Chapter 11 - The Ghost King is Born (2/2)
“Yi Qing!” The other party was shocked, seemingly recalling something as his face turned white as a sheet. “You, you… you are the one who killed Rui Mi!” His expression changed and without caring for a response, he made a move with all his strength; he summoned forth a skull-shaped cloud of black smoke to attack as he turned to run away.
Yi Qing switched to another sword technique and used it to cut right through the black smoke, and then the spiritual swords surrounding him charged toward the direction that the Fiendish Cultivator had gone. Now surrounded by a sword array, the Fiendish Cultivator was trapped in the middle.
The Fiendish Cultivator panicked. He struggled to try and break the sword array but to no avail, his face so pale that there was no sign of blood on it. Panic-stricken at the sight of Yi Qing flying nearer to him, he quickly threw the Dharma artifact over. “Here… here you go! I don’t want it. Since all of you are alright, how about you let me go? I was only momentarily blinded by greed so it won’t happen again. Please, I am begging you!”
“You are a Fiendish Cultivator.” Yi Qing stepped closer without a change in expression. “It must not be your first time committing such acts of murder and stealing treasures. If I were to let you go, wouldn’t I be helping you do evil? This time I must not let you off!”
He raised his sword at the end of his words, and as the brilliant gleam of his blade consumed the surroundings, a massive amount of Sword Qi was directed towards the array.
“No, no!” The Fiendish Cultivator was seized with terror as he screamed. Just as the Sword Qi was about to pierce him, a ringing sound was heard—the bell-like Dharma artifact that he had thrown out flew above and headed straight for Yi Qing.
“Dao Lord, be careful!” Cultivator Lu cried out.
Yi Qing’s sword paused and his basic reflex was to retreat and avoid the Dharma artifact. But all of a sudden, the Fiendish Cultivator broke apart the sword array and threw a sharp palm attack at Yi Qing’s chest. Although he missed, he seemed to have grabbed something away.
Not good!
“The Soul Devouring Gonfalon!”
“Hahaha…” The Fiendish Cultivator held the Soul Devouring Gonfalon as his black smoke grew in abundance and broke free of the sword array. “It was really a piece of cake getting this.”
His laughter grew wilder, his face filled with excitement. “I had originally just wanted to snatch a small Dharma artifact, but never did I expect to come across such a gonfalon. You were even stupid enough to bring it along with you! You really thought that this sword array could hold me down!”
He had purposely acted as if trapped by the sword array so as to throw the fiendish bell at him in a sneak attack. His target was actually the Soul Devouring Gonfalon on Yi Qing!
Yi Qing furrowed his brows; he had been too careless. Although the gonfalon was already sealed, its Ghost Qi would seep out and dissipate into the surrounding. He had thought that his Spirit Qi could contain the Ghost Qi in the gonfalon which was why he brought it along with him so that it would not cause harm to others. However, he had forgotten that even the tiniest amount of Ghost Qi could be easily spotted by a Fiendish Cultivator even if a normal cultivator could not sense anything.
“Let go of the Soul Devouring Gonfalon!”
“Let go?” the Fiendish Cultivator sneered. “Do you think I am like that fool Rui Mi?! With such a treasure in hand, how could I lose to you! So what if you are a Sword Cultivator. Today I will sacrifice you to the gonfalon!” He then mustered a stream of Yin Qi, tapping directly on the seal of the gonfalon.
“Stop it!” Yi Qing flew forward in an attempt to stop him, but it was too late. The seal that he had placed on the gonfalon shattered—the golden Dharmic amulet broke into thousands of pieces, and the temperature fell rapidly as dense Ghost Qi spewed out.
“Hahaha, the Soul Devouring Gonfalon is mine!” The Fiendish Cultivator’s eyes widened in excitement along with his growing laughter. He excitedly looked at the eerie Ghost Qi surrounding him. “From now on, no one below Soul Formation stage can stand up against me. Millions of ghosts are at my beck and call, and I… pfft!” But before he could finish what he was saying, he spat out a mouthful of blood and the situation suddenly took a turn.
Out of nowhere, a claw appeared above his chest. The claw did not have a solid form; it was formed out of black smoke yet it had directly punctured his chest, and gripped within the palm of the claw was a heart that was still pumping.
Shocked, the Fiendish Cultivator looked down at the fresh and still-beating heart, and he seemed unable to react. The next moment, the claw tightened its grip causing the bloody heart to burst.
“Ghost… King!” Speaking his last words, the Fiendish Cultivator’s eyes were still wide as he fell straight from the sky, utterly void of breath.