Chapter 345: Entering the Graveyard
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
“So impatient! Why are you being so impatient? It’ll do you no good!” Green Spirit screamed with discontent. “Do you really think that the Innate Deity’s graveyard would be so easy to enter? Or do you reckon that since you’ve bumped into it, you must have such good luck to obtain some heritage of an Innate Deity or a Primordial Demon?”
“Right! You’re right!” said Zhou Bao hastily. At this point, he did not dare to have a tantrum, so he could only reply with care.
“Don’t get your hopes up! Those devices that I talked about, such as Supreme Fairy Weapons, were merely occasionally discovered in the graveyard. For an Innate Deity or a Primordial Demon, the most valuable weapon is their bodies because they were powerful beings born together with heaven and earth from the Primordial Origin, and the power of their own bodies trumps all other magic weapons. Thus, these kinds of things like magic weapons are just worldly possessions for them. A casual punch from an Innate Deity can be as mighty as one launched by a Supreme Fairy Weapon with its full strength. Their defensive powers are also stronger than that of those purely defensive Supreme Fairy Weapons. So you tell me, do they need any magic weapons at all? The so-called Natal Magic Weapon is merely something they use when practicing the Little Way to ease their boredom!”
“Then, will I be going back empty-handed?” asked Zhou Bao a bit gloomily.
“Are you listening? The most powerful weapon of an Innate Deity is his body! Even after he died, his remains are still the best magic weapon! If used properly, its value will be no less than that of a Supreme Fairy Weapon!”
“OK, got it!” Zhou Bao seemed to be a little disappointed. “Digging out others’ bones and everything else? It’s so unethical!” But at the prospect of finding some potential benefits, he decided to shelve the issue of ethics and many other scruples.
“Then, when shall we go in?”
“Be patient. This only looks like a graveyard. We don’t know the truth yet!”
“Never mind, let’s go in first. It’s been three or four days, and maybe Ye Qingtian and the other two have already fully recovered. If I don’t go into hiding now, I might really be killed in this Taiyuan Heaven!”
“You, get killed? Ridiculous! Their leader is the one with the Fiery Eyes. Even when you’re truly cornered, you can just show him your Fiery Eyes and he won’t really lay murderous hands on you! Boy, actually the scheme that you devised is highly sophisticated. Don’t think I’m ignorant about this!”
“That’s not certain. We know little about each other. And I did snatch up some things from his subordinate and spoiled his important business. If he intends to kill me, I’ll have no clue how to stop him either!” said Zhou Bao, giggling.
“Save your nonsense. Listen, going in is no big deal, but you should be on high alert. In old times, this place had been explored by the owner of Taiyuan Heaven countless times, but every time, he went back fruitlessly. And that’s why he invited my friend to come here with him for another exploration because that friend of mine was a famous necromancer. Well, that exploration also ended up with nothing. After experiencing that failure, my friend started pondering over this event. He finally found some clues after studying it for years. But unluckily, since I had been inhibited in the underground palace of the Small Thunder Temple, I don’t know whether or not he unraveled this mystery in the end. However, judging from the scene here, this place is exactly the same as he had described. It seems that he never had a second chance to come here and research,” said Green Spirit with a soft sigh.
“Did his study come with a result or not?”
“Open up your Gang Qi!” Green Spirit said, “Go straight into it!”
“Okay!” Although his heart was sort of hammering like crazy, he did not say one more word as he opened his Nine Dragons Heavenly Kylin Gang and slowly walked into that black mist.
Zhou Bao did not feel anything special when he stepped into that mist. Just like normal mist, this black one did not impede him or let out a shriek when he entered it. It simply let him in without a hitch.
Within the mist, there was nothing eccentric. The ground under his feet was still flat and even, very substantial. Apart from making people feel the deadly silence in their hearts and arousing an impulse to commit suicide, this black mist had no other special attributes.
When Zhou Bao had pulled himself together and launched his Nine Dragons Heavenly Kylin Gang, this black mist even lost its last bit of threatening power toward him.
“Everything is normal here. There is nothing peculiar in this place!”
The area covered by the black mist was not large, with only a radius of 100 feet and a height of 30 to 40 feet. Black as the mist was, it was not pitch-dark inside of it. Besides, with his Fiery Eyes helping him to get superb vision, Zhou Bao could see through it with one glance. But he still did not notice anything unusual.
It was just like a patch of ordinary land, merely with a layer of mist floating over it.
“If it is so easy for you to spot any abnormality, why is this place being left here to be explored by us?” Green Spirit said nastily. “Boy, just carefully look around again and see if you can find any place exceptional!”
“Even if I explore this place another dozen times, there is nothing exceptional here!” Zhou Bao said with certainty. He also tried to employ his Gang Qi and his own strength to expel this black mist.
Maybe that was the only thing he felt abnormal there. With his strength, he could even lift up a huge boulder with a radius of over 100 feet, but this mist was not something that he could repel by any means. Even when he did use all his skills, all that he succeeded in doing was putting the mist into flowing motion within a 100-foot range. Yet, when he wanted to expand his Gang Qi to its utmost to a radius of over 100 feet, he made an eerie discovery that the black mist even seeped into his Gang Qi.
This discovery gave him a huge shock. Accordingly, Zhou Bao did not dare to mess around with the mist any further. He just drew back his Gang Qi and made a round trip within this 100-foot area while examing everywhere carefully.
“It’s not working. There are still no discoveries, no abnormalities!”
“Yeah, exactly!” It looked like Green Spirit also knew that it was not useful for Zhou Bao to continue running around like this, so he suggested, “Try the formation!”
“Formation?” Zhou Bao seemed a bit nonplussed.
“Yes, the formation!” Green Spirit explained, “The current situation is exactly the same as my friend described. Even with the strength of both him and that emperor, they found nothing in this black mist, which led him to suspect that this mist might actually be an extremely delicate formation. It’s just that this formation was arranged so cleverly that he and that emperor didn’t even realize it!”
“It’s obviously just a clearing. How can a formation be here!” Zhou Bao said eccentrically. He took a few steps forward and found himself outside of the mist, but then he slipped back in it and exclaimed, “How could this be a formation! I can see through it with one glance and walk in and out of it freely. When viewed from the inside, the outside is clearly seen. And looking from the outside, when I fully operate my eyesight, I can also see inside of it!”
“That’s precisely the cleverness of this formation!” Hearing Zhou Bao doubt his assumption, Green Spirit was not annoyed at all, but patiently went on, “Otherwise, how could it have fooled the emperor of the ancient times and the savvy necromancer?”
“Fine. If you say it’s a formation, I’ll take it as such. But this formation is so brilliantly devised, how can I figure out a way to crack it?”
“Who told you that you don’t have a way? Don’t you know about the Yin and Yang Dust Formation? “The method proposed later by my friend is to use another formation to crack this formation. As long as it is a formation, no matter how brilliantly it is designed, it shall have a Formation Eye just like any other formation. And it is able to connect the surrounding essence of the world. If you build another formation here and disrupt the connection between this Formation Eye and the surrounding essence of the world, even an extremely sophisticated formation will be bound to reveal its flaws!”
“That means I should set up another formation within a radius of 100 feet? Could it be that simple?”
“Simple? Hehe, it’s surely simple when you talk about it. Given this clever formation, do you really believe any other formation will do? No, it has to be the Yin and Yang Dust Formation. You’ve mastered this formation and successfully refined the Innate Qi Talisman, so that’s the reason I want you to give it a try. If you choose a different formation, nothing unusual will appear even if you’ve managed to set it up here! Since the Yin and Yang Dust Formation is a congenital formation, it can hook up to the power of heaven and earth in a wonderful manner. Thus, only this kind of congenital formation stands a chance to bring disorder to the Divine Design in this formation!”
“Are you sure? Even I can perform the Yin and Yang Dust Formation, so there is no reason that the emperor of antiquity times couldn’t have performed it!”
“Like I said, for one thing, this method was developed little by little through my friend’s pondering once he had gotten back from that exploration. For another, even in antiquity times, the formation maps of those congenital-level formations like the Yin and Yang Dust Formation were still pretty precious. And even if you were able to get one, it was still difficult for you to acquire the Innate Qi Talisman that was necessary for its Formation Eye!” Green Spirit said, “And lastly, all of that is just speculation. It relies on you to verify the truth!”
“Okay, then let me verify if your friend, the necromancer, knew some real stuff!” Hearing Green Qi’s words, Zhou Bao reluctantly shook his hands and 12 triangle flags appeared out of thin air, floating in front of him. With a flick of his sleeves, those 12 flags whirled and settled themselves in the ground pursuant to the distribution of the Two Forms and Four Phases. Soon after, one of his hands touched his forehead, and a jet of Green Qi spurted out from the area between his eyebrows, mirroring each of the 12 flags. A thin film of green mist began to disperse around from those flags.
This green mist gradually blended into the surrounding black mist, which made the latter that was shrouding this place start to change marvelously. As if rejecting the green mist, the black mist gathered together and went all out to squeeze the green mist back into those green flags.
“This is working!”
Unusual movements of the mist let Zhou Bao see signs of hope. The black mist, which was originally permeating this area in a mess and perfectly blended into itself with no pronounced distinctions, unveiled some eccentric meridian of Spiritual Qi during its unusual movements.
“Hahaha! Sure enough, sure enough, there is something eccentric here! Using one formation to crack another, what a smart move! Only that clever guy could think on this level. Hahaha!”
Sensing the unusual movements of the black mist as well, Green Spirit’s psywaves feverishly sprang up as if he was laughing madly. Then he continued, “Good, it’s really good! Boy, go on! Chop-chop! Find the black mist’s meridian of Spiritual Qi!”
“No, I can’t! There is an odd power in it, and my Yin and Yang Dust Formation may not last very long!”
At first, he did not feel it. But when he cast the Yin and Yang Dust Formation, Zhou Bao could clearly sense waves of pressure coming from the black mist, which was getting increasingly immense, one after another. This pressure plummeted straight on to the top of his head like a hoisting jack, completely suppressing his Yin and Yang Dust Formation. If it were not for the Innate Qi Talisman, his formation would have long ago been devastated. However, under such pressure, even this magical talisman could not last much longer.
“Then just hurry up and find the key to destroying this formation!” Green Spirit shrieked, “As long as you find the Formation Eye, everything will be fine. Otherwise…”
Before Green Spirit could finish these words, a booming voice carried through from the highest heaven. “Got you, Zhou Bao! How dare you act alone while not concealing your spirit!”
“Damn it, it’s Ye Qingtian’s people!” Hearing that voice, Zhou Bao’s heart abruptly leaped into his throat. Looking up instantly, he realized that the world outside the black mist was already overcast by a faint layer of sanguineous light, while an exotic but evil force was coming toward him.
“This formation is surely wondrous! It should cut off the reaction that my Fiery Eyes would have from his!”
Previously, every time his opponent’s Fiery Eyes showed up, Zhou Bao’s Fiery Eyes would make a crazy response to them as if they were stimulated by something.
If Zhou Bao had not stifled his own Fiery Eyes each time without delay, his opponent had to have known the fact that he also possessed the bloodline of the Fiery Eyes. But this time, though Zhou Bao sensed the other’s power blatantly suffusing the surroundings, his own Fiery Eyes rendered no reactions to that power under the isolation of the black mist.
Nevertheless, it was not time to mull over this matter now. A force of extremely freezing power descended from the highest heaven in a compelling way. Drastic changes happened in the weather around—dark clouds were gathering in the sky, a wild wind was surging and howling, and snowflakes began to fall from the sky like a myriad of feathers!
The black mist did not prevent those snowflakes from landing on Zhou Bao’s body.
“Damn it!” Zhou Bao cursed in a whisper and launched his Nine Dragons Heavenly Kylin Gang. However, a Fairy Weapon was certainly not that easy to tackle. Several ice-blue snowflakes fell on his Gang Qi, and its effect was just like pouring cold water into hot oil.
“Sizzle!”
As the snowflakes vanished, so did a large portion of pneuma in his Nine Dragons Heavenly Kylin Gang. At the same time, a chilling trace of killing intent also dashed toward him out of mid-air.
“Crap!” Zhou Bao yelled, and his body gave a shudder. At this point, he had no time to think this through. With a flick of his sleeves, he attempted to withdraw all 12 of the flags together with the Innate Qi Talisman.
If it had been another place where he cast out this Yin and Yang Dust Formation, Zhou Bao could still resist Ye Qingtian for a while even if Ye Qingtian had a Fairy Weapon. But now, in this meadow of black mist, the Yin and Yang Dust Formation was under the all-out extrusion of the mysterious power contained in the mist and could not function one bit. Therefore, the only choice left for him was to flee.
Just when he was about to operate his Three Realms Division, Green Spirit’s psywave suddenly jumped out, “Find it! It’s here! Boy, quick, use your Great Fusion Technic!”
Stuck in imminent danger, Zhou Bao raised his hands without thinking and instantly launched the Great Fusion Technic.
As a ball of golden fire light flashed, the black mist with its radius of 100 feet suddenly shrank, even thoroughly covering Zhou Bao inside of it. The black mist became smaller and smaller, and then finally disappeared.
Everything happened so fast that it just took a fraction of a second.
Almost at the same instant that the black mist started contracting, two streamers arrived there.
A huge sanguine hand appeared out of the hollow and tried to grab that black mist.
However, it was still one step too late.
When Ye Qingtian and that black-clothed man reached that spot, the black mist had already disappeared into nowhere with Zhou Bao inside of it.
“Hollow Travel! This guy knows the special technique of Hollow Travel! He got away once more!” Seeing that Zhou Bao had already vanished out of sight, Ye Qingtian’s entire face became livid and he gave a heavy stamp on the ground.
“This is not right! The space with a radius of 100 feet had already been blocked by us. Even if he does have the special technique of Hollow Travel, he can’t put it to use!” The expression of that black-clothed man was coldly stern, but his eyes revealed a hint of astonishment.
“How could he manage to disappear?” asked the ashen-faced Ye Qingtian.
“No idea!” The black-clothed man shook his head and kept eyeing the surroundings. “This place is perfectly normal. Nothing is unusual here!”
“Just come back. He has fled out of this space.” A voice carried to the two’s ears with a slight sigh. “The black mist just now must be an exotic formation, which was the only spot that could not be blocked. Inside that ethereal mist, there are infinite time-to-space conversions. Thus, this guy has already slipped away.”
“What “What shall we do now?” Ye Qingtian asked, “Shall we go to find him?”
“No need. Now that he has gone beyond this space, it will just be a waste of your time to try and find him. If you come across Wen Yida again, you will have another problem. Considering that there are numerous treasures buried in this Taiyuan Heaven, let’s get sufficient benefits for ourselves first. How can we leave such a treasure-trove empty-handed? Loads of things that you can never find in your world are right here! We can’t miss this opportunity! As for that guy, we’ll have plenty of time to get him after we get out of here! After all, the monk may run away, but the temple can’t run away with him.”
“Yeah, let’s wait till we’re out of here and then settle this matter with him!” Ye Qingtian snarled malevolently. He exchanged a look with that black-clothed man, and both of them disappeared simultaneously.
Simultaneously, when Zhou Bao was swept away by that black mist, he merely felt a very regular fluctuation produced in the surrounding space, which was utterly distinct from any space fluctuation that he had felt, seen, or experienced before.
In the past, the space fluctuations that he had sensed were either inflicted by a powerful force splitting up the hollow or a space-key like the Flickering Light Evil Qi opening up the hollow. There was no third case that existed. However, at present, he felt that the barrier wall of this space had suddenly disappeared, leaving an uncanny cavity there. Then, they just fell into this cavity like this.
Entering the cavity, Zhou Bao felt himself gliding downward in this weird space-tube at the fastest speed. He could not control his body in this eccentric space-tube even when he tried to activate his Gang Qi or his Dragon Flying Technique. He had to let himself keep falling in this eerie way, with no clue of where the tube would end or if he would die from this fall. The only thing he could do was to prop up his Nine Dragons Heavenly Kylin Gang and his Poison Cold Shield in case he would fall to the solid ground and break all his bones.
Zhou Bao’s figure was dropping rapidly, but the fierce crash that he was expecting did not come. Instead, at one point, the process of this rapid falling down suddenly came to a halt, and he felt that he was suspended in the air.
Yes, he was suspended with no force to support his body, as if he was in a hollow where there was no gravity. He was simply suspended in this pitch-black space, not able to see his fingers. Even with his Fiery Eyes, he still could not see anything around him. It was an utterly dark space.
Not a single light was there. The temperature was not very cold, but it could not be called hot either.
Zhou Bao believed that if there was a drop of water here, it would gradually freeze-up for sure.
Actually, the temperature was at the freezing point. This might be pretty cold for ordinary people, but for Zhou Bao, it was not a problem at all.
He reached out and tried to feel his surroundings, but he failed to make contact with anything other than an expanse of the intangible pneuma of the world.
The essence of the world! The highly immense essence of the world! Here, the essence of the world, which was hundreds of times more immense than that in Taiyuan Heaven, was floating everywhere.
But all this essence meant little to Zhou Bao because it was impossible for his body to accommodate so much pneuma. Upon arriving at such a place where the density of the essence of the world was about to reach the bursting point, even activating an ordinary practicing state would be fatal. The reason was that once you started practicing, the essence there would transform into your Internal Qi of its own accord. And accordingly, you would not even consume a bit of your Internal Qi. It would then suffuse your entire body, and in the end, even make you burst, turning you into a haze of blood fog.
“What the hell is this place? Green Spirit, is this the Innate Deity’s graveyard that you’ve talked about?” Zhou Bao inquired of Green Spirit as his psywave began to get active.
A sparkle of starlight flickered between his fingers, which then turned into a silver spider the size of a fist. With the appearance of this starlight, Zhou Bao could finally have a clear view of the surroundings. But to his frustration, the place around him was devoid of anything.
Even with the starlight, he could see nothing but the starlight itself and that large spider. There was simply an expanse of empty space.
“Boy, be patient, there is a spacetime gap here!” Green Spirit seemed to know about this place and went on, “It looks like we’ve arrived at the right place. Innate Deities of the primitive times were inclined to pick this kind of empty and small space where the essence of the world was sufficient because that place highly resembled their birthplace!”
“Is that true? If so, how should we start the search? And how… how can we get out later?”
“You will know that when the time comes!”
“What do you mean?”
“The graveyards of Innate Deities and Primordial Demons were the favorite things those necromancers liked studying. For the purpose of these kinds of places, those damn necromancers had come up with plenty of methods to deal with them. From entering to exiting, all are supposed to abide by a settled procedure. So, this should not be your concern at all!”
“Really? It seems that those necromancers did excel at digging tombs and all this stuff, didn’t they?”
