bookcurios Chapter 845: The Place of Tribulation
Chapter 845: The Place of Tribulation
A light rain was falling, and the unknown town appeared dark and gloomy in the shadows.
Some abstract, eerie creatures roamed the streets, while piles of white bones, both animal and human, littered the roadside, making the entire town seem lifeless.
Suddenly, two beams of light descended near the town; they were Chen Futu and Qin Xiaoman.
"What is this place?"
Chen Futu was completely bewildered. He tried to activate his martial arts but found it was severely suppressed, as if he couldn't even fly. Moreover, if he tried to force it, he vaguely sensed a great terror approaching.
"A friendly reminder to the host: do not use martial arts supernatural powers lightly."
The system notification came without warning.
Chen Futu's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately said to Qin Xiaoman, who was also looking dazed, "Don't use martial arts techniques, something strange is going on here."
Qin Xiaoman whispered, "I have the same feeling. It's like using martial arts supernatural powers will attract something. It's a scary feeling."
"Let's take it one step at a time and be careful."
Chen Futu carefully examined the buildings in the town.
Their designs are neither ancient nor modern; most are made of metal or special minerals, appearing quite sturdy. There are even lights along the roadside, but they are not electric lights from Earth; they are more like special energy lights developed later in other continents, powered by minerals.
The air was filled with the stench of corpses, pungent and unpleasant, and there was even an unknown odor lingering, making people increasingly uneasy.
As for the wild environment, it looked gray and barren. There were no plants growing in the wild, only weeds, and some bones could be vaguely seen peeking out from among the weeds.
Chen Futu couldn't help but recall Cao Xueqin's poem, "White bones exposed in the wild, a thousand miles without the crowing of a rooster."
The scene before me was so similar, as if all life had ceased to exist. It was a world of the mute, completely unlike the idyllic scenes of heaven in anime and movies.
"Your Majesty, how about I use my eyes to deduce it?"
Qin Xiaoman felt unsafe. As the Goddess of Heavenly Secrets, she had an extremely high sense of danger. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been coveted by so many powerful people when she was just a mortal.
Chen Futu said in a low voice, "You don't need to call me the Human Emperor anymore. Here, you can call me Brother."
“Okay, Brother Chen, I think it’s necessary to do a simulation, lest we be ambushed in an unfamiliar place. Only by understanding the situation and stabilizing can we find a way to locate the person.”
"If it doesn't cause you any harm, you can try to deduce it."
Chen Futu agreed, and then took out the Dragon Sparrow Sword to guard the surroundings for Qin Xiaoman.
Qin Xiaoman swept her hands across her eyes, and her pupils turned white in an instant, as if light and shadow were flowing within them.
After a few breaths, she swayed and almost fell to the ground.
Chen Futu reacted quickly and grabbed her waist. Her pretty face was filled with fear. "This place is so eerie."
"How to say."
"I didn't dare to deduce Brother Chen's identity, so I deduced my own. I saw many corpses and strange figures. They were really eating people. Each of them was at the level of a Martial God, and some even surpassed the level of a Martial God. Because of their existence, every household in this town stayed indoors and dared not make a sound."
This is what Qin Xiaoman deduced.
Chen Futu asked the system, "Tell me in detail what happened."
The system replied lazily, "As the system has said before, this is a world of the heavens that has gone astray because of the pursuit of immortality. The excessive pursuit of immortality seems to have led to uncontrollable variables."
"Does immortality bring about changes?"
Chen Futu sighed inwardly. He and A Ning had named their eldest son Chen Changsheng.
The pursuit of immortality is ingrained in people's genes. No matter how strong they become, they still want to achieve eternal life. The original purpose of cultivation is precisely to escape birth, aging, sickness and death.
Regardless, now that I'm here, I must find my wife and children, otherwise I won't be able to rest easy.
After much hesitation, Chen Futu led Qin Xiaoman slowly into the town.
Although the two tried their best to avoid making any noise, they still attracted the attention of some people.
As Qin Xiaoman described, the twisted, bizarre humanoid creature resembled a beetle, with ugly features and protruding serrated teeth, its body covered in a foul-smelling mixture of corpse fluid and blood.
"As expected, he is a Martial God level."
Before the other man could pounce, Chen Futu beheaded him with a single sword stroke.
Its head rolled off, splattering corrosive blood all over the ground, which hissed as it corroded it.
"System, why do I feel like I've entered a zombie world? Are you sure we're not in the wrong place? This isn't a martial arts world at all."
"To correct you, host, this is indeed a martial arts plane, but ordinary people are no match for these things, which is why this scene has occurred. You can think of it as the last cursed catastrophe that eroded the entire continent. If it had continued, it would have ended up like this. However, you were very strong and managed to prevent the world-ending crisis brought about by the earth veins, while the martial artists here were not as powerful and failed to stop the erosion."
"The atmosphere here is very different from what I expected. It's not high-class at all and has no style that the Celestial World should have. If the people on the continent knew that the Celestial World was like this, I guess even if they were given a divine pill to send them here, they wouldn't come."
"Host, no matter where you are, crisis and opportunity coexist. You need to work harder and kill more strange creatures so that the system can give you more rewards."
Under the system's enticing influence, Chen Futu realized that the system points had changed, and the rules for acquiring points had also changed.
The original hundreds of billions of points have now been reduced to a few hundred points. According to the system rules, killing a Martial God-level enemy only grants ten points.
"System, you're just messing with me here."
Chen Futu was at a loss for words. Fortunately, after the points were reduced, the prices of various items in the system shop were also reduced, and many good items were even refreshed, but unfortunately, he couldn't afford them.
Just as Chen Futu was talking to the system, Qin Xiaoman's stomach suddenly started growling.
The sudden noise attracted a dense swarm of dark figures from all directions.
Their speed wasn't particularly fast, only about twice as fast as the average person.
Why is my stomach growling!
Qin Xiaoman was so frightened that she hid behind Chen Futu, staring in terror at the eerie figure rushing towards her with the secret manual.
Chen Futu encouraged Long Que in a low voice, "Perhaps because we're in the upper realm, the rules for energy consumption are different, and we all need to eat."
"What should we do? There are so many monsters."
"Don't speak, hold on to me."
Chen Futu can no longer walk on air, but he can still jump.
He swept away several heads with a single sword stroke, then grabbed Qin Xiaoman's waist and leaped onto the roof several meters high. There, he saw those vile creatures rushing down to the ground below, heads raised, baring their teeth and claws, uttering indistinct whimpers.
"Come here quickly!"
Suddenly, a dirty-looking person a few meters away opened the all-metal window and waved to the two of them in a hoarse voice.
The other party seemed to be helping the two out of goodwill, but being new to the place, they were completely clueless about everything. If they trusted others too easily, it could lead to an uncontrollable disaster.
Chen Futu was not so arrogant as to think that the mysterious person who summoned the two of them was weaker than him.