The following days, apart from work at the Eighteenth Hall, Jiang Lin spent most of his time at the Volcanic Psychiatric Hospital.
Initially, Tan Xiaodong looked at him for a long time with curiosity.
He even asked the old man in the next bed to come over, as if watching a show.
Jiang Lin, helpless, concealed his form.
...
This night, Jiang Lin, suspended in the air, suddenly opened his eyes.
He saw Tan Xiaodong struggling on the bed, as if dreaming of something.
With a wave of his hand, he smashed onto the bed board with a bang.
The bed board dented with a visible arc.
"Go away, go away, don't come any closer!"
Tan Xiaodong kept swatting at something, and wisps of black energy began to appear on his body.
However, as soon as this black energy was about to spread, it encountered an invisible barrier.
Jiang Lin's figure materialized above the hospital bed.
He looked at Tan Xiaodong below, and with a flip of his wrist.
The dark green thin shell, hidden on the old man's bed, flew towards Tan Xiaodong.
The next moment, the struggling Tan Xiaodong quieted down.
But Jiang Lin knew, the time had come.
Tan Xiaodong's body was nearing its limit.
If he stayed any longer, the demonic energy might erupt...
and form a domain like the "Scum Ghost Domain," capable of affecting those around him.
By then, it would be too late.
"Let's go."
Jiang Lin, while controlling the barrier, took Tan Xiaodong away from there.
A moment later, doctors and nurses, alerted by the commotion, rushed over.
They only saw Tan Xiaodong lying quietly on the hospital bed, motionless.
Even his breathing had stopped.
And the original hospital bed, for reasons unknown, was askew and completely ruined.
Upon realizing the situation, the doctor quickly shouted, "Quick! Start resuscitation!"
...
The sound of whistling wind filled his ears.
Tan Xiaodong opened his eyes, feeling as if everything around him was rapidly receding.
He felt a great turmoil in his heart.
But a coolness that directly entered his mind made his thoughts very calm.
He looked up and saw Jiang Lin, dressed as a Wuchang.
Tan Xiaodong glanced around, then grinned.
He patted Jiang Lin's wrist, "See? Following this Sword God, you'll eventually ascend back to the Heavenly Palace!"
"Alas, I should have asked the fellow Daoist next door to come with me," Tan Xiaodong muttered.
Jiang Lin remained silent, as their destination this time was the Black Abyss.
Images of the battle between gods and demons flashed through his mind.
Blood stained the battlefield, and demonic energy obscured the sky.
Depuyed soldiers and broken blades were everywhere.
The scene then shifted to the back of Senior Qingyang as he left the Heavenly Gate for the battlefield.
His heart stirred, and he suddenly said, "The Heavenly Palace is very dark. Are you afraid?"
Tan Xiaodong casually replied, "Why should I be afraid? If it's dark, can't we just light a lamp?"
"What if many monsters run in and prevent you from lighting the lamp?"
Hearing this, Tan Xiaodong gave him a strange look.
"Are you an idiot?"
"As the dignified Sword God, would I be afraid of monsters?"
He sat cross-legged within the barrier, using his hands as swords, and made a few gestures.
He drew ripples on the barrier.
Then he pointed to the pitch-black sky:
"I, the dignified thirteenth generation Divine Sword of the Ou family, shall surely slay demons, eliminate monsters, and defend the Way!"
"And protect the peace of the world!"
He paused as he spoke.
He looked back at Jiang Lin, "Otherwise, why would a Divine Sword descend into the mortal realm?"
If the sword is not drawn, if the sword intent is not present.
How can it be called a Divine Sword?
Jiang Lin was stunned.
In a daze, he saw a figure clad in armor on Tan Xiaodong.
But when he looked again, there was nothing.
On Tan Xiaodong, there was only the constantly surging demonic energy, on the verge of erupting at any moment.
The fact that he could still think and converse was merely due to the dark green object hanging on his chest.
Jiang Lin suddenly wanted to ask, what if the demons and monsters are endless?
But as soon as the question arose, he already guessed how Tan Xiaodong would answer.
For a moment,
the air became silent, with only the whistling wind.
Tan Xiaodong closed his eyes, the demonic energy within him colliding and surging.
As if engaged in some struggle.
"Haven't we arrived yet?!"
Tan Xiaodong's eyes snapped open, black mist swirling within them.
With a raise of his hand, he directly pierced through the barrier and grabbed Jiang Lin's wrist.
His voice also changed.
Like a hungry beast, wild and bloodthirsty.
"Haven't we arrived yet?!"
"Haven't we arrived at the Black Abyss!"
His body trembled slightly, no longer able to consider why he had spoken the word 'Black Abyss.'
Why not to the Heavenly Palace.
It was as if it had been etched into his soul from the very beginning.
Only now had the conditions for its activation been met.
Jiang Lin did not reply.
He merely increased their speed and added another layer of barrier around Tan Xiaodong.
...
"We've arrived."
As Jiang Lin's words echoed, the whistling wind around them stopped.
Jiang Lin, with Tan Xiaodong enveloped in double barriers, landed on a cliff.
"Below, is the Black Abyss."
He finished speaking, but the soul before him did not respond.
At this moment, Tan Xiaodong's entire body was covered in demonic energy.
Within the layers of demonic energy, it seemed as if two pairs of blood-red eyes.
Cold and bloodthirsty, gazing at him.
Black Abyss?
Heavenly Palace?
What did that have to do with it?
"..."
Jiang Lin glimpsed a corner of the barrier, where the dark green thin shell was flicked away.
He calmly reached out, and the enhanced Mourning Stick appeared in his hand.
He spoke, his voice amplified by ghost energy, containing a special power.
Agitating the surrounding air.
"There is no turning back from the Black Abyss. I, Jiang Lin."
"Here, bid you farewell!"
His voice was still echoing in the air.
The Mourning Stick in his hand suddenly thickened and lengthened.
It swung directly towards Tan Xiaodong, who was continuously attempting to break through the double barriers.
The surging ghost energy carried it towards the cliff behind him.
In mid-air, it was still struggling.
Breaking through the double barrier layers, it was about to leap up.
However, from the depths of the abyss, a force suddenly emerged and entwined itself around it.
Pulling it straight down into the ten-thousand-foot abyss below.
...
The wind stirred by ghost energy whistled past.
On the cliff, only Jiang Lin's solitary figure remained.
From the abyss, not a single echo returned.
In Jiang Lin's mind, Senior Qingyang's words suddenly appeared.
Su Shenxue's words.
Tan Xiaodong's words.
"There is no turning back from the Black Abyss, you all go ahead!"
"Master, demons are endless. Since I have entered the demonic path, let me try."
"Are you an idiot? As the dignified Sword God, would I be afraid of monsters?"
...
"I, the dignified thirteenth generation Divine Sword of the Ou family, shall surely slay demons, eliminate monsters, and defend the Way!"
"And protect the peace of the world!"
...
Gradually, the horizon began to show a fish-belly white.
Golden light slowly emerged from the clouds, crystallizing the morning dew.
Jiang Lin suddenly realized, it was already this time.
Something stirred in his embrace.
He reached out and felt a thin, crooked piece of paper.
The paper had a golden edge, it was the Life Paper of the North Hall.
However, compared to its previous fish-like or pancake-like form, this paper had changed again.
It now vaguely resembled a human form.
What Jiang Lin had not understood before, suddenly became clear at this moment.
The advanced class of the North Hall cultivated Life Paper.
And the cultivation of Life Paper...
originated from the wearer's mindset, emotions, and cognitive changes.
Thinking of the existence of the Drama Class.
Constantly changing identities, acting and immersing themselves in roles.
Wasn't this experiencing the various changes in the world, thereby influencing and shaping a paper figure unique to oneself?
No wonder, the paper figures made from Life Paper were more agile and possessed more 'vitality.'
Jiang Lin put the Life Paper back, then picked up the dark green thin shell from the ground.
He glanced at the abyss before him, and facing the morning sun and dew, he left.
...
Legend has it, in the Black Abyss...
there is a battlefield that never stops.
There is a battle that is always ongoing.
However, few people know its entrance, and even fewer know what is truly hidden within the Black Abyss.
And what the battles inside are for...
...