BW Chapter 156
Fuluo (8)
“What’s wrong?” Chu Jun saw Ning Xiu stunned in his arms and reached out to poke his little cheek.
“Yellow Yellow~” Ning Xiu grinned at him, “Yellow Yellow~ is gone~”
“It went to the Fuluo Secret Realm.” Chu Jun carried him out the door. “It will be back soon.”
“Will be back soon~” Ning Xiu grabbed Chu Jun’s hair. “Mother~ where are we going?”
“To test your spiritual power.” Chu Jun said, “The test consumes a lot of physical strength. If you use up all your spiritual power now, the test won’t be accurate.”
Ning Xiu nodded blankly, “Okay~”
Chu Jun smiled and patted his head. “Why are you so silly? Hmm?”
Seeing him smile, Ning Xiu curved his eyes and smiled too. “Xiao Shan will come back~ to help big brother and big sister~”
“Good.”
****
Fuluo Secret Realm.
Rolling and surging lava stretched endlessly. Jagged and strange stone clusters stood above the lava. These stones were completely black with smooth surfaces, and their bodies were slender, scattered above the lava. Every few incense sticks’ time, several blocks would sink down and be swallowed by the scorching lava, leaving only a few wisps of thin black smoke.
Jiang Yizheng’s lips were dry and cracked. She was baked by the lava under her feet until she was sweating profusely. One hand struggled to grip a small uneven spot at the very top of the stone, while her other hand was still dragging a heavy little puppy.
The lava boiled, and several times it nearly singed the fur on Big Yellow’s tail.
However, the most dangerous thing was not the scalding lava, but the black whirlpools that appeared and disappeared at the bottom of the lava. Those towering stones originally had solid foundations, but it was precisely because they were swallowed by these black whirlpools that they fell into the lava.
“You–are really too heavy!” Jiang Yizheng roared in collapse. “Can I throw you away!?”
“Ao woof!” Big Yellow whimpered lowly, but the voice that came out was a rough and deep male voice. “Little brat, you dare!”
Jiang Yizheng gritted her teeth. “Didn’t you say you’d send a message to the Venerable? Did–did he receive it!”
“Too far! I can only tell Ning Xiu!” Big Yellow growled lowly.
“Xiao Shan he–understands nothing!” Jiang Yizheng’s palm was sweating. Both person and dog suddenly slid down a section, but she caught them firmly on the stone with quick reflexes.
“No choice. The spiritual power here is disappearing rapidly. I only said one sentence and completely lost contact with Ning Xiu!” Big Yellow looked at the increasing number of black whirlpools under the lava, his eyes full of gravity.
Jiang Yizheng couldn’t help but curse, “What the hell is this damn thing!?”
Before Big Yellow could reply, the stone she was clinging to suddenly began to shake slightly. Jiang Yizheng wanted to summon her sword, but under the thin spiritual power conditions, the sword in her storage ring wouldn’t obey at all. Seeing the stone tilting more and more severely, she hurriedly said, “Big Yellow, I’ll throw you to the stone opposite first!”
Big Yellow shouted loudly: “Wait! Wait! This master is afraid of heights! This master can’t reach–woo woof!”
The little puppy wailed as it traced a beautiful arc in the high air. Then Jiang Yizheng decisively let go, took out a short knife from her waist, and stabbed it hard into the stone. Then she reached out and grabbed Big Yellow’s dog tail just as it was about to fall into the lava.
Big Yellow looked at the lava so close at hand and swallowed hard, barking angrily, “Jiang Yizheng, you ignorant little brat, if you want this master’s life just say so, ao woof!”
“Thank goodness, thank goodness.” Jiang Yizheng breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at the endless lava and stone clusters around them, she wondered, “I clearly fell into water, why did I wake up here?”
Big Yellow guiltily waved his paw.
It had originally wanted to directly teleport Jiang Yizheng back to Wanxuan Academy, but who knew that halfway through, it suddenly ran out of spiritual power and ended up in this ghostly place, with no way up or down, unable even to send messages.
“We need to find a way to leave here.” Jiang Yizheng racked her brains trying to think of a solution, but her mind was completely blank. Then she looked up and saw the dome above flashing with light. “How about I throw you up there?”
Big Yellow loudly stopped her dangerous idea, “Don’t even think about it!”
Jiang Yizheng struggled to pull it up and let it grip her belt, then with a sudden effort, gripped the edge of the stone with both hands. “Then I’ll–climb up first–and then talk!”
She was quite strong, but for some reason the stone was extremely brittle. After climbing only twice, Jiang Yizheng watched helplessly as the cracks on the stone surface grew larger and larger. Before she could react, her hands suddenly met empty air, and she fell toward the lava like a kite with a broken string.
“Help me ahhhhh–” She screamed for a long time, but the expected burning pain never came. She carefully opened her eyes and met an unfamiliar face. “Good heavens–who are you!?”
A man in tattered clothes crouched at the top of the stone. He had a head of messy curly long hair, and crimson runes extended from his chin full of blue stubble all the way to behind his right ear, covering half his face. His deep and resolute facial features were clear, but those eyes had more white than pupil, like some fierce and dangerous wild beast. Heavy iron chains hung around his neck, wrists, and ankles, clanging as they hit the stone–
No matter how you looked at it, he didn’t seem like a good person.
Jiang Yizheng hung in mid-air by her belt, feeling like her waist was about to break. She stared at this suddenly appearing strange man with a pained yet vigilant expression, and the short knife hidden in her sleeve slowly slid down.
“You–how are you so heavy!?” The man took a deep breath and pulled her up onto the stone with one jerk.
The familiar rough voice entered her ears. Jiang Yizheng had just steadied herself when she grabbed the man’s arm tightly. “Bi Bi Bi Big Yellow!?”
Big Yellow tilted his head away from her shouting. “Hey hey hey I heard you!”
“Father ahhhhh the dog spirit turned into a human!” Jiang Yizheng cried out in terror.
“Who’s a dog spirit! Who is a dog spirit! This master is a proper divine beast!” Big Yellow roared angrily. “Keep making noise and this master will throw you down!”
Jiang Yizheng immediately shut her mouth. After staying quiet for a while, she carefully and tentatively asked, “Big Yellow?”
“Mm.” Big Yellow responded.
The two people stood on the narrow stone top. Jiang Yizheng, afraid of really being thrown down, laughed dryly. “You look quite… quite… quite amiable and approachable when you turn into a human, haha.”
Big Yellow, who looked like he was just short of having “this master is a bad guy” carved on his forehead: “…Heh, this master thanks you.”
Jiang Yizheng twitched the corner of her mouth. The stone under their feet suddenly began to shake, and she and Big Yellow struggled to maintain balance on top.
“Don’t push me ahhhhh–“
“This master didn’t push you!”
“Can’t you turn back into a dog? You take up so much space!”
“This master can’t turn back! If it wasn’t to save you, this master wouldn’t care to walk on two legs!”
“Why can’t you turn back?”
“Spiritual power–“
Bang!
A fierce blade light struck directly at where the two people stood. Jiang Yizheng quickly grabbed Big Yellow’s collar and dodged the strike. The half of the stone where Big Yellow had been standing was cut to pieces by the blade energy and fell miserably into the lava.
The two people stood on one foot each on the remaining stone surface, trembling as they maintained balance. Looking up, they saw Ning Buwei staring at them with a murderous look, or more precisely, staring at the man Big Yellow had become.
“Let her go.” Ning Buwei said with an unfriendly expression.
Big Yellow, who was being grabbed by the belt with one of Jiang Yizheng’s hands and having his collar yanked by the other: “???”
“Father he he he’s not human! He’s–” Jiang Yizheng had just started speaking when she was interrupted.
“Of course he’s not human. Even this kind of little demon from the deep mountains can take advantage of you. Have all the things you usually learned been eaten by dogs?” Ning Buwei said unhappily.
“What’s wrong with dogs!” Big Yellow roared angrily. “Your daughter is so great! Why don’t you tell her to let this master go!”
Ning Buwei was indeed stunned for a moment upon hearing this familiar voice. “Big Yellow?”
Big Yellow was so angry that his curly hair almost stood straight up. “It’s this master!”
“Dog spirits…can turn into humans?” Ning Buwei twitched the corner of his mouth.
“This master will bite you to death today!” Big Yellow tried to pounce forward.
“Master Yellow! Uncle Yellow! Calm down!” Jiang Yizheng held the person back firmly, but underestimated her own strength. The two people staggered backward a step, their feet met empty air, and they fell straight down.
Ning Buwei stepped on the Suzaku knife and lifted them up one in each hand. He looked down at the increasing number of black whirlpools under the lava. “What is this thing?”
“This is the seal of the Dark Domain.” Big Yellow half-knelt on the Suzaku knife and threw the short knife in his hand down. After a harsh sound of metal grinding, several wisps of black powder floated up from inside.
Jiang Yizheng said tearfully, “My knife…”
“I’ll compensate you with a good one when we get out.” Big Yellow coughed lightly. “If we can get out.”
“What do you mean?” Ning Buwei’s expression darkened.
“This place itself is one big black whirlpool.” Big Yellow said. “No matter how abundant the spiritual power of a place is, as long as they approach, all spiritual power will be sucked away… Otherwise, why does everyone in the cultivation world avoid the Dark Domain like the plague? Because these things often appear silently. Cultivators can’t detect their existence at all. Usually, they only realize the problem after entering, but it’s too late– What we’re seeing now is just a tiny bit. If the Fuluo Secret Realm has this thing, I’m afraid the entire seabed under Wanxuan Academy is full of them.
Or thinking even worse, maybe the restrictions of the Dark Domain have long been broken by someone, and now the entire ground under the Seventeen States is full of these ghostly things.”
He looked at the Suzaku knife growing larger beneath his feet. “Maybe because you use evil energy, your perception of these things isn’t so keen.”
“Dark Domain?” Jiang Yizheng asked puzzledly. “Isn’t the Dark Domain in Xinzhou? And hasn’t the Dark Domain entrance always been guarded by the Chongzheng Alliance? How could the restrictions inside be broken by someone?”
“That’s right, the Dark Domain entrance is at Xingluo Cliff in Dui Prefecture’s Xinzhou.” Big Yellow explained. “But two and a half years ago, in the Battle of Xingluo Cliff, the entire Xingluo Cliff was destroyed and fell into the Dark Domain, so the Dark Domain lost its entrance.”
Jiang Yizheng found this familiar and instinctively looked at Ning Buwei for explanation. “The Battle of Xingluo Cliff was–“
Ning Buwei met her gaze quietly.
Jiang Yizheng finally realized belatedly that it was her father who, in one battle, killed several hundred cultivators of the Chongzheng Alliance, then turned around and blew up Xingluo Cliff.
“Father, well done.”
Ning Buwei: “…………”