"Hahahaha..." Xiao Chen emitted a peal of frenzied giggles as he watched dazedly at the unsheathed Autumn Water in its magnificent grandeur, his face filled with melancholic misery.
His weird and insane laughter caught everyone by surprise. The whole company was captivated by the divine splendor of the Autumn Water only to be distracted by his sudden change of demeanor. The brief episode did not go unnoticed by Xiaoyue; but being in the thick of battle against a foe so powerful, she could not afford being disturbed. With a flick of her finger, the Autumn Water answered her call with a high-pitched ring and shot towards the Corpse Champion in a blinding flash of light!
The epic charge of the Autumn Water at its foe was so awesome that the Corpse Champion could feel the raging intensity of its force. For the first time in this battle, it sensed danger closing in. The zombie channeled its powers, the evil Qi exuding from its foul person billowed like a strong gust of wave that rode forth to meets its adversary. But the imbued strength of Qianyu Nishang was not to be underestimated; the bolt of brilliant light shot with the force of an exploding star, flooding the hall with the radiance of a burning sun and disintegrating the rest of the corpses now lying on the ground into dust.
"NOOO!" Mu Chengxue screamed, her eyes blood-streaked with maniacal frenzy. With all her True Energy, she forcibly broke the spell of Xiao Chen"s magical barrier.
"Arghh!" Xiao Chen gasped and spat a mouthful of blood. He had left a shred of his consciousness within the spell of his magical formation to prevent Mu Chengxue from breaking free from his hold. But the sight of the Autumn Water had distracted him enough for Mu Chengxue to succeed in freeing herself, hence the rebound of her force upon him.
With a fleet-footed step, Mu Chengxue dashed to the front, with vain hopes that she could stop the charge of the Autumn Water. Sadly for her, it was but merely a naive and fruitless endeavor; the streaking bolt of light that was the Autumn Water was traveling at such an impossible speed that it easily shattered the magical barrier that the Corpse Champion had used his evil Qi to construct, penetrating past its defenses and shot cleanly through the zombie, boring a large hole in its chest.
"NOOO! NOOO! BROTHER!!!" Mu Chengxue howled with anguish as she ran forward, leaping into the air to catch hold of the falling body of her brother.
Despite their triumph against a foe so evil and powerful, the company received their victory with their heads hanging over their shoulders in the midst of Mu Chengxue"s grieving sobs and gasps. The Autumn Water"s final coup de grace had punched so huge a hole in the corpse"s chest that its heart was gone and it could no longer return to life.
Tears poured down Mu Chengxue"s cheek like a sorrowful deluge. "Brother..." She panted through her sobs as she hugged at the body of her dead brother tightly.
With a heavy heart, Xiao Chen began to move slowly towards her. His thoughts wandered to his teacher. Through forest and fen, he had been searching for her. How would he take the news, if one day word of her demise were to indeed reach him?
He shook his head, dispelling these thoughts from his mind. He reached beside Mu Chengxue. But suddenly, he saw the corpse beginning to move! The body of the Corpse Champion looked at Mu Chengxue and smiled. "Xue, it is you..." His voice faded swiftly into the breeze, as did the dust of his crumbling body that nothing of him was left in the end.
Everyone was amazed by the corpse"s final moment of lucidity and its last words, especially Xiao Chen. Each and every fragment of a person"s soul had been gone if the person had been turned into a Corpse Puppet. What was left would only be a mere lifeless puppet with utterly no recollection of its past. But how did this Corpse Puppet recognize Mu Chengxue in a rare moment of clarity? Unless....
A flurry of thoughts coursed through his mind. Confused and perplexed, Xiao Chen could not explain the sudden phenomena he had just witnessed. Instead, he felt a sudden murderous desire to kill burning from his front. It was Mu Chengxue who was just in front of him!
She turned slowly, her face filled with hatred and anger. Without any notice, she leaped towards Xiaoyue, her sword threatening to snap at the latter"s neck!
"I"ll kill you!"
But Xiaoyue had antic.i.p.ated her intent; with the Coalesced Colors Equal to Dust technique, she easily evaded Mu Chengxue"s stroke, leaving merely a mirage in her wake. "He was no more your brother than a mindless puppet of this Wuw.a.n.g City," Xiaoyue spoke with a steely voice, trying to urge Mu Chengxue to choose reason over rage, "I am not your enemy, nor I am the person who had brought such fate to you and your brother! It is the Wuw.a.n.g Wind Cloud City that you should seek vengeance from!"
Driven by her witless rage, Mu Chengxue paid no heed to Xiaoyue"s words; she continued chasing after Xiaoyue with her sword like a snake with its fangs bared. The clash threw up dust and winds into the air of the underground hall, as the glint of steel shone through the thick, grubby mist.
Still, Xiaoyue, with her agile and nimble footwork, left only illusory phantoms for Mu Chengxue to sink her sword into as she easily maneuvered to safety like a dancing specter again and again. Her voice could be heard, cold and frosty like ice, saying to her pursuer, "Do not test my patience, Miss Mu. You"ll be sorry for it!"
Xiao Chen could no longer bear to watch anymore; he leaped into the fray, and blocked Mu Chengxue"s path. "Please, Miss Mu," he said to her, "Please stop now."
Mu Chengxue was so near to accidentally hitting him when he intervened. "Move away!" She spat at him, her voice full of venom.
"Please listen to me, Miss Mu," Xiao Chen shook his head, indicating his resolve. "Your brother might still be alive. I"m not saying this to merely console you. There are reasons to suspect that the corpse is not your brother"s."
"What do you mean?" She snapped, her voice trembling with doubt and suspicion. But her grip on the hilt of her sword did not loosen.
"I myself cannot be fully sure what is going on. But I am positively certain that if your brother had been turned into a Corpse Puppet, it"s impossible for him to retain any emotions and memories of you. He"d never be able to smile to you."
"Amitabha..." Xu Gu chanted suddenly, breaking his silence. "There is more to this entire intrigue than meets the eye, Miss Mu. Please calm down. What matters now is getting everyone out of here safely."
Yu Yifeng and Luo Shangyan came over to help console her. At last, she returned her sword to its scabbard, although her hatred for Xiaoyue was still evident.
"Well then, let"s get started. Please look around, everyone. See if there are any avenues of exits here," Xu Gu ordered. His eyes remained transfixed on the two remaining sarcophaguses still hanging in mid-air. This made everyone look up too, wondering if the two remaining stone coffins housed any more powerful and evil Corpse Puppets.
But this huge underground hall was protected by enchantments and the stone coffins were too high up in the air for Xiao Chen to cast forth his Divine Sense to find out the contents of the coffins. With the lack of success, he said to his companions, "Let"s first concentrate on finding an exit."
The company broke up into and scattered around the hall, examining every nook and cranny for any concealed entryways. Moments later, everyone heard Xu Gu"s calls. He had found a stone door a little more than three meters wide. The stone door, being almost identical to the walls of the cavern, would have not been discovered, if the battles earlier did not cause the dust and soot to fall off the thin grooves.
Xiao Chen walked to the door. He projected his Divine Sense and found that not only the stone door was extraordinarily thick, a pa.s.sage, pitched dark and empty, laid just behind the door. The mechanisms of operating the stone door were all on the other side, hence throwing a wrench into any way of opening the door.
The frown he wore on his face was enough to convey his beliefs that opening the door would be no simple feat. Ye Wuhen sneered from behind. "It"s just a stone door. Do you even lack the strength to break it down?" He strode forward with his palm raised, about to strike on the stone entrance.
Xiao Chen"s arm rose quickly to stop him. "There"s no need for hastiness," he said to Ye Wuhen.
"What"s this? You"re giving me orders now?" Ye Wuhen growled in return. Embittered by his loss to Xiao Chen before, Ye Wuhen had nothing but deepest hatred and contempt for him.
But Xiao Chen made no attempt to exchange barbed words with him. He turned to the rest of the company. "A long and dark pa.s.sage lies just at the other side of the door. But I"m afraid that breaking this door down by force might trigger any traps or contrivances that may breed new trouble, such as the collapse of the roof of the tunnel we came in earlier."
The mention of the tunnel caving in earlier sent a disquieting queasiness across the company, rousing old fears and insecurities as some began nodding their heads. "How can you tell that a long and dark pa.s.sage lies just at the other side of the door," Ye Wuhen scoffed, "You"ve been here before?"
Xiao Chen ignored him again. The Core Forming Realm cultivators of the present age, unlike thousands of years ago, did not have the ability to project their Divine Senses. Knowing that explaining himself would only be a waste of time and effort, he continued speaking to the rest of the company. "Is there anyone among us who is exceptional in fire-based magic spell?"
"My skills maybe trivial, but I might know a thing or two about fire-based magic spell," Qin Xinyan responded, stepping out of the crowd. It was common knowledge that students of the School of the Savage Flames were particularly learned in fire-based magic. Still, no one could see what Xiao Chen was planning to do.
"Very well," Xiao Chen nodded to Qin Xinyan and said, "If you would please, Brother Yan, I"ll need you to burn the stone door with as much True Energy as possible. The rest of the company and I will help to channel our True Energies to you."
"So be it!" Qin Xinyan remarked. He had been observing Xiao Chen throughout the journey and had found himself fascinated by his charismatic and enigmatic behavior that he wished to make his acquaintance, and this was his opportunity to be on Xiao Chen"s good side. He stepped closer to the stone door, and channeled his powers to unleash the Flames of the Southern Vermilion Bird upon the stone slab.
Fiery silhouettes of two miniature dragons formed and looped along his two arms, coiling towards his hands before they turned into jets of flames that roasted the stone door. Despite not being a flammable object, the stone door remained shrouded by ravenous flames so strong that everyone could feel the simmering heat. Xiao Chen stepped towards Qin Xinyan, placing a hand on his back and funneled his True Energy to the latter. A few others followed suit and transmitted part of their True Energies to him as well.
With the boost given by the members of the company, the flames grew stronger and wilder. Before long, the stone door began to turn red, glowing with heat and energy. The blistering swelter made everyone sweat profusely. Only Ye Wuhen remained at a side, watching with glee, antic.i.p.ating Xiao Chen"s failure. Was he trying to melt the stone, he mused. What foolishness, he cursed again.
Qin Xinyan continued incinerating the stone door for a quarter of an hour until Xiao Chen was satisfied that the door was now sizzling hot. Sweat drenched everyone"s faces that were red as raw meat from the torridness. Still, the door yielded no signs of melting.
"That is enough," Xiao Chen muttered, dislodging his hand from Qin Xinyan"s back and everyone else did the same, backing away for a few paces to get as far as possible from the swelter.
Xiao Chen looked at Xiaoyue. "This is where you come in, Lady Xiaoyue," he said to her.
Xiaoyue made no reply, as if she had long antic.i.p.ated Xiao Chen"s plan. With her horse-tail whisk, she drew a few circles in the air and conjured columns of water that spurted on the stone door that was glowing red-hot like burning embers.
Streams of water splashed on the stone door, sending white plumes of steam hissing angrily and floated into the air. A few other cultivators skilled in water-based magic spell too began to douse the door. Before long, the entire underground palace was filled with translucent mists of steam that swirled around the company and the stone door began to cool.
"Thank you so much, Lady Xiaoyue," Xiao Chen quipped with a smile. He walked to the door and gave a little push, and the ma.s.sive stone door began to crack and splinter all around.
Gasps of amazement rose from the company. The ma.s.sive and invulnerable stone door had been broken into pieces just by burning and rapidly drenching it with water as if a bolt of lightning from Heaven had smitten upon it.
It was a plan he had concocted during his childhood when he was still unable to practice wushu at his home. Being unable to pummel stones and rocks into pieces and fragments like the rest of the other children in the family, he would first heat up stone slabs before pouring water upon them. He himself had almost lost count of the times he had cheated everyone in the family with this trick.
This earned Xiao Chen several praises for his creativeness; most people had been so engrossed in training and meditation to enhance their own powers that they had completely overlooked simpler ways to leverage things to their advantage. Xiao Chen"s witty plan had not only prevented the whole subterranean palace from caving in, it had also easily opened the path for the company to continue their journey. But only one person alone scoffed with disdain, "Just luck and simple wittiness."
With the stone door now out of the way, it was as what Xiao Chen had revealed: the stone door was the entrance to another long and dark tunnel. "It seems that this is the way out," Xu Gu said, "We must be extremely careful."
With him and Xiao Chen leading at the front, the rest behind conjured a faint radiant light that illuminated the way. Through the darkness, the path wound and curved incessantly as if they were walking inside the bowels of a giant serpent. For a little more than an hour"s walk, what appeared to be a long and endless journey had finally come to an end: there was a faint glimmer of light at their front at last! A glimmer of hope!
The Cold-billow Labyrinth had delayed their journey for so long that it almost felt like an eternity inside. The company picked up their pace and hurried towards the faint flickering light, only to find that it was the light that came from beneath another stone door. With a quick inspection, Xiao Chen concluded that it was merely an ordinary stone door. With a powerful slap, he destroyed the door, and sunlight flooded into the tunnel, temporarily blinding the whole company.
"Here they are! Hold them!"