Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
It was pitch-dark in the ruins of the ancient battlefield! Xu Que and the others had succeeded in reaching the other side of the altar. There they found Buttface and Duan Jiude’s leftover ingredients that they had used in making their hotpot, and many messy footprints that led in different directions. They also found dog pawprints and traces of dog sh*t in a corner of a wall.
Xu Que glanced at the sh*t. Then he pointed in that direction and stepped forward. Without any hesitation, Bai Cailing and the people from the Jade Lake followed Xu Que. Everyone else also followed Xu Que, after hesitating for a minute or two. Soon, the passage they had chosen became more and more spacious. Finally, a large Taoist Sanctum appeared at the end of the passage.
The entire place was quite shabby. Many weapons and magic artifacts were scattered willy-nilly on the ground, which was riddled with potholes. Apparently, a fierce battle had taken place in this sanctum. It had occurred so many years ago that even the corpses had been turned into fertile soil. Facing the Taoist Sanctum, hundreds of ancient buildings were scattered around this area. These buildings were also quite shabby. Some of them only had broken walls left. Some of them had collapsed and were completely covered by spiderwebs!
“Wow, I didn’t expect that this place used to belong to a sect!” Someone said in surprise. It was quite obvious that this place used to belong to a sect. The deities had had a fierce battle here and destroyed it, and it sank deep into the ground. It seemed as if it had been excavated by Buttface and Duan Jiude.
“Elder Xu, I found some footprints here that lead in that direction!” Bai Cailing pointed at the south part of the Taoist Sanctum. Xu Que went over to inspect what Bai Cailing had discovered and found the footprints of Buttface and Duan Jiude on the ground of this Taoist Sanctum. They had passed through the sanctum on their way to the collapsed buildings in the southern part of this area.
The buildings in this southern part were quite normal. According to their footprints, it seemed as if Buttface and Duan Jiude had walked toward those buildings directly and didn’t waste any time looking around in this area. Xu Que was completely convinced that Buttface and Duan Jiude must have had a map. Otherwise, how was it possible for them to know this place so well.
“Let’s follow their footprints! Don’t touch anything or walk off the path of their footprints! This place is quite weird!” Xu Que said seriously as he walked forward, following the footprints of Buttface and Duan Jiude. All the other people nodded their heads because this place felt weird indeed. All the weapons and magic artifacts scattered in this place were full of Lifeless Qi. Also the corpses of all the big shots seemed to have turned to soil in this place. It was quite dangerous for people whose Cultivation Stages were low to walk around here!
BOOM!
However, just as Xu Que had started off following the footprints, an enormous bang had exploded from in front of him abruptly. Dazzling red flames lit up the sky and the entire sanctum. The next moment, Xu Que saw Buttface and Duan Jiude, who were flying back the way they had come helter-skelter. With them Xu Que saw Mo Junchen, who was running behind Buttface. But he didn’t see Liu Jingning. He rushed over to them immediately.
“What? Someone else has also come into this place!” Duan Jiude, who was running rapidly, was shocked when he saw Xu Que and Bai Cailing, as well as all the people from the other sects who were standing behind Xu Que.
“Hey! Who is this old man? He is just at the Half-Celestial Stage! How dare he rush toward us alone?” Buttface also saw Xu Que. Then he sneered as he waved his paw, “Guardian Mo, kill this old man!” Hearing that, Mo Junchen was about to attack Xu Que with a magic art. However, Xu Que had stopped in front of them. When Mo Junchen saw the golden “Holy Physique” written on Xu Que’s chest, he was stunned a bit and stopped his attack.
“Buttface, Heavenly King Overpowers Ground Tiger!” Xu Que said in a low voice.
“Jade Emperor Sleeps with Queen Mother!” Buttface blurted out immediately. Then his eyes got very wide and he shouted, “Holy sh*t! Stop! He is on our side!”
“D*mn! The little brat has disguised himself again!” Duan Jiude cursed in a low voice. Mo Junchen also understood Buttface’s words. Actually, he had figured out Xu Que’s identity already from the two golden characters on Xu Que’s chest. They stopped in front of Xu Que and fixed their eyes on Bai Cailing and the rest of the people who were behind Xu Que.
“Little brat, why did you bring them here?” Buttface asked in a low voice. Xu Que frowned and shook his head. He didn’t answer Buttface’s question but asked seriously, “Where is Liu Jingning?”
“Little brat, don’t worry, she is hiding in a small house to heal her wounds and she is very safe now! We left those footprints to draw away possible enemies in order to protect her!” Buttface replied with a smile.
Xu Que let out a sigh of relief. He frowned at the place in front of them that was full of flames and noises like an erupting volcano and asked, “What in h*ll did you do in that place? What is happening over there?”
“Nothing! I was really unlucky for I have just lost a Divine Artifact!” Buttface put on a long face and said regretfully.
“A…Divine Artifact? F*ck!” Xu Que was dumbfounded and anxious to punch Buttface to death. It turned out that Buttface and Duan Jiude were on a mission to obtain a Divine Artifact. They had come to this place secretly, without telling the truth to Xu Que. Now it was quite obvious that they had failed to obtain that Divine Artifact.
“That Divine Artifact was something used by the Deities that was much better than all the Celestial Artifacts!” Xu Que thought to himself and felt like his heart was bleeding. If Buttface had only told him the truth, they might have obtained that Divine Artifact!
“Nonsense! It doesn’t exist at all. It was ruined a long time ago! There is no way to extract it. I almost lost my life in there!” Duan Jiude said as he rolled his eyes. After such a narrow escape, he still was recovering from the fear in his heart. Mo Junchen also said as he shook his head regretfully, “We thought we would have the opportunity to see the legendary Divine Artifact! It is a pity that it has already been ruined. There was a shape, but, when we approached it, it just disappeared in front of us!”
“Sh*t! What the h*ll did you find there?” Xu Que asked, with wide eyes. He was totally confused because he couldn’t understand at all what had happened from the words uttered by Buttface, Duan Jiude, and Mo Junchen.
“It was the Heaven and Earth Furnace, which was the Soulbound Divine Artifact of a Ninth-grade King Refiner in ancient times. We thought we had found a precious item, but we didn’t expect that it had already been ruined!” Buttface said regretfully.
Then Duan Jiude continued, shaking his head, “We obtained an ancient scroll, which was given to us by a man who managed to get out of this place alive. He said he saw a Ninth-grade King Refiner die in this place. The Heaven and Earth Furnace also fell into the ruins. However, this man who told us the story was busy running for his life and didn’t have time to take away the Heaven and Earth Furnace. Then, when the man had escaped from here, he tried to heal his wounds in a secret place. But his wounds were too serious and cost him his life ten days later. Before his death, he recorded his regrets in the ancient scroll! So we came here to help that man conquer his regrets! And we never cast our greedy eyes on that Divine Artifact at all!”
“Nonsense! Tell me something about the Divine Artifact!” Xu Que said.
“We managed to reach the other side of the altar with the help of Guardian Mo. Then we found this place with difficulty. It turned out that the furnace had been ruined for a long time, and there was only a shell of it left. When we opened the door and walked into the house to get that shell, the Heaven and Earth Furnace exploded in our faces!” Duan Jiude said, shaking his head.
Mo Junchen sighed. “Alas! It is really a pity! Although the furnace was ruined, the flames in it are quite precious! That Ninth-grade King Refiner saved his soulbound divine flames in that furnace. The flames that have been nurtured in that furnace for so many years are escaping! What a pity!”
“Can’t we grab the flames?” Xu Que asked. The soulbound divine flames of a Ninth-grade King Refiner were very precious. They were even more powerful than Mystical Fires. They could melt all kinds of divine materials and even burn a Golden Celestial of the Great All-Embracing Heaven into ashes immediately. After all, a cultivator who had reached the Ninth-grade King Refiner stage was very close to a deity or already a deity whose Cultivation Stage was several stages higher than the Golden Celestial of the Great All-Embracing Heaven! Mo Junchen was just a First-grade King Refiner, the weakest one among the King Refiners. He could only forge a Middle-grade Celestial Artifact at most–no way he could rival a Ninth-grade King Refiner at all!
“It is impossible!” Mo Junchen shook his head and said with a wry smile, “We can’t take away a divine fire like this unless we also have a high-grade Divine Artifact!” Then Mo Junchen sighed again as he looked at the fire with regret, “What a pity! If I had any precious materials with me, I would try to forge something while this divine fire is still flickering!”
“Eh? What did you say? You can forge equipment with this divine fire, right?” Xu Que’s eyes lit up after hearing that. The next moment, he waved his hand and took out a big rod from his crotch. It was the broken halberd he had obtained from Liu Wenfeng in Lost City. The halberd, which was made from Purple Sky Age Metal and was full of Terrifying Spiritual Qi, was a precious weapon!
