Chapter 163: Reborn in the Demon Realm

I saw McCath catch my blade with his bare hands, followed by a ferocious kick straight to my stomach.
Then, both man and sword traced a perfect arc through the air before hitting the ground in a rather graceful posture, unable to get back up for a long while!
"Xiaodong, are you alright?!" Seeing this, Bak rushed forward to help me up. Fortunately, I possessed the body of a demon corpse and an undying physique; anyone else would have lost their life long ago.
"Hiss... I'm fine, not dead yet!" As soon as I stood up, I sucked in a cold breath. Pain racked my entire body, and every bone in my joints cracked noisily as I walked.
This bastard McCath had certainly given my old bones a thorough chiropractic adjustment, causing me no end of suffering.
"Kid, if your skills are lacking, don't go around trying to act cool. It's a very good way to get yourself killed. I won't waste any more time with you; I need to find the key to open the alternate dimension, and I'll deal with you all then!"
With that, McCath seemed to snap out of his berserk state, returning to his former composure. He executed a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree spin and vanished right before our eyes, with the three remaining Grand Dukes tailing closely behind him.
After the sword spirit's devouring and the recent battle, the initial group of forty had dwindled to twenty-seven, throwing Xu Fu into a fit of irritation.
In a fit of frustration, he unleashed a powerful dark energy punch directly at a tunnel opening, venting his anger. A pitch-black mass of energy immediately shot from his hand, hurtling rapidly into the pitch-black depths of the rocky cave!
One second!
Two seconds!
......
One minute!
Two minutes!
......
Strange. Logically speaking, the energy projectile from that punch should have reached the far end long ago, yet there was still no sound of it striking the stone walls. It made everyone realize there was something peculiar about this cavern.
"On the day my demon race rises once more, I shall dye the azure heavens with demon blood!"
An earth-shattering roar echoed endlessly through the inner and outer reaches of the demon pit, and its source was none other than the tunnel Xu Fu had just struck!
"Haha,哈哈哈, I've found it, I've found it!"
Xu Fu looked like a crazed lion at that moment, laughing wildly up at the heavens in sheer excitement, leaving everyone else utterly bewildered as to what exactly he had found.
The voice sounded ethereal, much like an old cassette tape—full of vicissitudes. One could clearly perceive the deep-seated resentment and condemnation of the gods harbored by the speaker.
I remembered the old village chief, Chu Tian, mentioning once that he seemed to have heard this voice before. Back then, however, he had been too timid to venture deeper and had fled in terror, leaving him with no further clues.
Now, the voice had resurfaced, though the person searching for it had changed. No one knew what the other party's true intentions might be.
As for what lay at the origin of that voice to merit such intense obsession from Xu Fu, it remained a complete mystery to me and the rest of the expedition team.
Xu Fu rushed in first, and the rest followed. Bak carried the injured Chu Tian on his back, while several female demon cultivators trailed behind Bak, continuously channeling healing spells into Chu Tian in an apparent effort to restore his body as quickly as possible.
"On the day my demon race rises once more, I shall dye the demon blood across the azure heavens!"
"Dye the azure heavens..."
......
The closer we got, the clearer the voice became, and the louder the echoes bounced around, as if someone truly resided within this cavern, and those mournful cries were being uttered by that very person.
Yet, reality proved disappointing. After walking deep inside for a long time, we found nothing of any practical value. Just as everyone was about to give up and turn back, Chu Tian's delirious consciousness pointed us toward a new path!
"Wall, the wall...!" Chu Tian gasped heavily, forcing out those two words. Following his direction, we cast our flashlight beams against the smooth stone wall.
Good grief! We hadn't paid much attention to the rock walls when we first came in, but the real treasure was right there on the stone surface! Most of it was covered in thick dust, and only by looking very closely at a small section could a few demonic runic inscriptions be discerned.
"Oh, heavens, look at that!" A female demon cultivator stopped channeling her healing spells for Chu Tian, pointed her right hand ahead, and cried out to the group!
My god! It was precisely because the secrets on the stone wall were uncovered that this barrier had triggered itself and opened up, exactly as the old village chief had told me the other day—this place must lead to the Demon Realm!
A pale blue boundary rippled gently like water, suspended between two stone pillars covered entirely in demonic runes right in the middle of the cave. All one had to do was step forward, and they could smoothly cross into the Demon Realm.
Oh my god! Illuminated by the flashlight, I realized we had reached the very end of the cavern, and even the ceiling above was densely packed with demonic runes.
The text seemed to convey the following: Although this place was designated as the Demon Realm, it was no longer the ancient Demon Realm of all living beings, but a newly forged, reborn Demon Realm.
This reborn Demon Realm required a new Realm Lord to rule over it. If one wished to become the Realm Lord, they had to bravely leap inside, where they would be greeted by the True Demon guarding the Demonic Blade.
If one failed, however, they would be reduced to a mere shred of demonic soul within the reborn Demon Realm, doomed to suffer through trials and tribulations for all eternity.
"What the hell? Are you kidding me? That's brutally harsh! Win and you rule the entire realm, lose and you get killed with no chance of reincarnation—what kind of bullshit rule is this? I think everyone should just stay away!"
I accidentally blurted out my inner thoughts, suddenly remembering that nobody else here could actually read demonic runes.
"You can read these demonic runes?!" Xu Fu was equally astonished that I could decipher the ancient demon script, and he looked at me with deep suspicion. At his gaze, everyone else turned to look at me as well, since I was presumably the only person present who understood the demonic runes.
Oh jeez, really? So I know a few demonic runes, is it necessary to stare at me like I'm some kind of rare zoo animal? Faced with this situation, I could only respond to Xu Fu with a modest smile: "Well, you know... I only know a tiny, tiny bit!"
(Dear friends, I hope you can bestow a valid bookmark upon a predestined soul. Recently, this soul is preparing to sign a contract and urgently needs your support. If you favor this author, please take out your phone or computer, click to add it to your bookshelf, and the author thanks you all sincerely—O(∩_∩)O)