Immortal

Translated by Team DHH.

Book 2: The Golden Lock of the Eight Gates

Chapter 38: Gu Qianyou

Zhong Shan glared at Yinglan after she finished spelling on his palms, what a troublesome girl.

Yinlang stuck out her tongue in response and rolled her eyes. She had already decided in her mind that Zhong Shan did that on purpose.

"Ling-er, what happened to you? Were you crying?" Yun Qian returned, baffled. The others who followed him seemed to have the same question on their minds.

"No, Yun Qian Shixiong, you must be mistaken." Tianling-er smiled as if nothing had happened.

Only the four people around her knew what had happened, but they certainly couldn"t bring it up now.

Yun Qian was going to argue when Tiansha and Beiqingsi suddenly became alert, turning towards the northeast.  

There were three people flying over.

A woman was leading the way with two men wielding swords close behind. They were coming towards the mountain top where Zhong Shan was. What alarmed them was the way they were travelling.

There weren"t standing on flying swords, they were literally flying on the wind.

Only people at the Nascent Soul Stage were able to fly without any magic items. Even people who had reached the top level of the Gold Core Stage couldn"t fly without a magical item.

So the three of them were all at the Nascent Soul Stage?

Why were they coming here for? Who were they? Which School? All three of them?

No one in Zhong Shan"s group spoke as they prepared themselves.

The three came with the wind and lightly landed in front of them.

The woman at the front was very tall and wore a pair of beautiful boots on her slender long legs. She was wearing purple with a strong presence of confidence. No, actually, it was more like pride, an elegant pride.

The two behind her stood there swords at the ready, her bodyguards perhaps. They looked very simple and modest, but were not people to take lightly.

"Who are you?" Tiansha coldly asked with his hand firmly on his sword.

Tiansha was born with an air of arrogant confidence.

Everyone was eyeing the three before them. Zhong Shan squinted and for a second, he noticed that the woman in front had casually glanced at him. Did she know him?

The woman smiled slightly and with a wave of her hand, a ladle shaped, multi colored token suddenly appeared in her hand.

What was that?

"An Elder"s Decree? You are Elder Zixun?" Yun Qian called out with amazement.

Elder Zixun? Zixun? Zhong Shan was taken back when he heard the name. Zixun Fairy? The Zixun Fairy he had met after the Dragon Gate Tournament when he acquired the Hongluan Manual? The Zixun Fairy who had an one night stand with him? No, it wasn"t her.

"It"s not the Elder"s Decree from the Kaiyang School. Who are you?" Tiansha frowned.

The woman smiled at Tiansha, "I"m the elder from the Yuheng School. I"m Gu Qianyou."

"Yuheng School?" Both Tiansha and Beiqingsi frowned slightly.

"Qianbei, could I have a look at the token?" Tiansha had softened the tone of his voice.

The woman gave the token to one of the men behind her who then pa.s.sed the token to Tiansha.

Tiansha carefully looked it over before returning it to the man who then returned it to the woman.

"Kaiyang School, Tiansha, greetings to the elder of our ally."

"Greetings to the elder of our ally." All the others also bowed to the woman.

Zhong Shan didn"t say anything since he had no idea what was the elder of their ally. He could only guess from the wording, ally? The Kaiyang School was in alliance with another school? The Yueheng School?

The Kaiyang School was already a greater Immortal School and it still needed to form an alliance with another school?

However, from the short conversation, Zhong Shan did get some useful information out of it. He could be sure now that Zixun Fairy was from the Kaiyang School, even an elder, though he had never seen her there.

"What can we do for qianbei?" Tiansha asked Gu Qianyou.

"Are you not planning to break through the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation?" Gu Qianyou asked in response.

"Qianbei, you can tell us straight." Tiansha fixed his eyes on Gu Qianyou.

Gu Qianyou slightly smiled, "Alright, since our schools are allies, I"ll dispense with the formalities. I noticed that you have been here for some time now and even went into the formation before without any success. I believe you"re here for the legacy of the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation as well?"

Beiqingsi didn"t say anything since the only thing she wanted was evidence that could prove her father"s innocence.

Tiansha stared at Gu Qianyou for a while without replying, "I was only guessing before, but since you"ve already mentioned it, I can safely a.s.sume there"s a formation soul in this formation?

"I can"t guarantee that a formation soul is actually in there, it"s just a guess. You"ve already gone in before, could you break through it on your own?" There was a flash of evilness in Gu Qianyou"s eyes.

Tiansha remained silent! None of the other spoke either..

"This formation is very complicated. It"s impossible to break through it if there"s not enough people. Thus, I would like to form an alliance with you to break the formation together. Whoever is lucky enough to acquire the formation soul first gets to keep it, how about it?" Gu Qianyou gave a faint smile that exuded confidence. She believed with great conviction that Tiansha wouldn"t turn down the offer.

Tiansha held his tongue, looked at the qianbei in front of him and the others around him. He squinted then finally, looked back at Gu Qianyou, "What about the Spirit Stones inside the formation?"

"If you agree, we won"t touch any of the Spirit Stones in there. But you have to follow us to go in the formation." Gu Qianyou answered.

"Agreed." Tiansha immediately nodded.

With Tiansha"s promise, Gu Qianyou smiled with satisfaction, "Then follow me."

Gu Qianyou and her bodyguards flew towards the high mountain to the northeast.

Tiansha and Beiqingsi exchanged a look then instructed everyone to follow. Zhong Shan was flying with Yun Qian on his sword. Tianling-er had her red silk and Yinglan rode with Beiqingsi. The eleven of them all followed after Gu Qianyou.

On top of the mountain to the north of the formation, Gu Lin and Mr. Shuijing kept watching the direction where Princess Qianyou had gone to.

"Shuijing, didn"t you say that there"s no one in that group who has reached the Nascent Soul Stage? Then why do we need them for?" Gu Lin asked Mr. Shuijing with knitted eyebrows.

"Breaking through a formation is different than fighting in a martial arts compet.i.tion. Their usefulness won"t be any less than those at the Nascent Soul Stage. It all depends on how we arrange it. Take yourself for example, despite being only at the Gold Core Stage, it"s very likely that a person in the Nascent Soul Stage would die by your hands inside the formation." Mr. Shuijing spoke while waving his feather fan.

"En." Gu Lin nodded, happy with Mr. Shuijing"s answer for the first time.

It didn"t take long for everyone to land on the mountain top.

Zhong Shan stepped off of Yun Qian"s sword and peered at the group of people in front of them. A handsome teenager, a scholarly man with a feather fan, and a group of people who looked like guards.

All of whom looked quite arrogant. Even the guards seemed to look down on Zhong Shan"s group.

"Mr. Shuijing, I have brought the Kaiyang School people here. It"ll be all up to you to break through the formation now." Gu Qianyou told the man with the feather fan.

The man smiled lightly and walked over. The teenager only briefly looked at Beiqingsi, Tianling-er, and Tiansha, then turned to look at Gu Qianyou.

"Thanks for all your trouble, Princess." Mr. Shuijing nodded.

Princess? Everyone looked at Gu Qianyou in confusion.

"I"m Shuijing, a humble priest. You"re all from the Kaiyang School, do you have an idea on how to break the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation?" Mr. Shuijing suddenly asked after he looked over the Kaiyang group.

"I only know that the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation is a battle formation and not easy to break. We have already ventured inside not too long ago and it"s overly complicated." Tiansha answered with a frown.

Everyone behind Tiansha nodded.

Beiqingsi bit her lips without a word, though she had some understanding about the formation. Zhong Shan also kept silent, this was one of the times where he should keep a low profile.

"Qie ~ ~ ~ ~"

That teenager who hadn"t even bothered to look at Zhong Shan suddenly sneered, obviously not impressed by his response.

"The Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation has eight gates, Xiu, Sheng, Shang, Du, Jing, Si, Jing, and Kai. It"s a battle formation and constantly changes. Once the formation is formed, life and death can be exchanged and the general and soldier can be exchanged. There are endless transformations. To break through the formation, it"ll take a group of elite soldiers to go in from the Sheng Gate, disturb the formation, then come out from the Jing Gate. Only then can the main force rush into the Shang Gate to reach the dragon eye."

Yinglan opened her mouth without thinking when she saw the way the other group was looking down on them.

Zhong Shan looked toward her as soon as she started talking. He was pleased with Yinglan"s mastery of the art of war. She knew much more about the formation than him. Yinglan was talking about the formation she used on the battlefield before, the formation formed by an army of people, not the magical sand storm that they faced now. Yet, it didn"t matter at all. Zhong Shan felt very proud of her at that moment.