Fortunately, this powerful being didn't seem to have its mind on its surroundings at all, and didn't notice the human Jiang Chen hiding among the rocks.
A booming sound like thunder kept rolling, growing more distant until it faded away completely.
Jiang Chen let out a soft breath and smiled wryly. "This Bright-Extinguishing Valley harbors such powerful creatures. For mortal martial artists to come here, the opportunities may be plentiful, but the danger is truly everywhere."
Now he understood why the Fortuitous Encounter stage didn't eliminate anyone.
Did it even need to? After coming in, how many could actually make it out alive?
With such a high mortality rate, elimination was superfluous.
Jiang Chen was now beginning to suspect that of the eight thousand who entered, would three thousand even make it out?
The four great sects had said they wanted to select three thousand people to enter the sects, but Jiang Chen felt that after the battle in this Bright-Extinguishing Valley, there probably wouldn't even be three thousand left to leave.
Of course, this estimate was somewhat pessimistic.
"These matters are not mine to worry about. Everyone has their own fortune and walks their own path. I, Jiang Chen, must focus on my own road."
With this thought, he dismissed those concerns.
However, having experienced the powerful fluctuation just now, Jiang Chen became even more cautious.
Even underground wasn't absolutely safe. Behind that powerful fluctuation was undoubtedly a powerful being, no less formidable than the Fire Crow King.
Such a being could pose a life-threatening danger to him, so Jiang Chen's caution was entirely reasonable.
In an inconspicuous corner halfway down the cliff, a demon lotus vine had forced its way through a crevice in the rock. Jiang Chen's body was hidden perfectly within the gap.
He scanned the surroundings with his Heavenly Eye Divine Pupil, and what he saw made his scalp tingle.
Everywhere was scorched black, desolate as if after the end of days. Not a speck of green or hint of vitality could be seen.
It was as if this entire region had been abandoned by heaven and earth, becoming a wasteland in the universe.
Jiang Chen's gaze shifted to the cliff face where the Cloud Flame Essence had been. It was now ravaged, with no sign of the essence left.
Even more terrifying, the cliff was pockmarked, with countless crisscrossing grooves, as if something powerful had plowed across it from above. The deep trenches cut several zhang deep.
The savage scene left Jiang Chen speechless.
Such long, deep trenches carved into the hard cliff could not possibly be made by ordinary power.
Setting others aside, Jiang Chen knew for certain he could not achieve this. Carving grooves into a cliff wasn't difficult; the difficulty lay in making them so neat, so deep, and so long.
It didn't look deliberate at all. Rather, it seemed as if the trenches had been naturally plowed as a powerful being passed through.
"What exactly happened?" Jiang Chen murmured, staring blankly at the ruined scenery.
Using his Heavenly Eye Divine Pupil to observe further, he found no trace of auras remaining around the cliff. No powerful beings, no Fire Crow clan—as if they had never existed at all.
Or perhaps, those powerful forces had simply vanished along with this scene of utter devastation.
"Impossible!" Jiang Chen couldn't believe it. If there existed a force that could make an entire clan like the Fire Crow disappear in an instant, that force would be far too terrifying.
Jiang Chen squeezed out from the rocky crevice and walked onto the scorched earth, suddenly feeling a profound loneliness—as if only he remained between heaven and earth.
The scorched soil beneath his feet still held a faint residual warmth. It seemed to remind Jiang Chen that this apocalyptic scene had not happened long ago.
He walked on, and all he saw was scorched earth. Vast stretches of forest had been burned to ash. Massive trees had been reduced to charcoal.
Countless skeletons, burned down to carbonized frames, could only be judged as human or beast by their shapes.
Looking at these scenes that only the end of days could bring, Jiang Chen sighed. Along this path alone, he had already seen over a hundred human skeletons.
This was just the area he had traversed. In other untouched places, within a hundred-li radius, the death toll must surely exceed three thousand.
Jiang Chen moved cautiously, encountering no disturbances and no danger along the way.
It was as if all living creatures within this hundred-li radius had already been burned to charcoal by the great fire.
And so it was. After walking seven or eight li, Jiang Chen had not sensed the slightest trace of life. All life had been swallowed by this raging inferno.
"The Cloud Flame Essence is gone, and the Fire Crow clan has vanished as well. What exactly happened?" Questions swirled in Jiang Chen's mind.
But he was a broad-minded person. Although he hadn't obtained the Cloud Flame Essence, he didn't feel particularly regretful. All gains and losses were matters of fortune.
Not getting this Cloud Flame Essence now might not necessarily be a bad thing.
Looking at the devastated landscape and the skeletons scattered everywhere, Jiang Chen felt fortunate—at least, he was still alive.
To be qualified to walk this apocalyptic journey after such a world-ending catastrophe—that, in itself, was a kind of happiness. A greater happiness than all those skeletons lying prone…