by Shian Jeen
Huwang Xiao had been practicing the Soul Mandate and the Ancient Puppetry Art, compared to most human warriors his soul was very strong. Therefore, this little downside was negligible to him. Looking at the diagram in his hand, Huwang Xiao was inwardly pleased.
With this Blood Pact Mandate, inside this Ghost King Palace he would be like a fish returning to the sea. At first he was somewhat worried about the large number of ghost and evil spirits, but now, all of his worries vanished.
Subsequently, Huwang Xiao followed the method stated in the Blood Pact Mandate and pricked his finger. Using nine drops of blood, his hands moved quickly, drawing a Nine Palace Diagram that shrunk and submerged into the giant ghost’s soul through the center of its eyebrows.
Huwang Xiao’s blood slowly fused with its ghost soul, and a short while later, Huwang Xiao felt a vague telepathic connection with the giant ghost.
A Saint realm giant ghost was subdued!
Even though the giant ghost had just advanced into the Saint realm not long ago, to Huwang Xiao, it was still a great force on his side. Moreover, this giant ghost would most likely be very familiar with the Ghost King Palace, since it had been living in it for many years. It was definitely a great assistance to Huwang Xiao in his search for the Ghost King Sutra and the Ghost King Dan.
After subduing the giant ghost, Huwang Xiao took out a Nine Leaves Purple Grass from the Asura Ring and passed it to the giant ghost so that it could heal its injuries. The Nine Leaves Purple Grass was indeed a panacea for healing injuries, it didn’t take long for the giant ghost to heal the injuries it suffered, even its ghost soul recovered fully.
“You mentioned that you found the Blood Pact Mandate in one of the Ghost King’s cultivation caves, where is that?” When the giant ghost’s injuries have fully healed, Huwang Xiao asked.
“Yes, Owner.” Giant ghost went on, “But Lord Ghost King’s cultivation cave is set with heavy bans and traps, I only managed to reach the second floor, but according to my knowledge, the Ghost King Sutra and Ghost King Dan are both at the same place, on the fifth floor!”
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“The Ghost King Sutra and Ghost King Dan are in the same cultivation cave, on the fifth floor!” Huwang Xiao was ecstatic at this piece of news.
The Ghost King Palace was extremely vast, searching by himself was akin to looking for a needle in a giant haystack. Now that he knew where the Ghost King Sutra and Ghost King Dan were located, things were much easier!
“Guide me to that place now!” Huwang Xiao said. He would think of a way to enter then.
“Yes, Owner.” Giant ghost replied.
However, before leaving, Huwang Xiao removed the array flag and placed it into the Asura Ring.
Initially Huwang Xiao didn’t know the exact method to deactivate the array, thus he had planned to use violent force, but with the giant ghost there, he managed to break out of the array at the shortest time with a ghost flag booty to add to his collection.
According to the giant ghost, the ghost array formation was called Sea of Devils and Ghosts Array. In the future, once Huwang Xiao refined the Devil and Ghost Flag, he could control and lay out the Sea of Devil and Ghosts Array against his enemies.
Leaving the spacious hall, the giant ghost led Huwang Xiao straight to the aforementioned Ghost King cultivation cave. On the way, Huwang Xiao found out the giant ghost’s name, Feng Yang.
The giant ghost, Feng Yang, led Huwang Xiao through the maze corridors of the Ghost Kings Palace. Due to his familiarity with the grounds, knowing where and how to avoid the traps and bans, neither of them stumbled into another trap along the way.
Despite that, as they got closer to the cultivation cave, the bans and traps placed became more powerful, enough to trap even Saint realm experts within for a long time. Hence, the closer they got, the slower their speed became.
Three days later.
“Owner, not far upfront is the Lord Ghost King’s cultivation cave that I mentioned.” Giant ghost Feng Yang pointed.
Huwang Xiao nodded and exhaled deeply. They were finally there.
Although they did not trigger any traps on the way, they came across numerous evil spirits and devils. Some of those evil spirits and devils were very strong, comparable to human Third Order or Fourth Order Saint realm experts, a level that Huwang Xiao and the giant ghost Feng Yang couldn’t defeat even if they went two against one.
Fortunately, he had the Godly Mt. Xumi, enabling him and Feng Yang to escape from the hands of those devils and evil spirits’ pursuit. Not all encounters were bad, Huwang Xiao utilized the Blood Pact Mandate to refine seven half-Saint ghost and devils’ souls. The soul was where their cultivation gathered, the energy inside them was enough to elevate his cultivation to half-Saint.
Soon, Huwang Xiao saw a mountain up ahead. An enormous mountain was suspended in the sky, about several dozen miles in length and several hundred zhang tall! Flowing ghost clouds shrouded the ghost mountain, the ghost aura there was denser than anywhere else Huwang Xiao had been.
“That is the Ghost King Mountain?” Huwang Xiao stared in awe at the enormous mountain floating midair, asking Feng Yang. An underground structure of the Ghost King Palace actually had such an enormous mountain floating in midair, the scene was awe-inspiring.
“That’s correct, Owner. This is the Ghost King Mountain, Lord Ghost King’s cultivation cave is located at the top of the mountain.” Giant ghost Feng Yang explained respectfully.
Huwang Xiao nodded, “Let’s go!” His foot tapping the floor, he flew towards the Ghost King Mountain with Feng Yang following closely from behind.
But before Huwang Xiao reached the Ghost King Mountain, from afar, he detected a group of people gathered on the square. A quick glance over calculated at least fifty to sixty people.
Huwang Xiao’s heart sank, he didn’t expect there would be such a large number of people arriving earlier than him. But on a second thought, Huwang Xiao found it acceptable for others to arrive before him, he was delayed eight days to refine the dragon essence from the Earth Dragon egg.
Suddenly, a cold light gleamed in Huwang Xiao’s eyes―Zhao Chen!
Amidst the group of fifty to sixty people, Zhao Chen was among them! He might have his back towards Huwang Xiao, but Huwang Xiao recognized that silhouette with a glance. Beside Zhao Chen was none other than that silver-haired old man, Steward Feng, and seven others Sin City’s experts.
Grouping on the square, the different groups of experts were discussing the methods of entering the Ghost King Mountain. Detecting the noise of breaking wind, everyone was surprised, turning to look curiously.
Zhao Chen turned his head, spotting Huwang Xiao that was flying over, their gazes collided. Zhao Chen was stunned at first, but very quickly delight took over. Killing intent flashed in his eyes. In their last encounter in the City of Myriad Gods, Huwang Xiao managed to escape from his hands, this was the greatest humiliation in his entire life!
These days, he had been keeping an eye out for Huwang Xiao, yet it was as if Huwang Xiao vanished into thin air, for there were no clues at all as to where he might be. He didn’t expect that not only Huwang Xiao came to Ghost City, he entered the Ghost King Palace and even reached up to this point!
Detecting the killing intent in Zhao Chen’s eyes, Huwang Xiao sneered sardonically. Under many pairs of watchful eyes, Huwang Xiao and the giant ghost Feng Yang landed on the square.
Because Feng Yang was covered from head to toe in a black brocade robe, hiding his physical body and leaving only his eyes and mouth, as well as converging all of his ghost aura as per Huwang Xiao’s instructions, no one doubted this big giant of a ‘man’ to be anything other than human.
Landing on the square, Huwang Xiao took another quick look at the people present. Other than the City of Myriad Gods’ forces, there were Snow Dragon City, Imperial Saber City, and Green Ghost City’s disciples.
Out of top ten of Bedlam Lands’ forces, four of them were in front of Huwang Xiao. However, the d
isciples of Millennium City were nowhere to be seen. A few days prior, after Huwang Xiao broke out from the ghost array, he was separated from Peng Feng and Sun Haoran, after not seeing them here, Huwang Xiao was wondering if they were still alive or dead.
The quick glance around gave Huwang Xiao an idea about the strength of the forces gathered there.
Early level Saint realm, four in total. Most of them were like Zhao Chen, early First order Saint realm. This result made Huwang Xiao feel slightly at ease.
Whereas disciples from Snow Dragon City, Imperial Saber City, and Green Ghost City also breathed in relief seeing that Huwang Xiao was only a peak late-Xiantian Tenth Order.
“Hehe, Huwang Xiao, you didn’t expect to run into me here, did you?” Zhao Chen snickered sarcastically, leading Steward Feng and his subordinates over.
In the blink of an eye, Steward Feng and the other guards had Huwang Xiao and giant ghost Feng Yang encircled in the middle, closing all possible escape routes.
The rest of the people there noticed that Huwang Xiao and Zhao Chen knew each other, and furthermore, had a grudge. Everyone stood on the sides, waiting in anticipation for a good show.
“Huwang Xiao? Which sect does this fool come from? He’s so stupid to offend Zhao Chen.” Snow Dragon City’s Li Qiuping said with feelings of schadenfreude.
Li Qiuping was the Second Senior Brother to Li Li and Du Huagang that Huwang Xiao killed earlier at the Ghost Temple. At this time, Li Qiuping was still unaware of this fact.
“I wonder how Zhao Chen is going to end this kid later.” A middle-aged man with big eyes and thick brows from Green Ghost City chuckled. This man was Green Ghost City’s Castellan, Ghost Bear Wang Kun’s eldest disciple, Guo Dehui.
“I say, Zhao Chen won’t let this kid die so fast, he’s probably going to play for a little while, and when he gets bored, that kid will die.” A young woman, who was quite pretty, standing beside Li Qiuping spoke this time.
This young woman was Li Qiuping’s Third Junior Sister, Wang Lin, Third Senior Sister to Li Li and Du Huagang.
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Huwang Xiao listened silently to Snow Dragon City’s Li Qiuping and the others’ sardonic comments in the distance with stoic manner…
Whereas Zhao Chen’s expression grew grim as he watched Huwang Xiao, he didn’t miss the remarks coming from Li Qiuping’s side. He knew better than anyone here Huwang Xiao’s strength. He let Huwang Xiao escape last time, so no matter what, he absolutely mustn’t allow Huwang Xiao to escape a second time, otherwise, in front of Li Qiuping and the other geniuses, all his face would be lost clean!
Zhao Chen’s momentum increased as he narrowed the distance, a heavy pressure enveloped Huwang Xiao. Li Qiuping, Wang Lin, and Guo Dehui, who were bantering amongst themselves, noticed there was something odd with the atmosphere, their casual remarks trailed off, exchanging a look amongst themselves. Each saw their own puzzlement reflected back from others’ expression.
Obviously, none of them understood why Zhao Chen acted as if he was facing a great enemy.
“Isn’t he just a little peak late-Xiantian Tenth Order kid?” Li Qiuping shook his head secretly, “Does he need to look so serious?”
Just when Li Qiuping and the others thought that Zhao Chen was exaggerating, blue flames rose from Zhao Chen’s body, dancing wildly as an enormous two-headed blue bird materialized above his head.
This two-headed blue bird was Zhao Chen’s top grade twelve martial spirit, Two-headed Blue Flame Bird.
Seeing that Zhao Chen actually summoned his martial spirit to deal with a peak late-Xiantian Tenth Order, Li Qiuping, Wang Lin, Guo Dehui, and the rest on the square were greatly astonished.
However, it did not end there. In the next moment, the blue flames shrouding Zhao Chen flashed brightly and layers of blue-colored plumage covered his body like an armor. On the sides of his arms, steel-like blue spike feathers stood on ends.
Not only did Zhao Chen summon his martial spirit, he even soul transformed!
Li Qiuping, Wang Lin, and Guo Dehui’s eyes protruded in shock. Zhao Chen dealing with the kid personally was shocking enough for them, but now, even before Zhao Chen made the first move, he summoned his martial spirit and soul transformed?
A Saint realm expert killing a Xiantian warrior was a mere pinky raising effort, when did it come up to having to soul transform?
While the Snow Dragon City, Saber Imperial City, and Green Ghost City disciples were still in shock with Zhao Chen’s actions, another burst of blinding light shone from Zhao Chen’s body as a large blue abyssal-like cave appeared.
“Saint realm space!” Nearly everyone blurted out, flabbergasted. The look in their eyes shifted from inexplicable to disbelief. Zhao Chen even resorted to the Saint realm space! If only they knew that Huwang Xiao managed to flee from Zhao Chen’s hand last time even after he called out his Saint realm space, what would they think?
Even so, none of them could figure out or understand why Zhao Chen was behaving so excessively to the point of calling out the Saint realm space. All of them shifted their curious eyes to Huwang Xiao, yet they could not see what was so special about this peak late-Xiantian Tenth Order lanky young man that would push Zhao Chen to this extent.
It was at this time that Zhao Chen launched this attack. Bellowing, his palm pushed the blue flame space and it shot up to the sky, emanating scorching heat waves that engulfed Huwang Xiao.
“Huwang Xiao, your death is here!” Killing intent exploded in Zhao Chen’s eyes. This time, he wanted to take Huwang Xiao’s life in a single attackㅡto wash his shame!
Like the previous time, before the scorching heatwave neared him, Huwang Xiao already felt as if he was about to be burned into nothingness, however, this time, Huwang Xiao did not dodge. The desire to battle danced brightly in his dark pupils like flames, he transformed into Asura Physique, the Wings of Demon extended out sharply. Without summoning his martial spirit nor soul transforming, both of Huwang Xiao’s palms struck forward.
Earthen Buddha Palm!
One after another, Buddha statues emerged from the ground, flying skyward in dazzling Buddha luminescence. These Buddha statues were different from the past, every Buddha statue was shrouded in powerful flames that seemed to overpower the blue flames from Zhao Chen’s Saint realm space. Shattering Zhao Chen’s scorching heat waves, the Buddha statues surged forward towards Zhao Chen’s blue flames.
The flames shrouding the Buddha statues were Huwang Xiao’s true essence fire! Huwang Xiao fused his true essence fire into the Earthen Buddha Palm, adding a cloak of flames around the statues, as if they were avatars of the Fire Buddha.
Boom! Huwang Xiao’s Earthen Buddha Palm collided with Zhao Chen’s blue flames from his Saint realm space. The air shook with a volley of blasts and even the square floor shook violently.
Steward Feng and the other subordinates that encircled Huwang Xiao were thrown back from the shockwave, even giant ghost Feng Yang was forced to the side.
Li Qiuping, Wang Lin, and the rest felt the glaring collision, and in the next second, they watched Huwang Xiao attack with the Earthen Buddha Palm, the many fire Buddha statues breaking through the sea of blue flames and colliding with Zhao Chen’s Saint realm space.
Zhao Chen felt as if a heavy mountain crashed against his Saint realm space, causing it to shake intensely. The blue flames scattered as Zhao Chen was forcefully pushed back.
The scorching heat waves spread out, lingering in the air for a long time. A deathly silence descended on the square.
Li Qiuping, Wang Lin, and Guo Dehui’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as they stared at Zhao ChenㅡZhao Chen was actually pushed back!
ImㅡImpossible! A Xiantian actually forced a Saint realm expert back!
A Saint realm expert that resorted to using his Saint realm space actually failed to kill a mere Xiantian!! Bearing witness to such mystifying sequence, none present were able to react promptly.
Despite repelling Zhao Chen successfully,
Huwang Xiao too staggered back from the impact. From the surface it may seem that both fought equally, neither gaining an advantage over the other, but all of them were aware deep down, who was stronger and who was weaker.
Not only did Zhao Chen soul transformed, he even used the Saint realm warriors’ trump card, the Saint realm space, whereby Huwang Xiao did not soul transform.
Li Qiuping, Wang Lin, and the rest retrieved their gazes from Zhao Chen, looking at Huwang Xiao instead. Each of them secretly drew in a sharp intake of breath; what if Huwang Xiao soul transformed, didn't that indirectly show that Huwang Xiao was stronger than Zhao Chen?!
A Xiantian warrior was more powerful than a Saint realm expert?!
This was insanity! The world had gone mad!
A Xiantian was stronger than a Saint realm!
“You, actually…!” Zhao Chen’s face warped with anger when he managed to steady himself. Mixed within his anger was an undeniable shock as he stared at Huwang Xiao. In the exchange earlier, he found that Huwang Xiao’s current strength had enhanced a great deal compared to that time in the City of Myriad Gods!
Huwang Xiao didn’t bother with Li Qiuping and others’ expressions directed at him. He looked coldly at Zhao Chen, “Zhao Chen, in the City of Myriad Gods you claimed that you will enlighten me on the gap between a Xiantian and a Saint realm? Is this the gap you were referring to?”
Li Qiuping and the rest were once again shocked by the message that Huwang Xiao revealed. From Huwang Xiao’s words, it indicated that both he and Zhao Chen battled before in the City of Myriad Gods!
They wondered what the outcome of that battle was!
Then, they remembered a rumor that had been going around in recent days, many people had been saying that some reckless Saint realm expert offended Zhao Chen in the City of Myriad Gods some days ago, then Zhao Chen and that Saint realm expert battled it out in the city and that person was defeated by Zhao Chen and fled in embarrassment.
