Chapter 757 – A Familiar Head
The sights and sounds of the road ahead were not much different from those earlier.
The boundless ancient fiendgod city seemed as though its end could never be reached. Pavilions, palaces, and divine sculptures were everywhere, together with those strange, black, and chilly tombstones which Ye Qingyu could by this time already confirm to be hiding some massive and frightening secret beneath.
He had seen countless bizarre battle vestiges along the journey.
A majority of them were in an extremely tragic state. Both clashing parties had been turned into ashes and smoke and did not leave any traces, and the tombstones either collapsed or were left half standing, the latter of which, in particular, were extremely weird and seemed to have a life of their own. The holes beneath them were apparently filled outside in, as if devils from the Ninth Hell had pushed up gravel from deep underground to fill up the open grave.
There were also several battle vestiges whose situations were weird.
In one particular place, the billowing demonic aura had formed a giant shield that shrouded over a perimeter of one kilometer. One could vaguely see that within this shield, there was a huge Demon Race flag fluttering in the wind and a headless knight riding on a bone dragon which stood quietly in the distance with half of its body sunk into the sand, evidently already dead. Yet, outsiders were completely unable to get within this demonic aura shield.
There was another place which was pervaded by a terrifying murderous spirit and seemed as though the blade of a peerless sword was flickering in the Void above. From far away, Ye Qingyu saw that there were no vestiges in that place save for a rusty and broken sword which floated in the Void ten meters above ground, with its sword light disappearing and reappearing like a shooting star in a disorderly fashion, turning the area into an invisible and horrid Asura's battlefield.
Given Ye Qingyu's strength, it would be absolutely difficult for him to handle this level of sword radiance.
Many of these places had several vestiges which had been directly sealed by a strange and scary power or encircled by a bizarre and colorful splendor. Often, even the Void had been locked, such that one could not see what was inside, albeit one's heart would palpitate as a result of the aura that spread from within. The Celestial Phoenix Maiden would choose to pass around these places every time, while Ye Qingyu also did not want to take insensible and unnecessary risks.
A day passed by in the blink of an eye.
The Door of Life would only be opened for a total of three days. This meant that less than two-thirds of the initial time remained.
The Celestial Phoenix Maiden seemed to not be the least bit worried.
As if letting things take their natural course, she rambled through the maze-like ancient fiendgod city and proceeded along each ancient spirit path aimlessly. She might as well be walking with her eyes closed given the way she casually turned a corner here and changed her direction there. Although Ye Qingyu found this odd, he held himself back each time he had an urge to ask her what she was looking for.
"Do you feel it?"
She turned back and asked suddenly.
Like at the start of the adventure into the 18th district, this question was baffling, vague, and sudden.
With a blank look, Ye Qingyu subconsciously commented, "Feel what…"
However, his expression abruptly changed before he finished speaking.
Because he suddenly felt the surging of a familiar and intimate warm current.
"That's…" Deeply astonished, he revealed a disbelieving look on his face.
This was because the source of the warm current was none other than the military medal.
The heroic brass military medal which his father left him.
At this moment, the military medal, which was mildly shining in an orange splendor, gave off a warm feeling which Ye Qingyu could not be more familiar with and was as distinct as during the two occasions when he entered the imperial priest temple of the Snow Empire.
This… Why is this happening?
He found this quite unbelievable.
So weird.
It made sense for the military medal to change while in the imperial priest temple because father had explained its inner workings. But what exactly is going on for it to do the same here, in the 18th district of the Black Demon Abyss? How could something like this happen in the Chaotic Ruins Domain? This isn't the Heaven Wasteland Domain, for crying out loud.
And why here of all places?
Could this military medal be hiding some unknown secret?
His expression was one of shock and uncertainty.
Seeing his expression change, the Celestial Phoenix Maiden repeated plainly, "So, do you feel it now?"
With a twitch, Ye Qingyu regained his senses.
Could she be referring to the change occuring to the military medal?
This is absurd. How does she know that I have such a military medal? And even so, how can she be so certain that it would change like this in the 18th district? Is she a prophet?
At this time, he vaguely felt that she had an ulterior motive for insisting that he serve as her bodyguard, and that she must have plotted something before entering the Door of Life.
He also wondered if the bald fatty Sheng Yan had noticed something, and thus cottoned up to him among so many others.
Doubts flashed across his mind.
The more he thought, the more afraid he became.
"Don't think too much. I bear you no ill will." The maiden seemed to have read his mind as she spoke in the same delicate and chilly tone.
He shot a glance at her.
Concealed beneath the Phoenix mask, her face could not be seen clearly at all.
However, for some unknown reason, Ye Qingyu subconsciously felt that this female Heaven's pride was true to her word and bore him no malice.
"I felt it a little," he therefore answered in an ambiguous manner.
"Oh, alright then. Please lead the way," she said plainly without asking further.
After thinking for a moment, he took out the military medal and clutched it firmly in his palm. Feeling the warmth from within it, he chose a direction and walked down the spirit path.
Similar to the two situations while he was in the imperial priest temple, the military medal would only emit heat when he was walking in a particular direction. Otherwise, the warmth would gradually dissipate.
He had no idea where the military medal would lead him to.
However, he felt that he had to give it a good try.
He believed that it must be for an important matter that the military medal would change like this. And since he needed to solve the mystery of his own identity, he could not afford to pass up such an alteration.
Moreover, the Celestial Phoenix Maiden did not have the least bit of doubt.
Like a shadow, she quietly followed behind him without urging or asking anything.
Another two hours later.
Gradually, Ye Qingyu noticed that there were finally some unexpected changes to the scene around him – the lofty divine sculptures and palaces grew fewer and fewer in numbers, while the black tombstones became even more densely packed than before. The place seemed like a stretch of black jungle which caused one's heart to palpitate.
The wind in the Void seemed to blow more harshly.
By this stage, the battle vestiges were becoming fewer.
Even the spirit path was gradually becoming narrower from its previous width of ten meters, such that several kilometers ahead, it became only about a meter wide, much like a small farm track. Amid the densely packed black tombstones, the plain white spirit paths brought to mind a spider web which was most strange.
"Follow along and do not step out of the spirit path."
The Celestial Phoenix Maiden's voice sounded once more.
After a brief daze, Ye Qingyu immediately understood what she meant – he would be relatively safe as long as he followed along the spirit path, but if he ever stepped out, dangerous things might happen.
The military medal in his palm became hotter and hotter.
Ye Qingyu continually adjusted his direction according to its alterations, and would test out the different routes whenever he arrived at a fork.
Another two hours or so later.
The buildings on both sides of the half-meter wide spirit path had completely disappeared.
They were replaced by a boundless stretch of black tombstones.
These endless layers of tombstones resembled a black ocean or a black pine forest, and their hues betrayed their incomparable oppression. Whenever the increasingly rapid and strong winds blew across and collided with these tombstones, a strange noise that sounded like the low cries of myriad wronged ghosts would ring out, causing one's hair to stand on end.
At some unknown time, the magical array of stars had disappeared, seemingly obscured by the dark clouds overhead.
A disquieting aura pervaded the place.
Instinct informed Ye Qingyu that things were about to happen.
Indeed, he soon smelled a faint trace of blood.
It came from the wind.
Previously, no smell of blood had suffused from any of the battle vestiges, the strange scenes, or the frightening power that lingered in the Void. This was because the belligerent parties had died many years ago, leaving nothing but ruins.
However, the smell of blood was very distinct this time.
This was certainly not another stretch of ruins.
Instead, some being had just died.
An anxiety grew in Ye Qingyu's heart.
After proceeding several kilometers forward, he suddenly paused his footsteps.
In front of him, a human head was neatly placed on top of a three-meter-odd tall black tombstone at the edge of the narrow spirit path. Flowing slowly from his facial orifices, dark red blood soaked the black tombstones below and circulated around the strange grooves. Then, as if igniting some kind of weird pattern, they seemed to be absorbed into the tombstones. The horrified look on Ye Qingyu's face had completely frozen…
Is it really him?
Ye Qingyu was dumbstruck.
He knew who the owner of this head was.
Just a day ago on the Fierce Beast Peak, there were two Immortal Step realm pinnacle experts who successfully contended for entry from the Sky Meteor Sect. Aside from Tian Huayu of the Ancient Sky Dragon Sect, the other person was the owner of this head. During the contest, he displayed tremendous strength and defeated six or seven experts of the same stage as him in no time to obtain one of the entries.
But now…
Who would have thought that such a powerful Immortal Step realm pinnacle being would die in this place.
Moreover, only his head was left, while his body had gone missing.
Judging from the terrified expression on his face, one could only wonder what happened here earlier.
Following along the spirit path, Ye Qingyu quickly drew near to the tombstone.
The closer he got, the stronger the smell of blood in the air became. The expression on the head also seemed to grow even more ferocious and began to resemble that of a devil from hell.
