Chapter 21 The Trap

As Ye Qi spoke, the ground of the shrine suddenly cracked open, and the sound of boiling oil, accompanied by thick white smoke, rolled out from below.

When the white smoke dissipated, a hollow filled with hot oil was revealed on the ground. The oil in the hole was boiling, as if heated by some unknown force. In the center of the pit, a coffin locked with iron chains was floating up and down in the scalding oil.

Ye Qi said coldly, "Inside the coffin is my corpse. Because I failed to complete my master's task, I was punished to suffer the torment of being fried in oil within the coffin."

I looked at the coffin and said, "Are you planning to take me to see your master now?"

Ye Qi said coldly, "You failed to complete the task. Why should you get to see the master?"

I looked at Ye Qi with a smile that wasn't quite a smile. "How do you know we didn't complete the task? We've already completed it. Take me to see the Demon God to report back."

Ye Qi turned around and sized me up. "You completed the task? Where's the thing? Take it out and give it to me."

"Who do you think you are? Do you have the right to take something meant to be handed over to your master?" I said in a deep voice, "The thing is on one of us. All the problems can be solved by seeing your master. If I can't see your master, don't bother talking nonsense with me."

Ye Qi said in a low voice, "If you take out the thing, I'll pass it on layer by layer, and only then will the master awaken and decide whether to see you or not. Otherwise, you can only choose the second method."

Ye Qi pointed to the coffin in the boiling oil. "Kill all of the master's servants and fight your way up step by step from here. Which do you choose?"

I said slowly, "I want to ask you a question. If you can answer it, I'll give you the thing."

As Ye Qi looked at me, I also stared into his eyes and asked, "What was the mission the Demon God gave you? And what did he ask you to bring back?"

After a slight pause, Ye Qi said coldly, "You're doubting me?"

I quietly gripped the handle of my blade. "The Demon God's mission wasn't for us to find something."

Ye Qi's eyes suddenly narrowed. In the next instant, he flew backward, rushing towards the coffin in the boiling oil.

My dual blades erupted at the same time, the blood-red blade energy surged several meters high, chasing after Ye Qi's figure and slashing at the coffin.

Just as the blade energy, powerful enough to shatter stone tablets, was about to touch the coffin, I was suddenly startled and forcibly retracted the blade energy.

The blade energy dissipated, and I was knocked back five steps by the rebounding force. If Feng Ruoxing hadn't supported me, I would have fallen to the ground.

I adjusted my breathing as much as possible and said, "Ye Qi wants us to touch the coffin. No one move!"

Ye Qi's voice came from inside the coffin, "So what if you saw through my trick? You can't leave the shrine, ascend the heavenly stairs, or see the Demon God! You can only be trapped here to die."

"The last Ye Qianyang has returned, and the game here should end."

As my gaze suddenly narrowed, a loud noise suddenly came from the mountain temple. The wall opposite Ye Yang and me suddenly cracked, revealing a staircase that seemed to lead to the top of the sky.

Before entering the temple, I had carefully observed the terrain here. The shrine was already built on the summit of the snow mountain, and above that was the misty sky. Where could that stone staircase lead?

Ye Qi said coldly, "Don't you want to see the Demon God? Go up! The Demon God is at the end of the stone steps. But, take a good look at what's on the stone steps."

Besides the seven coffins, the straight stone steps were covered with scattered white bones and broken weapons. Strangely, each skeleton had a long sword of the same style stuck in it.

I subconsciously looked at the Cold Flame in Ye Yang's hand.

Ye Qi's laughter followed. "You see? The coffins on the stone steps are all Ye Qianyang, and the piles of white bones on the stone steps are the idiots who accompanied Ye Qianyang up the mountain. They all died at the hands of Ye Qianyang in the end."

"Unfortunately, they didn't understand until their deaths that Ye Qianyang could achieve immortality by hiding in the coffin. They were all sacrifices for Ye Qianyang's reincarnation."

"Ye Qianyang brought them here for his own survival!"

"They foolishly came here to die one by one."

Ye Qi paused and said, "That kid, if you want to leave, you still have a chance. Don't accompany Ye Qianyang to your death!"

"Shut up!" The Soul Chasing Lock in my hand suddenly lashed out, and a "Soul Striking Whip" struck the coffin from several meters away. Two Soul Chasing Ropes simultaneously hit the front and back of the coffin, and Ye Qi, who was hiding inside, was also sent flying into the air.

Ye Qi didn't seem to expect me to suddenly attack. After being sent flying, he was stunned in mid-air.

In the next second, the dagger that Feng Ruoxing threw transformed into cold lightning, piercing through Ye Qi from a distance and pinning him to the wall.

Feng Ruoxing said coldly, "He's not Ye Qi! The real Ye Qi should be in the coffin. There's an aura of ghosts and gods inside."

I coldly looked at the ghost pinned to the wall and said, "You repeatedly delayed me to allow the ghost to control the corpse in the coffin, right?"

"Mobilizing eight ghosts and gods, your scheme is quite big!"

Ye Qi laughed and said, "The last Ye Qianyang has returned, so naturally we can't let him leave. Otherwise, wouldn't we have waited in vain for so many years?"