Chapter 950: Personal Experience of the Great Horror of Reincarnation

Chu Feng had returned to the land of purgatory.

It was an endless, vast expanse of darkness. This region resembled a severed piece of cosmic void, with meteorites suspended irregularly everywhere, from high above to far below.

"I'm terrified... I don't want to die yet!" The Demon Ancestor's Cauldron stammered, utterly bewildered that Chu Feng had brought it to this place. What kind of place was this? No one in the Underworld Universe dared to disturb it; if you had no business here, you stayed as far away as possible. Who would dare to intrude so brazenly?

Yet, Chu Feng was here, arriving with hope and yearning, his eyes shining with an inexplicable brilliance, as if he were seeking the path to immortality. The Demon Cauldron had to solemnly remind him that even the Demon Ancestor himself had retreated shortly after entering this place, his face pale with fear, having sensed an inexplicable terror. The Demon Ancestor was a being who had surpassed the limits of this universe, on par with the Dragon Ancestor, the strongest being of the prehistoric era. Even he was afraid!

"The Demon Ancestor once said that the stronger one is, the more reverent they become towards this place."

Chu Feng glanced at it, understanding perfectly that it was subtly telling him he wasn't strong enough, a case of the ignorant being fearless.

"Just follow me. I told you before, I've walked this path."

Seeing Chu Feng's composure, the Demon Cauldron was left speechless.

Soon after, they reached the City of Light and Death. Even though it wasn't his first time here, Chu Feng became exceptionally cautious and solemn. The City of Light and Death illuminated the dark purgatory, making the area brilliant. It was majestic and towering, ancient and weathered, as if it had existed for hundreds of millions of years.

Outside the city lay vast piles of corpses, ranging from Golden Body cultivators to higher-level beings: Void Rats, Golden-Winged Rocs, Insect Kings, Phoenixes… countless races were represented! Chu Feng quickly ascended the dead city. Standing there, the sight within was even more shocking, making the Demon Cauldron tremble with waves of unease. Inside the city, massive numbers of corpses were piled up, reaching as high as the city walls, completely filling the space. Most terrifying of all was the gigantic stone millstone, occupying a third of the city's area, slowly rotating and grinding the corpses that fell onto it into a bloody paste. In a short while, the corpses in the city were gone, vanishing into the millstone, with blood splashing and gore flowing. Soon, countless corpses inexplicably fell from the boundless void again, refilling the City of Light and Death.

Chu Feng had once suspected these were the corpses of those who died in the Underworld, gathered here. However, it now seemed that was not the case at all. His power had long since grown exponentially; he could now traverse the star seas of the Underworld Universe without detecting any unusual disappearance of large numbers of bodies. He strongly suspected that in some terrifying realms, there were unknown passages or inscrutable beings intervening, sending massive amounts of corpses from other worlds to sustain this process.

"Perhaps it's some unknown law, repeating cyclically, carrying all of this out," Chu Feng sighed, musing. He had visited more than once and studied the city, finding it incredibly ancient. He always felt it had existed for hundreds of millions of years, far too long. Who could live that long? Even Heavenly Venerables should have died long ago, and even the reclusive mighty figures of the Yang Realm should have withered away. Since no creature could live for such an immense period, it could only be an innate law of heaven and earth.

"Is this a naturally occurring place of reincarnation?" the Demon Ancestor's Cauldron questioned.

Chu Feng sighed, "Some speculate it was set up by someone, not naturally formed. But who could live for so long, beyond hundreds of millions of years, to silently oversee all beings, watching creatures in the universe age, perish, and be reborn?"

Some of these insights came from the old fox in the foreign land. Even a being of that caliber was wary of everything in purgatory and had warned Chu Feng not to speak much of it, or mention it again, stating that the stronger one became, the more fear they held for this place.

Chu Feng quieted down. The reason he came here was that he had exhausted all other options and wanted to make one final effort. The Demon Ancestor's Cauldron contained the blood mist of Chu Feng's parents, the Yellow Ox, the Great Black Ox, and others, while the stone box directly held Qin Luoyin's corpse. After a long silence, Chu Feng decided to attempt to take everyone in the stone box to the end of the reincarnation path and plead with the clay figurine for help.

"I know I might be overestimating myself, and shouldn't disturb such an existence," Chu Feng said, "but I truly have no other path left. I just want them to live again."

Chu Feng spoke, asking the Demon Ancestor's Cauldron to enter the stone box. However, as he began this time, just as he was about to enter the dead city, he was met with disappointment. Just like before, the stone box refused to shelter those individuals, actively repelling them, as if intending to throw them all into the city. Chu Feng broke out in a cold sweat. How could this be? Now, everyone was already inside the stone box, unlike last time when the box's space hadn't fully opened and Qin Luoyin's corpse couldn't be placed inside. The reality was harsh: he still couldn't bring them across.

For a moment, Chu Feng stood in a daze. Was there truly only one last path left to try? But he was truly unwilling to give up.

"I'll send you out; wait for me!" Chu Feng took the Demon Ancestor's Cauldron and swiftly rushed out of purgatory. Then, using his soul bell to stabilize Qin Luoyin's corpse, he also moved it out of the stone box, entrusting both to the Cauldron's care. He set off alone, heading to the end of the reincarnation path by himself, determined to meet the clay figurine and make one final effort and attempt. This time, he moved swiftly, holding the little Daoist's black talisman paper, flying through the sky, unlike before when he could only travel on foot. Even so, it took Chu Feng several days to complete the round trip. He had indeed used the City of Light and Death as a passage to visit the end of the reincarnation path. However, he returned disheartened and empty-handed. He had seen the clay figurine, but it offered no response, remaining just a clay statue.

After returning, he sat numbly on Mount Kunlun for a day and a night before finally standing up and saying, "I knew this would happen, but I couldn't accept it without trying!"

In fact, after surviving a near-death experience and realizing Taiwu's power and a Heavenly Venerable's crucial ruthlessness in the Great Abyss, Chu Feng had a feeling: the further one progressed on the path of evolution, especially those ultimate evolvers who had reached a dead end, the more indifferent they became. Such beings, in their later stages of evolution, were akin to the Great Dao described by ancient sages, looking down upon all living things without joy or sorrow, devoid of emotion. Who was he, and what kind of existence was the clay figurine? They were incomparable. How could such a being possibly acknowledge or respond to him? However, he was unwilling to give up, caring too deeply to abandon his parents and loved ones, which was why he made the attempt and effort. His return empty-handed, though deeply disappointing, was not entirely unexpected.

Chu Feng knew that when he first saw the clay figurine, he had merely been a case of the ignorant being fearless. If the clay figurine were truly a living being, then his audacity in sitting on the high platform with it back then had been truly excessive. And if the clay figurine were still alive and sentient, perhaps at the time, it had merely regarded him as a bothersome insect that had landed nearby, unworthy of attention. The more he thought about it, the more terrifying it seemed. Chu Feng recalled the fox from the foreign land, which was about to turn completely to stone. Even it held the reincarnation path in awe and dared not speak much of the clay figurine. How terrifying was that?!

"It's come to this, after all," he said, with sadness. There was only one final path left. He was clear-headed, facing reality: hopes placed on others were ultimately unreliable. His repeated journey on the reincarnation path was simply his refusal to give up, clinging to every last possibility.

"We're going to the City of Light and Death again," Chu Feng said. The Demon Ancestor's Cauldron followed him as they entered purgatory once more, approaching the City of Light and Death.

"Our world is filled with suffering, like a gloomy cage," he lamented. "People from the Yang Realm call it a graveyard, a mass burial ground. Though it makes us unhappy and angry, there's some truth to it. Let's break free from here. I hope you can be reborn in the Yang Realm. Let's promise to meet again there!"

Chu Feng was filled with sorrow; this was his last hope. He was exhausted, truly having no other options left but this final path. "I believe your true spirits are still here and haven't completely dissipated!" Chu Feng spoke, knowing that if their true spirits no longer existed, he would truly feel utter despair. He knew that every day of delay brought more risk. If, with time, the blood mist in the Demon Cauldron also dissipated, there might truly be no hope left. He wanted to try sending them to reincarnation.

Finally, Chu Feng held the black talisman paper, carrying the stone box and Qin Luoyin. He instructed the Demon Ancestor's Cauldron to release all the blood mist and the energy matter from the decomposed soul light within. He intended to personally protect and escort them! In fact, upon nearing the dead city, the stone box ignored the blood mist and the corpse, instead emitting a faint, crystalline glow only on Chu Feng himself.

Chu Feng was incredibly tense. He placed the black talisman paper near the blood mist, the energy matter, and Qin Luoyin. He then moved forward, eventually entering the space around the stone millstone.

"Aooo..."

In an instant, the once-silent place was filled with shrill wails, shattering the eternal tranquility. Chu Feng's scalp tingled, his body turned icy cold, and he felt as if a corpse or a malevolent spirit was clinging to his back, chilling him to the bone.

"Aooo..."

More than one sound, numerous wails echoed around Chu Feng, emanating from the blood mist. He saw terrifying, ferocious creatures appearing one after another. These were not his parents, nor the Yellow Ox or Qin Luoyin. They were something else, incredibly horrifying, screaming and roaring shrilly. These strange beings seemed to transcend mere malevolent spirits, embodying ultimate evil. What were these? Chu Feng was certain these weren't emanating from other ground-up corpses; they were coming from the blood mist within the Demon Cauldron and appearing around Qin Luoyin.

Chu Feng felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar, his body chilled to the bone. Why was this happening? The giant stone millstone rotated slowly, incredibly rough, as the surrounding corpses were ground into a bloody pulp, a horrifying sight. At that moment, a line of golden symbols on the millstone shone brightly, piercing Chu Feng's eyes with sharp pain. The light beams illuminated the area, causing his parents, the Yellow Ox, and the others within the blood mist to let out even more tragic, ghostly wails. Chu Feng felt his scalp might explode.

But then, at that very moment, he was shocked, and then suddenly overjoyed, nearly crying out loud. He saw several familiar, faint faces emerge from the blood mist: his parents, the Great Black Ox, and the Yellow Ox! They were almost transparent, so ethereal they seemed barely to exist. At the same time, the shrill wails continued, and within the rough millstone's golden light beams, wisps of gray mist gradually materialized! In an instant, Chu Feng understood everything. The so-called wailing and ghostly cries were actually strange substances from a foreign land, intertwined with these individuals.

He gasped, recalling how restrained they had been during their years in the foreign land, barely practicing any foreign arts. Yet, they had still become entangled with such terrifying things?! Had they not come here personally to experience reincarnation, they might never have understood what dreadful things they had been contaminated by, even unto death. It was truly horrifying. Chu Feng felt a massive headache. They had to undergo reincarnation, and this whole situation was simply too terrifying.

"I thought I was going to suffocate!" At that moment, the Great Black Ox's weak and almost transparent soul light actually spoke, its voice faint and tiny. Chu Feng instantly trembled, calling out to the Great Black Ox and then to his parents. The gloom that had accumulated in his heart for many days instantly dissipated!