Chapter 124 - The Key (1/2)
I suppose the death of the Fengsha Island Lord's son would surely cause a commotion?
Zhong Yue suddenly stopped, he then turned back while thinking in his heart, Fengsha Island Lord's son was killed, Feng Gu City Lord's daughter is dead. Surely, these two monster lords wouldn't simply let sleeping dogs lie. The seals on Black Mountain barred any other Qi Practitioners from entry other than the Rebirth ones. If the two lords sent their Rebirth level Qi Practitioners, they would still be able to find out who killed their children.
A scorching sun appeared behind him, the blazing conflagration burned vigorously, incinerating the bodies of Senior Martial Lu, Zhu Xian'er, and the other monster Qi Practitioners. Soon, they were nothing but an indistinguishable pile of ash.
And the marks of the battle.
Zhong Yue then proceeded to erase any traces of the battle that were left behind from his battle with Senior Martial Lu, Zhu Xian'er and the two monster Qi Practitioners. Only then, did he nod his head in satisfaction, Enn … it seems that I'm getting better with the clean-up nowadays … Ey, these are … Zhu Xian'er's spiritual pearls! Nice stuff, there's a total of five of them, corresponding to the five elements!
He had incinerated Zhu Xian'er's body and found five spiritual pearls beneath the ashes, they were the Gold Spiritual Pearl, Wood Spiritual Pearl, Water Spiritual Pearl, Fire Spiritual Pearl, and Earth Spiritual Pearl. They each gleamed with kaleidoscopic rays of multicolored light – they were very fantastical in appearance.
These five spiritual pearls were bigger and larger than the one from the centipede, and the energy of the five elemental Qi in them was greater and stronger.
Zhu Xian'er cultivated these five elemental spiritual pearls, is she trying to open the Wu Xing Wheel?
Zhong Yue pondered deeply before he kept away the five spiritual pearls. After the level of Rebirth came the level of Awakening. The Yuan Shen of the Awakening Level would be known as the Combat Yuan Shen, and of the five wheels, the first that would be opened was the Wu Xing Wheel.
During the level of Rebirth, the Yuan Shen could also engage in the combats but their abilities were limited to manipulating the soul weapons, Sword Qi, or other magical items. Their potential for use in direct combat was narrow to say the least – their contribution could at most be likened to the icing on a cake; its role was merely ancillary and never crucial.
But the same cannot be said for the Yuan Shen of the Awakening Qi Practitioners, they were strong, powerful, and domineering — all this can be directly attributed to the opening of the five wheels!
Zhong Yue had seen the prowess of the Qi Practitioners that had opened the five wheels and acquired the Combat Yuan Shen. Kong Ban's follower, Lian Shan the giant rhinoceros, was precisely one of the experts that had opened the Wu Xing Wheel. The disparity in his prowess and that of the Rebirth Qi Practitioners was like the difference between heaven and earth – they could not be mentioned in the same breath!
And this Zhu Xian'er had cultivated the five spiritual pearls, she was most probably preparing herself to ascend to the level of Awakening.
In fact, Zhong Yue had also heard of it before when he was still in the Swords Gate, the fact that most of the Qi Practitioners that had also cultivated the five elemental Sword Qi were purportedly for the express purpose of opening the Wu Xing Wheel.
There might be some other treasures left….
He searched carefully and soon, the remains of the battlefield were plundered clean. He acquired another two spiritual pearls, one of which was the Gold Spiritual Pearl and the other was the Water Spiritual Pearl. These should be the prizes Senior Martial Brother Lu and his senior martial brothers seized from the insects.
Other than that, there was still the fine and exquisite banner Zhu Xian'er had and also the soul weapons that belonged the Senior Martial Brother Lu and the two monsters.
They died way too quickly battling with Zhong Yue, not even having the chance to manipulate their soul weapons before their death.
The soul weapons of the monster Qi Practitioners were usually forged by refining the materials such as the mystic gold, darksteels and the others into their body parts. For example, that Senior Martial Brother Lu whose deer horns were tempered as his soul weapons could not only be manipulated like the soul weapons, but could also be placed in an array formation that can be augmented like the totem pillars.
As for the other two Qi Practitioners, one had forged his tail into his soul weapon and the other one was a sky creature that tempered his feathers into steel structured.
All of these soul weapons were just part of their bodies. Other than the Gold Qi in them, there was still the essence of the monster beasts, one that he could harvest and cultivate into the beast Sword Qi. But he already had the beast god inner core, hence, he had little desire for the beast essence in the soul weapons as they were of little use to him. However, the Gold Qi in the soul weapons, on the other hand, was quite valuable.
With these soul weapons and the Gold Spiritual Pearl, my Gold Sword Qi can be raised to new heights! While the other two Water Spiritual Pearls, one Earth Spiritual Pearl and one Fire Spiritual Pearl ... they can all be harvested into the Sword Qi, cultivated into the five elemental Sword Qi to pave the foundation for the opening of Wu Xing Wheel! Ey? How is this token not incinerated yet?
Zhong Yue curiously grasped a token from the pile of ashes of Zhu Xian'er. The token was engraved with marvelous-looking totem carvings that were fresh and novel to his eyes, different from any other totem patterns he had seen before. They looked more like the ones from the insect race, the engravings intersected to eventually form the image of a strange and peculiar looking mother insect environed by the five deadly venoms.
The mother insect was an arthropod with tentacles, large pincers, tail hooks, cicada wings, arms and a skull head like a triangular flatiron. It was built with a precarious and eerie air!
Zhong Yue cast a gaze at it and a surge of chilliness rattled down his spine. He could feel the evil and ghastly air in the token.
"Xin Huo, take a look at this, are these the totem patterns of the insect race?"
Xin Huo flew out from Zhong Yue's psyche ocean, landed on the token and inspected it thoroughly, "This is indeed the totem patterns of the insect race, even more so, they belong to the godly insects. This token, it must've been given to Zhu Xian'er by the big guy that crawled out of Black Mountain secret realm. Judging from the totem carvings, this must be a key. Look at the Five Venom totems beside it, the carvings are incomplete with half of it missing. This token would have to be placed in a notch. The Five Venom totem carvings will complete as they merge with the other half on the door, thereby opening the door!"
Zhong Yue looked at it carefully and realized it too, he beseeched in curiosity, "Key? Zhu Xian'er brought this key over, what's the door she was trying to open?"
He then kept the key away and picked out the little poison banner. Once his psyche entered into the banner, a surge of poisonous gas billowed out, morphing into all sorts of poisonous insects that swarmed the air. And as he withdrew his psyche, the poisonous insects dispersed back to the poisonous gas and returned to the little banner.