Chapter 529 – Emerging From the Cocoon as a Phoenix One (1/2)

Many years ago, he had also been searching for a person and there had also been many thanks.

The clash of heavenly secrets, the entanglement of ties of gratitude and grievances, was like yesterday, still vivid before his eyes.

The person he was searching for was like a kite hidden within a sea of clouds, with all of their heavenly secrets concealed.

He had managed to grasp a trace after so much difficulty, only for a fierce gust of wind to bombard him.

The string of the kite snapped, hurling into the sky and vanishing for good. Originally, he thought it had already fallen to the ground somewhere, becoming a regret he was unable to forget or correct.

Never did he think that the obscure string would appear before him once again today.

If it were not for these deep ties of fortune, he almost would have forgotten it. It was exactly because of such deep ties that he vehemently believed he had not mistaken it.

This was the will of the heavens!

“Fellow Feng, fellow Feng!”

The scholar in white called out his name several times, and Feng Buquan returned to his senses. He wiped away the tear on his face. Under the amazed gazes of the four grandmasters, he discovered that his twisted spine had straightened out before he knew it.

“With how overjoyed you were, have you discovered the location of the wretched daemon, fellow Feng?” Wen Zhengming asked in confusion. Surely he did not have to cry with joy over something like that.

“The wretched daemon? Oh right, I didn’t. All heavenly secrets that point to him have been shrouded. I can’t predict his location.”

Feng Buquan secretly felt some regret. He should not have lost his composure like that earlier, even calling out “her highness the Dark Queen”. If an observant person heard that, the consequences would be unthinkable.

“I’ve let down the marquis and the heavy responsibility he’s placed on me. I am ashamed to return, so please apologise for me, grandmasters!” He clasped his hands. Although he was as disfigured as before, his straight posture vaguely possessed some of his past gracefulness again.

Feng Buquan drifted away. The four grandmasters looked at one another as they were unsure what had happened with Feng Buquan.

However, they could not return like this and seek help from the Marquis of Ruyi again. They would come off as far too useless. As a result, they began to discuss among themselves.

“The night roamers must have fled underground. Why don’t we go underground and hunt them down so that we force the wretched daemon to show himself?”

“Demons are all heartless. Why would he risk his life for a few night roamers? It probably won’t be that simple.”

Under Xiao An’s company, Li Qingshan returned to the lake of magma again. The fire spiritual energy was most intense there, which had a very powerful suppressing effect on the spirit turtle’s daemon core. It was most suitable for a breakthrough of the Phoenix’s Scripture of Nirvāṇa.

The heavy smell of sulfur and the surging, golden-yellow magma formed a never-changing landscape, and the violent fluctuations in the magnetic field were alarming.

If it were not for their past contact, Li Qingshan basically would have never believed that Golden Cicada could remain in a place like this.

The Golden Cicada Spirit King truly lived up to his name!

Li Qingshan waited for a while. No voice rang out in his sea of consciousness, so he nodded at Xiao An and leapt into the magma. He did not use his daemon qi to protect his body. In a place like this, even mobilising his daemon qi had become difficult.

The scorching sensation of the magma against his skin ached slightly, but it was extremely satisfying too.

It made him think of the sensation of a hot shower. At the same time, a power resonated with his bloodline. This was something he had not felt the last time he came here.

Li Qingshan simply spread out his arms and laid on the surface of the lake. His scarlet hair dispersed as the flames swept over like snakes, licking his body.

It swallowed and enveloped his body very soon.

It formed a fire-red cocoon of flames.

The day when he emerged from the cocoon would be the moment when he spread his wings.

Two stone lions crouched before one another. The door was wide open as a few chilly gales whistled by.

A person arrived before the steps and picked up the board by his feet. He rubbed it gently and filled the air with dust, revealing the three words “Proud Sword Manor”.

Yu Shukuang glanced inside. After a moment of hesitation, he did not end up entering.

Because there were many caves that led underground around Salt Mountain city, daemons ran amok and heavily destroyed the place.

The prosperous Proud Sword manor of the past had already been reduced to ruins, and the entire Salt Mountain city had been reduced to a ghost city. No one lived here anymore.

Yu Shukuang had come back to visit a grave. He wanted to tell his wife that Zijian had already found a new home. She had gone to the Sword Collection palace to cultivate.

However, when he arrived outside the city, he was shocked. He rushed over to the grave.

The gravestone still stood firmly, but there was a great pit behind the gravestone. The coffin inside had vanished too.

The coffin had already been buried for over a decade. It no longer gave off any smells that could attract the attention of wild beasts or daemons. And, from the traces of digging, it was clearly the handiwork of a human.

Even if it were graverobbers, they would not take the coffin with them. Who would spend so much effort to unearth a person’s remains?

Yu Shukuang’s face sank heavily. He suddenly remembered someone. Ma Chaoqun!

In a cave, a Daemon General shaped like a lynx pounced forward. With a gust of foul air, it moved with startling speed.

There was a white flash, and the Daemon General had been beheaded. Wen Zhengming grabbed the daemon core casually and stowed it into his hundred treasures pouch.

The four grandmasters could not find Li Qingshan, but finding other daemons was far too easy.

Under the detection of their soul sense, even night roamers who were skilled at concealing their auras and carrying out assassinations were as prominent as fireflies in the darkness.

They immediately kicked up a bloody storm underground. Wherever they passed by, whether it was night roamer or daemon, only the fate of death awaited them. They could not even block a single attack.