Simultaneous traversal: All Abyss difficulty.

Chapter 697 Junior Brother, I Need to Talk to You About Something (Bonus Chapter for Alliance Leader ink)

Fang Yu curled up on the cold, rough stone ground, his body convulsing violently from the intense pain. Every bone and every inch of flesh was being frantically gnawed and torn apart by an invisible swarm of ants. The pain was not sharp, but it penetrated deep into the bone marrow, with a kind of soul-stirring, bone-corroding dull grinding sensation, making one wish they could dig out all the flesh and bones!

Su Su's mumbled yet clearly directed whisper, like a glimmer of light in the darkness, briefly drowned out the painful screams.

This almost absurd remedy for pain caused Fang Yu to gasp in agony, a mixture of shame, shock, and a surge of instinct born of desperation welling up within him.

"Damn it... I'll give it a try!" He struggled to raise his hand, an extremely shameful yet primal thought dominating his survival instinct.

But the arm was only raised slightly for a moment—

"what--!"

A cramping sensation far more intense than before suddenly exploded from my lower back, shooting straight up my spine to the top of my head!
Forget about "that" movement, even bending his fingers felt like his finger bones were about to be crushed! He scrambled and crawled, trying to change his position to get closer to that blurry target. Every tiny movement felt like rolling on broken glass, the pain making his vision go black and his body drenched in cold sweat.

Holy crap! This difficulty is practically no less than rewarding yourself 108 times a day and then hitting the bullseye precisely on the 109th time!
Fang Yu was in so much pain that his eyes rolled back, and he cursed the strange technique and the withered old man a thousand times in his heart.

Honestly, anyone who can perform such a difficult operation while every cell in their body is screaming in agony is absolutely a rare genius, one in a million!

He tried a few times, but not only did it not help, it exacerbated the pain and almost exhausted his already fragile will.

He was brought to the brink of fainting several times by the excruciating pain, only to be dragged back into the abyss of agony by the next wave of even more cruel gnawing sensations. His consciousness struggled frantically between blurring and clarity, with only endless darkness and crimson streaks of pain before his eyes.

Su Su's "miracle method" has completely failed.

Are we just left to wait for death?

To be slowly tormented to death by this excruciating pain?

Then, like a dead dog, it was harvested by the withered eyes behind the slit?

No! Despair washed over him like icy seawater, but the last vestige of will to survive ignited in this desperate situation.

His gaze, almost unconsciously, carrying the last trace of resentment and bitterness, fell once more on the nameless, tattered book he had tossed on the corner of the table—the source of all his suffering! Even if it meant trying anything, he wanted to know how he was dying!

However, the moment his venomous gaze fell upon that old book—

A sudden change occurred!

The once bare, decaying, and cold book cover began to distort and ripple slightly, like a reflection in water! The old, dirty yellow paper became smooth and shiny at a speed visible to the naked eye, and its color turned into a warm and mellow jade white.

What made Fang Yu's eyes widen even more, and he almost thought he was hallucinating from the pain, was that three ancient-looking, vigorous, and seemingly engraved golden characters were clearly imprinted on the brand-new cover, like a watermark:
The Pure and Tranquil Sutra!
"The Pure and Tranquil Sutra?" Fang Yu practically spat out the three words through clenched teeth, his voice hoarse and distorted from the intense pain.

The next instant, a violent sense of absurdity and an even stronger rage erupted like a volcano!

"Damn it!! You son of a bitch, this piece of junk book you've been playing with! It's called the Qingjing Jing?!"

His eyes were bloodshot, and his throat was thick with malice. "I've been tortured to the point of madness, I'm in so much pain I wish I could chew my tongue off, there are red-hot iron skewers stuck in my bones! Cleanse your mother's head! Tranquility your grandmother's immortality! I think it should be renamed 'The Sutra of Ten Thousand Ants Eating the Heart' or 'The Sutra of Living a Life Worse Than Dying'! What garbage tranquility!!"

The angry roar echoed in the empty, cold stone house, only adding to its own exhaustion.

The pain was not lessened in the slightest by the cursing.

Fang Yu gasped for breath, like a dying fish, his eyes trembling back and forth between the book cover and the floor. Was he really in so much pain that he had lost his mind?

A strong will to survive overwhelmed everything.

To hell with hallucinations or delusions! It's all the same, I'm going to die anyway!
With his last ounce of strength, he practically dragged himself back to the table. His cold, stiff fingers, covered in sweat and dust, trembled as he painstakingly turned the title page of the brand-new "Qingjing Jing" (Classic of Purity and Tranquility).

The moment the book was turned, Fang Yu's bloodshot eyes, filled with pain and madness, suddenly froze!

The contents have all changed!
Those once obscure and distorted hieroglyphs, resembling ghost symbols, have vanished without a trace! In their place are elegant small regular scripts, clear and imbued with Taoist charm!

"The Great Way is formless, yet it gives birth to Heaven and Earth; the human heart naturally desires stillness, but desire pulls it away."

Fang Yu's head buzzed, and he was completely dumbfounded!

What... what's going on?!

From an unknown, evil practice, it suddenly became the "Qingjing Jing" (Classic of Purity and Tranquility)? The Taoist "Qingjing Jing"? And it's even etched into my mind?!
A strong sense of absurdity and a faint, almost negligible, eerie thought drove him.

He couldn't afford to delve deeper; the excruciating pain surged up again like a tidal wave, assaulting his already fragile consciousness. Forget it! Recite it! Recite it as instructed!! His life or death hinges on this!

With a thick nasal tone and trembling breaths from pain, Fang Yu almost instinctively, hastily, and incoherently began to recite the scriptures:

"The Way of Man has both purity and turbidity, movement and stillness. Heaven is pure, Earth is turbid." Initially, it was just a mechanical repetition of words, chaotic and disorderly.

However, as those words imbued with Daoist principles were uttered from his cracked lips, an extremely subtle yet incredibly clear change began to occur within his riddled body.
When I recited "the pure is the source of the impure," the searing pain that gnawed at my heart seemed to lessen slightly? So subtle that I almost thought it was an illusion.

Fang Yu's spirits jolted! A terrifying glint flashed in the eyes of the dying, trapped beast! It was as if he had grasped at the last straw!
It works?! It really works?!

He didn't know if it was the scripture itself that had a miraculous effect, or if the distraction had provided a slight psychological comfort, or if some more mysterious force was at work.
But none of that matters right now!
He seemed to transform into a devout believer, his indistinct chanting suddenly becoming urgent and coherent:
"By reducing the root to the branches, all things are born; the pure is the source of the turbid, and the spirit itself becomes pure."

A miracle happened amidst this incoherent, painfully trembling chanting!
As each verse flowed out, the excruciating pain that had gripped his limbs and bones, penetrated his very marrow, and nearly annihilated his soul began to subside at a visible speed!

Not an illusion!

It's really fading!

Like the receding tide, the searing pain gradually transformed from raging torrents into rolling waves, and then into the lapping of the shore. The pain receded like the tide, and the omnipresent gnawing sensation that had almost driven him to the brink of collapse and crushed his consciousness rapidly weakened and dissipated!
Fang Yu's voice grew louder and clearer, filled with unbelievable ecstasy and excitement!
He no longer lay on the cold ground, but struggled to sit up, almost holding the miraculously transformed "Qingjing Jing" (Classic of Purity and Tranquility) in his hands, his eyes shining, and he loudly recited it over and over again:

"Having understood these three, one sees only emptiness. How can desire arise? Since desire does not arise, that is true stillness."

When the last sentence, "True and constant nature is attained, constant responsiveness and constant stillness are achieved, and constant purity and stillness are attained," was uttered from his mouth with a powerful and resonant voice—

The last trace of pain and discomfort in my body has disappeared!

The cold sweat was still there, and the feeling of weakness in my body was still there, but the excruciating pain that was enough to destroy an iron will had completely disappeared!
Fang Yu remained seated cross-legged, holding the book, frozen in place.

The stone house fell into an eerie silence, with only his heavy, rapid breathing and the "Qingjing Jing" (Classic of Purity and Tranquility), which had just been inscribed with miracles but was now as quiet as if it had never existed.

He raised his trembling hand and gently touched his arms, waist, abdomen, and legs. Was it really painless? Completely, utterly, and clean!

A wave of exhaustion, as if he had just survived a disaster, surged into his brain, almost causing him to faint on the spot.

However, what followed was an indescribable, almost explosive shock and ecstasy from the depths of my soul!

He slowly lowered his head and looked at the "Qingjing Jing" in his hand. The warm, jade-white cover and the three gilded characters looked mysterious and vast under the oil lamp light.

Every tiny character in the book seemed to him like a celestial being dancing!

Outside the door, Su Su had already silently arrived at Fang Yu's dilapidated wooden door.

Fang Yu's chanting in the stone house, each note louder and clearer than the last, had already penetrated the simple door panel, like a clear spring hitting a stone, pouring into her ears without missing a single word!

At first, she thought Fang Yu was delirious from the pain and was talking nonsense. Her delicate eyebrows furrowed even more, and she thought the unlucky guy was probably going to die.

But as the chanting became more and more coherent, and the nuances it contained became clearer, her expression changed.

From confusion to astonishment!

When Su Su heard those incredibly clear yet profoundly mysterious Taoist scriptures, such as "The Great Way is formless" and "Always pure and tranquil," word by word, for the first time, an expression that could be described as "seeing a ghost" appeared on her beautiful but wooden face!

She was stunned, as if struck by lightning, pressed herself tightly against the crack in the door, her eyes wide open, her pupils dilating and contracting in extreme shock!

What...what is this?!

What is he reciting?!

Having been a disciple for many years, spending her days and nights with the gaunt Taoist priest, she knew all too well what sinister and wicked mental techniques her master, with his withered Taoist robe, had taught her!
The excruciating pain of being devoured by countless ants at the beginning of cultivating that mental technique was like a bone-deep abscess, incurable! Even she, back then, relied on...
She subconsciously thought of the "solution" she had told Fang Yu, and a mixture of shame and indignation with the immense sense of absurdity made her face burn instantly!

Although that method is humiliating and unbearable, it can temporarily "release" some of the excruciating pain, but it is absolutely impossible to produce such a clear and profound Taoist chant!

And what was Fang Yu reciting?! The "Qingjing Jing" (Scripture of Purity and Tranquility)?! Is there such a supreme secret technique within this sect, in this world, that is named after purity and tranquility and can instantly quell that excruciating pain?!
Su Su felt that her understanding and everything she had experienced were being severely impacted and overturned!
She flung the door open and shouted at Fang Yu, "Junior Brother! I...I want it!"

Fang Yu: "There's a rolling pin in the kitchen."

(End of this chapter)