Chapter 55 Heart of Swords Palace’s Ten Malefic Weapons
Another four or five days passed, Zhong Yue got up from his bed and walked around, his ribs were fully recovered and the wounds were all healed leaving only faint marks of scars, the only thing was that he could still feel vaguely feel some vestigial pain in his chest when he breathed.
It would take at least half a year for an ordinary man to recover from such heavy injuries, but his body was countless times stronger than the ordinary humans, in addition to the high-quality medicines of Swords Gate, he was able to fully recover in such a short while.
The next time I go for a training trip, I must bring some of these medicines.
Zhong Yue moved his muscles and bones around, the Qi Practitioner outside of the door saw him exercising and he walked in smiling, “Junior martial brother your wounds are all healed? You are indeed a physique-refiner, your body is stronger than the others and is able to recover quicker than the others. If I’m in your position, I’m afraid I will have to lay on the bed for another few days before I recover.”
“Junior martial brother?”
Zhong Yue was startled, he smiled and replied, “This junior martial uncle….”
The Qi Practitioner quickly stopped his words and said, “It is fine for junior martial brother to acknowledge me as Senior Martial Brother Gu, please don’t call me junior martial uncle. You have acquired the first place in the Lawless Battles and is destined to be a Qi Practitioner, according to the rules, all of the upper house disciples will have to acknowledge you as their junior martial uncle. But before you enter the Ethereal Palace, the elders would like to meet you. Junior martial brother, please follow me.”
The elders would like to meet me?
Zhong Yue’s heart shifted, he stood up and followed behind. He knew that the prowess he had shown during the battle between him and Tian Myriad Mother had caused a surge of distrust among the Swords Gate elders.
An ordinary disciple from mediocrity that spent five or six years cultivating before entering the upper house, but in months, his prowess had ballooned to the point that he was able to claim the name of strongest upper house disciples, such a cultivation speed was too good to be true, sure enough he would attract the attention of the Swords Gate elders.
“Senior Martial Brother Gu, the medicine that was applied to my wounds, can I exchange them from the Swords Gate?”
The Senior Martial Brother Gu led the way and they slowly walked out from the upper house towards the inner hall of Swords Gate, he smiled and answered, “This medicine is known as the Lingyu Paste, it was made with various kinds of medicinal herbs by the Qi Practitioners, you can indeed exchange it from the Valley of Remedy of the inner and outer halls of Swords Gate. If it is applied to the normal wounds such as injuries to the muscles and tendons, it will take a day or so to recover and heal. While if it is the major wounds like how you were a few days ago, resting for tens of days will also have the wounds fully healed. Junior martial brother your body physique is stronger than the others, which is why you are able to recover this quickly.”
He paused for a moment before continuing while shaking his head, “But the Shui Tu Clan young lady is not that lucky, her neck was nearly slashed off by you, I hear that the elder was only able to heal her neck by opening her neck and poured a pot of the medicine onto the wound.”
Zhong Yue said in an indifferent tone, “Her prowess is not weaker than mine, she is probably all healed up now.”
Senior Martial Brother Gu nodded and said, “I hear that the junior martial sister of the Shui Tu Clan is recovering fast, she might just be fully healed up now, the elders requested to meet with you and at the at same time summoned her too.”
Zhong Yue’s heart shifted, the elders summoned him and also ‘Shui Qingyan’, could it be that they were also suspecting ‘Shui Qingyan’?
Not long later, they have come to the side of a steep escarpment, Zhong Yue glanced around, the steep escarpment was a few miles wide and the bottom of the cliff lurked with surges of dark black rays. In the escarpment there was an ever-present evil and demonic aura, Zhong Yue lowered his head and as the dark black rays entered his sights, an extreme dizziness struck Zhong Yue as if his soul was getting sucked into the bottom of the escarpment!
Billowing waves of dark black rays surged and lurked their way up to the escarpment, but every time the dark waves gushed its way up there would be totem carvings at the slopes of the escarpments emerging out and suppressed the malevolent dark rays. The totem carvings were complex, majestic and awe-inspiring.
This air, this aura, it feels so familiar….
Zhong Yue’s heart shifted, he immediately recognized where he had felt it before, “The Devil Soul Yin Effluvium! These dark black rays, their aura is the same as the Devil Soul Yin Effluvium!”
Just right the moment when the dark black rays were suppressed, he could see flesh and blood all around the escarpment from the bottom to the top, without skins, this flesh and blood were squirming their way up to the escarpment as if they were trying to crawl out it.
“What is at the bottom of this escarpment?”
Zhong Yue repressed his shock, in his inner mind Xin Huo was all pumped up, he glanced around through Zhong Yue’s eyes and exclaimed out, “The devil souls, they are really repressed here. Hehe, this is surely the seals of the gods, Swords Gate is established on top of an active volcano, a moment of neglect could have turned everything into ash and dust….”
“These seals are not placed by Swords Gate Qi Practitioners?” Zhong Yue’s calmed heart was again disrupted, he quickly asked.
“The Swords Gate Qi Practitioners are not strong enough to repress these underground devil souls.”
Xin Huo shook his head and said, “The totem carvings below are the seals of the gods, the gods have turned their psyches and images into totem carvings, that is why they are able to repress whatever is underneath. I suppose the Devil Soul Yin Effluvium only got triggered because there is a crack in the seals, thankfully it is not in Swords Gate or otherwise, Swords Gate would be in deep trouble.”
Senior Martial Brother Gu smiled and said, “Junior martial brother, below this escarpment, is the forbidden land of Swords Gate, there is a force of strange power that can wipe off every art and skill above it, not a single technique can be cast right here. To cross the escarpment to the other side, we can only wait for the Croc Dragon.”
“Croc Dragon?”
Zhong Yue was puzzled, there were two swords gates on each side of the escarpments with clouds billowing in between them, Senior Martial Gu led him to one of the swords gates and he rang the copper gong that was dangling in the wind. Dang dang – a deep and yet bright sound echoed, in the clouds, a giant crocodile made its appearance and swam over, it had wings and flew in the air towards the source of the echoing sounds of the gong.
The crocodile was like a floating island, Zhong Yue looked at it, it had four eyes and on its back were a few pairs of wings, its conformation was weird and peculiar.
No one could visualize any arts around the escarpments, thence the wings on the crocodile’s back were not visualizations but rather flesh and blood wings, it could fly in the air and therefore the strange power that represses every technique had no effect on it.
The duo jumped onto the crocodile’s back, Senior Martial Gu said with a smile, “Croc Dragon, please bring us up to the mountain.”
The giant crocodile nodded and its wings fluttered, it turned around and flew towards Swords Gate on the other side of the escarpment, in a deep and yet loud voice it said, “Brother Gu, this little brother is looking unfamiliar, is he a new Qi Practitioner?”
Senior Martial Gu smiled and answered, “This is Junior Martial Brother Zhong from the Zhong Shan Clan, he has claimed the first place in the Lawless Battles.”
“I see.”
The giant crocodile said, “To be able to claim the throne out of a few thousands of disciples, one must be very talented. Zhong Shan Clan's member, if you eventually manage to strive to the sky, please don’t forget to look after the Croc Dragon.”
Zhong Yue nodded and answered.
The giant crocodile shook its head and swung its tail, its wings fluttered in the wind and brought the two up to the other side of the escarpment. When Senior Martial Brother Gu and Zhong Yue landed down safely, the giant crocodile flew back into the clouds and disappeared from their sights.
“Junior Martial Brother Zhong, the escarpment is the dividing line between the inner hall and outer hall, pass through the boundary of the escarpment and you are an inner hall disciple.”
Senior Martial Brother Gu said, “The Croc Dragon is the guardian of the escarpment, do not belittle him because he is of the monster race. He is already over hundreds of years old, a mutant among the monster race that lived in the Lei Hu Clan, he was later brought over to Swords Gate by the Leihu Qi Practitioners to guard the escarpment. Junior martial brother, the Valley of Swords is just right in front, the elders are waiting for you in the Hearts of Swords Palace.”
Zhong Yue walked into the Valley of Swords, the high-pitched keening of swords could be heard accompanied by the flashing sword rays. Vaguely, Zhong Yue could tell that the sword rays were actually soul weapons, they clashed with each other in mid-air and loomed over across the air, they would often turn into a multitude of forms such as fishes, birds, and beasts – the scene was fairly strange.
“The Valley of Swords is can be called the final resting place of the soul weapons that formerly belonged to the elders. All these soul weapons were left behind by the previous elders, some elders died centuries or even millennia ago but their soul weapons continue on living in this valley.”
Senior Martial Brother Gu said, “The Ten Malefic Weapons are also sealed here. Ordinarily, we the inner hall disciples would have no access to the Valley of Swords. We are here today because the elders wanted to meet with Junior Martial Brother Zhong here, only then could I have the chance to enter this place.”
“The Ten Malefic Weapons?”
Zhong Yue’s heart skipped a beat, he glanced around and asked, “Where are they?”
“Sealed in the Hearts of Swords Palace, the inner hall disciples can’t even enter the Valley of Swords, not to mention entering the Hearts of Swords Palace to have a look at the Ten Malefic Weapons. This time, junior martial brother, you are summoned by the elders to the Hearts of Swords Palace, there are so many disciples out there that are envious of you.”
Senior Martial Brother Gu led him to the entrance of the Hearts of Swords Palace, he bowed and said, “Elder Yu, Zhong Yue of the Zhong Shan Clan has arrived.”
When the doors of Hearts of Swords Palace opened widely, it feels like as if there were countless rays of Sword Qi that rushed out from the Palace, they shuddered as if the Sword Qi could really hurt their souls.
“Let him come in.” an old and yet loud voice said.
Senior Martial Brother Gu whispered to him, “Junior Martial Brother Zhong, Elder Yu is the grand elder of Swords Gate, you must not lose your formalities after you enter. Junior martial brother,I will not accompany you to enter the Palace.”
Zhong Yue thanked him and strode forward into the Hearts of Swords Palace.
The moment he entered the Palace, he could see a fifty feet wide and eighty feet tall shrine beside him. On it, a soul weapon was enshrined, it was few dozen feet long and pierced into the shrine at an oblique angle, it looked like a sword and a saw, the edges of the dark-red blade were serrated and were rusted with dried blood stains.
“Blood Ray Sword, ranked number nine among the Ten Malefic Weapons, the soul weapon of Lei Hu Clan’s Lei Fang, it was soaked in blood for too long, eventually giving birth to an evil spirit inside of it. It was a baneful sword that defied and devoured its owners; it’s killed ten of its previous masters.”
Zhong Yue was shocked by the tidal surges of demonic aura surrounded the Blood Ray Sword as a demon lived in the sword enticing the humans to worship it and soak it in blood!
“Demon Scabbard, ranked number ten in the Ten Ominous Weapons.”
Zhong Yue saw another shrine on the other side, a sword scabbard of a man’s height stood on it, there was fresh blood flowing out from the bottom of the sword scabbard, it looked very wicked and pernicious.
“Soul weapon of Tian Feng Clan’s Tian Tuozi. In the sword scabbard, is contained 130 soul weapons as light as the cicada’s wings that goes by the moniker of the Soul Devourers and it has devoured eight masters.”
Zhong Yue was startled as he gazed at the Demon Scabbard, “This soul weapon also devours its masters?”
He walked forward and saw another shrine, this time, the shrine contained over sixty Sword Cocoons, his heart thumped quicker, “The Sword Cocoons!”
“Sword Cocoons, ranked number eight in the Ten Malefic Weapons, the soul weapon of Shui Tu Clan’s Shui Zian, a total of sixty-four soul weapons, blood-soaked for too long and exhibited elementary signs of devouring its master, hence, they are now sealed in the shrine.”
Zhong Yue inhaled deeply, he mumbled, “Such strong soul weapons can only be ranked as number eight in the Ten Malefic Weapons, then how strong would the first seven ominous soul weapons be?”
“If you think that the first seven ominous soul weapons are stronger than the Sword Cocoons, then I am afraid you are wrong.”
A white-haired elder came out of nowhere and walked to the side of Zhong Yue, hairs on his timeworn face were winter-white, he said in a casual manner, “The Sword Cocoon sword silk was placed at number eight but it is not any weaker than the others. Rather, it is actually much stronger, it only was placed at number eight for the reason that it had yet to spawn an evil spirit, therefore, its name was not as famous as the others.”
“Zhong Yue of the Zhong Shan Clan, greets the grand elder.” Zhong Yue bowed and greeted the elder in a manner of neither humble nor pert.
The white-haired elder was the grand elder from the You Yu Clan, he raised his arm and made a gesture as he said, “Rise. The Sword Cocoons sword silk is incredibly strong, that is why I summoned you here, to see how can a disciple without the prowess of a Qi Practitioner can survive so long under the onslaught of the Sword Cocoon and even more so manage to nearly killed his opponent!”