Chapter 548 The Real Mastermind
“Whether I decide to be kind or not, it’s none of your business. Where’s my Golden Tree?” Yun Jiuge activated her Spiritual Eye. She noticed an Energy Barrier beside Nangong Yue. She had a hunch that the Golden Tree would be inside it.
“It’s in this Energy Barrier. If you think you can win me in a fight, come over and get it yourself!” said Nangong Yue as she swung her sleeves. Their surroundings started to change.
A black, bubbling demonic pool appeared on the ground. Black steam rose from the demonic pool and turned into little demonic beings.
Those little demonic beings looked odd. Some of them resembled an eyeball with a red pupil and gray eyelids.
The demonic beings swarmed around a golden tree with no leaves on its branches. An average-looking man was confined within the tree. It was Li Wei.
Both of his hands were folded across his chest, as though he was protecting something.
Yun Jiuge knew that it was the Catastrophe Seal that she gave to him.
She really wanted to rush forward to save Li Wei, but Nangong Yue’s haughty att.i.tude gave her second thoughts.
“There’s something strange about this place,” said Zi Shang, who held Yun Jiuge’s hand and swept his eyes around the area. He lowered his head and looked at the stone spiral staircase beneath his feet, saying, “This is a Netherworld Spectral Formation.”
“This must be why we had to descend this stone spiral staircase.” Yun Jiuge recomposed herself. She followed Zi Shang’s gaze and saw Golden Core Cultivators from the Five Major Black Magic Sects and Six Major Righteous Sects. They were sealed inside the stone slabs of the spiral staircase.
The back of their heads were completely pierced with Netherworld Sealing Spiritual Needles. They were frozen in extremely unnatural poses in the stone slabs.
If the group continued to walk down the stairs, they would be trapped in the Netherworld Spectral Formation.
“I thought that it’d take me a lot of effort to lure the two of you here. I never imagined that two little Legendary Venomous Insects and a small demonic being would do the trick. You both are either fools or have a great deal of skill and courage!” Nangong Yue smiled gleefully and patted the Golden Tree. The scene of Xiao Tao and Xiao Ying being made into specimens materialized before them.
The two little Legendary Venomous Insects’ faces were pained, expressing the suffering that they had experienced moments before dying.
“You actually killed them,” uttered Yun Jiuge, who was furious. She raised her hand and shot a sharp arrow at Nangong Yue.
The golden arrow streaked across the air and penetrated every invisible barrier. However, it could not reach Nangong Yue at all.
“I’ll leave you with my Netherworld Spectral Formation first. Have fun!” Nangong Yue clapped her hand once and the entire place slowly descended into darkness. The only light source they had was the light green glow of the stone spiral staircase.
“We need to break this formation before we can find her,” said Zi Shang as he stomped his leg on the stone slab. It shook from the impact.
Innumerable translucent figures with expressionless faces appeared on the long stone staircase. All of them were Golden Core Cultivators. They crammed the entire way down.
Yun Jiuge studied them. The first few Golden Core Cultivators seemed like they were from Danyang Sect.
Danyang Sect specialized in Pill Production. Most of them were homebodies who bartered for things they needed by offering Medicinal Pills. Furthermore, they were not good at fighting.
Zi Shang dashed towards the Golden Core Cultivators and threw a fist at them. He smashed their Holy Souls into pieces and made his way through valiantly.
Yun Jiuge followed closely behind him. She discovered that after the Holy Souls of those Golden Core Cultivators shattered, they gradually pieced themselves back together.
These Golden Core Cultivators were indestructible. They needed to move in the quickest way possible.
Zi Shang also realized this, so he stopped conserving his energy. Black scales grew rapidly on his face, while his hands turned into sharp claws. He had a dragon tail at his lower body. He started to move forward aggressively.
It did not take them long to reach the middle of the stone spiral staircase. However, when they wanted to advance further, they encountered an obstacle.
Each of the Cultivators from the Five Major Black Magic Sects played tricks and conjured walls and countless traps on the stone slabs of the spiral staircase.
Swordsmen from the Supreme Blade Sect emerged from the walls. Although they had already turned into Soul Puppets, they were still formidable opponents.
More and more Holy Souls came into view. They started to edge closer towards the group.
Zi Shang’s handsome face was completely covered by black scales, while his attacks became more and more merciless. However, Yun Jiuge did not let her guard down.
It would not bode them well to exert so much energy right off the bat. She had to think of a way to tear down these walls which were obstructing them.
“Mistress, why did you toss this disgusting eyeball here?” Cute Little Baby’s unhappy voice rang out in Yun Jiuge’s mind.
“You can help me with this.” Yun Jiuge’s eyes lit up. She took the Magic Cauldron out and placed it on the stone slab. She commanded it to turn into a large, round cauldron with a hand gesture.
“Mistress, what are you trying to do?” Cute Little Baby was confused.
“Go forth!” Yun Jiuge kicked the Magic Cauldron and shouted.
The Magic Cauldron clattered as it rolled down the stone spiral staircase. It smashed through all the walls. This weakened the Holy Souls.
Zi Shang cleared everything in his path. Yun Jiuge and the others were able to proceed smoothly. In the end, they broke the Netherworld Spectral Formation successfully.
“Human Cultivators are so useless. They can only stall them for such a short time,” said Nangong Yue, who shook her head. She opened her mouth wide, and all of the Holy Souls sealed in the stone spiral staircase were sucked into her large mouth.
Thumping sounds came from her body. She grew in size and became a ma.s.sive monster.
The only thing on her black face was a large mouth filled with sharp, white teeth. She had six long arms, two thick legs and a long tail behind her. She gave them an ominous feeling.
“Tianwai Demonic Clan?!” Yun Jiuge blurted out.
“What is Tianwai Demonic Clan?” As Zi Shang asked, he defended himself from the monster’s attacks.
“I just remembered that when I divined about the catastrophe, I found out that there’s a group of evil and powerful creatures living outside the Canglan Continent called the Tianwai Demonic Clan who would plunder every place that they stepped foot in. They forcibly created a portal to the Canglan Continent, so that they could throw the demonic beings that they were breeding, in here.
These demonic beings not only possess a human body, but they also produce and spread a kind of Demon Qi which acts like a plague. When all of the living things in the Canglan Continent turned into corrupted demonic beings, the Tianwai Demonic Clan would come to steal Canglan Continent’s Source Power. Everything in the Canglan Continent would be completely destroyed.”
Yun Jiuge wanted to pummel her own head. She could not believe that she had forgotten something so important.
“Back then, you used your body to mend the heavens. Did you do that so that you could seal that portal?” Zi Shang was so shocked by the revelation that he became careless for a moment. The monster managed to land a hit on him and sent him flying to the wall with a loud thud. The wall shook from the impact.
“That’s right. When I used my physical body to seal the Tianwai Demonic Clan’s portal, I found the key that they used to open the portal. After I used my Holy Essence to seal the portal, I gave the key to Li Wei.” As Yun Jiuge spoke, she dodged the monster’s attacks.
“What are we waiting for? We should hurry up and save Li Wei, so that we can destroy the key.” Zi Shang kicked the monster in a spirited manner and sent it flying to a corner. He used his tail to wrap around the monster to hold it in place.
The monster roared like crazy, but it could not free itself from the constraints.
Yun Jiuge took the chance to rush to the Golden Tree. She wanted to pull it out of the Demonic Aura Pool, but it seemed rooted firmly to the bottom.
At this time, the monster finally broke out of Zi Shang’s grip. It sent Zi Shang flying with a punch.