Chapter 167 - Xiao Mang Celestial Temple (1/2)

From their departure until now, the ship was filled with laughter and banter. But now, even the loquacious Lei Teng had lost his voice as he stared vacantly at the misfortunes of the human race outside of the Great Wilderness.

The humans in the Great Wilderness were under the protection of Swords Gate, living lives of peace and tranquility, sequestered away from the dangers and perils of the outside world – a burden that the Swords Gate took upon their own shoulders so that their own kin wouldn't have to.

Even the Swords Gate itself was a microcosm of its role in the Great Wilderness as a whole; the inner hall disciples were taken under the wing of the higher ups' to shield them from the true danger and callousness of the outside world. The indifferent reality of the world had only been experienced by very few inner hall disciples that walked out of the Great Wilderness, a select group that veritably included Zhong Yue among its ranks. It was only now that the hitherto ingenuous and naive inner hall disciples had truly been elucidated on the sad and startling misfortunes that the humans outside of the Great Wilderness were subject to every day.

The humans were too weak, and the strong prey on the weak!

Feng Shouzhu's words trembled their ears, words said so softly and yet heard so loudly … the scene before them washed away all the illusions of strength and invincibility that the innocent disciples harbored about the Swords Gate. It was only now that they understood, that the Swords Gate was never the undefeatable juggernaut that they always believed it was. It was a frail bastion of humanity that was besieged by enemies on all sides, all of whom were lying in wait for the moment they crumbled before pouncing on the final haven of humanity – the Great Wilderness, seeking to expand their dominion to continue enslaving the humans in Great Wilderness just so that it would become the same as all the other regions under their control!

Tears soaked the lapels of her simple and yet elegant clothes, even for a soft and gentle lady like Qiu Jin'er. The benevolence in her eyes was shed away with every tear that fell off her face, only to be slowly supplanted by an unyielding will.

She was never a strong-willed lady, although she was the holder of the Innate Wood Spirit Body, her desire for battle was barely noticeable. Even after the personal instruction of the Swords Gate headmaster, she remained uninterested in any form of battle, remaining indifferent to the duels with the experts of Xiao Mang Celestial Race.

But now, with the misfortunes of her own kind presented to her very own eyes, an overpowering drive overtook her heart that ignited her will to fight for the humans of the Great Wilderness!

Why do so many see me as a monster? It is not that my heart longs for blood, but the indifferent reality, the harsh truth … that drives me to kill.

Zhong Yue whispered in his heart,  I never wanted to be a butcher, but humanity is simply too weak and petty in this world of brutality….

The ship sailed deep into the West Barren, this land was once an ancient divine court, countless vestiges and ruins were left behind by the gods. There was a statue, huge like a sky-high mountain, the ship was like an ant beside it.

There were battlefields of the gods, ruins left by devastated temples, lone and solitary heavenly doors, burning flames of fire ocean, and dark and bottomless abysses.

Then, more pitiful and horrible sights could be seen, not only the humans, but there were also the monsters and some other peculiar beings — all enslaved by the celestials. Even the living conditions of the monsters were no better than the humans.

The celestials were high and noble, their race was one that disdained all the other races as inferior beings in their eyes. Such a tyrannical ideology had propagated rampantly throughout the land such that even the races that found themselves as its victims had meekly accepted it without dispute – there were no riots, and no insurrection ... only dispirited acceptance and acquiescence.

"We are reaching to the Xiao Mang Celestial Race's territory."

Feng Shouzhu took in a deep breath of air and said, "It was a peaceful journey all the way until now, once we've reached the Xiao Mang Celestial Race, this peace will be broken. There will be provocations from the celestial experts to test out our strengths. Remember, wounds we can suffer, but your trump cards must never be revealed — your secret moves are only to be used in winning the duels! We are not here to vent our anger and emotions, we are only here on a mission for the survival of the Great Wilderness. All of this is to prevent us from ceding our lands and our people! Understand?"

"Understood!" they all answered in militant unison.

Abruptly, Feng Shouzhu activated his psyche and transmitted a message to Zhong Yue, asking, "Disciple from the Zhong Shan Clan, how is your sword eye progressing?"

Zhong Yue shook his head and answered, "I'm still working on the last layer of totem patterns".

Feng Shouzhu sighed and comforted him, "No matter what, you'll have to acquire the sword eye before the duel, reverse open the Dao Yi Realm and acquire the Dao Yi Wheel. Or otherwise, our defeat will be inevitable…."

Zhong Yue nodded heavily, he could feel the immense pressure on his shoulders.

The strong and powerful Xiao Mang Celestial Race had conquered a large piece of land where there were countless celestial temples, sky-high statues, and huge totem pillars that stood majestically all over the place. Xiao Mang celestial experts stood sentry over the West Barren, suffusing an overwhelming aura that unfailingly instilled abject terror into newcomers.

From time to time, the statues and celestial temples would emanate surges of a saintly and holy air, or there would be godly light rays projecting out from the temples, piercing over hundreds of miles through the sky, before abruptly disappearing.

Those were the doings of the godly spirits, denoting that the godly spirits were still in a very active state!

The Xiao Mang Celestial Race was incredibly strong, having countless experts and godly spirits left behind by the gods of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race. It came as no surprise as to why they could be so strong.

Zhong Yue had seen the godly spirit of Swords Gate, but it was not as active as the ones in the Xiao Mang celestial temples. The activeness of the godly spirits denoted that there were magnate cultivators that continued to worship them, showing the superiority of the godly spirits.

Along the way, there were five surges of light rays emanating from five celestial temples, meaning that there would be at least one Xiao Mang Celestial Race magnate in each of the celestial temples — a strong hint that suggested that the numbers of magnates in the Xiao Mang Celestial Race alone would be higher than the whole of the Great Wilderness!

These were also warnings and acknowledgement of their arrivals from the Xiao Mang Celestial Race.

The following day, Feng Shouzhu led them deep into the territory of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race. From afar, they could see a steep and majestic mountain, one that was no inferior to the Swords Gate Mountain. However, there were barely any trees on the mountain as nearly every inch of land was taken by the temples and palaces, one layer after another!