Chapter 3564: Chapter 3564: Golden Axe
As they traveled north, the low hills continued to rise and eventually turned into lofty mountains.
Fortunately, these mountains were close to one another, making it easier for the Heavenly Eye Vine to leap from mountaintop to mountaintop.
After the Heavenly Eye Vine had crossed the biggest mountain, a path appeared that led northwest. This path extended to the horizon with no end at sight.
On one side of the path rested a deep valley: the Purple Wind Gorge.
Legend had it that this valley was formed by gusts of wind over the years.
When Fuxi and the Snake Goddess saw the path, their expressions shifted. Eastern Emperor Taiyi, Yasamin, and King Ieuan's faces darkened as well.
“The path seems to be covered by white mist?” Zen pointed out in confusion.
“This is not a white mist,” Fuxi snapped back. “It's the members of the Mystical Void race.”
“The Mystical Void race?” Zen raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
He was not surprised, especially because he sensed a vibrant energy of life as they approached the area.
At the time, it was an odd feeling, so he did not ask earlier.
The Snake Goddess nodded and continued to explain, “This long, winding road is the Silent Path. Members of the Mystical Void race are scattered along the Silent Path. As we go through this path, we cannot make a sound or we will infuriate the members of the Mystical Void race.” She then lifted her hand to point at the mist. “It seems that someone already bothered them. They took this form to block future travelers.”
Zen walked towards the path's entrance and stretched out his hand to touch the mist, but his finger was blocked by an invisible space wall.
“Now that the Element Spirit Civilization is tracking you, they might have already figured out where you were headed. They must've irritated the members of the Mystical Void race to stop you beforehand,” Pearson said as he walked up and pressed a hand against the space wall.
“All we have to do is eliminate the members of the Mystical Void race,” responded Zen.
“You can try,” said Fuxi, shrugging his shoulders.
Without any hesitation, Zen sent a punch into the space wall.
His punch was anything but weak. With one strong hit of energy, the wall shattered and revealed a hole of sixty feet deep.
However, the hole was only empty for a second.
A strange whine echoed out and two white dots appeared behind the space wall above them. Such dots could reflect surrounding scenes and sounds. In any case, they were the eyes and mouths of the Mystical Void race.
Seeing that its body had been badly damaged, the creature cried and howled repeatedly. Meanwhile, the other parts of its body pressed against the hole Zen punched. In an instant, the hole was repaired completely.
The members of the Mystical Void race felt no pain, so their concept of injury was nonexistent. If a part of their body was destroyed, all they had to do was to fix it with other parts.
This meant that Zen's punch only reduced the size of this member of Mystical Void race.
Boom!
Just then, Zen threw out an even stronger punch.
This time, he used his full strength. Even the three Eternal Realm Hunters who had seen a lot of the world were in awe at his tremendous power.
They had known Zen's physical body was powerful enough to kill Hawley, but they never expected his burst of strength would be so terrifying. If they ever came into contact with his punch, they would all be shattered. 𝙍Ἀ𐌽ȪʙĚ𝘚
Crack!
Suddenly, a long, thin hole stretched over to a thousand feet long
on the invisible space wall.
Awoo...
The member of the Mystical Void race whined once again as its body shrank a little more.
However, as the body shrank, a second member of their race swelled up to fill up the vacancy that developed.
As Zen saw this, his jaw dropped in surprise. His efforts were to no avail.
“Don't waste your time and energy on them. Once the members of the Mystical Void race swell up, you won't be able to pass through the Silent Path,” Sawyer tried to convince Zen.
They would have to destroy everything above the Silent Path to eliminate the members of the Mystical Void race. God knew how long it would take to achieve that. “Is this the only route to the northwest?”
Zen asked.
“There is one other way...” the Snake Goddess stood up and said. “We can continue moving north through the Purple Wind Gorge!”
“The Purple Wind Gorge is an alternative path, yes. But once the strong gusts of wind arise, it will also be a hard route to endure,” King Ieuan sighed.
“But we have no other choice now,” Pearson shrugged.
For him, the humans lacked preparation for the journey and underestimated the Element Spirit Civilization.
The Element Spirit Civilization developed in the Three Purities Stage for so long. Certainly, nobody else knew this place better than them.
From the movement of Zen and the group, it was not difficult for the Element Spirit Civilization to guess where they were headed.
If they wanted to avoid the hunt of the Element Spirit Civilization, they should have taken more dangerous, misleading routes.
In the past, when the Eternal Realm Hunters were chased by the Element Spirit Civilization, they were forced to enter the Evil Waters. This was how they shook the Element Spirit Civilization off their track.
The Element Spirit Civilization would stop their hunt when faced with life-threatening areas. However, the Eternal Realm Hunters paid a considerable price — almost all of them were annihilated in the Evil Waters.
Fuxi, the Snake Goddess, Eastern Emperor Taiyi and the others all looked at Zen. Although Zen was youngest among them, he was obviously regarded as a decision maker in this group. After hesitating for a moment, Zen heard a voice within him.
He listened intently, and then his eyes flashed with determination. “Let's go through the Purple Wind Gorge.”
Without hesitation, they climbed up the Heavenly Eye Vine again and slid down from the top of the mountain.
They continued moving north until they arrived at a plateau.
The plateau rose to a higher plane every hundred miles, making it appear like a massive stairway to heaven. The formation was called the Sky Ladder Plateau.
After they passed through the Stage End Passage, the Eternal Realm warriors of the Grand Plain Stage fell to the edges of the Grand Pure Realm. They wanted to land nearer to the Sky Ladder Plateau because it was a desolate area with close to no powerful races around the area.
There were a total of seven “steps” going up the Sky Ladder Plateau. At the end of the seventh step rested the famous Purple Wind Gorge.
Once the Heavenly Eye Vine lifted them onto the Sky Ladder Plateau, Fuxi used the heavenly eye to scout their surroundings. All of a sudden, his face turned stone cold. “It seems to be even worse on this way.”
“What's wrong? More warriors are gathered there?” asked Eastern Emperor Taiyi. Fuxi shook his head, “No. They're all gone. The creatures from other races have disappeared from my vision.”
As they heard this, the Snake Goddess, Yasamin, and the others exchanged looks of confusion. Sawyer asked from the side, “You mean you can't see them through the heavenly eye?”
It was not rare that warriors moved in concealment.
However, the heavenly eye easily saw through most disguises and concealment methods. Now that they failed to see their enemies' movements, this only meant that their concealment methods were far from ordinary.
Fuxi shook his head and gave the vine extended from the heavenly eye to Sawyer. Sawyer took it and looked around through the eye, but saw nothing as well.
Just as Sawyer opened his mouth to speak, they all sensed a formidable power of space from above them. All of a sudden, the clouds parted and a huge golden axe appeared from behind. It slashed down at them before anyone could even react.
The axe was several hundred feet in size.
Its edge was engraved with strange Sanskrit words across it, and it radiated circles of golden light that emitted an extremely strong aura.
Crack!
In a split second, the golden axe fell from the sky and chopped down towards the ground, slicing the thick Heavenly Eye Vine in half.