“`
[Name: Xiahou Yuan (Lin Yuan)]
[Identity: Holder of the Myriad Realms Gate]
[Bound Talent: Heaven-Defying Comprehension]
[Current Status: Consciousness Descent]
[Remaining Residence Time: Two Hundred Ninety Years]
…
The eighteenth layer beneath the Great Abyss.
Lin Yuan opened his eyes, glancing at the illusory characters below his line of sight.
Unknowingly, Lin Yuan had been in this realm for ten years through Consciousness Descent.
In those ten years, Lin Yuan hadn’t moved at all, focusing solely on eroding the six black chains that surrounded him.
As for why he hadn’t starved to death… In this realm’s cultivation system, by reaching the Seventh Realm, one could absorb Heavenly Earth Vital Energy to achieve Fasting.
Within the Great Abyss, although the Heavenly Earth Vital Energy was extremely scarce, it was not completely absent.
Moreover, with Lin Yuan’s Consciousness Descent, it was natural for him not to starve to death.
Besides,
Tianjian Zi would not allow Xiahou Yuan to starve to death.
The physical body starving to death didn’t mean the annihilation of the Primordial Spirit.
Only if Xiahou Yuan actively sought death, would he truly die.
“Ten years,”
Lin Yuan sighed.
“Finally,”
Lin Yuan slowly rose to his feet.
At the same time,
the two black chains that pierced through Lin Yuan’s clavicle,
silently turned into a fine dust.
The other four black chains that bound his limbs,
likewise shattered inch by inch.
Ten years’ time.
Lin Yuan hadn’t stopped eroding and devouring the black chains for a single moment.
And today at last, the six black chains that suppressed him, were completely resolved.
“Freedom is good,”
Lin Yuan took a deep breath.
Having lost the suppression of the six black chains, Lin Yuan finally dared to breathe deeply.
“The six chains of millennium deep-sea essence, surprisingly caused my physical body to shed and evolve several levels…”
A hint of wonder flashed across Lin Yuan’s face.
With the secret techniques of swallowing and conversion from the Swallowing Sky Evolution Path, he constantly transformed the essence from the deep-sea metal into evolution, without rest for ten years, leading to significant enhancements in Lin Yuan’s physical body.
This was indeed an unexpected joy.
…
Outside the Great Abyss,
the numerous guards had not yet departed.
As long as Xiahou Yuan lived, these guardians could not leave.
Of course, the guards were rotated yearly, for the Northern Region was bitterly cold, and the Great Abyss was even worse, the northernmost of the Northern Region.
If not for the rewards promised by the Tianjian Sect, and the ability to rotate back after a year, no cultivator would be willing to come here.
“This Xiahou Yuan… hasn’t died yet?”
At the entrance, Zhao Si, who could now handle things on his own, brought a new guardian to check the stone lantern.
When he noticed that the flame inside the lantern was still burning slowly,
he couldn’t help but click his tongue in wonder.
In the past ten years, he had rotated three times, relying on guarding the Great Abyss to obtain the rewards bestowed by the Tianjian Sect.
Zhao Si had reached the Fourth Realm.
Even so,
standing outside the Great Abyss,
he still felt suppressed.
He could only move step by step, almost like an ordinary person.
Yet, ten years had passed,
and the legendary great demon, Xiahou Yuan, was still alive.
If not for the fact that this stone lantern was left by Tianjian Zi, the world’s strongest,
Zhao Si almost doubted whether the lantern was malfunctioning.
“This Xiahou Yuan, in his day, was a calamity on all sides, a genuine great demon, Sect Leader Tianjian…”
Zhao Si, following routine, informed the new guardian next to him about Xiahou Yuan’s utterly evil deeds.
“Uncle Zhao, you say that with Xiahou Yuan suppressed here, the demons of the Five Domains would behave and not cause chaos…”
“But over these years, in my hometown, we’ve often seen traces of demons, and several villages have been slaughtered…”
This new guardian spoke with a tone of confusion.
He had heard from his elders that more than a decade ago, when the great demon Xiahou Yuan was still around, the Demonic Tao Forces of the Five Domains were unprecedented, but such large-scale slaughter of villages rarely happened.
“This…”
Zhao Si,
suddenly felt a bit silent upon hearing this.
It wasn’t just the new guardian who was puzzled.
He too had heard plenty of such incidents.
Having lost Xiahou Yuan, the chief of Demonic Tao,
it was as if the demons from the Five Domains had lost their ‘shackles’,
and had completely gone mad.
Of course,
the forces of Righteous Path led by the Tianjian Sect,
constantly deployed disciples to annihilate these demons.
But it hardly made any difference.
Even if demons were exterminated,
it was likely that within a few years or a decade,
new demons would arise.
And most of these new demons were once those who had set out to eliminate them.
These individuals had obtained some Demonic Tao heritage or techniques and eventually couldn’t resist the temptation to cultivate them on their own.
It couldn’t be helped.
The Demonic Tao cultivation methods were too alluring.
They were practically like cheating.
Normal cultivation methods required years of arduous cultivation to break through from the First Realm to the Second Realm, and one also needed a good natural aptitude.
What about Demonic Tao cultivation methods? No arduous cultivation needed, no aptitude required.
One merely needed to know how to kill.
The blood, energy, and souls of living beings were like great tonics for a Demonic Tao cultivator.
“Don’t think too much about it.”
“Now that these demons are so rampant, you can imagine how much more dire the situation would be if Xiahou Yuan were still around,”
Zhao Si consoled.
He was comforting the new guardian,
but it was more like he was consoling himself.
A bold and presumptuous thought had crept into his mind.
Perhaps, Tianjian Zi should have never suppressed Xiahou Yuan.
If Xiahou Yuan had been around, the situation in the Five Domains, even if not alleviated,
could not have worsened to the current extent, could it?
…
The eighteenth layer underground.
Lin Yuan sat cross-legged.
“Next, it’s time to restore my strength,”
Lin Yuan pondered to himself.
While the six black chains were present, both Lin Yuan’s physical body and Primordial Spirit were suppressed.
Let alone cultivating, even the slightest movement was excruciatingly painful.
But now, free from the suppression of the six black chains,
regaining strength became much easier.
Even in the deepest part of the Great Abyss, where all laws withered and ordinary Seventh and Eighth Realm powerhouses would have ninety percent of their strength suppressed while here,
“`