My Martial Arts Level Never Drops

Chapter 490: Chapter 220: The Dry Well

Under the gaze of the Void Spiritual Eyes, the dry well and the ancient tree suddenly changed their appearance...

A viscous, slowly writhing patch of dark red, like half-congealed blood mixed with mud, was thickly plastered over the ground for several yards around the well’s mouth, even ’crawling’ a short way up the trunk of the old tree.

The withered tree’s trunk and branches, in the vision of the Spiritual Eyes, were not wood at all!

...Instead, they were formed from sections of grayish-white mist, entwined, knotted, and tearing at each other!

Within the mist, one could faintly discern the outlines of hideously contorted human faces, their mouths agape in silent screams.

Wisps of a foul, black miasma seeped from the mouths, noses, and eye sockets of those faces, mixing with the gore on the ground and evaporating into a nauseating mist that reeked of rust and rotting flesh!

This miasma of death, filth, and shattered souls twisted together, devoured one another, and regenerated, densely packed and layered one on top of the other...

Ultimately, it formed a faintly pulsating, dark-red cage with the dry well at its center!

The entire area emanated an indescribable, rotten stench.

...Even Qin Fang was dumbfounded.

Qin Fang sucked in a sharp breath and subconsciously took two steps back!

...’What is this?’

While he was still reeling from the shock, the dark-red Ancient Well suddenly began to seethe!

It was as if it had been startled by something.

From the mouth of the well, a dark-red tentacle as thick as a bowl—formed from the twisted amalgamation of countless misty faces and foul, black blood—shot out without warning. Simultaneously, a sound so piercing it resembled the wailing of countless infants slammed into Qin Fang’s Sea of Consciousness.

Qin Fang felt his mind suddenly reel, and his consciousness flickered to black.

Greatly alarmed, he hurriedly began his Contemplation!

The next instant, the Profound Nether Realm-Breaking Awl materialized in his Sea of Consciousness, barely stabilizing his mind and keeping it from shattering.

However, the tentacle that had shot out was already upon him!

It moved with incredible speed, leaving a viscous, bloody afterimage in the air. Its tip split open, transforming into a maw filled with grayish-white teeth—pieced together from dozens of twisted human faces—and lunged straight for Qin Fang’s heart!

His consciousness returning, Qin Fang’s pupils constricted and the hair on his body stood on end. An overwhelming sense of danger made him instinctively try to dodge.

But the tentacle was too fast, and the sudden daze had cost him the opportunity to evade.

The next instant, the ferocious maw was about to touch the fabric on his chest!

Qin Fang frantically circulated his True Essence, activating the Nine-Layered Abyss Water Armor.

But with a ’CRACK’...

The Nine-Layered Abyss Water Armor held for only an instant before it shattered!

The next moment, the tentacle slammed viciously toward his heart.

At that exact moment, the Token at his waist suddenly flared with yellow light, instantly enveloping his entire body.

With a thunderous BANG, Qin Fang felt an immense force strike his body. Before he could even react, he was sent flying!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!

The force of the blow was terrifying. Qin Fang shot backward like a cannonball, flying for several hundred meters.

With a series of thunderous booms, he smashed through dozens of houses before finally slamming into a large mountain on the other side of the village.

BOOM!

A massive crater was blasted into the mountainside.

Qin Fang was still completely dazed; it took him a long moment to come to his senses.

He looked down... His entire body was covered in a yellow glow, and he was completely uninjured.

Once he came to his senses, he struggled free from the mountainside and shot into the sky to look down from above.

Then he saw that his master’s War Gang Avatar had appeared. It was hovering in the air with a grave expression, its gaze locked on the dry well.

And within that dry well, more and more of the foul, deathly energy seemed to be awakening.

In the air, Qin Fang’s pupils constricted as he stared intently at the scene below.

Black water welled up from the well, viscous as asphalt, and flowed out in silence.

Wherever it passed, the ice and snow didn’t melt but were instantly corroded, revealing rapidly decaying, cracked earth beneath.

Ruined walls, withered trees, and wild grasses, upon the slightest contact, seemed to have their last spark of life drained. They instantly carbonized, crumbled, and turned to black ash, merging into the ever-expanding black tide!

Even more horrifying, countless pale outlines of hands and distorted facial features would bulge from the surface of the black water one moment and sink back in the next, silently struggling and clawing as if trying to drag their surroundings into an endless abyss of silence and decay.

The stench of decay in the area had solidified into a tangible torrent that surged skyward. Even Qin Fang, high in the air, felt waves of nausea. The yellow True Gang protecting his body seemed to suffer from some unseen interference; it sizzled and began to rapidly dim.

The master’s War Gang Avatar hovered in mid-air, a flow of yellow light around its body keeping the approaching foulness at bay.

It stared intently at the well, the grave expression on its ethereal features growing ever deeper.

Just then, the roiling black water began to boil violently.

Several tentacles—even thicker than before, almost pure black, and covered in bas-reliefs of agonized faces—shot out from the heart of the black water. Like giant pythons from the Nine Netherworld, they twisted through the air, aiming to crush Qin Fang and the War Gang Avatar.

At the same time, the terrifying wail of infants was instantly amplified a hundredfold!

An expression of agony crossed Qin Fang’s face. His consciousness flickered to black repeatedly, as if he were about to sink into oblivion!

Even the brow of his master’s War Gang Avatar furrowed tightly, a look of shock appearing on its face.

Then, just before the giant python-like black tentacles could strike, it took a single step and appeared at Qin Fang’s side.