Chapter 13: The Call From h.e.l.l (11)
As they were looked for the entrance to the bas.e.m.e.nt the G.o.d of Land told them about, they felt a frightening breath rising from underground.
Qin Xingyan looked pale. “No! The ghost master is going to break the seal!”
It was impossible that the backstage manipulator didn’t know they had arrived here. After all, he had sent out the Shi Ba to stop them.
However, it seemed that the suspect had gave up on hiding. Apparently, he thought that he didn’t need to stay hidden anymore.
“This way.”
Xu Shenxing’s gaze sharpened; he hurriedly dashed towards the direction of the frightening breath.
“Have you found the entrance?” Qin Xingyan followed Xu Shenxing with a quick rush.
“No.”
Xu Shenxing’s words made the girl stumble and nearly knock her head on the wall.
“In that case, where are you going ?!”
“Of course go straight to where the guy is. There’s no time for us to find the entrance.”
As they spoke, they reached the place where the breath felt the most strongest.
After that, Xu Shenxing took a deep breath. He stomped his foot onto the flooring beneath him, then the cement floor collapsed. With Qin Xingyan’s scream – because she was not prepared, they fell into the bas.e.m.e.nt.
As Qin Xingyan was coughing due to the smoke created when they dropped down, she heard Xu Shenxing said with a deep voice, “Both witness and evidence are available. It seems that you are the criminal.”
Then the girl raised up her head and looked around. She saw that it was a gigantic s.p.a.ce, as large as an underground parking. She confused that why the original developer wanted to build such a large bas.e.m.e.nt.
Xu Shenxing and Qin Xingyan landed in the west of the bas.e.m.e.nt. In the middle of the bas.e.m.e.nt, it was a sacrificial altar, and there were many sacrificial utensils on it.
Behind the sacrificial altar, was a ghastly man. He looked about forty or fifty year old, had a gloomy face with sunken eyes and protruding cheekbones. His body was morbidly slender, as if he was a skeleton but covered with a thin layer of skin.
At this moment, seemed as though he was stunned because of their unexpectedly way of appearing. He held a black horsetail whisk and simply stood there frozen.
There were nine crystal coffins circling the sacrificial altar. The missing girls were lying in these coffins.
Their chests were still rising and falling – which showed that the girls are still alive.
It seemed that the ghost master was still trapped in the seal. Qin Xingyan let out a sigh of relief.
According to the conservation theorem, some people would feel relieved, then some people nervous.
Qiao Hui was one who felt nervous.
He was the most talented one in this generation of ghost masters. After he unintentionally obtained the legacy of the sect “Mengshi Huangjian”, though he was already out of the best years of practicing spells, he still achieved mastery in just ten years.
However, practicing ghost spells was equivalent to going against the natural cycle of the world. His body was infected with ptomain and deathscent. In ancient times, Spirit Qi was abundant, so the speed of advancement in practicing ghost spells was quite fast. When ancient people’s power reached up to a certain extent, they could turn ptomain and deathscent into a part of their power.
However, it was the Dharma Ending Period now; Spirit Qi has been exhausted. When Qiao Hui started to practice ghost spells, he was already over the best age; in addition to the fact that he practiced all by himself and lacked of guidance, even though he was a genius, he also suffered the pain of ptomain and deathscent. He found his life coming to its end, so he wandered through the world, looking for a way to prolong his life and relieve his pain.
During his journey in seek for longer life, while he was pa.s.sing by Jiangjin City, he heard a call from the other side of the world.
The call resonated with his power, which made Qiao Hui feel very curious and began to investigate the anecdotes a.s.sociated with supernatural power in Jiangjin City. Finally, he knew that one of the ghost master of Mengshi Huangjian once opened a gap to the netherworld on this land. It was an incredible exploit for him.
If he could get that ghost master’s help, maybe he could solve the problem about his body.
This expectation and the invisible call let Qiao Hui finally make up his mind. He took the risk of being found by ordinary people and be hunted by other people who had supernatural abilities, to sneak into Jiangjin City and try to break the seal.
Qiao Hui started to practice ghost spells from 30 years ago, and now, ten years had pa.s.sed. Apparently, he was more cunning and steady than Qin Xingyan. He had prepared for every contingency.
He always remembered the old saying, “Half of the people who have embarked on a one hundred mile journey may fall by the wayside”. Since he had reached to the last step, he couldn’t take any loss. He had placed many defence equipments and spells circle around the bas.e.m.e.nt, and painstakingly reinforced the defence of walls and ceiling again and again. He thought that even if some far more stronger people came to stop him, he still could resist for a long time.
He hadn’t expect that the ceiling collapsed just because of someone’s stomp…
However, it was already too late to stop him now.
Qiao Hui came back to reality from his daydream, then hit his horsetail whisk on the table.
With a loud clamor, the bas.e.m.e.nt began to shake. The frightening breath rolled up and down in the bas.e.m.e.nt. Finally, under Qin Xingyan’s surprised sight, a purple flame quietly appeared behind Qiao Hui. Qiao Hui turned, respectfully kneeling in front of the flame.
“I’m the disciple of the eighteenth generation of Mengshi Huangjian. Congratulations on my doyen’s rebirth!”
The purple flames leaped up. Finally, it expanded and form an arched door.
“Oh? It’s already the eighteenth generation…”
A hoa.r.s.e voice came from the flame arched door.
Qin Xingyan wanted to brandish her sword to disperse the flame before the ghost master pa.s.s through it, however she found herself trembling uncontrollably with beads of sweat on her forehead. It was already difficult to stop her body from trembling, not to mention to brandish her sword.
That devil! His power was incredibly strong! He still have not show his face, but his breath had already suppressed her movements. She couldn’t even move her fingers!
This wasn’t kicking a metal plate, it wasn’t even a t.i.tanium plate. It was only describable a much more resilient metal such as Star Darksteel, Gundanium Alloy or even Orichalc.u.m…
“World of human beings. I have not seen it for a long time.”
With these words, the ghost master finally emerged from the flame arched door.
Very different from Qin Xingyan’s imagination, he wasn’t a scrawny, old man. He was a tall and stout man, but his appearance made Qin Xingyan feel like she was in a nightmare.
His head had already completely lost it’s human shape; it was just a revolting shaped skull. On his neck, white tendons flapped up and down. For some reason, his lower jaw was pretty long, which made his mouth show a “T” shape. His body was flowing with maroon, juicy carrions, and many parts of his body were already hollowed out; you could even see his darkened organs through those places. Some of his carrions were covered with shiny black, lumpy callosities.
Those carrions weren’t quite solid. With his every step, some of them dropped down from his body with pus liquid. If you looked carefully, you could even see some maggots were creeping in these carrions.
Just by looking at it was able to make anybody in sight nauseated.
Qin Xingyan half kneeled on the ground. Perhaps she was scared witless by his appearance; maybe she was frightened because of the ghost master’s dark breath, but she still grinded her teeth, struggling to stand up.
“Master… you…!” Qiao Hui was quite incoherent. He was also scared because of his venerable master’s appearance.
Obviously, it was much different from his imagination.
“Don’t fear, this is the end of all living things. Body is just a leather bag, only soul has the real meaning of life.”
The ghost master… Or to be more exact, the monster turned around. He looked at Qiao Hui with his hollow eyes, which made Qiao Hui can’t help but shiver.
“You’re lying. In fact, you are already dead, right?”
Xu Shenxing’s words made the monster glance back at him. He grinned and stared at Xu Shenxing. “Aha, I didn’t expect that once I returned to the world, I would immediately found food! Even better, you are a man with supernatural powers! I’m really lucky.”
Qin Xingyan felt cold, as if she was dropped into an ice cold cave.