Chapter 424: The Undead Monsters
Translator: 3heryl Editor: Hitesh_
"The sun palace has appeared!" Someone yelled.
"Damn! These Jiama sand bugs are too tricky. Let's attack them together and kill them all!" There was still some time before the sun palace appeared completely. If they did not take out these sand bugs, the chance of people dying would be at least thirty percent. As for those Sea of Souls Realm warriors, they could not be bothered to even move an inch, since not killing all those Astral Reaching Realm warriors would already be them being kind.
Murong Qingcheng had already taken care of one bug herself, which had caused a lot of other warriors to gather around her, wanting to use her power to save themselves.
At the edge of the desert, the sun was half showing. The damaged top part of the sun palace was already quite clear to see, but the bottom part was still twisted and blurred. It had still not completely emerged in this world.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Close to the sun palace, dozens of Astral Reaching Realm warriors joined forces and started to attack the surface of the sand. That powerful Zhen Yuan poured in together like meteorites falling from the sky and kept attacking the sand bugs coming out of the ground. Of course, there were also unfortunate warriors who had been dragged into the ground.
When the sun reached beyond the horizon, the shadow of the sun palace twisted once and then revealed itself completely. A wave of powerful ancient aura spread out immediately in all directions. Even the sand bugs had been frozen for a second, then they all dove into the ground, not showing up again.
"This is the sun palace indeed! Even a broken stone here seems to give off such strong energy waves!" Ye Chen's soul power was extremely powerful. The second the palace showed up, he had noticed that it was not a normal building. Instead, it was a magic building with its power restrained. It seemed to be more powerful than even the remains of the Puppet School branch.
The whole sun palace seemed to go on endlessly; there were no borders, just countless columns with sun patterns on them. A stone statue warrior was present beside each column, holding a long spear. The highest building of the sun palace was the main palace. It was square shaped, and more than thousands of meters tall. Each column in front of the palace seemed to be reaching the sky, making any human being standing in front feel extremely small and worthless.
"Strange… My Zhen Yuan is being controlled."
A warrior walking in front said suddenly.
"Mine as well!"
"This sun palace seems quite strange in general. It seems to be covered in a layer of controlling power. On entering, everyone's power would be limited."
Everyone had never experienced this in the first eleven paces. Only this sun palace seemed to reach beyond their expectations. Of course, there were a group of people who had known about this prior to their entry, so they did not feel strange about it. They had been here before, but without going in too deep, because it was actually a dangerous place with a low survival rate.
"You be careful!" Ye Chen secretly let out his soul power and reminded Murong Qingcheng and Wang Tong.
Murong Qingcheng glanced at the entry and said, "It seems like there is no way out."
Wang Tong explained, "The sun palace would appear once each month for three days. Within these three days, there would be no leaving, but only entering. Only on the dawn of the fourth day, there would be a fifteen minutes duration for people to leave. If we cannot make it out, then we would have to wait for the next opportunity, which would be in the next month."
"Since we are here, then let's make ourselves comfortable."
Ye Chen stopped talking. He had an instinct that it would not be an easy ride during these three days.
There were a lot of buildings inside the sun palace. But, there should not be a wall painting inside those small ones, because only the important ones would be more likely to have them.
Just as the three were about to enter a rather huge building, a cry was suddenly heard from one of the building nearby. That person seemed to have encountered some scary things since there were three to four Astral Reaching Realm warriors who had just entered that building.
Wang Tong said in a quiet voice, "I heard that there are blood sucking beasts here inside the sun palace. They are unkillable, and can be wounded only under the sun."
"Blood sucking monsters… unkillable… and afraid of the sunlight?" Ye Chen frowned, "Elder Wang, you stay out this time. Murong and I can go inside."
Murong Qingcheng nodded, "Ye Chen has made a good point. Elder Wang, just stay here."
"Alright, you be careful."
Wang Tong knew about this own power and that for him to go inside would not help, and but might even endanger the others.
After entering the building, Ye Chen could instantly feel a wave of ice-cold power spreading out toward him. It was completely the opposite to the warmth he was feeling outside. It was hard to believe he was inside the sun palace now.
"There is a wall painting."
Ye Chen soon found a wall that was full of carvings. But, because of the power limitation, his soul power could still not sense it clearly. So, he would have to walk over there and see it with his eyes.
Pap da! Pap da!
In that cold and dark environment, the two's steps sounded to be coming from another world.
"There isn't anything about the map."
After observing carefully, Ye Chen did not find anything special on that wall, since there were only a few stories and moral lessons. But, just as the two were about to turn around, a black shadow dove down at an extreme speed, with a cold, sharp light shining brightly.
Chin!
Ye Chen did not panic or hurry as he took out his sword with his right hand, throwing out three sword attacks toward that cold light. The first attack brought out a bright spark, the second caused a drop of blood to be let out, while the third and the last stabbed right into that unknown attacker.
"Yeah, just as we heard, it did not die!"
After three sword attacks, that black shadow backed out, wanting to disappear into the darkness.
"Sky Demon Catch!"
Murong Qingcheng was preparing for this as she made a reaching and a grabbing gesture with her right hand. That black shadow was caught off guard, and was dragged onto the ground, making a huge sound.
'Ahhhhh!'
A sharp scream was heard, that unbearable sound wave spreading out everywhere. Even Murong Qingcheng and Ye Chen had to back out three steps against it.
Shoo!
Seizing that moment, that black shadow disappeared immediately.
"Unkillable blood sucking monster... Interesting!" Ye Chen did not care about it as he shook off the blood from his longsword and put it right back.
Murong Qingcheng said, "Our Zhen Yuan has been limited by about ninety percent, and the battling power remaining is about forty percent. And, this undead monster is at a normal Astral Reaching Realm warrior's level."
The battling power was the general power level, which included the impact of Zhen Yuan, warrior spirit, and physical strength. For an Astral Reaching Realm warrior, Zhen Yuan would be the most important thing, comprising upto eighty percent of the battling power. Therefore, with their Zhen yuan being limited, it affected their battling power greatly.
"It is indeed a bit tricky. I wonder how many of those undead monsters are there."
Ye Chen had exchanged an attack with that beast. It was not very good in terms of battling skills, but had an extremely fast speed, which made up for its flaws. In this case, most of the Astral Reaching Realm warriors there would be in danger.
Outside, Wang Tong stood in the sun, and let out a breath in relief after seeing the two come out. He then asked, "How is it inside? Did that thing come out?"
Murong Qingcheng said, "It escaped."
"Escaped? So, the rumors were true then?" Wang Tong did not see it with his own eyes, so he was hoping that the rumors he had heard were just lies. But, after hearing the two, he could feel a chill running down his spine.
Ye Chen said, "Don't worry. As long as you take care of yourself, we will take care of the rest."
In front of a huge building…
"Undead monster, I would like to see how many attacks you can actually handle."
The speaker who was talking to himself was an evil looking middle-aged man. If there were well-traveled people here, they would recognize him for being the really famous Iron Wood Man from the Extreme Yin Place. He was actually a level more powerful than Ghost Moon. Although his Zhen Yuan had also been under a huge limiter, after reaching the Sea of Souls Realm, his body was no longer a human body, and was very tough. With only his physical strength, he was already unbelievably powerful. Furthermore, combined with his martial intent and remaining Zhen Yuan, he would be able to compete with Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warriors.
Under his foot was a human-shaped monster. It had long legs and long arms, and its teeth were extremely sharp like its claws. Its skin was so pale that it looked a bit purple, but was very thick and tough. It was accurately more of a layer of dead skin with very powerful muscles. It was both skinny and bulky. In general, it was not a being of looks but skills.
Swoosh!
The Iron Wood Man held his blue iron sticks and smashed them onto the beast's chest, creating a blood hole right there.
The human-shaped monster screamed as it stared at the Iron Wood man at the same time with its buck teeth out, looking very scary.
The Iron Wood Man frowned. There was a sharp sound wave in the beast's voice, the extra fast pulses in which made his heart about to tear open. The Iron Wood man waved his arm again, and his iron stick punctured right through the beast's throat. All of a sudden, that scream stopped like a duckling being held by the neck.
"Still not dead?"
With its chest being punctured, as well as throat and spine being broken, if it were a Seas of Souls Realm warrior, it would have been dead by now. But, judging from that beast's struggling power, it was still very well alive, as if the wounds before were only paper cuts.
"Let's see if you will die or not."
His iron stick suddenly shone with a dark blue light as he used some force to hit the beast right between its brows.
Boom!
Its flesh exploded into the air, white colored flesh and blood everywhere, creating an extra brutal sight.
"I thought it was supposed to be unkillable… How disappointing." Leaving that beast's body behind, the Iron Wood man turned to leave the building.
There were more buildings then expected in the sun palace. Even if they were only targeting the rather big ones, it still took them a day before making it to the main palace.
The sun was about to go down, and an unspeakable fear spread out in the whole area.
"It is getting dark. Should we enter the main palace?"
"Of course, the earlier we can find the painting, the earlier we would be able to relax. Then, we would only have to find a small building and easily survive the remaining two days."
"You are right. There is no difference between going in in the morning or in the night, since there would be no sunshine in there anyways."
On the plaza of the main palace, the remaining alive warriors were standing in groups. Only a Sea of Souls Realm warrior who did not want to join a group was standing by himself.
During this time, there were people continuously entering the sun palace from the outside world, joining the exploring groups. Therefore, the total number of people inside the palace continued to be around fifty to one hundred people.
"Let's go inside." Ye Chen looked towards Murong Qingcheng and Wang Tong.
Murong Qingcheng took her eyes off the darkness inside the main palace and nodded. As for Wang Tong, he held a shield in one hand and a great blade in the other.
While they were talking, a moon appeared in the sky, and a hysterical groan was heard. Following the sound, Iron Wood man frowned as he realized that place was indeed the one where he had killed that beast. Was it possible that the undead beast was still alive?