The Samsara Jade

Chapter 22

The suction force doubled. The giant snake began to change. The thick, beautiful black scales that covered its body quickly lost their shiny glass-like color. They turned dull and grey. The massive, thick muscles that made up the snake’s heavy body started to shrink. 

The snake was literally melting from the inside out. Its life force, its flesh, its blood, its demonic core—everything was being sucked into Li Chen’s body. 

Li Chen felt like he was standing under a waterfall of pure power. 

The Chaos Root ate the massive amount of beast energy, purified it instantly, and flooded Li Chen’s meridians. 

The dark Qi inside him grew rapidly. It filled his stomach. It filled his chest. It filled his arms and legs. He was overflowing with power. 

In less than a minute, the giant, thirty-foot-long Shadow Viper was completely drained. 

It stopped thrashing in the mud. Its glowing crimson eyes flickered once, twice, and then turned completely black and empty. 

The terrible, roaring suction force from Li Chen’s body finally stopped. 

Li Chen opened his eyes and let go of the snake's neck. He pulled his left arm away, sliding it off the dead fangs. 

The body of the Shadow Viper fell to the ground. It did not splash in the mud. It was completely weightless. 

The giant beast had been turned into a dry, hollow husk. It was nothing but an empty tube of dry, grey skin and brittle bones. 

When it hit the rocky ground beneath the mud, the dry husk shattered into thousands of pieces of dust and ash, blowing away in the faint wind of the chasm. 

Total silence returned to the dark mud pit. 

Li Chen stood perfectly still. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. 

The massive amount of Rank-1 beast energy was completely digested. It was not the fake, bloated energy from the ambient poison. This was solid, real, stolen power. 

His dantian was filled to the absolute maximum. The liquid dark Qi was boiling, ready to expand. 

Li Chen pushed the energy forward, ordering it to break the final barrier. 

BOOM! 

A powerful shockwave of dark air blasted out from Li Chen’s body. The shockwave was so strong it blew the thick black mud completely away from him, creating a perfectly clean, dry circle of rock ten feet wide. 

Li Chen opened his eyes. The black vortexes in his pupils spun rapidly, glowing with ancient, terrifying power. 

"Third Level of Qi Condensation," Li Chen whispered. His voice was calm, but it vibrated with immense strength. 

He had done it. He had fought a Rank-1 demonic beast with his bare hands, eaten its poison, devoured its life force, and broken through to the next level of cultivation. 

He looked down at his left arm. The deep, bloody holes left by the snake’s giant fangs were already closing. The dark Qi and the Void-Iron Physique worked together, stitching the torn flesh perfectly. In a few minutes, there would not even be a scar. 

Li Chen clenched his fists. He felt lighter, faster, and incredibly strong. He felt like he could punch a hole through the side of a mountain. 

"This is the path of the Devourer," Li Chen thought. "Every battle makes me stronger. Every enemy is just food."

He stepped out of the dry circle and walked back into the mud. He did not care about the dirt or the rotting smell anymore. He was adapted to this hellish place. 

He decided to keep exploring the dark chasm. He wanted to find more beasts. He wanted more energy. 

He walked for another hour, moving deeper into the narrow canyons of the chasm floor. The purple miasma swirled around him gently, parting ways for him like he was the new king of the abyss. 

Eventually, the narrow canyon opened up into a wider, flatter area. 

Li Chen stopped walking. His sharp ears heard a strange sound. 

It was a sharp, hissing sound, but it was not a snake. It was the sound of something hot burning through the cold air. 

He looked closely into the dark fog ahead. 

There, about fifty yards away, was a faint, warm light. It was not the sickly green light of an illusion. It was not the cold silver light of a trap. It was the bright, warm yellow light of a real fire. 

Li Chen immediately dropped low to the ground. He hid behind a large, dark rock. He peeked over the top, using his enhanced Third Level vision to cut through the purple miasma. 

He saw a real, genuine cave cut into the side of the stone cliff. 

And inside the cave, sitting next to a small, magically created campfire, was a person. 

It was a human. 

The person was sitting on a clean, grey blanket, roasting a piece of meat over the fire. 

Li Chen squinted his eyes, looking closely at the person's clothes. His heart skipped a beat. 

The person was wearing the clean, perfectly white robes of an Inner Sect Disciple of the Azure Sword Sect. On their shoulder, stitched in beautiful silver thread, was the symbol of two crossed swords. 

"An Inner Sect Disciple? Down here in the Beast Chasm?" Li Chen thought in complete shock. The chasm was a death sentence. Why would a highly ranked, rich, powerful inner disciple be camping at the bottom of the deadliest place in the world? 

Li Chen looked closer. 

Resting against the rock wall next to the person was a weapon. It was not a normal sword. It was a long, beautiful, blood-red blade. The sword pulsed with a dark, dangerous magical aura. 

The person turned their head slightly, reaching for a waterskin. 

The light of the campfire hit their face. 

Li Chen’s eyes went wide. His breath caught in his throat. His iron-hard fingers dug deeply into the rock he was hiding behind, completely crushing the stone into powder. 

He knew that face. It was a face from his nightmares. It was a face he had not seen in ten years, but one he could never, ever forget. 

Ten years ago, on the night his family was slaughtered, there were men in black masks. But one of the killers, the leader who swung the sword that killed Li Chen's father, had briefly dropped his mask. 

The face of the killer was the exact same face as the young man sitting by the campfire right now. 

It was impossible. The man should be ten years older, but he looked exactly the same. 

Suddenly, the young man by the fire stopped moving. He slowly lowered his piece of meat. He did not turn his head, but a cold, cruel smile appeared on his face. 

"You are breathing too loudly, little rat," the young man said. His voice echoed clearly across the dark chasm. "I know you are hiding behind that rock. Come out. Or my blood-sword will come out and fetch your head."

Li Chen stood up slowly, stepping out from behind the crushed rock. The deadly purple fog swirled around his metallic body, his black eyes locking onto the man who had murdered his father.