Chapter 5.1 (1/2)
Chapter 5: Golden Soul Mist (Part 1)
The silence of the heavens and earth is a silence that only occurs after chaos.
In the entire vast valley,
The violent stench of blood cannot be waved off.
The blood plasma that has splattered around,
Coats the trees, thistles and thorns, rocks,
Painting them a horrifying red.
As if a month’s worth of scarlet has poured from the skies,
Everything is dampened in red.
[West of Aslan Empire – Port city of Rennes]
From the moment he has woken up in the morning, Qi Ling has been moving forward alongside Yin Chen; Yin Chen looks light and airy, as carefree as taking a stroll when in reality, his strength is like a gust of wind and Qi Ling had to use all his strength in order to catch up to him. Gradually, they left the forest outside of Fauser behind, Yin Chen heads west with Qi Ling. At first Qi Ling was only slightly dubious, but he thought that Yin Chen might know a shortcut hence he did not say much. However, when a blinding white port city appears before his eyes, Qi Ling can no longer hold it in: “Yin Chen, aren’t we heading to the imperial capital Gelanerte? Shouldn’t Gelanerte be in the northern inlands? Why did we come to this port city?” He says as he lifts his head and exclaims about how impressive the white ma.s.s of architecture are in Rennes while rus.h.i.+ng after Yin Chen.
“I brought you here so that you can get the soul weapon that belongs you to.” Yin Chen continues moving forward without looking back.
“Soul weapon? What’s that?” Qi Ling is confused again. He sighs; he will never be able to understand this world of soul bending. Just as he understands one thing, there will be something new in the blink of an eye. He just found out his own soul beast yesterday, and great, here comes a soul weapon. Maybe tomorrow there will be soul robes, soul shoes, soul belts……
“It’s a weapon that belongs to you only. A soul weapon is not a typical weapon, it is only produced in the ‘Grave of the Souls’.”
“Can I please ask what this Grave of the Souls is……” Qi Ling thinks his brain is about to explode from the lack of oxygen.
“The Grave of the Souls is a deep sea cave in the depths of the sea of Rennes. This gigantic cavern exists since the ancient times, just like the existence of the Silver Priests in the imperial capital Gelanerte, no one knows when it came about. The Grave of the Souls is like a giant nurturing vessel for soul weapons, countless powerful soul weapons grow on the cliffs in this cave like living plants. The difference between soul weapons and ordinary weapons is that, similar to soul masters, they have their own return circuit of the soul, the soul powers move along the carvings on the soul weapon and can generate a large amount of power, at the same time, soul weapons have the ability to contain soul beasts, hence, people with soul weapons can be said to own two soul beasts. However, only a disciple is qualified to enter the Grave of the Souls to retrieve their own soul weapon, and thus, only disciples and lords can have two soul beasts. Also, once a disciple enters the Grave of the Souls, no matter if they successfully retrieved a powerful soul weapon, he or she can never set foot into the Grave of the Souls again in this lifetime.”
“So powerful? How is it compared to my Cang Xue Zhi Ya?”
“Different soul weapons have different volumes, the stronger the soul weapon, the stronger the soul beast it’s able to contain. But the soul weapon also needs to habitat the soul master’s body, just like how the ‘First Soul Beast’ needs to inhabit the lord’s seal to regain their energy, the soul weapon requires the physical body of the soul master in order to regain their soul powers.”
“You mean……put a weapon……in the body?” Qi Ling feels goose b.u.mps on his skull.
“Yeah. Do you want to see my soul weapon?” Yin Chen turns and looks at Qi Ling expressionlessly.
“No no! Thank you!” Qi Ling feels sick in his stomach; “You were talking about the bottom of the ocean just now? How should we get there? Do we need to get a large s.h.i.+p? I need to put this out first, I have no money……”
Yin Chen takes in a deep breath and stalks off……
“Uh……what happened here?” Qi Ling stands at the opening of a narrow tunnel, everything is in shambles, crackled walls, collapsed holes, debris scattered everywhere.
Yin Chen stands rooted to the ground wordlessly, his long eyes shrouded in the gloom. A faint wave of soul powers can be detected; remnants of the battle from before. It is evident that the battle has only taken place a short while ago. And from the intricacy of the soul powers drifting in the air, these do not belong to just any ordinary soul master, from the precision level; they at least belong to disciples, if not lords.
The sunlight from above their heads illuminates everything in the tunnel; the small shards of rock and the dust particles float in the light like golden mist.
“Didn’t you say we were going to the sea bed? Why are we here?” Qi Ling asks.
“The seventeenth statue from here is the ‘Chess Piece’ that enters the Grave of the Souls.”
Qi Ling rubs his temples, a pained expression on his face, “Imma say this, master Yin Chen……May I please know what this chess piece is……”
Yin Chen rolls his eyes at Qi Ling, “A chess piece is actually a teleporting battle formation that has soul powers casted on it, through the seal on something solid, it opens and connects the time and s.p.a.ce between two locations. The appearance of a chess piece can be anything, a pebble, a tree, a door, a weapon, a statue, they can all be chess pieces. Chess pieces are scattered all over Odin mainland. And this chess piece in Rennes is connected to the Grave of the Souls.”
“Ah……” Qi King gazes at the row of eye-less Medusa statues, finding it hard to believe that they can lead to another s.p.a.ce.
“Go ahead. Touch the seventeenth status.” Yin Chen tells Qi Ling.
“Me? Alone?” Qi Ling shakes his head violently, “No no no no, I don’t dare……”
“Of course you’re going alone. I’ve been there when I was a disciple. I do not have the ability to enter again.” Yin Chen stares at the long and narrow s.p.a.ce, his gaze shrouded in the shadows.
[West of Aslan Empire – Port city of Rennes]
Qi Ling stares at the row of creepy Medusa statues while clicking his tongue, making no move to leave, Yin Chen had to go ahead and grab him by the collar to drag him away from the statues. After struggling and realizing that he cannot escape, Qi Ling switches to verbal attacks, “Put me down! You’re heaving me along like a naughty child, I’m losing so much face!” “Let me tell you, I may only be seventeen now, but I will grow taller, don’t think you can drag me here and there just because you’re half a head taller than me right now!” “Let me tell you……gurgle gurgle splatter splatter……” ——Of course, the result is him spiting out ice shards while being dragged from the narrow tunnel and to the front of a small but refined inn.
Two white flags and a pair of delicately carved bronze lights hang from the entrance of the inn. From the open door, a room full of people who are not of the lower cla.s.s are drinking tea and conversing with each other.
Yin Chen ungrasps Qi Ling’s collar and walks into the lobby.
“Didn’t you say we were going to the Grave of the Souls just now, why are we here to stay at a motel?” Qi Ling enters after Yin Chen while questioning him who is currently inquiring if there are any rooms available.
“Only one room is left.” The owner points at a sign full of metal tags that has only one empty slot left.
“No! It must be two rooms!” Qi Ling glances at Yin Chen’s frosty but handsome side profile and blushes fiercely. He stammers as he requests, “There must be two.”
Yin Chen takes the bronze tag the owner hands him and moves to the stairs. Without turning his head back, he tells Qi Ling coldly: “Come up. If not I’ll drag you up.”
Qi Ling’s face falls as he jogs to keep up with Yin Chen.
Upon entering the room, Qi Ling sees Yin Chen hanging up his robe on the rack beside the bed before taking out two golden fruits from his inner s.h.i.+rt, the fruits are small and resemble golden cherries.
“What is this?” Qi Ling walks over and looks at the golden fruit in Yin Chen’s hands.
“This is the fruit of a tree known as ‘Sishya’. Sishya is the G.o.ddess of Light in the legends, this fruit is named after her, and in the legend this fruit is the eye of the G.o.ddess.”
“Woah…… is it that if you ate it your soul powers will suddenly increase drastically and in a flash it’d reach your level? I heard stories like this when I was young, there will always be magical fruits or medicine like this!” Qi Ling’s eyes s.h.i.+ne brightly. With a serious expression, he stares at the golden fruit in Yin Chen’s hand, “give it to me now!” written obviously on his face/