330: Chapter 66: Corpse Mountain, Blood Sea 330: Chapter 66: Corpse Mountain, Blood Sea There are things in this world that are simply unreasonable.
Not long before, when they first encountered each other at Resentful Ghost Ridge, they were enemies.
But now, they were at least half allies.
Prince Jiu wanted to kill Xie Xuanyi, and he wanted to kill Ao Ying just the same!
“Chong Kan and Prince Jiu will definitely set foot in this place,”
Xie Xuanyi said calmly, “We need to speed up.”
“…Okay.”
Ao Ying nodded with lingering fear.
After successive battles, quite a bit of her essence blood had been absorbed by Feng Mou, but she knew the consequences of being caught up by Prince Jiu and Chong Kan.
Despite her unsteady steps, she managed to keep up with Xie Xuanyi’s pace.
“The Imperial Family of the Great Yue Kingdom sure has a rich heritage,”
Ao Ying remarked as she surveyed the ancient palace, unable to hide her amazement.
This millennium-old palace was the ultimate in luxury, emanating golden splendor.
Even these giant pillars adorned with ancient carvings could fetch an enormous price if taken and sold elsewhere.
“All is past.”
Xie Xuanyi softly uttered these three words.
The Imperial Family of the Great Yue Kingdom had long been dead.
He slowly relayed the history of the ancient nation’s downfall to Ao Ying.
The demoness listened intently; she had entered this ancient kingdom originally just to ambush Xie Sheng and the three Human Race Saint Heirs, to extract their essence blood and seize fate for herself.
She had not seen the supposed Illusion of the Ancient Battlefield.
It was by a stroke of luck that she later discovered the Dragon Array, and only then did Ao Ying realize…
A terrible war related to the Dragon Descendants had once taken place in the Great Yue Kingdom.
“So…”
After a long while, Ao Ying furrowed her brows and asked, “This ancient nation’s ruler, Emperor Qi, wanted to ascend to True Immortal by refining the entire nation’s people, leading to such a concentration of grievances in this city, forming Li Mei?”
Outside, Resentful Ghost Ridge.
It was but a small fragment of the battlefield, a mere projection of the Great Yue Kingdom’s lingering thoughts.
Xie Xuanyi said, “You could say that.”
“And her?”
This question wasn’t spoken aloud by Ao Ying, but rather, she cautiously sent out a strand of Divine Thought, making an inquiry through a soul sound transmission.
She was very curious about Qing Li’s identity.
“Of course…
she is not Li Mei.”
Xie Xuanyi hesitated for a moment and then calmly transmitted back, “I don’t know who she is either.
I brought her to the Great Yue Well to seek the secret of her identity.”
Ao Ying smiled but did not ask further.
She was well aware that the words Xie Zhen told her were not entirely trustworthy and must be a mix of truth and falsehood.
The identity of this little mute girl.
Probably had a great connection with those Dragon Descendants.
“So, to ascend to True Immortal…
is such a great sacrifice really necessary…”
Ao Ying changed the subject and with a sigh, she said, “Nine million souls, all sacrificed; what a staggering scene that must have been?”
As soon as she finished speaking,
The two stopped in their tracks.
Xie Xuanyi looked down, the water beneath his feet flowing gently, but in front of him, a barrier of void suddenly appeared.
The two exchanged a look and nodded at each other.
Ao Ying took a small step back.
Xie Xuanyi extended his hand, pressing it on the barrier of void!
Layers upon layers of Sword Qi accumulated, fragments of the Rule of Destruction converged into one point, and erupted!
With a crack!
The moment the barrier of void began fracturing, Xie Xuanyi frowned; he could smell a strong scent of blood…
the barrier was as if sealing a Corpse Mountain and a sea of blood, and the moment it shattered, crimson blood light spilled out!
With a hiss,
Xie Xuanyi covered Qing Li’s eyes with his hand and at the same time, he summoned his Sword Qi, transforming it into a light fire sun—myriad strands weaving together, slowly fluttering aloft!
The barrier of void was completely shattered.
A roiling crimson sea fell from the broken heights of the barrier.
“…”
Qing Li’s expression was quite unsightly.
She didn’t peek out of curiosity, but the rich, pungent smell of blood made her guess the general scene outside.
Even Ao Ying, accustomed to fighting and killing, looked somewhat pale at this moment.
Countless corpses, piled up into mountains.
That barrier of void was not to keep “arrivals” out.
It was to prevent the fall of corpses.
These densely packed corpses piled together, forming a mountain; as the barrier burst, this mountain began to collapse, one corpse fell, stirring the second corpse to break apart… The whole process was like an avalanche, Xie Xuanyi’s sword energy light fire upheld above, creating a chest-hitting barrier of clear, pale light within a three-foot radius.
But in the next instant,
A multitudes of corpses came tumbling down.
This “avalanche” engulfed the three of them directly.
The pitter-patter sounds of bodies hitting, dense like rain, sounded extremely heavy.
Ao Ying hid within Xie Xuanyi’s Sword Energy Barrier; her expression complex, she looked at the young Human Race man before her both in shock and awe.
At first meeting, she thought he was just an ordinary Human Race Sword Cultivator.
But now she no longer thought so…
A Corpse Mountain of blood, surging down.
A strand of sword light, cleaving through it.
This young man in black robes, calm from beginning to end, could she herself have remained as composed if faced with such a sight?
In this moment,
Ao Ying genuinely doubted whether Xie Zhen had killed many, many people, so as to watch such a towering Corpse Mountain crumble before him and remain unmoved.
After a long while,
The “avalanche” was over.
The Corpse Mountain remained, only the fallen pieces were ground by the Sword Qi, turning into a sea of blood beneath their feet…
“Alright,”
Xie Xuanyi said calmly, “The path is ahead.
We can continue now.”
A relatively narrow path had been cut out through the Corpse Mountain.
“Are you…
truly human?”
Ao Ying spoke with a complex look, slowly voicing this question.
“Genuine and true.”
Xie Xuanyi responded indifferently, “You, a member of the Demon Race, why ask such a dull question?”
“…”
Ao Ying fell silent for a moment before saying earnestly, “I’ve never seen a freak like you.”
“What, should I be so scared that I can’t even move?
Would that make you feel happier?”
Xie Xuanyi covered Qing Li’s eyes with one hand, while from his sleeve he produced a talisman imbued with Primordial Energy and set it ablaze, spreading its protective embrace over Qing Li’s face.
This talisman is known as the “Clean Air Talisman,” one of the most basic talismans within the Taoist domain, capable of blocking impure air.
Although Qing Li’s complexion remained pale, her overall condition improved significantly…
had it not been for the talisman concealing the aura, the poor little thing probably would have vomited on the spot.
He slowly walked into Corpse Mountain.
Ao Ying hurried to keep up.
The range of the Sword Energy Barrier was small, as Xie Xuanyi had no desire to waste Primordial Energy, thus the space left for the demoness was quite limited.
They sidestepped, hugging the edge of Corpse Mountain as they passed by.
As Ao Ying looked at the numerous skulls and contorted faces, her feelings became extremely complex.
Although the Demon Race is naturally bloodthirsty, they too seek good fortune and avoid misfortune.
On normal days.
Very few Demon Cultivators would venture to an Ancient Battlefield to court bad luck.
So many “dead people” laid out before her.
Even she could feel the misfortune.
“These people have been dead for a long time.”
Xie Xuanyi walked ahead through the long stretch of Corpse Mountain, observing the deceased and gathering some information, “Their bodies should have decayed by now, but they were preserved by the power of the Tao Rules…
This Grotto Heaven at the bottom of the well seems to have a complete set of rules, capable of freezing time and solidifying their corpses.”
“What does that mean?”
Ao Ying raised her eyebrows, “Couldn’t it be that Emperor Qi didn’t die after all?”
“He’s definitely dead,”
Xie Xuanyi said calmly, “But beings of that caliber can often leave behind their Divine Souls…
Since the Tao Rules of this Grotto Heaven can seal the palace and preserve corpses, they must exist to satisfy the desires of even more powerful beings.”
He did not know to what realm the ruler of the Great Yue Kingdom, Emperor Qi, had reached.
But the Primordial Master within Xuanshui Cave Heaven would not be below Emperor Qi.
The Primordial Master left behind that trace of consciousness, that awareness within the Divine Soul’s remnants.
Emperor Qi might have left something similar.
“These people, were they the civilians sacrificed?”
Ao Ying couldn’t bear to look anymore.
On the contrary, Xie Xuanyi stopped in his tracks, and reached out his hand to gently touch a withered skull.
His Divine Thought swept over, but it came up empty.
He couldn’t read the Soul Sea.
But there was no need to read the Soul Sea…
This empty husk was consistent with the ultimate outcome of that great battle.
The citizens of the Great Yue Kingdom were sacrificed, their bodies fell into the array, and their resentful souls ascended to the void.
“Clearly, this is the array that Emperor Qi used for his ascension,”
Xie Xuanyi lowered his eyelids and said slowly, “Perhaps…
a little further on, we might see the true nature of the ‘Dragon Slaying Battle’ from back then.”
He slowly withdrew his hand that rested on the skull of the dead.
“Xie Xuanyi,”
Ao Ying could no longer restrain herself, asking him very seriously, “Have you killed many people?”
“…”
This was not the first time Xie Xuanyi had been asked this question.
He sighed lightly, lapsing into a brief moment of reverie.
Back in the day, from all around the four territories, countless people said.
The Da Sui Sword Palace had produced a murderous Sword Immortal, with unmatched Sword Dao talent, but with a heart too inclined to killing.
Kill one within ten steps, leaving no trace for a thousand miles!
In those years, he ventured alone to the North to hunt demons, to the South Border to purge evil.
How many had he killed?
Thousands, tens of thousands?
Perhaps accumulated in front of him, they might form a little hill.
But compared to this mighty mountain formed from the corpses of 9 million lives, it seemed trivial.
Hard to imagine.
That the title of True Immortal could drive a king to willingly sacrifice his entire nation’s populace…
Did Emperor Qi truly have nothing else in this world to hold dear?
Xie Xuanyi’s silence.
In Ao Ying’s eyes, became a form of response.
She had long harbored doubts about “Xie Zhen’s” identity.
What kind of talent could reach the level of a Half-step Yin God by the age of sixteen or seventeen?
It seems only Taoist Reincarnated True People or Buddhist Nirvana Heirs could accomplish that step!
And what sort of status.
Allows one to face such mountains of corpses and seas of blood without changing expression?
This youth…
Is he really just a youth?
“Ao Ying,”
A soft voice arose at the end of Corpse Mountain.
Ahead was the end of the crimson flesh mountain.
Xie Xuanyi suddenly spoke up, breaking Ao Ying’s train of thought.
The demoness came back to her senses.
“We have signed a soul contract, within the borders of the Great Yue Kingdom, I will not kill you,”
Xie Xuanyi said calmly, “I always keep my word, the Red Dragon Fortune that I promised you earlier, I will return it to you when we leave.
But that doesn’t mean…
that I will not lay a hand on you from now on.”
His words sent a chill through Ao Ying’s spine.
Her expression changed uncertainly as she stared at the youth before her, tensing up once more.
“It’s apparent that you are very interested in my identity,”
Xie Xuanyi continued, “If you really want to know the answer, you are quite welcome to guess in front of me.
As long as you guess correctly, I will not deny it.”
Does this guy have mind-reading abilities?
How could he possibly know what she was thinking!
“…”
Perspiration began to form on Ao Ying’s forehead.
Xie Zhen is asking her to guess?
How could she dare to guess!
This guy claims to honor his promises, but Ao Ying, who has spent years wandering the Demon Domain, has never met a single Cultivator who truly kept their word!
“Very well,”
Xie Xuanyi said with an impassive face, “It seems you also have things you’re afraid of.
Since you fear death and provoking me, don’t inquire or speculate.
Sometimes being a fool can help you live longer than being smart…
Knowing too much is not to your benefit.”
…
…
(Adjusting my biological clock, there will be three updates tomorrow.
The first one will be before noon at 12 o’clock.)