Chapter 453
The Kapala Bowl of "Wisdom Awakening," a Man-Made Key to History! Without the
Chapter 453 The Kapala Bowl of "Wisdom Awakening," a Man-Made Key to History! Without the Yellow Springs, Millions of Souls Would Turn to Ashes
For a fleeting moment, Uesugi Tetsu felt a chill run down his spine and wanted to grab Erchi and log off immediately, returning to the real world to survive first.
Even though he had gained a tiny bit of resistance to "Yellow Springs" due to the area rewards from clearing the special area before, the Second-Foot Master had none at all.
If he were to actually encounter the Yellow Springs, even just the aftershocks of this thing, his two-foot-tall adult, whom he had painstakingly raised to this point, would be instantly refined.
Fortunately, Uesugi Tetsu had already forged his sword heart.
With a sword heart suspended in his mind, he discerned the "Yellow Spring content" in the surrounding area before his thousand eyes and thoughts could detect it.
Then they discovered that although this place called the "Secret Land of the Underworld" was indeed somewhat related to the Underworld, the amount of "Underworld energy" in the surrounding environment was really, really negligible.
At most, there is only a wisp of breath—left over from who knows how many years ago, worn away almost to nothing by the passage of time.
This trace of the aura of the underworld will only have an effect on ordinary people who have never come into contact with the extraordinary. Even a half-star fox or dog wouldn't die from it.
Having understood this, Uesugi Tetsuya's sudden thought slowly subsided.
However, they remained vigilant about their surroundings, ready to flee at any moment.
Since this place is related to the Yellow Springs, we can't be too careful... Ye Chun is really "lucky" to open up a new route in such a large mortal world and dig up something that might be comparable to an abandoned nuclear power plant.
He plucked a string of his heartstrings, signaling Erchi to first restrain his breathing and not to move rashly.
Then, he silently activated the highly versatile Spirit Control Technique.
Using the principles of the Jade Heart Technique and the Spirit Condensation Technique, the auras of the two were completely concealed, turning them into two "stones" that could move, speak, and attack others.
Instead of rashly opening his Thousand Eyes in the air, Uesugi Tetsu simply used his eyes to look at the area within his sight and patiently observed for about half an hour.
As far as the eye could see, apart from bones, rotting flesh, and those demons and monsters that were clearly devoid of intelligence and consciousness at a glance, there was nothing else.
Quietly shifting his gaze, Uesugi Tetsu looked at each of the strange and unusual people who had been alarmed by the arrival of the special train.
Then a bunch of meaningless tags popped up—
【Basouda (Two-Star)】
【Kapala (2.5 stars)】
[The Vengeful Spirit of a Heretic (One Star)]
【…】
These strange and unusual creatures, unseen by outsiders, have all sorts of labels popping up above their heads. Most of them are one-star items, but there are quite a few two-star and three-star items as well.
Further away, Uesugi Tetsu could see ghosts and spirits emanating a terrifying aura wandering around, but there were almost none up close.
The location of the station that Ye Chun set up here almost perfectly met his requirements.
The problem was that all these things had similar names and were too strange—even Uesugi Tetsu, a special affairs officer who was knowledgeable about demons, couldn't recognize a single one of them.
After thinking for a moment, Uesugi Tetsu told these names to the two-foot-tall man beside him.
"Two feet, do you know what these words mean?"
The two-foot head shake was something I'd never heard of before.
Next, Uesugi Tetsu asked Karuta and Ao separately, but strangely, neither of them had ever heard of it.
Especially Qing.
Logically speaking, he had served as a boundary marker and slain countless demons, so his knowledge was likely hundreds of times greater...
Surprisingly, they had never heard of the name of any of the demons in this place.
Surprising.
That's so weird.
It can only be said that this place truly lives up to its name, which contains the words "Yellow Springs." Perhaps the memories of those who once knew these names have been eroded and washed away by the Yellow Springs.
Just as Uesugi Tetsu was about to test whether killing these demons would trigger any "taboo," Erke, who had been frowning the whole time, suddenly spoke up.
"Lord Che, the resentment here is so strong, really strong."
"Willpower?"
Uesugi Tetsuya was stunned. He looked around again, puzzled, wondering if there was a shrine in this strange place, and if there were intelligent beings who could worship there.
Erchiya understood Uesugi Tetsu's doubts, so he added, "It's the 'resentment' of 'grudge.' This place is filled with too much resentment."
Within the blurry perception of two feet, there are far too many of these "resentments" that ordinary people cannot see or touch.
It had almost solidified into a tangible form, containing hundreds or thousands of times more resentment than any place she had ever been, seen, or heard of before.
Perhaps only the legendary "Eighteen Levels of Hell" can compare to it.
Strangely, this chilling resentment wasn't particularly aggressive towards outsiders... in fact, it was practically non-aggressive.
This was also the part of the place that made her feel uncomfortable, which took her a while to realize was the strong resentment.
Er Chi said with a serious look in his eyes,
“Countless lives have died here with resentment, yet they never had the slightest thought of revenge, Lord Che…isn’t that strange?”
Er Chi stared at the humanoid flesh and blood that was struggling to crawl out of the pile of bones beside him with a low growl: "Logically speaking, these ghostly things should have swarmed us the moment we got off the train."
Uesugi Tetsuya finally understood; this place was full of mysteries.
"—This is not something we should be concerned with, Er Chi."
Uesugi Tetsu patted her shoulder: "Although they died with resentment, it may have happened thousands of years ago, and it's all unrelated to us, so it doesn't really concern us."
As he spoke, Uesugi Tetsuya paused again and asked,
"Two feet, will eliminating these demons help your cultivation?"
"Have."
A short, two-foot opening.
"it is good."
Uesugi Tetsuya signaled the special train to leave first, otherwise he would feel bad if he accidentally damaged the expensive carriage, and he wouldn't be able to afford to pay for it.
Then he said,
"Then let's do it together."
In mid-air, a not-so-large, pitch-black "tent" covering an area of a hundred meters slowly descended.
Uesugi Tetsu believed that it was best not to make too much noise in such a nasty place.
After all, if they were to go all out and raze the area to the ground for hundreds of miles, they might just unleash some extremely terrifying being.
At that time, this entire area will become a restricted zone.
Although it doesn't matter much if Uesugi Tetsu dies, the key issue is that there's no shrine here, so dying here would take a lot of time to get back, and he might even have to avoid the person who killed him.
"account."
As Uesugi Tetsuya sensed that all sounds outside the darkness had suddenly vanished, he couldn't help but smile.
"The Yin-Yang techniques of the Heian period, the wisdom of the older generation, are truly convenient."
As for the side effect inside the tent—"increased presence"—it doesn't seem to have much effect on these mindless ghosts.
Inside the tent, the crimson thousand-eyed eye opened silently, anchoring itself on all the demons in an instant.
In the next instant, a burst of blazing white lightning, varying in size and thickness, appeared out of nowhere, providing each demon with a VIP-customized, premium service.
[You have killed the heretical vengeful spirit (half-star), and gained 0.1 Soul Ash!]
[You have killed the heretical vengeful spirit (1.5 stars) and gained 1 point of Soul Ash!]
[You have killed Basuda (2-star) and gained 8 Soul Ashes!]
【…】
A barrage of kill notifications flooded Uesugi Tetsuya's screen, causing him to furrow his brow deeply.
The soul ash dropped by these strange demons was far too scarce, completely disproportionate to their strength and rank.
Is it reasonable that a two-star or even two-and-a-half-star demon drops far less Soul Ash than a mere half-star fox or dog?
Uesugi Tetsuya and the two-foot-tall man set up the tent again, clearing out all the demons inside, and then received the same soul ash notification.
Moreover, apart from dropping a pitiful amount of soul ash, these demons don't drop any items or materials, not even junk!
"Is it because it has been corrupted by the Yellow Springs?"
Uesugi Tetsu pondered, "If that's the reason, then it's understandable."
—The Yellow Springs, which can easily annihilate and devour souls, have already been swept away. It's already quite generous of them to leave him a little soup.
"Forget it, I don't want to think about these things anymore."
After conducting two experiments with tents measuring a hundred meters in radius and finding no abnormalities, Uesugi Tetsuya slammed a tent measuring a thousand meters in radius onto the ground. —Anyway, the number of strange demons in this Netherworld Secret Land is simply countless.
—If there's not enough Soul Ash, then kill more.
In the following period, Uesugi Tetsu began the tedious but lucrative "sweeping away demons" phase, which yielded a steady stream of soul ash.
Tent, Thousand Eyes, Five Thunder Technique, yielding only a small amount of soul ash and proficiency...
This process is repeated, much like assembly line work on a construction site or moving bricks in cyberspace.
However, unlike others, Uesugi Tetsu needs to maintain maximum concentration at all times in order to be able to respond immediately when a crisis occurs.
……
However, no crisis occurred.
During the three days and three nights of "quiet" bombardment, Uesugi Tetsu lost count of how many notifications appeared before his eyes and how many of these strangely named demons he had destroyed.
In short, the path to heaven for Asura has been completed, and now the raging karmic fire is burning so intensely that even Uesugi Tetsu sometimes finds it hard to bear.
Along with it, the two-foot-long aura of tribulation response increased by several times.
But amidst this massive, assembly-line slaughter, Uesugi Tetsuya glanced at the Soul Ash interface and discovered that only a little over 123,000 Soul Ashes had been dropped!
Are you kidding me? His movements are becoming as mechanical as someone who's been killing fish for ten years!
It's not that 120,000 soul ash is too little, it's just that Uesugi Tetsu felt that after eliminating countless demons, there should be more soul ash.
He was cursing and swearing.
"That damn Huang Quan is really wicked! You damn Feng, Old Feng must have flown to heaven!"
If Huang Quan hadn't caused trouble here thousands of years ago, he probably would already have hundreds of thousands or even millions of soul ash lying in his account. That would have been a huge windfall, and his fingers would be cramping from clicking so much!
Not to mention the heart of Yaobikuni, even Ubume can be extracted in one go!
At this moment, Xiao Jia asked curiously,
"Master, what do you mean by that?"
Upon hearing this, Uesugi Tetsu's eyebrows twitched slightly.
Xiao Jia didn't speak for three days and three nights; he almost forgot that he had a child on his body.
“That’s bad talk.” Uesugi Tetsu patted the hilt of his sword. “Kids shouldn’t learn that.”
"Oh."
Xiao Jia responded, then silently memorized "Feng ge fu de, Lao Feng has flown to heaven" in his mind, and labeled it as an "insult".
Xiao Jia felt that as a mature swordsman, it was time for him to learn how to "attack" others.
Otherwise, if you get angry, you can only say a few meaningless things like "idiot," "bad guy," or "I'm not playing with you anymore," just like Chisa.
If you didn't know better, you'd think she was just being coquettish.
Uesugi Tetsu, who always trusted Xiao Jia, naturally didn't think that far ahead. He looked around at the empty surroundings, pondered for a moment, and then opened one of his All-Seeing Eyes.
If it's just one, it won't display a huge blood-red eye in the sky.
In the time that followed, Uesugi Tetsu slowly scanned the distance, trying to find something more "unique".
If we can't find it right away, that's fine too. This trip can still be considered a successful one—after all, the two major goals of Heavenly Path and Soul Ash have been accomplished.
About forty minutes later, Uesugi Tetsu's gaze sharpened.
The Thousand Eyes slightly contracted, magnifying a small hill hundreds of kilometers away into view.
Then, a slowly rotating vortex, hidden among numerous skeletons and incongruous with its surroundings, came into view.
"This vortex is very similar to the crimson vortex of the gathering..."
The only difference is that the previous crimson vortex, which was "only accessible to those with superhuman strength," was far less "crimson" than the vortex before them.
Because of this vortex, it looked exactly like a pile of bloody chunks of flesh stuck together, which was extremely horrifying.
Even from such a great distance, Uesugi Tetsu felt a slight sting in his eyes.
"Erchi, go back to the Ksitigarbha statue first."
—Perhaps, within this equally bizarre vortex, there exists a terrifying being approaching or even reaching the level of Lord Mokujin.
Seeing Uesugi Tetsu's serious expression, the two-foot-tall man did not hesitate for a moment.
She knew it didn't matter that Uesugi Tetsu died in the Tokoyashiki.
Without further hesitation, Uesugi Tetsu set off immediately.
Anyway, I'm just a worthless life, so if I die, I might as well die and be able to return to the present world.
Even though he tried his best to suppress the noise of his journey, Uesugi Tetsuya arrived at the location of the vortex in just ten minutes.
He examined the vortex in front of him, which was extremely similar in shape.
"It's pretty much the same."
Uesugi Tetsu lifted his foot as if to step into the vortex.
boom.
But things didn't go as planned. The vortex didn't suck him in; instead, it was so hard it almost broke his nose.
After a moment's thought, Uesugi Tetsuya took out the travel token from his storage bag and held it in his hand before walking back towards the vortex.
This time, there were no obstacles.
In the eerie and sticky feeling of being wrapped up by flesh and blood, Uesugi Tetsu was "spit" into a small, enclosed space of flesh and blood.
"Sure enough, the one who left the vortex here was also a walker."
He grinned.
It's somewhat surprising that someone would have walked through such a desolate and ghostly place, but it makes perfect sense.
After all, those who walk are ruthless people who measure the world with their own two feet.
Before Uesugi Tetsuya lay an iron box with a lock that was clearly rotten from a long time ago. Next to it was a sign written in the exact same language as the back of the walking assembly token—
[A token is required to open]
He blinked, then raised his hand and lifted the iron box open.
Nothing happened.
Uesugi Tetsuya sighed softly.
"Is this the power of time and the underworld...?"
Inside the iron box was a broken, grayish-white bone bowl.
Uesugi Tetsu picked up the bone bowl first, and a prompt immediately appeared—
【"Huijue's" Kapala Bowl (Special Prop)】
Quality: None
[Effect: After use, you will enter the era specified by the kapala bowl of "Wisdom Awakening".]
[Could it...become a key to unlocking history?]
[Note 1: Can only be used in the Mortal Realm.]
[Note 2: "Huijue's" kapala bowl is severely damaged; its use may cause temporal and spatial dislocations, the extent of which is unknown.]
The key to history?
Master Huijue was also a wanderer!?
Uesugi Tetsuya was stunned for a while before he realized that it might just be a matter of having the same Buddhist name.
Such cases are not uncommon in history.
Then he saw it underneath the bone bowl—
There was also an old note with blurred and illegible handwriting, in many places it was impossible to recognize.
The note was written in a striking scarlet color.
(End of this chapter)