Chapter 324: The Third Floor
Inside the Xumi Temple, giant ghost Feng Yang stared dumbly at the Ten Buddha Formation at the center, bubbling with vigorous Buddhism energy, unable to come out from his bewilderment for a long time.
“Owner, this... this is?” He stammered.
Huang Xiaolong glanced at giant ghost Feng Yang: “This is the Godly Mt. Xumi.”
“What?!! This, the Godly Mt. Xumi!” Giant ghost Feng Yang exclaimed in a loud voice.
Huang Xiaolong nodded in affirmation. It was neither strange nor surprising for giant ghost Feng Yang, as a Saint realm ghost cultivator, to know about Godly Mt. Xumi. Moreover, Godly Mt. Xumi was a treasure from the Buddha World, an anathema for Yin creatures such as ghosts. If it weren’t for Huang Xiaolong diverting the Buddhism energy away from Feng Yang, he would have been purified into nothingness the moment he appeared in the Xumi Temple.
Ignoring the dumbfounded look on giant ghost Feng Yang’s face, Huang Xiaolong concentrated on driving the Godly Mt. Xumi, speeding forward past the mountains below.
Through Godly Mt. Xumi, Huang Xiaolong was able to view the outside mountains, there were indeed many creatures that were entirely blood-red moving around, physically similar to apes. These ghost creatures had a mouthful of sharp teeth, long arms with black strands of energy coming out from their eyes. On the top of their heads was a dagger-like spike, glinting with a sharp light.
“This is the Blood Dagger Ghost?” Huang Xiaolong asked.
Giant ghost Feng Yang was pulled out of his dazed, answering, “Yes, Owner, these are Blood Dagger Ghosts!”
Because Huang Xiaolong had the Godly Mt. Xumi shrunk to the size of a dust particle, the Blood Dagger Ghosts loitering below did not sense its presence. Huang Xiaolong punched out a Great Void Divine Fist in the Xumi Temple, the attack transferred out from Godly Mt. Xumi’s space to the outside world, striking a Blood Dagger Ghost that strayed somewhat far away down below.
A loud boom resounded, and before that Blood Dagger Ghost could issue a scream, it exploded into a cloud of blood mist. Huang Xiaolong opened his mouth and sucked in its ghost soul, running the Blood Pact Mandate to refine the ghost soul.
After slightly more an hour, Huang Xiaolong successfully refined the Blood Dagger Ghost’s soul.
He subsequently reaped more Blood Dagger Ghosts using the same method. Since he was cautious enough to select those Blood Dagger Ghosts that strayed off from the group, the matter did not alert the Blood Dagger Ghosts into frenzy madness.
Huang Xiaolong pushed the Godly Mt. Xumi to fly forward. In the past, many strong experts too passed the first and second floors, most of the treasures on the first and second floors had been plundered clean a long time ago, so Huang Xiaolong did not stop at all.
Still, the second floor of the Ghost King’s cultivation cave consisted of a large area, Huang Xiaolong was able to refine more than a dozen Blood Dagger Ghosts. They took a whole day of flying before they arrived at the entrance to the third floor.
There were some obvious differences between the entrance to the second floor and the entrance to the third floor; the entrance to the second floor was as high as an adult, two meters in width, and had a glow that rippled like waves with strong resistance against foreign objects. The entrance to the third floor was much more spacious, several zhang tall, and the width of several li, overgrown with black vines.
These black vines wound around the entrance layers over layers, sliding over each other, issuing shrill wails. In all, they looked like oversized crawling black maggots, with hair-raising level of disgustingness.
“What is this?” Huang Xiaolong frowned looking at the black vines.
“Owner, this is something from Ghost World called Ghost Maggot.” Giant Ghost Feng Yang explained, a strong fear reflected in his eyes, “Not only do these maggots suck human blood, they could even suck a person’s battle qi, including Third Order Saint realm experts’. If one got entangled by Ghost Maggots, in less than a dozen breaths’ time, they would be turned into a dry corpse!”
Huang Xiaolong drew in a mouthful of cold breath. A Third Order Saint Realm expert turned into a dry corpse in less than a dozen breath’s time. These Ghost Maggots were a little too terrifying!
On the other hand, if these Ghost Maggots were something from the Ghost World, how did the Ghost King manage to culture them in his backyard garden?
“Furthermore, these Ghost Maggots are very resilient. A new vine could grow within seconds after being chopped off, it is almost impossible to kill, regardless if a high-level Saint realm expert was here, they won’t die unless their main root is destroyed.” Giant ghost Feng Yang added.
Huang Xiaolong nodded. Still, there were probably millions of these vines, to search and destroy the main root among this mass was... difficult. It seems like the reason giant ghost Feng Yang failed to proceed to the third floor was mainly due to these Ghost Maggots guarding the entrance.
Huang Xiaolong carefully guided the Godly Mt. Xumi to fly toward the entrance, approaching with care. In general, being inside the Godly Mt. Xumi, Second and Third Order Saint realm experts would not be able to detect Huang Xiaolong’s presence, but still, it didn’t guarantee that it would show the same result on the Ghost Maggots.
After all, they originated from the Ghost World.
And voila! Just as the Godly Mt. Xumi got close to the entrance, the crawling vines suddenly issued an ear-splitting shriek, vines shot out to wrap around the Godly Mt. Xumi. More and more vines circled tightly around the Godly Mt. Xumi, there were no gaps for air to pass through, it was like a ball of vines, wholly swallowing the Godly Mt. Xumi.
Huang Xiaolong was startled by the speed of things, he hastily pushed the Ten Buddha Formation and Buddhism energy gushed down from the void, sacred aureate rays pierced through the vines. Since Godly Mt. Xumi was a treasure from the Buddha World and the Ghost Maggot was a living organism from the Ghost World, the Godly Mt. Xumi should be able to restrain it.
Like Huang Xiaolong envisioned, the tight black vine ball was akin to darkness meeting light, disintegrating in an instant after coming in contact with the Buddha luminescence.
Feng Yang watched the black vines that were illuminated by the golden light slowly wither and fall. But in the next moment, the fallen vines were once again replaced by lively new ones.
Watching the result, Huang Xiaolong was delighted, he did not expect the Buddhism energy to have such a large damaging effect, although the withered and fallen vines were quickly replaced by new ones, this result was more enough for Huang Xiaolong. He made a full effort to push the Ten Buddha Formation inside the Xumi Temple, Buddhism energy gushed out, bursting out from the Godly Mt. Xumi in all four directions and it managed to speed away quickly through the third floor’s entrance.
All the Ghost Maggot vines dried up and withered after being illuminated by the Buddhism energy. Seizing this small window of time, the Godly Mt. Xumi entered the third floor with Huang Xiaolong and giant ghost Feng Yang inside.
Entering the third floor, angry shrieks rang out behind them. Huang Xiaolong breathed out in relief as he scanned the third floor’s environment.
The third floor’s space was another endless stretch of snowy land. Low bushes of white-colored grass and plants, snowflakes falling from the high above. Other than snow, there were only the snow-covered bushes and nothing else.
Huang Xiaolong looked inquiringly at Feng Yang.
Giant ghost Feng Yang said, “Owner, this slave has never been this third floor before this, therefore I am not very clear. However, this slave remembered a Ghost Domain senior mentioned that the third floor was ten times more dangerous than the second floor. Beware of snow. ”
“Beware of snow?” Huang Xiaolong observed the area carefully and noticed that the falling snow on this third floor was different from normal snow.
The snow here seemed more translucent, white, and lighter. Despite that, other than these three points, Huang Xiaolong did not find other clues.
A short while later, Huang Xiaolong continued to fly forward using the Godly Mt. Xumi, entering the snow territory. The falling snow stuck on the surface of Godly Mt. Xumi, accumulating more and more. Gradually, a chilling air penetrated into the Xumi Temple from the surface. A shiver ran down Huang Xiaolong’s spine, feeling as if the blood running in his body was frozen solid.