Chapter 517: A Deva?
The thousand men in Bai Xiaochun’s legion looked on in both shock and fervor. However, when they considered who Bai Xiaochun was in the army, they realized that with him, nothing was beyond the realm of possibility.
He was Grandmaster Bai! He was in the top ten on the Wildlands Execution List! He had crushed a Nascent Soul cultivator in battle!
In terms of how many vengeful souls he had put an end to, it was impossible to even say. In fact, to call him the bane of vengeful souls was no exaggeration.
These cultivators viewed Bai Xiaochun with blind devotion, and therefore, were able to take the matter in stride. However, the old soul cultivator was so shocked he felt like the world was spinning around him.
“How... how is this even possible?!?!”
“Th-there... there must be hundreds of millions of souls in there! This... it’s....” The old man had already reached the point where he could barely speak coherently. Considering what he himself had just experienced, the fact that Bai Xiaochun was acting completely calmly was almost impossible to accept.
But what happened next was even more terrifying. Even as the old man’s mind teetered on the verge of collapse, he watched Bai Xiaochun pull out another Soul Convergence Pill and crush it. Immediately, more souls were sucked in, whereupon he pulled out another pill.
And that was how Bai Xiaochun proceeded into the depths of the pit. Every step along the way, he pulled out another Soul Convergence Pill. 10,000 souls. 30,000. 50,000. 100,000... 200,000. 500,000.... Not very much time passed at all before Bai Xiaochun had collected at least 1,000,000 souls. And he was barely exerting any effort at all....
Of the 10,000,000 or so souls that existed at the entrance to the pit, it was clear that over ten percent had already been collected by Bai Xiaochun. The old soul cultivator was completely and utterly flabbergasted.
What was especially shocking was how casually Bai Xiaochun strutted along, almost as if he were taking a stroll in his own backyard. The old man’s eyes looked like they might fall out of his face at any moment, and he could hardly breathe.
“Nascent Soul!” he screamed inwardly. “Dammit, this guy is definitely a Nascent Soul eccentric! That’s the only explanation for this!! He’s definitely a Nascent Soul eccentric who possesses some sort of powerful magical treasure!!” The old man was convinced that this was the only way to explain Bai Xiaochun’s incredible performance. The way he had cut down Core Formation experts as if it were child’s play indicated that he was definitely a Nascent Soul cultivator!
“Damned Heavenspan cultivators. I can’t believe someone who’s clearly a Nascent Soul expert would find it amusing to disguise himself as a Core Formation cultivator and then go around bullying people!!” Even as the old man stewed in his bitterness, Bai Xiaochun reached the point where he had collected the majority of the souls around the entrance. Although he was excited, he suddenly realized that he was running low on Soul Convergence Pills.
He quickly flew out of the pit and sped over to Zhao Long and the other members of his regiment, who were staring at him as if he were some sort of god.
“Hurry up and loan me your Soul Convergence Pills!” Bai Xiaochun said. “I’ll pay you back later!” Without hesitation, the cultivators in his regiment began pulling out their Soul Convergence Pills and handing them to Bai Xiaochun.
Bai Xiaochun was delighted to suddenly have so many Soul Convergence Pills at his disposal. He quickly turned and rushed back into the pit, where he began to head down toward the very bottom of the pit to collect more souls.
Zhao Long and the others hesitated for a bit, but then cautiously creeped over to the edge of the pit and looked over the edge to watch.
What they saw was shocking to the extreme. There was Bai Xiaochun, standing on top of a white surface, looking around in astonishment and disbelief.
At first, no one was quite sure what they were seeing, but upon closer examination, they realized what that white surface was, and their minds reeled.
“That’s....”
“Heavens, he’s standing on... on a....” All of the cultivators in the regiment felt like their heads were about to explode, and as for the soul cultivator, he was literally screaming.
“How is this possible?!?! It’s a skeleton?!”
The mouth of the pit was actually an entryway leading into what they were now looking down into, an enormous necropolis!
It was virtually impossible to describe how large the necropolis was, but it was possible to see a shocking skeleton right there inside!
It was fully 300,000 meters in size, and from what they could see looking through the passageway, that was only part of the skull!
Bai Xiaochun was actually more shaken than the rest of them. At first, he hadn’t realized what exactly the white surface that the was standing on was, but after a moment, he realized it was a skull. And then he saw... the ghastly 300,000-meter skeleton!!
It wasn’t a human skull, but rather the skull of some enormous crocodilian creature, stretching down into the necropolis. The bones were like mountain peaks, so shocking that Bai Xiaochun gasped out loud.
Furthermore, the enormous necropolis also contained... seemingly innumerable vengeful souls! None of the souls had fixed shapes, but rather, existed as misty spheres of different colors, within which faces would occasionally appear.
Considering how many of the souls there were floating around in the necropolis, it was possible to estimate that there were at least 100,000,000, or maybe more. Even a deva who was privy to this sight would feel shocked to the core. After all, if 100,000,000 souls all attacked at the same time, even a deva would perish under the assault, unless they possessed some special means of controlling the souls.
“Crocodile.... The deva beast soul that I grabbed looked like a crocodile. Could it be... that this skeleton was its fleshly body?!?!” The mere thought left Bai Xiaochun utterly shocked.
“So, does that mean that all these other souls showed up after it died, or... did they kill it!?!?” It was impossible to determine the answer to the question just by looking, but Bai Xiaochun certainly hoped that his former supposition was the correct one, not the latter.
And yet, for some reason, he had the feeling that something very strange was going on here, and that the latter... might not be too far from the truth.
It took a long moment for him to calm down. The only thing he could do was bury his speculations in his heart. Only one thing was for certain; there was definitely some big secret hidden in this place. Clearly, the restrictive spells that filled the area were one reason why no one had noticed the strange phenomena or come to investigate. Of course, a huge hole had opened up, which ensured that it wouldn’t be long before either the Great Wall or the Wildlanders discovered the place, and when that happened, there was no way Bai Xiaochun would be able to investigate the area alone.
“These souls are all battle credit!” he thought, his eyebrows dancing in anticipation. With that, he reached out and began to crush Soul Convergence Pills. In the blink of an eye, countless souls were all rushing toward him to form soul spheres.
However, there were so many souls in the area that the ground began to shake, and the screaming of the souls pierced dangerously into the minds of the onlookers.
The cultivators of Bai Xiaochun’s regiment, as well as the old soul cultivator, felt their own souls trembling in response to the sound, and some people even found blood oozing out of the corners of their mouths. They quickly began to back up in terror. The soul cultivator was especially frightened considering that his cultivation base had been sealed. He was coughing up mouthfuls of blood, and his face was as ashen as death.
“How many souls are down there!?!? Heavens! That sound couldn't come from any less than 10,000,000 souls. Or maybe even... 100,000,000!!” The old man was reeling in disbelief. Based on his experience, even large armies that marched into battle would never go in with more than 10,000,000 souls. A force of 100,000,000 was something that he had never even laid eyes on.
Zhao Long and the other cultivators in the regiment were astonished, and also worried for Bai Xiaochun. However, none of them revealed such feelings as they backed up and kept their eyes fixed on the pit.
Down inside, Bai Xiaochun was looking around ashen-faced as he realized he had discovered another use to the mask. Shockingly, it could reduce the effects he felt because of the shrieking of the souls, making it possible to stand there without being hurt.
“Rich! I’m rich!” he exulted inwardly. Eyes shining with excitement, he continued to collect more and more soul spheres, simultaneously calculating how much battle credit he would earn.
A day flashed by, during which terrifying howling sounds continued to echo out from the pit. Outside, everyone was looking on nervously, except for the old soul cultivator, who was trembling in astonishment and terror.
“Heavens! Just what kind of cultivation base does this guy have!?!?
“There’s no way that a Core Formation cultivator could remain so close to that sound without exploding. Not even a Nascent Soul expert could do it for long!!
“The only kind of person who could, would be... a deva!!
“He... he couldn’t possibly be... a deva, could he?!” The old man’s thoughts were in chaos as his terror mounted. Before, he had harbored a slim bit of hope that he might be able to get out of the situation alive and then get revenge. But now, such thoughts were long gone.
“Heavens! If he’s really a deva, then everything makes sense. Deva eccentrics always have strange habits, perhaps even... masquerading as Core Formation cultivators....” Convinced that he had gotten to the bottom of the truth, the old man felt even more terrified than before.