Plundering the Heavens

Chapter 191: Hall of the Fox Immortal

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Chapter 191: Hall of the Fox Immortal

The pair slipped into the purple smog after ascending around thirty feet high. The smog was like a ghost, at times scattering about, and at other times gathering together.

This smog was the same as what surrounded the valley’s outskirts—allowing the same detoxifying pellet to be used without any need for worry—and the only issue was that it obscured their vision. Neither Fang Xing nor the golden crow could see more than a few feet ahead even after activating their Mystic Eye spells to the maximum, but the Qi-Seeking Six Puppet Array had fortunately already been activated and all six of the puppets were quietly floating around the two of them to find and warn them of any potential danger.

The higher they flew, the lower the temperature became, until the frigid air surrounding their bodies was like that from an icy cave. The cold was incredibly difficult to fend off, and even the feather-covered golden crow was losing his ability to endure it.

Fang Xing muttered under his breath, and his body temperature rose as the True Samadhi Fire within him was ignited. Following this, he sent some energy laced with the True Samadhi Fire into the crow’s body, immediately resolving his cold as well. It was only because of this that the golden crow was able to persevere and continue going higher.

Some hundred feet later, the purple smog suddenly began to disperse as they arrived at a stone plateau. The plateau had about a ten-foot radius, and the ground showed carved tracks of strange spells. A small cave entrance covered in a layer of blue frost was at the fore, with a few ancient scripts—simple and unadorned—placed above its entranceway.

"Hill of the Blue-Moon Fox’s Call…."

"Hill of the… Blue-Moon Fox’s… Call…."

Both Fang Xing and the golden crow read it aloud at the same time before looking at each other with peculiar expressions. The words above the cave entrance weren’t written in a language used in their time, and both were slightly curious as to how the other was able to read it.

The golden crow spoke up first. "This is the ancient language of the beast tribes. I have actually studied it, but how did you understand it?"

Fang Xing smirked. "I—your grandpa—am actually a genius in seals and proficient in all kinds of ancient languages, I just feel disdain towards learning them!"

The golden crow knew this boy had plenty of secrets. Seeing that he was unwilling to share, the crow didn’t pry any further.

In truth, it wasn’t difficult for Fang Xing to understand a few words from an ancient beast language. All he had to do was give it a quick scan with the Book of Revelation, and all of its meaning was within his mind.

"Let’s go!" Fang Xing jumped off the golden crow’s back and walked in front of the cave entrance before cautiously looking inside. "h.e.l.lo? Anyone there?" he yelled out, his voice echoing as it pa.s.sed down into the depths of the cave, traveling an unknowable distance.

The golden crow jumped at this and flapped his wings. "Do you think you’re visiting someone’s home?" he asked in a low voice. "Why are you asking if anyone is there?"

Fang Xing turned and scolded, "What do you know! If there’s any danger inside, it would have all showed itself after this!"

The golden crow blinked. What Fang Xing said seemed to make sense, but he was still not willing to simply agree.

Once a short time had pa.s.sed without any movement from within, Fang Xing picked up his courage and walked inside, while the golden crow managed to toughen up just enough to follow timidly behind. After walking past a pa.s.sageway paved with jade, the interior began to widen out, but it was still incredibly cold. It was as though the pa.s.sageway itself was trying to freeze any would-be intruders, but Fang Xing fortunately had the True Samadhi Fire to stave off any concerns of the chill, while the golden crow was able to sustain himself with Fang Xing’s help.

On the ground

was a mess, as though there had been a grand battle. Skeletons and bones could be seen every few steps, with some intact while others had been shattered into numerous pieces. All of the bones were frozen solid by a thin layer of frost and—coupled with their great age—it was no longer possible to identify what they had once belonged to.

Scattered around the bones were a countless number of spirit tools, weapons, and pellets. They seemed to have once belonged to these skeletons, and they’d been strewn about in the pa.s.sageway after their owners’ deaths.

The golden crow was moved when he saw all of this. He was about to start picking up a few spirit weapons that had caught his interest, but he was stopped by Fang Xing, "Common sense says the outer sections only have rubbish. All of the good stuff should be inside, so let’s go in and have a look!"

The golden crow felt this made sense, and so hurried him to move forward. Just at that moment, however, Fang Xing’s face fell and he abruptly waved his hand. "Stop!"

One of the puppets that had been scouting ahead instantly let out a pained cry, its agile body stiffening in the air before it turned into a ball of raging fire.

"What the h.e.l.l was that?" the golden crow asked in a shuddering voice.

Fang Xing focused his eyes towards the front. A sinister and distorted female ghost gradually began to form in the once-empty area, wearing a pure-white dress with her hair draped messily in front of her face. Her body kept convulsing, twisting and turning in strange ways as the puppet held in her thin hands burned painfully to ash.

"That’s…." The golden crow’s voice trembled even more

"Forbidden Yin Ghost Thrall…" Fang Xing declared in an authoritative voice. Rather than seeing the cultivation level of this female ghost, the Book of Revelation had given him such a name instead. It seemed this ghost wasn’t a living being and was instead considered an item; the appraisal process would have revealed both its true form and cultivation level otherwise.

"So it really is…." It seemed the golden crow had already had his own guess before Fang Xing had called out what it was. "Looks like we brothers really got ourselves into some huge trouble. I didn’t expect this place to have such a thing here, or else I wouldn’t have come even if you beat me to death…."

"Is this thing really strong?" Fang Xing turned and asked the golden crow. Although his Book of Revelation had revealed its name and a portion of its purpose, he didn’t know where it had come from.

The golden crow shuddered. "Of course it’s strong. I once read about it from an ancient scroll of the beast tribes. This kind of thing should have been created by an ancient curse. In the legend, if someone is grabbed by her—even if they’re in the Golden Core Stage—they will be infected with a ghostly essence that corrupts the light of the golden core, leaving them basically crippled…. As for small ants like us, even touching her would mean death…."

Fang Xing gazed at the ghost thrall for a moment. "She looks pretty stupid. Wouldn’t it be fine if we just don’t let her touch us?" He wasn’t particularly scared. Because the Book of Revelation had appraised the ghost like an object, it shouldn’t be a living being, and there should be some methods to counter it by seeking luck and avoiding calamity. There wasn’t any need to be afraid of it just because of its infamous name.

The golden crow was nearly in tears. "You make it sound so easy! You think you won’t get touched just because you say you won’t?" he yelled.

"Sometimes she moves, sometimes she’s still. There seems to be a certain pattern to her movement based on the rotations of the formation. Let me study it for a bit!" Fang Xing focused both of his eyes while staring hard at the front.

By now, the puppet within the ghost’s hands had dissipated into a puff of smoke. The ghost’s twisting and turning had also come to a stop, leaving it standing alone and completely unmoving in place. A dim glow appeared on its body from time to time, sometimes pausing, and at other times pausing longer.

"Stop staring at it, let’s go back—"

"Go!" Fang Xing suddenly yelled out before the golden crow had finished.

Swoosh, a pair of golden wings appeared on Fang Xing’s back, and his body instantly became a stream of light as he swept past the ghost. Since the golden crow’s claws were tied to Fang Xing, the moment Fang Xing dashed forward, the golden crow was dragged along behind. The golden crow even imagined he felt the ghost’s hair touching his mouth in that split second they pa.s.sed by her side, and he was so frightened his heart had stopped completely.

"Hey, you weren’t scared to death, right?" Seeing the golden crow’s body stiff and motionless on the ground, Fang Xing was also startled and starting kicking the crow with the front of his foot.

"Waaah…. Little b.a.s.t.a.r.d, are you trying to kill your Uncle Gold?" The golden crow was still trying to catch his breath, and his fear had been so great his golden feathers were all standing on end. He suddenly jumped up from the ground as though determined to risk his life to battle Fang Xing.

"Stop making a fuss. If you alert that ghost, neither of us will live…" Fang Xing reprimanded with a lowered voice, scaring the golden crow to the point he didn’t dare to move.

When Fang Xing looked back and saw the ghost indeed hadn’t reacted, Fang Xing felt slightly relieved. It seemed his speculation was correct: although it looked like a real ghost, its intelligence had been completely lost, making it more like an object.

As the pair continued forward, the formations and traps also drastically increased, and all of them were strange and unusual with a large variety of different types. After some hundred or so feet past the entrance, Fang Xing even saw the corpse of an elderly man and—judging by the blue frost on his body—this man’s death had been much more recent than the other corpses’. Based on the golden crow’s estimations, this must have been one of the previous sect masters of the Myriad Beasts Sect who’d ventured into the cave.

This strange and dangerous cave might have become a graveyard for others, but Fang Xing and the golden crow—this courageous yet cautious pair—still maintained their resolve. Outfitted with so many spirit tools and talismans, they were able to counter all sorts of unexpected events and advance without any mishaps. If they were to calculate how far they’d traveled, they would have found they were nearly a thousand feet past the entrance.

At this moment, Fang Xing and the golden crow came across a vast empty land in front of them. Floating in the air above the land was a giant hall, solemn and haunting, yet in a state of disrepair. The two bronze doors at the entrance were half open, with a countless number of silhouettes kneeling in front of them on the ground.

After a closer look, both Fang Xing and the golden crow were struck speechless. The silhouettes kneeling in front of the doors were all corpses.

Kneeling corpses!

These dozens upon dozens of kneeling silhouettes were all corpses! It was impossible to tell what sort of crime they’d committed to be forced to kneel in front of the hall, unable to stand up for so many years even after they’d died.

The golden crow’s attention focused intently on someone’s head in the front row, his gaze full of fear. "My G.o.d…. That corpse at the forefront… isn’t it wearing a crown that looks like it belongs to the Fuyao Palace master?"

"Fuyao Palace master?" Fang Xing was surprised as well. Was it possible one of these kneeling corpses belonged to one of the Fuyao Palace’s previous masters?

"And that one, wearing the Kasaya of Immeasurable Virtue…. That’s… that’s the adornments of the head of Spirit Mountain Temple….

"... Dragon head with human body, clothed in Cloud-and-Rain Robe, would that be… the ruler of the Azure Seas, the Dragon King?

"Purple lotus seat with seven stars, the Thunder Crest of the Nine Heavens…. The palace master of the Purple Cloud Palace also knelt here?"

The golden crow was able to recognize many familiar outfits, and he called out each of their names. All of these had been persons of great power, and it left the crow nearly in tears.

Although surprised as well, Fang Xing didn’t panic like the crow did upon hearing the t.i.tles of so many venerable names. He slapped the golden crow’s head and cursed out, "What the h.e.l.l are you crying about?"

The golden crow displayed a mournful gaze. "So many powerhouses are kneeling here. Are you not scared?"

"Powerhouses when they were alive, but now they’re nothing more than dead corpses. What’s so scary about that?"

The golden crow was left completely speechless with complete respect for this little b.a.s.t.a.r.d’s insane guts.

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