Walking by the Abyss on Thin Ice

Chapter 289 – Su Yun, the King of Ash and Dust

Chapter 289 – Su Yun, the King of Ash and Dust

Jing Zhao had just left the village when he heard the sound of hooves approaching. He saw more than a dozen carriages pulled by Pan Yangs entering the village.

After the chaos caused by the Pan Yang rebellion, their status had declined and they had become a means of transportation for people. However, Pan Yang carriages were still something that only wealthy families could afford.

These carriages could accommodate hundreds of spiritual scholars and were like moving fortresses, with three towers that could be used for offense and defense.

Feeding Pan Yangs was a huge expense, and in the barren lands near Boshan City, it was impossible to afford them. The entire town probably didn't even have one Pan Yang carriage.

But now, more than ten Pan Yang carriages had entered the town under the cover of night, which was truly strange!

However, the residents of the town had already seen the beautiful young man who killed the gods with his strange eyes, and the strange man who was engulfed in flames and killed the gods of the neighboring village. They had seen too many strange things that night, so they were no longer surprised.

The Pan Yang carriages drove to the center of the town and stopped in front of the town's temple. They stood there motionless.

One of the Pan Yangs had a thick curtain covering its back. The curtain slowly fell, revealing a three-tiered altar instead of a tower.

A woman danced on the altar, her upper body bare. Her dance was strange, intense, and twisted. Her joints seemed to have no pain, as they twisted and moved in ways that ordinary people couldn't.

The Pan Yangs formed a large circle around the altar, with their backs facing inward and their heads facing outward.

Faint drumming could be heard in the air, coming from outside the sky. The drumming became more and more intense.

Suddenly, the woman in the center of the altar knelt down, her upper body trembling and undulating. She chanted words in an ancient language, not the language of Yuan Shuo. With the chanting, her aura of demonic energy surged and a phantom of a god and demon slowly appeared in the vortex.

The chains on the backs of the Pan Yangs suddenly loosened, and the towers on their backs fell with a crash.

The Pan Yangs' nostrils opened wide, and the gray and fiery calamity dust in the air rushed into their bodies through their nostrils.

Muscles on their bodies rapidly swelled, and the Pan Yangs slowly stood up, standing on their hind legs like pillars in the darkness of the town.

"Whoosh!"

Their pupils suddenly ignited with calamity fire, and their rectangular pupils looked like fire troughs.

The residents of the town watched this scene dumbfoundedly, not knowing what to do.

The central Pan Yang did not change, but the woman on the altar stood up. She covered her chest in the darkness and chuckled, "Why aren't you running away? Are you waiting for me to take off my last piece of clothing and show it to you?"

The residents of the town finally realized what was happening and screamed, scattering in all directions.

But as they fled, they triggered the ferocity of the demonized Pan Yangs. The Pan Yangs took steps that covered twenty steps of the town's residents, extending their claws to grab the panicked townspeople.

The screams were endless as one by one, the townspeople were caught and thrown into the Pan Yangs' mouths full of sharp teeth.

The demonized Pan Yangs had calamity fire in their mouths!

The woman, on the other hand, somehow found a piece of clothing and lazily put it on. She laughed, "Oh, the lustful gods only show themselves when I take off my clothes as a sacrifice... The gods spread fear to the world, and the world worships the gods devoutly."

The Pan Yang carriages carried the altar and the woman out of the town, heading towards Boshan City. Behind them, the town was engulfed in flames, and demonized Pan Yangs walked out of the flames, their bodies covered in blood.

Boshan City.

Su Yun arrived outside the city and saw that most of the calamity dust in this calamity city had been exhausted, and the calamity fire was gradually extinguishing, with only a few places still burning.

"Guo?" Tian Feng turned his head, feeling a bit fearful of this city.

"Boshan City was destroyed two hundred years ago," Ying Ying said as she slid down from Su Yun's shoulder, sitting on his shoulder and flipping through the information under the light of the flames. She said, "After the Pan Yang rebellion, this place was set on fire. It is said that some people saw calamity dust monsters in the flames, and many of these monsters worshipped the Calamity Dust God King and lived in the flames."

She looked up, puzzled, and asked, "But now, most of the calamity fire has been extinguished. Where did these calamity dust monsters and the Calamity Dust God King go?"

Su Yun walked into Boshan Calamity City and said, "We'll know when we go in."

Xing Jiangmu regained his composure and quickly followed Su Yun. His footsteps sank about half a foot into the ashes on the ground. He had been on a mission to Da Qin for more than ten years and had never been to a place like this.

"The new Young Historian has only been in office for a few days, and he's already come to such a forbidden place..." He couldn't help but mutter to himself."Guo..." Tianfeng looked around in panic and followed them, almost stepping on Xing Jiangmu into the ashes.

At this moment, a blackened wall collapsed and fell with a loud crash. Tianfeng screamed and jumped into Xing Jiangmu's arms.

The thirty-two-year-old white-haired old man instinctively extended his arms and held the big bird, like a needle supporting a furry ball.

Xing Jiangmu aged two more years under the pressure.

The little head of Tianfeng poked out from the furry ball, saw no danger, and then stuck out its feet. Xing Jiangmu felt relieved.

Su Yun reached out and pressed down on the ashes lifted by the collapsed wall, revealing a burnt skeleton, terrifying and ferocious.

"Guo!"

Tianfeng jumped up and leaped towards Xing Jiangmu. Xing Jiangmu dodged, and Tianfeng landed in the ashes, with thick ashes on its beautiful feathers.

"These skeletons are the skeletons of the Ash Monster."

Tianfeng pecked Xing Jiangmu's white-haired head in anger, and Xing Jiangmu endured it silently. Su Yun's voice came from afar, "These Ash Monsters should have been burned to death."

Xing Jiangmu wiped the blood from his forehead and asked in confusion, "How could the Ash Monsters be burned to death when they can live in the Ash Fire?"

"Perhaps the ash was burned out, and without the ash, the fire started to burn these Ash Monsters."

Su Yun speculated, "Maybe the Ash Monsters need to live in an environment formed by the Ash Fire. Let's move forward. There are still unburned Ash Fires ahead."

They continued to move forward, and the smell of ash filled the city of Boshan, filled with a decaying and rotten smell as if everything had rotted away.

Tianfeng followed Su Yun sneakily, while Xing Jiangmu walked at the back.

After a while, they arrived at the unburned Ash Fire in the center of the city.

Su Yun, Ying Ying, and Xing Jiangmu were all stunned. They saw the city center of Boshan City bathed in the Ash Fire, with flames reaching a hundred feet high, burning fiercely.

However, in the flames, there were green mountains and rivers, houses standing tall, like a paradise!

In the fire, there seemed to be another world. The colors of the mountains and rivers were vibrant, and there were fields around the village. They could even see vegetable gardens on the streets, growing strange and exotic plants.

These plants could actually sprout, grow, bloom, and bear fruit in the Ash Fire. Su Yun and the others even saw some Ash Monsters working in the fields, tending to the vegetable gardens.

There were about a hundred Ash Monsters living here, presenting a picturesque rural scene.

Some Ash Monsters noticed them, screeched, and flew towards them, but they only flew around the edge of the Ash Fire and did not actually attack.

Some Ash Monsters ran towards the streets, as if they were reporting the news.

Su Yun activated his Heavenly Eyes and looked deeper into the Ash Fire. He saw a ancient temple standing in the center of this paradise in the Ash Fire. Several large Ash Monster sculptures stood in front of the temple, holding knives and spears. In the center of the temple sat an Ash Monster King.

The raging Ash Fire emanated from the Ash Monster King in the temple. It was the burning of the Ash Monster King that maintained the ecological balance of this village in the Ash Fire, as if he was sacrificing his own life to sustain the ecosystem here.

Many Ash Monsters ran to the front of the temple and knelt down, speaking in an incomprehensible language.

The Ash Monster King was weak, but he stood up with his staff, and the burning Ash Fire on his body became even more intense, maintaining his powerful aura. With a slight swing of his staff, the ground shook!

Xing Jiangmu's face changed drastically, and he quickly stood in front of Su Yun and said in a low voice, "Sir, Ash Monsters are extremely dangerous, and the Ash Monster King is a strong being that even the Original Realm cannot withstand. We should leave this place quickly!"

The Ash Monster King had an unparalleled aura, and his voice was fierce. It shook Su Yun, Xing Jiangmu, and the others, causing their chests to feel stuffy and their blood to surge. Their eyes felt like they were about to burst!

"Sir!"

Xing Jiangmu said sternly, "A gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall. Please leave quickly!"

At this moment, Su Yun took out a staff that was exactly the same as the Ash Monster King's staff and spoke in a language that was difficult to understand.

Xing Jiangmu was stunned and did not understand.

Ying Ying, on the other hand, understood. The words Su Yun spoke were actually the language of the Ash Monster race, the words spoken by the Ash Monster King that Su Yun encountered in the Ash Monster City underground!

Su Yun was just imitating the words of the Ash Monster King, saying the second half of the sentence.

The meaning of that sentence was why did the heavens not allow their race to survive? What mistakes did his people make that they had to be exterminated?

On the street, the Ash Monster King burning with Ash Fire heard Su Yun's words. The fierceness in his eyes gradually dissipated, and he weakly waved his hand, indicating for them to leave.Su Yun's vitality surged, envisioning scenes of sheep eating humans amidst the grey fog. The gaze of the Ashen King fell upon the images he conjured, causing him to pause in surprise.

Su Yun's heart was filled with apprehension. The only sentence he could speak in the language of the Ashen Beasts was this one.

The latter half of this sentence was the Ashen King beneath Shuofang City lamenting the many hardships of his race's fate, while the first half was about his own misfortune, having died at the hands of Su Yun, a mere brat!

The battle beneath Shuofang City, the Ashen King there, had indeed fallen by Su Yun's hand!

And killing the Ashen King was the test to become the master of the Sky-reaching Pavilion!

The King's scepter in Su Yun's hand was also obtained from this, but he had never used it!

Across the fire, the Ashen King nodded slightly, the wheel-like bone disk radiating behind him swayed as he turned around, leading many great Ashen Beasts towards the paradise deep within the fire.

Su Yun gritted his teeth, lifted the scepter in his hand, and with a light swipe, the fire in front of him split open.

Su Yun hesitated for a moment, then stepped in, his voice deep as he said, "Let's go!"