Zhu Xian Chapter 91-100

Chapter 91 - Wild Dog The Good Person

In the death marsh, accompanying the increasingly heavy rain, a wind began to blow.

The monkey Xiao Hui’s furs were all wet and plastering tightly on its body, it curled up its body and hid in Xiao Huan’s embrace, not moving at all. Only a pair of sharp eyes, still rolling around, looking far ahead and then looked at Xiao Huan again.

The rain filled up the sky, turning the death marsh which was initially already gloomy into a darker shade, everywhere was a sea of murky grey. Zhou YiXian flipped up his clothes to cover his head and sat below the small tree. Xiao Huan, could not decide whether to sit or stand, after a moment, gave a wry smile and gently squatted down. She hugged Xiao Hui tighter to prevent it from the wind and rain, and as for herself, since she was already drenched, she did not have any other choice.

Wild Dog Taoist, extremely pleased with himself, held his umbrella and walked over. Looking at his expression, obviously there was none of the giving-his-umbrella-to-help-the-needy, showing-pity-and-tenderness-to-women etc , he was only heard saying, “He he, young lady, do you want the umbrella, it must be uncomfortable being drenched in the rain right?”

Xiao Huan raised her head to look at Wild Dog Taoist and laughed lightly, the raindrops fell onto her beautiful and fair face, burst and scattered like pearls.

Wild Dog Taoist’s breath stopped, he planned to come over to make Xiao Huan begged him for the umbrella and then Wild Dog Taoist Uncle would loudly ridicule this young girl and then lastly arrogantly swaggered off, to be this type of bad person, it really felt good and very satisfying!

Unexpectedly Xiao Huan was far from what he expected, she did not speak a word, not to even mention begging him, his eager plans immediately fell through. Wild Dog Taoist was very vexed and glared fiercely at Xiao Huan.

This glare, without knowing why, took his breath away.

The young and beautiful lady in front of him, quietly squatting down and bearing the storm. The storm raged between Heaven and Earth, suddenly in Wild Dog’s eyes, as if all of the raindrops were falling on her slightly frail body.

Her clothes were wet and sticking on her body, her black hair was slightly tossed, some strands strayed onto the side of her cheeks, the pale face against the wind and rain, carried with it a breath-taking and mournful beauty.

Her shoulders, were actually thin and weak, every raindrop that fell and rebounded were like crystal fragments and seemed to be trembling, the translucent fair and white skin stuck onto the clothes.

Wild Dog Taoist abruptly turned around and did not look at her, subconsciously he clenched the umbrella tight and as if he was reminding someone, he repeatedly said, “I am a bad person, I am a bad person, I am a bad person……”

Xiao Huan initially did not intend to bother about him but became curious upon seeing his reaction, saw Wild Dog’s strange behaviour and kept muttering something, she curiously asked, “Priest, what did you say?” Wild Dog Taoist got a fright, for no reason his heart felt feeble and weak, he sneaked a look at Xiao Huan and saw the strange expression in Xiao Huan’s eyes and she was looking back at himself, raindrops dripping down on her snow-white face.

Even her figure in the storm also looked delicate and charming.

“None of your matter!”  Wild Dog suddenly flared up and loudly shouted.

Xiao Huan was stunned, shrugged her shoulder and lowered her head but saw that Xiao Hui the monkey was looking at herself, she could not help but smiled and stuck out her tongue at it.

Xiao Hui grinned, [Zi Zi] laughed.

The wind blew and the rain fell, just when this storm showed no sign of stopping, Xiao Huan gradually felt her body started to shiver and was worrying about it when suddenly [Yi] a sound, she felt the rain above her head seemed to decrease by a lot. She raised her head to look and suddenly paused.

Without knowing when, Wild Dog Taoist had walked back and used his umbrella to shelter her, only within a short while, his body was wet from the rain.

“There,  give  you  the  umbrella!”   Wild  Dog  Taoist,  as  if unhappy with somebody, harshly shouted.

Xiao Huan stood up and exclaimed, “Priest, you……”

Wild Dog Taoist’s eyes sneaked a look at her face for a moment and saw on Xiao Huan’s surprised face, glistening raindrops quietly dripping on her face, some fell onto her long lashes, reflecting the radiance and beauty in her sparkling bright eyes, absolutely captivating.

Wild Dog Taoist instantly was like being consumed by fire, pushed the umbrella into her hand and immediately walked off, without a care for the storm, loudly scolded, “All of you these young girls, always like to act pitiful, hateful, hateful!” Xiao Huan, holding the umbrella and looking at Wild Dog Taoist’s back, suddenly laughed out, her laughter like a clear, melodious wind chime in the storm, laughed loudly and said, “Priest, you are a good person!”

Wild Dog Taoist did not dare to turn his head, [Pei] a sound, he angrily said, “Nonsense, your Taoist Uncle is a bad seed from the moment he was born and he will go all out against your likes of Good Faction people for his whole life!”

Xiao Huan stood holding the umbrella, smiled and looked at Wild Dog Taoist’s figure.

The umbrella had just left Wild Dog Taoist’s hand for a short while and he was already drenched from head to toe. He looked around at the surroundings but could not find any place to hide from the rain so eventually he walked back to where Zhou YiXian was sitting below the small tree, humphed and following Zhou YiXian’s example, flipped his clothes to cover his head, sulking and let the wind and rain drenched him.

Zhou YiXian looked at the ugly face of Wild Dog Taoist beside him, saw that his expression looked complicated and odd, looking both vexed and embarrassed. He suddenly laughed out loud and once he started he could not stop, he even put down his hands which were holding up the clothes, [Ha ha ha ha] laughing nonstop.

Wild Dog Taoist became infuriated from embarrassment, angrily said, “What are you laughing?”

Zhou YiXian pointed at him and [ha ha] laughed loudly, even disregarding the rain and wind beating on his face and loudly said, “I am a bad person, I am a bad person……”

Wild Dog Taoist immediately turned red, so Zhou YiXian’s ears were that sharp, the words that Xiao Huan could not hear clearly, he could actually hear it from afar. Now that he saw Wild Dog Taoist looking extremely vexed after doing a good deed, as if he had gone against some principles, he really could not help but laughed out and almost fell over.

Wild Dog Taoist was extremely infuriated and stood up abruptly, Zhou YiXian was startled, although his mouth was still [ha ha] laughing but his body started to move back, unexpectedly the ground was slippery from the rain and [bong] his feet slipped and he fell back, landed into a mud hole, his whole body covered with mud.

Wild Dog Taoist taken aback for a moment but saw that Zhou YiXian was fumbling, looking extremely comical, immediately all of his vexness disappeared and he could not help but also laughed out loudly.

The two of them ridiculed and laughed at each other and then started quarrelling incessantly. Xiao Huan, standing a distance away, smiled but did not come forward.

The rain poured down and seemed to get heavier, between Heaven and Earth everywhere was dismal, instead only in this perilous death marsh, there was still a place with some mild warmth.

In the evening the rain suddenly screeched to a stop, a moment before the sky was so dark that it looked like it was almost the end of the world and the moment after the clouds had already cleared, one wondered if such weather only existed in this death marsh? Xiao Huan heaved a long sigh and closed the umbrella, she looked up at the sky, although it was evening but after the heavy rain, the haze had dispersed slightly and the sky looked to be even brighter than daylight.

Even the air, those rotting stenchs, right now had also temporarily disappeared.

Xiao Huan turned around and looked in the direction of the small tree, Zhou YiXian and Wild Dog Taoist were still sitting there, just now during the big storm, both of them were still arguing loudly but after weathering the storm, the two of them obviously did not have any energy left, lifelessly put their clothes down from their heads, a sound of shush, the water flowed down like rain, poured from their clothes.

Xiao Huan smiled and turned around. She placed Xiao Hui down and when Xiao Hui touched the ground, it leapt up twice and shook itself, causing the rainwater to spray all about, even Xiao Huan could not avoid in time. Xiao Huan laughed and chided it, she saw that within the water plants nearby, there seemed to be a small pond and walked over. She found a spot where there was not much water plants and looked down. The flora in the pond were luxurious, even in this broad water surface, it seemed to reflect a faint clear jade color and she was unable to see how deep this pond was. Xiao Huan looked at her own reflection in the water reflection, slowly tidied up her appearance. The hair strands that were messed up by the storm, slowly returned back to its place, just that the clothes on her body were still wet from the storm and sticking onto her body, making her feel uncomfortable.

Far behind her, Zhou YiXian and Wild Dog seemed to start bickering again but their voices were not very loud so it was not that clear. The surroundings also suddenly quietened down, from the relentless storm until now, it seemed to be especially quiet.

Even on the water plants beside her, the glistening water bead silently rolled along the green leaf vein, the sound of the water bead dropping into the pond also seemed to be especially loud.

Xiao Huan took a deep breath involuntarily, after the rain, the air contained an indistinctly sweet smell. Suddenly, Xiao Hui who had been quietly staying in the back, made a sharp and tense [Zi zi] shout.

Xiao Huan got a shock and gave a questioning stare but suddenly became speechless, in the pond in front of them, in the dense water plants near to them, a pair of eyes appeared, almost twice as big as an average human and staring at her.

Xiao Huan exclaimed in surprise, Zhou YiXian and Wild Dog Taoist who were a distance away were startled but without waiting for them to react, the surface of the pond in front of Xiao Huan exploded, a thick column of water suddenly arise and attacked straight towards Xiao Huan.

Xiao Hui shrieked out loud!

Xiao Huan’s face turned pale but she was still calm, subconsciously she took a step back, her left hand withdrew into her sleeve. The water column looked like it was going to hit Xiao Huan in an instant, suddenly an orange halo shot out from Xiao Huan’s left hand and became a light screen, shielding in front of her. That big thick water column was blocked by that orange light screen, instantly stopped in mid-air and was unable to move forward, at the same time an extremely hoarse muffled shout emitted from the water column, the water column shook in the mid-air and within the white water sprays, a black figure appeared and intended to land back into the pond.

Xiao Huan had not recovered from her fright and was about to step back, at this moment, a sharp whistling was heard in the air and a light yellow figure, like a flash of lightning, bolted over and in an instant, appeared before her, it was Jin PingEr.

Jin PingEr’s pretty face looked deadly, her right hand waved and the purple energy immediately surged and directly entered into the pond, in a short moment there was a loud boom, a turbulent water wall shot up from the pond and charged up directly into the sky, its height exceeding several zhang.

That black figure was forced out by her but still appeared to have some strength left. Although it did not dare to deal directly with Jin PingEr but following the flow of water, it leapt backwards and landed in the water plants with a plop, its body was seen writhing, like a fish, swiftly swimming forward. Everyone was stunned, that strange thing looked like a human but this type of movement in the water was not what an average human could achieved. Jin PingEr frowned slightly but did not chase after it. Looked like that strange thing was going to disappear into the far corners of the pond within the haze.

Unexpectedly at this moment, that strange thing made another angry hoarse shout, a black-green light with a few streaks of blood-red flashed lightly in the thin haze, that strange thing immediately turned and flew back, as if it was extremely fearful of that black-green light.

Just that when its body was in mid-air, the verdant water plants in the pond underneath its feet, stretching both sides from beneath its feet suddenly rapidly withered and turned brown, even the surface of the water also turned slightly black. Only the plants in Jin PingEr’s direction remained verdant.

The strange thing seemed to bellow its last roar but still did not dare to land back into the pond, it flew towards Jin PingEr, evidently making its final fight. Xiao Huan cried out, “Sister, be careful!”

Jin PingEr’s expression did not change, a sneer appeared on her pretty face. As the black strange thing approached nearer, Jin PingEr’s pretty eyes flashed, her right hand suddenly raised and the purple light swelled. Nobody could clearly see what magical weapon was used in the resplendent purple light but saw the purple rays like swords, struck down on that strange thing’s head. That strange thing [Hou] made a muffled shout, its body flew a few zhang from the impact into the sky and following which it dropped down heavily, its hands and feet twitched and looked like it would not survived.

Gradually it started to quieten down, the turbulent waves in the pond also slowly settled down. Everyone turned to look at that strange thing on the ground and then, each one of them, including Jin PingEr, were all taken aback.

That was really a strange monster but it was a strange monster that looked like a human.

Like a human, it had hands and legs and even on its body, there was tight-fitting clothes but it seemed like to increase flexibility in the water, it wore little clothes. The skin that was not covered, flakes by flakes, it looked like fish scales.

But the thing that shocked them most, was its head. This was actually a fish head, the lips, gill and even the eyes, were also like a fish, it did not have eyelids.

Right now that fish-head-human-body strange monster lay on the ground, blood flowed continuously from its mouth and its body did not move at all, seemed like the heavy blow from Jin PingEr, struck it to death.

Xiao Huan looked at that strange monster and felt a shiver in her heart, subconsciously she shrank back behind Jin PingEr, Jin PingEr lightly patted her shoulder and softly comforted her.

After a while, from the haze in front of them, two people slowly walked out. Although they walked out at the same time but both of them were rather far away from each other, as if staying vigilance against each other. It was Ghost Li and Wan Du Clan Qin WuYan. Ghost Li’s gaze swept around, he paused for a while at Xiao Huan’s face who was behind Jin PingEr and then moved away.

Xiao Huan looked at Ghost Li and then looked at Qin WuYan and could not help but felt shocked, these three Evil Faction’s younger generation most outstanding experts suddenly were secretly meeting up, and for whatever reason, it made one perplexed and excited thinking about it.

Qin WuYan walked to the strange monster’s body and used his feet to kick it, that strange monster flipped and did not move.

Qin WuYan indifferently said, “Dead.”

Xiao Hui, who was hiding at the side, [Zi zi] shouted twice and jumped onto Ghost Li’s shoulder.

Ghost Li looked at Wild Dog Taoist and looked at Zhou YiXian and Xiao Huan, seemed to frown and then slowly said, “All that is to be said have been said, so that’s all!” After speaking, he turned around and was about to leave when Qin WuYan suddenly said, “Ghost Li brother, this not- human-and-not-animal strange monster suddenly appear here, there is something fishy about it, don’t you think so?”

Ghost Li stopped but did not speak, Jin PingEr looked at Qin WuYan and said, “Why, you know what this is?”

Qin WuYan was taken aback for a moment and shook his head slightly, he looked at Jin PingEr and Ghost Li’s expressions again, they also seemed not to know where this half-human-half-fish strange monster came from. Just at this moment, suddenly somebody walked out beside them and loudly said, “I know where this strange monster came from.”

The three of them got a shock at the same time and turned to look, it was Zhou YiXian. Even Xiao Huan was also shocked and said, “Grandfather, you know?”

There was still mud on Zhou YiXian’s forehead but right now his demeanour was extremely unusual, with his hands behind his back and his expression haughty, he said, “Your grandfather has been roaming the world all his life, the bridges that I have crossed are more than the roads that you have walked, do you think I have lived in vain? This strange monster is called ‘human fish’, actually it is not considered an evil monster and in the Southern border’s range of thousands mountains, the human fish race is one of the sixty-three different races.”

Ghost Li and the rest were all surprised, naturally everyone knew about the thousands of mountains in Southern border but in the Southern border’s wildlands, nobody had heard of the sixty-three different races. However looking Zhou YiXian’s expression, he did not look like he was spouting nonsense.

Jin PingEr frowned and said, “That is strange, the Southern border is no less than thousands of miles from death marsh, why did this human fish come all the way here?”

This question befuddled the haughty Zhou YiXian, he scratched his head and said, “That I don’t know.”

Everyone remained quiet for a while and looked like there would be no conclusion, Ghost Li was the first to turn and walk away. Xiao Hui the monkey on his shoulder suddenly turned around, grinned and waved at Xiao Huan.

Xiao Huan smiled.

Wild Dog glanced at Xiao Huan and followed up but he had only took a few steps when Xiao Huan shouted from behind, “Priest, the road ahead is perilous, you must be careful!”

Jin PingEr was surprised and looked at Xiao Huan but Xiao Huan was smiling and did not look different, instead Wild Dog Taoist who was ahead, sped up. Nobody knew if he heard or pretended not to hear, without even turning his head, he rushed up to catch up with Ghost Li.

Qin WuYan looked at the direction where Ghost Li left, walked over to Jin PingEr, smiled and said, “Jin Fairy’s ‘Purple light sword’ reputation is well-known, now that I have seen it, it really deserved its reputation.”

Jin PingEr smiled blandly and said, “Qin GongZi is making fun of me, how can I compare to you, just by using a little poison and it can change this pond into a poisonous pond, within fifty years nothing can grow here.”

Qin WuYan’s eyes froze, his expression also seemed to turn cold. He looked at Jin PingEr for a while then unhurriedly said, “My humble self’s ‘FuPing’ simple poison was made only within half a year, it is just a bag of tricks and did not catch the master’s eyes so it was never shown. Didn’t expect that Jin Fairy know about this, my humble self is really filled with admiration, really admire!”

Jin PingEr met his stare and did not show any sign of yielding, she said, “Qin GongZi overpraise me.”

Qin WuYan looked at her again, a cold ray flashed in his eyes but then a smile appeared on his face, he nodded and said, “As such, my humble self will make a move first, the plans that we have made……”

Jin PingEr interrupted him and said, “Don’t worry, I know what to do with that matter!” Qin WuYan smiled and said, “Good.” and then nodded towards Xiao Huan, considered that he had made his greetings, turned and left, disappearing quickly into the haze.

After Qin WuYan’s figure disappeared, Jin PingEr still remained silent. After a while, she suddenly heaved a long sigh, Xiao Huan who stood behind her, almost at the same time could feel that actually Jin PingEr’s body had been tensed all along and only now then her body relaxed.

“Sister, do you feel not alright?”, Xiao Huan was concerned.

Jin PingEr shook her head slightly, looked at Xiao Huan and gently said, “I did not come in time just now, are you hurt?”

Xiao Huan laughed, shook her head and said, “I am alright, only that I was caught in the rain just now but luckily I have

…...aiya!”

Jin PingEr was shocked and said, “What is it?” Xiao Huan stamped her feet and said, “I forgot to return the umbrella to that priest.”

Jin PingEr shrugged her shoulders and said, “Then keep it, next time you can return it when you have a chance to meet him again.”

Xiao Huan quietly nodded, Jin PingEr gazed out afar and suddenly as if she had a feeling, she spoke quietly to Xiao Huan, “Xiao Huan, next time you must be careful of that two persons.”

Xiao Huan did not understand and said, “What?”

Jin PingEr’s eyes flashed and a cold ray seemed to flash, she coolly said, “Those two persons, they are really merciless and ruthless, if you see them in the future, you better stay far away immediately and be sure not to go near them!”

Xiao Huan kept quiet and slowly nodded but in her heart, for no reason, she suddenly felt disappointed, indistinctly she recalled back many years ago, that young man who was cheated of his money by Zhou YiXian.

Chapter 92 - Mantis [The mantis stalk the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind]

Wild Dog Taoist followed Ghost Li, trudging deep into the death marsh.

Because of the heavy rain earlier in the day the initial soft loose soil turned extremely muddy. But after Ghost Li met up with Qin WuYan and Jin PingEr, he insisted not to use magical weapon to fly and instead to travel by foot.

It seemed like Jin PingEr and him were the same, both apprehended about something.

If this was in the past, Wild Dog Taoist would naturally let loose a torrent of abuse and minimally at least complained incessantly but right now, he seemed lost in his thoughts and did not even speak a single word, quietly following behind Ghost Li and that instead made Ghost Li curious. Ghost Li looked at Wild Dog Taoist’s distracted expression, suppressed  his  voice  and  indifferently  said,  “What’s  with him?”

These words seemed to be for himself because other than the water plants and ponds that looked icy-cold in the death marsh, there was no other person at all, other than the monkey, Xiao Hui, on his shoulder.

And it was Xiao Hui, who was looking drowsy before and after hearing Ghost Li’s question, like being stimulated, it suddenly became excited. Its extremely intelligent-looking eyes rolled around and suddenly, jumped down from Ghost Li’s shoulder and started to dance.

This strange behaviour, even Wild Dog Taoist, who was following behind, also got a shock and looked towards it.

Xiao Hui [Zi zi] and grinned, danced to Ghost Li and then its eye turned and suddenly leapt to the small pond beside them. It held up some water from the pond and dripped onto its own head instead, and then using its fingers to point towards the sky, jumping up and down. Wild Dog Taoist fixed his stare on it and walked to Ghost Li and said, “What happen, this, this monkey is it mad?”

Ghost Li instead frowned and spoke quietly to Xiao Hui, “Raining?”

Xiao Hui was extremely delighted, nodded its head in succession and then broke a leaf from an unknown plant and brandished it on its head, as if blocking something. It then twisted its body to make a pose, twisting here and there and as if acting in a play, the leaf from its right hand changed to its left and then from left to the right.

Wild Dog watched and watched, suddenly he felt an unexplainable feeling of guilt. He stared at that weird monkey and spoke to Ghost Li, “Crazy, crazy, this monkey must be crazy.”

The monkey Xiao Hu flung the leaf away and then within two or three jumps, leapt back to Ghost Li’s shoulder. It pointed to the direction that they had came from, [Zi zi zi zi] calling out incessantly. Ghost Li remained silent for a while and then slowly turned over and looked at Wild Dog Taoist.

Wild Dog Taoist forced a smile and said, “Why, why did you look at me for?”

Ghost Li’s gaze sneaked a look at his bundle on his back and indifferently said, “When it rained just now, did you lend your umbrella to, to, “ speaking until here, he frowned slightly and looked at Xiao Hui, thought for a moment and said, “You lent your umbrella to that fortune-telling young lady to shelter from the rain?”

“Zi!  ”

Without waiting for Wild Dog Taoist to answer, Xiao Hui who was on Ghost Li’s shoulder had already jumped up, looking very excited, the monkey smiled until its eyes narrowed up.

Wild Dog Taoist’s face turned red and then white, looking extremely embarrassed. Suddenly he pointed at Ghost Li and angrily shouted, “Stinky brat, I tell you, your Taoist Uncle used to kill people like flies, those who died at my hands are no less than one thousand, if not eight hundred……”

Ghost Li glanced up at him and with a look that showed he did not even care, turned and stepped forward, indifferently saying,  “Whether  you  have  killed  one  thousand  or  eight hundred, what does it have to do with me?”

Wild Dog Taoist’s breath stopped, he could not carry on his initial bragging to boost his vibes. Ghost Li was heard speaking slowly from ahead, “Then again, even if you have killed one thousand or eight hundred, what does it have in relation to you lending the umbrella to that young lady?”

After he had spoken, he stopped walking and turned back to look at Wild Dog Taoist.

Wild Dog was stunned, as if facing a powerful opponent, he said, “What, what do you want to do        no, what did you say?” Ghost Li appraised him and suddenly laughed, he said, “But ever since after the Forsaken Abyss, you have surprised me again with this matter!”

“......Unexpectedly you will also perform such hero-save-the- beauty stuff!’

Wild Dog Taoist stared at him dumbfoundedly and until he recovered, Ghost Li had already walked off with Xiao Hui, his figure almost vanishing ahead into the haze.

Wild Dog Taoist looked at that direction then suddenly leapt up in anger, stamped his feet and said, “Pei, your father, I, have always been a bad egg and have never done such a thing in my life, and furthermore, to say that the young girl is considered beauty        uh!”

Wild Dog Taoist scratched his head and suddenly stopped while frowning. After a long while, as if talking to himself, he said, “Actually that young girl looks not bad……” Speaking such words, Wild Dog Taoist seemed surprised at himself and suddenly shook his head violently and cursed softly. He walked ahead in big strides towards the direction where Ghost Li had gone to catch up, soon he disappeared into the gradually thickening night haze.

Silence all around, the sky gradually darkened and the darkness invaded, slowly swallowing everything.

The other side of the death marsh.

Evil Faction Chang Shen Hall leader YuYang Zi in a robe of white, hands clasped behind his back and looking up into the sky, the night breeze in the death marsh blew, gently fluttering his robe. His bearing like a celestial immortal.

Other than his left hand, the empty sleeve adding a few degrees of inexplicable humour.

That Qing Yun Hill battle, he unfortunately was hurt by the world’s number one remarkable sword - the mark by Zhu Xian. The night breeze carried some chill and the air still seemed to carry the humidity from the earlier heavy rain. The darkness filled the surroundings but only his figure was proud and conspicuous.

In the darkness behind him, indistinctly breathing sounds were heard. Those were his sect’s men, hiding in the darkness and patiently waiting for his order.

Evil Faction Chang Shen Hall rose to prominence eight hundred years ago and until YuYang Zi this era, it was already the seventh generation. they had came a long way but nobody knew better than YuYang Zi, that behind this grand view the danger that Chang Shen Hall faced.

No successor!

In the Qing Yun battle ten years ago, YuYang Zi was elected to be the in-charge by the other three powerful branches of the Evil Faction. That was the prime and pinnacle moment of Chang Shen Hall’s reputation in the Evil Faction in these hundred years and at that time, YuYang Zi was complacent. In addition he had also several favourite highly-skilled disciples which he had painstakingly trained for the past hundred years.

At that time, YuYang Zi really thought there was nothing that could obstruct him in this world, only with one stroke he would route the decrepit and outdated Qing Yun Sect and Chang Shen Hall’s reputation would naturally awe the Evil Faction. With his own capability and with his highly-skilled disciples, in the next eight hundred years Chang Shen Hall would become the second Blood Forger Hall and him, would become the second Elder Blackheart!

Just that, all of these glorious dreams, on Qing Yun Hill under the Zhu Xian Sword, became bubbles!

He himself lost his left hand in the Zhu Xian Sword formation, not to mention the severe loss of his skills. And because Chang Shen Hall was leading the attack, all of his highly skilled disciples were naturally in the frontline, the fights with Qing Yun Sect various elders leaders at TongTian Peak took down half of his men and after that when the Zhu Xian Sword formation started, the remaining Chang Shen Hall disciples again suffered heavy casualties. Only a few survived the battle, the whole sect was considered almost practically wiped out.

In this world everything could be easily obtained but the hardest was talents, especially the ones that were painstakingly trained by yourself and totally trustworthy!

In these ten years, YuYang Zi worked his heart’s out and Chang Shen Hall gradually started to turnaround but in YuYang Zi’s heart, that shadow in his heart grew bigger. The battle of Qing Yun almost totally destroyed the main force of Chang Shen Hall and in the past few years, if not for YuYang Zi he himself possessed powerful cultivated skills and managed to suppress the enemies who were lying around covetously eyeing his sect and especially seven years ago, he made a decision there and then, disregarding objections from his men and forcefully relocated the headquarters to this desolated death marsh, far away from the other three powerful branches reaches, nobody would know in the end, what would be their end results.

But just one month ago the increasingly intense internal fight within the Evil Faction screeched to a sudden stop and the last capable small-medium branch Blood-Forger Hall was also eventually subdued by Ghost King Sect and everyone had since positioned their stance. After a short temporary and breath- stopping peace, YuYang Zi’s instinct predicted that very soon the next intense internal fight would break out between the four big powerful branches.

After all in the countless Evil Faction disciples’ hearts, the figure of Elder Blackheart unifying the Evil Faction and marching unhindered all over the world eight hundred years ago had already became an eternal legend!

But legend was still a legend and right now at this moment, to Chang Shen Hall and even to YuYang Zi, their situation was extremely unfavourable. Limited by their capability, in the internal fight for the small and medium-sized branches, Chang Shen Hall were unable to join in, as such over time, the differences between their strength and the other three powerful branches were stretched even further. This matter lay heavily in YuYang Zi’s heart and he almost could not sleep.

Also at this moment, as if the Heaven had opened its eyes, the signs of the birth of a rare treasure suddenly appeared in the death marsh just beside Chang Shen Hall. YuYang Zi was pleasantly surprise, if they could really obtain a rare treasure like Qing Yun Sect’s ‘Zhu Xian the Ancient Sword’ then the survival of Chang Shen Hall would not be a problem and then from there, they could make plans to expand and who knows they might still have a chance to come back.

Under such circumstances, Chang Shen Hall viewed the rare treasure in the death marsh as something that was already theirs and would never allowed others to encroach on it. Just that the news was somehow leaked out and within a few days it had already cause a stir in the world, immediately the world viewed it with fear and the Good and Evil Faction experts, one by one, gathered in the death marsh.

YuYang Zi was shocked and angry but right now he could not turn back. Therefore Chang Shen Hall full force was assigned into the death marsh, on one hand to search for that rare treasure location and on the other hand, to watch and kill those that came. In the past few days, the number of people that were secretly killed by Chang Shen Hall in death marsh were no less than a dozen and among them, there were individual Good Faction celestial being and also highly-skilled disciples from the other Evil Faction branches. For the sake of his own sect’s survival, YuYang Zi could not care less!

This night YuYang Zi received his sect’s secret report, a group of Good Faction men had set up camp near the ‘Bottomless pit’ at the periphery of the death marsh and were getting ready to spend the night there. And in the next few succession of reports from the scouts, YuYang Zi’s face became colder and colder, in his heart he already knew who those people were.

Those were the young and elite disciples of Qing Yun Sect, initially there should only be a dozen or more men but after hearing the scouts’ reports, the number of people were already more than a dozen and with them, there were monks and people dressed in FenXiang Valley clothes. YuYang Zi frowned tightly and breathed deeply, he gazed out far ahead, as if waiting for something.

After a long while, a light footsteps sounded in the darkness behind him, a shrewd gaunt middle-aged man walked to YuYang Zi side and YuYang Zi immediately turned around and faced him, obviously this person’s status was special. This middle-aged man’s name was MengJi and he was one of the elite disciple of Chang Shen Hall YuYang Zi and also one of the few Chang Shan Hall disciples that survived the Qing Yun Hill battle, therefore he was one of the people that had YuYang Zi’s deep trust. Right now one of the reason why YuYang Zi still could not make up his mind was also because he was waiting for this person to come back.

MengJi bowed to YuYang Zi, YuYang Zi shook his head slightly and said, “Forget it, dispense with courtesy, how is it?”

This question was asked out of the blue but MengJi obviously knew the meaning of YuYang Zi’s question, he quietly said, “Subordinate have already brought men to Black Water Trench and White Horse River which are on the other side of the death marsh to search but did not find any signs of the Ghost King Sect, Wan Du Clan and HeHuan Sect men arriving in force, only a few lower-ranked figures were found and subordinate already handled them.”

YuYang Zi perked up and a smile appeared on his face for the first time, he nodded and said, “Good! As such we have no more concerns, tonight we will attack those uppity young people from Qing Yun Sect, Tian Yin Temple and FenXiang Valley in full force. First get rid of these people then the Good Faction will be powerless to vie with us again!”

But MengJi did not seemed delighted, instead he seemed worried. He hesitated for a while and eventually still say, “Sect leader, but three days ago news from our undercover men stationed near Big Wang village reported that it seemed like Ghost Li and Qin WuYan has already arrived, furthermore HeHuan Sect Jin PingEr’s location has always been uncertain, we cannot not be wary!”

YuYang Zi’s face twitched, revealing indignation, he hatefully said, “How would I not know, those Good Faction people only want that treasure while those people from Wan Du Clan, Ghost King Sect, what they want is my life!”

MengJi trembled but did not reveal what his thoughts, he looked uncertain and quietly asked, “Sect leader, then what shall we do?”

YuYang Zi humphed, breathed deeply and relaxed his body, he said, “By now we can’t turn back already. Taking the advantage that Wan Du Clan, Ghost King Sect and HeHuan Sect men has not arrived, we first settle those Good Faction brats then search for the treasure in full force. Looking from the signs in the past few days, this must be an extraordinary treasure, once we obtain it, we don’t have to fear the other three branches!”

MengJi bowed his head and said, “Sect leader is brilliant.”

YuYang Zi nodded his head slightly and turned around, calmed himself down and focused. He then stretched out his only right hand, waved heavily once into the darkness and immediately the shadows assembled. In a short while a big group of Chang Shen disciples appeared, moving with ease to make a long-range raid towards the direction that YuYang Zi’s finger pointed.

The boundless night, bleak with an aura of death!

Death marsh, bottomless pit.

The stretch of land looked like a piece of flat ground during the day but nobody knew why it had such a strange name. Unless they were the villagers that had lived for years near the death marsh, then they would know that in the middle of these lands, a big piece of land that looked the nothing different from the rest, all overgrown with wild grass, was actually an enormous bottomless pit. And in it, suction power of the sludge was extremely strong and if a ordinary person stepped in unaware, he would be suck in in less than a moment and then from there without any trace rotted silently under the deep marsh.

Therefore the reason for the death marsh name was because in the marsh, these type of horrible silent killers were numerous!

But these young Good Faction people were obviously not ordinary people.

Qing Yun Sect group of people travelled for a few days in the death marsh and in-between met Tian Yin Temple and FenXiang Valley disciples, the three parties joined together and contrary to expectations, they saw familiar figures. Tian Yin Temple had FaXiang, FaShan as leaders and among FenXiang Valley, there were Li Xun and YanHong. But just that after meeting up, their relationships became greatly different. Xiao YiCai as the leader of Qing Yun Sect disciples got along harmoniously with Tian Yin Temple disciples and they chatted merrily but over at FenXiang Valley instead, there were some estrangement feelings with these two big sects, as if they purposely maintained their distance.

The delicate reason within, everyone knew in their hearts but on the surface, they were still courteous and the three sects worked together, for justice and morals, kill the evil and eliminate the demons, exterminate the Evil Faction!

This night, the group of people stayed near the bottomless pit for the night. After starting up the bonfire and reminding the junior brother and sisters again not to wander off on their own, Xiao YiCai then invited Tian Yin Temple FaXiang, FenXiang Valley Li Xun to a corner and quietly discussed.

And at this moment, Li Xun was frowning slightly, a disdain expression in the recesses of his eyes but his expression still maintained  an  amiable  look,  he  quietly  said,  “Xiao  senior brother, perhaps you worry too much?” Xiao YiCai smiled and said, “If Li senior brother have any brilliant suggestion, please say! My humble self will respectfully listen.”

After Xiao YiCai and FaXiang’s attention were on him, Li Xun paused for a while then said, “I thought our forces are formidable after our three sects entered the marsh, the disciples that Chang Shen Hall sent out were all routed by us. And ever since from the Qing Yun battle, Chang Shen Hall highly skilled disciples are all either dead or injured, other than the YuYang Zi holding up the fort, the rest are really not worth any consideration. Instead Xiao senior brother said there will be danger tonight, isn’t it too much?”

Xiao YiCai after remaining silent for a while, said, “What Li senior brother said makes sense. But in Evil Faction Chang Shen Hall, YuYang Zi Sect leader’s skills is extremely powerful. Just him, we cannot let our guard down. Other than that, from the time Chang Shen Hall rose to prominence and ranked as the Evil Faction four big powerful branches until today, it has already been eight hundred years long. As the saying goes, the centipede does not die easily and beside they are determined to get this death marsh’s rare treasure, the dog might be desperate enough to jump over the wall, we better be careful!” FaXiang nodded and said, “Xiao senior brother words makes sense, we really have to be careful.”

Li Xun saw that both of them were saying the same things and so felt it would not be appropriate to add on but he had an arrogant characteristic and it revealed in his eyes, he indifferently said, “Then according to both senior brothers, how shall we proceed tonight?”

FaXiang looked at him and was taken aback, he turned to look at Xiao YiCai but Xiao YiCai behaved as if nothing had happened, as if he did not notice and still smiled and said, “Li Xun senior brother is indeed brilliant, with brother’s talent, in the future if the matter was accomplished, Li senior brother must remember the first merit.”

LiXun smiled and actually did not thank him modestly.

FaXiang who was standing beside, saw Xiao YiCai’s expression remained the same regardless of anger or happiness, suddenly that youth ‘Zhang Xiao Fan’ figure flashed past his eyes, if only he was also here today, how good it would be…… He felt an inexplicable pain in his heart and softly sighed, in the background he heard Xiao YiCai quietly started to make arrangements and quickly focused to listen, Xiao YiCai suppressed his voice and softly said, “Both senior brothers, today we……”

The night seemed to darken even more.

The night in the death marsh seemed to be enveloped by the black clouds or maybe during each night, this enormous death marsh would generate a haze.

Sheets and sheets of grey mist in the night air, not to mention the moon, even a single star also could not be seen.

Near the bottomless pit where the Good Faction young disciples were resting, other than a few bonfire ashes remnants struggling to burn, everywhere was quiet, not a single sound.

Indistinctly looking into the darkness, those Good Faction disciples were curled up into their clothes and covered their whole body tightly. After all these young people’s cultivated skills were not enough to stand the death marsh night chill that seeped into their bones.

Chang Shan Hall disciples silently surrounded these people in all directions, quietly waiting for YuYang Zi’s command in the darkness.

YuYang Zi slowly stretched out his only right hand.

Standing beside him, MengJi suddenly quietly said, “Sect leader.”

YuYang Zi’s hand paused, he felt slightly unpleased but as MengJi was an important figure in his heart, he controlled his temper and said, “What is it?”

MengJi seemed to sense YuYang Zi’s resentment but after hesitating for a moment, he still said, “Sect leader, look at these Good Faction people. How come there is not even a single night guard around?” YuYang Zi was stunned for a while and then sarcastically said, “These brats, ambitious and arrogant, these few days I executed plans to make them underestimate the enemies, they have already thought we are useless and totally disregard us at all. It is not surprising to see that there are no night guards!”

MengJi’s expression changed but eventually he kept quiet.

YuYang Zi did not pay attention to him again, his right hand flipped and a strange mirror with black and white sides appeared in his hand. He then flew up into the sky and drew a brilliant light streak across the night.

All of the Chang Shan Hall men cried out at the same time, reverberated far in the night, swarmed forward with immeasurable murderous aura!

A faint bleakness, in that dying light remnant.

The last ash at this moment quietly extinguished! Swallowed up by the darkness!

After a moment, suddenly a clear and sharp sound [Qiang Lang] rang out like dragons singing.

A stream of jade-green light, a stream of blue light, a stream of golden light, a stream of white light and a stream of green light.

Five streams of brilliant strange lights, at the night black screen, like a sharp sword piercing the firmament, suddenly appeared in the deepest corner of the darkness and charging towards the Chang Shen Hall men.

And behind their back, even more brilliant light rays, appeared one by one.

YuYang Zi saw it all, his face turned extremely pale!

Chapter 93 - Oriole

It happened suddenly, the unforeseen event arose suddenly in the dark. Those Chang Shen Hall men were caught unaware and could not react in time.

And in this flint-spark moment, the Good Faction men who were lying in ambush and all ready to risk their lives, each one of them wielded their magical weapons and charged over. With the intended attacking the unprepared ones, naturally they had a very big advantage and those Good Faction disciples that were here, each one of them at least an outstanding successor of one of the big sects. Although their cultivated skills might not be on par with YuYang Zi that kind of figure but against the ordinary sect members, they far exceeded them.

The moment was liken to a tiger entering a sheep flock, the Good and Evil Faction had always viewed each other as enemies and naturally they would not hold back during attack. Various kinds of light flashed crazily in the night, wails and screams were heard incessantly and the smell of blood arose immediately, drifting within the death marsh. Among the different light rays, the one which was the nearest, flashed a blinding gleam of jade-green light. It belonged to Qing Yun Sect, Long Shou Valley disciple Lin JingYu’s Dragon Slayer Sword.

This young man who had never displayed his skills, right now suddenly became a dazzling icon. The Dragon Slayer Sword gave a thundering sharp whistle, the incredible jade- coloured light exploded up towards the sky, bathing its owner in it. Without any hesitation, he charged right into the Chang Shen Hall group of people.

That was the most splendid stream of light in the night, his eyes were cold but deep inside, a fervid zeal seemed to burn, as if thirsting for the other party’s fresh blood to be shed by the cold lights.

The first several Chang Shen Hall disciples, after the jade- green light rays swept past them, became a spray of blood rain.

The crowd was in a uproar and gushed forward to besiege him but Lin JingYu seemed not to even care about the attackers coming from behind his back and only looked forward, charging into the densest area, killing wherever he went and he could not be stopped. Everywhere he went, blood and fleshes splattered. The rest of the Good Faction disciples caught up after a short while and each wielded their magical weapons and fought in close combat with the Chang Shen Hall men.

In the chaotic battle, Xiao YiCai who was shocked by Lin JingYu’s actions, shouted loudly, “Lin junior brother, be careful……”

Just that Lin JingYu seemed not to be able to listen to anyone’s warning, he who at this very moment right now, had already became a totally different person from that youth who was learning the craft at Long Shou Valley. Holding the Dragon Slayer Sword in his hand, his body turned into an evil-killing light!

Countless of Chang Shen Hall men surrounded him completely, even with that he never turned his head back once. The Dragon Slayer Sword glistened while been brandishing in the night, numerous fresh blood sprayed up and spilled, staining his robes. Until the end, countless Chang Shen Hall men pursued after him but yet nobody dared to block his way. Everyone fled for their lives and did not dared to face this mad-like monster.

Until, a piercing sound [Wu wu] was heard coming from deep inside the darkness, a white light flashed past and a circular object, spinning and descending at a great speed from the sky, aiming for Lin JingYu’s head.

Lin JingYu cried out loudly, the Dragon Slayer Sword which was swishing in the air and fighting with the enemies, immediately flew back. He grabbed it with one hand and pierced it towards the sky, instantly the jade-green light swelled immensely and he leapt and soared into the air. Unexpectedly that disc thing became even more powerful, black and white lights shone out in turns and actually forcibly suppressed the resplendent jade-green light.

For the first time Lin JingYu’s face turned pale. He knew that a master had finally emerged from Chang Shen Hall and although this unknown magical weapon looked to be unremarkable but it totally disregarded the Dragon Slayer Sword’s unparalleled sharp sword light rays, carrying with it a force of extreme pressure and rapidly pushing down. With the increasing pressure from that disc, Lin JingYu’s face became paler and paler. Suddenly he bellowed and flew out inverted, only a split second later, that disc slammed down with a boom, creating a large pit of one zhang circumference at where he stood previously. The ruthlessness of this method also showed the person’s extreme indignant.

Lin JingYu’s body flew out inverted, the Qing Yun Sect disciples who were behind saw it and went up to catch but because Lin JingYu had charged recklessly into the midst of Chang Shen Hall group, surrounding him were all enemies. Before he could land and stand properly, he already felt severe pain and the next moment, three, four sharp blades were already hacking into his body.

Fresh blood spurted like fountain, bright and vivid, it dyed his robes red. The corner of Lin JingYu’s eyes twitched but he did not have any fear or intention to withdraw. The Dragon Slayer Sword in his spilled blood became even more brilliant, wheeling around his body and immediately wails and screams were heard, three, four Chang Shen Hall disciples stumbled back, with limbs severed and vomiting blood, it seemed like they would not be able to survive. Everyone saw that this young man had such courage and for a moment transfixed by him.

In a short while the Good Faction men charged over, Chang Shen Hall disciples did not dare to continued fighting and retreated back. And at the place where Lin JingYu was beaten, YuYang Zi emerged slowly, his expression savage, where had the celestial demeanour usually seen went to?

By this time, the fightings had gradually stopped. Chang Shen Hall disciples slowly retreated behind YuYang Zi while the Good Faction young disciples also came together. Xiao YiCai, Fa Xiang, Li Xun etc stood at the front, Small Bamboo Valley WenMin walked over and helped Lin JingYu to bandage his wounds and to stop the bleeding, at the same time she quietly said, “You this young man, why do you not treasure your life at all?”

Lin JingYu only saw WenMin a few times at TongTian Peak at that time and was surprised to receive her care suddenly. In the past ten years, he trained under the mysterious old man inside TongTian Peak Founders Ancestral Hall and with only his own aptitude and stoic perseverance, he finally made a breakthrough. And today his exhibition of his skills shocked everyone, causing everyone to view him in a different light.

But when this stranger senior sister asked him this question, suddenly he did not know how to answer and could not reply. WenMin had always been kind-hearted and when she saw that half of his body was bleeding, she took advantage of the respite from fighting and offered her help with his wounds. But due to the volatile situation, she roughly dressed up his wounds and then quietly said, “There will be another battle later, you must be careful.”

Lin JingYu felt a warm feeling in his heart, nodded and said quietly, “Thank you Senior sister.”

WenMin smiled and walked to stand beside Lu XueQi, Lu XueQi glanced over at Lin JingYu, her face expressionless but a flash of light seemed to brush past in her eyes.

Over at Chang Shen Hall side, YuYang Zi’s face was cold and stern, his only hand held on so tightly onto the magical weapon, ‘Yin Yang Mirror’, that his veins popped out. The raid on Good Faction was instead foiled by the Good Faction juniors, he did a cursory glance and saw that in only a short amount of effort, Chang Shen Hall had already lost one- third of its men but over at Good Faction side, almost no damage was sustained. Lin JingYu seemed to be the only one with the most severe wounds after being slashed by several swords.

Li Xun looked at the the Evil Faction Chang Shen Hall group, his eyes shone and he suddenly lowered his voice and said, “Xiao senior brother really has divine foresight, my humble self is impressed!”

Xiao YiCai smiled and said, “It is just coincidental. There will still be many occasions in the future to rely on Li senior brother for support, I hope that Li senior brother will favour me with your guidance.”

Li Xun indeed dare not look down on Xiao YiCai anymore, he nodded and said, “You’re too kind.”

Fa Xiang instead looked at the injured Lin JingYu for a while and seemed to have the intention to go over and convey his concern but eventually suppressed it. Ever since Qing Yun Sect and Tian Yin Temple travelling parties met up, both parties got along quite well but only Qing Yun Sect Lin JingYu from the start till the end, was still extremely cold towards Tian Yin Temple monks. As for the underlying reason, no doubt everyone knew it in their hearts, just that nobody wished to open up the old wounds so all along, instead it was the Tian Yin Temple monks who intentionally or unintentionally avoided Lin JingYu.

But since Lin JingYu was injured, Fa Xiang was still concerned. He turned around and spoke softly to Xiao YiCai, “Xiao  senior  brother,  I  hope  your  sect  junior  brother  Lin JingYu’s wounds is not serious?”

Xiao YiCai already saw WenMin dressing up Lin JingYu’s wounds and turned to look at WenMin, WenMin understood and nodded slightly. Xiao YiCai was relieved and turned to Fa Xiang, “Lin junior brother’s injuries are nothing serious, Fa Xiang senior brother don’t have to worry.”

Fa Xiang bowed and pressed his palms together, chanted softly. Xiao YiCai took a deep breath and looked ahead, he spoke in a clear loud voice, “YuYang Zi senior, to say you are considered a senior master too and Chang Shen Hall ranks as one of the four big powerful sects of Evil Faction, how can you use this kind of dirty tactic and not be afraid that you will be the laughing stock of the world?”

YuYang Zi furiously said, “You this kind of so-called proper Good Faction also did the same and ambushed us, and still dare to have the audacity to speak loudly here without any shame?”

Xiao YiCai’s expression remained unchanged and awe- inspiringly righteously replied, “We are all young and junior, furthermore we are in unfamiliar territory, of course we have to be on guard against treacherous and evil villains who are furtively doing us harm. Unexpectedly we didn’t expect the person to show up would be        he he, he he!”

Xiao YiCai was far younger than YuYang Zi but because of his sharp tongue, in a few words he had already made YuYang Zi fumed with anger. He bellowed once and lunged, the Chang Shen Hall men who were behind him saw their sect leader made the attack and also charged forward. Xiao YiCai and the rest of the exceptional skilled disciples took up YuYang Zi while the rest began their battles again.

Actually, with YuYang Zi’s cultivated practised magnanimity, he would not be that easily provoked by Xiao YiCai but when he saw that the only bit of strength left in Chang Shen Hall was also spent considerably in vain, he was extremely pained and incensed; and of all things Xiao YiCai’s words insulted him without using vulgarity, every word was sarcastic. Although MengJi who was beside him, still maintained some sanity and wanted to persuade him but YuYang Zi had already charged out.

To be able to retain his position of Chang Shen Hall Sect leader for over a hundred years, YuYang Zi undeniably had genuine talent. Even after losing his left arm at Qing Yun battle ten years ago and suffering great loss of his skills, fighting against one person, Xiao YiCai, he was absolutely not his match.

But of course, this kind of one-to-one duel would never happen. Xiao YiCai in the middle, Fa Xiang at left and Li Xun at right, these three were the most outstanding among the Good Faction younger generation cut off YuYang Zi and fought him. YuYang Zi gathered his divine might, using his only arm, he fought as one against three. The magical weapon, Yin Yang Mirror, in his hand was fantastic and enigmatic, one moment it was black and the next white, emitting bursts of mysterious lights. The magical weapons’ lights from Xiao YiCai and the rest were either blocked by this rare mirror or being pulled aside by YuYang Zi, nobody could get near him at all.

And furthermore, when the white side of the Yin Yang Mirror flipped over, it would actually reflect the magical weapons back at their casters. The three of them initially did not expect that this magical weapon would actually have such ingenious ability and nearly suffered heavy injuries. Li Xun’s left arm was scratched once by his own magical weapon, ‘Jiu Yang Ruler’ and almost became another YuYang Zi, one armed man.

The three of them thus did not dare to be careless and retaliated carefully. YuYang Zi as one against three and facing these three outstanding talents from Good Faction, he could actually still maintained the upper hand, his skills and abilities were really exceptional. Only that although YuYang Zi he himself was powerful but those men under him were far from it. Facing this group of Good Faction talented disciples and not a single disciple’s magical weapon was not exceptional, although Chang Shen Hall numbers were much more but slowly they were losing.

Other than Tian Yin Temple monks whose attacks were much kinder, Qing Yun Sect and the Evil Faction had enmity as deep as the sea and its disciples’ attacks were all lethal, FenXiang Valley was no different from Qing Yun. As YuYang Zi was being pestered by those three, although he had the upper hand but he was unable to get away, and while battling, he looked around and saw that other than MengJi and a few that were making an effort to hold up, the rest of the ordinary disciples had already lost their fighting will and the casualties were more than half.

MengJi, with one stroke, forced the FenXiang Valley disciple in front of him to back up, anxiety showed on his face, he loudly called out to YuYang Zi, “Sect leader!”

YuYang Zi gritted his teeth, revealing his extreme indignant but in the end he knew the game was as good as lost, if he were to fight on, even the last reserve of Chang Shen Hall would also be spent here. He had no alternative but to loudly called out, “Everyone retreat first, I will bring up the rear!”

Once these words were said, Chang Shen Hall disciples started to flee into the darkness behind. Xiao YiCai and the rest in Good Faction were extremely sharp-witted and attacked at the same time, the various magical weapons’ remarkable lights flashed and one after another immediately rushed at YuYang Zi.

YuYang Zi gave a bellow of rage and did not even avoid, the Yin Yang Mirror spinned urgently in the air and charged up. [Dang] and deflected the magical weapon, ‘Reincarnation Pearl’. It instantly turned from black to white and Xiao YiCai body’s shook. The Seven-Star Sword suddenly lost control while executing its strokes in the air and turned back to attack, the force swift and fierce and Xiao YiCai for a moment fumbled. He quickly chanted the formula and managed to take back the control of the Seven-Star Sword again.

Just with this moment of effort, YuYang Zi had already pushed the attacking Li Xun’s Jiu Yang Ruler aside and the three Good Faction offensive came to a standstill. But YuYang Zi did not take the opportunity to escape and instead leapt up and landed among the crowd.

The other Good Faction disciples were chasing after the escaping Chang Shen Hall disciples and were caught unaware by YuYang Zi. [Teng teng] a few sounds and he had seriously injured several men, a few were also hit by the Yin Yang Mirror’s heavy force and flew out, landing among the darkness and then suddenly cried out. After a short while there were no more cries, most probably they had landed at the bottomless pit and ended their lives that way.

In the darkness, only YuYang Zi moved freely and showing his contempt. He weaved in and out, killing people as he went and covering Chang Shen Hall disciples who were fleeing. Wherever he went, the Yin Yang Mirror’s black and white light rays would be in front of him and the Good Faction disciples scattered to avoid it. Its power and might was really considered unexcelled in the world.

And at far away, the few indistinct figures who were standing still for a long while, were also concentrating on the situation, especially fixing an unwavering stare at that YuYang Zi, who was displaying his martial prowess. With the attack by YuYang Zi, Chang Shen Hall disciples immediately felt the pressure lifted and in a flash half evacuated, leaving only the bodies on the ground. YuYang Zi saw it and felt distressed.

But at this moment, Good Faction Xiao YiCai and the rest had already caught up and with Qing Yun Sect Song Daren, Zeng ShuShu, WenMin, Tian Yin Temple Fa Shan, FenXiang Valley YanHong, a total of eight, took out their magical weapons and surrounded YuYang Zi.

YuYang Zi gave a sharp howl, the killings aroused his excitement and one by one, the savage sides of his character were brought out. He did not have any slightest sign of fear, the Yin Yang Mirror spinned and danced, shielding left and deflecting right, drawing the counter-offensive, fighting with these eight people, from the ground to the sky, and again from the sky back to the ground.

Just that after all there were more people on Good Faction side and in addition their skills were above-average. Even how remarkable YuYang Zi’s skills were, he still could not beat the crowd and slowly, the Yin Yang Mirror was being subdued. The eight people from Good Faction leapt and flew, their teamwork gradually gained chemistry and although it did not look right that these eight people were attacking one but they only had to add a sentence in their hearts that this was one of the big evil monster of the extremely vicious Evil Faction and they would feel justified. Every stroke was lethal and aiming for the vital points.

But YuYang Zi with several hundred years of painstaking cultivated skills, how would he be someone to be trifled with, he placed himself under the blades’ shadows and even though he was slowly losing the strength to counter back and the besieging pressures were increasing but no matter how intensely Xiao YiCai and the rest attacked, they still could not get pass his Yin Yang Mirror with the two black and white mystical lights.

Besides, his body moved, secretly migrating the fighting group towards the side, if not for Xiao YiCai who was really sharp-witted and suddenly remembered how his own sect disciples had perished just now, he loudly shouted, “Be careful not to sink into the marsh!” This then reminded everyone and they realized after a moment that they were been brought on the sly to the side of the bottomless pit and if they were not careful, one of them would sink in. it was really a very close shave.

In the chaos, YuYang Zi still had this degree of mindfulness and foresight, these practical experiences were naturally incomparable to these juniors.

However even how experience he was and how exceptional his skills were, facing this group of highly skilled, talented and holding remarkable magical weapons, and also with such foresight and composed young experts, he was also helpless.

These eight people led by Xiao YiCai, attacked at the same time. Immediately numerous extraordinary lights continuously hit onto YuYang Zi’s Yin Yang Mirror. YuYang Zi’s entire body shook and he felt immense pressure, like the power of a tidal wave, again and again. The opponents could rest slightly after attacking but he could only keep on defending, unable to retaliate. After deflecting more than ten, twenty times, he finally could not withstand and had not choice but to move back, gradually moving away from the bottomless pit. After leaving the bottomless pit, the Good Faction were immediately relieved and felt unimpeded to beset YuYang Zi.

YuYang Zi gradually felt fatigued, from the corner of his eyes he saw that most of his Chang Shen Hall disciples had already evacuated and MengJi and a few were on their way to his aid but beside him, even more Good Faction disciples were enclosing in.

YuYang Zi felt a moment of panic, he knew if these twenty, thirty people besieged him, even how high his ability was, he would also have to give up his life here. Immediately he deflected Zeng ShuShu’s XuanYuan Sword strike and loudly cried out, “All of you quickly leave!”

MengJi and the rest were shocked and then turned and fled. YuYang Zi did not wish to prolong the fight, the Yin Yang Mirror in his hand flashed and flashed, suddenly the white light flared, its resplendence dazzling to the eyes and in an instant retaliated against the five magical weapons and reflected them back to its casters. The Good Faction did not expect that he still would have such ability and immediately there were some disorder and a small opening opened up in the formation.

How could YuYang Zi stood by, immediately his body turned into a light and dashed forward like lighting.

His figure had just only moved and the next moment he was already at that opening and looked to be getting away. Xiao YiCai and the rest were slightly far behind him and were unable to catch up in in time.

But then a jade-green light shone at once, resplendent and dazzling, the Dragon Slayer Sword arrived with a vengeance and chopped down, looking at this impetus, it looked like it would chop YuYang Zi into two.

YuYang Zi could not defend in time but at this moment of life and death, he was able to force himself to shift three degrees to the right. That jade-green light chopped down beside him, his sleeve fluttered, turned into flecks by this jade-green light. YuYang Zi had already lost his left arm and it had instead gain an advantage for him at this moment. If not, it was not known if he could maintain his conscious under such intense pain but he felt a burning pain on his left body, most likely caused by this Dragon Slayer Sword’s baleful jade-green light. His body continued to move and his right hand had already flipped, the Yin Yang Mirror immediately flashed with black and white lights and shot out across. A muffled groan was heard and Lin JingYu staggered backwards, all of his dressed wounds on his body split opened, spurting out fresh blood again!

Right now the road ahead was cleared of Good Faction disciples, YuYang Zi was delighted and about to exert his powers, at the same time he cursed in his heart, today the humiliation suffered at these Good Faction juniors, he would pay it back a hundred times in the future.

In the death marsh, suddenly a loud explosion was heard!

Everyone turned to look! A resplendent dazzling blue light spanned across the horizon, the dark clouds in the sky like ink, rotated around at a fast speed, like a ferocious swirl. Lu XueQi standing in mid-air, a piercingly cold gale, her unparalleled appearance like ice and snow!

In the darkness far away, a figure seemed to tremble slightly.

That beautiful girl floated in the air, walked seven steps, her lips chanting and instantly lightning flashed chaotically in the horizon, like a gigantic snake traversing through clouds.

YuYang Zi’s countenance changed greatly but without waiting for his reaction, Lu XueQi’s ‘Celestial sword Maneuvering the Thunder Formula’ was already ignited, the enormous lightning in the horizon suddenly fell and struck onto Tian Ya Sword’s tip. Blue light flared and instantly lighted up half of the gloomy sky.

And right now, Lu XueQi did not feel the same strain when she competed with Zhang Xiao Fan, lighting filled the sky, reflecting deep in her eyes, as if things had gone back to the past! The enormous light beam, refracted and descended. It had not even reach the ground where the Good Faction disciples nearby had already started to withdraw. Within the perimeter of several zhangs from YuYang Zi, the gale howled and the trees, water plants were all uprooted, its might was staggering!

YuYang Zi gave a long howl, all of his clothes gathered up, the Yin Yang Mirror rose and suspended in the air, radiating black and white lights and then suddenly became one, evidently YuYang Zi after the intensive battle, was using all of his energy to make the final battle!

[Boom……!]

The enormous light beam hit onto YuYang Zi’s Yin Yang Mirror with an impact and YuYang Zi’s body immediately sunk into the earth by one cun, agony flashed past YuYang Zi’s face but Lu XueQi in the air too suddenly shook greatly and turned pale by a few degrees.

But the enormous light beam did not reduce or withdraw, flowing ceaselessly from Tian Ya Celestial Sword, the electric rays flashed crazily and struck down fiercely. YuYang Zi resisted with his one arm, looking more and more awful, if not for the fact that the ‘Celestial sword Maneuvering the Thunder Formula’’s force was too powerful and the Good Faction disciples could not intervene, else right now if hundreds and thousands of swords attacked at the same time, YuYang Zi would immediately turn into a meat pulp.

YuYang Zi’s eyes were full of hatred, the next moment his face muscles twitched for a while and he bit savagely on his tongue and spat a mouthful of blood at the Yin Yang Mirror. Suddenly the Yin Yang Mirror immediately gave forth a burst of light and forcefully pushed back that enormous beam of light from Lu XueQi.

Xiao YiCai and the rest felt that something was not right and pounced over but YuYang Zi giving a long howl, flew up and the Yin Yang Mirror powerfully swept behind him, stimulated by his blood, it's divine light surged violently. Xiao YiCai and the rest did not dare to meet it directly and everyone of them kept out of its way..

Although this move by YuYang Zi was formidable but after this intense battle and with the usage of such savage and strange art, his internal energy was already severely injured and even his steps were staggering. But this person was really amazing, under such circumstances he could still mustered a breath of energy and flew out, disappearing eventually into the darkness.

Li Xun and the rest wanted to pursue but Xiao YiCai weighed the pros and cons and loudly stopped them, “Don’t pursue a beaten enemy, there are dangers everywhere in this death marsh and we are on unfamiliar ground, our priority is to be careful!”

Although Li Xun was not willing to but tonight Xiao YiCai had predicted like a prophet and he really felt admiration from his heart so eventually he stopped.

This night, this battle, finally concluded with Evil Faction Chang Shen Hall’s crushing defeat.

Just that between the Good and Evil open factional fight, the Good Faction also suffered losses but compared to Chang Shen Hall, it was way much better.

Chapter 94 - End of the road

The night as black as ink, cold and harsh.

Suddenly, a light flashed past in the darkness, approaching at an incredible speed but looking at it from afar, that light seemed to be wavering and unstable.

On the ground MengJi was pacing worriedly, behind him were the remnants of Chang Shen Hall disciples, a cursory glance revealed roughly fifty or sixty people, each one of them looking terrified, watching the road they had came from.

Until they saw that light.

Immediately it caused a stir among the ordinary disciples and quite a few cheered. MengJi instead looked at that figure that was flying in and the anxiety on his face increased.

That light came near and stopped, YuYang Zi floated to the ground and immediately everyone cried out, “Sect leader, sect leader”. Unexpectedly without waiting for the crowd to reach him, YuYang Zi’s face paled and [Wa] a sound, threw out a big mouthful of blood, dyed the front of his robe red.

Not one did not change their countenance.

MengJi rushed up and supported YuYang Zi, he felt coldness and noticed that YuYang Zi’s entire body was cold, extremely abnormal. And underneath his clothes, his body was still shivering. MengJi was greatly alarmed.

YuYang Zi felt MengJi’s shock and turned to look from left to right. He saw the terror on his disciples’ faces and knew they were already highly strung with low morales, if even himself would not survive then immediately it would turn into a scene of the rats deserting a sinking ship.

Immediately he forced his spirits up, suppressed the turbulent blood and energy in his chest and in a clear and loud voice said, “All of you don’t have to panic, I had just used my internal energy to force the clotted blood out of my body so I am alright.” YuYang Zi had always been like a deity in the Chang Shen Hall disciples’ hearts, when he spoke those words it had an effect and many of the sect disciples’ expressions became relaxed and obviously looked much relieved.

Although YuYang Zi’s words were such but his countenance was really terrible, as white as a paper and on the left hand side of his body, there was a patch of blood, even his sleeve was missing, looking extremely dishevelled. Luckily currently it was late in the night, thick with darkness, if it was in the day, with hundred over pair of eyes watching, they would know immediately that he was already an arrow at the end of its flight.

MengJi frowned tightly and turned back to speak to the Chang Shen Hall disciples, “There is nothing serious with Sect leader, all of you first take a rest and we will plan again the next morning!”

Everyone gradually dispersed and until Chang Shen Hall men were far away, MengJi felt YuYang Zi’s body suddenly sank and quickly supported him, looking at YuYang Zi, he felt his heart was almost at his throat. There was not a trace of blood on YuYang Zi’s face and he was panting heavily. If not for his support, YuYang Zi could barely stand.

MengJi quickly helped YuYang Zi to sit down. YuYang Zi meditated on the ground and slowly breathed in and out. After a long while, his breathing then gradually calmed down and he looked slightly better. Mengji stayed beside YuYang Zi, looking worried and anxious, at the same time kept glancing at his surroundings.

Everywhere was dark, other than the few campfires by Chang Shen Hall disciples nearby, nobody could see further than their fingers.

The night was malevolent, as if it was too, spying on this misfortunate precarious Chang Shen Hall sect.

YuYang Zi slowly opened his eyes.

MengJi immediately spoke in a low voice, “Sect head, are you alright?” YuYang Zi laughed bitterly, in his eyes naturally he would not treat MengJi the same as the ordinary disciples. Sighing softly he said, “I was besieged by those bastards and used up a lot of my energy, and at the end unexpectedly there was one girl who used Qing Yun Sect’s ‘Celestial sword Maneuvering the Thunder Formula’ ”

MengJi was shocked and said, “There is such a master within them?”

YuYang Zi hatefully said, “Not even that, I fought with several and at least three or four had exceptional aptitude and until the end, I had to use ‘Blood Curse’ to force my way out!”

MengJi’s face turned pale again. Blood Curse was Chang Shen Hall’s well-known genuine curse, it allowed your skills to increase exponentially instantly but the backlash was extremely terrible, needless to say it would greatly decrease your skills but it would also shorten your lifespan.

After being speechless for a moment, MengJi recovered his senses and spoke to YuYang Zi, “Sect leader, then what shall we do now?” YuYang Zi’s face was solemn, after remaining silent, he hatefully said, “Now that the arrow is already on the bow, we cannot not shoot. Once it is daylight, we will immediately move deeper into the marsh, into the ‘inner marsh’ to find the treasure!”

MengJi’s countenance changed greatly, he exclaimed, “Sect leader……”

YuYang Zi waved his hand and interrupted MengJi’s words, he said, “I know what you wanted to say but if today we leave the death marsh, sooner or later we will also die at the other three sects’ hands, might as well take this gamble!”

MengJi stared dumbfoundedly at YuYang Zi and saw the malevolent expression on his pale face thickened. He guessed that it was already too late to persuade him and could only slowly stood up, faced the sky and sighed softly in his heart.

The enormous death marsh which was situated at southwest of the vast Divine Land, with a circumference of eight thousand miles, stretching forever. Since ancient times human were rarely sighted. And in it, it was segmented into two kinds of world; one was the outer marsh which was where the main crowd was at, it belonged to the periphery of the death marsh and occupied around seventy to eighty percent of the lands. In the outer marsh it was covered densely with the bottomless pit and poisonous insects but for the cultivated skilled practitioners, these were not a concern and they only had to tread carefully to be fine.

And in the innermost part of the death marsh, there was still a mysterious area. It was a place where all year round, highly toxic methane gas surrounded it and nobody ever knew what it looked like. Even if occasionally some highly skilled master ventured in, nobody heard from them anymore, hence both Good and Evil faction generally did not wish to enter without careful consideration.

And these past few days, numerous people had searched for the treasure in the death marsh but to no avail. YuYang Zi had long expected that this treasure would be in the unpredictable perilous inner mash. If the situation was not so urgent, YuYang Zi would probably have to consider many things and at least prepared long in advance but because of the circumstances today, he himself like a compulsive gambler, could not afford to consider anymore. The night breeze blew over.

Chang Shen Hall disciples who were exhausted from the day of fighting were all asleep, the campfires on the ground were also dying. YuYang Zi was still meditating with his head low, MengJi who was standing beside him earlier on had most probably went over to join the other disciples.

Suddenly YuYang Zi’s eyes snapped opened, his glare fierce but with a trace of fear and looked around at his surroundings.

The night saturated with darkness.

The muscles in his body suddenly tensed up and then he slowly stood up.

His only hand clutching tight onto the Yin Yang Mirror.

The bone-chilling wind blew onto his body, the coldness seemed to seep into his heart. In the recesses of the darkness, footstep sounds were gradually heard.

[Pa, pa, pa ……]

[Sha, sha, sha……]

[Hua, hua, hua……]

As if with different rhythms, at the same time, from three directions. soft yet neat footsteps sounds walking and gathered towards Chang Shen Hall disciples.

YuYang Zi’s face, for the first time displayed despair, he suddenly shouted loudly, “Bastards, better get out here!”

This loud shout, forceful but indistinctly insufficient stamina. However it still reverberated far in this marsh, immediately the Chang Shen Hall disciples woke up with a start and within the cries of fears they quickly got up and swiftly gathered together.

YuYang Zi’s expression was unpredictable, his heart had sank deep down. He turned left and right and suddenly looked stunned, in a loud voice he said, “MengJi, where has he gone?”

Chang Shen Hall disciples looked at each other and for a long while nobody answered, obviously nobody knew.

YuYang Zi felt a burst of energy coming up, his head felt dizzy and almost splatted out another mouthful of blood.

And at this moment, suddenly a calm male voice was heard from the darkness, harmoniously said, “YuYang Zi Teacher Uncle, are you looking for this person?”

[Wu] a sound and something flew out from the darkness in front Chang Shen Hall, forming an arc and then landed in front of YuYang Zi and the disciples, rolled a few times. Someone took a fire and viewed it under the light, suddenly a gasp of shock was heard. This was the head of MengJi who was just here earlier on, speaking to them. Both of his eyes were opened wide in shock which suggested most probably he had died unjustly.

YuYang Zi took a deep breath, moving his sight from his last capable disciple’s head to the front and stared. He coldly said, “Qin WuYan?”

A young man slowly walked out, his face slightly pale but a warm smile was on his face, he said, “Teacher Uncle’s foresight really surpassed the rest, nephew is standing in the darkness yet you still know it’s me, admirable, admirable!”

YuYang Zi’s expression could not be uglier, he coldly said, “You are really something but the way how your Wan Du Clan treats your fellow Holy Sect members, isn’t your that old poison monster teacher of yours afraid that Wisdom King will banished him to Hell after his death?”

“Ah!”  Qin WuYan pressed a hand to his chest and made a startled posture but on his face, he was still smiling peacefully without any trace of fear. He turned and speak to the other side, “Jin Fairy, such a heinous crime, our Wan Du Clan dare not shoulder it by ourselves. You still don’t want to show yourself?”

YuYang Zi’s countenance changed greatly, he abruptly turned and sure enough, a charming lady slowly walked out from the darkness on the left side, looking extremely flirtatious. In this dark night, the moment she walked out, immediately it seemed to brighten up a few degrees.

“Jin PingEr!”

YuYang Zi seemed to be gnashing his teeth while calling out these three words.

Jin PingEr smiled and said, “YuYang Zi Teacher Uncle, long time not seen, have you been well?”

This greeting, in reality was more malicious than the most vicious profanity, YuYang Zi stared hard at her and coldly said, “Chang Shen Hall and HeHuan Sect have always mind their own business, why are you with those people from Wan Du Clan hitting a person when he is down?”

Jin PingEr smiled and said, “You are really forgetful when you are old. Several days ago, you received news that I have arrived and worried that our HeHuan Sect will steal your treasure so you ordered your men to kill Wan Du Clan’s disciples and stole their special poison ‘Black Toad Powder’. You then used the poison to kill four of our HeHuan Sect disciples at north of Big Wang village, is there such thing?”

YuYang Zi was shocked and he exclaimed, “How do you……” and immediately stopped halfway.

Jin PingEr blandly said, “Teacher Uncle you have planned far ahead to incite fights between HeHuan Sect and Wan Du Clan, it is indeed brilliant. But thanks to Qin WuYan Qin senior brother’s reasoning and his detailed investigations, the truth was finally revealed. If not we would really be in trouble because of you!”

Qin WuYan smiled and said, “Fairy you flatter me, it is my humble self honour to be able to do something for fairy.” YuYang Zi’s thoughts turned quickly, the situation was really precarious. Although these two were young but for the past few years their reputations had already shocked the world and definitely not to be taken lightly. Besides, behind them there were many human figures, although they did not reveal themselves but most likely large groups of Wan Du Clan, HeHuan Sect men were lying in ambush in the dark. If it was really such then most likely he would really be in trouble tonight.

YuYang Zi was trying to think of a way out when suddenly he heard a stir among his disciples behind him, as if they had seen something horrible and quickly turned around. He immediately blanched. On the only route of retreat behind him, from the darkness a nonchalant Ghost Li walked out unhurriedly.

There and then YuYang Zi’s mind turned and finally understood, in the end he gave up all hope and smiled bitterly, “So the three sects have already agreed to deal with my Chang Shen Hall together. It is so ludicrous that I still wanted to sow discord among you, the mantis stalk the cicada, all of you the oriole behind!” Qin WuYan smiled and suddenly said in a clear and loud voice, “Chang Shen Hall disciples, all of you also saw it too. Tonight Chang Shen Hall has come to its end, if you are smart you should quickly come over to our side and you can still keep your life.”

After his words, behind Qin WuYan, Jin PingEr and Ghost Li, there was a movement of people, countless people holding their magical weapons gushed out from the darkness and enclosed the group with YuYang Zi as head.

The night breeze brushed past, the end of a hero!

All of the Chang Shen Hall disciples looked at one other, anyone could tell that even if they fought on, they would still not survive. Besieged by the three powerful Evil Sect sects and they themselves were also at the end of their tether, how could they survive.

YuYang Zi cried out in his heart and as expected, not even a moment had passed when someone shouted loudly, “I surrender, I surrender……” And ran towards Qin WuYan.

With somebody taking the lead, immediately there was a commotion and in a short while almost all of them ran out, after all nobody wished to wait for death. YuYang Zi was infuriated and shocked, he continuously shouted for them to stop but at this life and death moment, who would bother about him. More and more Chang Shen Hall disciples ran out and the situation became out of control.

YuYang Zi was enraged, his eyes revealed an ominous glint. He gave a roar and jumped into the crowd, randomly grabbed one of the Chang Shen Hall disciple and wanted to kill one to make an example. Everyone saw the scene and cried out, and instead they bolt even faster, only that unlucky guy in his hands was so frightened that his entire body slacked.

YuYang Zi’s look was savage, looking by at his several hundred years of Chang Shen Hall sect foundation was going to be destroyed in one day, his chest almost exploded with rage. He exerted strength and almost strangled that disciple to death but then he saw that person was so terrified that he almost could not even wail. YuYang Zi looked at him and suddenly turned to look at his sect members who were running away from himself. Out of a sudden he felt downhearted and loosened his hand, that disciple dropped onto the ground.

That person got his life back and almost could not believe himself, he half rolled and half crawled and quickly got away, staying as far as he could from this person.

After a short while, YuYang Zi was the only person left all alone.

Ghost Li, Qin WuYan and Jin PingEr walked forward together.

The scene suddenly quietened down, YuYang Zi’s figure looked melancholy, he swept his gaze from Qin WuYan to Jin PingEr and then to Ghost Li, his lips moved and he suddenly said, “Forget it, forget it.”

Ghost Li and the rest were only about one zhang away from YuYang Zi and they stopped, forming a circle and enclosing YuYang Zi in it.

Jin PingEr was the first to speak, she smiled and said, “What is it, YuYang Zi Teacher Uncle, what do you still want to say?”

Hatred flashed past YuYang Zi eyes but his face looked indifferent, after a moment he unhurriedly said, “Now that I am at the end of my tether, Chang Shen Hall’s name will end today.”

Qin WuYan clapped his hand and said, “Uncle Teacher really has good judgement!”

YuYang Zi’s body trembled, with his status yet today he had to suffer these juniors’ humiliations, he really would rather be dead but instead he bore it down and unhurriedly said, “Since I have nowhere to go, alright I will also surrender to you. With my skills, it will be of at least some use to all of you right?”

When he spoke these words, Qin WuYan and Jin PingEr’s expressions immediately changed. YuYang Zi’s skills was comparable to Ghost King, God of Poison, especially tonight he as one dealt with almost ten outstanding talents from Good Faction, not one of the Evil Faction members was not in awe while spying on him in the darkness.

If not for the fact that they saw Chang Shen Hall battling with the Good Faction first, it might not be that easy to get rid of Chang Shen Hall. And if they could get YuYang Zi to serve them, not to mention he would be a strong aid but in the future internal fights within Evil Faction, they would have a very big advantage.

Once they thought of this, Qin WuYan and Jin PingEr were all extremely ambitious people and hesitation appeared on their faces.

And at this moment, Ghost Li who had remained silent all these while, said, “You have such high skills and have such an ambitious heart, furthermore your seniority is higher than us. If you were to come to our Ghost King Sect, I’m afraid in the future it will be you climbing over my head, this kind of thing, are you willing?” His tone was monotonous but his gaze was penetrating, sweeping coldly over YuYang Zi. YuYang Zi’s heart sank, Qin WuYan and Jin PingEr were such intelligent people, instantly they had already figured it out and smiles appeared on their faces.

But to YuYang Zi, it looked no different from demons.

“Teacher Uncle is really clever, until now you still have such ingenious method, admirable, admirable!”  Jin PingEr smiled sweetly but at the same time with this smile, at her right hand, purple light slowly lighted up.

Almost at the same time, Ghost Li’s Soul-Absorbing and Qin WuYan, took a step towards YuYang Zi.

The night breeze whistled, the chill penetrating deep into the bones.

YuYang Zi looked around, unable to appease the resentment in his heart, he gave a long howl, trampled upon and leapt up, determined to make the last struggle and absolutely would not wait for death!

Far away, the Good Faction side was finally settling down, this time Xiao YiCai even especially arranged a few juniors night guards, it showed how meticulous and cautious he was .

At a nearby isolated area, Lu XueQi sat quietly and not long, WenMin came back and sat beside her, her mouth pouting slightly and she whispered, “That Song Daren is really a big fool.”

Lu XueQi looked far and saw Song Daren sitting beside the fire, his face embarrassed. Not knowing what he and WenMin talked about but he kept sneaking glances over and looked worried. However he dare not come over.

Lu XueQi’s eyes seemed to smile and she told WenMin, “Senior sister, you have bullied him for so many years already. It is such a rare opportunity to come out, you best treat him better.” WenMin humphed, she had always been on good terms with Lu XueQi and never had to hide her feelings in front of this junior sister. She softly humphed and said, “That person is too honest. I really don’t know what happened for Tian BuYi Tian Teacher Uncle, I heard that in the past when he seduce...no, took SuRu Teacher from our Small Bamboo Valley to marry her, it was really down-right brilliant, why is it that the disciple under him will be so stupid……”

Lu XueQi smiled and looked away, after a while she suddenly lowered her voice and said, “You are right, their Big Bamboo Valley disciples, initially there were really many honest ones……”

Speaking until the end, without knowing why, her voice dropped. WenMin was stunned and looked at Lu XueQi. She suddenly sighed and gently patted her shoulder, said, “Don’t think too much.”

Lu XueQi did not speak and only bowed her head.

The night passed quietly. In the morning, Xiao YiCai gathered the rest together and discussed, “Now that Chang Shen Hall had suffered a great loss, temporarily we won’t have to deal with any external enemy. And after searching in this death marsh for so many days, we do not have a single clue on that treasure’s location. Various senior brothers, do you all have any suggestions?”

Fa Xiang remained quiet but Li Xun instead looked at Xiao YiCai and said, “Xiao senior brother, don’t tell me you wish to enter that extremely perilous inner marsh to investigate?”

Xiao YiCai was surprised and nodded, “That’s right. Since we are already here, we can’t give up halfway.”

Fa  Xiang  frowned  and  said,  “Although  what  Xiao  senior brother said makes sense but deep in the death marsh, the methane are all highly toxic and I heard that there are even many unimaginable demon beasts and poisonous insects, extremely hazardous. With our big group, it is really too dangerous.”

Xiao YiCai nodded and said, “That’s right, what Fa Xiang senior brother said was what I was worrying. Therefore I think, why don’t the majority of our junior brothers continue to search at the outer marsh while the few of us, including a few higher skilled disciples enter the inner marsh. What do the both of you think?”

Li Xun, after pondering for a long while, nodded and said, “We can only do this.”

Fa Xiang also nodded.

Once the discussion was over, each of them went back to select their members. Not long, from FenXiang Valley Li Xun, HongYan, Tian Yin Temple Fa Xiang, Fa Shan and as Qing Yun Sect had more members, other than Xiao YiCai, Lu XueQi and Zeng ShuShu were included, Lin JingYu who received all the attention last night, earnestly requested and since everyone now viewed him with increased respect, he was eventually included.

As such the eight of them, after arranging their own sect matters, with Xiao YiCai as the lead, took up their magical weapons and headed for the inner marsh. And on the other side of the marsh, looking at the peaceful marsh in front of them, Ghost Li and the other two stood side by side. Behind them were three rows of men, each formed their own group but facing each other, indistinctly maintaining vigilance.

Qin WuYan suddenly sighed and said, “YuYang Zi Teacher Uncle was a hero of his age and now that he had merged into the death marsh, it is also considered a worthy death?”

Ghost Li remained silent while Jin PingEr only smiled blandly but did not speak.

Qin WuYan did not mind, smiled and said, “So how is it, what do you both plan to do next?”

Jin PingEr looked at him and then suddenly turned, at the same  time  she  said,  “The  important  matter  has  already accomplished, naturally we shall go our different ways!”

Qin WuYan looked at her back figure and raised his voice, “Oh, don’t tell me Fairy intended to report back?” Jin PingEr even more did not reply and smiled indifferently, Qin WuYan said, “Then I will be in the inner marsh, waiting respectfully for Fairy. When it's time, I will like to request Jin Fairy to show mercy!”

Not knowing if Jin PingEr had heard and walk off by herself. After which the HeHuan Sect disciples also followed her and left.

Ghost Li looked at Qin WuYan, his eyes cold. Then he also turned and walked back to his Ghost King Sect group.

Qin WuYan stood where he was, smiling but his eyes also gradually turned cold.

Within the death marsh, the sky looked to be more sombre. The dark clouds packed densely, as if a much bigger storm seemed to be coming again.

Chapter 95 - Miasma

The wind blew over the death marsh.

The water plants rustled and ripples formed across the water surface, looking at it, the land seemed to go on and on. There were no signs of human habitation but it had a different type of beauty to it.

The Soul-Absorbing stick emitted faint dark-green light, the dim light moved and stopped in the mid-air. Ghost Li who was on top of it, clasped his hands behind and gazed ahead.

Today was one of the rare good weather in the death marsh, under the pleasantly warm sunlight, the usual gloomy atmosphere had also cleared up quite a lot but about ten zhangs in front of him, there was a stretch of thick grey haze-like enormous miasma, rising majestically and stretching far left and right. The miasma surged and twisted, reaching high into the sky, like no end to it.

This was, the boundary of one of the world’s most dangerous place, the innermost death marsh! The monkey, Xiao Hui, which was on his shoulder nervously made a low sound.

Ghost Li gently patted Xiao Hui and Xiao Hui quietened down, a pair of quick-witted eyes watched the miasma at the same time. At this moment, a sharp whistle was heard behind them, a light moving as fast as lightning came towards them.

Ghost Li’s figure moved, the Soul-Absorbing stick seemed to know his intention and unhurriedly turned over.

That light screeched to a stop in front of him, the person who was driving it was a young man with a straight pair of eyebrows stretching into his hairline, his eyes bright and sharp. In a flash he appeared in front of Ghost Li, bowed and said, “Vice leader, everything has already been arranged.”

Ghost Li did not ask him what it was, presumably he was well aware of it. He immediately nodded and said, “Good, I will leave here to you.” After speaking, he seemed to have thought of something and said, “YanHui.”

That man whose name was YanHui said, “What is it?”

Ghost Li took a look behind his back and said, “You have always been level-headed and I can always leave things to you but Kill-the-living Monk has a volatile temper and an extremely bloodthirsty nature. Now that all of the forces are gathered here in this death marsh, even more so we cannot be reckless, you must watch over him carefully.”

YanHui smiled and said, “Vice leader please be assured, even though Kill-the-living Monk consider everyone beneath him but he has never dare to go against your orders, I will also restrain him.”

Ghost Li nodded and was about to turn around when YanHui urgently said, “Vice leader, there is still one more thing.”

Ghost Li looked at him, YanHui hesitated for a moment, urged his weapon under his feet and came near Ghost Li, at the same time he lowered his voice, “I have just received a news from headquarters, Qing Long and Scarlet Bird of the Four Holy Envoys suddenly headed towards the direction of the death marsh several days ago.”

Ghost Li’s expression changed slightly but immediately his expression was back to normal, after a while he said, “Don’t announce this matter, all of you proceed as planned but keep an eye out for any changes.”

YanHui quietly said, “Yes.”

After speaking, he bowed to Ghost Li and left.

Ghost Li looked at his disappearing figure, slowly turned around and looked at that enormous miasma, after a long while he suddenly said, “Xiao Hui, let’s go.”

Xiao Hui at his shoulder, scratched its head and [Zi zi] called out twice. Ghost Li smiled, the Soul-Absorbing stick lighted up and one man and one monkey under the black-green light, flew into that enormous miasma.

x x x

Barely into the miasma, the surrounding lights disappeared in an instant. The bright sky which was there a moment ago was gone and only left a blanket of grey haze, one could only see not more than half a zhang in front.

Almost at the same time when Ghost Li entered the miasma, the Soul-Absorbing light surged, from the bottom it leapt up, forming a circle of light and tightly surrounded both Ghost Li and Xiao Hui, the surrounding miasma swirled and rolled but none could enter into this light circle.

Looking out from the inside, the clouds-like miasma following Ghost Li’s movement in the air, parted at the front and closed in at the back, from the top to the bottom, this grey miasma was everywhere. Once the flight started, he flew for a very long time, Ghost Li’s face became more and more solemn. This extremely toxic miasma wall was inside the death marsh, the most obvious boundary line between the inner marsh and the outer marsh. Although the bottomless pits were everywhere in the outer marsh but it would not be a problem if one was careful. However in this inner marsh, not to mention about other things, just this extremely toxic miasma for an ordinary person, even if the person held their breath but once their skin touched this toxic thing, in a short time the poisonous gas would penetrate in and kill them.

Although Ghost Li had already achieved great progress in his skills and no longer that disciple in Qing Yun Hill but he still dared not lower his guard against such toxic. Inside the death marsh, everywhere was dangerous particularly the inner marsh, a wildlands since ancient times with unpredictable dangers. He was on high alert and moved ahead carefully.

Just that this miasma wall was abnormally thick, after flying for another while he was still in it and surrounding him was still a sheet of grey. He felt alarmed, according to his estimates by now he would have already flew about hundred zhangs. It could be that in this harsh wildlands, covered by miasma for centuries, most probably whatever rare treasure that was born in it, in the next ten millions years nobody would know, let alone getting their hands on it.

While he was thinking it through in his heart, the Soul- Absorbing light multiplied and the surrounding grey miasma swirled ceaselessly, it also seemed to be increasing in speed too.

Suddenly Ghost Li’s heart jumped, deep inside the miasma in front of him, a blue light flashed but disappeared after that. That faint blue light somehow seemed to be familiar.

Almost at the same time the quiet swirling miasma increased in speed abruptly, like a pot of water, suddenly boiled.

Up down left and right, the grey miasma started to rotate crazily, numerous not big or small miasma vortexes appeared in front of him, each indistinctly had a force of suction, attacking him from all directions. Xiao Hui on Ghost Li’s shoulder did not make a single movement, quietly [Zi zi] and tightly clutching Ghost Li’s clothes. Ghost Li’s face was cold but his eyebrows were frowning deeply, suddenly with a snort, his body tensed up and within the Soul-Absorbing green light, a golden light suddenly soared up, together with the green light, illuminated each other. Immediately the surrounding miasma was forced back by a few degrees. At the same time, the Soul-Absorbing stick rose and burst forth, totally disregarding the danger in front and charged into the biggest miasma vortex.

x x x

Once within the enormous miasma vortex,he instantly felt the suction force increased greatly, the wind howled and poured in from all directions, all of it was the toxic miasma. Ghost Li’s face turned pale and he was sucked out by this natural enormous power into the sky.

The piercingly cold wind sucked unceasingly, agitating the clouds, like an infuriated wind deity. Ghost Li breathed deeply in the mid-air and suddenly pushed out both of his hands, the left hand making a mark, the right hand making a spell, gold and green lights shone on his face at the same time and started to flash after a while, rapidly integrating into one. If right now there was to be any Good Faction master around, most likely the person would be too stunned for words.

Qing Yun Sect Tai Ji Xuan Qing Way and Tian Yin Temple Great Brahman Wisdom had actually perfectly merged into one in this young man!

In the brilliant gold green lights the Soul-Absorbing stick immediately calmed down and did not sway with the wind anymore. It held still in the middle of the storm, Ghost Li focused and observed but the storm was becoming more and more violent, the gas clouds steamed and surged angrily. Looking ahead, everywhere was still grey.

Ghost Li hesitated for a while but eventually knew that in this extremely perilous place, he really should not stay long and steered his Soul-Absorbing stick to force his way out from the edge of this violent spinning storm, instantly his eyes and ears were severely assaulted, the sky turned and the ground spinned, eventually he managed to break out of this storm eye.

As he had used quite an amount of effort to break out so after leaving the vortex miasma, he flew out quite a distance away. Just that because of the confusion just now, although the miasma gradually settled down but Ghost Li was frowning, he was unsure if he had flew the wrong way.

When he was still hesitating, Xiao Hui suddenly shrieked in warning, Ghost Li was shocked and without even taking a look carefully, he subconsciously forced his body to shift three feet to the side.

[Hong!]

In the grey clouds a huge black thing rumbled past, sweeping past the place where he had just stood. A stench of bloody smell assaulted the nose, even the Soul-Absorbing circle of light could not totally block it, a faint smell of it drifted in.

Only a moment later, this extremely weird thing disappeared again into the miasma.

Ghost Li was stunned and his heart palpitated, in the instant that this huge thing appeared, it seemed to give him a whack to his head. The next moment, disregarding Xiao Hui’s screeches and even disregarding the great danger, he pursued.

Just that that strange monster disappeared in a flash. Although its body was huge beyond imagination but its speed was astonishing, in addition with this thick miasma wall, he was unable to see more than half a zhang. After a short while, he was unable to find that strange monster again.

Ghost Li frowned, slowly stopped and concentrated. Suddenly in front of him, a shout of surprise and thereafter more shouts followed. There were actually several people up ahead and he guessed that they scattered in fright when that monster passed through them.

Ghost Li was greatly excited and flew up, the clouds started to swirl and churn in front of him. Suddenly an angry shout and a voice, cold and clear, “Evil one!”

Before the words were completed, a swift and fierce blue light abruptly came from the side, aiming for his chest. Like a rainbow passing through the horizon, it also turned the surrounding miasma into a vivid blue. Ghost Li was taken aback, this person’s sword attack was ferocious, pressing forward with an indomitable will and granting no mercy at all. Just this stroke and it had revealed the person’s high skills and definitely could not be underestimated. In this critical moment, his body did not decrease his forward momentum and instead increased. Like lightning, he charged up into the sky to shake off the sword behind him and then retaliated.

Unexpectedly the origins of that person in the haze was not simple, both of them separated by miasma and unable to see clearly each other’s faces but just from the sword’s reaction, that blue light seemed to be alive, pursuing with a speed like lightning and like a shadow, the distance between them never decreased.

In an instant the surrounding miasma immediately churned, Ghost Li became a dim green light, a blue light following behind, both went up the Heaven and down to Earth, shifting and moving like lightning, in these layers of toxic gas, relentlessly pursuing, the clouds surged whenever they passed by. While being pursued, Ghost Li frowned tightly, the person behind him was extremely powerful and in a great haste he was unable to see what magical weapon she was using but the ferocity of that person’s murderous intention was evidently clear. It definitely would not from his own faction so most likely it was from Good Faction which would not coexist with him.

From Good Faction, which powerful figure was it?

The thought had just barely formed in his head but his hands had already started to retaliate. Else if the chase kept on going, it would be of no harm to the person behind but he would be like a headless fly flying around, who knows what strange things he might encounter?

The green light surged, Ghost Li’s body suddenly soared up sharply and turned back in mid-air, the Soul-Absorbing stick lay horizontally in front of his chest. That blue light behind him seemed to sense something, the sword light surged and became even more powerful, charging towards his chest. Ghost Li grabbed the Soul-Absorbing stick in front of him, the green bead on the black stick immediately released a great light, under that light, red-blood strands also seemed to light up at the same time, the red blood quietly started to turn, red light and green rays, dim and discreet facing that blue sword light, meeting it directly.

[Boom!]

Ghost Li’s body shook greatly and his body was forced back by one zhang. But that blue sword light also flew back in great impact, someone seemed to groan in the gas cloud, obviously the person did not have it easy too.

These few years Ghost Li had been practising the Evil Way Tian Shu day and night, in addition with the Blood-Sucking Orb beside him, his savage characteristic had long flourished. And right now not a word more, straightaway he flew ahead, the Soul-Absorbing stick piercing through the air.

However the Soul-Absorbing stick had just acted when the gas clouds in front suddenly parted, the enemy was unexpectedly unyielding, the person had just stabilized and attacked back immediately. Ghost Li gave a sharp whistle and steered his magical weapon, immediately battling with that blue sword light.

Right now the Soul-Absorbing stick and blue light was already fighting with each other but the gas clouds churned and rolled, Ghost Li was unable to see that magical weapon clearly and depended on his body and the Soul-Absorbing stick’s reactions to control.

This sudden battle to both of them was extremely risky as both parties were extremely skilled and if one was not careful, they would either be killed by the other or if they were injured and distracted for a moment, they would fall prey to the surrounding toxic miasma. Both scenarios were also life- threatening.

The other party up ahead obviously did not expect to meet such a figure but in the gas clouds, he was unable to see her face too. But looking at the sword blows, the person showed no signs of backing off even by a little. In this flint-spark moment, the Soul-Absorbing stick and blue sword light clashed violently in the miasma, loud booms sounded. With these two magical weapons in the center, the miasma surged and churned, indistinctly becoming another enormous vortex.

Even though they were separated by a distance but Soul- Absorbing stick and Ghost Li were forged by blood. Each other’s reactions were felt as if they were connected by flesh and blood, Ghost Li felt that cold energy above Soul-Absorbing stick was seethed with excitement, as if this magical weapon had a spirit that was becoming excited. This feeling was really strange, ever since he had accomplished great advances in his cultivation, he had not felt it again.

Just that, very long ago when he was still an ignorant young boy, this feeling, he had once felt it……

A shock went through his heart!

As if indistinctly something surged in his heart. The Soul-Absorbing stick and that blue light clashed violently for the last time and flew back. Right now the surrounding miasma increased more and more and Ghost Li and that person’s battle had reached the climax. Both of them separated by the miasma, depending only on their spiritual senses, on one side they had to defend against attacks and other side they still had to ward off the surrounding toxic miasma. Obviously with this kind of danger, the sooner this battle ends, the better it would be!

The cyclone turbulated violently, at the same time it gave rise to numerous small vortexes again but Ghost Li’s eyes were fixed onto the other party. Behind that thick miasma, a glimpse of the blue light, he seemed to even feel that person’s murderous stare.

Suddenly a clear whistle was heard, the sharp whistle of the blue sword light piercing the air, it instantly broke through the clouds layers and turned into an enormous light beam, striking down from the top. Ghost Li did not make any attempt to avoid and flew up straight, broke into the blue light and to where the person was. That person in the gas clouds shouted angrily, the blue light surged and instantly all of the brilliancy were withdrew back into that cloud layer. After a moment it congealed into a sky- blue celestial sword that blazed for miles, charging over with a tremendous force. Almost at the same time, the Soul- Absorbing stick’s green light surged greatly, instantly causing the surrounding miasma of within one zhang back, and went up to meet it.

A strike of life and death, at this moment.

That person held the sword hilt, Ghost Li clutching on Soul- Absorbing stick, both charging towards each other.

Two sharp lights, instantly forcing back all of the surrounding miasma!

As if holding their breath, waiting for that moment to determine life and death……

The white and fair hand holding the sword hilt; the dress that was billowing and dancing in the wind; she, like the fairy from Nine Heavens, with an unparalleled beauty, in the moment when the clouds dispersed, appeared at the other side.

Lu XueQi!

After many years, that moment when they met again……

What look was it that appeared in each other’s gazes,

Most likely, only in that instant.

x x x

Suddenly the whole world seemed to come to a standstill, the grey miasma was forced back by the supreme magical weapons, slowly revealing that man’s figure.

That man who was deeply engraved inside her heart, was right in front. She did not move, only her heart, trembled slightly.

x x x

The two magical weapons like lightning, like light, like long- standing generations of bitter enemies entangled for three lives and seven generations, forced forward, was it hate, love, to determine your death and my survival in this instant?

That moment, was right in front!

That moment, in a moment of breath!

What was it, that was quicker than this lightning, what was it, that quietly linger in the heart?

Was it intention…… The dazzling Soul-Absorbing stick suddenly veered off slightly and gave way, Ghost Li unexpectedly opened his chest wide, Xiao Hui on his shoulder shrieked.

Spots of blue light like stars, gushed over!

But he never felt pain, from his side, streaked past by a hair’s breath, as if an inexplicable reaction, that Tian Ya Celestial Sword also veered off slightly to the other side.

This moment was really really dangerous, Ghost Li and Lu XueQi, if whoever was a minute late or hesitated for one moment, it would immediately cause the other party to be beheaded by the magical weapon.

Just that for unknown reasons they gave up.

In the instant that he had missed, he was still gazing deeply. Deep inside that beautiful girl’s eyes, that figure that was reflected, was actually his……

Because of the immense strength exerted for the life and death battle, their bodies, could not help but to fly off in different directions, separated far apart!

In the air, indistinctly on her dress, did it have her faint fragrance?

The sky suddenly lighted up, Ghost Li suddenly recovered his senses and saw a boundless dense forest appeared below his feet and he was about to land. The sky was low, dark clouds moved and he had unknowingly broke through that unimaginable thick miasma and finally reached the perilous inner mash.

In the mid-air, he stabilized his body and slowly landed. He suddenly turned his head but only saw that enormous miasma wall, as ever unchanging since ancient times, towering there. And needless to say, where would that girl be now?

Chapter 96 - Mysterious Flower

Big Wang village.

Xiao Huan stood at the village entrance, looked towards the death marsh with concern. The weather was still fair in the morning but now the sky had darkened and another storm seemed to be coming.

Yesterday late in the night, she and her grandfather, Zhou YiXian and Jin PingEr etc were in the death marsh but after Jin PingEr made a trip out and came back again, she looked exhausted and in the same night, sent both of them out of the death marsh.

Xiao Huan had privately asked Jin PingEr but Jin PingEr only said, “The situation now in the death marsh has become more dangerous than I had expected, if both of you continue to remain here, it will only bring harm to yourself.”

Xiao Huan had always believed this sister’s words, that night she and Zhou YiXian left the death marsh and at the same time, kept to Jin PingEr’s instructions, to get ready and leave this place by today. Just that, she had known Jin PingEr for quite some time but last night was the first time she saw such solemn expression on Jin PingEr’s face.

She thought and thought and could not help but felt anxious for this sister.

“Xiao Huan!”

A familiar shout from behind, Xiao Huan turned and Zhou YiXian walked over, he said, “All the things are already packed, let’s go!”

Xiao Huan nodded but could not resist and asked Zhou YiXian,  “Grandfather,  do  you  think  PingEr  sister  will  have danger in the death marsh?”

Zhou YiXian was startled and rudely replied, “How would I know?” Xiao Huan’s lips pressed tightly and she gave him a stare. Zhou YiXian after all still doted on this granddaughter, he sighed and checking to ensure nobody was around, he walked to Xiao Huan’s side and spoke in a low voice, “Those few days in the death marsh, we saw a few Chang Shen Hall disciples while following Jin PingEr but ever since after yesterday, have you seen any of the Chang Shen Hall’s disciples?”

Xiao Huan was surprised.

Zhou YiXian smiled, a different expression from his usual cheeky demeanour appeared, his eyes sharp and bright, he said, “Especially that day when you met that fish head monster, I heard it very clearly from the side, the ones meeting with Jin PingEr were exactly the other Evil Faction two big sects, Ghost King Sect and Wan Du Clan’s young and highly-skilled - Ghost Li and Qin WuYan. These three people at this timing meeting inside Chang Shen Hall headquarters where their main strength is, what do you think they are doing?”

Xiao Huan’s arched eyebrows frowned, after a long while she suddenly burst out, “Grandfather, don’t tell me you mean……” Zhou YiXian cut in, “That’s right, I’m afraid the Chang Shen Hall which enjoyed a short period of fame in the past eight hundred years has extinguished in these three young fiend hands. YuYang Zi with such extremely high skills, even he would  actually……”  He  heaved  a  long  sigh,  his  expression suddenly became bleak, after being silent for a long while he said, “Now the internal fights in the Evil Faction are getting more intense by the day, Good Faction sects are also scheming against each other, ten years ago Qing Yun Sect suffered a heavy loss and until today it has not recouped. This world is going to suffer another abyss of misery again.”

Xiao Huan stared blankly, Zhou YiXian heaved a long sigh and suddenly perked up, [He he] he laughed and said, “If the world is going to be chaotic, let it be!, What is it to us? Let’s go, let’s continue to bring benefit to the people.”

Xiao Huan was speechless, Zhou YiXian seemed not to mind at all and walked over to pick up the bundle, he held that bamboo pole with the banner, [Immortal Guide], turned his head and about to call Xiao Huan when suddenly he stared dumbfoundedly, his eyes staring past Xiao Huan. Xiao Huan saw her grandfather’s strange expression and quickly turned around, she too got a shocked, Wild Dog Taoist with his unlucky face and gloomy expression, walking over from the death marsh, he looked around and saw Xiao Huan and Zhou YiXian standing at the village entrance.

This early morning, Wild Dog Taoist who had been following Ghost Li all along, was suddenly ordered to leave the death marsh by Ghost Li. Wild Dog was astounded but he somehow knew in his heart that the death marsh now was extremely dangerous and it was also good for him to leave, just that being coldly told off by that young Ghost Li’s stiff face, he was very offended and grumbled and indignantly walked out.

Now that he unexpectedly met Xiao Huan at the village entrance, Wild Dog without knowing why, his heart palpitated and subconsciously made a detour to the side, what exactly was he afraid of?

Unexpectedly after not more than two steps, Xiao Huan’s voice was heard from behind, “Priest, wait!” Wild Dog was startled and slowly turned around, Zhou YiXian frowned and walked to Xiao Huan, he angrily said, “What do you call him for?”

Xiao Huan stared at Zhou YiXian and did not bother about him, a smile appeared on her face and she walked over, taking out an umbrella from her bundle, she said to Wild Dog Taoist, “Priest, I have not return your umbrella to you.”

Wild Dog glanced at that umbrella, his face showed conflicting expressions, for a moment he felt dazed and also did not also stretch out his hand to receive, Xiao Huan did not mind and pushed the umbrella into Wild Dog Taoist’s hand, smiled sweetly at him and said, “Thanks to you the other day.”

Wild Dog Taoist suddenly felt something brightened in front of him, his vision seemed to blur, subconsciously he swallowed.

Xiao Huan walked back to Zhou YiXian, took over Zhou YiXian’s bundle and said, “Let’s go Grandfather!” Zhou YiXian stared at that still dazed Wild Dog and walked off with Xiao Huan, he was still muttering, “Why do you keep smiling happily at him?”

Xiao  Huan  annoyingly  said,  “Grandfather,  he  is  a  good person!”

Zhou YiXian [Pei] a sound, said, “He is a good person then won’t I be Buddha reincarnation?”

Both Xiao Huan and Zhou YiXian’s figures gradually went further away and their voices also gradually faded, Wild Dog stood at where he was, his hand still holding the umbrella and not moving. Not knowing how much time had passed, he suddenly stamped his feet and walked forward in big strides, headed towards the direction where Xiao Huan and Zhou YiXian walked to.

After their figures disappeared one after another, Big Wang village again resumed its quietness, at a corner several zhangs from the village entrance, a man and a woman stood there, the guy wearing a long white robe while the girl had a veil covering her face, it was Qing Long and YouJi. Qing Long indifferently said, “Zhou YiXian’s background, do you know?”

Hiding behind the black veil, YouJi did not speak, the black veil swayed slightly, she seemed to be shaking her head.

Qing Long pondered for a while, his eyes seemed to be reflecting his deep thoughts and said, “This person seemed not that simple and his granddaughter actually have dealings with HeHuan Sect Jin PingEr, we have to watch them more in the future.”

YouJi after remaining silent for a while, indifferently said, “Let’s go! The important matter that sect head instructed us to do, we cannot delay it anymore.”

Qing Long looked at her, a trace of worry flashed past his eyes but his expression did not change, he said, “That’s right, let’s go!”

After speaking, both of them unhurriedly walked out of Big Wang village but their directions were opposite from Zhou YiXian and the rest, they were heading towards the death marsh.

A wind blew out of nowhere, sweeping past Heaven and Earth, carrying a faint smell of desolate.

The sky seemed to turn darker.

[Boom!]

A thunder rumbled in the clouds, big drops of rain immediately fell in succession, drenching Heaven and Earth, everywhere was grey and gloomy, Ghost Li stood on top of a big tree, watching.

Behind him was still the enormous miasma wall, actually if according to conventional logic, usually whenever the miasma emanated from the mountains’ dirty waters encountered the rain, it would weaken and be still but this toxic miasma in the innermost marsh seemed not to fear the rainwater at all, no matter how the wind blow and rain fell, it was still as lofty. Ghost Li slowly turned his head over and looked ahead but unexpectedly in this inner marsh, it had a dense forest growing in it and in this wailing wind and weeping rain, the forest looked to be endless, who knew how far it would go? In addition the rain was considerably big and although his vision was now much clearer than being in the miasma but he still could not see very far.

[Zi zi, zi zi!]

Suddenly the branch beside jumped, it was Xiao Hui who had left just now and was now bouncing back, within two or three jumps it jumped back to Ghost Li’s shoulder. Its hands carrying a few wild fruits plucked from somewhere, grinning it passed one to Ghost Li, the other hand covered with three or four wild fruits. It opened its mouth wide and munched.

Ghost Li smiled, received the fruit and took a bite too, it felt unripe but it also had another kind of taste.

The rain became heavier, thunders clapped ceaselessly, Ghost Li did not use his magical weapon to block and allowed the rain to drench him, Xiao Hui sat at Ghost Li’s shoulder, its hair turning wetter by the moment but it did not seemed to mind and only cared about the fruit in its mouth, [Ka ji ka ji] happily munching, its long tail stretching behind Ghost Li and swaying here and there.

Ghost Li slowly ate the wild fruit in his hand and suddenly softly said, “Xiao Hui, did you also recognize her just now?”

Presumably Xiao Hui’s mouth was still chewing the fruit, it muttered a few unintelligent sounds, a pair of monkey eyes turning round and round and looking at Ghost Li.

Ghost Li did not seemed to be expecting any answer from the monkey and continued to say, “Why didn’t she kill me? Hasn’t she always abhor the Evil Faction people?”

[Rumble!]

Xiao Hui did not answer but a splitting sound of thunder was heard in the sky. Ghost Li slowly raised his head, the sky of falling raindrops, like knife like sword, transforming into thousands and thousands, pelting down…

His body trembled slightly, suddenly his thoughts flew, as if he had returned to that night when he was still a child, himself with that benign-looking old monk outside the village, quietly and calmly speaking to himself.

This scene, was actually engraved deep inside his heart, for all these years, it never seemed to fade at all.

Both of his hands clutching tightly, his nails piercing deep into his palms, even his body, also started to shake. The Soul- Absorbing stick in his sleeve, like always, also almost lighted up at the same time, the familiar ice cold feeling swept over his whole body, the vicious energy from the Sinister Orb also seemed to accumulate in his eyes, little by little.

Xiao Hui at his shoulder, nervously called out. In the sky, a flash of lightning broke through, Ghost Li howled and leapt up, his entire body bathed in a surge of red light, his right hand stretched out, the Soul-Absorbing stick already in his hand, the dark-green light gathered in the rain to form an enormous light beam, striking down with a loud bang.

Right now his eyes were already totally infused with blood- red light, his expression baleful and his face distorted, he growled in a low voice, like a wild beast.

The enormous green beam of light that struck down suddenly, that big tree which he had stood on earlier, had already been splitted into two, each side crashing down in opposite directions.

[Rumble!]

Another crash of thunder sounded in the horizon.

Xiao Hui jumped aside and watched him silently. Ghost Li, with one leg kneeling in the extremely filthy mud that was soaked with rain, his right hand tightly clutching the Soul-Absorbing stick, his whole body trembling, a menacing look flashed in his eyes but on his face was instead agony.

Who would know, his growing pain…

A gentle and righteous Yang energy, faintly leapt up inside his body.

On the clothes that were drenched by the rain, on his right arm, a round faint light suddenly lighted up, this righteous Yang energy was extremely pure, it rose up from the ‘Inferno Mirror” tied on his right arm and entered into his body, gradually resisting that Sinister Orb’s fiendish energy.

After a long time, the blood-red light in his eyes slowly disappeared, his expression also turned mild and in relative, the brilliant light from both the Soul-Absorbing stick and Inferno Mirror also gradually weakened and disappeared. Ghost Li, as if after a big battle, slowly stood up, looking exhausted. These ten years, day and night he had trained with the Evil Way Tian Shu and so, day and night immersed in the fiendish nature of the Sinister Orb. He had too, countless times like today, almost taken over by the Sinister Orb evil energy but because he had Tai Chi Xuan Qing Way and Great Brahman Wisdom in his body, which were Good Faction supreme ways of cultivation, he then barely managed to resist it.

But the most crucial part was, every time when his consciousness was on the verge of collapsing, the other mysterious magical weapon, Inferno Mirror, on his body would always emit a mysterious and pure strong Yang energy and forcibly pulled him back from his degeneration into the Evil destructive road.

Just that, he himself also did not know, how much longer could he still resist this natural evil Sinister Orb, and to him, everytime he recalled the past, he would remember BiYao. That kind of torture, it was really an unbearable anguish. If it was not for his perseverance character, most probably he would have became mad long ago. And all these things, even the shrewd Ghost King had never detected it, he never noticed that his most capable aide was instead bordering on madness day and night.

He slowly stood up, opened his mouth and then discovered his voice had turned hoarse, “Xiao Hui, let’s go!”

Xiao Hui blinked, jumped down and leapt up to his shoulder.

Ghost Li gently smoothed Xiao Hui’s hair, his lips moved but eventually he did not say what he wanted to say, took a deep breath and strided, walking towards the deep of the forest.

In the inner death marsh which was surrounded by the ceaseless rain, other than the storm noises, nothing could be heard between the Heaven and Earth, the ancient and dense forest was silent, the rain hitting the leaves and raindrops rolling and dropping.

In the horizon, another thunder! The rain continued for an hour and had no intention of stopping.

Lin JingYu wiped the raindrops from his face but the next moment, another batch of raindrops rained down. He smiled bitterly and gave up.

In the ancient forest, there was only his figure. Alone in this perilous and unfamiliar wildlands territory, there was really an unseen feeling of fear.

Initially Qing Yun Sect and Tian Yin Temple, FenXiang Valley outstanding disciples entered the inner marsh together. But while traversing that miasma wall, first was because of a sudden event, they encountered the strange storm eye in the middle and it broke their formation, without waiting for them to gather their senses, an enormous strange beast suddenly appeared in the miasma, passing through them.

Because of the degree of visibility in the miasma, nobody could see clearly what the monster looked like and that monster seemed to be only passing by and did not attack them but because its body was so huge, although everyone was highly skilled but in the moment of panic, each flew off in fright and with the miasma storm, they were separated.

Lin JingYu kept flying and with the protection of the Dragon Slaying Sword, broke out of the miasma and came to this ancient inner marsh forest. And the location of where he had broke out, was actually just mere several miles from where Ghost Li was.

These two childhood friends, once as close as real brothers, yet was unaware of this situation. Just that even if they knew, what they faced might be an even more painful scene?

Lin JingYu naturally was unaware of these, he raised his head and looked at the sky which was still full of gloomy heavy clouds, this rain seemed like it would go on for half a day, he cursed under his breath, after thinking for a while, he eventually still strided forward ahead.

There was actually no path at all to traverse the forest. Other than those big and tall trees, the forest was full of thick and luxuriant thorny undergrowth, with a variety of bizarre plants. Unusual animals and poisonous insects never seen outside the death marsh appeared occasionally in front of Lin JingYu.

Only in a short while, Lin JingYu had already faced countless dangers, if not for his sharp-wits and intelligence and in addition his skills improved much over these ten over years, he would have suffered badly.

[Wu!], the Dragon Slayer Sword making a streak of bluish green light, severing a crimson poisonous snake which had leapt from the tree beside into two, at the same time, Lin JingYu finally could not take it, he immediately leapt up into the air, using the magical weapon strength and soared up into the sky.

He was only slightly relieved when he was in the air, at the same time he was surprised, this inner marsh was really full of surprises, the dangers faced far exceeded the outer marsh, where exactly did those numerous bizarre poisonous insects come from?

He looked down, the remnants of the crimson poisonous snake were still writhing on the ground, it looked like it was not dead yet and other than this poisonous snake, he had just faced attacks from poisonous scorpion, toad and a variety of lizards, danger really lurked everywhere.

Initially Lin JingYu wanted to conserve energy and travelled by walking but now no matter what he dared not land casually, he glanced around in the mid-air and suddenly shook.

Deep of the forest in front of him, behind the blanket of rain, a gold light flashed past, mingled within the storm, a person’s faint shout was also heard.

Lin JingYu was delighted, without any hesitation, he quickly urged his magical weapon and flew towards where that gold light flashed.

Travelling by air, his speed was unbelievably fast and very soon, he was near that area, he surveyed carefully and was shocked, a vast empty ground appeared in the forest and in it, a waterlogged depression stood in the middle and an extremely weird flower bloomed in the center of it. The flower was enormous, its diameter stretched for several zhangs wide, if not for his own eyes he would find it hard to believe that such species existed in this world.

Looking down from the sky, the bottom end of the flower body appeared to be green and the upper part was splitted into numerous branches, assuming a brilliant red in color. In the middle, the distinction between the red and green areas were obvious, marking a clear boundary. And on the very top of those numerous red branches, a small ball as crystal-clear as a dewdrop and over it the wet surface glistered, not sure if it was wet because of the rain or it was actually like that?

In this storm, the strange flower swayed gently with the wind, a faint sweet smell floated in the air.

Lin JingYu was astounded, following which his attention was drawn to the two persons and one beast beside the strange flower, looking at them, immediately his face showed delight, standing there was Return of the Wind Valley Zeng ShuShu and Tian Yin Temple Fa Xiang. Meeting familiar faces in this unfamiliar place, Lin JingYu was extremely happy, he could not help but called out to them.

The two people heard the shout and were surprised, they turned and saw Lin JingYu dashing down and were ecstatic but after a while, Zeng ShuShu gestured for Lin JingYu to look ahead, Lin JingYu calmed his heart down and immediately was shocked by that strange monster up ahead.

Actually the strange beast which was facing Fa Xiang and Zeng ShuShu was extremely bizarre but because one, Lin JingYu was greatly astounded by that huge strange flower in front of them and second, he was over delighted when he saw them and thus did not pay attention to that strange beast. Now that he looked, this strange beast looked like a wild duck, almost as tall as a human, its body green in color, faint red eyes, red tail and fangs in its mouth with two wings in its back, it seemed to be a ferocious bird species.

That strange beast growled, both wings shook and immediately a burst of wind and rain swept over. Lin JingYu landed beside Zeng ShuShu and Fa Xiang, three of them backfacing that strange flower, Lin JingYu frowned and stepped back.

Unexpectedly Fa Xiang’s countenance changed, he quickly pulled Lin JingYu back and quietly said, “Do not go near that flower!”

Lin JingYu was stunned and stopped but he looked at Fa Xiang, the smiling expression on his face suddenly turned cold and he indifferently brushed off Fa Xiang’s hand.

Fa Xiang frowned and sighed, he withdrew his hand. He knew that Lin JingYu still remembered that tragic episode in Grasstemple village and still could not let go.

Zeng ShuShu suddenly raised his voice and called out, “Watch out!”

Both of them got a shock and looked ahead, that strange beast moved its wings and leapt into the air, charging over. Zeng ShuShu urgently said, “Fa Xiang senior brother, we will do as plan.”

Lin JingYu was about to react but hearing his words, he was startled and stopped.

That strange beast was fierce and swift, in the blink of an eye and it was already in front of them, Fa Xiang and Zeng ShuShu suddenly shouted in a low voice at the same time and scattered off in different directions. Although that strange beast looked ferocious but it was not too bright and it paused for a while at the spot at where it had landed and seemed to think for a moment which enemy it should pursue but at this moment, Fa Xiang’s [Reincarnation Pearl] and Zeng ShuShu [XuanYuan Sword] had already hit down at the same time from the sides.

But that strange beast seemed not to fear at all, it opened its mouth and roared loudly, [Peng peng] two sounds, these two magical weapons hit onto its body and caused it to flew back but that beast bared its fangs and brandished its claws in mid- air and seemed unharmed. This degree of endurance caused Lin JingYu’s countenance to change. If it was him, he might not be able to withstand the full-strength blows from Zeng ShuShu and Fa Xiang. It looked like that strange beast was flapping its wings and would retaliated back fiercely once it stabilized itself, Lin JingYu concentrated and prepared himself but at this moment his body shook, his mouth ajar and he could not speak.

That beast flew backwards and there was none other than that enormous big flower behind it. The beast moved in the air and touched the red branches crystals, suddenly, that beast howled, the cry was full of fear and shock.

In a moment, the strange flower had already started to have an amazing transformation, all of the flowers suddenly seemed to come alive, one after another from all directions it started to gather around this strange beast and that red sparkling round ball on top of the flower branches in fact had a strong adhesive strength. That strange beast was stuck on top of it and even though it exerted strength and struggled, it was unable to pull free. In less than a moment, more and more flower petals surrounded it layer by layer and finally wrapped up this almost as tall as a human strange beast and even that strange beast’s cry was also gradually muffled.

Fa Xiang and Zeng ShuShu who had created this trap, saw right in front of their eyes how terrible the strange flower was, their countenance, like Lin JingYu, also changed.

After a long time, the strange flower totally covered this strange beast and its figure could no longer be seen, tranquillity returned to the place and only the sound of wind and rain remained in-between Heaven and Earth.

The three of them faced each other, Fa Xiang sighed, pressed his palms together and chanted softly.

[Divine and Evil The strange. Hundreds of Flower Chapter] Man-eating Flower: A strange species in the wildlands, measured zhangs when the flower bloomed, top red bottom white, the red bead on its extreme top adhere onto humans and living things and swallowed hem. Another note: From [Modern Insectivorous Plant Complete Collection], this thing was suspected to be a living thing from [Bladderwort Family]. South America, Asia (had not inquired thoroughly for North America, seemed like it had also dispersed there?) had its dispersal footprints but the plant size was not big, insectivorous did not have major threat to human. It appearance was similar to what ancient books described, it could be an aquatic animal bladderwort, it could be drosophyllum.

This animal was quoted from [Classics of Mountains and Seas. Classics of Mountains Fifth Scroll. ZhongShan Classic. Qing Yao Mountain]

Chapter 97 - Night Talk

The three of them remained silent for a while. It was still Zeng ShuShu whose nature was more vivacious and he was also quick-witted, he saw things were looking awkward between Lin JingYu and Fa Xiang so he was the first to smile and said, “Lin junior brother, how did you make it here?”

Lin JingYu although was not very close to Zeng ShuShu but first, to see someone from his own sect in this unfamiliar place, he felt some degree of closeness to him. Second, he knew that Zeng ShuShu was on good terms with Zhang Xiao Fan and so somehow had a good impression of Zeng ShuShu. He nodded and said, “I was separated from the senior brothers in the miasma and I kept going straight, didn’t expect to make it out. I came out somewhere not far from here and happened to see the bright lights flashes from the magical weapons and therefore came to check it out.”

Zeng ShuShu [He he] laughed, used his hand to wipe off the rainwater on his face and said, “Seems like we are quite fated, in this perilous place, the more people the better, isn’t it! Fa Xiang senior brother?” Fa Xiang smiled and nodded, he said, “That’s right....oh, the rain stopped?”

Zeng ShuShu and Lin JingYu were surprised, they looked at the sky and really, not knowing since when, the mercilessly pouring rain had became a drizzle and right now, it had turned brighter and the sky seemed to have opened up.

Lin JingYu breathed deeply, the air in the forest after the rain was extremely crisp and seemed to carry a slight trace of sweet smell, penetrating deep into the heart.

Fa Xiang turned and looked at that mysterious flower which had  already  closed  up  and  said,  “There  are  really  a  lot  of unusual things in here, this bizarre flower is not a humane type too, we should not stay here too long, let’s leave this place first!”

Lin JingYu did not reply, Zeng ShuShu smiled and said, “Fa Xiang senior brother is correct, let’s go!” Speaking, he turned and looked at Lin JingYu, Lin JingYu quietly nodded.

After arranging their stuffs, the three of them steered their magical weapons and soared up into the air.

Zeng ShuShu hesitated for a while in the mid-air and loudly said to them, “Fa Xiang senior brother, Lin junior brother, this forest is appallingly big and contain poisonous insects, strange beasts and numerous different type of ferocious animals, I’m afraid that the rumoured rare treasure is really deep inside this forest, what shall we do next?”

Lin JingYu spiritedly said, “Zeng senior brother, if we do not enter the tiger’s cave, how can we get the tiger’s cub?”

Zeng ShuShu looked at him and turned to look at Fa Xiang, Fa Xiang smiled and placed his palms together in a prayer, showing no objections. He smiled and said, “As such then let’s search this harsh wildlands thoroughly and see exactly what kind of rare treasure was born?” The three of them felt invigorated, they urged their magical weapons and transformed into three streams of brilliant lights, continued on deep into the forest.

The night curtain gradually lowered, the sky had turned totally dark.

Lin JingYu and the other two had already searched for half a day but had had no results, not even the shadow of the rumoured rare treasure was seen. On top of that they unfortunately experienced quite a number of the forest’s different types of bizarre poisonous insects and strange beasts, and some of them were quite unimaginable. Even when they flew past a big tree in the sky, one of the branches suddenly turned into a grey venomous insect and tried to bite them with its mouth opened wide.

As such they continued on like this, although the three of them were all trained cultivators, each one of them was an outstanding talent from their own sects and managed to traverse safely but they could not help but felt alarmed in their hearts. As the night grew, the three of them discussed and happened to find a big rock in the forest which was quite flat and so the three of them landed on it to take a rest.

Zeng ShuShu carefully walked to the side, keeping a lookout and at the same time summoned his magical weapon, XuanYuan Sword. Using the weapon’s weak light, he proceeded warily, after selectively picking and choosing, he finally took some of the drier and good branches back, preparing to start a fire.

Lin JingYu watched from the side and suddenly gave a bitter laugh. Zeng ShuShu heard it, looked up and met his eyes, he knew what he was thinking and also [He he] laughed out.

Qing Yun Sect ever since established two thousands years ago, to say the person who was the most detailed and cautious in gathering firewoods, it would definitely be Zeng ShuShu today!

Turning back, Zeng ShuShu took out a firestarter from his bosom but the heavy rain during the day had soaked the surrounding branches wet. After trying to start a fire for almost half a day and creating a lot of smoke, the fire was finally started.

Fa Xiang glanced at the surroundings and only saw darkness in the forest, after hesitating for a while, he signaled to both of them to sit closer and then took a deep breath. He slowly chanted and offered up the magical weapon, “Reincarnation Pearl”   in  his  hands.  After  a  while,  gentle  golden  light glimmered and expanded out, forming a six chi perimeter of golden circle light, enveloping the three of them in it.

In the darkness, under the gentle light of the Reincarnation Pearl, their faces reflected the faint golden color. Lin JingYu and Zeng ShuShu were both from well-known sects and both saw this move from Fa Xiang clearly. Lin JingYu, although had some grudge against him but he too like Zeng ShuShu, their faces revealed admiration and surprise.

Zeng ShuShu smiled and said, “Fa Xiang senior brother, good magical power, admirable, admirable!”

Fa Xiang smiled and said, “There are too many venomous insects here, I’m afraid the light from this small fire might not be enough so with this ‘Prajna Heart Circle’, we don’t have to worry about the usual venomous animals tonight.”

After speaking, he smiled faintly at both of them and unintentionally or intentionally looked at Lin JingYu, Lin JingYu looked at him and slightly lowered his head and did not say anything. Fa Xiang slowly shifted his gaze and looked at the small campfire between them, the firelight reflected in his eyes, what was he thinking about?

The ambience slowly quietened down, the three of them did not speak anymore. The late night surrounded them, in the heavy darkness, suddenly a gust of wind blew.

The wind sounded like a sob, like a broken-hearted girl crying by herself somewhere far ahead, it drifted lightly in the forest, sweeping past the trees, brushing by the branches and leaves.

The black forest, in this black late night, suddenly as though as it was alive, opened its chest wide and let its offsprings in this boundless wide chest, vivaciously sang. The night deepened, the wind went past the tip of the forest.

The fire flickered unsteadily.

Fa Xiang closed his eyes in meditation, Zeng ShuShu seemed to be tired too, he lay beside the campfire with his clothes on and looked to be asleep. Only Lin JingYu sat on the other side of the fire, without any sign of sleepiness, his gaze bright, staring blankly at that burning flames.

Slowly, he stretched his hand out and took a withered branch, [Pa] a sound and it was bent and broke into two, gently pushed into the fire.

The flames slowly swallowed the stick and seemed to grow stronger. Lin JingYu suddenly felt an awareness and looked to the side, Fa Xiang had opened his eyes and was silently looking at him

“Lin  junior  brother.”  as  if  considering  the  sleeping  Zeng ShuShu, Fa Xiang specially lowered his voice and quietly said, “Why are you still not resting?” Lin JingYu looked back to the campfire, after a while he said, “Aren’t Master yourself too is not resting?”

Fa Xiang said, “Junior me has always meditate to rest and has already become a habit but Lin junior brother you are still young, you need to rest more.”

Lin JingYu kept quiet, after a long while he suddenly said, “These ten years, I have always been sleeping less.”

Fa Xiang frowned and felt curious, he asked, “Why?”

Lin JingYu’s eyes reflected the burning flames in front of him, glinting, he unhurriedly said, “Once I closed my eyes, I will recall those innocently killed Grasstemple Village relatives and think of junior brother Xiao Fan who has now unfortunately degenerated into the Evil way.”

[Pa!] a crisp sound, reverberated lightly in the dim dark night. Lin JingYu bent the branch in his hands again and then slowly fed it to the fire. The night curtain was totally black, the forest in the darkness as if in a remote place, silently howled.

Fa Xiang silently looked at Lin JingYu, that young man beside the faint firelight, his figure looked somehow lonely but still that obstinate.

After a while, he looked away and looked at the gently bobbing Reincarnation Pearl in front of him, he suddenly said, “You still think about Zhang Xiao Fan Zhang junior brother?”

Lin JingYu did not answer but when he looked at Fa Xiang, his gaze was cold.

Fa Xiang’s eyes showed a faint hurt but his voice was still gentle, he unhurriedly said, “These past ten years, he joined the Evil Faction Ghost King sect and is now a vice-leader in the Ghost King sect. The whole world knows, sooner or later he will be the next Ghost King sect sect leader.”

He slowly turned around and met Lin JingYu’s gaze, the corner of his eyes seemed to twitch but he continued to speak, “These ten years, he kill people like flies, devouring people as if it is his second nature, even the Evil Faction people also addressed him as Xue GongZi and not by his name, the Good Faction all over the world view him as a calamity within one’s bosom……”

“Enough!”  Lin JingYu suddenly shouted, his teeth gritted, green veins popped out of his tightly clenched fists.

Fa Xiang stared at him but still continued, “If one day, when you face him, what will you do?”

The night turned colder, as if the whole world had also became this cold and heartless.

The golden light and firelight gently reflected on Lin JingYu’s handsome face, he slowly closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

“He is my brother!”  after a very long time, in the stillness, Lin JingYu suddenly spoke, firmly and without any bit of hesitation. Fa Xiang looked at him and did not speak.

Lin JingYu slowly lowered his head, his voice turned low and deep, “I know, now that he has already sank into the Evil way and has no way back, in the future when I see him, most likely it will be as irreconcilable enemies……”

[Pa!] He broke the third branch and slowly fed it to the fire, he quietly said, “Just that even if we have a life and death battle or to be as sworn enemies, I do not care about how you these Good Faction’s elders think, in my heart, even though Good and Evil is irreconcilable and sooner or later there will be a battle, it doesn’t matter if he wants to kill me or I have to kill him, I still treat him as my brother.”

He smiled, his smile carried some anguish and resolution, he distantly said, “He in my entire life, is my only brother!”

Nobody spoke anymore.

In the ancient forest, it became more and more quiet, in the chilly wind, as if someone was on that tree top, in the far horizon, quietly sighed……

Zeng ShuShu suddenly opened his eyes, sat up, his brows locked in a frown, as if concentrating at hearing something. Fa Xiang and Lin JingYu both got a fright.

Lin JingYu exclaimed, “Zeng senior brother, what is it?”

Zeng ShuShu’s face was solemn, he said, “Something is not right, all of you listen!”

Fa Xiang and Lin JingYu were shocked, they were both deep in their talks and did not notice any movements near them, right now they quickly turned their attention to their surroundings and concentrated.

In the forest, other than the constant wind that went [wu wu], it seemed to be still that quiet, there was no movement at all. But after a while, both of them frowned at the same time, far away, a faint but dense [sha sha] sounds, as if hundreds of insects were travelling in the night. Although separated by the darkness, it seemed unreal and the sounds also seemed to be very far away but this degree of fine sounds made one had goosebumps!

The three of them looked uncertain, Lin JingYu frowned and said, “Don’t tell me it is another poisonous insect?”

Zeng ShuShu forced a smile and said, “I’m afraid the numbers are not that little!”

The three of them looked at each other and saw the fear in each other’s eyes, in this full of poisonous insects unpredictable dangers death marsh, just merely one day and they had already developed some wariness towards the ferocious animals here, in addition, the different types of bizarre animals here were too overwhelming, really wondered what thing would come out next?

Just when they were on their guards and preparing to take precautions, far ahead in the forest in front of them, suddenly a loud clamour was heard and after a moment, an angry shout mixed with the cries of the insects were heard. Lin JingYu and the rest were startled, Zeng ShuShu was the first to respond, “It's FenXiang Valley Li Xun senior brother!” Lin JingYu’s expression looked shocked, he quickly said, “Li senior brother may have danger, I will go out to meet…..”

While speaking, he was about to move when suddenly a hand stretched over and pulled him down, it was Fa Xiang, he was heard speaking quickly, “I will go, the dangers here are unexpected, both of you stay within the Prajna Heart Circle and do not act rashly.”

Without waiting for both of them to react, his body fluttered, the pale blue monk robe soared up and after a moment, his figure disappeared into the darkness.

Lin JingYu and Zeng ShuShu were both stunned but the next moment, the clamour noises increased again, angry shouts were heard ceaselessly and insects’ cries filled the air, in it mixed with a few cries of alarms, revealed that Fa Xiang had already reached Li Xun and came into contact with those unknown strange animals.

The night was deep, the chilly wind in the forest seemed to increase too, the sounds mournful. The clamour noises turned louder and louder but the darkness was like a unscalable high wall, blocking in front of Zeng ShuShu and Lin JingYu.

Like ghosts wailing, like wolves howling!

Just at the moment when Zeng ShuShu and Lin JingYu were unable to resist anymore and about to dash out, suddenly a sharp whistle was heard and in an instant, all of the insects’ cries died, human figures flashed in the darkness and two people at the same time floated over, it was Fa Xiang and FenXiang Valley Li Xun, some parts of their clothes were torn and faint blood were seen on Li Xun’s body.

Just that their movements were extremely fast, in a flash they were already within the golden circle light, Lin JingYu and Zeng ShuShu quickly went up to receive them and saw both of them looked exhausted.

WIthout waiting for Lin JingYu and the rest to ask, Li Xun’s eyebrows suddenly moved and he shouted, “Look out!” Everyone was startled, in the surrounding forest darkness, suddenly loud cries of insects surrounded them from all around, densely packed and enclosing them. Numerous horrible eyes, emitting faint lights, staring at them in the darkness!

“What  is  it?”   Zeng  ShuShu  with  his  eyes  wide  opened, looking around and asking Fa Xiang and Li Xun at the same time.

Li Xun with his face solemn, said, “It is all huge ants, everyone be careful!”

Lin JingYu and Zeng ShuShu were taken aback, Zeng ShuShu astonishingly asked, “What?”

And at that moment, Fa Xiang suddenly quietly said, “Watch out, they are here!”

Everyone was shocked and quickly readied themselves, under the firelight and Reincarnation Pearl’s light, in the deep darkness of the forest, the [sha sha] noises erupted, the approaching moving masses besieged them.

When the black figures came nearer, Lin JingYu and the rest took a close look at them and immediately sucked in a breath of cold air, the strange things that were crawling ceaselessly out from the darkness looked like ants but these things were all almost the size of a human’s calf and their numbers seemed to be infinite, in an instant the [sha sha] blood-curdling sounds filled the empty ground of this forest.

Zeng ShuShu and the rest, in spite being highly skilled, also turned pale at this moment but these enormous ants, whether it was afraid of Fa Xiang’s Prajna Heart Circle or the campfire that was burning, although they came near but stopped about half a zhang away. However the number of huge ants kept on gushing out from the darkness and there were at least a thousand of them.

The black figures flickered, all four of their faces were pale, the mournful sounds of the wind swept through this ancient forest, as if mocking these humans for disturbing the ancient peace here. In that distant wind, there also seemed to be a faint bamboo flute sound drifting along.

Li Xun’s expression changed, he suddenly raised his voice and shouted, “Which Evil Sect demon dare to employ tricks here?”

This shout, carried some force, in an instant even the sound of the wind also seemed to pause.

Not just Zeng ShuShu and Lin JingYu, even Fa Xiang was surprised, when he went out to meet Li Xun, he only saw the numerous huge ants and did not notice any Evil Faction people around. He immediately asked, “What, these huge ants are tricks played by the Evil Faction sorcerers?”

Li Xun snorted, his stare fierce, he looked around and said, “That’s right, when it was nightfall, I met a stranger near here and after shouting our greetings, that person immediately turned hostile and attacked, his attacks were using the Evil Sect evil moves. As for these freaks, it was all that fellow using some unknown immoral methods and is able to actually manipulate these type of ferocious wild beasts……” Li Xun had not finished his words when suddenly someone laughed lightly in the darkness and said, “This Good Faction chivalrous hero sure presented it well but I seemed to remember that it was you who made the first move?”

That voice was a male and seemed young but the sound of his voice moved around, for a moment nobody could tell where his position was?

Li Xun’s expression changed but in this unfavourable situation, he did not have any slightest sign of fear, he loudly said, “Since you are an Evil Sect sorcerer, naturally I will have to eliminate the evil, if you are a man then you should stand out, let’s duel one-to-one for three hundred rounds. Using these ignorant beasts, what kind of hero are you?”

That man suddenly laughed and indifferently said, “Heros are what you Good Faction people claim to do, it will never be my turn.”

After his words, the sound of flute faintly started, that mass of huge ants suddenly separated, making out a path. A young man unhurriedly walked out from the darkness and stood outside the golden Prajna Heart Circle, he had a smile on his face and his bearing was scholarly and refined.

It was Wan Du Clan Qin WuYan!

Fa Xiang’s face was grim, he appraised him carefully and suddenly said, “At such a young age, your skills are unfathomable and to be able to control thousands of venomous insects, don’t tell me you are what everyone addressed as the Wan Du Clan Qin WuYan Du GongZi?”

Qin WuYan frowned and turned to look carefully at Fa Xiang, he suddenly smiled and said, “So it is Tian Yin Temple Fa Xiang Master, no wonder your discernment is excellent, my humble self is indeed Qin WuYan. “ He paused for a while and leisurely said, “People said among the Good Faction three big sects’ younger generation disciples today, publicly acknowledged Tian Yin Temple Fa Xiang Master as a person of outstanding talent and with deep wisdom and high virtue, now that I saw you today, it is really a justified reputation, Qin WuYan make my salutations here.”

After speaking, he nodded slightly, a smile on his face. Fa Xiang frowned and seemed to hear at the same time, Li Xun’s snort, a shiver went through his heart.

Although Qin WuYan’s face had a smile but his thoughts were turning rapidly. Different from the rest, he came from Evil Sect Wan Du Clan. Entering into this full of ferocious and venomous beasts and insects inner marsh, others viewed it with dread but to him, it was like entering a treasure cave, he was extremely delighted.

Those poisonous animals that he could only meet by chance encounter were actually everywhere here. And among them were even the unusual venomous insects that he had not even heard of. To a poison master expert like him, it was ten times more precious than thousands of golds and silvers.

Wan Du Clan in the Evil Sect had always been maverick. Although their training and cultivation were all from ‘Tian Shu’ like the other branches but what they inherited and passed on was the mystical cultivation method using different types of rare poisonous animals to complement their training, hence since several hundred years ago, all of the highly skilled experts from this sect were all experts and masters on using poison. And to be able to find the most potent and most venomous animal, to Wan Du Clan members, it would be an immeasurable help in their cultivation path.

Qin WuYan was now Wan Du Clan Sect Leader’s last disciple, his aptitude was extremely high and was a rare gifted talent in using poison. After entering the inner marsh, once he saw the situation here, he was immediately pleasantly surprised. These few days he searched and gathered many poisonous animals and even encountered the highly toxic huge ants in the death marsh. Qin WuYan tried using Wan Du Clan ‘Control Demon Flute’ and perhaps the Evil Way Tian Shu indeed contained the unknown creations of Heaven and Earth, these ferocious wildlands insects were actually successfully controlled by Qin WuYan using the methods that were passed down in Tian Shu.

Qin WuYan was elated and unexpectedly met FenXiang Valley Li Xun nearby, both of them could not see eye to eye and started to fight, Qin WuYan simply used this numerous ‘Death Marsh Enormous Ants’ move. Although Li Xun’s skills were high but surrounded by the countless huge ants, he could only hold them back, if not for Fa Xiang arriving in time, he would have suffered great losses. Just that the situation now, Fa Xiang, Zeng ShuShu, Lin JingYu and Li Xun the four of them, were trapped by this young but with exceptional skills, Qin WuYan.

Chapter 98 - Past Affections

I believed the title came from this phrase which seemed to be the latter part of Qin WuYan’s five steps poem: The past affections, so much time had passed, do you still remember? Doesn’t matter, there is still a grieving person here and he has already had a head full of white hair

Qin WuYan looked at each one of them. With his sharp eyes, naturally he could tell that these four people were all outstanding talents, if using just their skills to fight, it might not be beneficial to him.

Just that Wan Du Clan had always chose the unorthodox ways and used either weird or underhand methods. Right now Qin WuYan was in control of this group of death marsh huge ants and also, he was completely at ease with countless of poisonous animals on him. In fact he looked normal and looking at the situation that way, he still had the upper hand.

Zeng ShuShu had always been quick-witted but right now he was fretting, looking at those savage-looking death marsh huge ants, the smell of blood assaulted them. He lowered his voice and spoke to the other two, “What do we do now, do we leave or fight?”

Li Xun frowned but did not speak. Actually if in accordance with his usual personality he definitely would never agree to retreat but after battling with those huge death marsh ants earlier, even though just with his strength alone he had killed over a hundred ants but if those innumerable ants surged up together, that terrifying force made him shuddered.

Fa Xiang could not make up his mind but Lin JingYu suddenly spoke, “I think we can fight, I dare say those death marsh huge ants are definitely not human pets and instead are being controlled with some evil method by this Evil Sect sorcerer, we only need to deal with this person and we can win with one fight.”

Fa Xiang nodded and said, “What Lin junior brother says is reasonable, the both of you……”

Zeng  ShuShu  pondered  for  a  while  and  said,  “What  Lin junior brother said is right and with the four of us against him one person, if we still flee for our lives then that is too shameful.”

After which the three of them looked at Li Xun, Li Xun in the recent years was the most talented disciple in FenXiang Valley and had always been prideful. If Qin WuYan had not out of a sudden summoned those innumerable huge ants, he would have been the first to dual with Qin WuYan. Right now facing their stares, how could he lose this face, naturally he also said, “Fight!”

Fa Xiang immediately nodded and spoke quietly, “Later we will split into two teams, will need to trouble Li senior brother and Zeng senior brother to help us block those huge ants while Lin junior brother and I attack that Qin Wu Yan together, how is it?”

Three of them nodded together.

While they were discussing, Qin WuYan was also strategizing. When he had used the ants to besiege Li Xun, he did not expect Li Xun’s skills to be that high. Just with his strength alone, he was able to kill almost a hundred of those tough-skins-hard-bones venomous ants and looking at the other three, it was most likely they were all also highly-skilled, especially that Tian Yin Temple Fa Xiang, his reputation had became even more well-known in the recent years.

To say the least, just by looking at this Prajna Heart Circle, it indistinctly embodied the Buddhism great power of subduing demons and could make those huge death marsh ants instinctively stayed far from that golden circle. This level of cultivation was really remarkable.

He was deliberating on how to deal with those four people when suddenly a whistle sounded in front of him, the golden light flashed and Prajna Heart Circle was withdrew. The four of them leapt towards him and a commotion also started from the huge ants beside him.

Qin WuYan unexpectedly was delighted, he laughed out loud and flipped his left hand, a tiny black iron flute appeared but he did not blow it, instead he drew across the air, pressed a few holes on the flute using his left hand and immediately a low quiet sound was heard from the sky.

It did not have any impact to humans but to those innumerable death marsh huge ants, they looked like they had received a command and immediately started to move, gashing and clawing towards those four people.

Li Xun and Zeng ShuShu seemed to anticipate it and moved forward at the same time while wielding their magical weapons. Immediately, the places where the magical weapons’ bright lights flashed, the first several huge ants were flung out. However both of their arms also throbbed with pain upon the impact. Li Xun had dealt with these huge ants earlier on and had already experienced it therefore he was not surprised but Zeng ShuShu’s countenance changed and he secretly felt that these beasts were indeed powerful.

Both of them gathered their spirits and in a short while forced those numerous huge ants to a side. Lin JingYu and Fa Xiang transformed into resplendent lights, like lightning, the Dragon Slayer Sword turned into a bluish-green light and charged up into the sky, it immediately forced the darkness in the forest to recede several zhangs and struck down from the top towards Qin WuYan.

The force of the sword was extremely powerful, even Qin WuYan frowned and secretly thought to himself that these Good Faction guys were really not easy to deal with. But his expression did not show any signs of perturbation, his left hand still controlling the evil flute and making [wu wu] strange sounds, commanding the innumerable huge death marsh ants to besiege them while a dagger, radiating clear light, appeared in his right hand and looked capable of blocking Lin JingYu’s blow. Fa Xiang saw it from behind and frowned, he recognized the dagger was the one used during Qing Yun battle ten years ago, Wan Du Clan’s rare treasure used by God of Poison. He muttered in a low voice and said, “‘Sever Yearning?”

Qin WuYan heard it and was startled, a flash of admiration went through his eyes. While locked in a stalemate with Lin JingYu, he said, “Fa Xiang Master is really more knowledgeable than others, it is indeed the ‘Sever Yearning Divine Dagger’!”

Fa Xiang appeared at Lin JingYu’s side but he did not rush in to assist, he calmly said, “A pity with such divine weapon and your distinguished self with such talents instead went astray, why not turn back to the shore?”

Qin WuYan laughed loudly, his left hand dancing across the flute, the clear luminous dagger gleamed in his right hand, suddenly he took five steps, his figure looked confident and recited, “The one I loved is far, yearning is bitter, my deep affections, unable to convey. Ten years of cultivation to earn affection, hundred years of cultivation to be together, I cannot bear to reminisce the past if I do not sever this yearning!” A light purple energy suddenly surfaced from his usual placid face, the purple and the clear luminous light of the Sever Yearning Divine Dagger enhanced each other and instantly the bright clear light surged, gradually suppressing the Dragon Slayer Sword’s bluish-green light and at the same time, a rarely seen haughty expression appeared on his face and in a clear and loud voice he said, “Master see that I have degenerated into the Evil way but I instead laugh at Master’s obsessions, there are thousands paths in this world, each with its truths, don’t tell me your shore is the shore and my shore is the sea?”

Fa Xiang smiled and did not take it to heart, he was about to assist Lin JingYu when suddenly Lin JingYu’s firm voice was heard, “ The thousands innate paths, were all from one, the path of righteous, is right in the heart of the common people. You are the Evil, I am the Good, I have to eliminate the evil and subdue the demons!”

A clear whistle, the sound of the dragons singing from the Dragon Slayer Sword rang out loudly, the bluish-green light shone and rose to charge up into the sky. It broke out from the sea of clear bright light and in an instant, the sword energy swept over profusely like rain, covering the sky and earth towards Qin WuYan. Qin WuYan frowned, unexpectedly this person had such valiant, right now he only had to make the Sever Yearning Divine Dagger turned back and attack, most probably he could inflict him with heavy injuries but this Dragon Slayer Sword pressed forward with an indomitable will to route the target, he knew it would be hard to take on and so avoided the attack.

This distraction caused his hands to slow down and he was unable to concentrate on the Control Demons Flute that was controlling the huge ants in the death marsh. Zeng ShuShu and Li Xun who were trying hard to block them finally could take a breather. However it was only for a moment as these wild and fierce huge ants were fearless and continued to attack, both of them agonized over it.

Zeng ShuShu shouted loudly, “Hey, Fa Xiang senior brother, at this juncture you are still trying to enlighten people! Please act quickly, if not we will be eaten by these beasts and you will have to chant the reborn incantation for me!”

Fa Xiang forced a smile and did not reply, watching Qin WuYan withstood another Lin JingYu’s higher and higher waves of attacks, he loudly said, “Qin benefactor please watch out.” Immediately after speaking, the Reincarnation Pearl glimmered with golden light, flew out obliquely.

Qin WuYan frowned, Lin JingYu’s skills were already unexpected and now with another Fa Xiang. He snorted and without any movement, three dark shadows flew out from his right sleeve and swiftly separated out, flying at a high speed in three directions towards Fa Xiang.

Fa Xiang’s face was solemn, he did not dare to be careless, the Reincarnation Pearl flew out halfway and suddenly shone brilliantly, in a blink of an eye it deflected two of the dark shadows but the last one slipped through the golden light.

Fa Xiang made a sound [Hei], suddenly his hands like a knife, the fair hand stretched out flat, targeted right at that dark figure which was flying in and shouted loudly [Du!].

The dark figure suddenly shook violently in the air and as if it had received a heavy blow, dropped down from the sky. It was a small black snake with a triangular head, evidently it was venomous, it twitched a few times after landing on the ground and did not move anymore, most likely it was dead. Qin WuYan was stunned, he nodded and praised, “‘DingShen Tong’! As expected from the number one successor of Buddhism Tian Yin Temple, Master’s high level of cultivation, my humble self is really impressed but Master kill the livings so thoughtlessly, not sure if the Buddhas will be unpleased?”

Before Fa Xiang could reply, Lin JingYu had already attacked with vigour, enshrouding Qin WuYan in a blanket of bluish- green light, he coldly replied, “All of you evil sorceress took countless of lives everyday and committed countless of evil, and now you still can righteously question others, really shameless!”

Qin WuYan [Haha] laughed and avoided the unstoppable sharp light from Dragon Slayer Sword. The Sever Yearning Divine Dagger’s clear bright light floated out and retaliated. At the same time, his right hand jerked and another seven or eight shadows flew out from his sleeve, containing colors of brown, black, dark red and scarlet yellow, against the magical weapon’s resplendent lights, everyone saw that those were different kinds of venomous creatures, scorpion, centipede etc flying towards Fa Xiang and temporarily prevented him from coming over. Everyone was speechless, they thought to themselves that the evil sorcerer was really creepy, with so many poisonous strange creatures on his body and yet he was not afraid of being bitten. And among them, Zeng ShuShu imagined the most, he actually thought what if their senior and junior sisters saw these numerous poisonous creatures, would they be too petrified to even summon their magical weapons?

His thoughts had just flashed past in his head, his hands loosened and was almost bitten by an enormous ant near his feet. Luckily it had only bit the fringe of his shoes but the shock was enough for him to concentrate and focus on the battle.

Just that both he and Li Xun had to handle these innumerable huge ants at the same time, the pressure was simply too great. In this short period, both of them had killed another hundred over ants but these beast were endless and continued to pour over.

Zeng ShuShu and Li Xun looked at each other, both saw the retreat intention in each other’s eyes, Zeng ShuShu was about to turn around and urge the other side but from the corner of his eyes, he suddenly discovered, a faint blue light flashed in the deep of the forest.

He was stunned!

Qin WuYan tightened his brows and seemed to also at the same time, thought about pulling back. Today the four of them were really not easy to deal with and initially he assumed the formidable death marsh huge ants would be at the front but unexpectedly they were forcibly stopped by the two of them and could not even move one step beyond; and the intensity of the attacks by that Qing Yun Sect disciple in front of him with the Dragon Slayer Sword in his hands, he had not seen likes of it in his lifetime and from time to time, he would use the indomitable-with-no-room-for -retreat sword power moves, it was really a troubling point for him.

And for those poisonous creatures, it seemed like they would not be able to hold back Fa Xiang for long, if he were to wait till that person come over then most likely the game was as good as lost. Qin WuYan was the most favourable disciple of God of Poison and although he was young but he had a very good discernment. There and then he decided, his right hand shook and again three strange toads flew out to deal with Fa Xiang, the Sever Yearning’s clear and bright light surged and suddenly struck back in great force, the power was so aggressive that even Lin JingYu was forced back a few steps.

Taking advantage of this moment, Qin WuYan suddenly pulled away, moving far away from the rest, giving a long laugh he said, “Tonight let’s end it here then...”

Before he could finish his words, suddenly he heard Zeng ShuShu shouted out aloud, “Lu senior sister, quickly stop this person…”

Qin WuYan got a shock, from the corner of his eyes, he saw beside the bright lights, a blue light suddenly appeared in the darkness. Although he was shocked but he did not panic, the Sever Yearning was already horizontally in front of the blue light and he was confident that even how strong the force of this sword would be, he would be able to withstand it.

Unexpectedly although the blue light floated up in the darkness but in the wailing wind, the whole world suddenly became still in an instant, from the other side of the darkness, an icy cold feeling gushed over soundlessly and hit him on the right side of his body.

In spite of the fact that Qin WuYan had always been a cautious person, he eventually still suffered an underhand attack in this flint-spark moment. [Wa] a sound, he spat out a big mouthful of fresh blood, dying a big part of his chest red. In this critical moment, he still stubbornly pressed ahead and in a short moment, a sound of [suo suo suo] emitted from his right arm ceaselessly and immediately, several poisonous strange creatures were released to obstruct the crowd while his figure at the same time, flew back far away. After a long time his vengeful voice was heard, even though his stamina was already weak but it was still very shrill and sternly said, “Ghost Li, you are something! The revenge for this blow, we will calculate this in the future…”

Everyone was stunned by the sudden twist of event, Qin WuYan suddenly disappeared and all of the death marsh huge ants were suddenly freed but because such wild ferocious animals’ nature were to kill and devour, they instead attacked even more aggressively. Zeng ShuShu and Li Xun were unable to hold them back anymore and in the next moment, both Fa Xiang and Lin JingYu were also being besieged. That blue light in the air floated and suddenly paused slightly. Suddenly, ignoring the people in the forest, like lightning, it charged into the other side of the darkness. Someone humphed in there and following which, a dark green light shone but without any intention of dueling, it immediately turned to leave. That blue light refused to give up and immediately pursued.

With such exceptional skills, in an instant, only the light remnants of their passing figures were left and in the next moment, even the shadows were gone.

Fa Xiang and the rest with a shout, flew up simultaneously and left the ground. Those huge ants, with no one left to fight and for no reason lost many of their comrades, they must be extremely incensed, roared at the sky ceaselessly.

Fa Xiang and the rest could not care less about those beasts and quickly searched around, unexpectedly in such a short time, the forest had resumed back its darkness, that green and blue streams of light had already disappeared without a trace and they could only stare at each other! After a long time, Zeng ShuShu suddenly quietly asked, “Is it him?”

Fa Xiang remained silent for a while, a mix of emotions flashed past his eyes and eventually he sighed and said, “It should be him!”

Both of them looked at each other and looked over at Lin JingYu at the same time but that young man hovered in the air, the night breeze blew over, flapping his clothes around loudly. On his handsome face, there was no expression but that pair of eyes, kept on staring into that dark forest, staring dazedly!

The dark late night.

The stillness of the ancient forest, as if even the cries of the insects in the deep recesses of the darkness had also suddenly disappeared.

Even the sound of the wind brushing past the forest became more and more mournful and bitter, as if narrating the grievances of the dark night. The green light flashed past in the darkness, like a flitting passerby who had stepped into the darkness but that blue light behind him suddenly appeared. And it was this dazzling splendor that charged into the darkness and forced all of the darkness to retreat, closely pursuing that green stream of light.

The green light in the forest shuttled suddenly, soared suddenly, increasing and increasing its speed but no matter what it could not shake off that blue light. Looking up from the darkness, that blue light seemed like an impetuous force, pursuing relentlessly and refused to give up.

Who was it, that quietly sighed in the darkness?

Who was it, that opened his/her heart in the night? [Translator note: there was no evident reference to him or her]

The darkness poured in from all directions and then retreated, the sound of the wind hit one’s face and then swiftly disappeared, that once familiar figure fluttered ceaselessly in the night scene, reverberated in whose eyes? [Si!]

A light sound, that green light suddenly stopped and dispersed, Ghost Li’s figure appeared and quietly stood at the treetop of a big tree.

Not more than several feet away from him, that blue light too stopped behind him. That handle which even in the night was also that dazzling and radiant, Tian Ya Celestial Sword, held in the fair hand, coldly pointing at him.

The night deepened.

The mournful sound of the wind.

Their clothes, danced lightly in the wind.

Ghost Li unhurriedly, unhurriedly turned over and faced that face. She was in this world, that exquisite and incomparable beauty and that beauty untouched not even by time, made one stopped breathing but yet intoxicated.

She with her cold face, holding the sword, pointing at him!

The tip of Tian Ya Sword was as cold as snow, so very near to him, even on his throat, he seemed to feel that trail of cold.

And inexplicably, deep inside the heart, that faint anguish.

The wind, moved the treetop, their bodies too, in the night breeze, gently swayed.

Nobody spoke, only quietly stared.

These past ten years, suddenly, from the bottom of the heart, little by little it slowly seethed and surged up to the top. Her hand clutching the sword, still as fair as ten years ago and not so long ago it had been held in the palm of the hand?

He smiled, with a faint bitterness, he lightly said, “Are you still doing well?”

Lu XueQi did not answer, did not even say a single word. Her lips, because she was biting hard on it, appeared pale. The night gathered around her figure, desolated and beautiful.

Ghost Li, no, Zhang Xiao Fan, in this moonless and totally dark night, in front of this girl, suddenly he seemed to return back to ten years ago, his body seemed to too in the shadow, secretly trembled.

“Why did you not kill me?” That beautiful girl quietly said, Tian Ya which was as cold as snow, still in her hand pointing at him.

He looked at her eyes, so bright and clear, like a soundless flame. He lowered his head slightly, after a long time, he looked at his own figure, looked at that gently swaying figure in front of him and indifferently said, “Ten years ago in Crystal Hall, why did you impetuously defended me and spoke for me?”

Lu XueQi did not speak, only the corner of her lips pursed slightly, the hand that was holding the sword, so tightly, as if afraid of something?

That shining eyes, whose figure was it that gleamed in it?

Zhang Xiao Fan!

So it really did not change? In these ten years did it really not change?

She stared blankly, bit her lips and let herself remained cold, ensuring her stare would never become blurred. But, whose heart pounded, throbbing intensely in that long frozen heart, that long-been-silent faint tenderness that quietly lingered around in those countless nights, right now suddenly like a flame blazed, burned in the chest!

Beside the lips, suddenly a faint bitterness, it was a drop of wetness.

The hand that was holding the sword, slowly dropped down.

She raised her head and looked at the sky.

The wind blew her soft and beautiful hair, brushing past her fair and white face.

So the sky, had started to rain again?

Chapter 99 - Unusual Sign

The rain drifted down from the sky.

The rain was light, the sky also showed signs of early sunset, this was already the second consecutive day that it rained.

Xiao YiCai frowned tightly, suddenly turned his head and spoke to the person beside him, “Yan junior sister, have you discovered anything?”

Standing with him was FenXiang Valley YanHong, ever since the group got scattered in the miasma, Xiao YiCai had entered the inner marsh but because he went in through a different direction, he did not encounter Fa Xiang, Lin JingYu etc. Instead not long after he met YanHong nearby and although they were not from the same sect but it was still a familiar face so for the past few days they had been travelling together.

Just that they had been searching for several days in this boundless forest and had yet to discover anything. Other than trees and more trees here, next it was the unceasing rain and the numerous venomous insects on the ground, it was really vexing. Come to think of it, no wonder there was no signs of inhabitation, this place was not even livable!

But although things were such but the things that needed to be done had to be done. Xiao YiCai and YanHong searched the surroundings carefully but at the same time he sensed that even though YanHong was polite to him, she seemed to be secretly guarding against something.

Right now he saw that YanHong seemed to have notice something and she kept staring at a direction in the forest, he could not help but enquired and YanHong said, “Xiao senior brother, look over there, something strange seemed to be there.”

Xiao YiCai was surprised and looked over where YanHong pointed, behind the sheets of drizzle and in-between the dense branches and leaves, a weak golden light suddenly flashed and disappeared.

Xiao YiCai’s heart leapt but after a long time, the golden light flashed a little again but the distance between them seemed to increase. Xiao YiCai and YanHong looked at each other, both of them seemed to recall that rumour regarding the rare treasure’s omens, it was indeed an enormous golden light beam shooting up to the sky. Could it be…...

After a moment, both of them soared at the same time and as fast as lightning, dashed towards where the golden light was.

And while flying there, they subconsciously stayed a distance away from each other and also hold on tightly to their magical weapon, wondered if they were preparing for the unknown danger or the danger beside them……

Both of them flew extremely fast, shortly after they reached the area near where the golden light sparkled. Avoiding the thick branches, they saw the ground below was in a mess, broken and scattered brambles were everywhere, even the thick and big trees beside were also riddled with scars and the trees ahead which were as thick as a human’s arms around them, a few had fallen.

In the forest, the path of disorder continued straight ahead, it looked like some person or some animal had released its power here and forced a path through this dense forest.

Xiao YiCai and YanHong looked at each other and saw the indistinct shock in each other’s eyes. And at this moment ahead in the forest, a faint commotion was heard. Xiao YiCai signalled to YanHong and both of them flew up quietly, taking the cover of the branches and leaves, they soundlessly flew ahead.

After flying for a while, they saw fallen trees lying in a disarray along the way and a number of animals were found dead too, most likely they were unable to escape in time and suffered an unexpected calamity. The commotion noises turned louder and louder, mixed in it was also a voice chanting Buddhist mantra.

Xiao YiCai was surprised, he thought, “Don’t tell me Tian Yin Temple Fa Xiang senior brother is here?”

While he was hesitating, a golden light suddenly lighted up in front, a deafening angry roar was heard and in an instant, like a shock wave, the surrounding trees’ leaves shook together, the force was really remarkable. But Xiao YiCai’s face instead changed, in this ‘Buddha Subdue Evil Roar’ there was an urgent anxious feeling and it was something not reassuring. The relationship between Tian Yin Temple and Qing Yun Sect were different from FenXiang Valley, Xiao YiCai thought for a moment and eventually decided to enter the battle, after a while a sound of wind was heard, YanHong had also followed behind.

Both of them in the air saw the scene clearly and were stunned, following which both were greatly shocked.

There was a monk wearing Tian Yin Temple monk robe but it was not the gentle and refined Fa Xiang, it was that big and tall Fa Shan. Fa Shan’s robes were all summoned up and in his hand, an extremely thick ‘Vajra Subdue Evil Staff’ danced like a violent storm, the golden light glimmered, protecting his body and from time to time, he roared again and again.

And dueling with him was a beautiful lady in light yellow clothes, her expression was coquetry with a smile at the corner of her lips, her black hair lightly brushed against her shoulders and a pair of clear, sparkling eyes. Looking into the eyes, you seemed to be immersed in it and never wanted to emerge again. Xiao YiCai only took a few glances at her but suddenly he felt a wave of agitation in his heart and felt that in this world, there was only this girl and he really wanted to be with her forever.

Luckily he had trained and cultivated for many years, his level of cultivation was not considered low, he abruptly came to his senses and was shocked, he thought, “Where did this witch come from and has such powerful bewitching skill!”

Although looking at the situation below Fa Shan’s power was terrifying but in Xiao YiCai and YanHong’s eyes, both saw Fa Shan’s face was flushed and he was already forced by that beautiful lady in front of him to only defend and if there was no other assistance, most probably he could not survive for even an hour.

Xiao YiCai and YanHong were taken aback but no matter how hard they tried, they could not recall who this woman was, she with such high skills and could actually reduce Tian Yin Temple’s one of the most outstanding disciples other than Fa Xiang, Fa Shan, until he was unable to retaliate. Looking at Fa Shan’s impending defeat, Xiao YiCai and YanHong looked at each other, shouted and charged down, wielding Qing Yun Sect TongTian Peak’s famous celestial sword, ‘Seven-Star Sword’, transformed into a stream of white light, striking down from the head. And beside him, YanHong also released a stream of green energy from her hand, it was her magical weapon, ‘Green Spirit Stone’ and followed closely behind.

That light yellow-attired lady heard the sudden shouts from above and her countenance changed, annoyance flashed past her face, just that with her thousand different expressions, it seemed like the annoyance also transformed into captivating beauty, faintly written on her face, seducing one’s soul.

Xiao YiCai after all was the current Qing Yun Sect number one disciple, his skills levels were high and incomparable to normal people. The Seven-Star Sword rays were everywhere, already extending into an enormous sword beam in the air and struck down from the top. That lady’s brows tightened and did not dare to underestimate the enemy, she also saw that there was another girl behind him with high-level skills too, she had no choice but to drift back immediately and at the same time, her right hand moved continuously. Suddenly she grabbed the air and out of the thin air, a purple light shone, dazzling. An unusual purple magical weapon seething with propitious energy blocked in front of her, clashed heavily with the Seven- Star Sword and Green Spirit Stone.

[Pong!]

A muffled sound, that lady floated to the back and Xiao YiCai with YanHong landed beside Fa Shan, Xiao YiCai in a low voice asked Fa Shan, “Fa Shan senior brother, are you alright?”

Fa Shan’s face was flushed red and was panting heavily, after a long while he slowly got his breath back and said, “Xiao senior brother be careful, this lady is the Evil Sect HeHuan Sect witch Jin PingEr, she is very powerful!”

Xiao YiCai and YanHong were shocked, for these past few years Jin PingEr was considered an influential figure in the Evil Sect. Together with Qin WuYan, Ghost Li the three of them were known as the three GongZi and were viewed as a calamity by the Good Faction. Now that they saw her today, she was actually a matchless beautiful alluring lady. But thinking back to that intensive bewitching pull when he first saw her, Xiao YiCai knew most likely this person was really Jin PingEr from HeHuan Sect. Jin PingEr stood in front, feeling indignant in her heart. After she entered the inner marsh, she searched for many days but still had no clue. Today she met this Tian Yin Temple monk Fa Shan who was alone, both of them could not meet eye to eye and so started to fight.

Fa Shan had trained for many years and with the Buddhism skills he had cultivated, other than the gifted and talented Fa Xiang, within the Tian Yin Temple younger generation, he was considered the second. Just that this Jin PingEr was even more powerful, her attack was actually using her flirtatious eyes. In spite of Fa Shan’s deep and solid Buddhism composure, he was caught off-guard by the Evil Sect HeHuan Sect’s closely guarded handed down ‘Bewitching Skill’ and suffered heavy losses, he lost control of his composure for a moment and now only sixty percent of his skills remained.

After which Jin PingEr looked like she had it easy, under the swift and fierce attacks, Fa Shan did his utmost to defend himself and maintain a fragment of conscious in his mind, arduously holding up. If not for Xiao YiCai and YanHong who had came in time, most likely today Fa Shan would be defeated by this Jin PingEr, all of his entire past trainings would have gone to waste and he would be controlled by this strange bewitching skill, listening to only Jin PingEr’s commands for his whole life like a walking corpse. Right now Jin PingEr appraised Xiao YiCai from head to toe and suddenly laughed, her voice soft, gently said, “ Not sure if this gongzi has some enmity with me and used such heavy blow for the first attack, are you trying to kill the little woman me?”

Xiao YiCai looked at her, saw her liquid eyes, bright and sparkling. Looking at it in this twilight, like a bright star glittering in the night sky, it really made one aroused.

Xiao YiCai’s palms started to sweat, he forced his mind to calm down and did not look directly at her in the eye and raised his voice, “Lady is the renowned Jin PingEr from the Evil Sect HeHuan branch right! I have long heard about you!”

Jin PingEr smiled and said, “O! You recognize me?”

Xiao YiCai said, “My humble self is also meeting lady for the first time today, just that Fa Shan Master is from Tian Yin Temple Sect and is also a fellow Good Faction member as my Qing Yun Sect, it is intrinsic that my humble self will battle with lady.” Jin PingEr frowned slightly and smiled after that, “So if you said it like this, I have to consult gongzi, from which branch of Qing Yun Sect expert are you?”

Xiao YiCai said, “I dare not, my humble self is Qing Yun Sect TongTian Peak Xiao YiCai, this is FenXiang Valley Miss YanHong.”

Jin PingEr’s eyes studied YanHong’s face, she saw that her face was quite pretty and could not help but took a few more glances. Among FenXiang Valley younger generations, both YanHong and Li Xun’s skills had always been known as the twin jade annulus, just that her personality was more low- keyed and did not wish to seek attention, usually if there was any matter, Li Xun would be the one to step in and handle. Right now after following Xiao YiCai down, she had not spoken at all.

While she was being looked over by Jin PingEr, she could not help but look back at Jin PingEr. Unexpectedly with this look, she saw the beautiful lady snow-like skin, her appearance as pretty as a picture and as the time passed, even she also felt a faint swoon and was startled, at the same time her face turned slightly red and she secretly exclaimed that the Evil Sect sorcery was really shamelessly immoral, she was a girl and yet also to a slight extent bewitched.

When Xiao YiCai came over, it was already evening and now with time being squandered, the sky had gradually started to darken again.

Jin PingEr stood there prettily, facing Xiao YiCai and the rest, she pondered to herself: The level of skill for that sword move just now, this Xiao YiCai’s skill was indeed quite high and beside, there were two more persons with him. Although she herself was not afraid but the death marsh rare treasure had not appear and if she was to engage with them in this meaningless fight here, it was really not wise.

Once she had the thought, she decided to leave. Xiao YiCai looked at her face and suddenly stepped forward and was about to say something but just at that moment, from the deep corners of the death marsh, in the far distance of the unceasing rain, suddenly a loud sound like dragons singing and tigers roaring erupted! The sound was so loud that it made Fa Shan’s Buddha Subdue Evil Roar seemed like a child’s play and not even worth mentioning.

Instantly the clouds in the sky with speed that could be seen by the naked eye, transformed and churned, the mist rose, layer by layer, scene by scene like a roaring torrent of waves. Heaven and Earth seemed like it changed countenance because of this.

Everyone was astonished!

The sound was like a awl piercing the brain, made one stand unsteadily.

After a while, under the astonished stares of the people, in a far dark corner, suddenly a golden dazzling light leapt up, gradually turning brighter, gradually thickening and in the end transformed into an extremely enormous golden light beam. With the roaring, it charged up to the sky, breaking through the layers of clouds and in that moment, it illuminated the entire Heaven and Earth, the golden light was everywhere, the clouds were golden clouds and the trees were golden trees! Xiao YiCai, Jin PingEr etc the four of them gazed in awe at this Heaven and Earth spectacular phenomenon and for a moment, forgotten that they were enemies and each raised their heads to watch. The golden light beam became more and more glaring and until the end it could not be viewed. The clouds in the horizon surged even more turbulently, swirling around the golden beam rapidly, turning into an enormous vortex lighted up by the golden beam.

Under such magnificent scene, the world was awed, as if anticipating some revered and priceless object, it made one venerated.

After a long time, the golden light beam which appeared out of nowhere slowly stopped and then weakened rapidly, it appeared suddenly and left swiftly too. In only a short while, the earth shattering phenomenal scene was sucked back into the darkness like a big whale sucking water.

After the dazzling splendor, a darker and deeper darkness descended onto the earth. Jin PingEr and Xiao YiCai were all quick-witted people, immediately they realized that this was the legendary signs of the rare treasure birth, now that they witnessed it themselves, the grandeur of the rare treasure birth signs could be described as unimaginable, it made one really wondered what kind of rare treasure was it?

Compared to that, their fight was really insignificant. Almost spontaneously, Jin PingEr, Xiao YiCai, YanHong flew up at the same time and headed to where the golden light beam was, only Fa Shan was slower but he too followed closely behind.

In the darkness they transformed into four streams of brilliant lights and flew over. Although due to the enormous scale of the golden light they were unable to determine its exact location but the birth of the rare treasure was obviously right in front of them. When they thought about that, those hardworking cultivators of the true way, how could they not be aroused?

On the other side of the inner death marsh, the strong wind brought over by the golden beam caused the densely grown branches and leaves to fall neatly aside, only Qing Long and YouJi who were standing on the branches of the treetop, swayed with the wind and were unaffected.

While the magnificent Heaven and Earth spectacle slowly withdrew,  Qing  Long  heaved  a  long  sigh  and  said,  “The creations of Heaven and Earth are boundless, it is really beyond what we mortals can study. I used to think that I am a learned person, now that I have unexpectedly witnessed such extraordinary sight, I realized that all of the ten thousands of creations in this world, the sky's the limit!”

YouJi slowly looked away, because of the black veil obscuring her face, her expression was not revealed clearly. After a while she  indifferently  said,  “‘Once  the  golden  light  appear,  the Yellow Bird will definitely emerge’, these are the inscriptions engraved on the Hidden Dragon Cauldron. Just that that yellow bird is the ancient divine beast - Nine Heavens Divine Bird, even the ancient remnant scroll, ‘Divine and Evil The strange. Spiritual beast chapter’ sings its praises, don’t tell me we can really deal with it?”

Qing Long smiled and said, “Third sister, why are you worrying unnecessarily. At East Ocean LiuBo Hill, Ghost King Sect leader for the first time used the inscripted ‘Entrap Dragon WatchTower’ on the Hidden Dragon Cauldron. With the Hidden Dragon Cauldron divine power since ancient time, it subdued the rare beast, Kui Niu, in one swoop. You should know then that this Hidden Dragon Cauldron’s ‘Four Divinities Blood Formation’ really has a supernatural amazing effect. Now that everything has been prepared, even Ghost King Sect leader is confident enough to let us come, what are you still worrying, unless you don’t trust Ghost King Sect leader?”

YouJi remained silent for a while and distantly said, “Sect leader is a man of great talent and bold vision, I have always respected him, why would I doubt. Just that I have always feel that this type of weird and unfathomable thing like the ‘Four Divinities Blood Formation’, why must we …”

Qing Long’s face changed and suddenly interrupted, “Third sister, this type of matter, it is not something that you or I can discuss, next time in front of outsiders, you must never mention it!”

YouJi’s veil moved slightly and she looked towards Qing Long, he was frowning tightly and his face solemn. She had no choice but to keep quiet and then nodded her head. Qing Long then was relieved and gently said, “Third Sister, don’t mind me nagging, actually these past few years, especially ever since Miss BiYao’s incident, Ghost King Sect leader’s character has already gradually changed. Although generally he treat us with courtesy and respect but I can see when he handle matters and make decisions, his blood-thirsty desire has gradually became stronger. We are after all subordinates and unable to predict our superior’s intention, it is better to be more careful.”

YouJi quietly said, “Yes big brother, I know now.”

Qing Long looked at her and unhurriedly turned over, after remaining silent for a long while he suddenly said, “Wonder which part of the death marsh will Ghost Li be now?”

YouJi behind him, looked ahead. The dark night boundless and indistinct, the earth shattering golden light beam had already disappeared, leaving only darkness, she could not help but asked, “Big brother, hasn’t Ghost King Sect leader always trusted Ghost Li the most, why did he not inform him of our arrival this time and our purpose?” Qing Long turned and looked at YouJi and did not speak.

YouJi seemed stunned, looked like she had thought of something and then slightly raised her head, looked far away, indistinctly her voice was heard, whispering, “Is that again not allowed to say...”

Chapter 100 - Gigantic Tree

The sky gradually lightened up.

The rain ceased and the wind died down, the first ray of morning sunlight, through the sky’s layers of thick clouds and the death marsh drifting mist, shone down.

In the forest, everywhere was still but slowly following that sunlight, gradually started to stir. From an unknown place, the first cry of a bird was heard. Immediately, following the streams of lights that spilled down from the gaps of the forest’s canopy, the whole forest seemed to rouse from the night’s deep sleep, regardless near or far, the joyous cries of the early morning were heard everywhere, greeting this new day.

Right now in the forest, the mist, like a white veil, floated everywhere. When one walked into it, a faint moisture would be felt on the face. In addition with the especially fresh air in the forest, when one inhaled in, it felt like your heart had opened up. Ghost Li breathed the morning air in deeply, expressionlessly looked in front, even Xiao Hui who was lying on his shoulder, also stretched lazily.

About ten zhangs away, was the direction of the previous night’s golden light beam, the mist had suddenly thickened, turning hazy and indistinct, it looked surreal. Just that this mist and the inner marsh miasma boundary was different, the color was not grey and was a pure white color. Looking far ahead, the mist drifted lightly in the forest, wisps and threadlike, layer upon layer, piling up.

There, might be the location of the rare treasure!

Ghost Li unhurriedly turned his head and looked to the side, Lu XueQi was standing two zhangs away from him, attired in white like snow, silently staring at that mist in front.

The two of them, in the end did not fight.

The whole night, after that first moment of surprise and subtle agitation, between the both of them, was a long silence. Both of them were just three feet apart but it seemed like it was a chasm bigger than the Forsaken Abyss, deeply entrenched between them, and even more in their hearts.

Even when that dazzling golden light beam charged up to the sky, both of them turned and watched it from a bird’s-eye view, the sky’s golden light rays reflected on their faces, quietly watching in this strange foreign place, adding several degrees of coldness.

The past, in the end still changed…

Lu XueQi seemed to sense something and turned her head over, meeting Ghost Li’s stare, her eyes as clear as water, maybe there was still a faint ripple deep inside her eyes but right now, it could no longer be seen by anyone.

She looked at that man in front of her, he stood beside her in the forest, carefully looking at him, she finally discovered that he was no longer that youth anymore! The once so familiar face, the innocent and smiles replaced by calmness and the look of someone who had been through life’s vicissitudes.

She lowered her head slightly, her clear eyes stopped at the Tian Ya Celestial Sword in her hand as if thinking of something, after a while, her voice lightly floated, suddenly said, “Come back!”

She did not raise her head or make any movement, her expression did not change even the slightest, only the hand that was clutching Tian Ya, the slender and fair fingers slowly tightened.

“...Zhang junior brother!” She softly, softly said.

Come back…

These four words, the words that drifted in the morning breeze, enveloped him, then like a stone, one by one charged into his heart. Ghost Li breathed deeply, closed his eyes. The ice-cold Soul- Absorbing stick in his sleeve beside his hands, like a loyal friend, never once abandoned him!

After a very long time.

When he opened his eyes, there was a faint smile, he unhurriedly said, “This name, I have not use it for a very long time.”

The corner of Lu XueQi’s mouth twitched, she slowly raised her head but eventually whatever words that she wanted to say, she did not say it and kept quiet.

Both of them stood like that but the distance between them seemed to increase again. The morning sunlight shone onto that unparalleled beautiful girl’s face, warmly radiating a soul- moving beauty, the faintly discernable light mist seemed to be also attracted to her, gently danced and enveloped her.

That instant, her face, also seemed to be faintly blurred. Lu XueQi turned and strided without saying anything and walked towards where that blanket of dense haze was, leaving that man behind her.

Just that when her figure was becoming more indistinct in the haze, she suddenly heard that man’s voice behind her, unhurriedly saying, “Will you kill me?”

Her figure, disappeared into the white haze, nobody could see her eyes, her expression, her body again.

The silent morning, after a long time, floated out her voice from the haze, “I will. So whenever you have the chance to kill me, do not hesitate to do so…”

The sky brightened up completely but walking in the haze made one felt that it was still dim. This stretch of haze was far denser than the other places and limited one’s vision too.

Ghost Li walked along in the forest and had already noticed that other than the mist, even though he was still in the forest but it was very much different from the outside. Other than the looming tall trees in the haze, there were only a few of the thick thorny undergrowth and bushes as seen in the forest outside, not sure if it was because of the thick haze that prevented the sunlight from reaching down.

But the most surprising thing was, the venomous insects, ferocious beasts, bizarre plants and flowers that permeated the death marsh forest suddenly disappeared too. Ghost Li traversed in this forest for at least an hour and had not encountered even one poisonous insect.

Here, not a single living thing seemed to exist, a heavy dead atmosphere.

Ghost Li frowned and continued to walk ahead. Xiao Hui on his shoulder also quietened down, its hands grabbing onto his clothes tightly but a pair of sharp eyes were still turning around, ceaselessly looking around. Without the thorny undergrowth and those pestering poisonous animals and strange beasts, it was clearly much more easier to travel. This was the first time ever since he had entered the inner marsh. Lu XueQi entered the haze earlier than him, Ghost Li outside, had deliberately waited for a long time before entering, right now where exactly was Lu XueQi?

Just that, while he was walking in the forest, on one hand he was staying vigilant against any strange movements but in his heart, subconsciously his mind kept going over that white- attired girl’s figure.

“Come back…”  Ghost Li spoke to himself, using only the voice that he could hear, softly chanted these four words.

Qing Yun Hill, Big Bamboo Valley, Observed Silence Hall, small courtyard, bamboo forest…

His lips twitched, a anguished smile emerged and said, “I can no longer return, isn’t it, Xiao Hui?”

[Zi zi!] The monkey Xiao Hui softly called out twice, nobody knew what it meant also. Ghost Li patted Xiao Hui, after a moment, he suddenly cheered up, with a wry smile, strided and headed deep inside the haze.

Walking for another hour, the trees in the forest were getting thicker and thicker, until the latter part, it was almost as thick as two persons’ arms going around it. Ghost Li observed the surroundings and was secretly alarmed.

The past ten years, after the shock from the Qing Yun Hill battle and with the magical weapons, Soul-Absorbing stick and Sinister Orb, beside him exerting their subtle influence, other than devoting his concentration to cultivation and his nature gradually evolving into a ruthless and blood-thirsty one, he had also learned other kinds of knowledge from Ghost King. And this generation of Ghost King was really a talent out of this world, not to mention his skills were extraordinary high, he also read extensively and had broad ambitions.

Because of BiYao, Ghost King treated him like his own, affectionately taught him, under his planned guidance, the Ghost Li now not only trained and cultivated but even his knowledge and experience, far exceeded that naive and ignorant Qing Yun Sect junior disciple. Right now he observed the enormous trees in this forest, actually these trees were not rare and uncommon trees, these were oak, maple and pagoda trees etc, even in the mountains outside the death marsh, there were abundant of them. But the strange part was that the trees here were extraordinary huge, the normal ones were only about half of their sizes and it was already quite alarming, to add to that, so many of these trees were all gathered here.

But what was even more strange was that by right it should be exuberant at where these trees were but under this sheet of haze, not even one animal was seen. Even the occasional thorny undergrowth seen at the beginning were all gone. And above the ground, other than the occasional revealed roots of these huge trees, were all solid and light yellow mud, not even grass grew here.

Under the chilly cold haze, it had a sombre and desolate feeling.

Ghost Li frowned deeply, he muttered to himself for a long while, surveyed the surroundings and saw that the enormous trees reached up to the sky, perfectly straight and towering, he himself strolling in the forest looked as if he was inside an enormous maze.

He suddenly waved his sleeve and his entire being soared up, unwilling to stay any longer in this strange place, he wielded his Soul-Absorbing stick, in the dark-green light, he flew forward.

His speed naturally increased a lot but considering that the rare treasure could be around here, Ghost Li did not fly up above the forest and maintained about six feet above the ground, he flew swiftly and searched carefully at the same time.

The time passed by quietly, the forest was still silent, only the sound of his flight reverberated in this forest. The trees in this forest, following Ghost Li’s deeper and deeper penetration, their trunks got bigger and bigger, right now the trees projecting in his eyes, most likely were already an unbelieveable thickness of six, seven burly men arms length going around. Without even guessing, one would know that the trees in this forest were most likely several hundreds or even thousands of years old! In the sheet of thickening strange atmosphere, Ghost Li’s figure suddenly stopped.

Right now the sky had already brightened up for a long while but this haze seemed to have no intention of dispersing, as if since the ancient times, these layers of haze seemed to co-exist with this area of forest.

And in the deepest corner of this forest, Ghost Li hovered in mid-air and looked ahead.

Ahead of him, a wall suddenly towered in front!

Wooden wall!

The rough wood grain, solid and with faint fissures, suddenly extended out from the fog, almost as high as three zhangs, like a strong and healthy young dragon lying across the huge forest, thrusted deeply into the earth. Ghost Li coldly watched, did not move and carefully assessed this wooden wall, the corner of his eyes began to twitch. After which, he slowly moved his body forward and gently touched it.

The moment his hands touched it, he felt something warm and rough. In his heart Ghost Li seemed to have a thought but he could not dare to believe it. He took back his hand and his body started to drift along this wooden wall to the front.

The white haze ahead gradually dispersed and then slowly congealed behind him, the wooden wall in front of him was getting taller and thicker, gradually becoming a curved shape and its height was slowly increasing too.

Finally about six zhangs high, he reached the end point of this wooden wall, Ghost Li stopped.

He breathed deeply but still was unable to calm himself down, under the palpitating heartbeats, what was before him, through the haze, was finally revealed in front of his eyes. This enormous wooden wall, at the end of the haze, harmoniously merged into a even bigger object.

In the sky, a strand of sunlight suddenly shone from the haze and disappeared soon after, obscured by the haze.

Ghost Li finally confirmed the inconceivable thought in his heart just now.

The enormous wooden wall was part of a tree branch…

The layers of haze drifted around, because of the shock he was slightly panting and then he abruptly raised his head, that gaze seemed to break through the blurring sunlight, headed straight and charged up.

Like a soundless lightning, rumbling, the entire forest seemed to tremble and appeared before him, it was actually a gigantic tree totally beyond one’s imagination, that tree trunk was so thick that its borders could not be seen in this haze and covered with a rough bark, like an enormous mountain towering and lofty, going straight up towards the sky, immersing in the haze, like drilling into the sky!

Ghost Li like an ant, so insignificant in front of this gigantic tree.

A gigantic tree with branches that could even reach up to six zhangs, what kind of sight was that?

Ghost Li slowly looked away, Xiao Hui on his shoulder quietly called out once and seemed to be nervous. Ghost Li leaned his head slightly to the side and suddenly smiled, lightly said, “The world is so big, there is no lack of strange stuffs, we are really a frog in the well. Xiao Hui, let’s go! Let us take a good look at this gigantic tree!”

Under his feet, the Soul-Absorbing stick’s dark-green light suddenly lighted up, after a moment, it tilted and flew up, Ghost Li howled and following that piercing sound, one human and one monkey charged into the sky, immersing into the layers of haze. The winds hurtled past, biting because of the high speed. Within the haze, the situation seemed similar to when they first entered the inner marsh, within the miasma wall but it was after all not the same, first there was no poisonous air and second, they could see further. Just that in this layers of haze, it congealed till an extremely high level. Ghost Li followed along this inconceivable gigantic tree and flew upwards. Flying for almost an hour, the haze still had not dispersed, made one wondered if the haze actually connected to the cloud layers.

At the same time, Ghost Li also noticed some changes on the gigantic tree trunk. While on the ground, which was also the lowest part of the tree, it was thick beyond imagination and on the tree itself, other than the rough bark, there was nothing else.

But after flying for so long, branches started to appear and the most conspicuous thing that started to appear was a vine- like weird plant, twining criss-crossed around the trunk, its leaves were huge and at the tip, a colourful flower bloomed. There was red, yellow, orange and purple, extremely beautiful, when the wind blew over, there was also a faint fragrance. But until now, he was still unable to see, just how thick was this gigantic tree trunk?

The amazing creation was really out of this world, this gigantic tree most likely really was thousand and thousand of years old, that was why it was this gigantic!

[Si!]

A sharp sound pierced the air, the dark-green light glimmered and dashed out from the haze. The haze under his feet too, following his figure, wisps followed up and then gently settled back down, just like the sea settling down.

Ghost Li finally emerged out of this haze!

Heaven and Earth, suddenly opened wide!

The bright blue sky, cloudless for thousand of miles, a cloudless blue sky and the white boundless haze below surrounding the gigantic tree, the nearer it was to the tree, the denser the haze was.

And now, Ghost Li was already high up in the air and could finally take a good look at this gigantic tree.

Even though at such high place, this tree was still hundred of zhangs thick and thinking back to the distance that he had flew from the ground to here, this tree was not a tree and instead a lofty mountain!

But then, this was obviously a tree.

And it still continued to extend up, that gigantic trunk, other than the same alarming thick branches, extended perfectly straight up to the sky.

Ghost Li raised his head and looked far, deep somewhere in the sky, there seemed to be an indistinct figure. He suddenly laughed and flew towards the blue sky.

Which man, facing such a scene, would not be in high spirits?

He flew up and pierced through the sky!

His speed increased, disregarding the knives-like biting winds on his face.

As he flew up, the gigantic branches gradually shrunk, until the end, it was only several zhangs big but even so it was still astonishing. And right now, thin floating clouds were seen, occasionally drifting beside the tree.

The gigantic tree, like what the ancient legend said, the stairways to Heaven, straight to the sky!

Again flying for another about five zhangs, Ghost Li figure finally stopped, in front of him, the perfectly straight trunk suddenly splitted into two big branches and extended left and right.

Ghost Li hesitated for a while and unhurriedly flew over, landing at where the gigantic branches splitted. Although it was described as bifurcation, the gigantic tree was so colossal that several people could stand here and yet not feel squeezy. When Ghost Li landed on the tree, [Zi] a sound and Xiao Hui was the first to jump down, its monkey head looked around and then carefully touched the tree. Evidently it was very curious, in its whole life this was the first time it had seen such gigantic tree, and even though it was just a monkey, it was still very surprised.

Ghost Li smiled and did not bother about Xiao Hui, while flying on his way here, he was really shocked. Before this, he could not imagine that there would be such gigantic tree in this world and right now, after the initial shock, he already surmised that could it be that the rare treasure might actually be on this incredible gigantic tree?

The two branches were about the same sizes and almost several zhangs thick, stretching horizontally, like two enormous dragons leaping in the air. Starting from here, the leaves gradually became luxuriant and the distance that it extended out were extremely long, standing at where it bifurcated, the ends could not be seen.

Ghost Li pondered for a while and decided, he turned around and called, “Xiao Hui.”

The monkey Xiao Hui was jumping around on the tree and seemed not to fear the terrifying height at all, at times it even ran to the edge and stretched its head out to look down, it was extremely brave for a monkey. Now that it heard its master shout, [Zi zi] it called out twice and happily jumped back and leapt onto Ghost Li’s shoulder.

Ghost Li smiled and said, “Let’s go!”

Xiao Hui’s eyes rolled around and nodded, seemed like the monkey was also very curious, it was grinning non-stopped and looking very excited.

Ghost Li looked left and right for a while and hesitated for a moment, and then without any delay, he wielded his Soul- Absorbing stick again, in the brilliant dark-green light, headed towards the left side of the tree branch.

He flew for another long while again but although the gigantic tree trunk was high up in the air, it still had numerous enormous leaves, extremely exuberant. However, it did not seem to have any fruit or flower and instead that nameless vine which had started to climb around the tree from the bottom, its flowers were in full bloom, displaying a beautiful scene.

Ghost Li kept flying, as he kept going, the branch became thinner but the vines instead became thicker and the number of flowers also increased, until it was everywhere, a feast for the eyes and a strange fragrance floated in the air.

Suddenly, Ghost Li’s body which had been flying, stopped abruptly in the mid-air. Because of the abrupt stop, it emitted a sharp noise.

The trunk in front of him was totally obscured by the vines, the flowers vied with each other for glamour, from the top to bottom like a sea of flowers, they congealed to become a wall. And in this sea of flowers, a stone door stood towering, with a height of five zhangs and width of three zhangs, it was embedded in the trunk. The numerous flowers covered it totally, leaving only a thick solid enormous stone in the middle and engraved on top of it were four words in ancient lettering.

[Celestial Emperor Treasury!]

Barely audible, a sound similar to some ancient stately music reverberated in the blue skies, soul-moving.

Ghost Li’s gaze moved to the stone door, within the sea of flowers, a white figure stood in front of it.

As if she had heard the movement behind her, that white- attired girl slowly turned around, the numerous beautiful flowers under the blue sky, suddenly like they were laughing heartily together, set against her unparalleled beautiful face, blooming proudly!

In the sea of flowers, she was the most bright elegant and beautiful dash of color. Ghost Li in the air, a mixed of emotions swelled up in his heart for a moment, stared dazedly.