by <unknown>
Zhong Yue was hesitant, “No! Xin Huo, our goal is to walk out of here alive, there is a weak spot, crack in the seal a hundred miles away from here; if we follow down this path, aren‘t we just walking deeper into the seal core and further away from the seal crack?”
Xin Huo laughed and answered, “You know nothing at all. The heart chamber is the center of a body, and so is this forbidden place. The blood vein on your hand can never transfer blood directly to your leg. Only the central heart chamber is the nexus that can transport blood anywhere within the body. Only by going to the heart chamber can you find a route to where the seal was cracked.”
“You aren‘t trying to fool me, are you?”
“Nope, definitely not!”
The eyes of the little flame in the lamp glimmered, he yelled emphatically, “I definitely have no interests in taking a look at the seal core, nor do I want to know what is in the middle of Devil Soul Forbidden Land! Brat Yue, you must have faith in me!”
Zhong Yue smiled, even if the little flame insisted that he had no ulterior motives, his heart was undoubtedly misaligned with his words. However, Zhong Yue understood that the logic Xin Huo presented was not wrong.
Xin Huo might be all flubdub and gulf about this tunnel being the central vein, but it is unequivocal that the blood veins on the tunnel‘s walls are getting thicker.
Zhong Yue gazed carefully at the blood veins, observing its patterns and trends, he walked into the central tunnel and thought in his heart, Following along these blood veins will lead me to the center of the forbidden land, and from there, I will be able to find the quickest and shortest path to the location where the seal cracks!
He walked down the tunnel, the air was dead quiet but it did not last long, as Zhong Yue could suddenly feel the quaking of flesh war chariot moving around. He quickly crouched down and placed his palm on the ground, with his eyes closed, he focused his senses and reached out to locate the flesh war chariot.
If I face squarely with them, it is impossible for me to win against all sixteen corpse demons in my current wounded state. I can only claim victory by striking them down with tremendous speed!
Moments later, he opened his eyes, The flesh war chariot is about two corner turns away, around one thousand four hundred and twenty feet; Usually, I wouldn‘t be able to break through the sound barrier, but in the form of Xiang Dragon, I can raise my speed fast enough to do it in the distance of a thousand feet. The remaining distance of over four hundred feet would allow me to raise my sword‘s speed to the peak of two times of the speed of sound! The flesh war chariot is over thirty feet long and carrying sixteen corpse demons. Right at the moment we clash, I will have to slash continually with my Sword Qi and kill all the sixteen corpse demons at once!
After a round of calculation in his mind, his psyche turned into a spike and struck on the beast god inner core; it was stimulated, and immediately, a burst of immense beast god essence gushed out and engulfed his psyche ocean wholly, diffusing into every corner of his body!
With such an abundant amount of beast god essence flooding him, bursts of gentle light sounds were audible as the dragon scales emerged from beneath his skin, his coccyx ached and grew a long dragon tail!
Within a breath‘s time, he was fully engulfed by the beast god essence and turned into a three feet long Xiang Dragon, longer and larger than the first time he transformed!
His body structure was transmuted into the body of a Xiang Dragon, his muscles were stronger than before, holding immense strength in them; the wounds on his body were covered by the dragon scales, alleviating the burden off his psyche as he did not need to suppress his wounds anymore.
Zhong Yue crouched down, his heart falling into an unprecedented state of calm.
The next moment, his body bolted out like an arrow, as the Xiang Dragon moved, he left a huge pit beneath his feet, crushing the stones and sending them scattering in all directions!
The Xiang Dragon turned into a golden figure and dashed away at a tremendous speed, every step he took would crush and leave behind huge pits on the ground!
In the blink of an eye, he was at the first corner turn, the flesh wall in his front was getting bigger; he swung his rear legs forward and dived on the flesh wall feet first, his dragon legs buckled, and the muscles quivered vigorously in boiling anticipation. The flesh wall rippled like water waves and Zhong Yue erupted with his strength, forcefully changing his inertia and launching him out in a different direction!
The Xiang Dragon sprinted in the tunnel, he performed the same maneuver once again when he was met with the second corner turn; immediately after, the flesh war chariot came into his sights!
Krong!
He broke through the sound barrier and the cacophonous sound of thunder became audible; the Xiang Dragon Sword Qi flashed out between his brows and flitted right at the flesh war chariot , accelerating with every passing moment!
The windows from the flesh war chariot opened, revealing a pair of huge eyes that were filled with terror; the two dragon claws magnified in its sights, and the next moment, its eyes were crushed by the draconic claws!
Chui-chui-chui!
The Xiang Dragon Sword Qi flitted around the dangling meatballs, a flash of the sword ray was accompanied by the destruction of fifteen large meatballs, but as it was on the verge of slashing the sixteenth meatball, its momentum slowed until it eventually ceased.
The last meatball unrolled and expanded into a corpse demon, preparing to leap down.
“Brat Yue, your calculations were off the mark!” Xin Huo shouted out.
Behind Zhong Yue, the Sui Sovereign held the weathered lamp and a little tree, he slammed his hands down, and his voice was trembling as he speaks, “It is all calculated!”
The Wood Sword Qi blasted out, Sword Qi gushed out like thousands of tree branches and pierced the corpse demon into pieces!
“Die!”
Zhong Yue murmured, the Xiang Dragon Sword Qi turned slim and thin, it pierced right into the flesh war chariot and ravage around inside of it. After that, it transmuted into a little Xiang Dragon and crouched beside Zhong Yue.
Zhong Yue then dashed forward, while the flesh war chariot behind him crumbled into bits.
“Brat, how did you do it?”
Xin Huo was surprised, he said, “You really did it? Compared to a pure-blood Xin Huo inheritor, you are only slightly weaker....”
Time passed without Zhong Yue realizing, he had met with another few flesh war chariots, and he handled them all using the same trick. All these while he had to maintain the Xiang Dragon form; there were no other options as in the form of Xiang Dragon allowed him to fight without concern for his wounds.
Judging by the distance I‘ve traveled, now I should be around or close to the core of the forbidden land.
Zhong Yue suddenly thought of something, This is the center of Swords Gate Mountain, all these tunnels are leading right here, I wonder what will I see here....
Just when he was thinking about it, the blood veins ahead thumped heavier, perpetually quaking the fleshly walls around them, it seemed like there was actually a massive heart palpitating and pumping blood to every corner of the forbidden land.
Then, Zhong Yue could really see it, the vast and massive heart!
A heart sized like a mountain, suspended in mid-air with the support of the thick and massive blood vessels; a spherical hollow space created beneath and in the middle of Swords Gate Mountain. The surfaces of the space were packed with holes which joined the blood veins at the core of everything, the heart.
While that vast and massive heart was pumping and supplying blood to the vessels!
In the air, there were also huge banners and flags hovering around the heart, they were inscribed with various types of marvelous and intriguing totem carvings.
The flags glimmered and shone onto the heart, they were seals left behind by the gods for the sole purpose of sealing the heart beneath the Swords Gate Mountain.
While above
the heart, Zhong Yue could see the silhouette of a sword, its tip pierced into the heart, and its blade extended up and breached out to the mountaintop, beside it was surrounded with huge and massive rocks.
Swords Gate Mountain....
Zhong Yue gazed blankly at the scene, his heart was left with nothing else but shock, he babbled to himself, Inside of Swords Gate Mountain, there is really a sword....
He tried to regain his composure, but as he lowered his sights, his heart thumped again in shock, what came into his eyes was simply terrifying; in the bottom of the pit, there was a countless number of coffins of thousands of feets tall each, the coffins were as black as pitch, and they stood upright in the pit.
Chapter 64: Stirring Up a Hornet's Nest |
That’s … devil souls!
Zhong Yue looked down, around the black coffins were giant devil souls levitating, they transversed across the coffins as they were non-physical entities, they were exactly the devil souls he once saw in the dark haze!
In the round pit, the numbers of devil souls of the gods and devils were as many as the number of coffins laid in it; Zhong Yue had a rough look and estimated that there to be at least two or three thousands of coffins in the round pit!
That meant, there would also be around over two or three thousand devil souls!
Thousands of gods and devils had died here and were sealed by the gods, what are all these about? Why is there a sword inside the Swords Gate Mountain, why is it piercing the heart? And whose heart would this be?
Zhong Yue was filled with questions that could not be answered, The eruption of Devil Soul Yin Effluvium, these devil souls were scrapping every single inch of land all around Swords Gate Mountain searching for something, what are they looking for? Surely not this heart nor the sword, what is it that is so attractive to these fallen gods and devils that they would turn their resentments, grudges and obsessions into devil souls to continue searching for it even after their deaths. That thing they are looking for must be very, very, very exceptional, but what exactly would it be?
Various kinds of thoughts fluctuated in his mind, but no one could have ever given answers to his questions.
Xin Huo was even more baffled than Zhong Yue, in fact, he was on the verge of going crazy, “Who can tell me, what the heck happened all these years when I was slumbering? Who buried all these gods and devils here, and what are they fighting for? How much fun stuff have I missed out on….”
This was the core of the Devil Soul Forbidden Land, countless flesh cars shuttling sixteen giant meatballs on it roamed around the massive blood veins. The flesh cars were large in number, there were at least a few thousands of them!
A few thousands of flesh cars, each shuttling sixteen meatballs which are actually corpse demons….
A shudder went through his body, other than the patrolling flesh cars, there was another peculiar looking being that came into his sights, it was a big and evil looking furry meatball hovering in the air.
It was around four feet in diameter but the furs on it were ten feets long, extending outwards like tentacles; all of a sudden, it’s skin split into half at the middle revealing an eye beneath the skins.
The furry meatball, it was actually an eye!
Zhong Yue was frightened, those evil eyes hovered in the air, when they opened and their eyeballs, laser-like death rays would shoot out and blast onto the giant sword, burning it red hot.
The evil eyes were innumerable, but in front of the massive blood veins, they were as small as dust in the air; and Zhong Yue, he was no bigger than petty dust.
The perilous flesh cars, horrifying corpse demons, and wicked evil eyes have filled the landscape, but the sources of true terror came from the giant beasts crouching beside the massive blood veins.
These giant beasts only had their skeletal frames and yet they move around like living beings, overwatching the patrolling flesh cars; from time to time, they would open their mouths and howl, but they were only hollow gestures that were devoid of the menacing sound.
One after another, when the flesh cars passed by the giant beasts, there would be meatballs falling off from the wagon. However, they did not turn into the corpse demons as usual but rather, these meatballs would attach themselves on the giant beasts’ bodies, forming part of the giant beasts muscles and blood veins!
While in mid-air, the hovering evil eyes would attach themselves to the giant beasts’ eye sockets, acting as the beasts’ eyes, they would roll around unnaturally and gaze vigilantly at the surroundings.
When the giant beasts shook their bodies, these meatballs would fall off from them and once again roll onto the flesh cars. The evil eyes would also hover through the air and whiz around.
These giant beasts, they were the mounts of the gods and devils, and are now the guardians of their masters’ coffins, if they spotted me….
Zhong Yue’s heart was palpitating, he whispered, “Xin Huo, if these beast skeletons were to be replete with muscles and eyes, how strong would they be?”
Xin Huo pondered for a moment and answered, “Without a doubt, their prowess will not be of the headmaster’s match, but they were, after all, the mounts of the gods, each and every one of them were equivalent to a pseudo-beast god. Even if they’re only left with their skeletons, but affixing these abhorrent creatures as their body parts, they may not be as strong as before but their prowess will still be incredibly strong! Swords Gate’s previous headmasters most probably died in their hands while trying to eliminate more of them.”
Zhong Yue forcefully suppressed the shock in his heart, the mounts of the fallen gods and devils were still active beneath the Swords Gate, with such great prowess, their existence turned this place into the paradise of the devil souls, any livings that dared to invade would have to face their deadly assaults!
Xin Huo once said that Swords Gate was established on top of an active volcano, he is indeed right. If this forbidden land ever erupted, the whole of Swords Gate, including the Great Wilderness will perish in no time!
Xin Huo whispered lowly, “Brat Yue, I can sense the position where the seal is cracked, be careful not to alert the flesh cars and evil eyes, also don’t be spotted by the giant beasts and the coffins, just sneak your way out of this place.”
Zhong Yue nodded, he followed Xin Huo’s instructions and scaled the flesh walls, taking the form of a Xiang Dragon, he could climb like a gust of wind and with great speed, he made his way towards one of the tunnels.
In mid-air, the evil eyes hovered in the air and floated around, they would intermittently open their eyes and blast death rays right at the massive sword.
“Strange, these devils soul are so strange, they don’t seem to be completed….”
Xin Huo measured them with his eyes, he pondered deeply; just right when Zhong Yue was on his way entering the tunnel, one of the eyes suddenly turned around and opened widely where Zhong Yue’s image clearly reflected on its pupils.
The big evil eye was stunned for a second, then it released a shrill and sharp noise.
All of the evil eyes suddenly stopped moving and countless eyeballs directed their freezing stares at Zhong Yue in unison.
“Run!”
Zhong Yue shuddered in fear, he mustered all his strength and burst out with immense speed. The next moment, the Xiang Dragon had entered into the tunnel as countless death rays interweaved into a portentous net that blasted right at him!
Zhong Yue ran with all his might, the death rays behind him pierced through the flesh walls and melted the mountain rocks into magma!
Chui-chui-chui!
The mountain rocks were littered with tiny perforations as if they were created in the heart chamber. From the holes, burning hot and viscous lava trickled down in rivulets!
Although they were described as small, it was only in comparison to this gargantuan underground world. Each hole was in fact, at least as big as a water bucket; any one of them could punch a gaping hole in Zhong Yue’s body!
Zhong Yu
e sprinted deep into the tunnel along the way when all of a sudden he reached a junction. Behind him, countless evil eyes hovered in the air and flooded into the tunnel.
“Xin Huo, directions! Which way?”
Xin Huo was getting anxious, the Sui Sovereign behind Zhong Yue held onto the weathered lamp, the little flame stuck his head out of the lamp and said, “Third from the left!”
Zhong Yue sped up and rushed into the third tunnel, he accelerated again and again – Krong! A loud deafening boom was audible as he broke through the sound barrier and bolted away!
Behind him in the tunnel, the evil eyes swung their tentacles and fluttered in, they followed along the way while incessantly blasting out laser rays of death!
At the same time, the massive heart in the middle of the heart chamber thumped, one after another, the meatballs on the flesh cars fell off onto the ground and turned into corpse demons, they set off with a fast gait and leaped around towards the tunnel!
The tunnel was wide and spacious, the corpse demons ran on the ground and crawled around the walls, but their speed was great, not any slower than Zhong Yue!
They were equivalent to Qi Practitioners that only cultivated the physique-refining arts. One could tell how swift their speed was, even Zhong Yue could not shake them off.
In contrast, the furious evil eyes were a degree slower; but all of a sudden, the evil eyes gyrated their tentacles in the air and flew towards the corpse demons, landing on the corpse demons head and hence, making these corpse demons look as if they had large peculiar eyes growing on their heads!
At the same time in the heart chamber, a giant beast crouching on the massive blood veins rose and trotted off, it was heading towards the tunnel Zhong Yue was in!
