1047 Down The abyss, By The Lagoon (2/2)

Is this an earthquake? Chen Qi got worried and walked immediately to the rock window. Looking outside toward the cliffs, he could see nothing but a bright moon hanging in the sky.

He was pretty sure that the horrible bang came from outside the cliff, while the quake came from somewhere high up on Peach Mountain. Something must have happened up there.

Immediately after that, a series of huge bangs were heard on top of Peach Mountain. The quake spread to the cell and splashed more water. The floor was wet and water came to Chu Youxian.

Chu Youxian took two steps backward. He turned pale and asked Chen Qi, ”What's going on?”

Chen Qi shook his head, ”No idea.”

Since they were being imprisoned, no one would tell them that several most powerful cultivators of Taoism were conducting a vital fight inside the black Divine Hall of Judgment on top of Peach Mountain.

The horrible bangs and quakes were generated by the fight. Then they heard some footsteps. Chu Youxian and Chen Qi turned and saw a black-robed deacon coming to the fence. He took out the key, opened the fence and beckoned them to follow.

The black-robed deacon was around forty years old. He was extremely pale, not because of sickness or fear, but lack of exposure to sunlight throughout the years. While he took out the key, opened the fence and beckoned them to come out, the black-robed deacon showed no expression at all. He was very calm.

Chu Youxian and Chen Qi looked into each others' eyes and found doubts and concerns. It happened suddenly. They had no idea whether it was good or bad to be taken out of the cell. Were they going to be sentenced or not?

Coming out of the cell, they walked through a very long tunnel. The tunnel was built with rocks. It was slightly higher than a regular person at the width of two persons. The tunnel turned from a storeroom behind the Secluded Pavilion and headed down Peach Mountain. Dim light cast clear shadows of the two of them and the black-robed deacon on the dry floor. Their footsteps were heard distinctly.

No one blocked their way. The black-robed deacon walked ahead emotionlessly. He seemed to be certain that because everyone else in the Secluded Pavilion was in deep sleep now. No one would hear their footsteps no matter how distinctive they were.

The tunnel was fairly long. Chu Youxian and Chen Qi spent four hours walking through it until they were almost exhausted. Yet the exit was still nowhere to be seen. Chen Qi found that the walls along the tunnel were lightly dusted with some trace of wind wiped by. The oil in the lamp was newly added.

Based on the trace of wind, the inclination of the tunnel and the distance they had walked, Chen Qi concluded that they were about to reach the foot of the mountain, which made him a bit relieved. Yet knowing that the tunnel was coming to an end, he could not help from becoming nervous again. It was because all the things he noticed were suggesting that no one had ever walked through this tunnel for at least decades.

Inside the Secluded Pavilion of the Divine Halls of West-Hill, there was such a secret escape. Who built it? And where was the black-robed deacon taking the two of them to?

Chen Qi seemed to have figured the reason but found even more confused. Being the Great Divine Priest of Judgment, Ye Hongyu should definitely be aware this biggest secret in the Secluded Pavilion which even the Hierarch did not know. And it was only her who could have silenced the entire Secluded Pavilion. But why did she secretly free him and Chu Youxian from the prison?

They finally reached the end of the tunnel. The black-robed deacon pushed on a black brick and deactivated the array. He pulled out his Taoist sword and carefully pushed aside the poisonous bush in front of them, then led Chu Youxian and Chen Qi out.

Freedom awaited outside the tunnel. Countless stars shone in the sky. The star light was filtered by the clouds among the cliffs, integrated with the foul fog down the abyss, and eventually turned into some weird purple light.

Chen Qi and Chu Youxian stared at the weirdly purple star light and enjoyed the same amount of excitement and confusion. They were stunned.

The black-robed deacon did not spare them a chance to ask questions. He turned his palm and placed two pills into their mouth. Before Chu Youxian could react, he had already swallowed the pill and it melted in his stomach. He was scared and enraged. He assumed it was some poison as he felt burning pain and disgust in the belly.

You should have killed me in the cell. What's the point taking me all the way here and poison me outside the Secluded Pavilion? Don't you know it's torture to give people hope that ends in despair? Are people from the Divine Hall of Judgment all insane? Don't you know my feet were bleeding after such a long walk?

Chu Youxian fell onto the ground out of fear. He felt like losing his mind when thinking of these nonsense and could only wait helplessly for his last moment. But after a while he realized that instead of falling into a coma, he was becoming more sober…

What happened? He stood up in frustration, shook his head and took quite a while to get completely sober. When he saw the foul fog under the starlight and recalled what they had heard in Chang'an, he realized the pill was an antidote rather than poison, which made him feel embarrassed.

He wiped off the sweat on his forehead, shook off some rotted leaves and trotted toward the black-robed Deacon and Chen Qi. When he was about to proceed he realized that the other two had stopped.

There were mostly vines at the bottom of the abyss instead broad-leaf trees. They should have a more open view here than in a real forest. But actually the view was very limited. The starlight was mostly covered by the clouds among the cliffs hence became purple. While they stood there for a while the foul fog thickened, and the entire place became even darker.

Chu Youxian noticed that they were standing on a thick layer of rotten leaves. He looked at the vague shadows of the surrounding vines and felt chilled when thinking of the horrible abyss behind the Secluded Pavilion people used to talk about.

The foul fog in the abyss carried naturally gathered poisonous elements. They mingled with the vicious psyches left by the countless dead prisoners in the Secluded Pavilion and added to the horror. They were standing right in the middle of the fog.

Now Chu Youxian knew that if it was not because of the antidote he was given previously, he would have been poisoned to death. Even though he was still alive, he could not help from being scared. He sweated further upon the miserable whistling of some animals behind the climbing vines.

There were the foul fog and vicious animals that had lived in the poisonous environment for countless years. It was said that no one could make it out of the abyss. Would they be exceptions? If no, were they doomed? Chu Youxian could not help being worried. He looked at Chen Qi and the black-robed deacon, and wondered why they were not going further.

Wind roared down from the cliffs and thinned the foul fog. Starlight shed again and Chu Youxian saw a lagoon nearby. There were some indistinct shadows on the other side of the lagoon, which seemed to be a few carriages.

How could there be some carriages in such a secluded and dangerous place? Whose carriages are those? Who are there? Are they waiting for us? Then why are we not going there?

Chu Youxian barely escaped death tonight and ended up in a deadly abyss. He was a bit mentally disturbed and could not think straight right now.

Chen Qi, as the think tank of the Fish-Dragon Gang, was renowned for his ruthlessness and definitely had a clearer mind. He took a few glances at the carriages then looked above to the dark sky as the black-robed deacon did.

They were expecting something to fall from the sky above.

Chen Qi seemed to have figured out why. The Academy's plan might have worked. Ye Hongyu was indeed defecting Taoism. But why did she choose to leave at midnight via such a dangerous route?

He was confused. Was Ye Hongyu really going to jump down from atop the Peach Mountain, pierce through the clouds, and fall onto the bottom of the abyss, as the black-robed deacon hinted?

The distance from the top of Peach Mountain to the bottom of the abyss was almost like from Heaven to Earth. There were numerous dangers among the cliffs and equally dangerous foul fog down at the bottom. Whoever jumped down could never survive.

Sangsang did not die because she was Haotian. Ning Que survived because he jumped down together with Sangsang who held him in the arms when they reached the bottom.

There was no one to catch Ye Hongyu. Sangsang had returned to the Divine Kingdom. Then how could she survive?

She was doomed. Chen Qi thought desperately. That was also what the Hierarch Xiong Chumo, the middle-aged priest, Zhao Nanhai, and even the Abbey Dean assumed.

There were two massive arrays among the cliffs behind Peach Mountain, as well as many forbidden areas since ancient times. They were the collective wisdom of Taoism throughout the ages. They did not belong to the Divine Hall of Judgment but ran autonomously as living beings, and was empowered by the nature.

Apart from the fall from top to bottom, the most dangerous thing in this so-called escape route was the foul fog, which represented the collective wisdom of Taoism. Even if Master Yan Se were revived, he would never be able to deactivate the arrays within a short period of time. Who could ever make it within the few seconds of falling?

However, something did punctuate the air among the cliffs. And someone did jump down from the peak!

Chen Qi became extremely nervous. He was not like Ning Que who had blind confidence in Ye Hongyu. He was worried that he would witness Ye Hongyu's death in a few seconds.

Indeed, as he reasoned, no matter how powerful Ye Hongyu was, or even if she had mastered Yan Se's talisman skills instantly, she would never survive it.

But she did jump down.

She was severely wounded by the three most powerful figures in Taoism. Then she came to the balcony. Instead of looking afar, she walked calmly to the edge under the starlight and jumped into the abyss together with the falling snow flakes.

No matter what, she was doomed.

But right then a very complicated array intent was formed from the foul fog down the abyss. Two more array intents were formed on the cliffs and joined together in the purple starlight.

Chu Youxian and Chen Qi could not understand why they felt like smelling something immediately as they sensed the array intent. Perhaps they arrays did have some scent?

It was a smell of iron, rust, sweet, bitter and somewhat pungent. Then it turned into a smell of rocks, or more precisely the smell of the moss on rocks, moist and greenish, but not creamy. It seemed like dried moss.

What did the smell of iron stand for? Firmness? What about the rocks and moss? Chu Youxian and Chen Qi were shocked and anxious, and found it hard to breathe normally. The reason for their difficulty in breathing was because they felt as if their chests were being filled up with rocks. Those rocks were sharp and digging into their flesh.

Which array was that? They were shocked. Turning back and looking to the origin of the array intents, the carriage on the other side of the lagoon, they wondered who was sitting inside and how could that person be so powerful.

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