Chapter 134: In a Tight Spot, There’s No Turning Back

Chapter 134: We’re Finished—There’s No Way Back

Wu Hong discovered, to his dismay, that beneath his feet, in the Vermilion Fire Domain and the Darkwater Domain, there were walls of black-yellow earth just like the one above his head. The ground itself was composed of four distinct colors and was astonishingly solid.

Wu Hong felt no joy at seeing land again. His face turned green.

“What the hell is going on?”

He suddenly remembered what the Many-Eyed Monkey had told him: it was best not to go up into the world above, because once one went up, one might never be able to come back down.

“But what is this supposed to be? This isn’t the Primordial World. I’ve actually been trapped in the Darkwater Domain—a world brimming with spiritual energy, yet devoid of any living creatures?”

Wu Hong was torn with indecision. Suddenly, his true energy burst forth. He gathered every bit of power he possessed once more and furiously struck at the black-yellow earth beneath him. The force was terrifying. A trace of hope remained in his heart: perhaps the land below was not as abnormal as the wall above his head.

“Rumble—!”

After the earth-shaking boom, Wu Hong was plunged into despair. The ground beneath his feet was even more monstrous than the black-yellow wall above.

At the very least, when he concentrated all his strength against the wall overhead, he could blast out a deep pit. But when he unleashed every ounce of power against this land, he could not even break a pebble.

Wu Hong’s heart turned cold.

Once he landed on the earth, he found that the rocks and soil were a lifeless, chaotic gray. The ground stretched out flat and boundless in every direction.

There was no need to think about it: this land had no discernible end. Even so, Wu Hong refused to give up. He ran wildly across the ground, running for most of the day until both body and mind were exhausted. Yet the land continued endlessly, without the slightest change or anything unusual.

Above him floated Darkwater true energy, liquid in appearance. There was not a single living creature in this world, nor anyone to tell Wu Hong how to return to land.

Dejected, Wu Hong sat down. The earth here no longer possessed the repulsive force of the black-yellow wall above.

Even an ordinary pebble beneath his feet was incomparably hard. Despite concentrating all his strength, Wu Hong could only crush it with great difficulty.

It was enough to show just how abnormal this land was. Wu Hong felt as though he were trapped in a dream, unable to believe any of it was real.

“Why did I have to go exploring the Primordial World? What am I supposed to do now? There’s no road to heaven or earth!”

Regret was useless now. Wu Hong had no choice but to force himself to calm down.

Then he suddenly remembered that he still had a demonic banner in his Cosmic Ring. Its aura was intimidating. Even now, Wu Hong did not dare draw it out casually, because he strongly suspected that the banner had already entered the Primordial Realm.

During the tribulation, it had been placed inside the Cosmic Ring. Because it was a dead object, its tribulation had caused the Void Divine Lightning to shake heaven and earth, flattening everything within a radius of five hundred miles. Its power had been utterly terrifying. Yet the Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner had remained inside the space of the Cosmic Ring.

Thus, even after ascending to the Primordial Realm, not the slightest trace of primordial aura had leaked out, and no expert had come to guide this nonliving primordial existence away.

“There’s no other way. I can only try this.”

With a swift motion, Wu Hong drew the Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner from the Cosmic Ring. At once, demonic energy surged between heaven and earth.

The banner drew in the spiritual energy of the entire Darkwater Domain. Wu Hong immediately felt his whole body grow cold, but the Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner was his last hope of survival. Trembling all over, he clutched it tightly and refused to let go.

Wu Hong’s true energy seemed to restrain the Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner completely. Although the aura emanating from the banner was more than a hundred times stronger than Wu Hong’s, it was utterly unable to break free from his grasp.

“Brat, let go of me! Why do you always make trouble for me?”

A gloomy voice suddenly appeared in Wu Hong’s mind. It sounded nothing like a human voice.

Wu Hong’s heart jolted. Using his consciousness, he replied, “You’re the demonic banner?”

“I am the Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner! My identity and status are not something a brat like you can know. Let go of me at once, or I’ll tear you into ten thousand pieces—”

The banner’s voice echoed again in the depths of Wu Hong’s mind. Yet it seemed to fear something about him. When it reached the words “tear you into ten thousand pieces,” it could not finish the threat.

Wu Hong’s heart leapt with delight. He realized that something must have gone wrong. Although the Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner was powerful, as long as he held on, it would be extremely difficult for it to escape his control.

“I won’t let go unless you help me pierce through the earth beneath us. Otherwise, forget it!”

Wu Hong shamelessly played the rogue. If the banner escaped, he would certainly remain trapped here as well.

The Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner was one of Wu Hong’s greatest trump cards—indeed, at present, it was probably his most powerful one.

The Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner fell speechless. It understood Wu Hong’s predicament. At the same time, it inspected the ground beneath them and was startled. After surveying the surrounding world, it grew even more astonished.

“Brat, where is this? Why isn’t it the Mortal World? It isn’t the Primordial Realm either. Where are we?”

“The Darkwater Domain,” Wu Hong answered casually.

The moment Wu Hong finished speaking, his blood and vital energy began to churn violently. A furious roar suddenly exploded in his mind. If not for the protection of his Great Sun Tathagata True Formula, Wu Hong would certainly have been shaken to death.

“You murderous little fool! How can you barge into places at random? You’ve brought me all the way to the Darkwater Domain, beyond the barrier of heaven and earth! You’ve ruined me!”

The Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner shouted furiously inside Wu Hong’s mind. At the same time, it was startled inwardly. It could not kill this fool here; otherwise, it too would disintegrate like snow beneath the sun.

That was the banner’s true concern.

What Wu Hong did not know was that heaven and earth possessed their own order. When the Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner underwent its heavenly tribulation, Wu Hong had deliberately placed it inside the Cosmic Ring, allowing it to evade the primordial tribulation. In doing so, however, he had forged an enormous karmic bond with the banner—a bond involving life and death.

If the Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner killed Wu Hong now, it would inevitably die in the future because of that karmic entanglement.

In a certain sense, the banner and Wu Hong had become half master and half servant. Once the master died, the servant would inevitably follow.

The Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner was a weapon. In the Mortal World, it had possessed no complete consciousness, only a primordial awareness formed from countless resentful souls.

A weapon was meant to be wielded by someone. At the critical moment, Wu Hong had stuffed the Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner into the Cosmic Ring. Not only had this allowed it to escape its primordial tribulation, but by a twist of fate, it had also become Wu Hong’s weapon.

The Cosmic Ring had developed its own rudimentary consciousness after enduring a tribulation, but it was nowhere near as spiritually aware as the Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner. That was why the Cosmic Ring had reappeared before Wu Hong carrying the banner and all his possessions.

Of course, Wu Hong knew none of this. In his muddled state, he understood only one thing: no matter what happened, he could not let the Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner slip from his grasp.

The man and the weapon entered into a tense deadlock. Neither spoke.

After a long while, the voice of the Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner once again sounded in Wu Hong’s mind.

“Brat, pour all your true energy into me. I’ll use all my power to assist you. Let’s see whether we can break through the earth beneath us.”

The Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner itself had no real hope. This barrier between the Darkwater Domain and the Vermilion Fire Domain was beyond its ability to break. Even an existence at a far higher realm would never be able to shatter the earth below and escape.

But there was no other choice. The banner could only join forces with Wu Hong and try.

Wu Hong was overjoyed. He immediately circulated his true energy and poured it wildly into the Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner.

Strangely enough, the banner was a demonic weapon, while Wu Hong’s true energy was the most wondrous Buddhist energy in the world—righteous, majestic, and dedicated to saving all living beings. Yet the two forces merged perfectly.

The countless resentful spirits within the banner instantly stopped wailing like ghosts and howling like wolves. Instead, they began chanting the sublime sounds of the Great Dao, sacred and solemn.

The essence of heaven and earth, together with Wu Hong’s true energy, rushed madly into the banner. The sinister, ghost-filled demonic weapon suddenly transformed into a sacred artifact capable of cleaving heaven and earth, drawing in the spiritual energy of the entire world.

The spiritual energy within a thousand-mile radius was drained dry.

Wu Hong’s body could scarcely withstand the pressure. Fine cracks seemed to spread across him. He suddenly roared:

“Open!”

Holding the demonic weapon in his hands, Wu Hong’s entire presence became incomparably sacred. He swung it fiercely downward.

In an instant, a sacred river of light stretching countless tens of thousands of meters surged down and crashed into the black-yellow earth below.

“Rumble—!”

A thunderous explosion shook heaven and earth.

Wu Hong spat out a mouthful of blood and was sent flying backward, shooting an unknown distance through the air.

At the same time, a shriek rang out in his mind. It belonged to the Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner.

But Wu Hong had no attention to spare for either his injuries or the banner’s condition. The spiritual energy of heaven and earth had just erupted into a vast attack against the ground, raising a sky-obscuring cloud of dust.

This was no ordinary dust. It blotted out the sky and sun, and even Wu Hong’s extraordinary vision could not penetrate it in the slightest.

He could only wait for everything to settle before inspecting the result.

When the smoke and dust finally dispersed, Wu Hong stood there with his mouth hanging open.

A pit several meters deep had appeared in the ground, but it was already healing at astonishing speed.

Before Wu Hong could recover from his shock, the earth had become smooth once more, gleaming with a gray radiance.

Wu Hong’s face turned ashen.

The voice of the Ten Thousand Demons Ghost Banner screamed in his mind:

“Damn you, brat! The legend was true after all! We’re finished! We’re going to be trapped here forever!”