Jade Dynasty

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Devil Formation

Majestic Fox Mountain.

Location of Ghost King Sect Headquarters.

Below the desolate mountain, Ghost King sect’s headquarters was concealed in the solid hard grotto. In the winding twisting tunnel, somewhere in a deep and tranquil location, an empty long tunnel with only copper lanterns embedded every several zhangs in the stone walls, illuminating a little.

YouJi with her face covered by a black veil, her figure swaying, walked alone ahead, looking from afar, she looked just like a spirit in the darkness.

The place, was the restricted area of the Ghost King sect, together with the icy-cold cave where BiYao was, it was the most mysterious place of the Ghost King sect and had always been forbidden to normal disciples. But YouJi, as Scarlet Bird, one of the four great holy envoys of the Ghost King sect, was one of the core members and therefore able to enter these places freely.

Just that, she glanced at that distant endless deep tunnel which she was heading to, her footsteps suddenly slowed down, as if she had some hesitation but eventually still strided over.

In the deep shadows ahead, a few strange low cries seemed to be coming from it now, like some wild animals roaring.

Passing another long tunnel, the lanterns on both sides of the walls started to get dimmer, finally, after turning into a corner, YouJi came to the end of this tunnel and a stone door stood in front of her, three words carved into the lintel:

Entrap Dragon WatchTower.

YouJi stared at that three words for a long time, surrounded by silence, only from time to time that strange cries which started not long ago, gradually became clearer and a faint stench of blood seemed to fill the air.

The black veil on YouJi’s face moved, she seemed to be shaking her head, softly sighed and then walked into this stone door.

Once inside the stone door, a large space appeared, it was actually a huge grotto and at the side were strange towering crags, each having their own shapes. And in front of the stone door where YouJi was, a stone path suspended in the air, winding ahead, passing through the middle of the grotto. Right now, she was actually high up in the mid-air of this huge grotto.

This was clearly not the first time YouJi was here, looking at such a scene, she did not appear stunned and remained still for a moment and then walked along that narrow small stone path. The upper half of the grotto was in darkness but below the stone path, red lights glimmered and reflected up and instead made the crags in the top half of the grotto looked savage.

The blood stench in the air, turned thicker.

The stone path suspended in the midair of this enormous huge grotto, it was unknown if it was natural or manmade and hanging horizontally like that in the air, looking at it from afar, there was actually no stone pillars supporting it below, really inconceivable.

The dark figure of YouJi walked along the stone path, not a sound was made while she was walking, which really had some degree of eerieness. But not long, she saw a figure ahead.

Ghost King.

The end of the stone path was a seven chi big stone platform, Ghost King was standing on it with his hands clasped behind. Looking at his back figure, his figure was calm and dignified, almost giving a strange feeling of becoming one with this enormous huge grotto.

YouJi walked behind him and quietly said, “Sect leader.”

Ghost King turned his head over, nodded, smiled and said, “You have come.”

The black veil on YouJi’s face suddenly paused, like she was shocked. When the stone path arrived at this platform, it was considered the end and there was nothing ahead. Correspondingly, the mysterious red lights at the bottom of the grotto looked brighter from here. When Ghost King turned his head, that red light was immediately reflected over, indistinctly making his face blurred and even in his eyes, there seemed to be a faint red light.

Ghost King seemed not to have notice all these and only said, “Come on over.”

YouJi walked over and stood on the flat platform, immediately her eyes widened, without the stone path obscuring, whatever was at the bottom of the grotto was plainly visible.

At the bottom, was an enormous blood pool, fresh red blood fluid filled the bottom of the enormous grotto, nobody knew from where did Ghost King sect obtained so much of the fresh blood. Most likely the heavy smell of blood in the air came from below.

In the blood pool, two massive beasts were immersed in it. One was the Yellow Bird from the death marsh and another was the rare Kui Niu from East Ocean LiuBo Hill. These two ancient rare beasts’ upper bodies were soaked in the blood pool and at the same time, above the blood pool, a dark red light enveloped their bodies. Looking at the direction from where the dark red light was projected, it was coming from the Hidden Dragon Cauldron with ineffable power, mysteriously suspended in the mid air by itself.

Ghost King and YouJi were standing quite far from where the Hidden Dragon Cauldron was but YouJi could still see a dark figure performing sorcery on top of the cauldron, just that she could not view it clearly because of the red lights. But even so, she still knew who it was - Mr Ghost, the most mysterious person in Ghost King sect.

YouJi, as one of the four holy envoys of Ghost King sect, knew almost everything about Ghost King sect at the back of her hand but except for this Mr Ghost. The reason was very simple, this person did not come from Ghost King sect. Instead, it was when after the current Ghost King ascended the position, a mysterious figure suddenly appeared beside him, Ghost King deeply respected him and this mysterious figure, in the rare times that he made his moves, the strange skills that he displayed, also made Qing Long, YouJi etc the Ghost King sect martial experts changed countenances.

But in YouJi’s heart, she had been extremely wary of this person all along, the most important reason was because, under the strong encouragement from Mr Ghost, Ghost King had finally at ten years ago, started the “Four Divine Blood Formation”.

Passed down for generations of the Ghost King sect, the heirloom magical weapon, ‘Hidden Dragon Cauldron’, had mysterious origins and contained infinite divine power, neither good or evil, extremely unusual. And on this cauldron’s body, other than the primitive and crude decorative patterns, there were many mysterious inscriptions engraved on it and the ancestors of Ghost King sect for generations were unable to fully understand it. Until the current Ghost King, who was an exceptional genius and happened that beside him, a Mr Ghost who seemed to be specialized in such mysterious writings, suddenly appeared. The two of them joined hands and managed to decipher the mysterious wordings.

And the engraved inscription on this cauldron, recorded a strange formation called ‘Four Divines Blood Formation’ which needed the divine powers from four primeval age rare beasts to trigger the mysterious power from this cauldron and become an unequalled powerful one of a kind formation. According to the inscriptions on the ancient cauldron, once this Four Divines Blood Formation formed, the power would be enough to destroy the earth.

Ghost King was an ambitious ruthless man with great talent and bold vision, naturally he would not turn a blind eye to that kind of power. And ten years ago at the Qing Yun battle, Qing Yun sect Zhu Xian Sword’s power awed the world and swept through all obstacles, it was not what a human strength could fight against. Ghost King thought carefully, only this Four Divines Blood Formation could have the possibility of competing against the Zhu Xian Sword Formation.

And from then on, Ghost King sect started to focus only on the preparation for this Four Divines Blood Formation.

YouJi looked away from the indistinct figure of the Ghost King and looked towards the two divine beasts in the blood pool. Although they were immersed in the blood but the Yellow Bird which had lived for an unknown number of years, evidently was recalcitrant and from time to time, made a clear angry cry and flapped both of its wings, creating huge ripples in the surrounding blood fluid.

But the blood in the pool seemed to have a strange repressing effect, the Yellow Bird’s divine power and strength were obviously different from before and especially on its head, a dark red light projecting from the cauldron enveloped it. Once the Yellow Bird made any movement, the dark red light immediately brightened and the Yellow Bird whose body had just lifted up, immediately was pressed down, like a huge mountain with incredible strength pressing down on it

After a few times, the Yellow Bird’s movements slowly slowed down and although it was still resisting, it was slowly becoming weak. And on the other side of the blood pool, the huge body with a single feet of the rare beast Kiu Niu, soaking its entire body in the blood pool, unmoving, only its eyes occasionally looked over at the Yellow Bird, maybe because it had been trapped here for a long time, it had totally gave up on resisting.

Looking at the current state of these two majestic divine beasts, YouJi could not help but frowned slightly behind her veil, an inexplicable repulsive feeling in her heart.

Ghost King standing beside her seemed to sense something, looked at her and suddenly asked, “What are you thinking about?”

YouJi was surprised and immediately calmed down, faintly said, “Nothing, sect leader.”

Ghost King looked at her and then looked at the blood pool, after a long time unhurriedly said, “Now that half of the Four Divines Blood Formation has been completed, we only need to find the other two divine beasts and we can look forward to the future where our Ghost King sect rule over the world.”

YouJi was silent for a while and then softly said, “Yes.”

Ghost King clasped his hands behind his back, still looking at the two divine beasts in the blood pool, he suddenly changed the topic and said, “You had reached the death marsh earlier than me, I have instructed you to observe Ghost Li discreetly, do you have anything to tell me?”

YouJi’s black veil slightly shifted, after a moment, she said, “In the death marsh, he led men to deal with Wan Du Clan, HeHuan Sect and Good Faction, in that kind of complicated, scheming situations fraught with dangers, he was still able to act accordingly and eventually with the rest, exterminated Chang Shen Hall, he really had the making of a general. And…”

Speaking till here, she suddenly paused, Ghost King was surprised and said, “What is it?”

YouJi hesitated for a moment and said, “While in the inner marsh, he sneakily attacked and seriously injured Wan Du Clan’s Qin WuYan, he being stoic and ruthless, we can no longer underestimate him.” while speaking, YouJi suddenly felt a sudden lost in her heart, the person that they were discussing about, was he really that Zhang Xiao Fan?

The person that BiYao loved deeply, was it really him?

But Ghost King seemed satisfied, nodded and said, “His character is steadfast and resolute, and really is a man of rare ability. These few years he has been learning our holy sect skills and with the two matchless evil weapons around him day and night, it is also considered normal that his temperament is turning more ruthless and bloodthirsty.”

YouJi raised her head and looked at Ghost King, a faint smile was on his lips but against his impassive yet dignified face, it actually gave off a chilly feeling.

“But,” Ghost King suddenly said, “I heard that in the death marsh, when Ghost Li met those Good Faction people, especially the Qing Yun disciple named Lu XueQi, he had some strange behaviours, is that true?”

YouJi was shocked but Ghost King looked calm, could not tell what his thoughts were, just that for no reason, her mind suddenly felt confused. She and Qing Long secretly entered the death marsh and the delicate feelings between Ghost Li and Lu XueQi, she had saw most of it while in the dark. However now that she thought about it, she instead felt an inexplicable heartache.

Like a sharp needle, stabbed into her heart.

“What is it?” Ghost King turned over and looked at YouJi.

YouJi slowly lowered her head, because of the black veil obscuring her face, nobody could see her expression. After a moment, her voice for some reason, seemed to be slightly hoarse but still very clearly and coldly, replied Ghost King:

“Yes, he and Qing Yun sect Lu XueQi indeed have some equivocal feelings between them. Outside the Celestial Emperor Treasury, I saw it with my own eyes, while facing the Black Water Mystical Viper, he risked his life to save that girl!”

Ghost King did not speak anymore but in that instant, the smell of blood around them suddenly thickened ten, hundred times. That man still with his hands clasped behind him but maybe it was because of the red lights reflecting from the bottom of the grotto, the red light in his eyes abruptly increased greatly.

YouJi slowly bowed to Ghost King and walked towards the back, unhurriedly walked out of this suffocating grotto.

Just that when she reached the stone door, she was suddenly startled. Qing Long was quietly standing outside the stone door, looking indifferently at her.

YouJi met his eyes, both of them stared at each other like that for a long time and did not speak.

After a long while, Qing Long slowly walked up, brushed past her and walked into the grotto, leaving YouJi alone, staring blankly at that tunnel.

In the end, he did not speak a single word to YouJi.

x x x

The faint moon of the southern border, hung solitary in the west horizon.

The ancient temple in the deep mountains, the miserable cries of the insects, a desolate dim night scenery.

[Hu!]

A whistle, the place where the light flashed, LuShun wielding his sword, flew over and landed in the courtyard of this ancient temple. His eyes glinted, inch by inch he swept his eyes over the great hall of this ancient temple.

He had already searched thoroughly an area of ten miles nearby without any results and actually did not see a single figure, after thinking carefully, he suddenly realized with a start that he had left out this ancient temple.

The cold night breeze, the abandoned great hall which did not even have a main door, although not long ago LuShun had just been here and even had talks inside the great hall but looking at it now, the interior had suddenly turned eerie, something in the darkness seemed to be watching him.

Cold sweat suddenly broke out in his palms.

That fish-head-human-body creature which had just died, was the tribe leader of the south’s barbaric human fish tribe. Now that he was assassinated after his meeting with him, he really could not avoid any responsibility from it. He was fully aware that the south barbaric tribes had clandestine dealings with his own sect and knew clearly the terrible and cruelty of those wild tribes, if he could not account for this incident to the barbaric tribe, then most likely he would have to suffer for it.

But based on his understanding of the wild tribe, these human fish creatures’ skills were not trival. Although incomparable to highly skilled taoist priests like himself but to die with just one strike, the skills of this assassin would probably not be inferior to himself.

LuShun breathed deeply, suddenly spoke loudly, “Which master is it, please come out and speak.”

“Speak...speak…”

The night breeze carried the tail of his words, drifted within the temple but the temple remained silent, not a sound.

LuShun’s face became more somber, he gritted his teeth, the celestial sword’s light in his hand surged greatly, the human and sword became one and charged into the great hall, instantly the hall lighted up. But just when his figure entered the hall, at one of the hall’s dilapidated wall, two dark figures swiftly left the hall and disappeared into the nearby dark shadows without any traces.

After a long while, LuShun was heard ransacking the hall, [ping ping pang pang] it rang out for quite a while but eventually he still walked out dejectedly, evidently with no results. He stood on the flight of steps, his face unreadable, after a long while, he stamped his feet and sighed, “Forget it, forget it.”

While saying, he did not stop shaking his head and then wielded his sword and went towards the south, after a moment he had disappeared without a trace.

In the temple, it immediately turned silent, the insects which were startled by LuShun and disappeared, again cried out, the cold moon and clear wind, again a desolate scenery.

With the disappearance of LuShun after a very long time, the temple seemed to lost all signs of life and as before, there was no movement. After another while, a sharp whistle was heard suddenly in mid-air, a red sword light swiftly charged down from the clouds, landed in the courtyard at breakneck speed, the light wavered and LuShun’s figure appeared.

His purpose of leaving was to deploy a empty city tactic, pretending to fly far away but instead turned back halfway and hid among the dark clouds in the sky. Pity that even so, there was still no signs of anyone appearing in the ancient temple. LuShun finally revealed a dispirited face, gave a long sigh and again wielded his sword and flew towards the south, after which his traces was not seen again, looked like this time he had really left.

Tranquility again returned to the temple but after a while, two shadows wavered and two figures unhurriedly appeared.

The first person, slowly walked to the courtyard, the translucent moonlight coldly shone down, casting a long slender shadow from his figure onto the courtyard dilapidated flagstone bluestone.

It was Ghost Li.

Head raised, gazing at the moon.

The cold clear moonlight, shone onto his face.

Suddenly he actually looked like he had been through some vicissitudes.

Even the monkey crouched on his shoulder, right now also remained quiet, like its master, quietly looking at the moon.

“Why, GongZi like this southern border moon scenery?” Suddenly, behind him, another seductive figure still concealing in the shadows, spoke with a sweet-sounding gentle voice, travelled to his ears.

Ghost Li slowly looked away but did not turn and did not answer the shadow woman’s question, instead he asked, “Why did you kill that human fish?”

The girl who was still concealing in the shadows, laughed softly and said,”Those human fish creatures not only killed GongZi’s men, they also killed my men, I did it to seek revenge for GongZi.”

Ghost Li’s expression did not change and obviously he did not believe those words, he indifferently said, “Long heard that ‘Purple light sword’ is a Nine Heavens celestial weapon, today in Miss’s hands, it has displayed its prowess, as expected it has an extraordinary power that even the gods and ghosts cannot imagine.”

The girl softly laughed, the sound gentle and pleasing to the ear, in this desolate night scene, suddenly it added a few colors, making it lively.

Footsteps slowly sounded, she from the shadows, unhurriedly walked out.

She was the Evil Sect HeHuan Sect, the “Miao GongZi” addressed by everyone, Jin PingEr. Under the moonlight, she was still wearing an attire of pale yellow clothes, the soft clothing swayed lightly in the night breeze, a few stray hair strands beside the hairline, looked slightly messy but seemed to give a more teasing kind of feeling .

Ancient temple deep in the mountains, a beautiful woman in the cold night!

Right now, her glistening eyes, a enchanting scene of spring seemed to be on her face, extremely exquisite, for the moment, even this night scenery also seemed to warm up.

Ghost Li turned around, his eyes glanced at her face.

Jin PingEr was still smiling, softly said, “GongZi, you carry rare treasures on you; ‘Sinister Orb’ merged with ‘Soul-Devouring’’ to become an unparalleled rarity, this small purple light sword of mine, how can it even be mention in the same breath as your Soul-Absorbing?”

A red light flashed past Ghost Li’s eyes but his expression did not change, he said, “Miss’s trip down to south, is it also to investigate those human fish tribe?”

Jin PingEr nodded slightly and her eyes glimmered, she said, “But didn’t expect that this matter actually involve FenXiang Valley.”

Ghost Li glanced at her but did not speak. In his heart, he was becoming more and more wary of this girl. When she suddenly slaughtered the tribe leader, the level of her skills displayed seemed much more higher as compared to that day in the death marsh, when they were attacking Chang Shen Hall YuYang Zi with Qin WuYan, most likely she did not use her full strength that day.

Just that the level of her skills was secondary, he himself also did not use his full strength. But Jin PingEr assassinating the human fish, obviously she had intended to shift the blame to FenXiang Valley, instigating dissension between the wild tribe and FenXiang Valley.

The extent of this girl’s scheme, her vicious methods, was really not trival.

Jin PingEr looked at Ghost Li, suddenly smiled and said, “GongZi’s trip to the south, must be also to investigate those human fish but so far what have you discover?”

Ghost Li indifferently said, “Nothing.”

Jin PingEr heard his cold reply but was not angry, instead she smiled even warmer and said, “Just that now that we both know FenXiang Valley has secret dealings with those barbaric creatures, not sure what is GongZi planning to do next?”

Ghost Li’s eyes glimmered, said, “What does Miss think?”

Jin PingEr smiled and said, “I asked GongZi first.”

Ghost Li heard her like-annoyed-like-teasing reply, frowned, numerous thoughts had already gone through in his heart: now that FenXiang Valley was suddenly discovered to have clandestine dealings with the barbaric tribe, it was really sensational big news. If this spread to the world, most likely those Good Faction figures were going to be dumbfounded.

In the current situation, the best method naturally would be to scout on the mysterious FenXiang Valley but now, there seemed to be more than meets the eye. First, leaving out the fact that the tribes had always been mysterious, just FenXiang Valley, their strength could not be belittled. LiXun, YanHong etc who came from FenXiang Valley, including that elderly LuShun, their skills were extremely high.

Jin PingEr slowly walked to Ghost Li, raised her head and looked at him, smiled and said, “GongZi is thinking to visit FenXiang Valley in the night?”

Ghost Li’s eyes glimmered, said, “Why, Miss also has such intentions?”

Jin PingEr smiled, extremely captivating, a burst of beauty seemed to assault the face, Ghost Li’s resolution actually shifted, he could not help but felt shocked.

Jin PingEr indifferently said, “Naturally I am willing to make this trip with GongZi but just one thing, I hope GongZi will promise me.”

Ghost Li’s eyes focused and he said, “What?”

Jin PingEr smiled and said, “I only hope that GongZi on no account will treat me like Qin WuYan, suddenly striking out while being beside me and killing me.”