701 The Message (1/2)

”You guess?”

Meng Qi felt a sudden urge to curse loudly boiling within him. But with his survival hinging upon the demoness herself, he could only wonder quietly about her designs and intentions.

Even though they have an agreement to maintain peace during the exploration of the ruins of the Celestial Court, the demoness Gu Xiaosang could have easily paid no heed to Han Guang's attempts to do him harm and did nothing if she had wished him ill. She did not have to risk herself to save him and only kill him after all the troubles and hassle.

And she would only have to pay to the Dominator of the Samsara in Six Realms additional Karma Points if she had wanted to leave a mark or an enchantment upon him. There was hardly any need for her to suffer the inconvenience.

Would this mean that it was a direct approach that would yield quick results?

Without waiting for Meng Qi's reply, Gu Xiaosang wore a smile on her face that her dimples sank. She retrieved a little white vase from her Space Ring and swallowed the two berries she had stored within. She leaned closer to Meng Qi. Meng Qi felt the sweet scent of her fragrance, the blood in his veins and his heart beat rousing. He could see the crimson shade of blood in her pale-pinkish lips as she snuggled closer and their lips met.

Immediately, he felt her tongue brushed his lips before slipping between them and parting them apart! With her tongue, Gu Xiaosang slipped one of the berries into his mouth!

”W-what the!” Meng Qi could hardly believe this was happening. He tried to fight back and vomit the berry from his mouth but to no avail, for his Vital Spirit and his physical body were being restrained!

Most men would have enjoyed with spine-tingling exhilaration and pleasure to have a woman of such beauty and grace in their arms and their lips intertwined with intense passion. But Meng Qi felt nothing but fear and panic. What was the berry that he had just been force fed? What was Gu Xiaosang's deliberate scheme that she has to share one of the berries with him in such manner?

The berry melted slowly and disappeared, fusing itself with Meng Qi's Vital Spirit and physical body. Gu Xiaosang withdrew her tongue from his mouth and looked at him with a playful smile, ”Would you not like to know what was the berry that I had fed you, Husband?”

”What was it?” Meng Qi instantly asked.

Gu Xiaosang laughed bashfully with apparent delight, ”The fruits of the Three-life Temple are naturally the Three-life Fruits. With you and I each consumed one, our Fates shall be interweaved together for three lifetimes. We shall be spouses together forever.”

”Really?” Meng Qi could hardly believe that the cunning demoness Gu Xiaosang had gone through all the trouble at the risk of her life only for fruits of such trivial significance!

She was, by no means, an ordinary woman who would be so innocently smitten with love!

Gu Xiaosang asked with half a smile, ”What do you think it was, Husband?”

”And still she wants to keep the truth from me...” Meng Qi understood the gist of her remark, wondering quietly if the Dominator could remove the effects of the berry from his body.

But Gu Xiaosang seemed to have guessed his thoughts. With a laugh, she told him, ”Some matters are best kept from the knowledge of the Dominator, Husband. You will never be able to free yourself from His dominion if he knows everything about you.”

”Ah?!” Meng Qi was astonished. ”Keep it away from the Dominator? What were the power and use of the fruit? Was it only a ruse by the cunning demoness to keep me from getting the help of the Dominator to expel the effects of the fruit?”

Gu Xiaosang pointed her finger at Meng Qi's chest and tapped on him. With heaving breaths and high difficulty, she removed the restraining spells she cast on Meng Qi.

At the same time, in a tone so hushed that bordered on silence she spoke, ”This hall, the Ashram Hall, possesses the ability to shield us from the tracking perceptions of the Dominator. He will know nothing of what we do here.”

Shield from the senses of the Dominator? Meng Qi regained his freedom to move and channeled his powers to sense his own body for anything wrong as he surveyed the insides of the Ashram Hall. There were gray-colored gravel and stones littered around the forsaken hall. Fissures in the fabric of time and space occasionally crackled around them, the incoherent blend of the future and the past as if they had returned to the epochs of the ancient. He noticed that his senses could project no further than his sight, allowing him only to see things that were around him.

Everything was absurd in this place!

Meng Qi quietly kept a distance away from Gu Xiaosang, afraid from any more sudden ambushes. He had felt nothing since the ingestion of the berry. There was no healing effect and no signs of him being cursed or poisoned as if the berry had vanished within him.

”A bizarre fruit it is...” Meng Qi muttered and heaved a breath of relief.

With light footsteps, Gu Xiaosang drifted deeper into the hall. Meng Qi hesitated for a moment but relented and followed behind.

They walked for some time until an ancient, green-rusted bronze door loomed before them. There was a stone stele sitting beside the doorway.

”The stone slab... It looks oddly familiar!” Meng Qi caught notice of the stone stele. Immediately he was astounded by the runic seal script engraved upon the stone,

”Only Ye May Enter, Ye of the Realm of the Legends!”

The tone of the message was recognizable to Meng Qi. His gaze subconsciously drooped to the bottom corner of the stone stele and, lo behold! There was indeed the engravings of ”Yang Jian of the Jade Virtual Palace!” quietly in waiting, as if in anticipation of his coming.

”The Lord of Purity and Magic was indeed here! At the Celestial Court!”

”What led him to seal this entrance?”

”Was he leaving anything behind?”

Meng Qi could not help but look around. But there was nothing to be found save for the vast and boundless emptiness around the ancient bronze door before them.

”I wonder if the waist plate of the Jade Virtual Palace left by the Lord of Purity and Magic can undo the seal?” Meng Qi thought hesitantly to himself. With the cunning demoness Gu Xiaosang present and him still suffering the drawbacks of using the Nature-involving Knack earlier, he was in no fit state to repel Gu Xiaosang. She would have easy access to the secrets or treasures hidden within if the waist plate could indeed undo the magic holding the doors.

To his surprise, Gu Xiaosang merely chuckled and turned on her heels, drifting wordlessly away with the grace of a willow. As if displaying a gesture of honesty and sincerity for his benefit, she even walked away until she was out of sight.

Meng Qi was doubtful as he wondered. Finally, he took out his waist plate and walked to the stone stele. On the stele, he slapped the waist plate.

Nothing happened.

Meng Qi took another step and walked to the bronze door. This time, he slapped the waist plate on the cold surface of the door.

Clang!

The archaic door shuddered faintly, followed by the steady voice of a man that seemed to float through the timeless epochs and divides of eternity to reach into Meng Qi's ears,

”All that you seek awaits you in the Jade Virtual Palace!”

The voice disappeared swiftly like a mere dream that had never been real.

”Everything is in the Jade Virtual Palace?” He repeated the words within himself. ”Yang Erlang knows of what I am pursuing? Or was the message for the actual intended recipient of the waist plate instead of me?

Silence and peace returned to the area where the bronze door sat. There were no signs of opening previously. Meng Qi stood there pondering for some time until Gu Xiaosang returned.

She returned with color returned to her face. Without her previous paleness, she spoke cheerfully to Meng Qi, ”As far as I know, the highest most levels of the Ninth Heaven lie behind that very door. The seat of the Heaven Sovereign.”

”The highest, you say? Not the next level?” Meng Qi had thought that the door would lead to the next level of the Immortal Realm. Never had he guess that the door would skip through levels and lead directly to the top!

”The entrance to the Nacre Lake lies somewhere else where there would be other magical seals. I believe Yang Jian had the top-most levels moved here.” Gu Xiaosang seemed to be profoundly familiar with the workings of the Celestial Court.

This confused Meng Qi. But this also made him even more amazed by the realm and powers of Yang Jian. ”To think that he could relocate an entire level of the Immortal Realm! And it was the center-most core of the Realm too!”

”There seem to be nothing of use here, Husband. Should we consider leaving?” Gu Xiaosang suggested.