Capítulo 59: Abyss Prison Realm
The next morning, they all gathered at a set of ancient constructs near the perimeter of the City Lord's Mansion. Because no one had been able to figure out how to break through the origin barrier and controlling array in the areas for such a long time, it was a largely ignored portion of the city, except for children were curious about the mysterious spatial barrier there.
Ning'Er briefed the whole group about the situation in the Abyss Prison Realm, relating the potential dangers, the current status with the thirteen families there and what to expect, especially from the three most powerful clans of the Silver Winged Family, Ash Wolves Family and Divine Flames Family.
Her friends were stunned to hear that there was a whole separate realm sustaining such a large population who had been able to survive for so long in such a harsh environment, and develop strength that was relatively greater than Glory City, considering that the three major families there each had a Legend Ranked expert.
The only consolation was that this realm had lost the ancient techniques and cultivation methods required to be a demon spiritualist, and were therefore only able to produce Fighter Class experts. This meant that Ning'Er at five star Black Gold Rank was able to contend with their Legend Rank fighters with her extensive fighting experience and purity of soul force, but once she took her Panterran form, she would be able to completely destroy the strongest warriors in that realm!
As Ning'Er stepped up to the Ten Millennium Spatial Array, she felt the vine within her soul realm vibrating with resonance. This array had been built with inscriptions based on the Laws of Time and Space! She was ecstatic as she realised she had found another invaluable resource to study these laws. She was starting to be astounded as she saw appearance after appearance of things in Tiny World that she had not seen in all her travels to different realms and continents!
The creator for this world had truly hid a lot of things within this region that would have triggered the Sage Emperor's wrath in any other realm but anything within it seemed to be completely obscured from the eyes of this powerful dictator who wished to refine the realms for himself.
Ning'Er pressed her hands against the the barrier's initial layer that felt like soft cloth but it only allowed her to press in a few inches before she sensed the tyrannical defensive aura further within. The texture was soft and smooth, similar to a silk brocade.
Lu Piao mumbled next to her as he frowned, "When I was young, I came here to try to break the barrier. I tried using an axe but it rebounded and slashed through the hat of my friend as it flew away. The kid started crying and told his father, which in turn, made my father punish me severely..."
Ning'Er remembered what Nie Li had mentioned before, "This is the origin barrier of the latter era of the Woodland Empire. It uses twenty three Stones of Light as its activation core and once it's activated, even a combination attack of ten Legend Ranked Demon Spiritualists cannot break through it."
The rest of the group laughed out loud as they imagined Lu Piao trying to break through the barrier with an axe, while Legend Rank experts didn't even have a chance!
Yang Xin, whom she had invited along for the expedition, asked, "Do you have a method to open this barrier?"
Ning'Er replied, "Since I've asked you to come here today, I naturally have studied this array over the last few days and figured out how to access the portal within." It was fortunate that she had already been pointed in the right direction from Nie Li's explanations in the past, on top of her deep comprehension of inscriptions, if not it would have taken her far longer to break through the barrier.
In strategic positions all around the barrier, there were sixteen dome-like towers in a circle, each of them at least six yards tall. Each pillar was carved with highly intricate inscription patters which formed a common link, controlling the array.
Ning'Er walked to each pillar one by one, and identifying the correct trigger inscription, began to inject soul force into each of them. The group in the back watched in amazement and excitement as the inscriptions on each pillar burst into dazzling light, one by one, following Ning'Er's pace of activation.
Ohmmm! Ohmmm! Ohmmm!
Each activated pillar let out a booming sound of low resonance, as each of them felt their bones vibrate to the sound. They could see the barrier trembling more and more as time went on until all the pillars were activated. Suddenly, sharp beams of light flew from the pillars towards the barrier, drawing a profound inscription pattern on its surface and causing the barrier to light up with multi-coloured lights like an endless nebula.
"Come, it's time for us to go through." Ning'Er spoke out just as the barrier grew fainter and dissipated.
They quickly walked through in anticipation and a few moments later, they could see the barrier reform behind them as though nothing had happened. Anyone who walked past outside would not even know that a group of people had just gone through the mysterious barrier that had been impenetrable and impassable for as long as they could remember.
As they stepped all the way through the barrier, there was a brilliant flash of light as they felt the a swirling force wrap around them, disorienting them for a moment. When their eyes regained their sight again, they were in the middle of a worn out ancient array covered with mysterious inscription patterns, presumably responsible for their teleportation because it was clear that they were in a completely different place.
The sky was completely dark except for a few sudden lightning strikes which would happen from time to time. There was a freezing cold rain that poured over them but at their current cultivation level, they could wrap a layer of soul force around their bodies to keep themselves warm. They looked around but all they could see was a endlessly dark wilderness. In the intermittent flashes of lightning, they could see mountains in the distance.
Aside from the sounds of thunder, they could even hear the sounds of monsters and beasts roaring faintly around them. Some sounded like they were in battle with each other.
She felt a trembling hand grab around her arm tightly. "Wh-wh-where are w-we? This place is so spooky..." A squeaky voice whispered next to her.
She glanced over in slight irritation as she yanked her arm away and slapped Lu Piao at the back of his head. "Stop being such a coward! How are you going to find a girl if you can't be a man?"
He rubbed the sore spot on his head sheepishly. "Hey!! I have a girlfriend. I just haven't introduced her to you guys yet..."
Nie Li smirked and leaned in explaining, "That's because she doesn't want to see him right now. She caught him peeping on her bathing!!"
"Whatttt?" Lu Piao blurted out in embarrassment, not expecting that his best friend would let out his secret, especially in the presence of the voluptuous goddess Yang Xin, of which he still didn't know why she suddenly joined their group. He glared at Nie Li with daggers of resentment shooting out of his eyes, mumbling, "It was an accident. I didn't know that she would be bathing right beyond that fence. I didn't mean to climb over it..."
Ning'Er sighed as those around her chuckled softly in amusement. "Lu Piao, stop digging a deeper grave for yourself..." She suddenly heard something. "Here come the Scarlet Ghosts I briefed you about. Maintain in the formations that you've learnt and use the battles as a tempering experience. Stay away from any Netherlamp Behemoths!"
Scarlet Ghosts were one star Silver Ranked beasts, which resembled savage, red monkeys. Although they were not dangerous by themselves, they grouped together in large numbers and would swarm their enemies with hundreds at a time, overwhelming those they attacked with sheer ferocity in volume. In addition, the Scarlet Ghosts in this had blood crystals sealed within them making them far more powerful and vicious than they usually were.
Netherlamp Behemoths were Gold Ranked predators of Scarlet Ghosts in the Abyss Prison Realm wilderness. These massive beasts were naturally slow and so attracted their prey to them by shining a glowing lamp-like appendage from its head, where in the foggy darkness, there would be those who unwittingly moved in that direction. Once close enough, it would shoot out thousands of tongues to drag its prey into its cavernous mouth filled with sharp teeth.
There was an even more terrifying flying beast that Ning'Er had seen capture a Netherlamp Behemoth in its claws. It was likely at Black Gold Ranked, and she had asked her team to stay within the cover of trees to avoid attracting this mysterious beast's attention.
They split up into two teams to balance out their strength, the ten of them grouping in units of five. Because Yang Xin had not trained in the formations, the ones assigned to lead each unit was Linjian and Du Ze, who were both currently at four star Gold Rank. Linjian would lead Lu Piao, Xiangjun, Nie Li and Ning'Er, and Du Ze would lead Zhang Ming, Wei Nan, Xiyun and Yang Xin.
Unlike the past where Nie Li had not wanted to attract too many Scarlet Ghosts, Ning'Er wanted to use the battles to deepen the experience of her team. The first monkey-like creature appeared in the trees ahead. It was extremely unattractive without any hair on its body at all and bright scarlet skin. It had sharp, pointy ears, short arms with long and slender claws, and bulging eyes that shone out like a couple of blue jewels glowing in the darkness.
Lu Piao shuddered in fear and disgust, inadvertently pointing his finger and saying, "So ugly..."
The monkey appeared to see him addressing it and as though understanding a bit of what was said, looked in their direction, shouting at the top of its lungs, "Guji! Guji!"
Immediately, more and more of the creatures started to show up, all screaming the same unusual syllables over and over, "Guji!"
Holding their weapons in their hands, the two units stepped forward, falling into the formation that they had practiced so many times over the last couple of months. They decided not to merge with their demon spirits yet unless the level of combat was beyond what they could manage in their human forms.
With their Black Gold Ranked strengths, Ning'Er and Yang Xin played more passive and supportive roles, to allow the others to gain more experience. Ning'Er, in particular, used her Wind Cutter sword to help direct the Scarlet Ghosts' movements and break up more dangerous clumps of them because they could sense the dangerous blades of wind she sent out. Yang Xin carried a crossbow named Thunderbolt that was so powerful that it could shoot bolts that could pierce through three or four beasts at the same time before losing momentum.
Over and over, they cut down large swarms of the demon beasts as more and more beasts appeared. However, at initial Silver Rank, the fierce beasts couldn't hope to match the tight coordination and combat power of the two units that sliced through them like a knife through butter. Over the course of over one hour, they held off multiple rampaging waves of ferocious Scarlet Ghosts, until the horde began to finally lessen.
In the end, the remaining tens of demon beasts sat back on the tree branches in the distance, looking at this ruthless group who had functioned like a killing machine in fear, unwilling to keep attacking. Ning'Er then instructed the group to search each of the carcasses lying around them to collect any blood crystals within them.
Ning'Er was ecstatic to find that there was sufficient for her to refine around twenty sizeable chunks. She quickly went through the process of refining ten of them for her team and herself to use in case they found any time to cultivate in between tasks during the trip.
She then led through the dark forest towards the mountains in the distance. They saw a few glowing lights along the way that they made sure to stay clear of to avoid the dangerous Netherlamp Behemoths. Interestingly, the direction that she was guiding them was completely different from the initial route that Nie Li had brought them in the past.
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
AerynSun
AerynSun Thinking about how to deviate from the original story here...
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