Chapter 126 – How Hard Can It Be?
*Cough cough*
Zhong Yue woke up in a fit of coughing. As he coughed up bloody phlegm, he visualized the moon and sun that circled around him as they slowly treated his injuries, purging the dead flesh and dirt in his wounds for a quicker recovery speed.
He was lucky enough to survive as he had more than hundreds of wounds all over his body and he had torn most of his muscles during the battle. Currently, he used up all of the Lingyu Paste he took out from the Swords Gate on his wounds. With the help of the【Sun Moon Prodigious Emanation Art】, his recovery speed sped up significantly.
There are fractures all over my bones as well….
He looked inwards and inspected his internal organs and the bones, only to discover that they too suffered heavy injuries due to the relentless ramming of the insect race into him. With such injuries, it would take up to at least four days for him to fully recover.
I almost died this time and Xin Huo actually asked me to try another time.
After quite a while, Zhong Yue only started to get up slowly and he could feel extreme pain all over his limbs. He looked around the tunnel he created and he saw corpses of the thousands poisonous hornets and heaven silkworms littered around the tunnel.
This was all my doing?
Zhong Yue breathed in deeply and all he could feel was a tingling horror, as if he hadn’t fought to the end, he might have been completely devoured by the insect swarm. He would’ve been left with no trace of himself remaining in the world!
At this rate, I would be done for if I were to encounter another one or two insect race. I should just quietly stay here and recover my injuries. Besides….
He looked at the corpses of the heaven silkworms, poisonous hornets and the adult golden centipede while he thought, There are so many spiritual pearls in their bodies and I can’t carry them all at once. I would also need time to fully absorb the power of these spiritual pearls to cultivate my five elemental Sword Qi!
He triggered his psyche and slashed at a rock on the top of the tunnel entrance. The rock then fell down and covered up the entrance of the tunnel.
I wonder how long it would take to fully absorb the essence of all these spiritual pearls.
Zhong Yue’s psyche gushed out and the corpses of the insect races suddenly moved as his psyche extracted the spiritual pearls out of their bodies. Their spiritual pearls came in various types; the spiritual pearls of the poisonous hornets had mostly water, wood and fire elemental spiritual pearls while the heaven silkworms had mainly gold, wood and earth elemental spiritual pearls. Other than that, the sizes of their spiritual pearls greatly varied – some were as big as pebbles while some were as small as sesame seeds.
There were about ten thousand spiritual pearls but only a few of them could be considered large.
Zhong Yue started cultivating his【Great Boundless Sword Qi】 and continued to absorb the power of the spiritual pearl in order to further strengthen his Sword Qi. After a few more days, his injuries had fully recovered, but he did not stop his cultivation; instead, continuing it.
In the tunnel, the number of spiritual pearls decreased significantly and seven Sword Qi were floating beside him. At this stage, other than the Xiang Dragon Sword Qi and the Coral Sword Qi, he had already cultivated the five elemental sword qi and they were getting stronger and stronger!
As time passed, the five elemental Sword Qi’s power had almost become as strong as the Xiang Dragon Sword Qi, but Zhong Yue had no intention of stopping. By this point, he had already used up all of the small sized spiritual pearls.
“Long Yue might have already died halfway seeing as he is still not here yet.”
In front of the monster god Ming King’s palace, Yu Xuanji looked behind and he failed to discover any trace of Zhong Yue. He then shook his head and said, “The survivors are all here already and those who did not show up had most likely already died in the black jungle. Never had I thought that so many of our people died in this jungle….”
At the stairs in front of the palace, King Teng, Yu Xuanji and the others had already advanced over eighty steps and the palace began to draw near.
Behind them was another group of Qi Practitioners that came afterward. Kong Ban was among the second group of Qi Practitioners and they were working together to decipher the puzzles on the staircases.
King Teng and the others poured huge amounts of effort in order to solve the totem carvings on the stairs and they immediately removed their own totem carvings as they solved totem carvings on the stairs. They did not give any chances to Kong Ban’s group of Qi Practitioner but Kong Ban and the others didn’t seem to mind. After all, they were competitors; in fact, they would even grow wary if King Teng and the others had given them any extra chances in case they were plotting something nefarious for them.
The two groups of Qi Practitioners consisted of only fourteen of them. This means that out of the sixty plus Rebirth Qi Practitioners that had entered the Black Mountain’s secret realm, only fourteen of them were able to make it to this point whereas the others had seemingly lost their lives in just the black forest underground!
Time slowly passed and after over ten days, King Teng, Yu Xuanji, Hu Qimei and the others managed to decipher another ten plus steps. With that, their excitement was on the verge of boiling over as they were now only eight steps away from the entrance of the palace. However, they ultimately managed to maintain their composure.
“Thank god we worked together to solve the totem carvings on the stairs. We might’ve taken years to decipher these totem carvings if we had acted alone, not to mention the extremely high risk of dying!” a Qi Practitioner laughed.
“Saint city lord is indeed powerful. What a godly character, to be able to walk all the way here alone and enter the palace of the Monster God Ming King to obtain his heritage!”
King Teng shook his head and said, “Saint city lord did not walk here all by himself, during that year, there were many Rebirth level Qi Practitioners that entered this secret realm but he was the only one who survived until the end. With the power he had at the time, he only managed to enter the palace through his cooperation with the other Qi Practitioners.”
“Everyone, work harder and enter the palace as fast as possible!”
The monsters then all worked up and continued with their work. After another few more days, they managed to decipher the first hundred and seven steps of the stairs, leaving only the final one remaining!
Hu Qimei turned back and looked for the final time, before shaking her head when she still failed to see Zhong Yue. She then said, “Seems like Long Yue truly is dead, too bad, he was such a competent one.”
“Even if he is still alive, there’s nothing he can do anymore.”
Yu Xuanji replied, “He’s just one person and it would be impossible for him to solve the totem carvings on the stairs by himself. We aren’t going to turn back for him after having achieved so much. Besides, our relationship is not so good so as to risk everything for him.”
Hu Qimei nodded in acknowledgment.
The last step was extremely complicated, it was much more difficult than the previous hundred and seven. Thus, much more time would be needed for them to completely solve this step. Other than that, even with the combined intellect of King Teng, Yu Xuanji and the others, it was only after four days when they started to make headway into understanding the transformations of the totem carvings. More time would be needed if they wanted to figure out how to manipulate the changes of the totem carvings of this step.
They could not help but feel happy as success was very near to them after having spent so much time and brainpower to decipher these steps.
“Huh? There are still Qi Practitioners who survived the black forest at this time?” said a surprised Qi Practitioner.
Hu Qimei looked back and was shocked to see a familiar figure walking towards the stairs while carrying a huge sword behind his back. It did not take him long to get close to the hundred and eight stairs. When she recognized who that person was, she exclaimed in astonishment, “Long Yue! He is still alive!”
Yu Xuanji immediately looked towards him and when he saw Zhong Yue, he shook his head and said, “It’s too late. With only him and with no one helping him, he can’t possibly solve the seals on the stairs. I must say that the Monster God Ming King’s heritage no longer has anything to do with him anymore.”
The other Qi Practitioners nodded in agreement as it would be impossible if a Rebirth Qi Practitioner wished to get past the hundred and eight stairs alone because they would lack the requisite knowledge to understand the complicated totem carvings.
“If he could walk up the stairs by himself, then we could have done it as well.”
A monster Qi Practitioner said arrogantly, “His name is Long Yue? He must be just someone mediocre if he only managed to make it here at this time. It would be good if he stopped just right there but he will die for sure if he dares to step foot on the stairs. Maybe he can’t even notice the totem carvings on the stairs!”
Suddenly, Yu Xuanji saw Zhong Yue starting to advance towards the first step and all he could do was to just shout towards Zhong Yue, “Brother Long Yue! Be careful, there are dangerous totem carvings all over the stairs!”
The monster Qi Practitioner smirked and said, “See, exactly just like what I said, he really failed to notice the totem carvings on the stairs!”
But before he could finish talking, Zhong Yue had already stepped foot on the first step and Yu Xuanji shivered as if envisioning himself seeing Zhong Yue being melted into liquid by the totem carvings. However, contrary to his expectations, Wood Qi suddenly gushed out from under Zhong Yue’s feet that transformed into different types of strange and esoteric totem carvings that restrained the totem carvings on the first step, allowing Zhong Yue to set foot on the first step safely.
Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei let out a long breath and as they were still in the process of calming themselves down, their spines shivered again as they saw Zhong Yue immediately starting his advance towards the second step.
On the other hand, the monster Qi Practitioner’s face turned red when he saw Zhong Yue successfully getting past the first step before shouting again, “Such luck for being able to get past the first step but his luck will end at the second step! He will die for sure… What?!”
Under Zhong Yue’s left leg, Earth Qi appeared, turning into a type of earthly and amber-colored totem carvings that allowed Zhong Yue to get past the second step.
The monster Qi Practitioner then continued to received increasing amounts of shock when he saw Zhong Yue continuing to advance step after step. The totem carvings forming under his legs continued to contain the totem carvings on the stairs to prevent them from erupting.
He walked up the stairs as if he were walking in his own house. It did not take long as he walked past Kong Ban and the others while they stared at him. Zhong Yue however, didn’t spare the effort to even look at them and he showed no sign of stopping at all.
Not long later, Zhong Yue was already at the side of the monster Qi Practitioner and Zhong Yue turned and asked curiously, “I’m sorry brother, what did you say again? I can’t really hear you.”
The Qi Practitioner was incredibly embarrassed and he remained speechless for a moment before smirking and saying, “Dragon race, what are you so proud of? You merely hid in the forest and secretly observed how we deciphered the seals. If you are so good, why don’t you overcome the final step yourself!”
Again, much to his dismay, Zhong Yue casually got past the final step casually and entered the palace from the main gate. At the same time, Xin Huo said in surprise, “What is the big deal of deciphering such easy totem carvings? Brat Yue, I suggest we turn back and alter the totem carvings on the steps to increase the difficulty for them and let them to have a taste of what truly devastating totem carvings are!”
