Chapter 321 - Unsolved Mysteries (1/2)

Beside the headmaster's jade seal was a little cage that was made with exquisite craftsmanship. The cage was enclosed in nine bars that extended from the top to the bottom in a beautifully angled teardrop arc, and it glimmered with a moonlight sheen. Looking from afar, it was as if it were a shining droplet of water.

On this water-droplet-like cage was a sealing incantation charm. The charm had the picture of three celestial dogs surrounding a moon – it was utterly marvelous.

However, this was not what shocked Zhong Yue. What shocked him was the thing that was sealed in this cage — at the center of the cage was a tiny floating altar that seemed like it was a little part chopped down from a big altar.

In the middle of the altar was a little jade pool that was only the size of a washbasin.

In the jade pool were various specters hovered around a blooming lotus. The lotus flower petals emitted a marvelous luster, while the phantoms of the stars and planets orbited above the lotus, and the mountains and seas were dancing around it.

"Saint Spirit…." Zhong Yue's heart palpitated, and his brows undulated as he mumbled.

Elder Pu brought out a Saint Spirit from Swords Gate!

The Saint Spirit was a spirit that had transcended from the level of god to saint – it was even stronger than godly spirits. Zhong Yue had the chance to see a Saint Spirit guarded by the Monster God Ming King underneath East Barren's Xian Kong Saint City. That Saint Spirit was also a lotus, and he even stole the jade liquid from the lotus's jade pool to his considerable benefit, while the Saint Spirit gave him a near-death experience.

However, that Saint Spirit underneath Xian Kong Saint City had yet to ripe, the lotus flower hadn't bloomed, and the one Elder Pu had taken out from Swords Gate was a matured Saint Spirit!

The Saint Spirit was as strong as the gods before someone refines it. Even if Feng Wuji came here in his true self, he wouldn't be able to take it away, let alone his incarnation Elder Pu. How could he have done it?

Zhong Yue looked at the cage and the totem patterns on the sealing charm and thought, This water-droplet cage is suffused with a divine aura, and there are the markings of a god. A god also made this sealing incantation charm. Elder Pu must have used these two items to capture the Saint Spirit, sealing it away with part of the altar! It wouldn't be Xiao Chu-Changshan who gave him these. It must be that Xiao Mang Celestial Race's god that resides in the moon!

Suddenly, a voice traveled from the golden summit down to the sky above Zhong Yue. Jun Sixie said, "Seal Suppression Hall Hall Master, bring the headmaster's jade seal back to me now!"

She didn't leave the golden summit at all; even killing Elder Pu was done from atop the golden summit while casually playing the zither. After all, Zhong Yue had imparted the [Great Boundless Sword Qi] to her, and her cultivation base and strength had made dramatic leaps from that.

Zhong Yue picked up the headmaster's jade seal from the ground and kept the water-droplet cage in his Yuan Shen secret realm. He then walked toward the golden summit of Swords Gate.

"Brat Yue, the Saint Spirit is gone." Xin Huo suddenly said.

"Gone?"

Zhong Yue was puzzled, he said, "The lotus is right here…."

"The Saint Spirit lives in the lotus, but the lotus is not the Saint Spirit, it is just an embryo that siphons the jade liquids which is made of the other gods' spirits to nourish the Saint Spirit. The moment the lotus blooms is the moment the Saint Spirit matures. The Saint Spirit in this lotus left the lotus when the lotus bloomed; someone has taken it away, leaving behind only the lotus embryo that nurtured the Saint Spirit."

Someone took it away?

Zhong Yue frowned, he mulled,  Who can sneak into Swords Gate without anyone of us noticing, even finding the Saint Spirit and taking it away….

Elder Pu was Feng Wuji's second incarnation, and it seemed like not even Feng Wuji knew what the true Saint Spirit looked like, which was why he only plundered the lotus, while the true Saint Spirit was taken away by someone else.

"Judging from this lotus, it just bloomed not long ago, 20 days at most. Which means that the one who has taken away the Saint Spirit must have entered Swords Gate twenty days ago."

Xin Huo looked carefully, and he said, "Whoever it is, he must have had detailed intelligence about the maturity time of the Saint Spirit. He went into the Swords Gate underground and took away the Saint Spirit before anyone else."

"Twenty days ago?"

Zhong Yue's heart skipped a beat, "That is exactly a day before the incident where the traitors showed themselves and Elder Pu disappeared. However, he must have only found the lotus and altar a few days ago, which means that the Saint Spirit was taken away long before his arrival. Just exactly how did this particular person sneak into Swords Gate? There is the Four Ken Beast that overlooks the Great Wilderness; we would surely have been alerted by it if there were any cultivators of note that infiltrated Great Wilderness. Even if this particular man had eluded the Four Ken Beast's detection, how did he make manage to enter the Swords Gate underground?"

The night before the incident at Swords Gate, it was impossible to infiltrate Swords Gate without being spotted, since during that point in time, the whole of Swords Gate was steeped in tension, and everyone's guards were at their highest!

Sneaking into Swords Gate would have been utterly impossible, so how did he manage to enter Swords Gate and reach its underground?

"What if … he entered the Swords Gate underground without going through Swords Gate?"

Xin Huo contemplated and said, "There is another way to enter from the outside — the Devil Soul Forbidden Land. From the Devil Soul Forbidden Land, he can reach to the giant heart and right above it would be exactly where the altar and Saint Spirit is at. He might have taken this route, and this would explain why he could have avoided intruding into the old headmaster and the other magnates' senses."

"The pool I came out from the Devil Soul Forbidden Land! The seals there were loosened! That is exactly where and how he could have entered without getting noticed!"