Chapter 117 Gods That Followed Into The Grave
Anyone of the monster race is unreliable. The only one I can rely on is myself. Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei are monsters with strong backgrounds, but I’ve no such privileges.
Rays flashed in Zhong Yue’s eyes, he was very cognizant of how tenuous his identity as a dragon race was. He thought, The Awakening Qi Practitioners are too strong, the level of Awakening is only one step higher than the Rebirth level, and yet that Lian Shan giant rhinoceros was so strong despite only having opened the Wu Xing Wheel. I need to urgently increase my strength, otherwise, I have no chance to stand against the Awakening Qi Practitioners!
The level of Awakening was one of the biggest watersheds that demarcated a qualitative leap in strength among the levels of cultivation. It was also one of the most important ones. It would open the five realms within the cultivator’s atman to enable them to harvest the powers from the realms, and acquire the Combat Yuan Shen. Zhong Yue had clearly bore witness to such strength and power endowed by the Combat Yuan Shen in his short confrontation with an Awakening Qi Practitioner just now.
Rebirth and Awakening were a level apart; it was hard for him to engage in a frontal battle with the Awakening Qi Practitioners.
But he had seen a glimpse of hope, that was the twin spirit in him, more so that they were the strongest twin spirits. After achieving the state of [Spirit Soul As One], it would then be a long and arduous journey of nourishing the atman, strengthening it to the peak and in the end, advancing into the level of Awakening.
And he was now only at the elementary phase of level of Rebirth. His atman was only an inch tall, and when he nourishes his atman to about seventy feet high, then he could start opening the wheels and acquire the Combat Yuan Shen for himself.
His atman was continuously burgeoning and thriving, his cultivation base was also increasing unceasingly. He might just be able to contend with the Awakening experts when he ascends to the peak of Rebirth!
After half a day’s time, the skiff arrived at Xian Kong Saint City, Zhong Yue stared at the sacred land of the East Barren monster race from afar, his heart shuddered in shock.
The Xian Kong Saint City was a kind of its own, it was vastly disparate to the grandiose majesty of the Swords Gate. The saint city was built atop a dark black mountain, with eight hundred miles of land centered surrounding the city attached with thick and robust metal chains that tethered the saint city to the mountainsides.
And on the mountainsides themselves were mountains of smaller sizes, the mountain summits were sliced off clean by an unknown being to leave a flat plateau where cities of hundred miles in radius were built. There were a total of eight such cities atop such mountains.
Meanwhile, these smaller sized cities were also shackled with chains, with each of them having eight chains dangling down to the hills at the foot of the dark mountain – eight cities with sixty-four chains shackling down onto sixty-four hills.
The chains were thick and stout, and on the chains itselves, one could still vaguely distinguish the remnants of totem carvings.
“Brother Long Yue, is this the first time you’ve come to the Xian Kong Saint City?”
Hu Qimei glanced at Zhong Yue’s countenance, after all, the females were more conscientious of such details. She noticed the unusual aberrance in Zhong Yue’s emotions, she smiled and said, “This is the array formation of the Eight Extremities Deities Repression of Xian Kong Saint City, repressing the devil souls beneath this dark mountain of saint city.”
“Devil souls?”
Even with Zhong Yue’s placid disposition, he still couldn’t help but shout out involuntarily, “What devil souls?”
“I hear that its same as the ones in Great Wilderness Swords Gate, but the seal beneath Swords Gate was loosened, there is a crack allowing the Devil Soul Yin Effluvium to leak out and ravage the land.”
Yu Xuanji steered the skiff flying towards the saint city on the summit of the dark mountain, he said, “The seal underneath our saint city is well intact, so we are still safe as of now. This is also one of the reasons why we monsters are far more prosperous than the humans. The seal beneath Swords Gate is loosened, forcing every generation of Swords Gate headmaster to venture down into the abyss to secure a transient peace for the next generation in exchange for their lives.Otherwise, the Devil Soul Yin Effluvium would only get stronger and stronger with every occurrence. I hear that all of the Swords Gate headmasters died in the seal underground, whereas us monsters have the privilege of the countless treasures left behind the previous saint city city lords as they weren’t subject to the same damnation as the headmasters of the Swords Gate. Hence, it’s only natural for the posterity of the monster race to thrive in comparison to humanity's.”
Zhong Yue’s heart pounded in shock, but it was not because of the story about the headmasters sacrificing themselves to suppress the seal, but the fact that even the sacred land of the monster race had a Devil Soul Forbidden Land!
“Two forbidden lands? East Barren and the Great Wilderness?”
In his psyche ocean, Xin Huo was also puzzled, he mumbled, “What’s going on? Could there also be countless gods that died here in the Devil Soul Forbidden Land? Were their spirits also taken away? Wait, something's not right….”
He seemed to have recalled something, Zhong Yue beseeched, “What’s not right?”
“If these gods didn’t die in battles, then what other reason is there for them to sacrifice themselves?”
The little flame was burning brighter, he blurted out, “There’s only one reason that can make so many gods die at the same time! That is a sacrificial burial!”
“Sacrificial burial?”
Zhong Yue’s atman shuddered, he shouted out involuntarily, “Sacrificing the gods? What kind of person has the capability to do that?”
“Not a person ... but a god!”
Xin Huo’s face was solemn and serious, he said, “Do you still remember the coffins in the Devil Soul Forbidden Land? If it’s a battlefield, how could there be so many coffins? It must be that a great existence was dying, and had prepared the coffins for these pseudo gods and pseudo demons for a sacrificial burial!”
“So you’re saying, that beneath my Swords Gate is a tomb?” Zhong Yue mumbled.
And if it was really a tomb, then its size and the identity of the graveyard’s owner would be something beyond his imagination!
“It might be that the undergrounds of the Great Wilderness and East Barren are just separate parts of the same tomb.”
Xin Huo squinted his eyes and said, “The two Devil Soul Forbidden Lands are almost analogous to one another in terms of structure, suggesting that they are just different parts of the same tomb. Weird ... what had happened all these years when I was slumbering? The heaven and earth that was once so clear familiar, how exactly did they become so clouded now….”
Zhong Yue inhaled a deep breath of cold air, if Xin Huo’s conjecture was true, then it would be an incredibly terrifying truth, one that was beyond his imagination!
Thankfully, Xin Huo is always unreliable, so his hypotheses should likewise be equally unreliable or otherwise… Just thinking of it sent a chill down his spine.
“Brat Yue, let’s go into the forbidden land underneath the dark mountain, how’s that?”
Xin Huo was filled with excitement, “We might be able to discover more ancient secrets!”
Unfortunately, Zhong Yue threw cold water on this idea, “The seal here is not loosened like it is in the Swords Gate, how are you planning to get us out? Xin Huo, don’t you ever think about it again!”
Xin Huo turned despondent, curiosity engulfed him as if there were hundreds of cats scratching the inside of his heart, as his burning desire to immediately explore the forbidden land was doused the cold water of denial.
Xian Kong Saint City.
Zhong Yue walked on the street, he glanced around and his eyes were met with monster carvings that spread all over the place. Whether it was the totem pillars of the monsters or the statues, they all differed greatly from those of the humans.
Not only that, their abodes were also vastly different to those of humanity. The bird species monsters took the nest as their own abode; the beast species monsters were predisposed to cavernous structures; the aquatic monsters stayed in the water chambers; and there were more that lived underground, with others living on webs. It was all strangely odd – a situation of multitudinous and uncanny variations.
Other than that, Zhong Yue’s heart stiffened up as he also saw armies formed by monster Qi Practitioners, patrolling critical areas, and his heart stiffened up.
The monster race is indeed strong, they even have sufficient Qi Practitioners to form armies. It doesn’t need much, array formations formed by a few dozen Rebirth Qi Practitioners is enough to contend with Awakening experts. While at the Swords Gate inner hall, including the old and the frail, there is only a little over one thousand eight hundred people. In addition to the disciples of the hall masters and elders, there would only be at most three thousand Qi Practitioners fit for combat, a figure barely comparable to even three or four cities of the monster race.
He could not help but feel a burgeoning sense of crisis that threatened to gradually asphyxiate him. The monster race was still yet to combine in a united front, and although the City Lord of Xian Kong City was the crowned ruler of East Barren, the other three islands, four keeps and six cities all had their own respective powers and forces.
When the current headmaster dies; when the Xian Kong City Lord finally succeeded in uniting the East Barren into a focused and cohesive force, and when the time comes where he decides to march upon the Swords Gate ... that would be the day of the Swords Gate’s final reckoning in which the final bastion of humanity would face sure destruction..
This Xian Kong Saint City, really has a place where they trade human slaves….
Zhong Yue passed by a market in Xian Kong City and saw over hundreds of humans. The young and strong, and the ladies were all held captive in cages. Moreover, there were human Qi Practitioners that were manacled in chains that penetrated through their scapulas. His heart turned dejected and gloomy at the abject state of his brethren.
“Where do all these human Qi Practitioners come from?”
Zhong Yue asked Yu Xuanji, “By the look of it, they don’t seem like Qi Practitioners from the Great Wilderness.”
Yu Xuanji smiled, “Some were bought from the other barren lands, some were the slaves of the top monster clans, while the others were brought over from the far side of the ocean. It’s really hard to capture the Swords Gate Qi Practitioners as they’re usually sequestered in the Great Wilderness, refusing to come out at all. The only exceptions are the Shui Tu Clan messengers. But Shui Zian of the Shui Tu Clan enjoys a high status in our monster race, even the saint city lord treats him kindly. Hence, the Shui Tu Clan messengers are basically left untouched. Brother Long Yue, Qimei, let’s head over to the lord’s manor, I suppose most of the Rebirth Qi Practitioners from all over the places have arrived!”
Hu Qimei gazed at Zhong Yue, she suddenly voiced out a thought, “Brother Long Yue seems like you are very concerned about the humans.”
Zhong Yue smiled gently and replied, “We the dragon race have our secret methods to ascend to the level of gods through worship. I’ve plans to buy a batch of humans, so I can be fit enough to have my eyes on the godly levels in the future.”
Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei were stunned by his words, they were left completely speechless.
In fact, none of the monsters were able to maintain their composure after hearing what Zhong Yue said. Ascending to the level of god ... how impressively high would that breadth of spirit and verve be? The monster race has an inveterate reverence and awe towards the gods. After all, they were once the lowest of races in the ancient times, their sense of inferiority was already ingrained into their bones and passed down through generation after generation.
Tens of millennium slipped past, and the monster race had skyrocketed to usurp the place of humanity and myriad other races. But even so, an primal instinct for reverence would rise from the bottom of their souls when they hear the word about ‘gods’.
Saint city lord’s manor— Zhong Yue, Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei entered the manor, the seneschal received them, and after recording down their names, they were invited into the manor. He said, “There are already quite a lot of the young and formidable ones here, they are on the Ba Shui Bridge, studying the first obstacle set by the city lord.”
“What’s this first obstacle about?” Hu Qimei asked.
“You’ll know as soon as you reach it.”
The Ba Shui Bridge was constructed above the Ba Shui River, a river that was formed by a gushing spring that flowed out from inside of the mountain, running across the lord’s manor and through the saint city. The fragrance of the river water filled the air and white lotuses bloomed all over the river surface.
The three of them eventually reached the bridge. Although it was referred to as a bridge, there were many pavilions and arbors lining its sides. There were already over hundreds of young monster experts gathering here, some were accompanied with their tribal experts, some brought their own entourage of followers. The Ba Shui Bridge had at least four or five hundred monsters crowding here.
“We’ve killed too little….” Yu Xuanji gritted his teeth and said.
Killing intents flashed in Hu Qimei’s eyes, she softly plucked the lute strings, and immediately, the sights of countless experts from the different tribes, many of which were Awakening Qi Practitioners, converged towards her.. Hu Qimei received a great shock before she quickly retracted her killing intent.
Zhong Yue boarded the Ba Shui Bridge, he was met with the sight of all of the monster Qi Practitioners with their heads raised staring at a stone wall, it was engraved with esoteric totem carvings that intersect to form into marvelous patterns.
“Fragmentary god-level totem pattern!” In his psyche ocean, Xin Huo who was seeing through his eyes exclaimed in a low voice.
Meanwhile, Yu Xuanji found the experts of Qing Long Keep and was asking for information, he then told Zhong Yue and Hu Qimei and said, “This pattern was left behind by the saint city lord, it’s the prologue of the 【Monster God Ming King Art】. The first hurdle is to examine the disciples’ talents and comprehensions, you’ll be considered as having passed once you have comprehended the abstrusity hidden within it.”
“And what exactly is counted as comprehending the abstrusity?” Hu Qimei asked curiously.