Trials of the Abyss

"Fu Wangchen of the Forsaken Expanse Sect!"

"Fu Wangchen!"

The disciples of the Demon Sect, the Celestial Lagoon Sect, the Skyveil Cliff Sect, and the Xiao Clan gasped in recognition.

Those from the Demon Sect and the Celestial Lagoon Sect were particularly affected as they believed Fu Wangchen had sent the golden bees to free them from the endless bizarre mist.

As Fu Wangchen descended, they cast grateful glances at the future master of the Forsaken Expanse Sect.

Chen Lushi took a deep breath and puffed her chest out, causing it to look like it was about to burst through her clothing.

Lowering her head, she discreetly rubbed her cheeks with both hands.

Then, raising her head with a natural smile on her face, she bowed gracefully, revealing the deep valley beneath the folds of her collar.

"Fu Wangchen, I am Chen Lushi of the Demon Heart Sect. Thank you so much—"

"Can you part with it?" Fu Wangchen did not even glance at her. His eyes were fixed intently on Pang Jian. "I truly am in great need of this."

Chen Lushi's flirtatious display ended awkwardly, with her smile freezing in place.

"This gauze..." Pang Jian hesitated.

"It can block an Outer God's perception. It's invaluable to me," Fu Wangchen explained, taking out a statue carved from white bone to show Pang Jian.

The grayish-white bone statue was one zhang tall with cracks running through it as if it had been pieced together from broken fragments.

It had eight arms and resembled the eight-armed giant who had taken down the Mountain Stream Spirit Boat with bows and arrows.

Its face was smooth and featureless as if the sculptor had not had time to carve out its true appearance.

"This Outer God is called the Skull Crusher and has the power to shatter the bones of living beings.

"When its divine consciousness descended, the statue shattered and its face was erased.

"I acquired this statue by chance and have been refining its residual divine consciousness. But I'm concerned the Skull Crusher might sense and take notice of me.

"If I could wrap the statue with this black gauze, I could freely extract the remaining divine consciousness without worry," Fu Wangchen explained frankly.

Pang Jian nodded. "Name your price."

"My price..." Fu Wangchen hesitated, unsure of the black gauze's true value. Turning to look at Zhuang Yuyan, his partner in the fight against the Outer God, he asked, "What do you think it's worth?"

Zhuang Yuyan shrugged with a wry smile.

"How about this," Fu Wangchen suggested. "I noticed you were also refining divine consciousness from the Wood Race warrior earlier, so how about I give you a third of the divine consciousness within the Skull Crusher's bone statue?"

“What?!”

Qi Qingsong, Fang Boxuan, and the others cried out in surprise.

They knew from Dong Tianze's earlier explanation that divine consciousness from an Outer God was a rare and precious resource.

They had charged into Absolute Heaven intending to gather divine consciousness to refine their own divine sense. Thus, they could not help but feel envious when they heard that Pang Jian had succeeded in obtaining more.

"No wonder you chose to come here while we battled the Ghost Race on the warship," Fang Boxuan grumbled. "You must've known the Wood Race warrior in the forest had divine consciousness!"

"Little Junior Brother, next time something this good happens, let your senior sister know, okay?" Zhuang Yuyan said softly.

"That massive soul projection of the Outer God had the most divine consciousness of any being in the area," Pang Jian replied calmly. "If you killed it, the divine consciousness gained would've far surpassed what I've collected."

Pang Jian knew this because the Bee Sovereign had previously informed him that the soul projection of the Outer God was the most tempting target for the golden bees.

Fu Wangchen nodded. "Indeed."

“I tried," Zhuang Yuyan sighed." But that projection wasn't real, and we couldn't take it down.”

"So, what do you say?" Fu Wangchen asked Pang Jian.

"Deal." Pang Jian nodded, handing over the bundle of black gauze without hesitation. "One-third it is."

Internally, Pang Jian remained cautious.

When he was using his golden divine sense to watch over the golden bees' devouring of the Forest God in Ka Zi's mind, Fu Wangchen and Zhuang Yuyan had been battling the soul projection of the Ghost Race's worshiped Outer God.

How does Fu Wangchen know I extracted divine consciousness from Ka Zi after killing him? Pang Jian wondered warily. Could Fu Wangchen see the golden bees I sent into Ka Zi's mind?

"Thank you." Fu Wangchen accepted the black gauze and wrapped it around the white bone statue of the Skull Crusher. As he wrapped, he explained, "I possess a tool that detects divine consciousness. I sensed the Wood Race warrior's divine consciousness rapidly fading after you killed him.

"The moment you used the black gauze to bind his bleeding wound, I could no longer sense anything. That's when I realized the black gauze had some special properties."

Pang Jian breathed a quiet sigh of relief when he heard this.

"I'll return to the Heavenly Roc Warship and refine the divine consciousness to restore my strength. I'll give you your share of the one-third later," Fu Wangchen said with a nod in Pang Jian's direction as he put away the bone statue.

Then, turning to face the others, he said, "We drove away the invaders, but we've all suffered varying degrees of injury. Let's take this time to recover and regroup. We can explore Absolute Heaven afterward and then choose another fragmented land to investigate when we're done."

His demeanor unmistakably conveyed the air of a leader to everyone present.

"Alright," the others agreed readily.

After all, he was Fu Wangchen of the Forsaken Expanse Sect in the First World.

"By the way, who's Jiang Chao?" Fu Wangchen asked those dressed in the Celestial Lagoon Sect's robes. "I'd like to meet the master behind the golden bees."

Fu Wangchen had mixed feelings about Jiang Chao.

On the one hand, Jiang Chao had guided him out of the treacherous bizarre mist, but on the other, he had also made Fu Wangchen beg for that assistance.

The memory of it left an unpleasant taste in Fu Wangchen's mouth.

"Wait, that's not right!" Chen Lushi exclaimed. "Big Brother Fu, don't those golden bees belong to you?"

"Big Brother Fu? This woman has no shame," Xiao Yu muttered under her breath.

Qi Qingsong, Zhuang Yuyan, and the others froze at Chen Lushi's words.

None of them had expected Pang Jian to guide Fu Wangchen out of the bizarre mist under another person's name.

"No, the master of those bees is Jiang Chao from the Celestial Lagoon Sect," Fu Wangchen replied earnestly.

"That's not right! The golden bee that guided us said it was Fu Wangchen of the Forsaken Expanse Sect!" Chen Lushi protested, eyes flashing with confusion. "Big Brother Fu, you must be joking around. Jiang Chao doesn't have such abilities.

"If he were the master of the golden bees, we would've escaped the bizarre mist long ago instead of waiting until so many disciples from the Demon Sect and the Celestial Lagoon Sect died or succumbed to madness!"

Fu Wangchen frowned.

Turning to Zhuang Yuyan, he asked, "What about you guys?"

"A golden bee also helped to guide us safely out of the bizarre mist. It claimed to be Li Yuanchen, son of the Armor-Breaking Marquis, Li Wei, from the Boundless Sky Divine Kingdom," Zhuang Yuyan lied with a smile.

The expressions on Qi Qingsong's, Fang Boxuan's, Dong Tianze's, Zhou Qingchen's, and Zhao Yuanqi's faces grew increasingly peculiar.

Pang Jian, too, was left speechless.

Despite knowing the true master behind the bees, they all remained silent and simply allowed Zhuang Yuyan to continue her playful deception.

"It seems someone doesn't want others to know they're the true master of the golden bee," Zhuang Yuyan mused, pretending to have just figured it out.

"Let's leave it at that then," Fu Wangchen said, his interest in the matter waning once he knew Jiang Chao was not his target. He then flew toward the descending Heavenly Roc Warship.

"Where's Jiang Chao?" Chen Lushi asked with a frown.

"Senior Brother Jiang practices the purest form of the Dao of Water. His power can only be fully unleashed in bodies of water. He'll be fine," Lu Xiangyi whispered.

Another disciple of the Celestial Lagoon Sect also chimed in, "That's right! Senior Brother Jiang will definitely be fine!"

"Everyone, let's take this time to rest," Qi Qingsong said, signaling Dong Tianze and Fang Boxuan to join him around Zhou Qingchen and Zhao Yuanqi.

Wu Yuan of the Demon Sect was already focusing on recovering his strength with the help of spirit jades and pills.

Chang Li from the Skyveil Cliff Sect and Xiao Yu from the Xiao Clan approached Pang Jian to thank him before leading their Rank Six Scarlet-Eyed Demon Wolf toward Wu Yuan and Chen Lushi.

"The Skyveil Cliff Sect always follows the Demon Sect's lead, and the Xiao Clan has had close ties with the Skyveil Cliff Sect for generations. They're essentially vassals of the Demon Sect," Zhuang Yuyan explained. Then, clearing her throat, she whispered, "Fang Xuan, Fu Wangchen doesn't even know who Lu Lingchan is. It seems your fiancee hasn't left much impression on him."

"That's impossible!" Fang Boxuan was taken aback. "Her engagement to me was the reason my entire Clan was destroyed! He's Li Chu's disciple, how could he not know?"

"I mentioned Lu Lingchan to him, but he said he'd never heard of her," Zhuang Yuyan said, feeling rather sorry for Fang Boxuan.

"That's impossible!" Fang Boxuan glared at the Heavenly Roc Warship hovering in the sky.

"Fu Wangchen has feelings for Li Yuqing from the Divine Treasure Sect." Zhuang Yuyan turned to glance at the equally stunned Pang Jian. "He likes women who are stronger than him, and his feelings for Li Yuqing have not changed since she defeated him.

"He's challenged Li Yuqing several times since then and has lost every single time. The more he loses, the deeper his love grows," Zhuang Yuyan revealed.

"Well!" Qi Qingsong grinned mischievously. "How interesting. Fu Wangchen doesn't even know who Lu Lingchan is, even though his master planned to pair them up.

"Lu Lingchan was engaged to Fang Boxuan here before becoming intended for Fu Wangchen, but Fu Wangchen's heart belongs to none other than our junior brother's cherished companion!

"You two"—Qi Qingsong's gaze darted between Pang Jian and Fang Boxuan—"are truly connected by fate!"

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