Chapter 3: Form is Emptiness (4)
Looking down from the sky, the bottomless abyss appears like a giant, ravenous mouth, ready to swallow anything that falls in, never to return to the living world.
Liao Chen continues to plummet, the cliffs on either side becoming steeper, gradually converging like a giant V.
His oversized monk robe flaps in the wind, making a “whoosh” sound, as he sways left and right like a kite with a broken string.
“Om Mani Padme Hum!”
Just as he’s about to hit the valley floor, Liao Chen tosses out a Buddha bead.
As the six-character mantra finishes rolling off his tongue, the bead spins and transforms into a lotus flower, gently cradling him beneath and slowing his descent.
When the lotus finally lands, Liao Chen feels almost no tremor.
“Thud…”
As he touches down, he notices a pile of rubble beneath him.
It must be the rocks that have crumbled from the cliffs during long years of weathering.
The valley is dead quiet, and it’s so dark he can’t see his own hand in front of his face.
Liao Chen closes his eyes tight and repeatedly chants, “Amitabha.”
He isn’t afraid of the darkness.
After a long, dull period of training, he’s even grown fond of the feeling of hiding from danger in the dark.
At this moment, it’s as if he’s transported back to his past,
when he was just five years old, thrown into a desolate wilderness.
It was dark all around, as if he were the only one left in the universe.
You’d think he’d panic, but little Liao Chen just smiled, chanted, and waltzed right out of that exam set up by the Shaolin Temple.
People said he had great wisdom, a potential to become a high monk.
But only Liao Chen knew that the night was no obstacle for him.
It was more like a bridge allowing him to communicate with another world, and he could roam fearlessly, enjoying the joy that silence and darkness brought him.
“Bang bang bang!”
Three Fallen Species lunged at him from different directions, their heads exploding simultaneously like watermelons dropped on the ground.
Liao Chen withdrew his Buddha hand seal.
He kept moving forward.
After slaying his fiftieth Fallen Species, a faint red glow began to appear in his eyes.
What was that place?
Liao Chen couldn’t help but speed up.
After all, since his feet hit the ground, the dense demon energy in the valley had enveloped him completely.
His ability to sense the strength of demon energy had failed; he could only rely on his instincts to face the ambushing enemies.
But truth be told, it was working out pretty well.
As he got closer to that red glow, masses of Fallen Species flew out of the cave like bats, swirling around him.
With each step, more bravely attacking Fallen Species met their demise behind him.
Finally, as he stood at the entrance of the cave glowing with red light and looked down, the grand sight below took his breath away.
This entrance seemed to lead to a fiery hell, with an oval-shaped magma pool at the bottom, the dark red surface boiling and bubbling fiercely.
On the cave’s sidewalls, numerous holes appeared to be filled with the heads of Fallen Species, all staring at Liao Chen with the same intensity.
Additionally, a dozen or so Fallen Species circled above the magma, screeching sharply, sending shivers down the spine.
Could this be the lair of the Demoness?
That was Liao Chen’s first reaction.
No wonder the demon energy here was so overwhelming; it gathered far too many Demoness.
But, where was the Demon Emperor?
Or could it be that the Demon Emperor was hiding somewhere in this cave leading straight to fiery hell, yet to reveal themselves?
Liao Chen never showed mercy towards demons.
These monsters, who regarded human lives as mere grass, could only be fully redeemed through extermination.
In that moment, the Fallen Species hidden in the cave seemed to sense danger; they all burst out of the cave simultaneously, a dark cloud rushing toward Liao Chen.
Without hesitation, Liao Chen set up a demon-slaying formation.
He realized these demons hiding in the cave were somewhat different from their slain companions.
The closer he got to the magma pool, the redder the skins of the demons became.
Liao Chen even spotted one Fallen Species that was entirely red, with only a hint of black on the tips of its wings.
Its strength was formidable, likely the leader of all the Fallen Species here.
With a sharp screech, the red-bodied Fallen Species charged at him like a madman.
Luckily, he had prepared the demon-slaying formation; the rapidly spinning Buddha beads smashed the foremost Fallen Species to bits.
However, these Fallen Species were nothing like the ones he had faced earlier.
Under the leader’s command, almost all the Fallen Species showed no fear, relentlessly crashing against his magical array.
Soon, the ground around the demon-slaying formation was littered with Fallen Species corpses.
Yet, the leader seemed determined, refusing to back down; the speed of the Fallen Species’ assaults showed no sign of slowing.
Almost to the point where newcomers had to shove aside the bodies of their fallen comrades to make way for their suicidal charge.
Even Liao Chen showed signs of fatigue under this relentless onslaught.
He realized he was bound to lose this war of attrition.
If he wanted to leave alive, he had to change—sitting and waiting was not an option.
Deciding quickly, while the demon-slaying formation was still somewhat intact, Liao Chen blasted away all the approaching Fallen Species.
Then, he stashed the Buddha beads and leaped down the cave.
With unstoppable momentum, he rushed straight toward a cave near the magma pool.
That guy was willing to sacrifice so many companions; it must be protecting something.
If it wasn’t some exceedingly important treasure, then it certainly was the Demon Emperor’s tomb.
“Splash splash…”
The Fallen Species never expected Liao Chen would take the plunge into the hellish cave like a s*icide mission, and they all took off after him.
Especially that fully red Fallen Species, which flew with astonishing speed.
In a flash, its long, sharp beak loomed over Liao Chen’s head.
“Hiss!”
As it screeched, its beak suddenly elongated, about to pierce through his chest.
Liao Chen waved his oversized sleeves and suddenly roared, “Dragon rising in the sky!”
Specks of red floated out from the Buddha beads, transforming into a fiery dragon swirling around him, but at the same time, the beads lost their glow, turning pitch black.
“Boom!”
The fire dragon collided with the leader.
He thought he could snap that nearly meter-long beak in half, but the Fallen Species remained as steady as a mountain, merely sidestepping the fire dragon’s solid head. Though it slammed into the rock wall, it wasn’t severely hurt.
But Liao Chen took this chance to grab the edge of a hole in the rock wall with both hands.
Under the dragon’s cover, he successfully flipped in, hearing the leader’s furious cries behind him.
“Crack…”
It sounded like an eggshell breaking.
Using the glow reflected by the magma, Liao Chen looked down and saw the cave was packed with white eggs the size of plates.
He instantly realized this was their breeding ground.
No wonder the Fallen Species fought to the d*ath.
