness and gloom. The only thing that emerged from it was a deep rumbling sound.

Noticing what Xu Qing was looking at, the Captain walked over and clasped his shoulder.

“Little Ah Qing, the second challenge is going to be dangerous. But don’t worry. Your Eldest Brother came prepared. Let me tell you, that valley is full of countless souls. And they’re unique souls, as they have an ancient energy in them. If you get close to them, your life force will be infected with something extremely ancient that will cause you to age rapidly and wither into death.”

As he spoke, the Captain took out a pile of what appeared to be paper talismans, which he distributed.

“Once we’re inside, burn these as you walk along. This time, we’re not going to split up. We need to stick close together. As long as the fire keeps burning, the souls won’t get close. These strips of skin are very useful. Don’t waste them….”

The Captain seemed slightly reluctant to pass out the talismans.

Xu Qing took some talismans. As soon as he touched them, he realized they were actually made from the Captain’s skin. He cast a sympathetic look at the Captain.

At the moment, he didn’t think it was the right thing to tell the Captain that the Heir Apparent and the others were with them. Otherwise, the Captain’s good mood would probably sour. Although it seemed likely the Heir Apparent and the others would show themselves soon enough, keeping the Captain happy for even just a bit longer seemed like the best choice.

Sighing inwardly, he proceeded into the long, deep valley. The moment he did, everything turned upside down. The dome of heaven became the land. The land became the dome of heaven. The valley which had been in the sky now looked like two cliff faces towering up on either side. The sky was now just barely visible through the narrow gap overhead. What was more, the blade-like mountain range they had just walked through was now in the canopy of heaven. From the way it was angled, it really did look like a big saber, hanging up in the sky, ready to drop down at any moment into the valley. If it did… it would fit perfectly into the valley.

The unusual sight naturally created a sense of stifling pressure in those below. After all, it was like a literal blade hanging above their heads.

As the group looked up in shock, the Captain took out one of the strips of paper and lit it on fire. The surrounding darkness became like ink that swept away from them in rivulets.

“Don’t waste them. Burning two at a time should be enough. I’ll keep one going at all times, the rest of you take turns to burn them one at a time. Big Jianjian, you’re first. After that will be Little Ningning. Then Li Youfei, Big Boo— er, Big Sis Nether, and finally little Ah Qing.”

Warmth spread out from the fire, covering all of them. The darkness beyond the light stirred, and Xu Qing could see numerous eyes there, staring coldly at them. In fact, based on how they moved, Xu Qing could sense that there were massive entities out in the darkness, eying them like tigers eying prey. A sense of deadly crisis began to build within him.

However, when he thought about how the Heir Apparent and the others were nearby, he calmed down a bit.

Meanwhile, Wu Jianwu also lit one of the skin talismans, causing the light of the fire to spread even further.

“Let’s go.” The Captain took a deep breath and started walking. Xu Qing followed. As a group, they proceeded into the darkness and gloom of the valley.

As they walked, the fire made them the only source of light in the dark world. And though the light kept the evil things away, it also attracted a lot of attention. That, combined with the steep mountains on either side, created a sense of stifling pressure.

Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu already regretted coming along. Li Youfei tried to stay as close as possible to Xu Qing, believing that to be the safest spot. Nethersprite was in the back, laughing coldly as she repeatedly slapped the skin lantern.

Two hours passed. They were about halfway through the valley, and they had already burned a few dozen talismans. The further they went, the faster the talismans burned. Although the Captain had prepared a good stockpile, seeing them being burned away so quickly left him feeling very disappointed.

After all, each talisman had been made by slicing off his own skin. Given the rate they were burning through the talismans, he was worried that they might run out, forcing him to cut more skin off himself.

“There’s no way…” the Captain said with another sigh.

Finally, Xu Qing couldn’t take it anymore and spoke softly into his mind. “Senior…?”

“I know,” the Heir Apparent replied. “Enough of them have gathered.”

All of a sudden, the burning talismans in the hands of the Captain and Ning Yan went out.

The Captain’s eyes widened, and everyone went on guard.

As the flames went out, everything turned dark. And the voracious souls in the darkness instantly lunged forward. Ghostly howls rang out everywhere. However, those howls quickly turned into exclamations of terror. It was as if they had run into something that horrified even them. Sadly for them, they realized that too late.

Xu Qing sensed his sleeve rustling as several figures popped out. Next, the cries of terror turned into bloodcurdling screams.

Then, chewing sounds could be heard as countless souls were devoured. Then, a crashing sound rang out as a bolt of lightning fell. As the darkness was briefly dispelled, Xu Qing caught sight of the Heir Apparent and the others, all of them like vortexes sucking in the surrounding souls. Countless souls were sucked into the vortexes and ripped to shreds.

Normally, these ‘grandpas’ and ‘grandmas’ seemed kind and amiable, but not now. Right now, they seemed profoundly cold.

Xu Qing’s expression was the same as ever. None of this was very surprising to him. After all, they were Smoldering Gods. Considering that their cultivation level had the word ‘god’ in it, that went to show that they were in a higher category of existence.

They acted kind and amiable because of Xu Qing and the other youngsters in the Green Spirit Pharmacy. But to others, the fact that they were Smoldering Gods… made them almost no different from actual gods!

1. Brilliant Heaven was first mentioned in chapter 568.1. ☜

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