The Samsara Jade

Chapter 29

The coat fell past his knees, making him look tall, dark, and incredibly dangerous. He pulled on the heavy black boots. 

He looked like a shadow assassin. He looked like death itself. 

He walked behind the giant stone statue of the sword master. Just as the girl had said, there was a hidden opening in the rock wall. 

It was the Stairway of the Forgotten. 

Li Chen stepped into the narrow, dark tunnel. He looked up. 

The tunnel was like a giant chimney carved straight up into the solid rock of the mountain. It was incredibly steep. It went up into total darkness for thousands of feet. A normal person would look at it and despair. 

Li Chen just smiled. 

He pushed his heavy, dark Qi into his arms and legs. He reached out and grabbed the edge of a broken stone step. His iron fingers dug deeply into the solid rock, crushing the stone to make a perfect handhold. 

He began to climb. 

It was a brutal, grueling ascent. The path was completely dark. The air was cold and damp. Sometimes, the stairs were completely gone, and Li Chen had to punch his bare hands directly into the smooth rock wall to pull his heavy body up. 

For hours, he climbed in the dark. 

His muscles burned, but the heavy pool of liquid Qi in his dantian constantly refreshed him. With every hundred feet he climbed, his hatred burned hotter. 

He thought of Zhao Feng, laughing in his clean robes while Li Chen choked on dirty water. 

“Pull.”He thought of the Outer Sect Elders, who looked at his Broken Root and treated him worse than a stray dog. 

Punch. His hand smashed into the rock. 

“Pull.” He thought of the sect's hypocrisy. They called themselves righteous sword masters, but they threw innocent girls into the abyss just to hide their cheating. 

"They think they are gods," Li Chen thought, his eyes glowing fiercely in the dark tunnel. "They think they rule this mountain. I will show them that they are just meat."

As he climbed higher and higher, he noticed a change. 

The terrible smell of rotting meat and acid fog slowly faded away. The air became thinner, colder, and cleaner. He could smell pine trees. He could smell the morning dew. 

He was getting close to the surface. 

Suddenly, a faint, grey light appeared above him. It was the end of the tunnel. 

Li Chen gathered his strength. He pushed hard off a rock ledge and leaped upward. 

CRASH! 

Li Chen burst through a thick layer of dried branches and dirt. He landed heavily on a bed of soft, green grass. 

He stood up and took a deep breath. 

The air was perfectly clean. It was cold and crisp. 

He had done it. He had survived the Beast Chasm. He was back in the mortal world. 

He looked around. He was standing at the very edge of a high cliff, hidden inside a thick forest of tall pine trees. 

He walked slowly to the edge of the trees and looked out over the mountain. 

It was the hour just before dawn. The sky was a deep, dark blue, slowly turning purple in the east. The stars were beginning to fade. 

Below him, spread out across a massive, flat plateau on the mountain, was the Outer Sect of the Azure Sword Sect. 

It was beautiful. Thousands of clean, wooden houses with curved tile roofs were neatly arranged in long rows. High towers with glowing paper lanterns stood in the corners. 

In the very center of the sect grounds was a massive, square stone arena. It was huge, big enough to hold thousands of people. 

Even though it was early, the sect was already awake and buzzing with excitement. Li Chen could see hundreds of tiny figures running around, carrying flags, setting up wooden chairs, and preparing weapons. 

Today was the Outer Sect Tournament. 

Today, the disciples would fight for glory, for spirit stones, and for a chance to enter the legendary Inner Sect. 

Somewhere down there, Zhao Feng was probably waking up in a warm, soft bed. He was probably putting on expensive, beautiful clothes. He was probably smiling, thinking about how easily he would crush everyone and take the first prize. He thought Li Chen’s dead body was rotting at the bottom of the poisonous chasm. He thought his secrets were safe. 

He had no idea what was coming for him. 

The wind blew strongly across the mountain peak. It caught Li Chen’s long, black leather coat, making it snap loudly in the quiet morning air. His black hair blew wildly across his sharp, cold face. 

Li Chen stared down at the massive stone arena. His abyssal black eyes showed absolutely no mercy. 

He reached down and touched the dark golden dragon-turtle tattoo on his chest, feeling the massive, hungry power boiling inside him. 

"Enjoy the morning light, Azure Sword Sect," Li Chen whispered into the cold wind. "Because when the sun comes up... I am going to feed you all to the dark." 

Li Chen stepped out of the trees, beginning his long, silent walk down the mountain, ready to show them what true terror looked like.