Chapter 1382: The Former King
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Sky Devouring Whale’s eyes dimmed.
Like the saying, ‘When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter’, the sea beasts fled in all directions when the death aura of the Sky Devouring Whale spread for 1,000 miles. With the sea beasts gone, the sea level slowly went down. It did not take long before the sea returned to normal.
The clouds parted, allowing more sunlight to s.h.i.+ne on the sea. Due to the imbalance, the fog in the sky was not as dense as before.
Lu Zhou said, “Clean them up.”
Now that the Pavilion Master’s work was done, it was time for the others from the Evil Sky Pavilion to start work.
Everyone’s fighting spirits soared to the sky after watching Lu Zhou’s fight. They rushed out toward the sea beasts that had yet to escape.
With that, another b.l.o.o.d.y ma.s.sacre took place in the sea again.
Since ancient times, humans and fierce beasts had been unable to resolve their conflict.
No matter what kind of agreement the supreme beings who were humans and fierce beasts agreed upon, nature would run its course, and conflict would arise with the pa.s.sing of time. After all, all it took was for one side to start killing first, and chaos would ensue.
Although the cultivation bases of the Penglai Sect disciples were not high, they worked harder than everyone when killing the small sea beasts. Their hatred and anger were enough motivation for them to do their best.
On the other hand, the people of the Evil Sky Pavilion had a clear division of labor. Some of them collected the life hearts and some of them harvested life hearts from the carca.s.ses. Some were killing the remaining sea beasts while some kept a lookout in different directions.
“The Sky Devouring Whale really isn’t easy to deal with,” Kong Wen said. He held a large saber in his hand and tried to dissect the Sky Devouring Whale, but he had no idea where to start.
“You have almost six Birth Charts, but you can’t even deal with a carca.s.s?” Yan Zhenluo said teasingly.
“It’s not like that…” Kong Wen said sheepishly. Then, he leaped onto the Sky Devouring Whale’s body and brandished his huge saber. He began to search for its life hearts in earnest. Only he alone could do this job in the Evil Sky Pavilion. He knew the most about fierce beasts among everyone present on the scene.
There were always cultivators like Kong Wen in the cultivation world. They might not have the highest cultivation bases but they were very knowledgeable about the treasures between heaven and earth, fierce beasts, and life hearts.
Although the Sky Devouring Whale’s body was humongous, with Kong Wen’s consistent dissection, part of its chest was soon cut open.
“D*mn! Its flesh is really tough!” Kong Wen cursed as he continued hacking at the Sky Devouring Whale methodically.
After a while, Kong Wen drilled into the body of the Sky Devouring Whale like a mouse digging a hole.
His brothers used energy seals to keep the seawater at bay.
He expended a lot of effort before he finally found the Sky Devouring Whale’s life hearts. Then, he grabbed the huge life hearts and flew out of the Sky Devouring Whale’s body. He cried out, “I got it!”
With that, his brothers withdrew their energy seals.
Kong Wen washed the life heart in the sea before he flew to Lu Zhou and said, “Pavilion Master, I didn’t expect to find four life hearts. They’re just a little big.”
Perhaps, the heavens made it so. No matter how humongous the fierce beasts, at most, their life hearts would be as big as a human head. Nevertheless, it was not easy to activate a Birth Chart with a life heart of that size. One would need to enlarge one’s lotus and endure various things that came with using such a huge life heart.
Since the Sky Devouring Whale was huge, it was not surprising its life hearts were big as well.
Lu Zhou nodded.
Soon after, the people from the Evil Sky Pavilion were done collecting the life hearts. It took two hours for them to complete the job.
After Lu Li finished taking inventory, he said, “Pavilion Master, this time, we obtained four life hearts from a beast emperor, six life hearts from beast kings, 10 high-grade life hearts, 42 middle-grade life hearts, and 155 low-grade life hearts. Finally, we have about 800 ordinary life hearts from the various small sea beasts.”
Upon hearing these numbers, everyone present was amazed.
Even Qin Naihe had never seen so many life hearts at once. The Qin clan’s Venerable Master, Qin Renyue, was undoubtedly strong. However, he was not confident about defeating beast emperors and had never had the chance to encounter one as well.
Kong Wen laughed. “We’ve hit the jackpot!”
“Don’t be so vulgar,” Yan Zhenluo said, rolling his eyes.
Kong Wen laughed. “You’re Left Envoy Yan. I’m just so happy. I can’t help it!”
Kong Wen and his brothers were the happiest and most excited. They had risked their lives for so long, trying to make a living by searching for treasures. In the past, they did not even dare to dream about so many treasures.
Lu Zhou nodded in satisfaction and said, “Keep them well.”
“Understood!”
Kong Wen and his brothers thought it was really great following a Great Venerable Master. They were fed and clothed, living comfortable lives.
After packing up the spoils of the battle, everyone flew up to the sky again.
Madam Huang and the disciples of Penglai Sect could not be happy. After all, too many people had died and Penglai Island had sunk. Even if they killed all the sea beasts in the sea, they would not be able to get back what had been lost.
…
Back at Penglai Island.
Now that the sea beasts had left, and the carca.s.ses had sunk to the bottom of the sea, the sea level had receded as well, revealing the sunken islands.
Madam Huang and the disciples of the Penglai Sect sighed and shook their heads as they looked at the wreckage that was once their home.
Lu Zhou said, “As long as you’re alive, you can always build a new home. There’s no need to sigh.”
Madam Huang said, “Penglai Island isn’t like the Evil Sky Pavilion. Time has pa.s.sed, and people have changed. I’m afraid that Penglai Island will never be able to restore its former glory as a respectable force in Great Yan…”
“The greater the strength, the greater the ability,” Lu Zhou said tonelessly.
Madam Huang nodded.
Penglai Island had maintained a good relations.h.i.+p with the Evil Sky Pavilion over the years, which resulted in the Penglai Island doing well. However, the Evil Sky Pavilion was the Evil Sky Pavilion, and Penglai Island was Penglai Island. No matter how good they were doing, it was still different when one had to rely on others. Now that Penglai Island had sunk, Madam Huang had no mood to worry about other things.
After a moment, Madam Huang said, “Thank you for your help today, Pavilion Master Ji.”
The disciples of Penglai Sect bowed to Lu Zhou as well.
At this time, Yu Zhenghai called out, reminding Lu Zhou, “Master, it’s time for us to go.”
After thinking about it for a moment, Lu Zhou said, “Yan Zhenluo, Lu Li, Kong Wen, all of you stay here to help Penglai Island.”
“Understood.”
Kong Wen and his brothers were delighted. They did not like fighting and preferred to stay. They wanted to find more life hearts. It was more interesting to them.
“Everyone else, come with me to Mount Halcyon.”
“Yes.”
…
Mount Halcyon.
The rays from the setting sun were the color of blood.
Si Wuya, Huang s.h.i.+jie, Li Jinyi, and Jiang Aijian flew at a low alt.i.tude in Mount Halcyon.
Jiang Aijian said, “From afar, it looks very small. I didn’t expect it to be so big. We’ve been flying for half a day, but we haven’t even found a place to rest.”
The sky was about to turn dark, and they wanted to find a place to rest as soon as possible.
When they arrived at Mount Halcyon earlier, they had parked the Sky Shuttle on the beach before they flew into the mountain.
Mount Halcyon was much bigger than they had imagined. There were also strange and jagged rocks on Mount Halcyon, and there were no trees at all. Their first impression after flying in was that it was desolate and deserted.
“What’s that?” Jiang Aijian pointed at a seemingly bottomless pit nearby.
Si Wuya took a look and said, “It looks like a dry well.”
“How can there be such a big dry well?” Jiang Aijian shook his head, clearly disagreeing with Si Wuya. “It really doesn’t look like a dry well. Its structure is complex. Anyway, let’s keep going.”
They flew for a distance before they saw another black well. They took a closer look, puzzled. However, when they found nothing unusual about it, they continued to fly forward.
…
After an hour, the sun had set, and darkness fell.
“Another black well. How many have we seen? This is the fifth one, right? What if it’s like a gigantic hornet’s nest?” Jiang Aijian said.
Huang s.h.i.+jie stared at Jiang Aijian and said, “You’re really talkative.”
Li Jinyi smiled. “If you think about it, it does resemble a hornet’s nest. I’ve counted. So far, we’ve encountered six black wells. If I’m not mistaken, there’d be another one ten miles away. I’m guessing there are many, many more.”
Si Wuya frowned, lost in his thoughts.
Jiang Aijian asked in a low voice, “Don’t you dream about this place often? Can’t you tell us anything?”
“When you dream, do you remember everything?” Si Wuya asked in return.
Jiang Aijian scratched his head. “I guess not.”
“There, you have your answer.”
“…”
At this moment, Huang s.h.i.+jie suddenly moved to the front. “Be careful.”
The wind blew strongly. The night wind was much stronger compared to the day’s breeze. It continued to blow as though it was trying to stir up a sand storm, blurring their vision.
“There seems to be something up ahead…”
About 100 meters ahead, a faintly discernible shadow could be seen. It was rather tall.
Si Wuya frowned and flew forward.
The other three hurried after him.
When they arrived in front of the thing, they were shocked. It was a skeleton that was 1,000 feet tall.
The skeleton sat cross-legged with its hands placed flat on its knees. Its back was straight, and its head was lowered.
“It belongs to a human?” Jiang Aijian asked skeptically.
Indeed, it looked like a human skeleton.
“How can a human be so big?” Huang s.h.i.+jie shook his head, perplexed.
It was not strange for fierce beasts to be 1,000 feet tall, but no one had heard of a human who was 1,000 feet tall.
Si Wuya nodded slowly. He studied the skeleton carefully. Its size aside, there was no doubt the skeleton belonged to a human. After a long time, his eyes s.h.i.+fted to the small skeletons scattered around the huge skeleton. Then, he flew forward again before coming to a stop when he was about a meter away from the skeleton. At this time, he saw a large script for ‘Fire’ etched on the skeleton’s frontal skull.
Si Wuya waved his hand, sweeping the dust and cobwebs away. The script for ‘Fire’ had long blackened; he could not tell what the original color was.
“There’s something behind it!” Jiang Aijian cried out. At some point, he had arrived next to Si Wuya. Then, he exclaimed, “Catacombs?!”
“Catacombs?” Si Wuya was puzzled.
“It’s like the black wells from before, but this one is bigger. It might lead to catacombs. However, it seems like the entrance has been sealed,” Li Jinyi explained.
Si Wuya rushed over and saw a stone door that looked like the entrance to a catacomb.
Jiang Aijian shook his head and said, “This doesn’t fit my style of doing things. I want to leave. I want to go home. I’ve to get married.”
“…”
Si Wuya ignored Jiang Aijian. Instead, he stepped forward and studied the words on the door.
“The Three Qi Heavens of the South, the Prefecture of the Fire Official, the Palace of the Red Deity. The Eight Stars of the Eastern Well in the South, the Southern Gate of Heaven…”
The words at the back could no longer be seen due to the pa.s.sage of time.
“What does it mean?” Huang s.h.i.+jie was confused.
Si Wuya said, “I’m not sure either. Let’s go in and have a look. If you’re afraid, you can wait outside.”
Si Wuya tried to push the door open, but it would not budge at all. Compared to others, he was not one who liked using brute force to resolve matters. He looked at his surroundings, trying to find traces of a formation, but he found nothing.
“It won’t open?” Jiang Aijian smiled. “Forget it if you can’t open it. It’s so dark out here so it’s going to be even darker inside.”
Si Wuya flew up and circled the place before returning to his original spot again. Then, he said, “I think it’s an underground palace.”
“How do you know it’s an underground palace?”
“I used my eyes to look,” Si Wuya replied. Then, he flew up and hovered in front of the huge skeleton’s skull. Then, he saw a strange red light again. It only appeared for a brief moment before he pushed his hand out toward the skeleton.
At this time, the script for ‘Fire’ buzzed and shone with a red light.
Swoos.h.!.+
The huge skeleton suddenly lifted its hand.
Si Wuya flew up, dodging the attack.
Huang s.h.i.+jie, Jiang Aijian, and Li Jinyi hurriedly retreated.
The skeleton’s jaw creaked open before it swung its hand again.
Swoos.h.!.+
Si Wuya kept dodging, blowing away the dust on the skeleton.
Soon enough, red calligraphic writings lit up on the skeleton. They were etched on every part of the skeleton.
“What the h.e.l.l is that?” Jiang Aijian asked.
“Just dodge!” Si Wuya said as he kept flying back and forth around the giant skeleton’s hand.
Bang!
The skeleton suddenly joined its palms together, trying to catch Si Wuya. However, it missed and stopped moving as soon as the palms connected.
Creak!
Then, the stone door slowly slid open.
Si Wuya landed on the ground. After making sure the skeleton had truly stopped moving, he said, “Follow me.”
Jiang Aijian asked in confusion, “How do you know how to do that?”
“I’ve dreamed about it,” Si Wuya replied.
“If you insult my intelligence again, I’ll leave immediately,” Jiang Aijian said as he followed Si Wuya in.
“Leave then,” Si Wuya retorted.
Jiang Aijian looked at the dark sky and surroundings before he said, “Uh, you can continue insulting my intelligence…”
Si Wuya stepped through the stone door and entered the underground palace.
To be precise, it was more like an oval-shaped three-dimensional s.p.a.ce.
When they entered the underground palace, Jiang Aijian was shocked by what he saw. All kinds of swords hung on the walls. There were long ones, short ones, thin ones, and all kinds of swords one could imagine.
Jiang Aijian looked at the swords with his mouth agape. The visual impact dispelled his fear immediately. He flew over to one of the walls, admiring the swords.
There were all kinds of decorative scabbards and swords. Thousands of swords were buried in this underground palace for a long time, but they did not lose their radiance and charm to the pa.s.sage of time.
The underground was dimly lit by the crystals above them. The light glinted off the blades of the swords.
“We found treasures…” Huang s.h.i.+jie said as he looked at gold, silver, jewelry, jade, night pearls, and all sorts of treasures on the ground.
There were not only swords here. There were all kinds of weapons like sabers, spears, rods, and halberds as well. All of them were strangely intact, and each one of them was a treasure. Even the lowest grade weapon was at the earth grade.
Si Wuya moved to stand next to Huang s.h.i.+jie and nodded. “Indeed. However, why are these treasures in Mount Halcyon? Cultivators have long left behind the pursuit of common material things. What’s the use of hiding these things?”
Si Wuya was clearly not interested in these things. He tapped his toes lightly and flew into the depths of the underground palace. Then, he saw an even more surprising thing. He saw a tall sculpture with its wings unfurled as though it was ready to take flight.
Si Wuya’s gaze moved to the middle of the wings.. He had expected to see a fierce beast of some sort so it was out of his expectations when he saw that the wings belonged to a person.