Trials of the Abyss

Pang Jian was taken aback.

He did not realize Dong Tianze's obsession with this matter ran so deep.

Dong Tianze, having become drunk during his first foray into drinking, unexpectedly brought up the matter once again.

"The sea of massive boulders? An unnamed fragmented land?"

Zhao Yuanqi and Fang Boxuan's eyes lit up.

Unsure whether he could survive this ordeal, Dong Tianze had drunkenly revealed the existence of that unnamed fragmented land.

"What a pity. I wonder if we'll even live to see it." Fang Boxuan sighed quietly.

Learning about an unnamed fragmented land was useless when all that awaited them in the bizarre mist was death.

Cultivation, fame, and power held no meaning now.

"Pang Jian!" Dong Tianze shouted, glaring at Pang Jian with palpable hatred. "Why are you still hiding at this point?

"No one knows what the future holds. We're likely going to die here anyway. Why are you afraid to admit it?"

Dong Tianze had completely lost his composure under the influence of alcohol, with a drunken frenzy replacing his usual cold demeanor.

From his stance, he was prepared to throw caution to the wind and fight Pang Jian to the death right then and there if Pang Jian's answer did not satisfy him.

"Dong Tianze, what are you making a fuss about?" Qi Qingsong snorted.

"This is between me and Pang Jian. It has nothing to do with anyone else."

Dong Tianze's eyes flashed with malice as he glared at Pang Jian, silently demanding an answer to his question.

"If you can't hold your liquor, don't drink so much," Pang Jian said irritably.

"Cut the crap! I'm asking you, did you appear in that sea of massive boulders with the intention of keeping everything to yourself?" Dong Tianze asked, consumed with rage and ready to turn hostile at any moment.

Pang Jian frowned and replied in a low voice, "Is this matter really that important to you?"

"It is!"

"I had no intention of keeping it all to myself, nor did I do anything shady to the Black Iron Mountain." Pang Jian answered. Then, after some thought, added, "As for that fragmented land, I've known about it for a while. 𐍂𝘈Ν𝘖ᛒƐS̈

"Wasn't the one chasing you back then a rogue cultivator with a face full of scars? If I'm not mistaken, he was following you on a zither, am I right?"

Dong Tianze's face paled and he stared at Pang Jian in shock. "You, you—"

"Dong Tianze, the reason you survived in that fragmented land wasn't because the heavens favored you. I'll say no more on this, so think what you will," Pang Jian said coldly.

The still standing Dong Tianze gulped down a few mouthfuls from his wine jar before sitting back down.

He then stared at Pang Jian with an exceedingly strange look in his eyes and his breathing gradually growing heavier.

The scarred rogue cultivator had chased Dong Tianze on a zither all the way to the unnamed fragmented land.

Dong Tianze had advanced to the mid-stage of the Profound Abode Realm after killing that rogue cultivator and refining his Celestial Phoenix Imprint.

Only he knew of these events!

Despite this, Pang Jian seemed to have witnessed the entire thing. His words indicated that Dong Tianze was not the first to discover that unnamed fragmented land.

Where was Pang Jian at the time? Since he knows all this, I...

Dong Tianze ran his hand through his hair as his mind raced. He lost the confidence to continue his questioning.

At that moment, he had a vague inkling that it was not a coincidence the rogue cultivator on the zither had been pinned down so thoroughly. Someone had been manipulating things from behind the scenes!

Could it be?

As the knot in Dong Tianze's mind unraveled, he stopped drinking recklessly and silently lowered his head.

"Two strange fellows…" Fang Boxuan glanced between the two in bewilderment.

"Let's not dwell on grudges and enmity. It could lead to a fight," Qi Qingsong said with a wry smile. "I didn't call everyone here to reopen old wounds."

"Then let's talk about something else," Zhou Qingchen said while chewing on some dried meat.

The conversation became more lively from then on and the group started to open up thanks to the effects of alcohol.

They discussed the challenges of their cultivation journeys, shared amusing stories from their sects, revealed secrets of the great sects in the First World, and talked about the legends of the Four Great Spirit Beasts of the Sacred Soul Continent.

Even the normally quiet Zhao Yuanqi and the two self-conscious outer disciples joined in.

The alcohol and food helped to ease their tension and lighten the heavy atmosphere.

"I've been holding onto a secret, and I need to get it off my chest!" Ye Fei, the inner disciple of the Black Valley Sect, abruptly shouted. Once everyone's attention was on him, he turned to Lu Lingchan and asked seriously, "Junior Sister Lu, how many strands of divine sense do you have?"

Lu Lingchan had been one of the first to start drinking out due to her dejected feelings, and her fair, jade-like cheeks were now flushed with a rosy hue.

A wine-red blush spread across her face and slender neck, giving her a charmingly tipsy appearance.

When she heard Ye Fei's question, a trace of undisguised pride flickered in her hazy eyes.

"One hundred and twenty-four strands."

"One hundred and twenty-four!" Guo Hongyuan, an outer disciple of the Sword Pavilion, clicked his tongue in amazement. "No wonder the Valley Master of the Black Valley Sect accepted you as a personal disciple!"

"One hundred and twenty-four…" Qi Qingsong's lips curled into a bitter smile as he enviously remarked, "From what I know, even Wu Yuan and Chen Lushi from the Demon Sect, and Jiang Chao from the Celestial Lagoon Sect don't have that many."

"Wu Yuan has one hundred and twenty-two strands," said Lu Lingchan. "Chen Lushi doesn't have more than one hundred and twenty strands. Finally, Jiang Chao only has one hundred and twenty-one strands."

She knew the exact number of strands of divine sense the geniuses of the Second World possessed because it had been mentioned it to her so often she could not help but remember even if she did not want to.

"Ye Fei, why are you asking this?" she asked, glancing at Qi Qingsong, Dong Tianze, Zhao Yuanqi, Zhou Qingchen, and Pang Jian.

In her opinion, when it came to the sheer number of divine senses in the Profound Abode Realm, those before her were hardly worth mentioning. Even those from the Demon Sect and the Celestial Lagoon Sect could not compare to her.

Her total divine sense count surpassed all the other Profound Abode Realm cultivators in the Second World. That was her source of pride and was also why her master valued her so highly.

"There's someone who claims to be an outer disciple from the Sword Pavilion. His name is Luo Yuan. I once had a brief encounter with him in Cloud Lightning and used the Dragonfish Mirror to peek at his sea of consciousness.

"Junior Sister Lu, I mean no offense, but his total number of divine sense strands is one hundred and twenty-eight strands!" Ye Fei said firmly.

"One hundred and twenty-eight strands!"

"Luo Yuan, an outer disciple of the Sword Pavilion?"

"How is that possible?"

The half-drunk group exclaimed in surprise.

"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe it either. I never imagined that someone could manifest one hundred and twenty-eight strands of divine sense and still remain obscure in the Sword Pavilion." Ye Fei glanced at Qi Qingsong. "I had Senior Brother Shen inquire about him, and even secretly asked around as well, but nobody knew his name.

"Now that's a truly extraordinary person!" Ye Fei sighed with a shake of his head.

When he saw Pang Jian's peculiar expression, Ye Fei quickly stood up, cupped his hands, and said with a smile, "Brother Pang, I meant no offense. If you've become the Pavilion Master's personal disciple, it must be because of your remarkable qualities.

"I'm drunk and brought up this Luo Yuan. Haha, I'll drink three cups as a penalty in case I've offended anyone!"

He immediately drank three cups of wine in a row, face turning red as he sat back down.

The group continued to drink, eat, and chat freely on the third-floor balcony of the Sword Boat.

As they conversed, the living dead from the Sword Pavilion and the Black Valley Sect on the deck would occasionally die.

Those with weak willpower were not worth their attention and had no right to ask for spirit jades from the eleven of them to sustain their lives.

One day, Guo Hongyuan, the outer disciple of the Sword Pavilion, returned from the Sword Boat's hold with Qi Qingsong.

"Senior Brother Han has died in the ship's hold," Qi Qingsong said somberly. "The remaining thirty-one thousand spirit jades that should be left behind are nowhere to be found.

"Someone must've sneaked into the ship's hold during the chaos and taken them. Senior Brother Han's death is suspicious! He had so many spirit jades. It's unlikely he'd lose hope and end his life early!"

Guo Hongyuan added in a low voice, "We went down together, and I can confirm that we didn't find any of the spirit jades."

Pang Jian circulated his spiritual power to sober up before glancing around at the others with a puzzled expression.

The others, like him, also looked around uncertainly.

Everybody was wondering who among them had quietly entered the ship's hold, murdered Han Lu, and took the spirit jades used for operating the Sword Boat.

"It's simple. Check everyone's spatial bracelets and see the total number of spirit jades inside," Fang Boxuan suggested.

"I have more than thirty thousand spirit jades, but it wasn't me," Lu Lingchan explained with a snort. "Before coming here, my master gave me seventy thousand spirit jades."

"Seventy thousand..."

Ye Fei and Lu Lianchen from Black Valley Sect were stunned.

Her master really does favor her immensely. He gave her such a huge amount of spirit jades without hesitation, they thought

"I have plenty of spirit jades. There's no need for me to kill Han Lu. His death has nothing to do with me," Lu Lingchan added.

"I don't have the ability to kill Han Lu," Zhou Qingchen said. "Pang Jian and I have been together all along. We're never separated."

He said this to clear Pang Jian of suspicion as well.

"I haven't left the deck of the Sword Boat," the silver-haired Zhao Yuanqi said coldly.

Qi Qingsong looked around, eyes sweeping over everyone.

Lu Lianchen, Ye Fei, Dong Tianze, Fang Boxuan, Zhou Qingchen, and Zhao Yuanqi did not have the ability to kill Han Lu on their own. Only he, Lu Lingchan, Pang Jian, and Zhuang Yuyan were capable of killing Han Lu.

He silently ruled out Lu Lingchan and Pang Jian before finally turning to Zhuang Yuyan.

"Senior Sister Zhuang, was it you?"

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