Chapter 5.2 (1/2)
Chapter 5: Golden Soul Mist (Part 2)
The joyousness and rowdiness of the mortal realm remains distant from him. No festivals or celebrations, no ordinariness or smoke rising from chimneys.
Yin Chen looks back at the silver robe hanging on the rack beside the bed. He remembers Qi Ling looking at it and saying “The clothes of lords are really so pretty, I’ve never worn something so nice in my life before, so pretty”, he remembers Qi Ling’s serious and envious expression back then, and his eyes rimmed with thick lashes, like two precious jewels surrounded by soft black feathers. “Will I have clothes as nice as this later on? Do disciples dress as handsomely as lords like you?” He had looked at Qi Ling then and said: “Of course you can. When we’re pa.s.sing the city, there will be places that sell clothes; I’d buy some for you then. But if you’re still going to climb around like this, jumping on trees and digging holes in the ground, it doesn’t matter how nice the clothes you’re wearing are, you’ll ruin them anyway.” Qi Ling waves his hands, “How can that be! I won’t bear to! Such nice clothes!”
Perhaps if there is time before Qi Ling heads to the Grave of the Souls tomorrow, he’ll buy a presentable soul-bending robe for him in Rennes. He is, after all, a n.o.ble disciple of this country. Maybe that lil’ kid hasn’t even realized his fate has changed completely.
Yin Chen rests lightly on the bed, smiling as he closes his eyes.
Even he himself hasn’t realized that, in the past few days, he has smiled more than he had in the past few years combined. He seems to care more and more about the boy that is as clean as a piece of white paper. Maybe this is the fetter between a lord and a disciple. Emotions thicker that blood, a soul companion that’s purer than soul mates, countless warm emotions flow though his heart slowly.
So many familiar scenes start appearing in his mind after he purposely shut them away, like a long monsoon season shrouding the soul, under the heavy rain are mine fields of memories that people dare not tread upon. The appearances of those people are currently floating tenderly in the s.p.a.ce above his face, their sorrowful and moving gazes caressing his cheeks,
A transparent layer of tears glazes over Yin Chen’s eyes.
[West of Aslan Empire – Abyss Corridor]
A constant pain can be felt from the lord’s seal on her body. The pain from the constant beating of the lord’s seal attacks her brain. The message of her body tells her that Nether is calling for her again and again continuously; this proves that he is facing fatal danger. A situation like this has never appeared before in her memory. Looks like Nether……
Shen Yin crosses the eerie mist briskly, the chain of crystals on her wrist casting an eerie blue glow, but the light can only penetrate through the s.p.a.ce of a short distance, beside her are the sounds of strong winds blowing across trees, like the callings of horror. The overgrown crowns above her head have cut off the light, only the spooky darkness fills her surroundings.
Occasionally, a soul beast will attack at lightning speed from the thick and dark fog; Shen Yin will always rip the howling monster into a pile of blood and meat with her silver metal whip that is covered with sharp thorns. Already to a ‘Disciple of the High Levels’, for soul beasts with average formations, they can overpower them unquestionably, even if there’s no instant kill, she’d still be able to end its life within a few seconds, further more, she is crowned with the t.i.tle of a killing disciple.
Yet after killing everything in her path, Shen Yin’s brows furrow gradually, the deeper she gets in the Abyss Corridor, the more she senses how vicious and ruthless the soul beasts are. When she first came into the Abyss Corridor, she only required the soul powers of narrowing her eyes to shatter a few soul beasts into dust; and now, she has to withdraw her soul weapon from her body in order to make sure she won’t be held back. The last soul beast she had killed was a Golden Glow Horned Lizard; it even managed to sc.r.a.pe the back of her hand. It can be said that the difficulty level is rising level by level. Oh no, to be more precise, the soul beasts had rose in level with every one thousand steps, and now, every hundred step she takes, the soul powers of he soul beasts are obviously a rank above the previous…… and from her lord’s seal, she can sense that Nether is still far in the depths of the place……
Fear creeps into Shen Yin’s heart and clenches tightly to her heart just like the thick and cool fog shrouding the place. She’s never been so deep into the Abyss Corridor before, back when she first became a disciple, she only trained at the edges.
The pain from the lord’s seal becomes stronger and more violent, yet the tinges she senses from Nether is becoming weaker and weaker, Shen Yin can’t help but move her legs faster……
A thick wave of the stench of blood.
Shen Yin stops at a black cliff.
In the crevices of the cliff in the distance, there is a cave resembling a monstrous beast with its b.l.o.o.d.y mouth open, on the empty s.p.a.ce outside the cave, countless broken pieces of corpses of soul beasts, innards and skulls pile together, as if countless remains of dead bodies fell form the sky. At the mouth of the cave, a long stalk of white bone like a towering tree lies horizontally at the mouth of the cave, what’s left of the blood and meat are gurgling as they rot away, turning into brown blood and thick foam……
Shen Yin’s stomach contracts.
Her white dress that had looked as pure and white as the first snow has long been dyed red by thick blood and minced flesh, making it a killing robe with the tinges of h.e.l.l.
Dead silence surrounds everything, as if the grim reaper crossed this place and left this h.e.l.l behind.
She moves towards the dark cave step by step, the lord’s seal on her body buzzes with every breath she takes.
Just as Shen Yin sets a foot into the mouth of the cave, she suddenly feels abnormal flows of the tracks of soul powers in the air, yet before she can respond, countless sharp thorns explode from the surface of the ground, piercing into her shoulder instantly, “Nether, it’s me!” She yells into the cave, murky fresh blood dripping form the corners of her mouth, her voice twisting from the pain.
With a loud swish, all the icicles retreat back to the ground.
She pushes her soul powers through the return circuit on her body, just as her flesh closes up, she hears a ghoul like voice saying: “Come in”.
The eerie blue glow from Shen Yin’s wrist illuminates the pitch-darkness of the cave, at the deepest part of the cave; Nether’s long eyes appear between the thick hair on his face, his green irises making him look like a ferocious beast. His entire right arm has disappeared, even most of his shoulder and décolletage has smashed into pieces, a few ribs piercing out from the ripped flesh, exposed in the air, large chunks of half solid black b.a.l.l.s of blood coat the edges of his chest, through a layer of muscle membrane, the outline of his heart beating can be seen, any deeper and the innards from his chest and abdomen will have gurgled out……
The whole cave is filled with the stench of rotting flesh.
Shen Yin’s voice quivers as she asks in horror: “Who……did this to you? Impossible……”
“Bring me to the end of the Abyss Corridor, that golden lake,” Nether’s voice echoes in the cave, sounding like a dying devil, “I need to revive my arm, but the concentration of the golden soul mist in this place is too low.”
“Okay……” Shen Yin suppresses the fear in her heart, “But, I’m not sure how far I’d be able to go, the soul beasts I met on the way here are almost at the level of my soul powers……”
“Of course you won’t succeed by yourself,” Nether interrupts Shen Yin coldly, “If it wasn’t for the fact that I killed two thirds of the soul beasts on your day, hah hah, you won’t even make it to this cave, let alone fight those hovering before the cave just now……hah hah…… did you see that large bone? That’s the s.h.i.+n of one of the beasts.”
Shen Yin gazes at Nether’s proud and evil face, unspeakable fear and surprise in her heart. All the while she thought that, as the killing disciple, even if she’s not as powerful as Nether, she’d be similar to him, yet now, Nether can finish off so many soul beasts even with such heavy wounds……the broken pieces of corpses outside the cave seems like a badge to prove Nether’s abilities, emitting a dense white glow.
“Then I……” Shen Yin looks at Nether, unsure of what he’s planning. Since she won’t be able to advance forth in the Abyss Corridor with her abilities, then……
Nether lifts his head and sits straighter. He looks at Shen Yin, an evil smirk on his face, and then with his long fingers, he thrusts them into his throat, fresh blood flows down along his snow white fingers, yet he maintains the evil yet handsome and eerie smile, digging in his throat continuously as if looking for something, his fingers stuck deep in his throat, the sound of the friction between flesh and blood has an unspoken spookiness to it.
“Take it.” Air is escaping through the large b.l.o.o.d.y hole at Nether’s throat; his voice sounds hoa.r.s.e and unpleasant. He digs an emerald jewel the size of a seash.e.l.l from his throat and tosses it into Shen Yin’s hands before narrowing his eyes, a few strands of soul powers flowing along the return circuit on his body before fathering at the wound at his throat where the flesh flips out, the tendons and skin retracting and healing like flower petals.
“Your……soul weapon?” Shen Yin holds the jewel that is emitting a haze green glow, her voice shaking as she speaks.
“Yes, hah hah,” Nether leans against the wall behind him as if he’s drained of all his energy, “This is, even if you place it alongside every single soul weapon that has ever existed, it can still rank someone up top, the ‘Mirror of Dead Souls’, I’m sure you have heard of it before……try injecting some soul powers into it.”
Shen Yin suppresses her excitement; the golden patterns are faintly discernable through her robes, a few quick attacks from her arm and a few threads of golden soul powers injects into the emerald green jewel, a ma.s.sive sharp, bird like call echoes through the cave, a large and translucent green s.h.i.+eld hovers like a ghoul before Shen Yin.
The s.h.i.+eld seems to be carved from a complete transparent green jewel, but if you look closer, you’d see that in the inner workings of the jewel are countless intricate and complex white carvings.
“Although the Mirror of Dead Souls is a soul weapon of the armour category, it is different from the other defensive qualities of the soul weapons in the same category such as the ‘Zhanshen s.h.i.+eld’ and ‘Longyuan s.h.i.+eld*’, it is a defensive weapon that is offensive. It reflects and clones the enemy according to their level of soul power, no matter if the opposition is a soul master, soul beast or even a n.o.ble lord. As long as the opposition’s soul powers is beneath you, an exact clone known as a ‘Dead Soul’ will be projected and will take your place for the battle, and the most powerful about the Mirror of Dead Souls is that, in theory, as long as your soul powers do not stop, then the projections will be limitless, and so if one Dead Soul is killed, the next will be projected, and so, the opposition is basically battling countless projections of themselves until they die alongside their last Dead Soul.”
Shen Yin stares at the Nether before her as if looking at an unbelievably powerful ghoul.
This is the first time she heard about his soul weapon after becoming his disciple, she never thought that it’d be powerful to such an extent. He is worthy of being the terminating destroyer second only to the Lord to the First Degree. At this moment, the Nether lying in a pool of dirty blood still has the strong aura of something originating from the depths of h.e.l.l shrouding him, like a double-edged sword stained with blood, dense but sharp.”
“Take the Mirror of Dead Souls and lead the way, if you see a G.o.d, kill a G.o.d, if you see a ghost, kill a ghost.” Nether struggles to stand, chunks of flesh fall continuously from his unstable body, “Of course, if it’s not for the horrible condition my body is in and I’m unable to summon my soul beast, how would I need a lowly disciple to rescue me.”
Nether moves over slowly, his handsome yet evil face nearing Shen Yin’s, using his remaining hand, he squeezes Shen Yin’s chin, pulling her exquisite but fearful face towards him. A smile fills his eyes, making them resemble two vast green lakes, he uses his blade-like thin lips to capture Shen Yin’s as he caresses them gently, as if kissing a tender flow petal, he uses his hoa.r.s.e and low voice to murmur tenderly: “Even if you have to go into your ‘Darkness State’, you have to protect me so I can get to the golden lake successfully, you do know that, you can never be separated from me……”
[West of Aslan Empire – Port city of Rennes]
The streets of the entire city are filled with people.
Qi Ling has been walking through the streets for the whole afternoon. At this moment, dusk is settling, the warm sea breeze during the day is gradually cooling down. All sorts of liquor shops of the city are filled with people, so many people gathering together to enjoy the best dishes of the festival.
It feels as if all citizens left their houses to day, everyone joyously taking part in this celebration to wors.h.i.+p the G.o.d of the Ocean. Every single person, no matter if they’re adults or children, are dressed in their finest clothes, all sorts of restaurants and shops have put their signboards on roadsides to usher in more business, there are tanned boys standing at the entrance to restaurants calling out the names of the dishes to the pa.s.serby’s, there are also beautiful women dressed in dancing robes stationed at the doors of inns, dancing as they welcome guests, looks like everyone is planning to celebrate all through the night.
Be it the bright festive music echoing throughout the city or the countless bronze lights and silver candles hanging everywhere, the wandering poets performing with their piccolos on the wide s.p.a.ce before the church or stages built for the festivals, and the children running around with the lighted metal lanterns, every corner of the city states that the people of the port city of Rennes are blessed and peaceful.
Qi Ling moves along with the people, taking in as much he can of the surroundings.
From time to time, fireworks will light up in the sky, reflecting on the peaceful green surface of the ocean, looking like a galaxy that fell from the sky and flowing in the ocean, countless large cargo s.h.i.+ps are parked at the port, every single s.h.i.+p has kept their sails, their heavy anchors weighed at the seabed, the numerous sailors and crew singing songs on the decks loudly, eating maple candy and drinking bubbled sweet wine, surrounding the coast are the large flags set up by the royal family of Rennes to represent the Aslan Empire, the eye-catching badge of the water source spreading with the flags in the wind.
These are all scenes Qi Ling has never seen before in the town of Fauser. He looks at the aristocrats dressed in expensive clothes, many of them looking like they are masters of soul powers, and there are even those who recklessly let out their soul beasts to follow them at their side. On the streets are silver leopards, snow wolves with nine tails…… extremely rare avian can also be seen occasionally in the sky. And perhaps the citizens of Rennes has long gotten used to the pure-blooded aristocratic soul masters, hence their gazes are all of admiration and envy, unlike the people of Fauser who had been in fear when they saw soul beasts.
Qi Ling’s gaze is envious as well, but the thing he is envious about is that on those young boys, they are wearing exquisite soul bending robes or silver armour, and on himself he’s just wearing clothes made of coa.r.s.e cloth, making it obvious that he’s from a small town. Qi Ling sighs, but in an instant he’s full of energy again, thinking, it’s alright, I am Yin Chen’s disciple, none of these people are as powerful as I am, Yin Chen said that, once they get back to the imperial capital, I’d look ten times as handsome!
Thinking until here, he suddenly remembers the Cang Xue Zhi Ya he has in his body, with a sudden surge of energy, he wordlessly employs his soul powers, with a loud pop, surprising everyone around him, dust flies everywhere as the ground of the street cracks. After the dust has been blown away by the sea breeze, everyone stares at the ma.s.sive silver lion with large white wings extending from its shoulders, Qi Ling moves to Cang Xue Zhi Ya’s ear and whispers: “Slightly bigger, you’re not cool enough yet.” Cang Xue Zhi Ya side-eyes Qi Ling with a dismissive glance but still obeys his words as he roars before enlarging his body to twice its size, his gigantic wings spreading to a length of five meters, the air folds with the movement of the giant pair of wings, forming into small tornadoes, Cang Xue Zhi Ya rests its front claws on the ground before lowering his head tamely, Qi Ling suppresses the joy in his heart and climbs up.
Everyone is staring at the handsome youth high on the back of the lion, the lion’s thunderous roars accompanied by the turbulence of the sea breeze, the wind brus.h.i.+ng through Qi Ling’s dark and thick hair, rustling in the wind, looking as if his whole person is a young G.o.d shrouded in silver light.
Faraway, Yin Chen is resting in bed as he smirks slightly, “This kid, can’t resist showing off again.”
The onlookers let out gasps of surprise continuously, a few of the children clapping and cheering on Qi Ling as he sits atop the large lion, Qi Ling feels elated, his pride radiating off his features.
He swaggers on his equally as boastful Cang Xue Zhi Ya slowly on the streets, the crowds he pa.s.ses by all compliment his soul beasts. And at this moment, Qi Ling sees a silver-armoured, swordsman looking person approaching him, this person looks around thirty to forty years old with stubbles on his chin, looking extremely masculine.
“Hey little brother, what a grand soul beast you have, you must be from the imperial capital?” He moves towards Qi Ling.
However, just as this person nears Qi Ling, he feels a surge of soul powers on the surface of the ground, a sharp icicle suddenly pierces through the hard stone surface an inch before his feet, causing the man to retreat hastily in fear, following that, with a few loud crashes, five or six similar icicles the height of a man pierces from the ground, forcefully pus.h.i.+ng him back a dozen or so steps. The icicles only stopped attacking when the man is very far away from Qi Ling.
The person laughs awkwardly as he looks over at Cang Xue Zhi Ya’s cold and sharp glare. Qi Ling pats the lion’s furry ears in embarra.s.sment, “Be good, don’t attack, we still don’t know what he wants.” Before gesturing in apology at the man.
“I mean no harm, I am the leader of the guards for Rennes' First Family of Tianshu, and our entire Tianshu household is currently looking for a marriage partner for our princess of the imperial capital, Tianshu Youhua. I saw that you looked very imposing just now, so I am extending an invitation for you to come into the house and let us treat you as a honourable guest for you are young and accomplished.”