Chapter 32: The Hell Road Gamble
The cavern was silent, save for the sizzling drip of molten rock and the fading, triumphant hum of the Changming Sword.
Just now, to ensure the absolute death of the 10-headed Fierce Yang Serpent, Qin Xuan had poured nearly 80% of his total spirit power—and a significant portion of his internal energy—into casting the Hundred Steps Flying Sword.
In that final, desperate moment, man and sword became one. He had briefly initiated a state akin to an incomplete Spirit Avatar, forcing all his power into a single, unstoppable point of annihilation.
Qin Xuan was confident that under this move, a Spirit Saint, even a powerful one, would certainly not survive. Even a Spirit Douluo, if careless and caught off guard, would suffer heavy injuries.
This was all under the condition that they could use their Spirit Abilities.
Here, in the Hell Road, where Spirit Abilities were sealed, the physical, technique-based power of the Ghost Valley swordsmanship was supreme. If his opponent had no Spirit Bone or Domain... no one below Titled Douluo would have been able to escape that attack.
He leaned against the cavern wall, his chest heaving, his body screaming in protest from the massive expenditure.
Fortunately, all his efforts, all the risks, were worth it.
Qin Xuan pushed himself off the wall and walked to the smoking, serpent-shaped crater. At the center, where the beast's life-force had been, pulsed a single, crimson orb: the 10-headed Fierce Yang Serpent's inner core.
He did not touch it rashly. The air around it was still shimmering with intense heat. Instead, he took a heavy, reinforced jade box he had prepared earlier from his spirit tool.
"This egg-sized inner core... it really is a bit of a choke hazard," he muttered, poking it with the hilt of his sword. "I wonder how that Brothel Phoenix from the original story managed to swallow this hard, blazing-hot thing without cooking his insides."
[Inorin's Note: "Brothel Phoenix" (Goulan Phoenix) is a derogatory term for Ma Hongjun, who also acquired this inner core in the original Douluo Dalu story to purify his Mutated Spirit.]
Looking at the crimson, hot inner core in front of him, Qin Xuan felt a slight moment of self-satisfaction. This was a treasure that could purify and evolve almost any fire-type Spirit. With a careful, precise movement, he scooped it into the jade box, sealed the lid, and stored it safely in his spirit tool.
He resumed his journey immediately.
As he walked, pushing his exhausted body into a steady jog, a system prompt suddenly sounded in his mind:
[Ding! The recruitment card for 'Jingni' has only one hour remaining on its effective time. Please use it as soon as possible, Host.]
One hour.
Qin Xuan's heart clenched. He had to get out, now.
"There should still be enough time."
With the 10-headed Fierce Yang Serpent dead, Qin Xuan had no more reservations. He took two antidote pills from his pouch, circulated the Ghost Valley Breathing Technique to suppress his exhaustion, and applied the last of his spirit power to his feet.
He leaped several meters with each step, his red robes a blur as he moved rapidly forward through the winding, dark tunnels.
The Hell Road has three main stages.
The first stage was the swarm of 10,000-year Bloody Mary Bats and their leader, the Darkgold Three-Headed Bat King.
The second stage was the guardian of the inner path, the 10-headed Fierce Yang Serpent.
The third stage, and the one that claimed the most lives, was the end of the Hell Road itself. The final stretch was a path that hung over an endless sea of blood, which evaporated into a miasma that could induce irritability, stimulate the killing intent within challengers, and cause them to become fallen, degenerate creatures, ultimately perishing in a mad slaughter.
It was also the core energy source for the entire operation of the City of Slaughter.
For others, perhaps this would be the most difficult stage. But for Qin Xuan, who possessed the [Phoenix Fire] disguise item, it was incredibly simple.
To some extent, it was even much easier than the first two stages.
Inciting the killing intent within one's body also requires a medium. And this medium is the evaporated Bloody Mary miasma from the sea of blood at the end of the Hell Road.
Qin Xuan had three layers of protection.
He had the [Phoenix Fire], which could isolate and purify miasma. He had the antidote pills, which cleansed his blood.
And most importantly, he had the 60,000-year Mind Condensing Wisdom Skull. Qin Xuan's mental force was already at the Spirit Douluo level, exceptionally strong and stable.
This evaporated Bloody Mary miasma, which drove others insane, could barely affect him at all. It was just an unpleasant, coppery smell on the air.
Qin Xuan was very fast. In less than half an hour of desperate running, he had already reached the end of the Hell Road.
He burst out of the tunnel onto a narrow, precarious path. On both sides were endless, churning seas of blood. Rather than a sea of blood, it looked more like a vast, subterranean river of blood.
The blood river was nearly 1,000 meters wide, and the air shimmered with a visible, scorching heat. On the opposite side, a smooth, vertical cliff face rose into the darkness.
Approximately 200 meters above the blood river, high on the cliff face, was a dark, circular exit. A faint glimmer of light—the light of the outside world—could be vaguely seen inside.
"I guess no one else will leave this way like me," Qin Xuan smiled, his breath pluming in the hot, foul air. He reached into his almost-full spirit tool and pulled out... a wooden raft.
Yes, you heard that right. It was a simple, sturdy wooden raft.
He had secretly built it while on the way to the City of Slaughter. When they were passing through a jungle, he had used the pretext of "convenience" to sneak away from Yue Guan and Gui Mei, felling a few trees and stashing the parts in his spirit tool.
He had no flying ability. He had no external Spirit Bones. He had no flashy, plot-armor things like Tang San's Blue Silver Grass or Flying God Claw.
The light body technique inherent in the Ghost Valley Breathing Technique was profound, but it couldn't possibly fly him 1,000 meters across and 200 meters up without any leverage.
Therefore, he could only find another way. He would use the most primitive, and most prepared, method.
As soon as the raft touched the blood river, Qin Xuan immediately smelled the sharp, burning odor of wood. This was caused by the scorching hot blood plasma in the river. It was already beginning to smolder.
There was no time for Qin Xuan to hesitate. He had maybe minutes. With a leap, he rode the raft, pushing it off the bank and towards the opposite cliff.
The raft, now actively smoking, carried him swiftly. When he was only 300 meters from the opposite bank, it could no longer withstand the high temperature of the blood plasma.
It caught fire.
Now.
Qin Xuan lightly stepped on the burning raft, using it as a final point of leverage. He leaped dozens of meters high with his light body technique and released his Changming Sword Spirit, which was now possible as he was at the exit of the sealed area.
He was in the air, 300 meters from his goal. He needed more distance.
Without pursuing power, only distance and momentum, he continuously cast Hundred Steps Flying Sword twice in mid-air.
The first time was with the Changming Sword in his right hand. He didn't lunge, but poured his power into the technique, creating a concussive burst of momentum that propelled him, flying him over 200 meters horizontally.
He was now falling, still 100 meters short.
The second time, he used his left hand, which held a simple iron sword with a long, coiled rope. He threw it with all his strength.
The iron sword, trailing the rope, shot across the gap and embedded itself deep into the cliff face. Thunk!
Qin Xuan used the rope to swing his body, crashing hard into the stone. He looked back at the burning raft as it was gradually swallowed by the sea of blood and felt a surge of lingering fear.
That was close.
There was no time for him to dwell. The timer was ticking. He took out two short swords and began to climb the 200-meter sheer cliff face.
When he was almost at the exit, a thought suddenly surged in his mind. A desperate, crazy gamble.
He took out Jingni's exclusive recruitment card from the spirit tool at his waist.
He scrambled over the ledge, and as his feet touched the floor of the exit cave, he leaped.
The moment before his body passed through the exit's shimmering light barrier, he crushed the Jingni recruitment card.
Activate!
His entire being, at the very threshold of the Hell Road's exit, vanished from that space.
The recruitment card's teleportation method was that wherever he came from, he would return there.
He could not stay in the other World for long, at most no more than half an hour. If the recruitment card expired midway, he would still be teleported back to his point of origin—the exit of the Hell Road.
Qin Xuan just wanted to try if he could exploit a bug.
Although obtaining the Slaughter God Domain required passing the Hell Road and accumulating enough killing intent by achieving a hundred consecutive victories...
As a Heaven-rank killer, Jingni certainly did not lack killing intent.
As for passing the Hell Road... the most important thing was to pass through this exit. As long as Jingni passed back through this exit with him, she might actually be able to acquire a Slaughter God Domain of her own.
The State of Qi. A dark, forgotten jungle.
The muffled thunder in the sky gradually roared, and the bone-chilling rain fell harder and harder.
The rain did not disperse the smoke in the sky; instead, it made the area even darker, the world a mess of mud and cold.
Jingni, wearing her purple and white striped slim-fit metal combat suit, held the Jingni Sword in a steady grip. Her other hand rested protectively on her swollen belly.
She was surrounded by a dozen Net Trap killers, their forms dark and menacing in the downpour.
She paid no mind to her pregnancy, nor to the cold rain beating down on her, staring expressionlessly at the man opposite her.
"Why?" her voice was cold, but tired.
"As an assassin of the Net Trap, you should know why."
Opposite her was also a Net Trap killer, but compared to the others, he wore a red ghost-face mask. The sword he held was also no ordinary item. Although not as good as the Jingni Sword, one of the Eight Swords of the King of Yue, it was enough to be called a sharp weapon of the current age.
It was a sword that only Net Trap killers of the "Jue" (Kill) rank could possess.
"I have completed the mission," Jingni stated, a bitter, futile attempt to argue for maternity leave. At this moment, she had not fully made up her mind.
If possible, she did not want to leave the Net Trap, this largest assassin organization in the Seven Kingdoms that relentlessly, mercilessly, pursued its traitors.
"So you can start your next mission."
The ghost-faced killer slightly raised his head, continuing to dangerously probe Jingni's bottom line. The red ghost-face mask on his face exuded a chilling and terrifying aura, and his voice was even deeper, colder, and devoid of any emotion.
Just like the long sword in his hand, which symbolized the Net Trap's 'Jue' rank.
Thunder roared in the sky, and silver lightning flashed through the clouds, illuminating the tense scene.
The rain fell even harder.
The rain became increasingly bone-chilling, yet it could not extinguish the anger and killing intent in Jingni's heart.
A pregnant assassin, yet she had no maternity leave. They had come to kill her, and her unborn child.
It was imaginable what she would do.
As a mother, even if she was once an assassin, as long as she possessed maternal love, she would do anything for her daughter.
Even if it meant betraying the Net Trap.
At this moment, as the ghost-faced killer raised his hand to signal the attack, she finally made up her mind.
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