As they heard that s.h.i.+ Yan wanted to help them catch the dead souls, the five people of Tie Mu’s group didn’t show that they were happy. Quite the contrary, they all wore panic-stricken faces.
"It"s too dangerous. We"d better not go there. We can wait for another chance to catch the dead souls. If we lose our lives, it will be too bad." Tie Mu shook his head continually. He seemed to have an extreme fear of that area.
s.h.i.+ Yan was surprised. "What do you fear?"
"Not only low-level dead souls, there should be some at high levels there as well. If we have to go there, we can’t endure them for sure," Tie Mu smiled miserably.
"s.h.i.+ Yan, you shouldn"t take risks. It"s easy to deal with the low-level dead souls, but it"s tough to deal with the high-level ones. You shouldn"t go," Cherry advised with a low voice.
People living in the Dead Soul Mountain all knew that the dead souls were dangerous. If they encountered the low-level ones, they could use the Rock Panacea to secure their souls, preventing them from being eroded. However, the high-level dead souls could directly penetrate into the warriors’ Sea of Consciousness to nib their souls, despite the pellet they had taken.
If they weren"t at Spirit Realm, it would be tough to defend the soul-erosion effect of the high-level dead souls.
Be it Cherry or Tie Mu, they only had the Sky Realm cultivation base. Once they faced a high-level dead soul, they couldn"t save their soul from being eroded by the dead soul, even if they had the Rock Panacea. Once their soul started to be eroded, they couldn"t urge any beam of energy to counter. At that time, they could only gawk at the dead soul feasting on their souls. Eventually, their souls would be destroyed.
Thus, when she heard that the area had the high-level dead souls coming back and forth, Cherry also felt scared. She didn"t want to go there.
s.h.i.+ Yan had the Nine Serenities Soul Devouring Flame and the Five Devils protecting him, so he wasn’t afraid of the dead souls. When he knew Tie Mu’s group didn’t want to lead the way, he frowned, thought for a second, and then said, "Alright, then you can just show me the exact direction. I’m going there alone."
"You shouldn’t take such risks," advised Cherry.
s.h.i.+ Yan’s face was still cold and persistent.
Tie Mu contemplated. Under the attraction of the dead souls, he pointed towards a shade of a mountain in the South-West. "There’s a cave hiding behind a big pine. When you get there, you should be more careful. The dead souls often travel through the entrance. Inside the cave is gloomy; of course, there are more dead souls there."
As the four other disciples of the Radiant G.o.d Cult heard that s.h.i.+ Yan wanted to take the risk, they all made it clear that they didn"t want to accompany him. They showed him respect, but kept a distance from him.
"And you?" s.h.i.+ Yan smiled at Cherry, "Are you afraid of high-level dead souls, too?"
"I’m just an alchemist," nodded Cherry. She then answered him soundly. "Fighting is not my strength. Especially in a fight with dead souls, I can’t be of help to you."
Regarding powers and strength, the alchemists were one level lower than the normal warriors, and their knowledge and cultivation of soul weren’t as deep as the warriors who had specialties.
In the Dead Soul Mountain range, some high-level dead souls loved to trouble the alchemists.
Since the endurance of the alchemists’ souls was weak, when they seized the chance, they could attack the alchemists’ soul easily, much easier than attacking the ordinary warriors.
s.h.i.+ Yan would never force Cherry if she were reluctant. He nodded while smiling, "Alright, you can stay here. After I grab some dead souls, I’ll come back here to find you."
"You should be careful. The three recent ones were just the low-level dead souls. It’s not easy to deal with the high-level ones." Cherry could see that her advice was no use, so she could only reluctantly see him off. "And, although the high-level dead souls rarely appear, it doesn’t mean that there are none of them dwelling in the Dead Soul Mountain range. If you have the bad luck of meeting up the highest level dead soul, I advise you not to trust your luck. Run away as fast as you can… Never linger. Usually, the strong dead souls can’t operate too far from the evil lairs. As long as you can run fast enough, and far enough from the dead souls’ evil lairs, I think the highest level dead souls won’t chase after you."
"So, are there any distinctive differences between the normal dead souls and the highest level dead souls?"
"Yeah, but we can’t identify it," Cherry shook her head. "According to my master, when your soul cultivation base reaches a certain level, you can use your Soul Consciousness to sense the differences between them. Warriors who encountered the highest level dead souls almost have no chance to run away. One or two of them had successfully escaped, but they wouldn’t want to share the details they had observed. So, the others couldn"t know much."
It was no help at all. s.h.i.+ Yan smiled, and didn’t continue. He waved his hand at Cherry, then departed in the direction Tie Mu had shown him.
It was an area covered with thick, dark gray clouds, like a gray curtain that hindered people’s vision. s.h.i.+ Yan released his Soul Consciousness, and immediately found that his sensing was weakened, as he could only sense the soul fluctuations within hundreds of meters around him. His Soul Consciousness couldn’t extend any further.
s.h.i.+ Yan became more alert. He slowed down his flying speed and observed here and there cautiously. He also checked the s.p.a.ce underneath him.
The valley underneath him had vibrant bushes of Bone-picking gra.s.s, growing densely, just like the scythe of Death, waiting to harvest people’s lives.
Under the shade of the mountain ahead of him, cl.u.s.ters of gray clouds became thicker, which obstructed his vision and Soul Consciousness more.
Flows of cold and despondent aura flooded from ahead of him. It felt like some small, pale hands were stroking his body, making his hair rise simultaneously in fear.
Taking a deep breath, he didn’t hurry to intrude the place, but called the Earth Flame and asked it to fly in front of him, in case some dangerous dead souls would ambush him.
The Earth Flame was like a small sun, s.h.i.+ning a blazing light and scorching heat, which washed away the cold. It turned into a beautiful firing line, leading the way.
s.h.i.+ Yan activated the Star s.h.i.+eld and the Dark Light s.h.i.+eld. Covered in two protection layers, he quietly gathered his power, flying cautiously behind the Earth Flame at a moderate speed, always on alert.
Fifteen minutes later, he arrived at the place Tie Mu mentioned, the shaded area of the mountain.
A big pine tree that needed five people to circle appeared near the cliff. The tree looked like a giant monster under the shade of the mountain, which could ferociously swallow all creatures. Flows of sinister and cold air flooded out from the place hidden behind the pine tree. Sometimes, people could see the little luminous green spots fly out like the jack-o’-lanterns floating and disappearing into thin air.
The flying speed of the Earth Flame suddenly became sluggish, just like an extremely slow snail.
"Something’s there…" The Earth Flame was quite intelligent. As it sensed something abnormal, it immediately sent him a message.
"Yeah, I know there should be something. Could you sense what it is exactly?" replied s.h.i.+ Yan.
"I don’t know. I have never seen this kind of a creature before. They don’t have a tangible body. They are sinister and hostile. They want to take everything…" the Earth Flame was uncertain, so its description was unclear.
Roar Roar Roar!
The floating Five Devils suddenly became excited. They meandered over his body just like tentacles. Half of their bodies coiled around his waist, and the other half was probing around, just like the strange snakes ready to attack.
Swoos.h.!.+
The Ice Cold Flame turned into a bunch of crystal clear white lights, shooting out from the Blood Vein Ring. It then condensed into a block of ice crystal, covering his left arm and sending him its thoughts. "They are some sorts of evil souls. I have never met such things before. They don"t belong in this continent, either. This kind of evil souls are bloodthirsty, and they have a strong possessive desire. It seems they can erode creatures’ souls. That’s all I can sense… I’m not sure I could sense further…"
s.h.i.+ Yan’s brows slammed together. He became more careful, adjusting his speed as slow as the Earth Flame.
Eventually, he bypa.s.sed the pine tree, and saw a cave hiding behind the root of the tree. The entrance was small, but the shutter looked big. It was really dark, and he could see nothing but the vague green light inside. The green light was despondent, which suited the place’s ambiance pretty well. This made people sink into an extremely depressing feeling.
Whiz Whiz Whiz!
The Five Devils were like demonic beasts who had smelled the fresh scent of blood, turning into a think group of gray smoke and drilling into the cave.
s.h.i.+ Yan’s discolored, but he couldn’t stop them timely. He sped up, das.h.i.+ng towards the cave.
"Don’t go!"
The Earth Flame and the Ice Cold Flame sent him their thoughts simultaneously. They seemed to be terrified.
At the same time, the Five Devils, who had been eagerly entering the cave, were turning back to s.h.i.+ Yan with a faster speed. Seemed like they had seen something really intimidating. Each of them showed itself, trying to get back into his body.
However, it seemed there was a strong suction force coming from the cave, trying to draw them back. They tried to struggle, but couldn’t get out of the cave.
In the entrance, a green light suddenly brightened fiercely. Thanks to that evil, gloomy green light, s.h.i.+ Yan finally saw what were inside the cave.
Inside the unknown-deep cave, countless deep green dead souls gathered. There was a dozen of them at the entrance.
Entering deep inside, the dead souls there were like a green dye clutching on the stone wall. They were seeming as if they were suddenly awakened.
At the deepest place of the entrance, s.h.i.+ Yan vaguely saw something like a big chunk of meat, which had many small holes drilling into the block, where blood was bleeding unceasingly. Under the chunk of meat were piles of many dead warriors. The base of the meat block extended into the center of the dead body piles, as if it were sucking some kind of energy from those corpses. The dead souls in the cave gathered around the meat block. It seemed they were guarding over it, which looked quite strange.
All of a sudden, an extremely gloomy and evil aura burst out from the other end of the cave. The green light inside became even more dazzling.
Gathering his spirit, s.h.i.+ Yan found that the dead souls inside the cave were connected to each other by green fibers, just like a big spider web. At the same time, when countless dead souls started swelling, they started to release the soul erosive energy which was invisible to naked eyes, entering s.h.i.+ Yan’s Sea of Consciousness.
At that short moment, he was dragged into illusions. He saw so many dead souls nibbling, tearing his body and sucking his blood. They wanted to drag him into the cave.
The Earth Flame burst out.
The Earth Flame which was as big as a palm abruptly released a scorching flame. The sea of fire torrentially flooded into the cave.
Numerous dead souls started to scream with a strange ‘Sss Sss’ sound, as if the Earth Flame was burning them to the acme of pain. Seizing the chance, the Five Devils struggled harder and escaped the cave, immediately hiding themselves in s.h.i.+ Yan’s Sea of Consciousness.
The moment the Five Devils got in his Sea of Consciousness, s.h.i.+ Yan didn’t think much, fleeing away with his max speed. Using Star Brilliance and Electric s.h.i.+ft, he turned into a flow of starlight, zooming over ten li like an arc light.