The Six Immortals

Bi Fan had killed several students from big schools such as Yuan Shi, San Yuan and Jian Shen, but he didn’t seem to mind it.

Yuan Shi, Jian Shen and San Yuan were some of the largest sects in Tian Yu, so much so, that even the smallest of them, San Yuan, was much larger than Quiayang School.

But to Bi Fan, it didn’t matter; as long as no one saw it.

Unfortunately for Bi Fan, these students weren’t carrying the books that recorded the secret techniques that were taught in their schools, as it was a school policy; a pre-emptive measure to protect their secrets from falling into enemy hands, in case their students died in the Abyss.

Otherwise with help of the secret techniques of schools such as Yuan Shi and Jui Yu Da’s Jian Shen, Bi Fan’s progress would have accelerated quite a bit.

The four of them continued to venture deeper into the Abyss, in the hope of matching their skills against the layer’s King. They were in an awfully cheerful mood at present, and continued to laugh as they fought their through the Abyss.

They held the same idea, which many other strong youngsters before them had nurtured; that they could kill the layer’s King.

For a beast to become the King of the first layer, the beast must be able to attain at least ‘spiritual intelligence’ level, in terms of physical strength alone, which meant that escaping from the claws of such a powerful beast would be a very difficult task, if met with adversity.

Humans often entered the Devil’s Abyss just to kill the Devil’s race. In fact, normally, the devil’s race was considered a mortal enemy of humanity, and this rivalry had been continually fumed and fed by the uncountable deaths on both sides.

With that in mind, if the layer’s King, managed to come across a powerful human, he certainly wouldn’t allow the same to leave without a fight.

On the way ahead, they encountered several elite students from various leading martial arts schools, but since both parties were always mutually on alert with regard to each other’s presence, an alliance wasn’t exactly an option.

Whenever Lone Leaf came across a Yuan Shi group, his confidence would inevitably waver a bit, out of guilt and fear. Blue Dragon was able to hold his nerves a lot better than Lone Leaf, and Bi Fan didn’t seem to mind much.

As far as Wang Zhong was concerned, he carried to no fear of anything under the sun.

Gradually, as they continued to penetrate deeper into the Abyss, they started to encounter ‘spiritual intelligence’ layer beasts on a regular basis, and even the number of ‘enormous strength’ layer beasts increased significantly. However, the total number of beasts in single group reduced by some.

Even so, it wasn’t exactly easy to deal with these groups, but they managed, owing to the combined strength of their own group.

Bi Fan’s party was a bad news for the Devil’s Race. Whenever a group of beasts besieged them, the fight ended with the beasts lying dead on the floor, or in a Yin Yang pouch.

This was a ruthless place, and the corpses that they left behind, would eventually end up being served as food for other animals.

Bi Fan along with his three companions, and the Chimera, made for a very strong team, but even then, their pace had slowed down now, as they too were having some difficulty in moving forward.

“There’s a large group of Devils (mó tóu) over there, shall we fight them?” Wang Zhong asked.

There were a lot of very powerful demons inside the Devil’s Abyss, but the Devil, was a very unique one. The Devil was capable of killing of even the strongest of humans in no time at all, by taking over their minds and driving them mad, in fact, they even had the ability to control the bodies of human beings.

Of course, a Devil would first have to overpower the human before he could take control of its mind, and only then, could a Devil turn a human into its private, dancing, puppet.

As opposed to a normal Devil’s race demon, fighting a Devil, was tabooed.

A Devil could evolve into a great Devil only after it had reached the ‘spiritual intelligence’ layer, which was even stronger and even more dangerous than a regular Devil.

The group that they had just seen didn’t seem to have a master, or a leader.

Leaderless Devils aren’t that dangerous, as their wisdom might be limited, while they might also lack co-ordination.

A Devil is formless in shape, and has no body; they exist in the form of a black gas cloud.

Battling with a Devil, or killing one, didn’t give any materialistic rewards, but it could greatly sharpen someone’s mind, and was considered good for the spirit, and the soul.

A Devil’s main threat was its ability to launch attacks on the minds of its opponents, its spirits and its soul, which in turn, could make people hallucinate, and drive them crazy. This was the reason why a Devil was capable of killing even the strongest of humans.

Usually, when someone came across a Devil, they would turn the other way, and run.

Bi Fan said: “Let’s go kill some Devils, its good exercise for our minds and soul. Anyway, it would be a waste to enter the Abyss, and not fight a Devil…”

Since Bi Fan had already made the call, Blue Dragon and Lone Leaf, naturally, wouldn’t refute his word, as they had full confidence in Bi Fan’s abilities.

Even though Bi Fan’s energy level was the lowest in the group, he still, was their best fighter; which he had proved over and over again.

The four of them started to close the distance that separated them from that group of Devils, at an awfully quick pace. This group contained hundreds, maybe even thousands of Devils in it, some of which had already evolved into the great Devils.

The strengths’ of the Great Devils varied between from ‘spiritual intelligence’ layer and the ‘transformation’ layer.

The Devils saw them approach, and swarmed towards them, as if they were ready to eat their meal.

The Devils flocked together, and started to form a large cloud of black gas, as they continued to charge towards Bi Fan and his group; their movement, however, made no sound whatsoever.

“Arghhh!” Bi Fan roared, as he charged violently for them.

Rainy-fly sword!

Bi Fan’s sword slashed left and right, and as he slashed through the clouds, they began to dissipate.

Wang Zhong cast out the ‘Defying Domination’ technique, and managed to dissipate several factions of the cloud as well.

The Blue Dragon’s scimitar too, was relentlessly hacking and chopping at the clouds, and he too had managed to kill several of them.

Lone Leaf wasn’t going to be content staying behind the others, and decided to use a special trick from the Bei Ming trick box – Six Yang Horseshoe.

The Six Yang Horseshoe technique, heated up the air around his sword as he tried to cut the black gas clouds, which increased the speed with which he was able to dissipate them.

The four of them were young and all charged up, and they simply couldn’t avoid the idea of a competition, so natural, they kept coming up with new ways to kill more devils, and at a faster pace.

“Haha, I didn’t know that it was going to be so easy to kill Devils” Blue Dragon started to laugh.

Wang Zhong spoke up: “Don’t underestimate the Devils; if they surround you, then you will have a difficult time in dealing with them.”

The moment he issued the warning, the cloud began to disperse, and started to surround the four of them within its grasp.

As the clouds surged around them, a very depressing feeling started to fill the air.

“Be careful, don’t let them take control of your minds; control your thoughts, and don’t get lost in their illusions.” Wang Zhong issued another warning.

Wang Zhong had fought the Devils in past as well, which is why he knew so much about them.

Blue Dragon and Bi Fan became more serious after Wang Zhong’s warning.

Bi Fan cast out the ‘Fufeng Double-edged sword’ technique, so he could increase the pace, by compensating on the power, which would enable him to kill the clouds faster.

Each small group of black gas is a Devil, so effectively, a cloud, can be comprised of hundreds of them, or even more, deepening on the size of the cloud. They were a terrible breed to fight against, and awfully difficult to kill as a whole.

Although Bi Fan had managed to kill a lot of them owing to the change in strategy, but they still managed to enclose the group within their reach.

As soon as they had the humans in their enclosure, they started to attack their minds, and Bi Fan suddenly found himself reeling into darkness, and his mind started to overcome with fear.

He started seeing the scenes from his childhood, and the unspeakable horrors that he had suffered, clogged his mind; the orchard boys were cursing at him, bullying him; Zhu San’s fat face….

Everything seemed so real, that Bi Fan started feeling the pain, once again.

“Ah!….. I will kill you all!” Bi Fan howled in a mad frenzy; as the influence of the Devils illusion increased, Bi Fan’s mind started to swirl into chaos, and his feet became unstable.

The orchard boys were abusing him, Zhu San was sneering at him, and even the old man made an appearance.

“Bi Fan, you are completely useless, you should not be allowed to live in world. You need to die; your life is wastage of food!”

Zhu San and the other boys had surrounded him completely, and their mouths were continuously repeating these words, which was beginning to take over Bi Fan’s conscious.

“Bi Fan, die. Die and free yourself of this suffering.”

“Bi Fan, I get so lonesome in heaven. You can come and stay here with me; it’s so comfortable here; you won’t have to suffer ever again…” even the old man Xing was trying to tempt Bi Fan.

“Ah….” Bi Fan was holding his head in his hands, as he continued to shout frantically, while his eyes were beginning to redden.

If this continued for long, then, he could die, as Bi Fan’s mind would, eventually, be possessed by the Devils.