When morning came around and Chen Hao opened his front door, he saw a limp cat just lying on the ground, softly snoring as it did. He blinked a few times, closed the door, and opened it again.
Yep, the cat was still there.
After poking it a few times and trying to shake it awake to no avail, he found a bamboo slip and a mission notice next to the cat. On the slip was a short message written in small and dainty handwriting.
“Consider this a gift from me. Congratulations on the victory.
~Your mysterious admirer.”
“Hmm. I wonder who wrote this. Judging from the handwriting, it’s probably one of your female fans,” Jun said, lazily walking next to Chen Hao. All who thought Jun was responsible were nothing more than haters. He would never stoop so low as to drug a cat.
‘Bastion of moral integrity. That’s me.’
As for the mission notice, it stated that one could receive a personal reward from an elder if they caught a particularly troublesome cat. Considering how often Jun had failed, even those words were an understatement. Half the reason he improved his formation skills so quickly was just because he wanted to teach the fucking cat a lesson. The reward was secondary at this point.
Some time passed in silent contemplation, but like everything he did nowadays, before any rash decisions could be made, the boy consulted Li Xia.
“A mysterious admirer, huh?” she looked at him distrustfully as he sat on her pink bed, twiddling his thumbs.
“I don’t know who it is. I swear.”
“Sure you don’t. And I don’t know anything about this cat.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yep.”
“I guess I’ve got no choice but to take a gamble then. If anything happens to me, then I guess it’s just fate,” he said, quickly standing up and snatching both Fei and Jun from her hands.
She sighed, and Chen Hao victoriously sat back down.
“Fine. You’re no fun anymore. This is Elder Xu Feng’s pet,” she said, pointing at the still knocked out cat.
“She loves to sneak out whenever he isn’t looking, and the elder is too eccentric to bring her back himself. Every time she escapes, he just posts a new notice, trusting fate to bring someone ‘interesting’ to him,” she continued, grabbing back Jun. At this point, he had given up trying to escape whenever he was in her house.
“And what’s the reward?”
“Well, you can ask for anything. If he’s in a good mood, or if he particularly likes you, he’ll grant your request. But, as I said, he’s beyond weird. He and all of his disciples are monstrous freaks, and not in a good way. They’re crazy.”
The boy sat and thought in silence. A minute, then two.
“How is it in the inner sect?”
“I can’t say much about it because of the rules, but the spiritual force, the resources, and the techniques there are much better. Still, you need to either have good backing or strength to take advantage of it all,” she said after some consideration of her own.
”Well, that makes the choice easy,” he wildly grinned, already lost in his daydreams. “Who cares if he’s crazy as long as he can teach me something useful?”
Li Xia looked at him, concern visible on her face.
“Are you sure you want to be his disciple? There’s a big chance he won’t accept you, and when I say he’s crazy, I mean it,” she asked.
“There’s no opportunity without danger. That’s what I’ve learned from my time here.”
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And with that, Chen Hao didn’t waste any time. Once again, the boy had in his eyes the look that said ‘Jun, stay here,’ but he knew better than to say it out loud. The dog never followed his instructions anyway.
After practically running out of Li Xia’s house, the two made their way to the ever-busy Mission Hall, a grand place where countless disciples constantly milled about, trying to discern any easy missions to get contribution points. When they turned up with the cat, a huge cheer rang throughout the building. Everybody here had been harassed by that damn creature for ages.
The disciple working at the front got their superior, and their superior got another superior, all the way until they were standing in front of a menacing-looking black-robed disciple, his eyebrows shaped like swords and his demeanour like raging fire.
“We’re about to head into the inner sect. The spiritual force will be too much for you, but relax. Do not wander off, do not look at anything ‘weird’ for too long. Don’t even think about anything for too long. Also, if your dog runs off or does anything stupid, it’s your fault. Got it?”
Chen Hao nodded, and the black-robed man grew wings of fire. With a single flap, they were high above the sect, and with another, they were right in front of the lake. The grand formation was constantly active here, the clashing yin and yang producing such force that it would disintegrate anyone foolishly approaching the place. When Jun first saw the grand formation, he was in awe at the sheer scale and the look of it. Now, he was blown away by the intricacy of smaller, interwoven formations and unknown runes. Even a thousand years of studying wouldn’t be enough for him to replicate it.
The awe-inspiring disciple took out a medallion depicting a ghoulish creature being pierced by a sword. One moment, the duo was waiting for something to happen, and the next, they were lying on the ground, pressed down by the sheer amount of spiritual force that enveloped them. Every pore in Jun’s body opened at once, and every breath he took was like tasting the sweetest nectar. And despite that, his head spun, and each time he tried to stand up, he threw up. The boy fared no better.
When he finally recovered after who knows how long, he realised they were in the middle of a huge square that went on for miles. Black crystal flooring spread out in every direction, creating spirals that made him want to worship the ground. The walls were a mix of purple and black, each fighting over dominance like two strains of a virus. The ceiling was topped with stars that constantly moved, and if someone were to look even closer, they would see that those stars were nothing more than massive moths, constantly trying to eat each other.
The cultivators here looked unique. The robe system was completely dropped, allowing people to creatively express themselves with magical artifacts. Armour was incredibly popular—chitin, crystal, dark metal, all covered in strange runes that didn’t belong to this world. What was strange, however, was that every single person here looked heavenly or demonic, either ugly or beautiful. There was no in-between. It was like reaching Foundation Establishment had gotten rid of their normality.
The weirdest of it all were the strange monsters walking around, oftentimes shackled and bound. A creature made of bone, with weird, long, spindly fingers, looked at them with its empty eyes. The bone spurs on its back flared with anger, and it noiselessly roared at the duo, beginning to vibrate with intensity. Then, it got zapped by black lightning, dropping to the floor and trembling until it passed. Nearby, humanoid creatures with six eyes, barbed tails, and grey skin walked around, glaring at everyone who dared to make any noise. And those were the normal ones. They saw a monstrosity made entirely out of spinning symbols and drawings, another one that was just a ball of tentacles, and a third that completely copied every single feature of Chen Hao’s, down to the very way he sounded. That one creeped Jun out the most. Thankfully, they were all leashed.
Unnerved, the two tried their best not to think about the eldritch symbols carved in the floor and the strange geometry here, where each step took them what five should have. Portal arches stood empty as if they were supposed to lead somewhere, but now were broken. Jagged pillars that once would’ve held up the ceiling were now broken off, leaving nothing more than jagged edges that beckoned people to come closer.
Moving onto the shops, the cultivators here sold and bought things using “Abyss Crystals”, a currency Jun had not heard of before. “How to Blend In at the Thirty-third Abyssal Empire.” “What Will Kill You and How to Survive It: Abyss Edition,” were just some of the manuals being flaunted around. If Jun didn’t get what was going on at this point, he would be stupid.
The Human Bloodline had mentioned something about planar wars and how the author was too much of a coward to go to another plane. Looking at the book names, remembering the sect’s name, and considering how weird everything looked here, it was more than likely that this place was connected to the Abyss—a separate plane featuring horrifying monsters. That was his guess.
All of a sudden, it made sense. When they were looking for cultivation techniques, Li Xia had recommended one because it would be “easier to blend in” when they went to “that place.” Perhaps the Ninth Abyss Lake was a real place somewhere in the Abyss, and perhaps the residents looked just like Chen Hao. Or, at least, what he was beginning to transform into. The whole thing made a chill run down his spine. It was suddenly so clear why regular disciples couldn’t be allowed to know about this place. What would they do if they knew that in the inner sect was a whole other realm of strange monsters, just waiting to be explored.
“Don’t tell anyone else what you see here today. You won’t be able to even if you try—I’m just warning you so you don’t go mad when trying.”
It would take a whole day to describe the incredibly bizarre sights they saw along the way, but they moved down several floors until they reached a unique-looking place. It was a blank, empty room with tens of differently-coloured doors. The very air here was full of cracks that rippled with chaotic energy and tore space to shreds. Noiselessly, the disciple leading them pointed toward a red door, motioning for them to walk in. Then, he leaned against the wall, closing his eyes and beginning to cultivate in peace.
With no further instructions, Chen Hao uneasily opened the door and stepped in.