Chapter 303 — The Deep Valley and the Precipitous Chasm

Shen Mu and the others were tossed about inside the pupal eggs, which were stuck fast to the stiff wings. As the mingbie flew, its stiff wings did not stir in the least; only the soft wings flapped without cease.

From within his pupa, Shen Mu looked around. On the walls of the abyss hung enormous mushrooms, spewing out spores -- and the spores glowed, drifting through the air like so many dandelion seeds.

Out of the rushing waterfall leaped strange fish and insects to eat the glowing spores. No sooner had they swallowed them than their bodies swelled in midair and burst with a bang-bang, mushrooms sprouting from within.

The mushrooms were bizarre indeed. They had burst the lower halves of these fish and insects apart, yet the upper halves remained perfectly intact -- and the fish and insects were still alive, only now grotesque for having mushroom where their lower halves should be.

The mushrooms put out long fibrous roots, waving and whirling through the air, and some came to rest on the cliff walls and took root at once. The fish and insects growing from the mushrooms, in turn, helped the mushrooms catch prey -- a bizarre symbiosis.

The mingbie flew steadily downward, and with these grotesque mushrooms lighting the way, the abyss was not so dark after all.

Down and down it flew, no telling how far, until at last they reached the bottom of the abyss. The ground below was damp and hot, and everywhere stood glowing crystal pillars, each one clear and translucent, their radiance bewitching, lighting the depths.

The mingbie flew onto the nest it had built atop a broad expanse of crystal pillars and settled down -- and the moment it landed, Fu Yuqiu stunned it unconscious with his demonic note.

Shen Mu happened to have just finished absorbing the energy in his pupa. He sprang out, glowing with vigor, and at once went to pull up the other three pupae and stow them in his Taotie pouch.

"Sect Master, I can't get out!" the dragon qilin said, looking over pitifully.

Shen Mu stepped up, seized him by both ears, and hauled outward with all his might. Only with the last of his strength did he pull him free, and he snapped, "Get any fatter and you'll be eating dirt from now on!"

The dragon qilin muttered under his breath, "I've only grown a little sturdier. I'm not fat."

The two white bats rose noiselessly into the air and said, "That ship fell from beyond the heavens and smashed out this deep pit. When it struck the bottom, it slid a long way, and in doing so broke through the barrier seal of the Nether Capital.

"The ship is just ahead, not far from here. But many creatures of the Nether Capital have taken up residence aboard it. If we follow the underground river, we can reach it."

Shen Mu followed the two white bats. Before they had gone far, he saw several corpses washed up on the riverbank -- the bodies of experts from the Loulan Golden Palace, and by the look of them, dead only recently.

With the two white bats guiding him, he had met no danger; but to cross the Nether Valley and make it this far would have been perilous in the extreme.

Those who could reach this place alive were almost all masters, at the very least of the Seven Stars realm -- and yet they had lost their lives without ever laying eyes on that ship.

A little farther on, Shen Mu saw several sets of dry bones, and from the relics they still carried, they appeared to have been disciples of the Nether Demon Cult.

Shen Mu sighed inwardly and was about to pick up a few stones to bury the bones when these "stones" suddenly took to their heels, one after another, and plunged plop-plop into the water, vanishing without a trace.

As they walked on, they suddenly heard the faint sound of Buddhist chanting drifting from ahead, lingering in this underground space.

Soon they came to where the chanting came from, and saw two white-browed monks in yellow robes sitting cross-legged on a stone wall. Two niches had been carved into the wall, and in these the monks sat, their long eyebrows drooping past the niches' edges. From their bodies came a ceaseless flow of Buddhist sound, and a Buddha-light that flickered bright and dim, holding back the surging tide of demonic qi.

"Monks from the Great Thunder-Sounding Temple!" Shen Mu said in surprise.

"They're already dead?"

The white bat brothers were surprised as well. Fu Yuqiu said, "These two bald donkeys came here, and they were of very high ability. They said they were under the Tathagata's orders to help us suppress the disturbances of the Nether Capital and keep its creatures from escaping to harm the living. We weren't too happy about it, but we couldn't beat them, so we let them stay here. They have sat here more than ten years and helped us a great deal. Several times, when the seal was on the verge of breaking open, it was their doing that held it fast. We never thought they would still die of exhaustion..."

Fu Yuchun sighed. "We used to think they would be delicious, but now we don't want to eat them at all... Just ahead is the ship that fell from beyond the heavens."

Shen Mu looked up, and his body trembled slightly.