Chapter 583 Different Ways of Death

Jiang Yan walked in front, and Zhou Wen followed behind, moving up step by step. After passing the Immortal Stone, there was another long and boring mountain climbing journey.

The two men only drank some water and ate something occasionally, and basically never stopped. Even so, it was four days later when they reached halfway up the mountain.

In just four days, both of them lost a lot of weight, their eye sockets and cheeks became sunken, and they looked like skin and bones.

The two handsome young men now looked hunched over, like little old men.

It's not their fault. They have been using almost all their strength in every step, and their bodies have been exhausted. They cannot stop to rest or sleep. The fact that they have been able to hold on until now is already because of their extraordinary physical fitness. If it were an ordinary epic level, even if they didn't die of exhaustion on the road to immortality, they would probably not be able to hold on.

Looking up, there were still endless mountains and stone steps. Looking down, there was fog and clouds, and nothing could be seen. In this ghost place where there was no sky above and no earth below, the reason they knew they were halfway up the mountain was because there was a big rock next to it with the words "Bantian Cliff" engraved on it.

"After passing Bantian Cliff, there is still half a way to go up, but it is more difficult than the previous road. Can you hold on? If you can't, you can rest on the platform of Bantian Cliff for a day, and then turn around and go down the mountain. You will no longer be affected by the taboos of Qiuxian Mountain. However, once you reach the platform of Bantian Cliff, you can no longer continue climbing." Jiang Yan in front said.

"Since we're already here, we have to go up and take a look. We can't give up halfway. I can still hold on. Let's keep going." Zhou Wen said.

"After passing Bantian Cliff, keep going forward and you will see some things. No matter what you see, don't speak or make any sound. Just shut up and keep going forward, otherwise something bad will happen." Jiang Yan said again.

"Don't talk, I remember that." Zhou Wen nodded slightly, but he was also a little confused.

These taboos of Qiuxian Mountain are not written anywhere. For Jiang Yan to know these taboos, it must be because someone has tried them before. Otherwise, if it is really as Jiang Yan said, taking a step back means death, Zhou Wen does not believe that Jiang Yan would not have retreated without knowing them.

However, Jiang Yan didn't say anything, so Zhou Wen didn't ask and continued walking forward behind Jiang Yan.

The stone steps at the foot of the mountain were very narrow, but after passing the Half Sky Cliff, they became much wider, more than enough for two or three people to walk side by side.

But now neither of them could speak. If they walked side by side, it would be even worse if they accidentally said something. So the two of them walked one in front and one behind, neither of them saying a word, like two mutes.

Zhou Wen felt his legs trembling with every step he took. No matter how powerful his Qi Jue and Qi Techniques were, they were useless in this ghost place. If he used external force to strengthen his physique and strength, the strange power would also increase, which would still put his body in an extreme state.

As he walked, Zhou Wen's eyes accidentally swept across the stone steps in front of him. His pupils suddenly contracted and he almost cried out.

If Jiang Yan had not reminded him in advance, he would definitely scream out, because there was a corpse lying in the stone path above, and the corpse's clothes and appearance were exactly the same as Zhou Wen's.

Zhou Wen was suspicious, but he couldn't speak. He could only continue walking forward, looking at the corpse on the side of the road. No matter how he looked at it, it looked exactly like him, except that the corpse fell on the stone steps and had no breath at all.

"It must be the same as before, still an illusion." Zhou Wen stopped looking at the corpse and continued to walk up.

After walking for a while exhausted, and turning around a mountain ridge, I saw another corpse on the stone steps in front of me.

This time he could see more clearly that it was a corpse that looked like Zhou Wen. What made Zhou Wen feel unbearable was that the corpse that looked so much like him had no clothes covering its body, its limbs were spread out, and it was nailed to the mountain wall with iron nails. It looked like it had died in a very miserable way.

"Everything is an illusion... Everything is nothingness... I can't bear it..." Zhou Wen secretly calmed himself down. Although he knew it was just an illusion, it still made him a little annoyed. The key point was that the man looked too much like him, even some marks and scars on his body were exactly the same.

Going further up, Zhou Wen saw various ways of dying, some by hanging, some by being hacked in half by a knife. All of them were extremely tragic.

However, after seeing this kind of thing so many times, I don’t feel anything anymore. Along the way, I have seen at least hundreds or thousands of different ways of dying, and I am no longer surprised.

After walking for another seven or eight days, when the sun rose again, the two men finally saw the top of the mountain. There were no buildings there, only a crooked tree of unknown species growing on the top of the mountain, with its branches extending out of the cliff.

On one of the main branches of the crooked tree, there was a large green cocoon hanging. Upon closer inspection, the cocoon was not touching the branch, but was floating there in mid-air.

Under the neck tree next to it, there was a white strange beast lying. Its whole body was snow-white, with two horns on its head and a vertical eye on its forehead. However, the vertical eye was closed. It should be the Bai Ze that Jiang Yan guessed.

Zhou Wen and Jiang Yan reached the top of the mountain. Bai Ze must have noticed them, but he completely ignored them and continued to lie there to rest. He didn't take them seriously at all and didn't even look at them.

Zhou Wen heard from Jiang Yan that the white beast would not actively attack them, which was one of the main reasons why he judged that the white beast was Bai Ze.

Bai Ze is a kind and auspicious beast that knows astronomy, geography, the past and the future, can speak human language, and can distinguish between ghosts and gods. Legend has it that it was entrusted by Emperor Huang to draw an atlas of tens of thousands of ghosts and gods, so that humans can distinguish between ghosts and gods and thus avoid danger and seek good fortune. It is one of the ancient beasts that can drive away evil spirits.

"Have you seen those strange corpses before?" Jiang Yan asked Zhou Wen.

"Yes, all the corpses look the same as me." Zhou Wen replied.

"How many are there in total?" Jiang Yan asked again.

"I don't remember. There were so many. I didn't count them carefully, but there must be more than a thousand." Zhou Wen paused, looked at Jiang Yan and asked, "Why are you asking this? Aren't those illusions?"

Jiang Yan looked at Zhou Wen with a strange smile on his face: "More than a thousand, then you are really amazing."

"What do you mean?" Zhou Wen didn't understand what Jiang Yan meant.

Jiang Yan smiled and said, "Legend has it that this is the path from mortal to immortal, the process of transcending the mortal realm. Every corpse you saw represents a sin you've committed. Only by eliminating your sins can you avoid being wiped out by the heavenly tribulation when you become an immortal. You saw over a thousand corpses, which means you've committed thousands of capital crimes."

(End of this chapter)