44 Wormslayer And The Black Cloud Curse (2/2)
Usually the more potent techniques were only given to a disciple by their direct Master.
Of course common techniques were provided for any Liquid Realm Disciple, coming from the sect's base of knowledge. More techniques for specific cultivation purposes could also be purchased from the sect for copious amounts of spirit stones.
”With that I will be able to start cultivating towards the Core Development Realm straight away whenever I cross over to the Liquid Realm!”
Once again Shin Sumi thanked the little grey nut. What was even more important than finding a good technique was that the nut would refine it until it had achieved an even better grade!
Shin Sumi allowed the nut to dispose of the parchemin, knowing that soon it would be enhanced and visible on one of the pages of the tree bark covered book that was secretly hidden by the nut.
The same thing had happened for the Shinsoo Gathering Manual and the Yin Aperture Shinsoo Awakening, and it had literally changed Shin Sumi's cultivation.
With a great mood, Shin Sumi finally excited the plaza. She was so happy and proud that she almost wished to encounter a lot more perilous situations as every time she seemed to uncover a great deal of treasures and opportunities.
But something was far more important than being greedy to her at the moment, and that was to find Lan Hui and Bai Xuengen.
***
The two young men had been chased for weeks now, Chu Erlong relentlessly following them through the depth of the earth.
Lan Hui was extenuated, but overall in a better shape than before. With his slow but repeated use of Shinsoo from his own reserve and spirit stones, the wound on his hand had stopped hurting.
That was something he could deal with back at the sect after the trial. It was a well known fact in the cultivation world that an injury to this degree, losing a few fingers, was not irreversible. Provided with the good kind of spirit medicine, even that could be mended.
But everything came at a cost. In order to protect Lan Hui, Bai Xuengen had fought against the waves of attacks that had been thrown at them.
The yellow robed man suddenly spat out a mouthful of black blood on the floor. With a feverish look in his eyes, he looked at the hand in which the blood had fallen.
From the back of his hand all the way to the middle of his upper arm, a black trail that seemed to be releasing a dark and nefarious smoke covered his skin, like a tribal tattoo of some kind.
From the moment it had appeared, Bai Xuengen had successfully guessed what it was, considering Chu Erlong's background.
”The Black Cloud Curse... Is it acting up again?”
It was Lan Hui's voice that had spoken, breaking the tensed silence that weighed the atmosphere.
”Yeah. But now I'm fine again. Chu Erlong is going to attack again soon. If this goes on, we won't be able to last another forty eight hours.”
The Black Cloud Curse was a famed divine art proper to the Chu Clan from which Chu Erlong came. It made sense that as talented as she was, she would have the full support of her clan in order for her to make full use of the Rising Star Tournament.
The Chu Clan had existed for a long amount of time, and had been working tightly with the Dark Sky Starry Sect almost since the sect split from the Sky Sect. As a result, the current leader of the Chu Clan, Chu Xuanba had even risen to the point of being appointed as the Great Elder of the sect.
As such, Chu Erlong had access to resources from the sect but also from her clan, like the Black Cloud Curse.
For a honorary disciple not having reached the Liquid Realm it would have been nearly impossible to gather up the Shinsoo necessary to use the Black Cloud Curse, but Chu Erlong obviously had in her possession more techniques and artefacts from her clan.
That was also the reason she could relentlessly launch wave after wave against Bai Xuengen and Lan Hui.
Apart from her followers of always like Fan Jue and Liu Qing, her massive force of a dozen or so disciples from red to orange robes could be explained by her influence due to her clan.
Which disciple, which nobody wouldn't follow her for a prospect of entering the famed Chu Clan or a promise of clan resources?
For someone like Chu Erlong, gathering enough people to serve her and accomplish her malevolent plan had been as easy as flipping her hand over.
And there was the Black Cloud Curse... Bai Xuengen had been afflicted by it the moment Chu Erlong had attacked him, right when he found Lan Hui in the ice tundra.
Chu Erlong had then suffered a strong backlash, unleashing a magic way above her limits, but it was nothing compared to what Bai Xuengen had been enduring ever since.
The black marks had been sapping away his strength slowly and also tracking him wherever he went, allowing the one who cursed him to follow them for weeks.
”And now the curse has flared up again” thought Bai Xuengen. According to the past weeks' experience and his own knowledge it meant that Chu Erlong was getting closer again, ready for another attack.
”If only we knew why Chu Erlong was attacking me, going so far as to use a curse from her clan on my protector...” lamented Lan Hui to himself.
The only person who could maybe answer these questions was without a doubt Shin Sumi.
Who could have guessed that Chu Erlong would go so far just because of Shin Sumi?
The girl's arrival in the sect had not been noticed by many, but Chu Erlong had randomly stumbled upon her and had even uncovered Shin Sumi's secret green talent.
Chu Erlong had even tried to kill her once and had Shin Sumi under surveillance for a long time.
The real irony was that from Chu Erlong's point of view, she couldn't back down now, persuaded as she was that Shin Sumi knew.
As such her real chance to beat the green talented girl was using Lan Hui, whom she had found by accident.
Chu Erlong was getting closer to the location were Bai Xuengen and Lan Hui had fled to.
She was thinking ”once the yellow robed succumbs to the Black Cloud Curse, Lan Hui will be in my hands. I'll use him to bait Shin Sumi in the next ring. It will be either her cultivation or the boy's life!”
Chu Erlong really was heartless and ready to do anything to achieve her goals. And she had to do that before the end of the Rising Star Tournament.
The difference in levels was easy to compensate below the Liquid Realm, and Chu Erlong had utter confidence in her artefacts and resources. But with Shin Sumi's talents, how long would it take before she was leagues above her in all aspects upon reaching the next stage of cultivation?
Unbeknownst to her, she was about to find out sooner rather than later.
A few tunnels away from the boys' location, Shin Sumi was advancing randomly in large rooms, sometimes trying to real the murals and the characters she could find written here and there.
At the same moment, Bai Xuengen used a bit of his Shinsoo on his golden compass, trying his luck at a way out of their predicament.
Hope was slim if they couldn't escape Chu Erlong and her followers. Nevertheless, he couldn't and wouldn't resign himself to their fate.
Bai Xuengen hadn't arrived to this point to give up that easily. And he didn't have to as the golden compass shone brightly, the light of divination flashing in his pupils.
A golden silhouette overimposed on the shape of the walls in the room they were in. Only Bai Xuengen could see the golden figure while he used his compass.
By force of habit, Bai Xuengen cut off his connection to the compass after a single breath of time, not wasting anymore precious energy.
When the light disappeared from his eyes, it was immediately replaced by confusion.
”A person? How is that possible? The compass never showed me anything like that before!” he said to himself.
The magical artefact he trusted with all his soul had never shown anything else than the way towards his objective. For a second Bai Xuengen wondered if him being in this training spatial dimension had refined his cultivation to a point where the compass now showed more than before.
Shaking his head and the thoughts away, he concentrated on the new information. The Black Cloud Curse was slowly sapping away his energy and concentration.
”The key to get out of this situation is a person, and they looked close to here... Could it be..?!”
Bai Xuengen immediately started shouting like a madman, startling Lan Hui who was about to shut him down by fear of revealing their positions to Chu Erlong and her followers.
”We are right here! Brother Bai if you can hear me, I am Bai Xuengen, Lan Hui is with me! BROTHER BAI!!”
The powerful voice of Bai Xuengen enhanced by Shinsoo traveled the tunnels in a second, alerting Liu Qing who was ahead of Chu Erlong's group as the pathfinder, but someone else.
”Bai Xuengen... Lan Hui...” a soft but boyish voice escaped one of the paths close to the young men's location.
”Bai Fulong is here!”
After weeks of anxiety and search, Shin Sumi had finally found the two people she was looking for.