"Thank you for your kindness, senior."
Chen Zhou bowed toward the woman in the courtly dress, politely declining her offer.
A fifth-stage Wanchuan pond, while gentler, held little significance for him.
He had come here for opportunities. With a legacy right before his eyes, there was no reason not to give it his all.
The woman gave a light chuckle, her voice airy and fleeting. "The sixth-stage Pure Soul Pond is already a supreme treasure of this place. You, a little fellow who has only recently entered the second transformation of eerification, truly intend to touch a seventh-stage Wanchuan pond?
"Do not let greed cloud your judgment, lest you break yourself instead."
Chen Zhou did not explain further, simply saying calmly, "I know what I am doing."
He walked straight past several fifth-stage pools and finally stopped before a seventh-stage Wanchuan pond.
This Wanchuan pond was different from the others.
It did not possess the overwhelming stench of blood like the central blood pond, nor was it crystal clear like the Pure Soul Pond.
This seventh-stage Wanchuan pond was pure, ink-like black.
Nearly a hundred feet wide, the pond's surface did not reflect light; it even seemed to swallow the dim purple radiance of this dream world.
The water remained perfectly still, as silent as a slab of black profound ice. Death qi condensed into wisps of black mist on the surface, flowing slowly.
A weathered stone tablet stood by the pond, where two ancient characters could vaguely be identified: Abyssal Underworld.
The young man, who had been watching Chen Zhou, said in surprise, "He actually chose the seventh-stage Abyssal Underworld pond?"
The woman sighed softly where she sat. "A pity. He is still too young and hotheaded."
Hearing this, the middle-aged man said, "Speaking of being young and hotheaded, who could compare to you? Back then, when you and I served our master in the campaigns to the south, you had only forged one contract, yet you dared to challenge a great fiend of the Siming stage.
"If the general under our lord's command had not arrived in time, the consequences would have been unthinkable."
The woman’s face darkened as she remembered that shameful history.
"However, this youth indeed does not know the heights of the heavens," the middle-aged man sighed as well. "The Eerification stage and the Symbiosis stage are only one stage apart, yet they are separated by a celestial chasm.
"To endure the mental descent and physical mutation of the Eerification stage is already one in ten thousand, but the seventh-stage..."
"True." The woman frowned slightly. She had thought Chen Zhou would settle for the safety of a fifth-stage pond as a backup.
She hadn't expected him to be so uncompromising, heading straight for the seventh-stage.
He did have a bit of the flair she possessed in her youth.
"The seventh-stage marks the entry into the Symbiosis stage. The core of this realm is the Five Symbiosis Contracts.
"Using a contract as a catalyst, one draws the energy of evil spirits into the body until finally coexisting entirely with death qi.
"One contract, one gate. Under the five contracts, the boundary between human and eeriness gradually blurs. Among those who can withstand the five contract shackles where human and spirit meld without being completely parasitized or enslaved, who among them is ordinary?"
The middle-aged man shook his head. "In this Abyssal Underworld pond, even the weakest evil entities are at the Symbiosis stage. Even with only one symbiosis contract, their power is not something the Eerification stage can contest. He is seeking death."
He seemed to have already foreseen Chen Zhou's end.
"It’s a pity. In the nearly ten thousand years I’ve been here, he is the descendant of the divine path with the most solid foundation and the most steadfast mind.
"If he played it safe, his future accomplishments would be limitless. But now..."
The young man interjected, "He might not necessarily lose his life."
"Hmm?" Both the woman and the middle-aged man looked at him.
The young man pointed toward Chen Zhou. In that area, a misty aura of providence, invisible to ordinary eyes, was slowly circulating.
"He has auspicious clouds surrounding him and the Guardian Auspicious God Destiny, a top-tier auspicious fate.
"Furthermore, he just obtained that divine path legacy for protection. No matter how poor his luck, he won't die here."
The woman felt a bit envious. "Before we died, which of us wasn't a favored child of heaven? Yet this Guardian Auspicious God Destiny is something that simply cannot be sought.
"This boy has truly struck a vein of luck."
Guardian Auspicious God Destiny turned calamity into fortune.
Such an opportunity was something even they had never possessed in life.
Seeing it now on a junior, their emotions were complex—both gratified and slightly bitter.
The middle-aged man said, "But that only means he won't die."
"The threshold of the seventh-stage cannot be crossed by luck alone."
"The most he can do is sit there for a hundred years and return empty-handed, missing out on one legacy."
The three of them communicated through thoughts, none of them optimistic.
Chen Zhou remained oblivious to this, his expression still calm.
He exchanged his remaining resources for three sixth-stage pills, which constituted his entire fortune thus far.
Then, he crushed the pills together, molding them into a ball to serve as bait.
Plop.
The bait entered the water with only a faint sound, sinking into that silent gray-black abyss.
The surface remained tranquil.
Not even a ripple stirred.
Chen Zhou raised an eyebrow.
This was completely different from what he had expected.
Sixth-stage pills possessed a fatal attraction for sixth-stage eerie entities.
But in this seventh-stage Wanchuan pond, it was like a stone dropped into the ocean, failing to attract any notice.
'Has sixth-stage bait lost its attraction for seventh-stage big fish?'
Chen Zhou was not discouraged; instead, he sat cross-legged.
As an angler, patience was the one thing he did not lack.
He exchanged another handful of fifth-stage pills and, unhurriedly, crushed them one by one, scattering them evenly around where his bait had landed.
If quality wasn't enough, he would win with quantity.
It was always good to chum the water a bit more.
Having finished this, he made no further moves.
He planted the fishing rod condensed from death qi in front of him. A sixth-stage Blood-Inducing Pill hung from the hook three inches above the water, not yet entering it.
Then, he closed his eyes, his mind entering a state as still as an ancient well, leaving only a single strand of divine sense attached to the rod.
He waited.
In this fallen dream known as the Immortal-Slaying Grounds, there was no true passage of time, yet the purple-red sun and moon in the sky rotated regularly, simulating the changes of light and shadow.
The sun rose; the dim light could not penetrate the bottom of the Abyssal Underworld pond, and the water remained dead, devouring all brightness.
The moon set; cold brilliance fell upon the pond's surface, yet the water reflected no moon, appearing even deeper in the night.
Chen Zhou sat there, appearing like a statue, merging with the bone ash on the ground.
He focused entirely on his fishing, losing all perception of the time passing in the outside world.
The pills by the pond had long since been depleted, but Chen Zhou remained unmoved.
One year, ten years, thirty years...
In the distance, the three figures had long since stopped watching him.
"It seems he failed," the middle-aged man shook his head. "It’s been nearly fifty years, and the Abyssal Underworld pond hasn't stirred. The boy has likely fallen into a deep meditative trance."
"As expected," the young man said indifferently.
Only the woman in the courtly dress would occasionally glance at him, a flicker of pity in her eyes.
An unknown amount of time passed.
Perhaps it was eighty years, perhaps a hundred.
Chen Zhou had not moved once.
His mind had achieved a subtle synchronization with the rhythm of this Wanchuan pond.
He perceived its every awakening and slumber, sensing the hidden terror and loneliness of the seventh-stage deep within.
Finally, just as he himself was about to forget the concept of time.
Gurgle.
A faint sound of a bubble bursting came from the surface.
Chen Zhou’s eyes snapped open.
The gray-black surface, which had been dead for countless ages, now slowly bulged in the very center.
Immediately after, the suspended fishing rod lurched downward.
The line went taut, plunging into the black water.
"A bite!"
Chen Zhou's eyes widened, death qi erupting from him as he grabbed the rod and yanked back.
The tranquil Abyssal Underworld pond instantly exploded.
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