The Mask

Shiwu's figure instantly appeared before the massive doors. "Shiwu! Don't!" Li Guanqi's heart sank, but his cry had no effect whatsoever. Shiwu pressed both hands against the doors and shoved hard! Boom! The earth trembled, and the peaks shook. The entire ruins felt the tremor. Many looked up toward the inner grounds and made their way toward Li Guanqi's direction. Li Guanqi's expression changed drastically. The moment the doors opened, he saw boundless black smoke surging out from within! A chilling, evil aura rushed against his face. Goosebumps broke out all over Li Guanqi; it felt as though he had fallen into an ice cellar. His long hair fluttered back in the wind, and his black robe whipped and snapped. An incomparably powerful suction surged from within, dragging Li Guanqi's body inside uncontrollably! Even erupting with his greatest power in an instant, Li Guanqi could not stop it. He pinched two silver-white inscribed talismans between his right fingers. Deep in the mire at the outermost edge of the secret realm, an inscribed talisman hidden beneath the silt showed no reaction whatsoever. Li Guanqi's heart sank. He immediately slung the sword coffin onto his back, gripped Red Lotus tightly in his left hand, and completely vanished into the passageway. Bang! The instant the doors slammed shut, ghostly blue flames ignited along the surrounding walls! Li Guanqi swept his sword across, but struck nothing. And he could finally see his surroundings clearly... Pitch-black walls surrounded a hundred-zhang-wide chamber, where the floor in the center had caved in to reveal a massive gaping hole. A black furnace stood weathered and dilapidated. Ghostly winds howled all around, and sudden bursts of sobbing wails drifted up from the gaping pit. Li Guanqi dropped low, his cultivation at the third layer of Mystic Immortal erupting with a roar, daring not entertain any thought of concealing his strength. Dragon scales spread across his skin. His muscles tightened like a leopard poised to pounce as he crouched, gripping his sword. His eyes fixed intently on the gaping hole. Oddly enough, the bewitching whisper by his ears had vanished the moment he entered the room. Gradually, wisps of bloody mist rose from the abyss inside the hole. A thick, nauseating stench of blood washed over him. Even Li Guanqi found the bloody reek almost unbearable; his stomach churned, and his face paled slightly. The rancid, bloody stench smelled as though tens of millions of mangled corpses had been piled together, rotting and fermenting in the scorching sun for a whole month. Even the wooden buckets holding offal and entrails at meat stalls in a market were not half as foul. "Urgh..." Despite all the people Li Guanqi had killed, he could barely stomach it, his face turning pale. Suddenly! Blood surged forth from beneath the gaping hole in the floor. A hideous, red-and-black mask slowly floated into view. Amidst the churning blood, the mask acted as a face while coagulating a body out of blood. A voice, raspy like that of an elderly crone on the verge of death, slowly drifted out. "Heh heh... A human!" The screech was as hair-raising as a blade scraping against glass. Just those few words made Li Guanqi's hair stand on end. From this bizarre entity, he felt an overwhelmingly immense pressure. Its figure seemed to expand boundlessly in his eyes, looming over him like a towering mountain. Li Guanqi's palms were soaked with sweat, his knuckles white around his sword hilt. The red mask resembled a vicious fiend, bearing savage fangs as long as fingers, with blood-red eyes and bizarre black patterns sprawling across its entire surface. Li Guanqi swallowed hard. He had never seen a mask so hideous and terrifying. A single glance was enough to strike terror into one's soul! In his understanding, a mask's only function was to conceal one's identity. Yet the mask before him seemed alive, possessing an independent consciousness of its own. Li Guanqi's breathing grew shallow and hurried; he dared not take his eyes off it for an instant. He did not know whether the mask's beckoning call was meant for everyone, or directed at him alone. Did the deaths of the Tianhua Sword Sect disciples have something to do with this mask? Yet Li Guanqi quickly dismissed that thought. If the Tianhua Sword Sect had come for this mask, he wouldn't have been the only one to sense it. After all, the disciples had all pushed deep into the inner grounds, whereas this was merely on the perimeter. Besides, so many people had passed by—Yin Zisheng surely would have sensed it as well. Li Guanqi reined in his thoughts and watched the mask with complete focus. Suddenly! The fanged ghost mask's eyes flared with vicious light. With a wave of its arm, a sea of blood churned, manifesting into thousands of blood spikes that lunged toward Li Guanqi! "Put... me... on!" Li Guanqi's brow knitted tightly as the ground beneath his feet shattered abruptly, blasting open a crater. Rippp! The hem of his robe was pierced by blood spikes, and another spike punctured his thigh! "So fast!" He had already broken through to the third layer of Mystic Immortal when he departed Yuxu City. Before entering the secret realm, he had only displayed the cultivation of the second layer. He clearly possessed the strength to slay a fifth-layer cultivator, yet facing this bizarre, evil mask, he was actually outmatched in speed! Li Guanqi's figure blurred as he dodged and wove continuously, swinging his sword repeatedly to shatter the incoming blood spikes. Bang! Bang! Bang! Boom! Boom! The ground shattered as sword light flashed incessantly. Li Guanqi's expression turned increasingly solemn. The savage ghost mask seemed unable to move far from the gaping hole. Whoosh! Another boundless sea of blood surged toward him. Li Guanqi raised his hand, and three arcs of sword light flew forth! The sea of blood collided with the sword lights, shattering them. Yet Li Guanqi had concealed himself within the sword light, tearing through the sea of blood to close the distance in a flash! "Eight Desolations: Extinction!" Boom! With this strike, Li Guanqi pushed Shiwu's power to its absolute limit! Scorching flames warped the void, and the temperature soared to an unfathomable height. The sea of blood evaporated as Shiwu's fiery might, harnessed within the sword light, threatened to incinerate heaven and earth! Rumble! The surroundings shook violently, and the ground crumbled. A single strike cleaved the ghost mask's body in two, and even the mask itself was split down the middle! Panting, Li Guanqi stood with sword in hand, his vigilant gaze not relaxing for an instant. The ghost-masked figure dissolved into a pool of bloody water, the severed halves of the mask buried beneath the blood. Its aura vanished without a trace, yet Li Guanqi dared not drop his guard. He backed toward the edge of the stone wall, attempting to reopen the chamber doors. Yet no matter how hard he tried, it would not budge... Li Guanqi frowned deeply. Without hesitation, he released all his power to channel Shiwu's might. Shiwu materialized behind Li Guanqi, hovering in midair. Almost in unison, the two spread their arms and pressed downward fiercely! In an instant, a towering sea of fire descended from the heavens! "Shiwu: Phantom Sea Incinerating the Heavens!" Boom! The sea of flames crashed down toward the maw of the abyss. A deafening roar erupted as the raging fire hissed and burned against the ground. Li Guanqi's face suddenly changed as the same voice rang out by his ears once again. "Why... won't you... put me on?!" "I possess mighty power! Put me on!" Li Guanqi's expression shifted drastically as an aura even more terrifying than before erupted violently! This aura... was comparable to the seventh layer of Mystic Immortal! This had already exceeded the limit of what Li Guanqi could withstand! "Damn it... what kind of damned thing is this?!"