Chapter 853: Mountains in Gloom
“This temple looks like a weird fish.” After looking at it for a while, Bi Linglong couldn’t help but ask, “But are there really fish that big in this world?”
“There are, like great whales.” Zu An looked at the strange temple. He felt it was larger than even the blue whales of his old world.
“Huh? Could it be…” Mi Li trailed off, puzzled.
Zu An quickly asked, “Master empress, when did you get into the habit of stopping halfway through your sentence? What is this thing?”
Mi Li shook her head. “Let’s take a look around first. I want to make sure it really is what I suspect it to be.”
Zu An wanted to ask her for more information, but Bi Linglong suddenly cried out in alarm. A zombie-like arm had shot out of the ground and gripped her ankle!
However, Bi Linglong did have six levels of cultivation. She quickly sliced it off after her initial alarm. At almost the same time, more hands reached out to grab at her feet. Furthermore, the ground around them became viscous like a swamp. Her center of gravity became unsteady and she began to fall. Fortunately, Zu An’s reactions were fast. He picked her up and chopped off the hands around her feet before leaping back to solid ground.
“What in the world was that?” Bi Linglong’s heart was still pounding as she stared at where they had just been.
The ground had become incredibly muddy. It turned out not to be solid ground at all, but rather a swamp! Countless arms reached out from the swamp and grabbed frantically toward the air, as if they wanted to drag anything living into the abyss. Her complexion paled when she saw the scene. Girls had a natural rejection toward such creepy things.
“I don’t know; they look like moving corpses,” Zu An said with a grim look.
Bi Linglong was about to say something else when she suddenly frowned. She bent down and clutched her calf, breaking out into a cold sweat. Zu An squatted down next to her. He raised her dress slightly and saw that her smooth and fair calf had several scorched black handprints on them. At first, Bi Linglong was embarrassed when a man raised her skirt, but she was startled when she saw the black handprints.
“These were caused by the evil ki of the world. This evil ki devours living things. Even just a touch can cause great harm.” Zu An passed on what Mi Li told him.
“Ah! Then how are we going to cross over?” Bi Linglong was alarmed. This swamp would have been hard to cross to begin with. How were they going to get to the other side with so many vengeful spirits there?
She wasn’t too worried about the marks that were on her body, because the harm wasn’t too great and she could hold on. But right now, they couldn’t proceed, and yet they couldn’t go back either. If the emperor caught up, the only thing waiting for the two of them would be death.
…
Bi Linglong had no idea that Zhao Ruizhi’s group had already taken an entirely different path, and that just then, they were also in quite the predicament.
There was a huge desert in front of them. However, Zhao Ruizhi didn’t hesitate at all and led their group inside. This huge desert might be off-limits for a normal person, but it wasn’t a big deal for cultivators like them.
But once they reached the desert’s depths, several problems manifested. There were rustling sounds all around them. They happened on and off at first, so the group didn’t pay too much attention to them. But eventually, the sound grew louder and louder. Furthermore, a lot of the sounds came from underneath their feet.
He Li was already incredibly vexed because he had that skull flower inside him. When he saw that, he decided to just slam his palm into the ground. The sounds immediately became softer. Some deathsworn soldiers dug out some sand and discovered many black scorpions that had died from the impact. They all felt admiration toward the power of He Li’s palm.
But Zhao Ruizhi frowned, staring at the scorpions. These scorpions were different from any known scorpions. They were three to four times larger, and they were entirely a strange, shiny black color.
A few moments later, the black scorpion corpses disappeared into black smoke. King Qi Manor’s warriors were all stunned. What was going on?
“Be careful!” Zhao Ruizhi’s expression suddenly changed, because more rustling noises surrounded them. Furthermore, they were even louder than before. The surrounding sand began to churn, as if there were something wriggling around inside.
Those from King Qi Manor drew their weapons. They were all frightened badly by the unknown danger. Sand suddenly flew into the air around them, quickly piling up. Then, with a muffled noise, countless black scorpions crawled out and frantically swarmed at the group.
Those from King Qi Manor were alarmed. They brandished their weapons in defense, and all sorts of elemental skills flew out. For cultivators like them, dealing with a swarm of scorpions shouldn’t have been difficult at all, but these scorpions were way too strange. They seemed to possess an immunity against many elemental attacks. With their numbers, they soon managed to sting a cultivator. That person immediately screamed miserably and began to roll on the ground in pain.
These were all elite deathsworn soldiers. Normally, they wouldn’t even frown from their injuries, and yet the soldier was screaming so bitterly. It was easy to imagine just how painful the stings were.
Zhao Ruizhi harrumphed. A wave of golden light rippled out from his spot at the center of the group. The black scorpions instantly vanished into black smoke the instant they made contact with the light. The numerous black scorpions all around them were actually wiped clean in an instant!
He Li widened his eyes. He thought to himself, The emperor’s power is great enough to even surprise me again and again. If I were a woman, I might just fall in love with him. What in the world is wrong with that crown princess? She actually followed that pretty boy instead?
Zhao Ruizhi said indifferently, “Treat his injuries. We’re continuing.” His first impulse was to just throw that person away to avoid being tied down. However, as a leader, he knew that once he lost the soldiers’ morale, it would be meaningless to bring any of them along.
They had already been wavering a bit when many of them died from the floating platforms experiment. If such a thing happened again, they would definitely become resentful. That was why he had to use some methods of appeasement at suitable times.
He Li immediately snapped out of his daze when he heard those words. As a ninth ranked expert, he obviously had some great medicines. He normally wouldn’t be willing to use them on others at all, but since the emperor had spoken up, he could only treat the injured person while feeling aggrieved inside. Hmph, I take back my words. That guy is so stingy; he only knows how to squeeze every last drop out of us. No wonder his woman left him for another man!
Their group continued into the desert. On several occasions, the emperor had to intervene to get rid of the scorpions. The scorpions were becoming progressively more numerous, and they seemed to be getting stronger and stronger as well. Even he was starting to feel the pressure.
“I believe these black scorpions were created from evil ki. They rely on this world for their existence. Unless we completely destroy this world, they’ll never completely disappear.” Zhao Ruizhi’s brows furrowed deeply. But soon afterward, he felt much better. “Hmph, if even I’m experiencing such a headache, that bastard Zu An will inevitably die if he faces a similar disaster.”
…
“Achoo!” Zu An couldn’t help but sneeze again. “Just who is thinking about me?”
“What’s up with you? Did you get sick?” Bi Linglong was a bit worried. Normally speaking, after reaching a certain level, cultivators wouldn’t get sick. If they did get sick, it meant that things were really serious.
“I’m fine.” Zu An shook his head. Then, he reached down toward her ankle. The feeling of her skin was smooth and soft, as expected of someone who has been pampered as a crown princess for many years.
Bi Linglong blushed when she felt his hand’s warmth. Why is he touching me right now? Should I reject him or pretend that I didn’t feel anything… She was feeling conflicted when suddenly, a warm current brushed past her ankle. The stinging pain instantly disappeared, and even the black handprint was gone.
“How did you do that?” Bi Linglong was shocked and happy. Only now did she realize that she had been overthinking things.
Zu An chuckled and didn’t answer her question. “Let’s hurry and keep moving.” After saying so, he brought her toward the marsh.
Bi Linglong was frightened. “There are vengeful spirits…” But she froze up midway through her sentence. She was shocked to discover that the vengeful spirits’ arms wanted to reach toward the two of them, yet for some reason, they suddenly shrank back in fear and stayed far away. It was almost as if they were the ones who had seen a ghost and were frightened instead…
Whenever Zu An took a step, all of the mushy swamp land within a few meters of him was covered in a layer of ice, making it as if they were walking on solid ground.
“This is the Snowflake Sword? But I never heard that the Snowflake Sword had evil warding effects!” Bi Linglong was quite puzzled.
Zu An had a relaxed smile on his face. How many times had he entered such dungeons already? He was already a master of dealing with these departed spirits. Once he had cultivated the Primordial Origin Sutra to the second layer, he had gained the ability to oppress all sinister deceased existences. He had already completed the third level now. The vengeful spirits underneath felt an instinctive threat, so they naturally wanted to stay as far away as possible.
Soon afterward, the two of them crossed that swamp and arrived in front of the strange temple. It was already quite worn down. There were no signboards, and even one of the double doors was missing. The one that remained had been pushed slightly inward, its surface covered in cobwebs. It looked as if it might fall apart at a moment’s notice.
There were two vague lines carved on the sides of the door. Mi Li read out, “‘The mountains are in gloom, the monster unseen in its dwelling’… Sigh, it was him after all.”