Chapter 248 - One peck, One Drink
At the centre of the Concealed Dragon River.
The Elders of the Twelve Clans had all surrendered; bitterness and helplessness covered their faces.
Hovering in the air was a youth. He held a metal fan and had sharp and icy eyes. The weirdest part about him was the layer of metal that had overlapped his skin, even his clothes and hair seemed to be metallic.
The cold and metallic aura infiltrated the space nearby, seemingly freezing it - not a single breeze of wind was present.
“Tiexiao True Lord, the Twelve Clans have surrendered and are willing to serve the Iron Dragon strong country. Are you going to kill all of us?”
The Grand Elder of the Cloud Sword Clan suppressed his anger as he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
As a sword cultivator of the True Mystic Rank, he had slashed towards Tiexiao True Lord’s body and had caused sparks to fly, but the opponent was uninjured. Instead, he had been hit by a terrifying rebounding force.
The other elders of the Twelve Clans were furious, however, they didn’t retaliate nor did they have any thoughts of resistance.
The realm of True Lord was too far away from them.
First Elder of the Broken Moon Clan sighed, “In the past, the Iron Dragon Country and the Sky Rich Country only had one expert of True Lord Rank, hence they were balanced. Now however, the Iron Dragon Country had another True Lord Rank expert, hence they were able to instantly change the situation.”
The birth of a True Lord Rank expert had affected the situation across the entire area.
They stood at the peak, and every thought or action could influence the lives of hundreds of millions of people.
Tiexiao True Lord hovered in mid-air but remained quiet.
The mysterious black figure from the Iron Dragon Country took out a blank scroll several yards long.
“This is a Blood Pact Scroll. All the cultivators at the True Spirit Realm present here are to sign it.”
The mysterious black figure said.
Massacring the Twelve Clans held no benefits for the Iron Dragon Country. Moreover, to exterminate the roots of the Twelve Clans wouldn't be easy.
The best solution was to make these forces serve them.
The elders of the Twelve Clans gazed at each other - helplessness filled their eyes.
The Blood Pact Scroll was similar to a letter of surrender but had a stronger effect. Once they signed this scroll, they would be restrained.
After half the time it took for tea to be made.
The higher echelons of the Twelve Clans signed the Blood Pact Scroll one by one.
As for the Ancient Shrine, they were originally a Sub-Division of the Scarlet Moon Demonic Religion and were on the Iron Dragon Country’s side. They didn’t need to participate.
Qiu-----
Tiexiao True Lord who was hovering in mid-air expressionlessly turned into a flashing blur that merged into the sky.
The True Lord didn’t even appear for an hour and had not even made any moves but had turned the situation around.
The news of the Twelves Clans’ surrender soon spread across the Thirteen Countries.
The experts of the Iron Dragon Country soon entered the Twelve Clans and the high echelons of each Clan started to change.
Amongst them was the Broken Moon Clan.
Hai Yun Master became the Broken Moon Clan Master and was the representative of the Iron Dragon strong country.
Due to the fact that First Elder had lost an arm during the battle and had burned his source of True Spirit which resulted in his cultivation decreasing, he became low-key.
Hai Yun Master, who had gained the trust of the Iron Dragon strong country and had the support of the Regulations Elder, soon became the person with the most authority.
After becoming the Clan Master, Hai Yun Master soon gave out an order: Kill the traitor Zhao Feng.
“Zhao Feng broke the rules of the Clan, disrespected his Elders, and ran away. If captured alive, take him back to the Clan. If he resists, kill him.”
Hai Yun Master’s emotionless voice echoed across the hall.
This order was soon known by everyone.
The clan had also listed high rewards to kill or capture Zhao Feng.
Just giving traces of Zhao Feng rewarded the person with ten thousand low-grade Primal Crystal Stones. This was not a small sum even for experts at True Human Rank.
As for capturing or killing Zhao Feng, the bounty was ten times higher.
First Elder and Granny Liuyue became low-key and silent towards everything that happened in the Clan. Because Hai Yun Master couldn’t find any faults and wasn’t complete confident that he could take them down, he didn’t do anything.
At this time, the hearts of everyone from the Broken Moon Clan trembled but Hai Yun Master was very skilled. He gave rewards and punished others fairly, winning the hearts of some people.
Sky Cloud Forest, Misty Area.
Zhao Feng had been comprehending mental energy techniques and trying to dissolve the Ghost Mark on him.
“As long as the Ghost Mark stays on me, I’ll be in danger. If that mysterious skeleton recovers back to it’s peak strength….”
Zhao Feng read through all the mental energy techniques in his mind but there was no solution.
An entire month had passed since his cultivation had been consolidated.
Zhao Feng’s mastery of mental energy had increased and started to understand the Ghost Mark a bit.
“The Ghost Mark is similar to the mysterious power of the Cures of a Hundred Graves but the Ghost Mark does not have offensive attributes. It only leaves a mark on me, therefore the God’s Spiritual Eye didn’t resist on instinct.”
Zhao Feng finally understood something
He had another plan and that was to use the power of the Curse of a Hundred Graves to break the Ghost Mark.
However the Curse of a Hundred Graves was too dangerous and Zhao Feng needed to be very careful.
Half a day later.
Zhao Feng entered the Curse of a Hundred Graves once again and the invisible cold power tried to enter his body. However, this power was forced back by the aura from the God’s Spiritual Eye.
Miao miao!
Zhao Feng retrieved the little thieving cat and let it calculate their fortune.
The little thieving cat nodded its head as it took out the coin with a proud face before flipping it into the air and catching it with its paws.
After catching the coin, the little thieving cat furrowed its eyebrows. It nodded its head at times, but also shook it at other times.
The connection between Zhao Feng and the little thieving cat was very special, hence he knew that the answer was blurry. Even the little thieving cat couldn’t give an exact answer.
“We’ll have to give it a try.”
Zhao Feng and the little thieving cat didn’t see the destiny of dying.
Of course, this was assumed that the little thieving cat’s prediction skills were still working.
Zhao Feng then sat down and used his God’s Spiritual Eye to sense the Ghost Mark.
At the same time, he circulate his bloodline power and merged the azure blood into the dimension of his left eye, blocking it.
Once the azure abyss was blocked, Zhao Feng’s eye would return to its original black and dim colour.
This meant that Zhao Feng was closing the God’s Spiritual Eye’s power.
As expected.
Once it was fully blocked, the power of the curse sneaked up from behind Zhao Feng.
The latter hiccupped as he immediately circulated his bloodline power so that not all of the azure abyss was blocked.
But even then, a wisp of the curse touched Zhao Feng’s body.
Zhao Feng’s body went cold. It was as if there was countless hands- wet with blood- reaching towards his organs.
At that critical point, Zhao Feng circulated his mental energy and purposely attracted the curse.
The curse seemed to have a consciousness which would allow it to enter the ‘flaws’ of the target, just like how water would flow out of a hole.
The flaw Zhao Feng revealed was the location of the Ghost Mark.
Teng Teng Teng!
A weird sound seemed to echo.
If Zhao Feng could open his God’s Spiritual Eye, he could see hand after hand reaching into his body.
If it wasn’t because a part of the God’s Spiritual Eye was still working, Zhao Feng would’ve been infested with the hands.
Time passed slowly by and Zhao Feng’s lifeforce started to weaken as his face went pale.
He could only circulate his bloodline power to fortify himself.
The bloodline power could somewhat protect him, but only a small amount could be used since the other part was blocking the azure abyss.
However, his True Force was weakening due to the curse.
Seeing this situation, Zhao Feng wanted to give up, but he noticed that the Ghost Mark’s aura was also dropping.
Zhao Feng’s life force and True Force was weakening along with the Ghost Mark.
It was good that Zhao Feng still had the protection of his bloodline power, this prevented Zhao Feng’s source of life from disappearing.
Three days later.
Zhao Feng spat out a breath and retracted the azure blood in the dimension of his left eye.
At the same time, although the Ghost Mark fully disappeared, his True Force level had also dropped.
“Was it worth it?”
Zhao Feng murmured to himself as he glanced at the little thieving cat on his shoulder.
While breaking the Ghost Mark, Zhao Feng’s cultivation had dropped to the 6th Sky.
The little thieving cat squinted its eyes but didn’t respond.
Zhao Feng found that although his cultivation had dropped, his foundation was more solid and his potential was larger compared to when he was at the 7th Sky.
This was like building a tower. The better built the lower levels was, the higher the tower could go.
This was the feeling Zhao Feng had right now. The breakthrough of two Skies in the Alliance Banquet was too rushed, but now this problem didn’t exist.
Although Zhao Feng had dropped a Sky, his foundation and potential were better and the Ghost Mark had disappeared.
One peck, one drink. It was as if heavens had destined so.
At the same time.
On a mysterious altar in the Iron Dragon strong country.
“The Ghost Mark has been broken… how is this possible… did someone of the Origin Core Realm do this?”
A hoarse voice resounded. This voice seemed to freeze one’s soul and cultivators at the True Human Rank would hiccup here.
The owner of the voice was a black gold robed skeleton whose bones were silver with the occasional flash of dark purple.
“No.. that’s the power of the Curse of a Hundred Graves.”
The skeleton Division Leader’s expression changed.
“Division Leader, no one can escape from the Curse of a Hundred Graves. The person is obviously dead.”
A silver striped blood corpse laughed at the side.
The skeleton Division Leader nodded its head. If the person died, the Ghost Mark would disappear as well.
“Division Leader, about that Curse of a Hundred Graves…”
The blood corpse protector asked.
“That is the highest secret of the Holy Religion. Even the great lord, I, wouldn’t enter that forbidden area. You don’t need to know this.”