Chapter 498 The Deep Abyss
Inside the Elf Divine Tree’s spiritual domain, the Spirit looked at the items Chu Xun was taking out with interest.
“What is this?” asked the Spirit with child-like curiosity.
“This? This is a tablet. An electronic gadget that allows its user to perform tasks on, such as watching videos or playing games.”
Chu Xun had spent all day shopping from a nearby mall, buying virtually every electronic tablet and power bank he could find.
Several hundreds of tablet computers–each filled to the gunnels with serial dramas, movies, and off-line games–and ten times the amount of power banks.
He could still remember the strange stares that the salespersons at the mall were giving him. A pretty lass, also a salesperson there, had plucked up enough courage to ask him if he was moving to Mars because of the tumult now ravaging Earth, and if he could bring her along with him.
Chu Xun could only smile weakly as he remembered all too well his embarrassment just now. This must have been the most trivial thing he had ever done, no matter as the Devil or the Immortal Emperor he once was.
Even so, he had managed to overcome his scruples and had done it. All because he still believed it to be worth all the trouble.
“What’s an electronic gadget? How does this tablet work? And what are dramas and movies?” the Spirit was curious.
“All of these—” Chu Xun picked up one of the tablets, “—are items for you to pass your time with.” Chu Xun powered on the tablet and said, “Come, I’ll teach you how.”
Chu Xun turned on a movie. Suddenly, a hole as large as his hand burst open on the screen of the tablet with a huge bang, followed by plumes of smoke rising up.
“What did you do?” Chu Xun stared at the Spirit incredulously.
“There’s a stranger inside,” said the Spirit warily.
Chu Xun flashed her a thumbs-up. He had forgotten to explain. “The people inside are not real, so don’t attack them,” he said.
“Not real?!” the Spirit was puzzled.
Chu Xun reached for another tablet and turned on a serial drama. “Look. The people inside are not real. You can see them, but they cannot see you.”
“Really!?” squealed the Spirit in delight, her fairy wings fluttering excitedly. She took the tablet to examine it, hovering around Chu Xun. “Wow, they really can’t see me! Doesn’t that make this a Sacred Relic with a sealed dimension inside?”
Chu Xun couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. Even kids as young as three knew more about electronic gadgets than her. For millions of years she had remained here in obscurity, all because of an oath to keep the Elf race’s safe, but with no one to talk to and no one to keep her company.
Chu Xun taught her how to use these gadgets. These things might do little to quell the boredom of being alone here, as he well knew, but there was little he could do–for now.
“How do you like seeing the world outside?” asked Chu Xun suddenly.
The Spirit shook her head. “My master bade me watch over the Elves. I cannot shirk my duty. Moreover, I can hardly survive long being outside my true body.”
Chu Xun expected her to say that. There was a way to bring the Spirit out–if only she wanted to. If Tao Wu’s spirit could be sealed inside the Dragon’s Wrath, then the Spirit of the Divine Tree could also possess an object too.
But since she declined his offer, Chu Xun knew better than to press.
With the Spirit captivated by the new toys he just bought her, Chu Xun sat aside to study the Mystics of the Roc and Leviathan.
The next day, he went to look for the Flaming Qilin.
The Qilin has been luxuriating his past few days in comfort and opulence, sleeping even in the Sacred Maiden’s very own bed.
“All right, idiot. Time to put your play-acting to an end,” Chu Xun came to see him when Su Wei’er was not present.
The Flaming Qilin deposited a grape into his mouth and lazily squinted his eyes, not willing to part with all the pleasure and plenty. “Come on, give me a few more days.”
“So, you’re not thinking of saving your future mother-in-law?”
“What future mother-in-law?”
“The Queen of Elves. In case this hasn’t crossed your mind, your days of comfort are numbered without the Queen’s say-so.”
“D*mn!” the Flaming Qilin sprang up, glaring at Chu Xun. “It’s thanks to some Goddamned luck that I met you, Chu the Devil! You stole my secret technique and my True Blood, and now you’re popping my sweet dreams even before I’m able to finish them at least! Come on!”
“The least you could do is show some gratitude,” said Chu Xun, plucking a grape and tossing it at the Flaming Qilin’s head. The little morsel of fruit burst open with its juices spattering all over the Qilin’s face. Chu Xun giggled. “Last I checked, you won’t even get to taste these sweet dreams if not for me.”
The Qilin gave Chu Xun a scathing look as he wiped the juices off his face. “Give me another two days at least!”
“Nope. We’re saving your future mother-in-law tomorrow. You can go on pretending to be injured or I’ll tell Su Wei’er you’re only pretending to get her to take care of you.”
“Tell me what?” Su Wei’er entered suddenly.
Flustered, Flaming Qilin quickly blinked his eyes furiously at Chu Xun.
“He’s saying that his injuries are getting better. He’ll be joining us tomorrow to help free the Queen,” said Chu Xun without a stir.
“Really?” exclaimed Su Wei’er with joy. But she was still worried about Flaming Qilin. “But are you really all right now, Flaming Qilin?”
“He’s blessed with an extraordinary physical constitution.” Chu Xun nodded. “Moreover, you’ve been doing a great job taking care of him. That has helped his recovery greatly. I’ve just examined him and I’m sure he’ll have no problems moving forward.”
“Heavens, that’s great!” beamed Su Wei’er.
The Flaming Qilin dug himself into the blankets, groaning and moaning. After the past few days, he really couldn’t bear to leave Su Wei’er’s careful and meticulous mollycoddling of him.
“Don’t worry, my dear. I’ll be all right tomorrow morning. Just you wait. I’ll even pluck the stars off the skies for you,” he said.
Chu Xun stared at him in silence. The Flaming Qilin really had incredible talent in wooing girls.
Chu Xun then left to look for Gao Mohan and the others. He wanted to discuss the expedition tomorrow and make any needed preparations.
...
The following day.
Su Wei’er and her aunt Su Lianyi accompanied Chu Xun and his companions to where the Queen of Elves was imprisoned.
The company trekked for almost an hour due east of the Elvish woods until they came upon a gaping chasm.
Craning off the jagged edge of the chasm yielded nothing at all; the abyss was so dark and deep with thick fog obscuring any more visibility of its bottom.
People say that abysses would stare right back at you when you’re peering down its depths. It was exactly what everyone was feeling right now: that same giddying and nauseating sensation once one looked too long.
Chu Xun projected his divine sense and his astral projection traveled down for more than ten thousand meters and still, he reached nowhere near the bottom.
“Is the Queen really imprisoned here?” the Flaming Qilin burst out incredulously, “How on earth are we getting down? It’s so bloody deep!”
“Come with me,” said Su Wei’er.
Everyone followed her along the edges of the chasm. The walk took some time until the Sacred Maiden came to a sudden halt. She pointed at a spot, saying, “There. You go down from there.”
“What do you mean? We jump down from here?” gasped the Flaming Qilin in a rare moment of fear.
In fact, nearly everyone in the company felt the same. The dark, bottomless abyss was like the vast, yawning jaws of a behemothic monster that even Immortal-Level lords could hardly stifle a shiver whenever they peered down the void.
“Has anyone gone down before?” asked Chu Xun, finding a hidden chain with sturdy links as large as a child’s arm.
Su Lianyi nodded and revealed that the Queen was not kept at the bottom of the chasm, but halfway.
“Follow me,” said Su Wei’er, pulling at the hidden chain to lead the way.
“Let me,” said Chu Xun suddenly.
Su Wei’er paused, visibly surprised, but the Flaming Qilin stopped her from saying anything else. “Let him go,” he whispered, “if anything happens, let him deal with it first.”
That did not go unnoticed by Chu Xun, who was annoyed by the Qilin’s words, although he ignored him. Chu Xun grabbed the chain. It was made of cold iron. It was cold and could easily withstand thousands of kilograms.
Chu Xun seized the chain and slid down.
“Careful, everyone,” warned Gao Mohan as he followed behind.
One after another, the others slid down the thick, heavyset chain.
The thick fog obscured their sights when they reached almost one thousand meters below ground level. Those who had gone down first could hardly see their companions coming after them.
“Surely there’s nothing in this fog?” gasped Gao Mohan, the recollection of the last time he was in such fog coming back to haunt him.
“Rest assured that it’s safe. I’ve been here many times. There’s nothing—”
Before Su Lianyi could finish, the rock face before her burst open, and a monster with a mouth as large as a tray bared its razor-sharp fangs at her as it lunged.
The stench of the monster was enough to make one queasy and sick.
As an Immortal-Level lord herself, Su Lianyi quickly recovered from the surprise and she needed only to raise a hand to fire a terrible blast of energy at the monster.
Boom!
The blast slammed into the monster, hitting its head sideways with flakes of its jet-black scales scattering in the air. The unnatural gales churning from Su Lianyi’s retaliation caused enough turbulence in the chasm to rock the chain and everyone held on to it desperately for dear life.
But before Su Lianyi could breathe easy, something red and long zipped with lightning-fast speed and coiled around her slender waist. The monster’s extremely long tongue! It had reached from a distance of five to six meters, dragging Su Lianyi towards its jaws where its fangs were ready and waiting!
Chu Xun was just too fast that he was already more than two hundred meters ahead. But it did not mean that he failed to notice the wild shaking of the chain and the rocks falling from the commotion overhead. Firing a blast of Hong Meng Immortal Qi, he propelled himself upwards.
The Flaming Qilin had sprung into action, spewing a whole mouthful of lava that caught the monster.
Roar!
Wincing with pain amid the sickening sizzles and the acrid stink of its own flesh melting, the monster roared and thrashed like a rabid monster, hitting the rock face of the cliffs so hard that it caused more rocks to fall as it quicked its pace of pulling Su Lianyi nearer.
Chu Xun soared upwards, flying past Gao Mohan just in time to shear off the monster’s tongue with his palms clasped together like a blade. But before the monster could withdraw its tongue, Chu Xun grabbed at the long, bleeding appendage and gave it a powerful yank, pulling the monster from inside the rocks out into full plain sight.
Chu Xun jerked furiously at the rubber-like tongue of the monster and flailed it like a yo-yo before tossing it several tens of meters away. The monster plunged into the abyss.
“What a bloody huge lizard,” commented Gao Mohan under his breath.
Only then did everyone realized that the monster was: a ferocious and gigantic lizard more than several dozen meters long with armor-like scales and long, sharp fangs.
“Monsters like this are now the norm since the anomalies began to take place all around Earth,” added Shi Yifei, who would rather that all lizards remain just as they were–barely the size of a man’s palm, enjoying not one bit that this particular one had mutated into a predator more than ten meters long.
The Flaming Qilin was seething with rage, “That fool did not notice my presence! Me, a Sacred Beast! What a fool!”
“Hold tight to the chain and be careful,” reminded Chu Xun. He released his grip of the chain and allowed himself to freefall past Gao Mohan where he caught the chain once more.
“Hmph! He just loves to play the hero!” grumbled the Flaming Qilin, “as if he’s the only one with enough power here. I could have easily fricasseed that filthy lizard without needing his help!”
“Just keep an eye out, would you, Qilin? We don’t want any more surprises like that one. One tumble down to the bottom can blow your brains open,” urged Weng Xiong. Not even Immortal-Level lords could ever hope to survive a fall of such altitudes.
“I’m a Sacred Beast. There’s no way I’m dying just by falling down this hole,” said the Flaming Qilin indifferently.
Boom!
The terrible crash of something heavy echoed up from the depths of the abyss, crawling up the walls to reach their ears.
That shocked everyone. “Was that the lizard?! Did it reach the bottom after so long?! Heavens, how deep is this chasm?!”
Even the Flaming Qilin could hardly resist looking upset and nonplussed as he instinctively tightened his grip on the chain.
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