Chapter 574: This is Hell

“What is this place… This doesn’t look like a Spatial Rift. It’s too big,” someone muttered, evidently shaken by the scene before them.

“Yeah, there’s no way we’re inside a Spatial Rift right now. Even the largest Spatial Rift we’ve discovered so far is only a tenth of the size of this place,” said someone else.

“Could this be a pocket dimension? It does seem likely, seeing that our planet itself is part of a much larger universe,” said a researcher with golden-rimmed glasses, eager to commence research on the place. Still, he knew where he stood. He was just a researcher, not a soldier. He couldn’t even save his own life from whatever dangers lurked there.

The leader of the group turned around to address everyone else. “Let’s move on.” The leader had been dispatched from Huaxia’s military. In truth, he was more of a handyman for the group than an actual leader.

They had already come this far, so there was no turning back. If all of them chose to leave at that point, the organizers and participants of this expedition would most certainly become a laughing stock.

As soon as Gao Peng entered the place, an unusual sensation came over him, as if a layer of restrictions had been lifted from him. It was a familiar sensation. He had experienced it not too long ago. Gao Peng frowned.

Bei Qing Yan had also sensed something. The Frozen Asura Knight had informed her that the last seal could be removed. However, Bei Qing Yan dismissed her familiar’s suggestion. Removing the last of its seals would be an easy task, but restoring it, not so much.

“Argh!” A shrill scream came from the group.

Gao Peng turned around just in time to see a severely decomposed monster corpse clambering out of the earth. It was covered in green fur, its eyes a furious red and its fangs bared at everyone.

A foul smell exuded from its body. It looked simply terrifying. Suddenly, a bear’s paw appeared out of nowhere and slapped the corpse away.

The corpse’s head was slapped clean off its neck. It turned out to be all bark and no bite. Everyone knew what was happening at that point.

As if sensing the presences above them, corpses began erupting from the soil. The levels of these reanimated monster corpses weren’t that high. Gao Peng noticed that the highest among them was only Commander-tier. There was no sign of any Lord-tier monsters in their midst.

This looked like the kind of place that Dark or Soul-type monsters would hang around. Gao Peng summoned Flamy to his side by snapping his fingers. Flamy was able to make short work of its enemies with its flame attacks.

Gao Peng stood beside an ancient-looking tree that was gnarled and covered in knots. When he placed a hand on the tree, a dark, cold aura immediately surged into it.

The damage that Gao Peng could have taken from the tree’s aura was quickly transferred to Flamy’s body. Flamy’s body heat was able to dissolve the tree’s dark, cold aura.

“Coo?” The Sub-Blood Qing Luan turned to look at Flamy. Flamy looked back at it.

The Bi Fang, Qing Luan, Da Peng, and Jin Wu, which was a three-legged sun crow… these were all well-known birds from ancient Chinese mythology. Being of the same species, these creatures naturally had closer relationships with each other than with other types of monsters.

“You’re a Bi Fang?” Flamy’s single leg made it quite easy to recognize as a Bi Fang bird.

“Why do you look so… fat?” asked the Sub-Blood Qing Luan. It almost didn’t recognize it at first. It had thought Flamy was just an odd-looking penguin.

“Ah.” Flamy stared back impassively at the Sub-Blood Qing Luan. Little green bird, you’ve just made the biggest mistake of your short bird life.

“…Can you fly?” asked the Qing Luan bird hesitantly.

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“Hehe.” Flamy gave it a polite smile. It was a strange sight to see a bird try to curve its beak into a smile.

“I don’t like this place. Is it contaminated by something?” someone asked out loud.

One of the researchers knelt down to pick a red flower off the ground. “What a beautiful thing. I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it,” said Chen Xiangyuan excitedly. He was an expert on all things botanical. In order to avoid any contamination on his part, he put on a pair of gloves and began carefully digging the flower out of the ground.

All the other researchers had begun collecting specimens from their surroundings as well. This was a natural reaction to expect from the scientifically inclined, especially when they found themselves in a not yet unexplored section of the world whose secrets still laid hidden.

“Um?” Chen Xiangyuan noticed something peculiar when he swept away the topmost layer of soil around the base of the flower’s stalk. Are those its root? They look a bit strange…

He then gently stroked it with a finger. Suddenly, the flower’s roots shook violently. In the next second, countless spines flew out from it. They were as thick as strands of hair. However, due to their almost non-existent weight, the further they traveled, the more momentum they lost.

Chen Xiangyuan, who was standing closest to the flower, sensed that something was wrong, then felt a strange sensation on his face. When he reached up to touch his face, a sharp pain spread across it. It was as if a barrage of needles was raining down upon his skin at that moment.

Chen Xiangyuan screamed out in pain. The part of his face that he had touched had swelled up before falling off of his face entirely. Red spots had appeared on his face, which was now contorted in pain. The swollen parts of his face quickly rotted away. Chen Xiangyuan fell to the ground, covering his face and muffling his screams of pain with his hands. The skin and flesh on his face had disintegrated completely. In a mere second, all that was left was the white of his bones.

The flower’s roots parted the soil beneath it, letting the researcher’s bones fall through. A moment later, a new red flower sprouted from the ground…

Everyone took a few steps back from the flower, their faces pale.

Someone suggested that they should destroy the flower immediately. However, most of the researchers objected to this. “This is a fine research specimen. Also, it’s located near the Spatial Rift’s entrance. We could always come back to collect more samples from it. Let’s just stay away from it for now.”

One of them then planted a sign beside the flower, warning any unwary travelers in the future against touching it.

“I’ll take a look around,” said Gao Peng. He flew up into the sky on Flamy’s back and began observing his surroundings from the air. He could see that the color gray reigned over every inch of the place. Everywhere he looked, the same color greeted him. Even the mountains were a dull, lifeless gray.

He also noticed something flying nearby. Its wings seemed like a pair of tattered flags flapping in the wind. I could have sworn I just saw some bone peeking out of its wings, thought Gao Peng. A shiver ran down his spine.

[Monster Name]: Undead Shadowbird

[Monster Tier]: Level 39

[Monster Grade]: Normal/Normal

[Monster Attribute]: Dark/Ghoul

[Monster Weakness]: Radiant/Fire/Holy

[Monster Description]: A kind of bird that can be found almost everywhere in the Naihe Underworld.

Naihe Underworld… Are we in hell?!

Hell was a concept that any person living in Huaxia was all too familiar with. Various expressions related to hell were used in Huaxia’s vernacular, like “I’ll see you in hell” or “Go burn in hell.” Who would have thought that he would find himself in hell without even receiving anyone’s invitation to do so?

The fact that this place was hell explained so much about what Gao Peng and the others had encountered so far.