Chapter 360 - The Devil on the Ninth Floor (Part 2)

“Koo-chee! Koo-chee, Koo-chee!” The Koo-chee beast, as if realizing Xiao Chen’s thoughts, ran circles around him.

“Brother Koo-chee, my cultivation has been restored. Why don’t you stay up here?”

“Koo-chee! Koo-chee!” The beast kept shaking its head, indicating that it was coming along. Xiao Chen nodded. “Alright. You should be fine if you’re careful.”

The pair of human and beast once again entered the underground levels of the tower. When they passed by the third floor, the man chained to the large pillar was still going berserk. “Kid! Hurry up and undo my seal! I’m the Devil King that dominates the Three Realms! When I get out, I promise I’ll make you my general!”

“If you’re the Devil King, then I’m the Devil Emperor,” Xiao Chen muttered. He ignored the man and returned to the sixth floor.

The Great Devil imprisoned on the sixth floor detected his aura at once, as well as his much greater strength. He said coldly, “Huh, did you come for revenge, kid? You can try it! Hahaha…” A flurry of wind whizzed toward Xiao Chen but with a stretch of his hand, he instantly produced a Barrier that blocked the incoming force.

The Great Devil was dumbfounded. This kid had gotten far stronger, he thought. Xiao Chen composed himself before removing the Barrier. Even though his cultivation was back, he wouldn’t provoke the man with words. He saluted the devil and said, “I’m just a passerby. Please forgive me if I disturbed you.” He didn’t stick around and made a beeline for the Barrier opening leading to the seventh floor with the Koo-chee beast.

“Wait! Kid, what are you doing? Are you going downstairs?” The Great Devil suddenly stopped him.

Stunned, Xiao Chen turned around. “Do you know the prisoner on the ninth floor? If you do, I hope you’ll tell me who it is.”

This time, the Great Devil fell into contemplation and only raised his head after a long while. He looked a lot less overbearing than before as he replied solemnly, “When I was imprisoned here seven hundred years ago, he was already here. Every time he wakes up, I would feel very ill at ease. I have once dominated the world, but he’s the only one who has ever made me feel so insecure. Kid, I advise you not to dig your own grave!”

“I see. Thank you for your information.” Xiao Chen saluted him before continuing to walk to the Barrier opening with the Koo-chee beast.

“Koo-chee! Koo-chee!” The man’s warning seemed to have made the Koo-chee beast hesitate. But it didn’t take long before it ran past the Barrier and opened a nick in it.

Xiao Chen indeed had no idea where this Koo-chee beast came from. Not even he could easily shatter such a Barrier, but the creature could effortlessly do so, regardless of Barrier.

The evil Qi on the seventh floor was incredibly dense, and the grim bawling and wailing never stopped resounding. Xiao Chen could feel his scalp tingling. There were numerous devils imprisoned on this floor. Even though these fiends weren’t as strong as the Great Devil on the sixth floor, they prevailed in terms of numbers.

Meanwhile, the eighth floor was vacant. Xiao Chen could faintly hear the sound of dripping water in the distance. Even though no devils were imprisoned on this floor, he felt incredibly stifled. This feeling appeared to have originated from the ninth floor—the Avici level.

When they arrived in front of the opening of the Barrier of the ninth floor, the Koo-chee beast started yelping nonstop. Xiao Chen looked at it. “Don’t be scared, Brother Koo-chee. No matter what happens later, all you have to do is take cover behind me.”

“Koo-chee!” The Koo-chee beast nodded. Then, it ran into the Barrier, only to be bounced back with a small yelp. It rolled a few times on the floor.

“Wuu… Koo-chee…”

“Keep calm, Brother Koo-chee.” Xiao Chen helped the beast up. The Barrier of the ninth floor was far stronger, he thought. “Brother Koo-chee, let’s work together and split open this Barrier.”

“Koo-chee! Koo-chee, Koo-chee!” The beast nodded.

The pair of human and beast started working together to break the Barrier. It took them fifteen minutes to finally make a small gap in the Barrier. The creature slipped in, with Xiao Chen slowly crawling through. Once he was inside, he felt that inexplicable feeling again. Once again, he wondered about the identity of the prisoner on the ninth floor.

The further he went down the tower, the stronger that feeling became. Moreover, Xiao Chen could feel the powerful energy coming from a seal. Fifteen minutes later, he arrived at the end of the steps, and what he saw shocked him to the core!

In the distance was a Buddhist altar. The exterior of the altar was shrouded in layers of mystic arts glowing in gold. From the looks of it, there were at least twenty or thirty layers of such strong mystic arts. In the middle of the altar was a cyan-robed prisoner, the same man that Xiao Chen saw in his dream.

The man had gold chains, covered in charms, securing all his limbs. The eight ten-feet-tall stone monuments that lined the outer ring of the altar were also covered in countless golden charms. Then outside of them were eight ancient statues of Buddha, with a Buddhist magic tool hovering above each of their heads: Vajra Scepter, Prayer Wheel, Great Buddhist Bell, Bodhi Prayer Beads, Soul Subduing Bell…

The eight ancient statues of Buddha and eight great Buddhist tools unwaveringly suppress the man.

Xiao Chen felt a jolt in his core. Was that the devil being imprisoned in the lowest level of the Wuyin Monastery’s tower? But who was he? From this angle, Xiao Chen could only barely make out the man’s side-profile. It was a handsome face. Even though imprisoned, even though fast asleep, the man still exuded an aura that disdained the world.

Who was this cyan-robed man? Why did he give off a familiar, amiable feeling? Right at this moment, the Frigid Jade Pendant resting on his chest trembled.

Alarmed, Xiao Chen whispered, “Senior Su, are you awake?” The restriction the tower posed was tremendous, and Su Xiaomei tended to be dormant year-round. Why would she wake right now?

The trembling of the Frigid Jade Pendant intensified until Su Xiaomei’s voice emerged from it. “Brother Ning! It’s Brother Ning! I can feel his aura! Brother Ning…is here! He’s here. There’s no doubt about it!”

Xiao Ning!

Xiao Chen was shocked. Could the cyan-robed prisoner be the forefather of the Xiao family in the Human World, Xiao Ning? This piece of news rattled him to the core.

Su Xiaomei’s voice became increasingly agitated, even carrying a hint of a sob. “It’s Brother Ning! He must be here!” she cried and then turned into a wisp of cyan smoke emerging out of the pendant. The smoke slowly formed a human shape.

“Brother Ning!” Su Xiaomei’s tears fell like the rain when she saw how Xiao Ning was imprisoned. She immediately dashed toward him.

“Senior Su, watch out!” Xiao Chen cried. It was also then that Su Xiaomei let out a heart-rendering scream as an incorporeal force in the passage sent her bouncing back and crashing on the steps.

Xiao Chen swiftly helped her up. Seeing her deathly pale face and nearly translucent body, he knew her soul must have suffered considerable damage.

“Don’t be hasty, Senior Su.” Xiao Chen turned to look at the passage, where he could faintly see a layer of mystic arts. Those mystic arts were surely not an ordinary Barrier. He helped Su Xiaomei sit on the steps before inching closer to the mouth of the passage.

On the steps, Su Xiaomei buried her head in her knees and wept. “How can they imprison Brother Ning here? Brother Ning isn’t a devil. He cherishes the world and has never had contact with the Devil Clan…”

“Koo-chee! Koo-chee! Wuu…” The Koo-chee beast walked over to her and gently licked her scalded arm, burned by the mystic arts earlier.

When Xiao Chen was near the Barrier of mystic arts, he reached out a forefinger and carefully probed it. However, the slightest of touch gave him an electric shock-like sensation throughout his body. A mysterious but powerful force abruptly sent him flying.

“Argh!” Xiao Chen held firmly on his arm. The searing pain nearly contorted his expression out of shape, but it didn’t originate from his left hand. Instead, it was a pain coming from his very soul, a pain that resembled a burning sensation.

Right now, the forefinger on his left hand was scorched black. As if it had broken off, he couldn’t feel anything with it at all. It didn’t recover until quite some time later.

An idea came to him, and he started casting several spells. A blood-red charm suddenly hovered in the air. It was the charm containing Ling Fei’s sealed soul.

Ling Fei’s wailing came from the charm. “Xiao Chen! I curse you to a tragic death! I curse you being betrayed and deserted by your friends! People around you will all die because of you! I curse you…”

Xiao Chen ignored him and cast yet another few spells. He pointed two fingers at the Barrier of mystic arts and swiftly cried, “Go!” With a rustling sound, the charm flew toward the Barrier.

“Ahhh—” A blood-curdling scream echoed in the passage as the charm combusted into ashes in an instant. Ling Fei’s soul dispersed into smoke along with it.

Xiao Chen composed himself. His guess was correct. Object with a soul had no way of crossing the Barrier. It was also now that he understood why those from the Wuyin Monastery would look strange, lower their heads, and start reciting Buddhist scriptures whenever he mentioned Xiao Ning. So they had imprisoned Xiao Ning in this place for more than a thousand years!

“You said you’d come back for me and we’d live in the prairie in seclusion. We’d breed horses and tend to sheep, paying no mind to the world outside. You promised me…” Su Xiaomei continued to weep so bitterly that whoever heard her ached for her. Their separation had lasted a thousand years, and she had waited for him for just as long. Yet when they meet again, it was under such circumstances.

Xiao Chen’s heart ached too. He couldn’t help looking at Xiao Ning and saw the terrifying sword injury on his chest. An incredibly powerful flying sword must have perforated him. In this world, what other swords beside the ancient sword, Autumn Water, could do that to a Level 6 and above martial artist?

Xiao Chen pinched his fingers. Back then, under his Master’s orders, Xiao Ning brought a branch of their family to the Human World to pass down the Samsara Jade. When he returned to Violet Manor, the Xiao family there regarded him as a traitor. He fell into a trap and was accused by the Five Major Sects of collusion with the Devil’s Practice.

Xiao Chen could imagine what it looked like back then. Xiao Ning had wanted to return to the Heartless Frigid Palace to find the severely injured Su Xiaomei but was captured by the Five Major Sects. Xiao Chen could imagine it to be similar to how he was hunted by countless sects that day.

The savage scene of spilled blood and unending storm’s wailing saw Xiao Chen going against the Five Major Sects alone. He killed countless men, piling their bodies as high as mountains, spilling so much blood that they formed rivers. Yet heavily injured as he had been, he fought until the very last moment, until all his blood ran dry, without ever forgetting his promise to Su Xiaomei.

However, he was ambushed by a flying sword and was captured by the Five Major Sects. He was ultimately imprisoned under the Devil Repressing Tower, where day and night were indistinguishable. For the past thousand years, he was unable to keep his promise to Su Xiaomei, letting her wait a long and bitter time in the Frigid Palace. Even though her body had died, she refused to let her soul enter the wheel of reincarnation. She continued to wait…

“BOOM!”

An explosion sent the entire passage quaking as Xiao Chen punched the stone wall. Hatred filled his expression. “These so-called Orthodox sects and families can never tell black from white. They can never be reasoned with! Senior Xiao Ning, I owe you a debt of gratitude. Even if my body is torn and my bones are crushed, I swear I’ll get you out of here!”