novelHire Chapter 856.19: Hou Yi
Chapter 856.19: Hou Yi
After a brief rest, the group set foot on the second floating peak.It was also a palace, looking slightly newer than the one belonging to Zhongli.
However, the moment they pushed open the palace doors, there was no wave of heat associated with magma.
On the contrary, it was cold here.
A kind of yin chill that originated from the depths of the bone marrow.
The great hall was empty and deathly silent, with only a single stone statue kneeling alone in the center.
It was a man of burly stature.
His spine was as straight as a mountain ridge, yet his knees were deeply embedded into the stone floor, as if confessing his sins to heaven and earth.
In his hands, he held a massive stone bow, its body full like a full moon, pointing directly at the firmament.
Strangely, the bow had no string.
Even stranger, the man had no eyes.
On the face of the statue, the eye sockets were two deep, empty hollows. Two dark red trails of blood wound their way down the cheeks, a shocking sight.
Chen Huaian stopped and quietly looked at that stone statue.
In his field of vision, the air trembled slightly.
Lines of golden script slowly materialized around the statue.
[When the tenth sun hung in the sky, I saw her…]
[That was the sun, also a god, and also my wife!]
[Gods have no physical form. It parasitized within her body, looking coldly at me through her skin.]
[The god was laughing: Shoot. Kill me, and you kill the person you love most.]
[I lowered my bow, unable to bear looking at those eyes, so I gouged out my own eyes to sever the gaze with the god.]
[I used my flesh as a prison, sealing this last eye, along with her… forever in darkness.]
[Those who come after, remember: Gods have no fixed form. Wherever their gaze falls, that is the divine domain. A god must rely on a 'medium' to descend.]
[If you wish to slay a god, first sever the god's shadow.]
[Remember: A god's true body is often hidden in the place you love most or hurts the most.]
At this point, the brushstrokes of the writing abruptly changed, exuding a weight and sorrow that seemed to suppress all eternity:
[I leave my broken body here, first to trap the god, second to stop people.]
[The path ahead is despair. Only those with great perseverance may proceed.]
[I have seen enough talented souls turn to bleached bones. I do not wish for the world to gain another pointless corpse.]
[If you lack the heart to sever attachments, if you lack the strength to prop up the collapsing heavens, stop here.]
[Turn back, and live.]
"Nothing! How can there be nothing?!" A low roar, tinged with suppressed fury, suddenly came from behind.
In the eyes of Bi Yue Wu and Tu Fu Xing, this great hall was completely empty. Aside from the ugly, blind stone statue in the middle, there was nothing.
No treasures left from ancient times, and certainly no so-called opportunities.
This sense of disparity made the two immortals, who had already suffered heavy losses, increasingly resentful.
"Chen Huaian! What are you staring at a broken rock for?"
Bi Yue Wu's face was gloomy. He suspected Chen Huaian was up to something again.
"Could it be you think this statue hides treasure?"
Chen Huaian did not turn his head, speaking only indifferently, "This Venerable One is merely paying respects to a hero."
"A hero?!" Tu Fu Xing sneered, his face full of disdain. "Pretentious mysticism! I think this hall is simply empty! Since there's no path, then this Venerable One will blast one open!"
He had no patience to study any stone statue.
The arrogance of an immortal had long accustomed him to solving everything with force.
Moreover, his True Spirit had descended to the mortal realm, where he should have been invincible.
That iron-chain bridge had made him suffer a setback, but could this empty palace possibly hold any more anomalies?
Tu Fu Xing strode forward, his tyrannical Divine Sense sweeping out like a rough tide around him. After repeatedly checking for no anomalies, he raised his fist, intending to smash it onto the statue.
As he lifted his head.
He happened to meet the statue's empty eyes.
Above the dome, the originally dead, dark ceiling suddenly "opened".
Not light.
But rather… a gaze!
Ten ghastly white halos appeared out of thin air, like ten enormous eyeballs, looking down from on high at this ant who knew no bounds.
At that moment, the air in the great hall seemed to solidify.
"Ahhhhhhh——!!" A shrill, agonized scream instantly exploded.
Tu Fu Xing and Bi Yue Wu, caught completely off guard, bore the brunt of it.
Whoever dares look directly at a god shall be scorched by divine might.
They could not see the golden warnings, and thus naturally did not know the taboo of "Do not meet the god's gaze".
Two streams of bloody tears instantly shot from their eyes. It wasn't just the pain from the light; it was the torture of having their souls placed on a raging fire to roast.
Their eyeballs were vaporized in an instant by that touch of "gaze", leaving only two charred, bloody holes.
"Lower your heads! Don't look!"
Chen Huaian gave a low shout, pressing Wang Shouyi's head down toward the ground with one hand.
As for Zhang Yibai and Gu Changsheng, they had immediately lowered their heads the moment the two immortals screamed.
Sizzle sizzle—
The air filled with a nauseating smell of scorching.
Those ten "eyes" had no temperature, but wherever their gaze fell, stone pillars cracked and the ground scorched, as if even the void was about to be burned through by this line of sight.
Chen Huaian knew that this time, everyone had been pulled into that space akin to an illusion.
Just like when he had become 'Zhongli'.
This was everything Hou Yi had experienced.
But it definitely wasn't the real 'Celestial God Clan'. It was a trial left by Hou Yi to warn those who came after.
Although it was fake, it could not be underestimated.
After all, an existence like Hou Yi was absolutely not something minor immortals like Tu Fu Xing and Bi Yue Wu could casually offend.
"Bastard… ahhh! My eyes… this Venerable One will kill you!!" Driven mad by the pain, Tu Fu Xing, though now blind, still had his full immortal power.
Sensing the oppressive feeling above, he roared and summoned his lifebound immortal artifact. The small cauldron transformed into a streak of light, smashing fiercely toward the light spheres in the air.
However, the bronze cauldron passed right through the light spheres, as if passing through phantoms.
Not only did the light spheres not extinguish, they seemed provoked, their radiance swelling violently.
The "gaze" instantly focused.
Whoosh!
Tu Fu Xing didn't even have time to scream before half his body vanished into nothingness, instantly vaporized.
Tu Fu Xing's True Spirit was effectively ruined. The remaining half also dissipated into immortal spiritual energy.
Bi Yue Wu was a bit smarter than Tu Fu Xing.
Having suffered several calamities, he already knew the dangers within this Nine Heavens Refining Profound Array, so he hurriedly averted his gaze the moment the anomaly appeared.
Now, sensing the disappearance of Tu Fu Xing's True Spirit, he couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart, trembling uncontrollably.
Chen Huaian closed his eyes, sensing everything around him with his heart.
Simultaneously, he pondered the warning left by Hou Yi in detail.
The ten suns in the sky were merely illusions projected by the god.
As long as the medium remained, the god would exist forever.
So, where was the medium?
That line of golden script surfaced in his mind again: [A god's true body is often hidden in the place you are most reluctant to strike.]
Chen Huaian's first thought was his own crotch.
Then Zhang Yibai, Gu Changsheng, and Wang Shouyi.
Finally, he dismissed all four ideas.
This stone statue was Hou Yi's tombstone.
If he was the descendant Hou Yi spoke of, then Hou Yi was his senior, his teacher.
How could one casually destroy the statue of a senior and teacher? That would be great disrespect.
But what was needed was precisely disrespect.
Chen Huaian placed a hand on the hilt of the Black Scales Sword.
"My apologies, Senior," he murmured, his wrist suddenly flicking.
Clang——! A clear, melodious sword cry rang out like a dragon emerging from water.
The long sword flew from his hand, transforming into a streak of cold light. It did not pierce toward the scorching suns in the air, but instead shot straight—into the chest of that kneeling stone statue.
Thud—!
A dull sound.
Like piercing through rotten leather.
From the originally empty eye sockets of the statue, two streams of black, turbid blood suddenly began to flow.
Immediately after, an extremely shrill, piercing shriek, neither clearly male nor female, erupted from within the statue, reverberating through the great hall, shaking everyone's Divine Souls.
Crack!
The statue's chest shattered. Cracks spread like a spiderweb, rapidly covering its entire body.
As the statue crumbled, the ten scorching light spheres above also twisted and dissipated.
The great hall returned to darkness.
Only the moans of Bi Yue Wu writhing in pain on the ground remained.
Chen Huaian beckoned with his hand, and the Black Scales Sword flew back.
It sheathed with a crisp sound like jade.
He gazed at the fragments of Hou Yi's statue in silence for a long time, then bowed deeply.
A faint golden radiance descended from the palace dome.
A tattered scroll slowly materialized atop the pile of rubble.
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