Chapter 479: Nightmare Beast
"As expected." A spectator said and sighed.
In the beginning, most cultivators in the Reincarnation world disliked the arrogance of the Cangxing mountain.
However, as time passed, their opinions changed.
After all, in the more than one hundred martial stages, there were at least ten people who hadn’t tasted defeat.
Among them were Yu Nianzhen, Jiang Yue, Yang Xu, Bing Mei, Lin Huang, and Wei Ge.
This time, Jiang Yue’s loss was a little disappointing.
"It’s not over yet." A female cultivator tried to comfort herself.
Unfortunately, her opinion was unpopular.
Without a word, several spectators shook their heads and continued to watch the duel.
On the martial stage, Mu Huan was smiling.
Although his abyss creature had a cute name, it was a nightmare beast.
It treated illusions and soul attacks as nourishment and didn’t take them seriously.
Unless the opponent was a big realm higher than him, Mu Huan had nothing to fear from illusion or soul cultivators.
"Hurry up and hand over your life." He said and a strange light flashed in his eyes.
Like Jiang Yue suspected, Mu Huan had an ulterior motive.
Originally, he didn’t plan to challenge Jiang Yue.
However, a few months ago, Jiang Yue won a treasure that Mu Huan had been looking for.
The treasure was the first part of a soul-refining manual.
On its own, the manual was ordinary and didn’t arouse other cultivators’ interest.
However, Mu Huan knew the manual was not ordinary.
When he first arrived in the Reincarnation world, he liked to explore and often went to the Burial Province.
During one of his explorations, he found a soul-refining manual.
Unfortunately, the manual lacked the first part and only had the second and third parts.
Because of this, Mu Huan couldn’t practice the soul-refining technique but he never gave up.
He often studied the manual and hoped to find a way to practice without the first part.
As a result, he failed to find a way but discovered a hidden secret.
From his understanding, the three parts of the soul-refining technique were a camouflage.
Depending on how the parts were put together, a new and unique soul-refining technique would be created.
This technique was not only capable of refining the divine soul but also held another secret.
If someone achieved initial success in practising the technique, they would unearth the location of an ancient cave.
The cave belonged to a reincarnation realm cultivator from a saint-grade world.
Since saint realm cultivators hadn’t appeared in thousands of years, such a cave was very appealing.
Although Mu Huan didn’t know what was in the cave, he knew the loot wouldn’t be miserable.
After all, the ancient cultivator went to a lot of trouble to hide the location of his cave.
Most importantly, even if a cultivator accidentally discovered the cave, there was no way to enter.
The only way to enter was by practising the soul-refining technique.
From what Mu Huan knew, achieving minor success in practising the technique would generate a unique marker in a cultivator’s soul power.
This marker was the key to entering the ancient cave.
Without it, there was no way of safely entering the cave and if someone forced their way in, everything in the cave would be destroyed.
When Mu Huan discovered the first part of the soul-refining technique, his heart skipped a beat.
He felt that everything was destined.
Since it was his fate to find and enter the ancient cave, he didn’t hesitate to kill Jiang Yue.
’Although it’s troublesome to hold so many treasures, I will figure it out after I get the storage ring.’ He thought with a determined look in his eyes.
"Mengmeng, end it quickly." He instructed.
"I know." A cheery voice sounded in his ears.
At the same time, Jiang Yue slightly recovered from his shock.
Despite his self-cultivation, when he saw the sudden death of his Taoist companion, he couldn’t keep his calm and reason.
In his panic, he allowed his emotions to overwhelm his reason and his mental state collapsed.
However, after the panic, he felt something was wrong.
Although he didn’t know what was wrong, just the suspicion calmed him a little.
"What..., have you woken up?" A displeased voice entered his ears.
The voice was female and had the impetuousness of a child.
"Child?" Jiang Yue muttered and frowned.
For a reason he couldn’t pinpoint, he felt it was strange to be hearing a child’s voice.
Unfortunately, his mind was still reeling from the nightmare and his thinking was slower than usual.
"No matter." The child spoke and the surroundings changed.
A moment later, Jiang Yue found himself at the edge of a big pit.
The pit was filled with naked people and each person had a metallic chain pierced into their tongues.
"What?" Jiang Yue couldn’t help but be confused.
’What’s going on here?’ He wondered and started to look around.
Soon after, he saw Yu Nianzhen.
Like the rest of the people, a hook was pierced into his tongue and a black demon was pulling the attached chain as if trying to rip Yu Nianzhen’s tongue.
Seeing this, Jiang Yue panicked and subconsciously ran towards the devil.
Although he didn’t know what was going on, his first priority was to save his lover.
After his lover was safe, they could slowly figure out what was going on.
With such thoughts, Jiang Yue ran at maximum speed but like before, his legs turned to lead.
At this moment, he suddenly remembered a nightmare he used to have when he was a mortal on Earth.
In the nightmare, his legs would suddenly turn to lead just when he was in the middle of crossing a busy road.
Even now, he remembered the helplessness of wanting to make it to the other side before a car appeared on the road.
However, his legs never cooperated and he usually woke up just before a car hit him.
Remembering the nightmare, Jiang Yue felt that he was in a similar situation.
He seemed to be in a nightmare but he didn’t know how to wake up.
Unfortunately, knowing his situation did nothing to calm his heart.
After all, some things were instinctual and couldn’t be easily overcome.
When he saw a demon pulling his lover’s tongue, Jiang Yue panicked.
Even though he knew he was in a nightmare, his instinctual need to protect Yu Nianzhen drove him to desperately struggle.
However, the useless struggle only increased his sense of helplessness and despair.
’Tasty.’ The abyss creature said and smacked its lips.
As a nightmare beast, its favourite nourishment was despair.
Previously, it had a tasty meal after feeding on Jiang Yue’s despair when it killed Yu Nianzhen in the nightmare.
Unfortunately, the despair was not absolute and the opponent still had a ray of hope.
However, the abyss creature didn’t dislike this outcome.
In this way, it could take its time to torture its opponent and slowly let him sink into despair.
’It’s been a long time since I ate an aged meal. After I eat his absolute despair, I will swallow his soul.’ The creature thought and chuckled happily.
However, it didn’t realise that things had begun to change.
Although Jiang Yue was in despair, a portion of his mind had awakened.
Even as he despaired, Jiang Yue felt that something was wrong.
’Something is wrong but what?’ He thought, desperately trying to escape his situation.
’Journey to the West.’ An idea suddenly came to him and his eyes widened.
On Earth, Jiang Yue once acted in a drama based on the Journey to the West.
When preparing for his role, he read the novel and knew about the eighteen levels of hell.
At this time, he remembered that the first level of hell was the chamber of tongue-ripping.
However, he didn’t understand why such a thing was appearing in his nightmare.
’It doesn’t matter.’ He suddenly decided and forcibly calmed his heart.
’I don’t know how to escape the nightmare but I can find its flaws.’ He thought and carefully recalled everything he knew about the chamber of tongue ripping.
’The chamber of tongue ripping is a hell for gossipmongers and people who cause disaster with their tongue. No matter how I think about it, it is not suitable for Azhen. In that case, why is he here?’
When Jiang Yue thought this, the scene around him began to flicker.
Everything turned a little illusory and the impact of the nightmare lessened a little.
With momentary clarity, Jiang Yue took the chance to swallow a clear heart pill.
Although he couldn’t remember the specific situation he was in, his instincts drove him to take the pill.
Fortunately, his instincts were spot on and the clear heart pill dispelled a lot of the nightmare’s effect.
’I am duelling Mu Huan.’ Jiang Yue suddenly remembered.
At the same time, he realised the kind of abyss creature he was up against and he couldn’t help but feel a little scared.
’If I give it more access to my subconscious and memories, its nightmares will become more realistic and terrifying. I won’t be able to find any flaws and my soul will be completely trapped.’ Jiang Yue thought with lingering fear in his heart.
