Chapter 540: The Weird Black Tower Guardians
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
An Lin walked on the streets of the ancient city as a series of misty black figures passed him by, leaving a biting chill in the air as they went.
These black, twisted, misty figures were all insentient souls that constantly wandered the streets of the city. They wouldn’t voluntarily attack anyone, but someone with a weak consciousness could still be injured by bumping into them.
Merlin’s banner was extremely useful in this situation as he was able to summon a few powerful soul warriors to lead the way forward. All the wandering souls instinctively avoided the killing intents that were radiating from the soul warriors, thereby opening up a path for An Lin and the others to walk through.
“Stuffed buns… Piping-hot stuffed buns straight from the steamer…”
“We are the best seafood restaurant in the entire city! Would you like to come in for a meal?”
“Bei Chen Grocery Store, where prices are low and quality is high!”
“Come on in, Young Master, we have some juicy girls waiting for you inside…”
A series of voices reverberated throughout the streets, as if they were relics of a distant, lively past.
An Lin didn’t think this was scary in any way. Instead, he was quite sympathetic toward all these wandering souls.
He didn’t really understand how these wandering souls came into existence, nor did he understand the reason for the existence of these souls, which were renounced even by the Void Spirit Tribe.
They weren’t bodies of energy nor were they actually living beings. They were more like a memory of the lives that had once lived.
As he traversed through the ancient city, all he heard was the incessant chatter of these wandering souls.
An Lin shook his head and heaved a light sigh with disappointment on his face.
He always felt like wandering souls should be silent and eerie, only occasionally appearing to scare some people.
All these loud and lively wandering souls were simply a world apart from what he imagined them to be like!
They walked on a bit further before a female spirit with pale, colorless features wearing a red dress suddenly appeared from the ground below.
The female spirit immediately let loose a piercing screech as an extremely sharp sound wave radiated outward, pulverizing the ground around her.
An Lin and the others clapped their hands over their ears while Merlin smashed the female spirit to death with a single palm!
These special wandering spirits always dropped some sort of item upon their deaths.
For example, this female spirit dropped a blue Realm Essence Crystal.
Not long after that, they encountered a butcher who was about a dozen meters tall and carrying a massive cleaver.
The massive butcher charged toward An Lin and the others after letting loose a bloodcurdling war cry as he brought his massive cleaver down with fearsome force. He was then slapped to death again by one palm from Merlin.
This wandering spirit only dropped a green Realm Essence Crystal.
Unexpectedly this massive spirit dropped an item of even less value than the one the female spirit had dropped.
Many of these spirits popped up as An Lin and the others traversed through the city toward the black tower.
This was an extremely imposing tower over one thousand meters tall that appeared as if it were a massive pillar reaching into the heavens.
“This is such an eye-catching tower. Surely anything worthy of value in there would’ve been taken already,” An Lin spoke in a resigned voice.
Cassidy begged to differ. “You’re underestimating just how vast the Void Star Section is, Master. We may be able to see the black tower now, but I’m sure there are many cultivators who have never set foot in this place.”
“Besides, even if someone has already been here in the past, there could be new Realm Essence Crystals in there now after five hundred years…” Merlin chimed in.
They had already gotten used to how oblivious An Lin was to the Void Star Section, so they were constantly ready to provide patient, detailed explanations on things that were obvious to themselves.
Before they knew it, they had already arrived at the foot of the tower.
To everyone’s surprise, there were two benevolent-looking elderly men in red robes standing by the main gate. “Welcome, welcome… Welcome, valued guests, to the Star-Picking Tower. ”
“What a respectful welcome…” An Lin was slightly taken aback.
This was an extremely peculiar scene, especially in a city that was filled with wandering spirits…
The red-robed elderly men spoke again, as if they had heard what An Lin had said.
“It is always a pleasure…” The tall and thin elderly man wobbled his head from side to side as he spoke.
“To welcome friends from afar!” The short and stocky elderly man finished the sentence of the other elderly man.
Xue Zhantian was getting a little excited. “Master, these don’t appear to be the same as all those stupid wandering souls we’ve encountered so far!”
Merlin raised his palm with a disgruntled expression. “These two are really bizarre. Should I just slap them to death?”
An Lin was inclined to agree with Merlin. These two spirits from the Ancient Tai Chu Realm were reciting lines from the Analects of Confucius, which was only found on Earth! This was simply far too bizarre!
He was just about to nod in agreement with Merlin’s proposal when the two elderly men became excited again.
“The deers bleat with joy as they feast on the grasslands… ” The tall and thin elderly man wobbled his head from side to side.
“When I have guests, I must play music!” The short and stocky elderly man finished the sentence again.
Just as his voice faded, the stocky old man produced a musical instrument that appeared to be quite similar to a guqin before slapping his hands on the strings of the instrument.
Merlin also sprang into action at this moment as a massive crimson palm projection descended from the sky with monstrous force. The palm hadn’t yet made contact with the ground, but the earth had already caved in under the sheer pressure of the palm alone.
“Hey… Ha!” The tall old man unleashed a fist toward the giant palm projection in the air.
The power of his fists created a series of spatial cracks in the air, and the fearsome force behind the punch instantly crushed the massive crimson palm projection. The residual force created a shockwave that radiated outward for close to ten kilometers in all directions, causing the black tower behind him to tremor and quake.
“It is impolite…” the tall elderly man said in a calm voice.
“To not reciprocate!” the stocky elderly man continued.
The tall elderly man then poked his two index fingers into the temples on each side of his head.
Meanwhile, the stocky elderly man stroked his fingers over his guqin.
“Riiiiiing…”
A peculiar sound wave proliferated forth.
Space suddenly began to twist as a disconcerting force enveloped the space before them.
“Be careful! This is a forced illusionary realm!” Cassidy hurriedly cautioned.
An Lin’s heart jolted upon hearing this, and he immediately unleashed a defensive spell technique to protect himself.
However, he suddenly felt his head beginning to ring in the same rhythm as the music from the guqin.
He was then struck by a burst of dizziness as his surroundings were completely transformed.
The bright and vibrant light of the sun shone down onto the ground as a light breeze carried a smorgasbord of scents to An Lin’s nostrils. There was the scent of stuffed buns, noodles, and the scent of the rouge emanating from the woman that had just brushed past him…
He was suddenly surrounded by a thriving throng of people.
An Lin blinked with a quizzical expression at the sight of this lively, bustling street.
“Heehee, buy me a stick of sugar-coated haws, mom! I want that one!” A tender voice that was quite pleasing to the ear sounded from nearby.
A cute little girl with a pair of pigtails tugged on a woman’s hand as she pointed excitedly at a stall on one side of the street.
“Alright, alright… I’ll get one for you…” A doting smile appeared on the woman’s face as she led the little girl toward the stall she was pointing at.
“Make way, make way!”
Just as An Lin was caught in a daze, his body was suddenly pushed aside.
Immediately afterward, a wooden manual lorry filled with merchandise slowly passed by beside him.
It felt extremely realistic.
All the sights, sounds, smells, the things he could feel, the auras of the people around him, the flow of vital energy in the air… All of it was extremely realistic, just like it would feel in the real world…
But An Lin knew this was all an illusion!
No matter how realistic everything was, he firmly believed that it was all an illusion!
An Lin’s head was starting to throb. Even though he knew this was an illusionary realm created by the spell techniques unleashed by two elderly men, he didn’t know how to break the illusion!
