Trials of the Abyss

Chapter 206: The First to Die!

On the summit of the Second Peak, Huang Qi had turned pale with shock as he stared at the now massive Star Crushing Umbrella.

"Has he gone crazy? The battle with the invading forces of the Fifth World is still ongoing, and he dares to do that?!" He rubbed his hair anxiously and growled in frustration, "He trapped Lou Yunming under the Star Crushing Umbrella. Does he intend to kill him?"

If Pang Jian made a move against Lou Yunming, he would become everyone's target, regardless of the outcome. Most likely, Pang Jian would fall to Lou Yunming under the umbrella.

"You're too reckless. I can't get involved with you. This goes against the greater good of the human race!" Huang Qi paced back and forth on the mountain peak.

The other cultivators scattered around the mountains and valleys of the Primordial Wilderness could not see the situation on the summit of the First Peak as they were on lower ground.

The Star Crushing Umbrella had disappeared from their view once it moved away from the edge, and they could not catch sight of it no matter how much they strained to look. Thus, they had no idea what happened after the Star Crushing Umbrella reached the summit of the First Peak.

"Let's climb the First Peak!"

"Elder Liang Ying has gone ahead. Should we follow her?"

"Maybe we should wait a bit longer?"

The Spirit Condensation Realm rogue cultivators and elders of the noble families, believing Liang Ying had climbed the First Peak, started to converge toward the First Peak.

***

"Lou Yunming of the Sinister Soul Temple." Pang Jian controlled the Star Crushing Umbrella with his mind and gracefully landed with his spear in hand as he calmly declared, "You're the first."

"The first? What do you mean by that?" The elder of the Sinister Soul Temple held the Black Crow Cauldron, appearing outwardly composed while raging on the inside.

Lou Yunming could no longer communicate with the outside world as his spiritual power and divine sense could not extend beyond the umbrella. Moreover, he could not break through its confinement!

Although he was not close to Liang Ying, they still knew each other. Liang Ying's advanced-grade spirit artifact did not possess such terrifying power and did not have the ability to isolate him from the outside world when in her hands.

Unbeknownst to Lou Yunming, when the umbrella's strange radiance touched the rocky ground, it established a connection with the network of spiritual power channels buried deep within the First Peak and allowed Cao Mang's Spirit Slaughtering Astral Array to merge with the Star Crushing Umbrella.

This was the reason Lou Yunming's divine sense and spiritual power could not penetrate the umbrella. Similarly, cultivators on the outside could not see or sense what was happening beneath the umbrella due to the otherworldly light falling from the Star Crushing Umbrella's canopy.

"You'll be the first one I kill," Pang Jian answered.

"You want to kill me? Pang Jian, you—" Sharp spiritual power originating from the Spirit Slaughtering Astral Array emerged from underneath Lou Yunming and sliced through the soles of his feet.

The fierce look in his eyes morphed into one of confusion as his lower legs were left in a bloody mess.

"Cao Mang!"

"He's been colluding with the Fifth World all along. He was just waiting for you to become complacent with the promise of victory before dismantling his deadly array and joining forces with the foreign race warriors and Vicious Beasts to slaughter you all," Pang Jian lied through his teeth.

Meanwhile, the Startling Slaughter Spear in his hand was far from idle.

Boom!

A thunderous explosion erupted as enormous spheres of blinding light were formed at the tip of the Startling Slaughter Spear and sent crashing down toward Lou Yunming's head.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

On the umbrella's galaxy-like canopy, stellar energy morphed into shooting stars, lunar energy into sharp Lunar Edges, and cold energy into ice shards and blades.

These celestial forces and mystical attacks assailed Lou Yunming from every direction—beneath his feet, above his head, and from his sides!

Lou Yunming's mind was in turmoil. He hastily gathered a few strands of his divine sense and sent them into the Black Crow Cauldron.

"Go!" He threw the Black Crow Cauldron at Pang Jian.

A jet-black crow screeched as it flew out from the surface of the cauldron. Hundreds of Spirit Devils merged to transform into the crow's wings, beak, eyes, and claws.

The black crow flapped its wings, stirring up a soul-chilling aura as its dark, eerie eyes locked onto Pang Jian's sea of consciousness. A black thread shot out, aiming to pierce Pang Jian's forehead and invade his mind.

"Devour his soul!" Lou Yunming screamed as he frantically tried to fend off the overwhelming attacks.

The sharp tip of the Startling Slaughter Spear ignited in a blaze, scorching everything in its path. It struck the black thread shooting toward Pang Jian's forehead with pinpoint accuracy.

Boom!

The searing solar radiance at the tip of the spear, the molten lava from the fiery pool, and Pang Jian's spiritual power all blended together to engulf the black thread.

If one were to magnify the thread a million times, one would see countless pitch-black crows drowning in raging flames and molten lava. Their shrill cries echoed briefly before they disintegrated.

The violent molten lava and the searing solar radiance rushed up the thin black thread toward the large black crow, annihilating it instantly.

While this was happening Pang Jian had also thrown out a Nine Heavenly Profound Thunder.

It exploded the eerie black crow into pieces with a thunderous boom. The molten lava and blazing flames swallowed up what remained, ensuring the crow and the Spirit Devils that formed it were all irrevocably destroyed.

The effects of this destruction were rebounded onto Lou Yunming. He suffered a severe soul injury and started to bleed from his seven orifices. The connection between his mind and body became sluggish and the Lunar Edges, ice shards, and shooting stars soon overwhelmed him.

Lou Yunming's body was torn to shreds.

"That's one."

Pang Jian stepped forward and tossed the Black Crow Cauldron into his spatial bracelet. He then swiftly decapitated Lou Yunming.

"If Lou Hongyan had possessed a spirit artifact capable of storing Spirit Devils, Cao Mang would not have been able to capture her," Pang Jian muttered.

Sighing, he then wrapped Lou Yunming's blood-stained head with a piece of cloth.

He did not rush to emerge from beneath the Star Crushing Umbrella and instead took some time to review the battle in his mind.

The Star Crushing Umbrella, when combined with the profound abilities of the Spirit Slaughtering Astral Array and his demigod-like perception of harmonizing with the land, made killing a cultivator like Lou Yunming astonishingly easy.

Although Pang Jian could not see into Lou Yunming's sea of consciousness, he could still see the strands of divine sense emerging from it.

He had noticed Lou Yunming directing his divine sense into the black crow within the cauldron during the fight. Lou Yunming had brought the black crow to life by wrapping the Spirit Devils with his divine sense.

Pang Jian could also observe the ripples in Lou Yunming's sea of consciousness and fluctuations of spiritual power to predict his next move. Once Pang Jian knew the flow of Lou Yunming's spiritual power and the direction of his divine sense, Pang Jian could anticipate his actions and take appropriate countermeasures.

Killing a cultivator one cultivation realm above him was not particularly difficult with this foresight and insight. After carefully reviewing the battle, Pang Jian nodded and grasped the umbrella handle.

Whoosh!

The umbrella's dazzling radiance retracted into its canopy like a flowing river reversing its course, unveiling the shrouded world beneath.

Pang Jian held the Startling Slaughter Spear with his right hand, its tip stabbed into the ground. His blue robe was unstained by blood.

The radiance from the twinkling stars and bright moon cascaded down from the hovering umbrella, bathing Pang Jian's upright figure in an icy light.

Pang Jian exuded an imposing aura that was hard to ignore.

Before him, the headless corpse of Lou Yunming lay in pieces, bloodied and disfigured. He was only identifiable by the remnants of his clothing on the mutilated limbs.

"Pang..."

Lian Feng's eyes flitted between Pang Jian and the incomplete corpse of Lou Yunming. The rogue cultivator was so terrified he could not even utter Pang Jian's full name.

"Lou Yunming is dead!"

"Pang Jian has killed the elder of the Sinister Soul Temple!"

"Oh my god, how dare he?"

The Spirit Condensation Realm cultivators were deeply shaken. Their ongoing battles against the foreign race warriors and Vicious Beasts had become disorganized and frantic. They could not fathom how Pang Jian, with his low cultivation realm, had managed to kill Lou Yunming.

Was it due to the Star Crushing Umbrella? But Lou Yunming's Black Crow Cauldron was also an advanced-grade spirit artifact, and Lou Yunming himself was a Spirit Condensation Realm cultivator!

Cao Man stood on the summit of his spirit artifact, the Black Iron Mountain, which resembled the treacherous and unyielding First Peak. He had broken four pairs of the Celestial Race leader's wings.

Despite his diminutive stature, Cao Mang radiated an awe-inspiring aura.

Cao Mang frowned. staring intently at Pang Jian.

The Celestial Race leader, Yu Gu, appeared so miserable it seemed he would keel over at any moment. More than half of his bones were fractured and he only had two pairs of bony wings left.

He only managed to escape from the Black Iron Mountain because of Cao Mang's distraction.

Yu Gu panted heavily. Blood flowed profusely from his wounds and his bones creaked with each labored breath as he stared at Pang Jian in astonishment.

There had been no internal strife among the human cultivators before this. Previously, the human cultivators had all fought together, determined to eliminate the foreign race warriors and Vicious Beasts as quickly as possible.

However, once the Star Crushing Umbrella reached the summit and this blue-clad youth ascended, the situation suddenly changed.

Yu Gu sensed that the formidable couple, Cao Mang and Lady Hua, as well as powerful cultivators like Jiu Yuan, Lou Yunming, and even Yang Rui, all harbored ill will toward this blue-clad youth.

Even more peculiar was that the blue-clad youth reciprocated their animosity. Moreover, he possessed extraordinary power, which led to the gruesome death of the troublesome elder from the Sinister Soul Temple.

"Change brings opportunity!" Yu Gu roared fiercely, still eyeing Pang Jian beneath the Star Crushing Umbrella.

The remaining powerhouses from the other foreign races and the surviving Rank Six Vicious Beasts followed Yu Gu's gaze to Pang Jian. They understood the underlying meaning behind his fierce roar: Do not attack the blue-clad human youth.

A sudden realization flashed in the emerald green eyes of the female Wood Race leader as she gazed at Pang Jian.

She remembered a race member's report about a human youth wielding a silver spear. This youth exuded the scent of the Celestial Maiden's herbal juice, marking him as an untouchable individual.

The report also mentioned that the youth carried a rich, pure life energy within him.