Chapter 317: Underground Palace
The stone pillar cracked and crumbled into gravel, rolling to the floor, burying Li Li underneath!
“Fifth Senior Sister!!” Du Huagang’s face was ashen at the result, in a flicker, he appeared above the palace building. With a sweep of his palm he blew the stone and gravel off Li Li, scooping her up, after which he landed on the side.
The two blue-robed middle-aged guards also rushed over to Li Li’s side. When they saw up close the magnitude of the halberd wound on her chest, all three drew in a sharp cold breath.
It was a penetrative wound, through and through, blood flowed out unceasingly. What horrified them even more was that at the edges of her wound, plumes of black flame corroded her flesh and even the sacred white phoenix flame was ineffective against them, thus failing to heal Li Li’s injury.
“This...!” Du Huaguang and the two men found it hard to believe what they were seeing.
A silhouette tore towards them, swinging a long halberd and creating another terrifying storm of halberd shadows. The three people looked over and saw Huang Xiaolong thrusting his halberd at them.
Neither Du Huagang nor the two men dared to confront the dangerous looking halberd head-on, in their moment of hesitation, the halberd had already pierced through Li Li’s throat.
Being helped to get up by Du Huagang and the middle-aged men, Li Li’s eyes lowered, staring at the long halberd stuck to her throat. Her mouth opened with difficulty, “You, you, dared to kill me?”
She never imagined that one day she would die in the hands of a Xiantian ant! Better yet, she had never imagined her death! Because of Silver Dragon Ao Gu’s existence, there were only so many people in the Bedlam Lands who dared to kill her.
“So what if I killed you?” Huang Xiaolong retorted without any changes to his expression, “I’ve said already, there is only one chance.” His hand then pulled out the Eminent Holiness Halberd, sidestepping some distance away.
Blood spewed out at high velocity, the White Phoenix sacred flame gradually dimmed.
Li Li desperately clutched at Du Huagang’s arm in her last moments, struggling with much effort to breathe out her last words intermittently, “Tell, Master, say, say I cannot take care of him anymore, tell him to kill, killㅡkill this person, a million, pieces!”
Du Huagang nodded fervently as tears rolled down his face. Finally, Li Li’s lifeless body slumped down.
“Fifth Senior Sister, Fifth Senior Sister!” Du Huagang cried out.
No answer came.
But, another noise of whistling wind sounded. Du Huagang turned back in alarm to see Huang Xiaolong’s hands no longer held the long halberd, instead, it was replaced why two black blades that emanated a frigid air, slas.h.i.+ng down at him.
Du Huagang face was ashen, panic and fear filled his eyes, but his hands shot out by reflex: “Dragon’s Fetter!” Abundant energy from his palm transformed into a rope that resembled dragon tendons, binding Huang Xiaolong.
However, before these dragon tendons could come close to Huang Xiaolong, they were cut apart with a wave of his blades. Almost instantly, the Blades of Asura slit his throat.
Huang Xiaolong’s a.s.sault continued without stopping, like a ghostly phantom, he appeared in close proximity to the two blue-robed middle-aged men.
Once again, cold blade lights glinted in victory.
By the time Huang Xiaolong’s feet touch the ground again where he stood previously, Du Huaguang and the other two men tumbled to the floor. Peng Feng and Sun Haoran stared dumbstruck as three heads rolled off, separated from their bodies.
Four half-Saints, all dead!
The dumbstruck expression seemed carved forever on Peng Feng and Sun Haoran’s faces as their gazes moved from the rolling heads on the floor to Huang Xiaolong.
Sun Haoran remembered what his Master He Yunxiong once said, if no accident happened, Li Li could very well break through to the Saint realm within ten years, but now, she was dead!
Seeing that everything was done, the Blades of Asura returned to Huang Xiaolong’s arms and he walked towards the four bodies, harvesting four spatial rings from each of them. Then, with a turn of his hand, sparks of true essence fire fell onto the four corpses, instantly incinerating everything into gray ashes.
Sun Haoran had seen Huang Xiaolong doing the same thing before, with Wu Zhang’s corpse, therefore, he wasn"t so surprised this time. Peng Feng, however, inhaled sharply watching Huang Xiaolong’s familiar actions in dealing with Li Li and the other three bodies, turning them into ashes in an instant. A cold s.h.i.+ver ran down his back.
After burning the four bodies, Huang Xiaolong walked over to Peng Feng and Sun Haoran, whose thoughts returned to the present after sensing Huang Xiaolong coming towards them.
Watching Huang Xiaolong reaching closer, Peng Feng was nervous and a little apprehensive, not knowing how to act.
“Third Senior Brother, let me introduce you, this is Brother Huang.” Sun Haoran spoke and made introduced Huang Xiaolong to Peng Feng, then, turning to Huang Xiaolong, he said, “Brother Huang, this is my Third Senior Brother, Peng Feng.”
Peng Feng hurried forward, “Brother Huang, many thanks for your saving grace!”
Huang Xiaolong smiled, replying, “Don’t mention it.”
Peng Feng replied courteously, feeling a little bit flattered.
“Third Senior Brother, do you know where Master and Eldest Senior Brother are?” Sun Haoran asked Peng Feng, showing anxiety, “Master and Eldest Senior Brother could be in danger at this very moment!”
Peng Feng too looked worried, “Half a day ago, I got separated from them, so I also don’t know where they could be now. But the last time I saw Eldest Senior Brother, he was heading towards the deeper area of Ghost King Palace.”
“The deeper area of Ghost King Palace!” Sun Haoran exclaimed, “Let us head there now.” As he said this, he looked at Huang Xiaolong, inquiring, “Brother Huang, what are your plans?”
“I’ll tag along with you.” Huang Xiaolong answered solemnly.
According to Sun Haoran’s explanation earlier, this time, the Ghost King Sutra was very likely to appear in the deeper parts of the Ghost King Underground Palace. Huang Xiaolong decided to tag along with them to check out the underground palace to see if he could get his hands on the Ghost King Sutra cultivation technique. Although he had no need for another cultivation technique, it would still be beneficial if he could gain some insights from it.
The Ghost King Sutra, there was a chance that it contained the Ghost King’s records and understanding of his years of cultivation. The best outcome would be obtaining the Ghost King Dan that the Ghost King refined himself. According to rumors, this Ghost King Dan would greatly benefit those wanting to break through to Saint realm.
Both Peng Feng and Sun Haoran were delighted that Huang Xiaolong would continue onward with them.
“Brother Huang, then shall we set off now?” Sun Haoran inquired.
Huang Xiaolong nodded.
The treasures in the Ghost Temple were already plundered clean by Li Li’s group, hence it wasn’t necessary for them to explore the Ghost Temple further. After all, all four spatial rings were taken by Huang Xiaolong.
The three of them flew in one direction, heading deeper into the Ghost King Palace.
As they got closer to the center of the Ghost King Palace, ghost and devil auras became heavier that at a certain point, these auras morphed into different strange shaped fogs, enveloping the sky above the Ghost King Palace. From afar, it looked no different from a ghost mountain or a devil mountain.
One day later, the three of them arrived at the entrance leading down to the underground palace.
The underground entrance exceeded a dozen zhang in height and in width, leading into a nothing but endless darkness. Huang Xiaolong was a hundred meters from the entrance, yet it was close enough for him to feel the terror of ghost and devil auras blowing out from the underground palace, to the extent that it made Huang Xiaolong uneasy.
He frowned, this was the first time feeling such strong unease ever since he arrived in this world.
“Brother Huang, shall we go in now?” Sun Haoran spoke.
Huang Xiaolong nodded, since he was already here, then he should relax and go with the flow. He was even more unwilling to give up at this point. With the G.o.dly Mt. Xumi in his possession, nothing could go terribly wrong.
The three of them flew through the entrance, and in the blink of an eye, their silhouettes were swallowed by the darkness of the underground palace, obscured by the billowing ghost and devil auras.
“Brother Huang, this underground palace’s structure is extremely complex, filled with traps and bans, not to mention countless ghosts and devils. Everyone should be extra careful and cautious moving forward.” Peng Feng reminded.
Huang Xiaolong nodded.
However, just as Peng Feng said so, the s.p.a.ce around them rippled with echoes of unworldly things.