Chapter 72: Chapter 71: The Arduous Path of Cultivation_1
To tread the path of Asura, one must first descend into Purgatory.
Is Purgatory ahead?
Fang Ren looked back and found that the door through which he had entered had vanished; there was only a narrow tunnel with no end in sight.
Feeling the pain on his skin and the bloody odor all around, an invisible pressure made his spirit tremble, and instinctively, he wanted to shrink back.
But then he remembered the sorrowful look of Mu Huanqing as she had left earlier in the afternoon and the words spoken by Mu Qing Mountain, so he clenched his teeth and sprinted forward.
"Why should I be afraid of this damn thing!"
As he continued running forward, the burning sensation on his body grew more intense, and the scent of blood was no longer just pungent but seemed to clog his chest with every breath he took.
After barely a quarter of an hour, Fang Ren reached the end of the crimson tunnel, where a large stone stele blocked the way, inscribed with two lines of crooked characters.
After reading the inscription, Fang Ren\'s eye twitched involuntarily. The lines were horrifying: "Flesh stripped, bones picked, the soul purified; bear the world\'s utmost pain, suffer all evils."
Is this truly Purgatory?
"Stripped flesh, picked bones," these four words alone were cruel beyond measure. Could one really come out alive after entering? And the rest about suffering the world\'s utmost pain, various evils… It was heavier than the karma of some of the worst villains!
"Damn it! There\'s no other way to go!"
With a clench of his teeth, he reached out a hand and placed it on the stele. The moment his hand touched the stone, the entire tunnel began to twist, the stele levitated, and the ground beneath his feet started regenerating.
The bloody tunnel transformed into a massive pit beneath his feet, and a geyser of blood shot skyward. Looking down, the pit was filled with fresh blood and the carcasses of various creatures, just like the world he had seen before entering the Asura Gate.
Ao——
The bones of various carcasses emitted harsh howls, as they slaughtered each other, grinding down each other\'s bones with arms, legs, and even teeth.
The wails of misery and the fury of slaughter intertwined, and Fang Ren felt his hair stand on end, his brain blanking out.
Weng——
Suddenly, he started falling from mid-air, and the carcasses below, seeing something they craved, converged crazily toward him with gaping maws.
"Aah!"
Fang Ren\'s inner trembling reached its peak, and with a grimaced face, he circulated his True Qi and charged down towards them.
Bang——
One punch shattered a carcass\'s head, but before he could react, other carcasses surged like starving wolves, pouncing towards him.
Chichi——
In the blink of an eye, a chunk of flesh was bitten from his left arm by one carcass, which ran off to the side and chewed it like a starving wolf.
Fang Ren went mad at the sight, attacking the carcasses that were throwing themselves onto him in a frenzy, while the blood sea below kept swallowing his legs, causing him to continue sinking.
In a matter of moments, after having thrown off over twenty carcasses, his one arm had already been gnawed down to the bone, agony consuming his brain, and the omnipresent threat of death wearing away at his will.
After another few seconds, his body was so mangled that it was gushing blood, barely visible as human.
Plop——
He was suddenly pulled to the Bottom of the blood sea. An eye that remained intact weakly opened, watching countless carcasses above still roaring to drag him up and devour him, but they were all held back by some force.
Gurgle gurgle——
Blood surged around his ears, his body continued to fall, and everything around him grew darker; he could neither breathe nor move.
A few more seconds passed by, and everything around him turned pitch black, yet he knew he was still in the blood sea because of the tactile sensation of blood he couldn\'t forget.
As his consciousness was about to fade, he vaguely heard the sound of chains and the clashing of weapons rising from the blood sea.
The blood sea churned, and Fang Ren\'s entire body was enveloped in a layer of steel. He couldn\'t see its shape or color, only felt as if it were crushing his bones.
A sharp object pierced his chest, he opened his mouth wide like a fish being slaughtered, followed by countless things impaling his body, relentless pain torturing him.
(The scene is too gruesome to describe in further detail.)
His nerves had collapsed. Now, he only wanted to lose consciousness quickly, but the pain in his body wouldn\'t let his consciousness slip away.
The bone-deep pain continued to intensify, and as time passed, his desire was no longer to lose consciousness. His body\'s protective instincts wanted him to hurry up and die, beginning to reject the idea that Fang Ren\'s continued existence was right.