Chapter 300
Chapter 300
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 300
Chapter Title: Chapter 300 Escape from the Immortal Bridge
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Chen Shi jumped down from the rock, carefully scrutinizing the woman without drawing near.
The woman had sustained severe injuries from some unknown cause and lay collapsed on the ground, her clothes soaked bright red by her own blood. She was prone with her face turned sideways, revealing only half her features—but even that half sent Chen Shi's heart pounding twice. It felt as if a string deep within him had been plucked, stirring an unfamiliar sensation.
But he soon composed himself. He picked up a small stone and tossed it onto the woman. No response.
Chen Shi grabbed a fist-sized stone and hurled it over. Still nothing.
He selected a rock even larger than a man's head, but after a moment's thought, he held off. "She's probably truly passed out," he concluded inwardly.
He set the stone aside, turned back, and hoisted the massive boulder that had knocked her unconscious earlier—roughly ten or twenty thousand jin in weight. Raising it overhead, he reflected: "This must have been during the third round of the metropolitan exam, the juren martial combat. Right—this woman's a juren!" Yesterday and today had been a haze for him, his mind consumed by wind-thunder shifts, water-fire shifts, and the like from the ghost god domain. His awareness of the world around him had fallen into disarray. Vaguely, he recalled taking part in the combat.
Before it started, the examiners had laid out the rules: strike ruthlessly, ideally killing opponents outright for higher scores in the evaluation. They'd also mentioned that deaths in the combat arena carried no consequences—it wasn't real death, and so forth.
"Girl, I'll help you come back to life!"
Chen Shi brought the boulder crashing down on the woman's head with crushing force. A thunderous *thud* rang out as the stone split in two with a crack. Yet the woman remained prone and utterly still, without so much as a break in her skin.
Chen Shi jolted in alarm. "Such a formidable physique? Has she cultivated the Vajra Indestructible Body? Is she a juren from the Buddhist school? Her body outclasses even Xuan Saintess by miles." He grew troubled. The girl was critically wounded yet refused to die, blocking any revival via this Immortal Bridge Blessed Land and condemning her to needless torment.
"One good deed a day—I'll see this buddha to the Western Paradise and send the girl on her way!"
Chen Shi unleashed the wind-thunder shift he'd only just grasped. An area spanning one mu and seven fen transformed into his wind-thunder ghost god domain! Within it, gales howled wildly as lightning flashed and thunder boomed.
The blood-drenched woman rose involuntarily into the air. In moments, bolt after bolt of thunder hammered her forehead—*crack crack crack*, unrelenting!
This was no ordinary thunder but one laced with Xun wind. The wind rode the lightning into her body, corroding a cultivator's limbs and hundred bones, dispersing the five viscera and six bowels, melting away qi and blood, unraveling sinew and flesh, crumbling bone to powder at the slightest touch! Chen Shi's wind-thunder shift carried an eerie, malevolent edge—a power defying comprehension!
And yet, as the woman floated amid the wind-thunder domain, battered by countless strikes, she bore not a single additional mark!
Chen Shi deflated a little. He pinched a sword mudra, paced the Gangdou steps, and summoned sword qi. *Whoosh whoosh whoosh*—streams of it sliced through the air, stabbing into the woman! To his shock, his supposedly unbreakable sword qi fizzled on contact, failing to nick her even slightly!
Chen Shi transitioned to the water-fire shift. Water and fire surged in scouring torrents and blazing infernos, amassed waters dissolving bone, flames incinerating the primordial spirit, burning essence and qi to ash, purging the dao root! Chen Shi was certain his full-powered water-fire shift would leave her deader than dead!
But in his water-fire domain, the woman stood utterly unharmed—not even a speck of blood flaked away.
Chen Shi's eye twitched sharply. Water-fire shifted to mountain-swamp. Palms rising and falling conjured peaks plummeting from the heavens to crush her! His hands clapped together heavily, squeezing mountains and swamps from both sides to compress her at the center!
Chen Shi pulled back, peering expectantly. She was unchanged—unscathed, down to the last iota!
Chen Shi shot forward in a single bound: Twin Dragons Snatch the Pearls to gouge her eyes, Half-Clenched Tiger Claw smashing her throat, right elbow thrusting her heart, left fist pounding her Tanzhong, left knee rising to slam her abdomen, dropping leg while advancing for right knee to her groin, spinning with a whip fist to her occiput, waist twisting and hips swiveling to circle behind, hands seizing wind-thunder to clap her ears with devastating force!
Chen Shi drew back into stance. The woman hadn't budged.
Moments later, Chen Shi knelt on the ground, stare vacant, hope extinguished.
"This top scholar spot—what am I even bothering for? I'm worthless. Can't even finish off some injured, knocked-out nobody. How am I supposed to vie with the young master..."
He recalled the wind-thunder, water-fire, and mountain-swamp shifts he'd labored to comprehend—yet not one had ruffled a single hair on her. Their power was laughably feeble. It had to be his own failing, his botched insights.
Chen Shi pictured his father, full of hopes for him: up every dawn for court, toiling endlessly, still finding time each night to spar. Guilt flooded him. Then his grandfather in the underworld, awaiting his top scholar triumph to burn him some youthful beauties—guilt deepened.
He envisioned Granny Sha's, Uncle Qingyang's, Uncle Hu's expectant looks; the boasts before Hu Feifei, Tian Yue'e, and the rest; the taunts flung at the young master, Zhang You, and others. Shame buried him alive. Even Chen Tang's setbacks paled beside this.
Chen Tang had dueled him at a higher realm; a few losses barely dented Chen Shi's dao heart. But this juren woman, struck down by another—despite his all-out assault, untouched. The devastation was immense! And her attacker? Infinitely more fearsome.
Lost in self-recrimination, footsteps sounded. A voice pierced the air:
"You're Chen Shi the xieyuan? You're still kicking? You couldn't escape the Immortal Bridge Blessed Land either?"
Chen Shi looked up, spotting the source: a Daoist, qi and blood coalescing behind into a treasure sword's phantom.
He knew this signature method at a glance—the Flying Immortal Sword Scripture, another of the Ten True Cultivation Books' sword canons, peer to the Profound Subtlety Sword Scripture. This sword-backed Daoist he'd seen: Jinlu Daoist, Daozi of Supreme Haoyuan Palace.
Once, Chen Shi would have eagerly tested the man's Flying Immortal Sword Scripture, probing his prowess. Today, crushed by the injured woman, his fight was gone. A glance at Jinlu Daoist, then away—ignored.
Jinlu Daoist approached, eyed the fallen woman, looked away.
"Do you know why we survived the cataclysm? The Immortal Bridge Blessed Land's heavens and earth warped into myriad forms. Mountains and swamps shifted on the ground, sun and moon in the sky, stars beyond—all dissipating the upheaval and crash's force. That's what saved us."
Chen Shi stirred inwardly.
Cataclysm? Crash?
What cataclysm? What crash?
He rose, scanned about, surprise dawning. Now he saw: nearby hills mutilated, distant ranges crumbling like sand. Skyward, twin suns fading, one halved.
A moon dangled amid them, but cratered at center, fracturing into quarters and fifths! A stellar river poured from on high, stars trailing it to pummel the earth!
Jinlu Daoist passed him, reaching the Immortal Bridge.
"But this land can't bear the battle or impact any longer. Its mountains, earth, sun, moon, starry rivers—all doomed to oblivion."
Chen Shi sprang up beside him.
"So you mean now, if someone dies here in the Immortal Bridge Blessed Land, no revival?"
Jinlu Daoist nodded.
"It's ruined, in terminal decay. Die inside, stay dead."
Another voice cut in:
"Xieyuan Chen, Senior Brother Jinlu—you're here too!"
Guo Daozi, baby-faced, rushed up, rattled. He glanced at the comatose woman, looked away.
"You came to the bridge too? Hoping to yang-return from here? Same wavelength! Your smarts match mine!"
Chen Shi's thoughts quickened.
"What happened? Where'd the Immortal Bridge Blessed Land impact?"
"Xieyuan Chen doesn't know?"
Guo Daozi gaped, blurting:
"The Thirteen Families' ancestors swarmed the White-Clothed Immortal of Qixia Temple—that uproar shook this semi-immortal realm's celestial visions and terrestrial portents without cease. Ancestors faltered, gravely hurt, rousing Western Capital's Nine Palaces to seal that fairy woman."
He sketched events start to finish.
"We inside can't tell the crash site. But long flight preceded the quake—likely beyond Western Niu New Continent!"
Jinlu Daoist paled with concern.
"A semi-immortal's void great realm can't take this. Board the bridge—get out fast!"
He headed over.
Five Armies Camp troops had exited via the Immortal Bridge, so surely an portal lingered for yang-return. Two steps on, the yin-yang bridge dissolved to dust.
Jinlu Daoist leaped back, dodging the Morning-Evening River.
"Path gone—no yang-return!"
Face ashen, he gazed skyward.
The sky blazed, paper ignited central, fire blooming outward. Soon, sky charred to nothing!
Boundless yin qi assailed. Surroundings dimmed to murk.
"This presence..."
Jinlu Daoist blanched further.
"We've plunged to the underworld."
Skies incinerated, Chen Shi peered afar: colossal ranges loomed like timeless ramparts in gloom, grand yet suffocating.
Such peaks ringed them, vague silhouettes.
Immortal Bridge Blessed Land had tumbled underworld-ward, flown eons, halted at crash.
"Underworld crawling with perils! Leave now!"
Chen Shi perked, bellowing:
"All juren in Immortal Bridge Blessed Land, heed me—I am New Township Xieyuan Chen Shi! We've crashed underworld; ghost gods teem! Our landing racket will lure hordes! Follow me that way!"
Hand waved—a fire streak arced skyward, hundred-li flight, hovering persistent.
"My orders!"
Thunder hid in his voice, rumbling the land:
"Metropolitan exam done! Done! No striking fellow juren! Carry wounded! March to fire's point!"
Jinlu Daoist halted him, shaking head.
"No leaving! Western Capital sends searchers for sure. Underworld's vast—we stray, unfindable!"
Chen Shi shook head.
"Soul-summoners abound; one rite pins us. You've not faced underworld ghost gods—I have! Stay spells doom—must go!"
He broadcast anew, waving again—fire lanced enduring, waymarking.
Jinlu Daoist scowled.
Chen Shi hefted the limp woman, pondered, then summoned his brain-rear shrine, stowing her within.
No spirit drugs, elixirs, treasures, or talismans for this exam combat. Best he could: shrine her atop divine shrine, cycle arts to staunch wounds. Healing timeline? Unknown.
Shrine held only Chen Shi's infant soul on its divine shrine—no Stone Islet Lady. He dumped the fainted woman on Stone Islet's seat, trickled qi-blood. It orbited her cycles, purity surging. Astonished, no time dwell—he set out per firepath, quitting Immortal Bridge Blessed Land.
Guo Daozi hastened alongside, grinning:
"I'll tag with Xieyuan Chen! You, Senior Brother Jinlu?"
Jinlu Daoist wavered.
"I'll hold here for imperial aid!"
Guo Daozi shrugged.
"Instructor!"
First juren cluster soon: dozen-plus, mixed sexes, spaced wary—exam ground grudges, lethal prior blows bred distrust.
Some spotting Chen Shi lit joyful, hurried saluting.
These: his westbound-to-capital juren crew. He'd imparted dao methods, spells, arrays, talisman swarms—their teacher, trusted sans guard.
Others trailed suit, bowing:
"Greetings, Xieyuan Chen!"
One hailed "Child Scholar Chen Shi."
Chen Shi queried:
"You've met me prior?"
Headshake, laugh:
"Heard your tales. Figured you perished New Township—didn't peg re-rise."
Chen Shi boomed laugh:
"Dao embryo mere divine largesse—what of none? Still Child Scholar I am!"
Onward they pressed; juren accreted, dozens strong.
Guo Daozi marveled inwardly at Chen Shi:
"Such magnetism—not young master's feigned sort. He bares his innards, gleaming stark."
"Brother yonder—not linger-safe!"
Chen Shi boomed to six-seven distant juren:
"Underworld ghost gods trace us—trail me! I'll extract you!"
Shakes of heads:
"Underworld outer ghost gods swarm—we await court rescue!"
Chen Shi pressed not, advanced. Unwittingly, two-hundred-plus convoyed.
Exiting Immortal Bridge Blessed Land, footprints betokened prior exodus: hundred-odd souls.
Fox-paw beside.
"Sister Feifei."
Relief sighed Chen Shi inwardly:
"She shepherds them."
Hu Feifei's demon-shift flight savvy, survival ace—could steer juren past perils.
"Instructor, hundred-plus linger inner."
Hu Guanghan sidled, murmuring:
"Some fled distrusting; many soloed."
Chen Shi negatived:
"Fates their own—heed not. Our utmost done. Priority now: survival............ Ghost gods inbound!"
Chill gripped all. Distant mists billowed landward, miles off.
Mists swift-swallowed Immortal Bridge Blessed Land.
Chen Shi's eye spasmed.
"Gaze not—inners doomed. March! Shadow me—no strays!"
Silence, then pursuit hastened.
Dimness cloaked; sight short. Shadowy behemoth mountains towered inter-heaven-earth, sublime. Long after, fox-trail led Chen Shi to premier peak.
Eight-nine li shy, contour discernible.
"This peak—a grand Buddha."
Whisper voiced.
Chen Shi paused, peered: verily, seated Buddha it mimicked. Lotus-sat, hand upright world-illuminant.
"Underworld harbor such titan Buddha?" Puzzlement inward.
Advanced; far clusters sharpened—not hills, but heaven-spanning Buddhas throned in ashen underworld, dust-ash mantled. Afar, mountain-ranges seemed.
Betwixt Buddhas threading, crimson eyes pairs ignited bodied, spectrally fixating.