Xiang Mantang made up his mind and, with a grim expression on his face, started walking towards the location where firelight flickered.
After a few steps, he could clearly see clumps of leaping, rising flames, scorching the grass, the trees, and even the air.
This was a world of flames, with fire burning everywhere, but not consuming anything completely.
The fire that reached the sky also dispelled the almost viscous dark green fog surrounding it.
Xiang Mantang's vision became much brighter.
"Could it be that I guessed wrong?"
Watching the fog gradually disappear, and the darkness behind him still thick as ink, Xiang Mantang felt uncertain whether the world inside the firelight harbored the great terror he initially surmised.
After all, despite the flames reaching high, they did not destroy anything, only providing him with warmth, driving away the icy coldness from his body, as if this were the only beacon of light in the area.
"Could it be that the great terror is hidden within the fog, while this place in the firelight holds the only lifeforce of this world, leading me away from the fog on purpose?"
Xiang Mantang's eyes flickered as he kept guessing.
But no matter what, he had already been forced to come here, unable to leave along the two lost rivers; he could only take it one step at a time.
In the end, Xiang Mantang took a deep breath, reached out a hand, and waved it tentatively towards the firelight in front of him a few times.
His hand was not scorched.
Seeing this, Xiang Mantang stepped forward and walked in deeper.
In this period of firelight, it took him about five minutes of walking.
Finally, a clear space opened up before his eyes.
But...
The sight before him caused his pupils to contract, and he couldn't help but back up a few steps.
Even though the sky behind him was lit with flames, it seemed unable to offer Xiang Mantang any warmth, leaving him feeling a chill throughout his body.
Before him stood a tree so bizarre it was enough to make one's scalp explode; it wasn't a wooden tree, but a Bone Tree made up of white, ghastly skulls.
The branches were various arm and leg bones, with plenty of bloodstained human skins, black long hair, beating hearts that had been gouged out, and brains that were still wriggling...
Below the tree sat a humanoid black shadow, but where the eyes should be, flashed a piercing red light.
"Having waited for endless ages, someone has finally arrived..."
While Xiang Mantang was racked with uncertainty, a strange voice sounded directly in his mind.
This voice spoke in what seemed like an unintelligible language, yet Xiang Mantang understood its meaning.
"Are you... the black shadow under the Bone Tree?"
Xiang Mantang forced himself to calm down and asked the question.
"Yes."
The voice resonated once more, eerily echoing in Xiang Mantang's mind.
"Who are you? And where is this place, the Garden of Eden?"
Xiang Mantang asked.
"Who am I? It's been too long, far too long; I've forgotten my own name. This place is Paradise Lost, not the Garden of Eden..."
The shadow explained.
'Paradise Lost? As expected!'
Upon hearing the words of the dark shadow, Xiang Mantang felt a surge of anger rising within him.
He had indeed been careless, deceived by the people of Paradise Lost!
Of course, it was also because he was too impatient, unable to wait for the slow search for the traces of the Garden of Eden, otherwise he wouldn't have been tricked!
"What is Paradise Lost?"
Suppressing his anger, Xiang Mantang asked.
The dark shadow explained, "Paradise Lost is Hell, the Nine Serenities, the Netherworld, used to imprison the Great Demons who once caused chaos!"
"Do you see the tree behind me?"
"This tree harbors the most terrifying demons, and the hair, hearts, brains, skin, and nails hanging on it also belong to countless rampaging demons..."
"Every one of them released could trigger the end of the world!"
Upon hearing the dark shadow's words, Xiang Mantang's scalp tingled and his hair stood on end.
Indeed, his Divine Sense had not erred, the boundless fear he felt at the sight of the tree was a genuine intuition, not a false premonition.
Regaining some composure, Xiang Mantang then asked, "Are you one of the oppressed demons as well? What is your purpose for bringing me here, and how can I leave?"
Although he knew that the dark shadow could very likely be a demon, and might not reveal how to leave,
He had no choice, since the dark shadow could send words directly into his mind, obviously not an entity to be coerly questioned. Asking repeatedly was pointless, it was better to just ask directly.
"I am not a demon, I am the hero who once suppressed them..."
A voice that could not be distinguished as male or female echoed in Xiang Mantang's mind, filled with age and loneliness.
"The Gods suppressed the demons, and naturally someone had to guard them to prevent their escape and wreak havoc on the mortal realm. I am that Guardian, but as time passed, my solitary Strength struggled to suppress them, and eventually, I began to assimilate with them. Thus, in the end, 'Using the Body as the Seed,' I became the last line of defense, intercepting them here..."
"But I myself can never leave again."
Upon hearing this, Xiang Mantang glanced at the surrounding flames and said, "Is it … this world of flames?"
"Yes."
The dark shadow replied.
Xiang Mantang's eyes flashed, and he continued asking, "Then, what's the deal with the cyan-black haze outside, and those two winged creatures with white bones?"
The dark shadow answered, "Those were a few demons that escaped back when I hesitated. However, their power is relatively weak, unable to escape from all of Paradise Lost, so they have been wandering within Paradise Lost ever since..."
Xiang Mantang felt something wasn't quite right, especially since those two Fallen Angels had just forcefully pushed him to walk this way.
Before he could question further, the dark shadow explained, "To escape from Paradise Lost, they would not kill you. After all, that would not allow them to escape. Thus, they hoped to bring you here, to unseal the Demon Tree I am suppressing and release all the demons. With numbers comes Strength, and then they might seize the opportunity to leave Paradise Lost!"
"Is that so?" Xiang Mantang muttered skeptically, not entirely trusting the words of the dark shadow.
The dark shadow spoke again, "You came here to seek the Fruit of Life from the Tree of Life to save your friend, right?"
Xiang Mantang felt a stir in his heart, realizing that this creature seemed to be able from needing a dialogue at the beginning, to later hearing his unspoken thoughts, and now it seemed to be able to directly search his memories?!
Was this the revival of the demon's power?
"Don't worry, I won't harm you. Later, I will even send you away to prevent you from disrupting the arrangement here and allowing demons to run rampant!"
In the midst of Xiang Mantang's concerns, the dark shadow spoke again.
"However, the Fruit of Life that you seek, I do not have, because this place is Paradise Lost, not the Garden of Eden. But I do have a way to awaken your friend..."
Just as Xiang Mantang was about to ask the dark shadow to send him away from this place, he was intrigued by the words, and asked, "What price must I pay?"