The Pathway

The Plane-Drifter was glowering expressionlessly at Jufeng.

"You seek the Mystical Order. Though a strange stone, it was an heavenly treasure, nonetheless. But, do you even know what it does? Why it"s called the Mystical Order?"

He shook his head before shrugging.

"Not my concern, anyways. Nevertheless, I can point you in the right direction in return for the services rendered. Take this tunnel, you will come to a place of boiling liquid. Keep going forward until you come to a path of three. Don"t take the right or left ones. Take the one in the middle and it will lead you to a place of mist. Look for a shadow cave. There, you"ll find what you seek."

Jufeng cupped his hands and bowed.

"Thank you, senior."

He really wanted to ask the plane-drifter about the mystical order. But he could be stamped to death or disintegrated for being an irritant.

"En."

The plane-drifter glanced at him as if he had enough of people for the day, then he entered an opening on the side of the tunnel.

Jufeng heaved a sigh of relief. He stared at the tunnel path in front of him before taking a look at the place he was coming from. Backward, didn"t feel like that. Just like he had guessed, forward was much more like it, so forward it was. Although, the silence in the tunnel was disturbing, he entertained the notion of not facing a death-eater in the tunnel.

He knew the tunnel would indeed be quiet. But, extremely long? He didn"t factored that one in. He continued walking for many meters, cautiously using flashsteps as he neared the large opening indicated by the plane-drifter.

While still inside the tunnel, sounds of hard battles could be heard, coming from the open area. As he slowly exited the tunnel, Jufeng could see different battles going on between demiG.o.ds and death-eaters. And, not too distant from where he was, Jufeng could see that there were two other tunnels leading to the large opened area.

But what really caught his eyes was the landscape of the area.

There were different areas on the ground bubbling with hot yellow liquid which continued at intervals throughout the area. The place would have been a plain of levelled bubbling yellow liquid if not for the huge shafts on it. Palladium rocks in the form of large shafts were protruding out of the ground. Each of these shafts were like ma.s.sive boulders of pillars.

Despite the place looking colossal and strangely weird, the yellow boiling liquid really looked terrifying. It could be corrosive by its appearance. He would be exceedingly cautious of falling inside one, medicinal pills or not.

Jufeng who was lost in the reverie of the landscape, quickly snapped out of it as the two battles intensified. On one side, two demiG.o.ds were battling one death-eater while on the other side, another two demigids were battling another death-eater.

The two battles were of epic proportions.

But, the two demiG.o.ds on the other side, were battling a much bigger and different death-eater. Jufeng was transfixed on that specific battle as he watched the battle details in wonder. One of the two demiG.o.ds, the one covered in thick twirling vines, was sent sprawling on the ground as he held his injured side. He quickly took out a pill from his spatial sac and crushed it in his mouth.

The other demiG.o.d was still fighting the death-eater. He was covered in light black metal armor and was holding a largesword. Although, his armor was withstanding the battle, he was fastly loosing his ground.

He raised his largesword and slammed it on the floor. A large black round metal enclosed the death-eater in a coc.o.o.n which started to shrink. It appeared as if it would continue to shrink but, then, suddenly stopped and exploded outwards. The death-eater emerged from the from the roiling energy with is body giving off a raging dark energy.

The other demiG.o.d that was lying down, whom Jufeng suspected to be a flora or wood demiG.o.d, had now rejoined the battle. He appeared to have recovered considerably. He was holding a dark brown staff which was constanly changing shape and was radiating a green gold light. He engaged the death-eater in close combat at the same time as the metal armored demiG.o.d.
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It was a fierce battle. They exchanged hundreds of blows in minutes as they all blurred into apparitions. They couldn"t do much damage to the death-eater due to the scale covering it. It was a powerful defense mechanism.

After a moment of continous exchange, the demiG.o.ds withdrew few yards and launched their mystical arts. It seemed their martial arts wasn"t going anywhere and in turn, decided to use their mystical arts.

The flora or wood demiG.o.d made his most powerful move as he hit his staff"s base on the floor creating a chimerlike creature of great power made of flora element. A Flora Curiosa. A creature of the essence of flora. Surely now, he was a flora demiG.o.d. And at the same time, the metal armored demiG.o.d made his own attack move. He slashed his sword forward, diagonally, creating a Nether-Blade.

Both the Curiosa and Nether-Blade, attacked the death-eater simultaneously.

Running out of essential energy, trickles of blood could be seen on them as they strained to hold their own. The shadowy dark energy on the body of the death-eater was now a raging storm. If they could hold on, maybe, they could surpress the dark energy enough to attack its head. The only weak area on its body.

The flora demiG.o.d was the first one to run out of essential energy. The reverse effect of the counter-reaction, threw him backwards in collision with a protruded palladium shaft. He was trying to take an essential spirit pill from his spatial sac when he saw a frightning dark energy of shadow, coming in his direction. He looked at the other demiG.o.d in a sorrowful way before activating his teleportation seal. And in a flash, he disappeared making the shadow attack to hit an empty s.p.a.ce.

Fang Zedong noticed the slightest shift in concentration from him to the other demiG.o.d by the death-eater. So, he quickly took out a seal and put it on the largesword before launching it, horizontally, at the death-eater. This move would self-destruct the sword and would have adverse effect on him.

The largesword made a mourning sound as it expanded while speeding towards the death-eater. The core of the sword was moving to its pointed tip. The death-eater"s black eyes suddenly turned bright. Dark shadowy light was emitting from its eyes like a luminence obsidian. It raised its claws, and ma.s.sive shadows of claws formed a defensive barriers to the sword.

The impact was enormous.

Since a weapon with a core would be connected to the soul of the owner, the repercussion knocked him against of the protruded shaft where he was vomitting blood. Although, It was a bone-cracking collision, his body wasn"t affected much.

The real injury was sustained by his soul. The soul was everything to any immortal cultivator or G.o.d. Inside the dantian, the soul connected the life-force to the body.

Even with the G.o.ds that could form their avatars and images, it was a single soul that controlled all of them. With the necessary materials, a certain G.o.dly ritual would allow the G.o.ds to create threads of souls for their avatars and images. The ritual was called, the Threading of Parallel Souls. But, everything came with a price. If any of the avatars or images suffered destruction, the real G.o.ds would suffer greatly from the repercussion.

This was due to the loss of the parallel souls a.s.sociated with them.

The same with the weapons with cores or as they were generally refered to, soul weapons. Due to the fact that they were connected to the owners" souls.

Since the largesword was on a self-destructive path and was powered by the seal, it managed to shatter the ma.s.sive claws. It struck the death-eater at the center of its heart or where its should be.

The core of the black largesword that was at the tp of the sword, struck and pierced the hard body of the death-eater.

The death-eater was straining to pull the sword out of its body, when Jufeng, who had crept up behind it, pierced its skull through the opening at the back of its head. He had been watching their battle since he arrived at this opening and he had noticed the death-eater protecting the back of its head. It must be its vulnerable place.

Jufeng had wanted to quietly pa.s.s the area and continued looking for the mystical order but had stopped for unknown reasons. Maybe to look at the might of demiG.o.ds or to see the dangers of death-eaters. Both had been right in their dues.

The creature fell face down on the largesword breaking it into two. A shining white oval crystal, dropped from the death-eater"s mouth and rolled forward.

The demiG.o.d slowly removed his helmet, thereby, revealing his face.

"Fang Zedong? Heavens tears!"

Jufeng looked at him in a surprisingly bemused way.

"Hey, Jufeng."

With cold eyes, he looked at the stone and at Jufeng, who quickly nodded his head in agreement.

"It"s all yours, Fang Zedong. No question about that. I only helped out and your sword did the work. As long as you are alright, that"s fine by me."

Fang Zedong nodded and picked up the white stone.

"Sacredcrest stone."

He found a spot and sat down, resting his back on the remains of the shard he had collided with. He put the stone in his spatial sac and took out a pill which he put in his mouth.

Jufeng leered at the shining stone before it was put away. So, that was the Sacredcrest stone that demiG.o.ds would fight for in order to gain an extra divine ability? Well, if it was a divine ability, then, it probably worth it. But for him, it had no use and his mother was already through with demiG.o.ds" trials. He practically had no need for it. Even if he had use of it, would he be chasing a death-eater for one. Or try to take this one? Definitely no. He would surely be dead.

"I saw the battle, well, part of it and you were really good. With the black sword and black armor? You were like a death G.o.d."

Jufeng was demonstrating with his sword.

"Death G.o.d? You are having a laugh, aren"t you? I could have died if you hadn"t come, you know."

Jufeng stopped his sword display and gave a shrug.

"Well, you could have left this place like the other demiG.o.d. Why didn"t you? I remembered you told me it wasn"t worth dying for, didn"t you?"

Fang Zedong stared at the empty s.p.a.ce for a time before turning his gaze at Jufeng.

"For us Lakshas, it"s very different. You Asuras don"t worry that much about the Sacredcrest stones, do you? Maybe, you don"t want to accept that, but it"s true. For us, especially me, the honor of my family depends on this. It"s even worse going home without it than not coming at all."

"The traditions we follow. You have the stone now, so, be happy? By the way, sorry about your sword. It was a true beauty."

"Once belonged to my grandfather. Made with the core of an ancient Huli-jing. It"s a sad one."

Fang Zedong sighed as he peered at his broken sword with the hilt, still protruding out the death-eater"s chest.

"Been preparing for this a very long time. This armor, the sword and the seals, all belonged to my family. Lost the sword and a seal. Will be bad but I do have the stone. It"s all that matters."

He raised his head towards Jufeng.

"What about you?"

"I need to go forward towards the rising path. There"s something I must find."

As they were talking, three Asura demiG.o.ds streaked into the area in a blur. There were two or three bodies of demiG.o.ds and equal numbers of death-eaters. They were still checking, when they noticed Jufeng and Fang Zedong, sitting in front of the corpse of a giant pure black death-eater. The two decided to come over to see what was going on.

"An Asura and a Laksha. How often do you see that?"

One of the Asuras said with a devilish smile.

"And you, how good it is too see you alive. Thought the drifter was having you for dinner."

"h.e.l.lo."

Jufeng gave them a curt nod before turning his attention to the first Asura.

"Thanks for your help back there. I"m very grateful."

"Oh, pfff. Come off it. We are Asuras, aren"t we? We are not like some other demiG.o.ds that don"t understand this."

She turned her gaze on Fang Zedong whom Jufeng was quick to defend.

"He actually saved my life at the arena. If not for him, I would have been dead. I owe him much."

"How about that? A Laksha saving an Asura. I never saw that coming."

She raised an eyebrow at Fang Zedong before glancing at the death-eater.

"An ancient death-eater? And you two managed to stay alive. That"s truly insane."

"Well, we are heading towards the rising path. There should be a cave of death-eaters there."

"I"m heading towards there too. Maybe, we walk together?"

"Hm..... Just a minute."

She consulted with her friends for few seconds before returning.

"Okay. You two can join our group. But, the first stone comes to us. Is that okay?"

After recieving confirmation of agreement, she smiled widely.

"I"m Fan Xinyi."

She indicated the girl in bronze breast plate standing beside her.

"This is Kang Ya."

And, pointing to the boy in pristine white robe who was standing further back.

"And that"s Liu Luoyang."

Jufeng introduced himself and Fang Zedong as the five of them headed towards the rising path.