Chapter 537: The God's Stronghold
The group of fifteen, nine beast gods, two Fu brothers, the small child, Hui Yue, Huli, and Cai Jie, were all flying side by side. Their auras were withdrawn so that no one would notice them unless they had a special technique to do so.
They had flown quite a long ways, and their bodies were taut as they were constantly alert. As they flew, they were amazed that this small child had managed to flee as far as he had.
They reached a mountain range that had a deep valley between a couple of mountains. The valley was filled with fog and mist so that one could not see what was hiding beneath on the floor below.
The shrieks of many various magical beasts could be heard here and there, some from bird beasts and others from beasts that lived on the ground. It was clear that the majority of the beasts in this valley were Saint ranked beasts but no matter how far Hui Yue scanned, he could not feel any God ranked beasts; he did, however, notice Gods at the bottom of the valley.
There is a total of around twenty Gods," Hui Yue said surprised as he had scanned their stronghold. Sensing them, his expression turned serious and he grit his teeth.
"I can sense about five hundred humans in their stronghold. Situated there is a great mansion with stables and other buildings surrounding it. It is within these buildings that the humans have been divided into groups of thirty people.
"The Gods are not Immortals of Creation," Hui Yue said with certainty. He could feel their auras did not have as much Ancestral Worldpower as gods who had become Immortals of Creation and he heaved a sigh of relief.
"We might be fewer in number," Hui Yue started to speak, "but we have the advantage in power. If those who are Immortals of Creation each take care of two experts then we will be fine," he assured them. Although Hui Yue felt that he might be overestimating the beast Gods. Huli, Cai Jie, and the Fu brothers should be able to deal with at least three experts each if they were serious.
"The experts are walking around in the big mansion. Kill them!," Hui Yue decided, and no one spoke against him; his words were law in this group.
Although his words were law within the group, he also knew that if he came up with a suicidal plan, or one where he would be in danger, these gods would not approve of it. But seeing that they approved, it was clear that they had faith that the plan would work. Nodding his head in satisfaction, he continued.
"The leader of this group is the strongest. I cannot fully sense his strength, but he is hiding in one of the towers. I am pretty sure his power is close to, if not on par with, an Immortal of Creation."
Hearing this, the others just nodded their heads. None of them were shocked upon hearing this, nor were they worried. Considering the strength of their own team, they were confident as they quickly rushed towards the stronghold.
"Slow down," Huli said as they reached the entrance of the valley fifty kilometers away from the stronghold. "it would be weird if there were no traps or formations guarding their base," she said with uncertainty in her voice as she looked around. This caused Hui Yue to pay, even more, attention to the surrounding areas.
But no matter how much he stretched his soulforce or how clearly he saw everything around him, he could not see anything of the sort. Still, he decided that they should not keep flying and landed on the ground so they could walk the rest of the way.
Landing at the entrance of the valley, they came across two beasts chained to the ground. These beasts were both Saint rank experts, and they had spiked collars around their necks. The spikes were pointed inward and were so sharp they bit into their skin causing both beasts to be in severe pain.
The two groups noticed each other at the same time, and while Hui Yue's group turned serious, the two beasts started shrieking in rage and anger and moved forward to attack, clearly in desperation. The spiked collars around their necks were constantly tightening the closer Hui Yue and his friends came to the beasts.
"Kill them," Hui Yue said with a sigh, and Zhong Li, the Qilin, vanished only to reappear behind the two monsters. His hands each impaled their chests and crushed their hearts.
Only a whimper sounded before they quickly died, and silence descended over the valley once more.
"We might have alerted them to our arrival but maybe not. I can imagine that these beasts go mad from time to time because of the pain they were forced to live through so if we are lucky no one will think too much of it."
The others nodded their heads, but they did not relax in the slightest. Their bodies were taut and on high alert as they all moved further and further into the valley.
Moving through the valley, they came across a large pile of beast corpses. All of them had their throats torn open, clearly from the same sort of collars that the two beasts that they already killed had been wearing.
Looking at these corpses, it was clear that the ones at the very bottom of the pile had been laying there for a long time. Looking at them, it seemed as if the stronghold had been present for at least a year if not longer.
Remembering the words that the child had said, Hui Yue knew that it had not been a year since they started hearing about the disappearances, and thus, these cultivators had either spent some time preparing or perhaps they found humans somewhere else in the beginning.
Hui Yue was not in the mood to start a search to see whether or not other regions had the same issues, but he was willing to kill these problematic cultivators since the child had asked him for help. He also wished to see just how his fighting strength had developed now that he had spent so long studying the dao of the sword, the dao of inferno, and the dao of devouring alongside the daos of ignition and flame that Lan Feng had comprehended.
Currently, Lan Feng was not trying to comprehend another dao; he was instead trying to merge the dao of ignition with the dao of flames to make them even more lethal than they already were.
It did not take long before they reached the stronghold. There were no guards or anything blocking their way. After the two beasts, they saw no more creatures or humans trying to block their way; the Gods had clearly become complacent.
"This place is so far away from the normal path that most Gods take on their way to Diyu that even if a God or two were to come this way they were unlikely to settle down for long enough to realize what was going on. Even if they found out, it was likely that they would not do anything as they would be busy on their way to Youdu. Although it was frowned upon, not many were willing to lose their time or perhaps even their lives, for the sake of mortals. They would at the most report it and leave it to the local hegemons to clean up.
The Gods who usually took care of everything that had to do with governing the Netherworld were already busy with the sudden influx of bandits and rogue cultivators elsewhere that this expert could do exactly as he pleased without fearing them.
In front of them was a massive stone castle with small stables and other buildings scattered about the area. Hui Yue was surprised as he could hear what the people inside the castle was saying.
"Only two more weeks and we will be able to leave this godforsaken place. Although master has been here for a few years, it is finally coming to an end. When we reach Youdu, we will be able to live a life of luxury! Soon master should have been able to refine enough souls to make his own nearly unbeatable!"
"Master is already a monster when it comes power, and if he consumes these thousands of souls then he will be able to jump straight to the Immortal of Creation rank!"
Hui Yue eavesdropped with his soulforce on the conversation within the mansion and quickly informed the others about what he had heard. After which he paused for a bit, "Leave the refined souls to me," he finally sighed. "You guys deal with all the other Gods and save the villagers. Leave this master person to me."
“I will try and see if I can restore them to the cycle of reincarnation. Although there are thousands of souls, these souls are from mortals. Devouring the soul of a mortal has a very limited effect, but I assume that these Gods do not have the ability to hunt other gods and consume their souls."
When it came to souls and refining them, although Hui Yue was not an expert, he had some understanding of it. This was even more true after consuming the soul of a God who had increased his own soul and soulforce by a considerable amount.
"We will do as you say, but don't die. When we finish our battle we will come assist you," they all agreed. Though the Fu brothers were the most hesitating out of everyone. They wanted to be in range of Hui Yue at all times. They needed to be able to defend and protect him to ensure that he was not in life-threatening danger.
And of course, they wished to be able to record his fight to show the elders later on.
Still, Hui Yue completely ignored their facial expressions which showed disagreement and looked at them with a serious face, "I will be able to survive," he said with a certainty that shocked them. How could he be so certain?
Hui Yue remembered back to the only time he had gotten assistance from the red gem within his core. When this memory took over, it had strengthened his defense and endurance so greatly that he had been able to block some outstanding attacks. He believed that this mysterious red gem would be able to assist him greatly in this battle and in the upcoming trials.
To Hui Yue, this battle was the place for him to go all out and see just how strong he currently was.
Having made this decision, Hui Yue looked at the others and seeing that he was not going to change his opinion, they just nodded their heads and the Fu brothers quickly agreed to the plan. They would kill all their opponents as swiftly as they could so that they could observe Hui Yue's battle.
"Well, time to focus," Hui Yue said as he gently pushed open the gate to the stronghold and slipped in through the door, closely followed by everyone else. Hui Yue could sense where everyone within the building was, but no one else was capable of doing so. Therefore, they were on high alert and observed everything with vigilance.
The ground floor was completely empty, and although everyone was alert, they kept throwing glances at Hui Yue to see if he had found their opponents.
"Take the stairs," Hui Yue said and pointed at the stairs. "I will go to the top floor and find this master person; you guys take care of the others. There is a total of five on the second floor. All of them seem to be at the far end of the floor in individual rooms. They should be cultivating. There are two on the third floor together talking about what is happening with the souls. The rest are moving randomly about on the remaining floors. Remember that none of them are Immortals of Creation, but they could have still comprehended more than a few daos. Beast Gods you all go together, Huli, Cai Jie, and Fu brothers you can go on your own as you please."
Although Hui Yue had said that the Fu brothers could go alone, they just looked at one another. Fighting together made it possible for them to overwhelm their opponents and thus they could meet up with Hui Yue faster.
"Well then, let’s wipe out these bastards!" Hui Yue said with a smile on his face; Ancestral Worldpower was surging through his body ready to be used. He rushed up the stairs and with a sinister smile on his face, ran towards the tower.