Chapter 716: Star Hall
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Half a day later, Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan had almost searched through this area and seen many desolate beasts, but did not come across the star demon bat.
“Your information seems to be somewhat unreliable.” Hei Lou Lan casually sat down on the ground and said while healing her wounds.
There was a long, b.l.o.o.d.y wound on her left arm which stretched from the back of her palm to her elbow.
This was the mark left behind from the encounter of Hei Lou Lan and Fang Yuan with a desolate beast flying sword rat.
The flying sword rat was small and extremely fast, a bit of carelessness resulted in it slas.h.i.+ng its claws at them.
Even if Hei Lou Lan had the Great Strength True Martial Physique, having a strength path extreme immortal body, she had to struggle to heal this wound.
This was because the wound the flying sword rat caused was filled with dao marks of metal path, which were repelling the strength path dao marks of Hei Lou Lan’s immortal body, and resisting the extreme immortal body’s recovery ability.
A long while later, Hei Lou Lan was able to heal the wound and a thin layer of scab had formed on top of it.
She went up to Fang Yuan; Fang Yuan was sitting on the ground, using his iron-sharp fingernails to draw the outline of the terrain they had explored on a flat rock.
There were dozens of green mountain peaks. Most of the green peaks were the territory of a desolate beast, like the star desolate hound, flying sword rat, diamond bear and so on.
The mountain peaks with no desolate beasts had large numbers of beast groups as well as a sea of Gu worms living together.
Seven Star Child had clearly invested a great amount of effort to manage Starry Sky grotto-heaven, only then could such dense numbers of desolate beasts survive in this piece of territory.
However, the strange thing was there were no ancient desolate beasts.
Ancient desolate beasts were comparable in battle strength to a rank seven, according to common sense, there should be ancient desolate beasts in this outstandingly managed Starry Sky grotto-heaven.
This was only one of the strange aspects.
The second strange aspect was that the heavenly spirit had still not shown itself.
Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan had explored all around and encountered many fights, but were able to smoothly free themselves.
Strictly speaking, they were invaders, but this Starry Sky grotto-heaven was behaving as if it had no heavenly spirit to manage it, and the suppression Fang Yuan had expected did not appear.
The third strange thing was that Fang Yuan could not find the poisonous swamp no matter where he searched.
According to his previous life’s memories, the area he was in right now was the same as the small fragment world of the original grotto-heaven, which he had sent his subordinates to explore in his previous life.
Originally, the poisonous swamp should have been near that ancient tree forest, but Fang Yuan was not able to find it.
“Could it be that the poisonous swamp is part of the terrain that only appears after several hundred years? I came here this early, thus I am not able to find it? If that is the case, my plan to hunt star demon bat will end in failure.”
Fang Yuan stared at the diagram of the terrain on the rock, and was pondering everything when suddenly a bright light shot out.
He and Hei Lou Lan raised their heads at the same time and looked at the green sky; unknowingly, the sky was filled with countless star specks.
The amount of this starlight grew rapidly and continued to grow. In a blink of an eye, the starlight filled the whole world, drifting in disorderly fas.h.i.+on like snow.
“This is an astronomical change that occurs only in grotto-heavens.” Fang Yuan stood up with an alert gaze, activating lion fur armor.
Hei Lou Lan also activated her defensive killer move with a vigilant mind.
The bright starlight shone on all living beings; beast roars resounded from each mountain peak, some clear, some crisp, some long and some hoa.r.s.e.
Wind surged, the endless specks of starlight suddenly converged on top of a mountain.
After a dazzling blue radiance was sent out, the star specks dispersed and a resplendent giant hall, exquisite and gorgeous, appeared on the mountain peak.
“This hall….” Fang Yuan’s pupils enlarged, as he felt a great sense of familiarity with the structure of the hall. It clearly resembled the ruins that had been left behind in the shattered worlds of the grotto-heaven, which had spread everywhere during his previous life.
It was only that the former ruins now showed no trace of damage.
Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan glanced at each other, Hei Lou Lan guessed: “Did the astronomical change occur due to some specific timing and result in the appearance of the hall?”
“Or did the heavenly spirit intentionally set up a trap to lure us in?” Fang Yuan eyes flashed with bright light.
The two only hesitated for a moment before deciding to go in the star hall.
At the same time, in another area of Starry Sky grotto-heaven.
An intense battle was nearing its climax.
“Foul beast, take this king’s fist!” A rockman that was as tall as a hill shouted as it smashed down its fist, wind surged and even the air burst.
The desolate beast flying bear could not dodge in time, its head was struck by the giant stone fist and with a loud sound, it crashed down on the ground, smas.h.i.+ng a large crater. Stones and soil flew all around, dust surged up and the earth shook for a while.
The rocky giant did not stop, it spread open its two fists then smashed down from high up.
Bam. The two palms heavily smashed at the flying bear’s thick, snow-white body.
The flying bear tried to budge but it was not able to let out even a cry. It was already filled with injuries, the punch just before had cracked its skull and caused it to be on the brink of losing consciousness.
Immortal killer move — Earth’s Root!
From the center of his two palms, earth qi bubbled, and countless thick and sharp earth spikes protruded out from the ground like spears.
Plop…
The desolate beast flying bear was pierced through instantly by hundreds of earth spikes.
In its last burst of energy, it raised its head, opened its eyes and let out a mournful cry before its energy was completely spent, its body stiffened and its head fell back down to the ground.
Dong. A sound like that of a drum being struck resounded, with dust rising and falling.
An intense scent of hot blood erupted, as it flowed down the stone pillar and quickly dyed the ground red.
The flying bear was dead.
The rocky giant snorted, it suddenly emitted a piercing light. After the light dispersed, a Gu Immortal proudly stood in the air while crossing his arms.
He had short white hair, a pair of golden pupils, broad shoulders and a thin waist. He wore a tight fitting combat uniform and a valiant aura was emitted from him.
A ray of starlight shot over, transforming into a middle-aged man. He was wearing a long robe with wide sleeves and a high hat on his head. He clapped his hands and praised: “As expected of Lord Immortal Monkey King, killing the desolate beast flying bear in just three minutes.”
The white haired man with golden pupils was a rank seven Gu Immortal of Combat Immortal Sect, Immortal Monkey King s.h.i.+ Lei.
s.h.i.+ Lei looked at the middle-aged man with an indifferent gaze: “Seven star halls have already appeared, Star Lord Wan Xiang, the eighth star hall you spoke of, why has it still not opened?”
This middle-aged man was Star Lord Wan Xiang, who had traded with Fang Yuan several times.
Star Lord Wan Xiang gave a bright smile: “Immortal Monkey King, there’s no need to worry. We can only make the eighth star hall appear when we have killed enough desolate beasts and let their blood seep into the ground. We have already killed six desolate beasts but the amount of blood is still not enough.”
“How much more desolate beasts should we kill exactly?” s.h.i.+ Lei asked impatiently.
Star Lord Wan Xiang revealed a thoughtful expression and said after a pause: “According to my annual explorations over the past twenty years and my own speculations, we probably only need to kill one more desolate beast.”
“Hmph! You better not deceive me.” s.h.i.+ Lei replied in an overbearing manner.
Star Lord Wan Xiang lowered his head: “I am just a lone cultivator, even if I had ten times the guts, I would not dare to deceive Lord Immortal Monkey King. Based on Central Continent’s time, I can only forcibly break into this star path Grotto-Heaven during this point of the year. Moreover, the duration we can stay is only two days, after these two days, the small opening leading to the grotto-heaven will close up and we won’t be able to exit. Why would I deceive you when time is so limited? I also want to plunder more resources, but several years ago, I accidentally saw the eighth star hall, that hall was covered in a foreboding atmosphere. The guards of the star hall were all ancient desolate beasts, it definitely is the central control point of this grotto-heaven and it is very likely for the heavenly spirit to be there.”
s.h.i.+ Lei nodded, he believed Star Lord Wan Xiang’s words.
He has known Star Lord Wan Xiang for some time and was familiar with the latter’s nature.
“Sigh, if not because I had a huge battle with Song Zi Xing and spent large numbers of immortal essence, and that I urgently require large amounts of immortal essence stones to covert into immortal essence due to my blessed land’s approaching tribulation, I would not have told such a huge secret to you.” Star Lord Wan Xiang sighed.
s.h.i.+ Lei’s tone softened: “Don’t worry, I will abide by the agreement, eighty percent of this exploration’s battle spoils will go to you while I take twenty percent. Also, I will not tell anyone else about this secret. Later, we will come to explore this grotto-heaven every year.”
Right now, only Star Lord Wan Xiang had the special method to enter Starry Sky grotto-heaven, s.h.i.+ Lei still had not grasped the method.
“Lord s.h.i.+ Lei has an outstanding reputation, I can be at ease. According to my past explorations, there is a star demon bat not far away and it is rather easy to kill.”
“Alright, let’s go there. Old rules; when fighting, you stand to the side, don’t interfere.” s.h.i.+ Lei was very decisive and immediately started flying rapidly towards the destination.
Star Lord Wan Xiang laughed bitterly while hurriedly following behind.
Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan cautiously entered the star hall.
This star hall had no defenses, there was no one inside, only six large wells in the center of the main hall.
Water was surging inside these six large wells.
The water in the wells were of different colors; red, brown, yellow, blue, purple and white. The well water was glittering and translucent, and emitted slight radiance.
Hei Lou Lan and Fang Yuan used investigative Gu worms to completely check them.
Their discovery was that the well water, the star hall, everything was as normal as they could be. This was naturally impossible. How could an ordinary hall appear out of thin air? How could ordinary well water be of different colors and emit light?
The only explanation was that the six well waters in this star hall were related to the grotto-heaven’s astronomical transformations. If so, the mortal investigative Gu of Hei Lou Lan and Fang Yuan were not of high enough level to investigate anything.
The two were unable to distinguish the mysteries of the six wells, and fell into a predicament for a while.
“This color…” Hei Lou Lan observed again and could not help mumbling.
Fang Yuan knew what she was thinking. He remembered when they had just arrived in Starry Sky grotto-heaven, he had looked at the sky. He saw the shadows of six stars in the sky, they were as large as the full moon and were easy to notice.
These six star shadows were the colors of red, brown, yellow, blue, purple and white, the same as these six waters in the wells.
“What connection do they have?” Fang Yuan mumbled and sent a mortal storage Gu inside a well to take out some of the water to study.
However, when the mortal Gu entered the well water, the tranquil and calm well water suddenly moved and formed a whirlpool, swallowing the mortal Gu.