Chapter 192 – Unexpected
He glanced at Wang Lin, then floated into the rift. Wang Lin stayed silent and entered the rift as well.
Behind them, all the demonic cultivators followed suit.
But right as they were about to enter the crack, it started to close up. In the blink of an eye, the rift disappeared without a trace. Besides Wang Lin and Dou Mu, no one else entered.
As the rift folded, what appeared before Wang Lin wasn’t the Blood Sea he expected, but a space illuminated by a dark purple light.
This space wasn’t large, only about a hundred feet in each direction. Floating in the four corners were some strangely shaped instruments. Waves of gentle light emitted from them.
Next to each instrument sat a cultivator, each one cultivating next to an instrument. Their figures looked like Dou Mu’s. They kept their human forms and didn’t turn into demons. Wang Lin scanned the area and counted a total of nine people, all cultivating in the room.
The moment the two entered, all the cultivators opened up their eyes. One by one, they activated multiple techniques on each of the instruments, causing purple light to shine from them.
Dou Mu turned around. His unblinking eyes were fixated on Wang Lin.
Wang Lin took a few steps back. His pupils suddenly contracted. He placed his right hand near his bag of holding as he stared at the person in front of him. This was very different from what he expected.
One of the nine cultivators said, “Dou Mu, we can’t support this for long, three hours at the most. Quickly, explain everything.”
Golden light shot out of Dou Mu’s eyes while he stared at Wag Lin. He said, “Little guy, you managed to disappear. Why did you appear again?”
Wang Lin frowned. He stared at Dou Mu. Right as he was about to speak, his left hand formed a seal. His left hand swiped behind him using the Heaven Technique, which he learned from the Ancient God Tactic. It allowed him to go anywhere in the Ancient God’s body.
The moment the rift appeared before Wang Lin, a purple light shot out from one of the instruments and destroyed it.
Dou Mu’s expression was calm. There was no hint of emotion.
Wang Lin’s heart sank. He stared at Dou Mu and slowly said, “To leave the Land of the Ancient God.”
A tall red faced cultivator said, frowning, “DouMu, you always say things too slowly. Little guy, let me tell you; the moment the seal on Ta Sen is removed, everyone here will die. He is the only person who will leave.”
“Back then, 11 of us arrived on this wild planet. We originally planned to create a residence here. But we didn’t expect to find that this place contained Ling Qi of the Ancient God. After I investigated a bit, I met a cultivator named Ta Sen outside of the Ancient God’s body. This person’s cultivation was very strong. Even with all of us working together, we weren’t a match for him.” The red haired old man’s voice grew louder. He talked very quickly. As soon as he finished speaking, another cultivator raised his head and gloomly said,
“This Ta Sen didn’t kill us, but invited us to enter this Land of the Ancient God. This person understood the Land of the Ancient God very well. He had a perfect handle on the three realms. According to him, he had been in the land of the Ancient God for a long time, but sadly, he was blocked by the door of the last level.”
“He invited us to help him break through the last level. Although the chance of an inheritance was low, the temptation was too great. Although we couldn’t beat him, we knew of a formation that, once activated, could defeat even him. Only, after using this formation, we would lose a lot of our cultivation.”
“The trip into the Ancient God’s body that that person schemed was deep, but we were not people that were easily messed with. We were prepared for him. In the end, we eventually cleared the last level, but all of it seemed too strange. The last level was clearly a seal, and its power was great. It took us a very long time to get past it. It seemed the Ancient God used it to seal something away. If it wasn’t for that person understanding the seal so well, even if the method to break the seal was given to us, we weren’t sure we could break it. After the seal was broken, we could tell that the person named Ta Sen changed, but couldn’t tell what about him changed.”
“We successfully entered the Ancient God’s body. Ancient God Tu Si really was a genius. He really did leave behind an inheritance. In the Qi Sea, we saw the inheritance of power, but before we could even fight for it, it disappeared before our eyes. It was taken by Ta Sen.”
“After that person obtained the inheritance of the Ancient God’s power, he suddenly started to laugh hysterically. But at the same time, within the Qi Sea, a giant appeared and started a huge battle with him. Then, an even more strange thing occurred; that person knew all of the giant’s techniques. In the end, the giant lost and split into two. One half formed the Dead Soul Sea and the other started a very powerful divine technique.”
“That person was clearly unfamiliar with the technique. I remember that he said, “There is nothing you know that I don’t.” But this divine technique, he clearly didn’t know it. The Ancient God’s soul split into thousands of pieces and entered that man’s body, forming thousands of seals on his body, before imprisoning him in the Blood Sea.
“We thought everything was over and didn’t dare to stay any longer, so we all quickly left. But the nightmare had only just started. Only one of us eleven managed to successfully leave this place. The rest of us were grabbed by demonic hands that reached out from rifts that appeared into the Blood Sea.
“Ta Sen was too scary. He immediately thought of a way to break the thousands of seals on his body. Each seal was basically a fragment of the Ancient God Tu Si’s soul. He forcibly took some fragments and inserted them into us.”
“In the countless years, every few thousand years, there would be a few cultivators that arrived here. They were all captured by him and had part of the seal embedded in them. Even though many people came together, he would always allow one lucky person to leave. This was so more people could come in the future.”
“As there were more and more cultivators, the seals on Ta Sen decreased. The good thing was that the later cultivators were different from us. Their cultivation was low, so they couldn’t fuse with the fragments of the Ancient God’s soul. Many cultivators could only handle one seal on their body, so the process of Ta Sen’s seal removal became slower and slower.”
“But he really was a genius. After seeing that his method was slowing down, he came up with another idea; the soul devourer!”
“Before this, we didn’t even know what kind of creature a soul devourer was, but Ta Sen seemed to know. He sent us demonic cultivators to go catch a soul devourer to devour the soul fragments within his body.”
“This method was very effective, but after the soul devourer devoured a certain amount it, he would need to sleep. That method didn’t achieve Ta Sen’s desired result, so he came up with the idea of raising his own soul devourer. So he helped Lord Shi Zhe, who was a wandering soul, to grow toward becoming a soul devourer.”
“Originally, for Lord Shi Zhe to become a soul devourer, it would take a very long time, but now that you appeared, everything has changed.”
Each of the ten people, besides a wrinkly faced old man that looked like he had just crawled out of a grave, narrated part of that story. This caused Wang Lin to be very surprised, but he didn’t believe it all.
“There is still one every important point that we are still wondering about; that is the identity of Ta Sen. Why is he so familiar with the Ancient God’s body? After observing him for countless years, we guessed that that Ta Sen isn’t human like us, but a demon formed from the resentment of the dying body of the Ancient God.” That last sentence was said by Dou Mu. His expression was calm.
If Wang Lin obtained the complete inheritance of knowledge, he would know if all of this was true or false, but now, after hearing such a scary idea, he couldn’t help but change his expression.
“Only this can explain why when he invited us to enter the Ancient God’s body all those years ago, he was so familiar with the place and why we felt that had he changed after we broke the seal. That seal was clearly one that us cultivators used to seal away demons when they enter our bodies. This would also explain why all the techniques used by the giant were known by Ta Sen. After all, just obtaining the inheritance of power is pointless. Only after obtaining both inheritances would one have the power of the Ancient God. All this speculation only pointed to one thing; that person is either the Ancient God Tu Si or the Demon God Tu Si!”
As Dou Mu’s words sank in, Wang Lin sucked in a breath. A thought flashed through his head, but he stayed silent.
“I really don’t need to cheat you. If you charge into the Blood Sea, you’ll become a tool just like the soul devourer in the third realm, and once the seal is broken, you will die.”
Wang Lin silently pondered for a while, then he sneered, “Death? I assume that by death you mean when my soul dissipates. If the story you guys told is true, when that person is free, won’t he just take the soul fragments back?
Dou Mu’s group stayed silent.
Among the ten people, the old man who hadn’t said a word let out a light cough. He said, in a gentle tone, “Fellow cultivator is indeed smart. Once Ta Sen obtains the inheritance of knowledge, he will retrieve the soul fragments in our bodies to allow his soul be to complete again. In all these years, the soul fragments have fused with our souls. To take them back would be the same as devouring our souls. Friend, helping us is helping yourself, however, I won’t ask you to help for free. If you agree, I’ll have a gift for you.”
Wang Lin didn’t accept. He secretly considered how credible the things these people said were.
Dou Mu gave Wang Lin a cold glance and said, “Junior, don’t think we have to rely on you. We could always just kill you to avoid any trouble in the future.”
A dark faced cultivator sneered, “Time is almost up, and what was needed to be said has been said. Since this kid continues to be so thickheaded, I might as well lay down a restriction. Although it could create some inconveniences, it would make controlling him a lot easier.”
After Wang Lin heard this, he thought of a sarcastic remark. If such a restriction could actually work, these old guys wouldn’t spend so much time talking to him. The moment he appeared, they would have used the restriction to control him.
Wang Lin mulled over it a little and guessed why they didn’t use the restriction. It seemed no restriction would go unnoticed by the red haired man.
These peoples’ purpose couldn’t be this simple. Like Sky Devil Magician, they must’ve had their own hidden plans.
Wang Lin calmly said, “What do you guys want me to do?”
The old man full of wrinkles heard what Wang Lin said and his heart skipped a beat. This person didn’t ask what the reward was, but first asked what the task was. It seemed that this person was extremely calm and wouldn’t be easily moved.
The old man slowly said, “Enter the Blood Sea. After Ta Sen removes the seal, he will directly enter the Dead Soul Sea. Once he opens up the Dead Soul Sea, you must enter the Dead Soul Sea and use a technique. It’s that easy. As for what technique, it’s the sealing technique the giant formed by the Ancient God’s soul used. I studied that technique for countless years and have a 30% success rate. If you use it, you have a 70% chance of succeeding because you are a soul devourer. All the soul fragments you absorb will listen to you.”
Wang Lin sneered. He gloomily said, “With my cultivation of only Jie Dan, it is but a dream to seal Ta Sen.”
The old man let out a laugh and said, “Of course, we aren’t letting you perform the seal, but will let you control the soul fragments which will trigger the Dead Soul Sea again. Based on my predictions, the Dead Soul Sea will seal up again and completely seal Ta Sen within.
“If you agree, it doesn’t matter if it succeeds or not, I’ll give you a gift. I obtained this object after much hardship. After searching many ancient texts, I finally found the name of this object; it’s Huan Yuan Beast Trap. Any animal in the world could be controled by it for a short period of time, but its origin is unknown. In theory, if you have enough Ling Qi, even immortal beasts, if trapped by the circle, could be used by you. But when using this circle, the stronger the beast trapped within, the more Ling Qi it requires, and if you want to trap an immortal beast, then the amount of Ling Qi it requires is unimaginable. When I received it all those years ago, I tried it once but failed. However, before I could try a second time, I had already been trapped here.