Chapter 151 — Purgatory

After barely steadying their spirits, Xiao Yichen and the others, faces ashen, forced themselves onward.

The unbearable sights were everywhere, and the deeper into the valley they went, the more gruesome the scene became. One needed no imagination to see that the fighting here had been savagely fierce. Countless human bones and the carcasses of monsters and beasts were tangled together, and the earth beneath their feet had turned a deep black—the color of soil soaked through with blood.

Entering that cluster of houses, inside and outside every room, at the mouth of every important passage, they could see the brutal scars of fierce combat. In some places the bones were piled high—clearly, both sides had fought to the death over this little entrance, pressing forward over the bodies of their comrades, battling without end.

In the courtyard, the group began to see the carcasses of several enormous beasts and demons, some even taller than the halls and houses themselves. But these beasts, once so ferocious and overbearing, now merely lay quietly in this hell upon earth, waiting to rot.

The stench of rot and corpses in the air had reached a dreadful pitch, yet the disciples of the righteous path actually found it somewhat easier to bear than before—for the carnage before their eyes had dulled them somewhat to the foulness. Still, not one of them looked well; to any onlooker, their faces would have seemed little different from those of the dead.

They continued deeper into the compound, and more bones appeared before them. By now no one could tell how many disciples of the demonic sect and how many beasts and monsters had died in this valley. Almost instinctively they walked on, and on, and on...

Every face was blank and wooden; every hand gripped its own magic treasure tightly, refusing to slacken even a hair. Having crossed countless bones and seas of blood, they came before a mourning hall.

They could still tell it was a mourning hall because they saw a coffin within the room, and the inside and outside of this house seemed to have been the site of the fiercest fighting—to call the bones piled up like mountains would not be an exaggeration. It was here, too, that the group found many corpses familiar to them from the demonic sect: Baiduzi, the Old Vampire Fiend, the Ancestor Duanmu...

These dreaded men of the demonic sect, who had once commanded the winds and summoned the rains, now lay here with eyes wide open in death, many of their faces still bearing expressions of terror.

Anyone could imagine—but no one wished to imagine—what a scene it must have been in their final moments!

As their search went deeper, Xiao Yichen and the older members of the group successively discovered more famed figures of the demonic sect: the three great disciples of the Poison God, many important personages of the Enchantment Sect. As for the Nether King Sect, though there were a great many dead disciples wearing its robes, the bones of its famed figures were scarcely to be found.

The group slowly gathered before the mourning hall. Seeing the grim faces all around, Xiao Yichen said hoarsely, "Many died here. All the important figures of the demonic sect are here. The Ten Thousand Poisons Sect seems to have been wiped out entirely."

Beside him, Yan Fei's face was frighteningly pale. "It's the same over there," she whispered. "The Enchantment Sect lost many as well—even Lady Sanmiao is, is there too..."

Lu Xueling's face was ashen, her teeth clenched hard upon her lower lip, her expression shifting through a complex array of emotions—pity, disgust, and, for some reason, a measure of fear. Having been the last to return to the group, she suddenly asked, "Has anyone seen anyone from the Nether King Sect?"

Everyone shook their heads, then paused in unison. Li Xun, standing to one side, suddenly looked even grimmer. Xiao Yichen glanced at him and said to Lu Xueling, "Many ordinary disciples of the Nether King Sect died, but I don't believe we've seen... the corpses of any famed figures."

Lu Xueling's expression eased slightly, but beside her Li Xun's eyes suddenly blazed with light. "Senior Brother Xiao," he said coldly, "have you forgotten that these beasts and demons eat human flesh? All along the way in, how many white bones have we seen? Who knows whether those Nether King Sect fiends might already have been..."

"Waugh!" A cry cut Li Xun off—Yan Fei, unable to hold back any longer, had run to the corner of the wall and was vomiting again. Li Xun paused, then gave a sudden sigh and said no more.

Fa Cheng's face showed compassion, and he and Fa Jing together softly chanted the name of the Buddha. Everyone knew that though Li Xun's words were harsh, the possibility was very real. Xiao Yichen, Lin Jinghong, and the others wore complicated expressions and slowly lowered their heads. Only Lu Xueling, her face bleak and drained of the last trace of color, swayed unconsciously where she stood.

Yet this cold, aloof woman did not bow her head. Slowly she raised it and gazed up at the sky—across that boundless blue expanse, even the clouds above the valley seemed stained the color of blood.

Lu Xueling's lips moved, as though she wished to cry out something, but in the end no sound came forth at all!