Trials of the Abyss

A golden bee emerged from its cocoon inside the beehive in the Gate of the Abyss and glowed a faint gold as it hovered before Pang Jian.

Its compound eyes[1] stared at Pang Jian, observing his face as if trying to imprint it deep into its soul.

As the Bee Sovereign inside the beehive established a connection with Pang Jian, their thoughts and consciousness intertwined.

Buzz!

The golden bee outside darted toward Pang Jian's left earlobe like lightning.

A silver thread appeared in the bee's field of vision.

Pang Jian saw a silver thread attached to his earlobe through the golden bee's eyes.

The golden bee swallowed the silver thread in one gulp.

A fleeting image of Li Yuanchen briefly flickered in Pang Jian's mind.

The Bee Sovereign then informed Pang Jian the silver thread was a wisp of divine sense refined from divine consciousness, and was comparable to his golden divine sense.

Someone had secretly attached a strand of special divine sense formed from divine consciousness onto Pang Jian to determine his location.

"Li Yuanchen!" Pang Jian snorted coldly.

Like him, Li Yuanchen was also aware that hunting the Outer God Puppets could allow one to refine special divine sense in their sea of consciousness.

He likely had a deeper understanding of this special divine sense than Pang Jian.

Pang Jian had a thread of Li Yuanchen's divine sense attached to him, meaning the others likely also had it.

Using this special divine sense, Li Yuanchen could pinpoint the location of each escapee before eventually returning to the Sword Boat.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

Eleven more golden bees emerged from their cocoons and left the bronze pendant.

Each golden bee that flew out of the beehive became not only the Bee Sovereign's eyes but also Pang Jian's.

Pang Jian had gained twelve extra perspectives!

Whoosh!

Twelve golden streaks shot out at unbelievably fast speeds, fanning out in different directions with Pang Jian as the center.

The Bee Sovereign commanded the swarm of golden bees from the beehive still floating in the bizarre mist inside the Gate of the Abyss.

The golden bees were extremely well-adapted to the bizarre mist. They moved like lightning within it, and their vision was unaffected.

Twelve clear perspectives filled Pang Jian's mind, providing newfound clarity on his next course of action.

In the bizarre mist, his vision was limited to a range of roughly fifty zhang, and his five senses were restricted.

However, the golden bees were completely unaffected as they were nurtured with the divine consciousness of Outer Gods and Pang Jian's blood essence!

Why didn't you release them earlier? Pang Jian scolded.

Aggrieved, the Bee Sovereign explained that the golden bees needed time to molt and take shape.

They had not reached the point where they could emerge from their cocoons until now.

I see...

Pang Jian restrained his temper and silently communicated with the Bee Sovereign while attuning himself to the perspectives of the twelve golden bees.

Twelve expansive scenes unfolded in his mind. Everything the bees saw, sensed, and perceived was transmitted to him in real-time.

The golden bees were like twelve bright lamps in the bizarre mist!

Soon, Pang Jian caught sight of a grayish-blue smoke vortex. Li Yuanchen stood on it with a cold expression, seemingly in deep thought.

It did not take long for the golden bees to find Fang Boxuan, Zhao Yuanqi, Zhou Qingchen, Zhuang Yuyan, Qi Qingsong, and Dong Tianze as well.

These golden bees could actively search for and locate any nearby living beings within the bizarre mist!

No living being with flesh, blood, and a soul could escape the golden bees' detection!

Moreover, Pang Jian could use himself as a reference point to pinpoint the location of each person because the golden bees spread out in twelve directions with him at the center! Ṟ𝖆Ｎo͍𝖇ΕⱾ

Once he could roughly determine their location and their distance from him, he could sketch out a rough map in his mind.

Pang Jian was overjoyed.

The beehive within the bronze pendant was truly miraculous.

With the golden bees on his side, he was confident he could escape the bizarre mist!

Through one of the golden bees, he saw a silver thread stuck to Zhao Yuanqi's and Zhou Qingchen's earlobes.

Sure enough, there's also a silver thread.

Fang Boxuan, Qi Qingsong, and Dong Tianze also had silver threads on their earlobes.

Only Zhuang Yuyan, in the Spirit Condensation Realm and with a refined divine soul, did not have such an attached thread of divine sense.

This Li Yuanchen truly has malicious intentions, Pang Jian thought as he calmly observed.

***

"Senior Sister Zhao! What'll happen to Pang Jian and Qi Qingsong now that we've left?" Zhou Qingchen stood on the gourd that had expanded sevenfold and declared righteously, "Senior Sister, we should join forces to kill Luo Yuan, not flee!"

"Lu Lingchan died in an instant. Not to mention, that man is in the Spirit Condensation Realm. We're no match for him," Zhao Yuanqi dismissed as she steered the gourd aimlessly in the bizarre mist. "Junior Brother Zhou, don't be foolish.

"He killed Ye Fei, Guo Hongyuan, and Lu Lianchen in just a blink of an eye. He's stronger than all of us combined. Pang Jian and Dong Tianze may have left through the strange vortex, just like us.

"All anyone can do in a situation like that is rely on luck and fate."

As she spoke, Zhao Yuanqi kept a close eye on her surroundings, fearing another person like "Luo Yuan" would appear.

"How long can we survive in this bizarre mist without the Sword Boat or our companions?" Zhou Qingchen asked.

"It doesn't matter how long we can survive. It's still better than that man killing us right away," Zhao Yuanqi replied impatiently, feeling slightly annoyed.

The two continued to argue as the gourd flew through the dense bizarre mist.

Suddenly, a golden bee appeared, startling the gourd to a halt.

The fingertip-sized golden bee looked like a small golden nugget. Its transparent wings remained unmoving as it hovered silently in the air.

It silently watched the two of them with its gleaming compound eyes.

Zhou Qingchen and Zhao Yuanqi felt a chill run down their spines and a deep sense of unease welled up within them.

"An Outer God!" they shouted in unison.

Whoosh!

Long blades spread out behind Zhou Qingchen like a peacock fanning its tail. He gripped the Divine Origin Pearl with two hands, ready to fight for his life.

Meanwhile, the surface of the large crimson gourd beneath their feet was filled with mysterious patterns, casting brilliant rays of light that illuminated the surrounding space.

"An Outer God is possessing that bee!" Zhao Yuanqi cried.

"The two of you, don't move! Li Yuanchen left marks on your earlobes. I'll have the golden bee help you remove them," the golden bee unexpectedly said.

It was a human voice!

More specifically, it was Pang Jian's voice!

Zhao Yuanqi was dumbstruck.

Zhou Qingchen shuddered as he stared at the golden bee as if it were some demonic entity. "P-Pang Jian?"

"It's me."

"How did you turn into a golden bug?"

"We'll talk about that later."

"Where are you?"

"Zhao Yuanqi, don't touch your earlobes. Let me handle it!" the golden bee suddenly shouted, interrupting the silver-haired girl's movement. A golden streak of lightning shot straight toward her earlobe. "Li Yuanchen is from the Boundless Sky Divine Kingdom in the Eastern Land of the First World. He disguised himself as Luo Yuan!

"Zhao Yuanqi, stay still!"

The golden bee lunged forward, bit down, and swallowed the silver thread of divine sense.

Like before, a fleeting image of Li Yuanchen briefly appeared in Pang Jian's mind before vanishing.

The golden bee then darted toward Zhou Qingchen's ear and devoured another silver thread of divine sense.

Similar interactions were happening elsewhere in the bizarre mist.

"Fang Boxuan, it's me, Pang Jian. Stand still. Li Yuanchen has placed a mark on you."

"Senior Brother Qi, Dong Tianze. It's me, Pang Jian. Listen..."

The golden bees spoke with a human voice, frightening the others and making their skin crawl as they fearfully eyed the golden bees.

Only Pang Jian's familiar voice stopped them from slashing the bees with their swords.

An hour later, Li Yuanchen's grayish-blue smoke vortex drifted to a stop.

His eyes flashed with fear. "Some unknown being erased the divine sense I released and wiped out all those people at the same time.

"An Outer God must've targeted them. Damn, I probably can't escape either."

He was now very close to Fang Boxuan.

However, with the disappearance of the divine sense he attached to Fang Boxuan, he was no longer certain if Fang Boxuan was still there and did not dare to check.

"Let's return to the Boundless Sky Divine Kingdom's warship first!" Li Yuanchen followed his connection back to the warship and abandoned his hunt.

***

Whoosh!

The golden bee furthest from Pang Jian halted abruptly.

Below it floated the Celestial Lagoon Sect's Mountain Stream Spirit Boat, adorned with landscape paintings.

The familiar sight of fellow disciples turning on each other played out on the deck. Some disciples sat lifelessly in the corners, watching the life-and-death battles unfold.

Chen Lushi of the Demon Heart Sect stood by a broken windowsill in one of the rooms upstairs, dressed in a purple gown and adorned with exquisite accessories.

Her watery eyes brimmed with unmistakable sorrow.

She sighed softly, unsure how to resolve their predicament.

"You're always clever. Do you have a way to break this stalemate?" Jiang Chao asked inside the room.

"Break the stalemate?" Chen Lushi let out a self-deprecating smile and shook her head. "Right now, I just hope they stop fighting and don't make me worry so much."

The Demon Sect's cultivation techniques emphasized the following of one's inner desires, leading to factions within the sect producing unruly and lawless individuals.

This was also why the Demon Sect always had the highest cultivation deviation cases among the major sects.

It was not only among those in the Second World either but among all the sects in the entire Abyss. The Demon Sect always had the most cases of disciples losing control in special environments due to failing to hold firm to their inner selves.

The present situation was evidence of this.

Most Celestial Lagoon Sect disciples had remained calm in the overwhelming despair of the situation, while half of the Demon Sect disciples had already died fighting each other.

The other half had either left to find a way out of the bizarre mist or had succumbed to despair and become living dead.

At this rate, it would only take another half month at most for all the Demon Sect disciples to be wiped out.

"What about Wu Yuan? Isn't he going to intervene?" Jiang Chao asked.

"Don't bother mentioning him. He's an oddity in our Demon Sect and is the only one to consistently hold firm to his true self. Perhaps, only such a stubborn rock can endure this harsh environment." Chen Lushi sighed.

"Ah, this trip has been nothing but bad luck. I feel like we've been set up by those above," Jiang Chao grumbled as he chewed on bitter tea leaves. "They said we would break through the bizarre and reach Absolute Heaven if we charged straight through it. We did exactly that, but we're still lost."

"You forgot the white crane that attacked us."

"The white crane? Did we get lost because we chased it?" Jiang Chao asked skeptically.

"Maybe."

Jiang Chao knitted his brows and fell into silent contemplation.

"Um..." Jiang Chao awkwardly broke the silence, eyes filled with desire as he gazed intently at Chen Lushi's curvaceous body. "Chen Lushi, if we were to face inevitable death, would you let me taste your lips?"

Chen Lushi did not even turn around. "Let's talk about it when that day comes."

She continued watching the Demon Sect disciples fighting on the deck below with a hint of disdain in her icy eyes.

"I found the Mountain Stream Spirit Boat..." said a golden bee floating in the bizarre mist above.

But no one heard it.

***

Elsewhere in the bizarre mist floated a gigantic mystical bird's skeleton, larger than even the Boundless Sky Divine Kingdom's warship.

Its bones gleamed with a jade-like luster, with many luxurious buildings standing on its outspread wing bones.

A handsome man with a high nose bridge and deep-set eyes sat on the mystical bird's fleshless forehead.

He wore a cloak woven from white feathers, hands resting on his knees as he stared ahead with a calm expression.

Whoosh!

A vertical eye on his forehead opened, emitting a blinding divine light.

"A golden bee?" His expression changed as he pursued it through the bizarre mist.

He seemed to cover a million zhang with every step!

Even so, the golden bee was far faster than him and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

***

In yet another part of the bizarre mist, a white crane soaring in a lightning vortex flew happily, humming to itself.

"Almost there. I'm almost out of this cursed place. I'm so close to reaching Absolute Heaven."

The white crane had a clear sense of direction and knew it was flying straight toward Absolute Heaven.

It suddenly turned its head.

"Who's spying on me?"

It spotted a flash of golden lightning in the bizarre mist.

A golden bee had stopped a hundred zhang away.

The golden bee stared curiously, then asked, "Do you know the way to Absolute Heaven?"

"This voice..." The white crane scratched its head with its wing in a human-like manner.

It then released countless interwoven white lightning bolts, forming a cage of lightning that enveloped the space where the golden bee was before it dodged.

"This voice...why does it sound so familiar? Let me think."

"I'm Luo Yuan."

1. In biological terms, a compound eye is a type of eye found in insects and some arthropods. It's composed of multiple small visual units called ommatidia, which work together to provide a broad field of vision. Each ommatidium captures a part of the overall image, allowing the organism to see from multiple angles simultaneously. ☜

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