A spirit beast soared in the boundless skies.
It was the third day since Zhang Xuan left Honghai City.
The direction which the soul oracle tomb was located at a direction opposite of the Myriad Kingdom Alliance.
The geographical terrain consisted of winding mountains reminiscent of a massive dragon lying the ground, ready to rise into the heavens at any moment.
Within the room on the back of the spirit beast, Zhang Xuan stood in front of the window with his eyes closed.
In the past three days, he had reinforced his cultivation as a Transcendent Mortal 1-dan pinnacle cultivator. At this moment, he was currently reorganizing the information he had collected on soul oracles in his mind.
Back then, in order to accurately determine the identity of the Soulless Metal Humanoid, Hall Master Sai had collected quite a few books on soul oracles. After duplicating those books from the Appraiser Hall, Zhang Xuan hadn’t been able to find time to browse through them. Since he had some free time now, he decided to make use of this opportunity look through them.
“Compile!”
Muttering softly, the correct information recorded in the dozens of books in the Library of Heaven’s Path gathered together to form a new book.
All of the soul oracle-related books collected shared a common description on the occupation—Mysterious and fearsome.
Their deep knowledge concerning the subject of souls made them a fearsome existence.
It didn’t take long for Zhang Xuan to read through the entire book, and he shook his head.
The heritage of the occupation had been severed and there weren’t many records left on it. The books remaining were uncomprehensive and useful information was terribly limited.
After browsing through the books, Zhang Xuan was left with more doubts than he’d started with.
“Forget it, I’ll just deal with whatever that comes my way!”
Knowing that there wasn’t any useful information to be derived from the books, Zhang Xuan sighed. Opening his eyes, he turned to Sun Qiang, Zhao Ya and the others and said, “All of you come here!”
“Teacher!”
“Young master!”
The group gathered around Zhang Xuan.
Seeing the grave expression on Zhang Xuan’s face, Zhao Feiwu asked, “Since Zhang Xuan has some matters to delegate, should we step aside for a moment?”
There were many secrets within a teacher-student lineage that outsiders shouldn’t know of.
Zhang Xuan waved his hands. “There’s no need for it, it isn’t something major. I just want to remind them of some things that they have to take note of when we’re at the soul oracle tomb.”
“Oh? Things to take note of? Then… can we listen in too?” Zhao Feiwu, Hall Master Sai, and the others’ eyes lit up, and they hurriedly turned their attention over.
Who was the young man before him?
He was the master teacher who could even expel a soul oracle from a person’s body! Not to mention, he was a 5-star appraiser and quasi 4-star formation master. How could the advice from such a person be anything ordinary?
If they were to listen to his words, they would definitely have a much better chance at survival in the soul oracle tomb.
“Of course, feel free!”
Ignoring the excited crowd, Zhang Xuan turned to his students and subordinate and spoke gravely.
“Take note of this. When we’re at the soul oracle tomb, if anyone gets possessed… make sure not to devour the other party’s soul carelessly. There are questions I would like to ask!”
If the soul that possessed Luo Zhu was still alive, Zhang Xuan would surely be able to derive useful information from him. If so, there might be no need for him to take the risk and venture into the soul oracle tomb.
The more he thought about it, the more regretful he felt about the matter. Thus, he made sure to instruct the others properly this time around.
Otherwise, if this bunch of kids and Sun Qiang were to rush to devour the soul oracles later on, it would be too late.
“Yes!”
Zhao Ya and the others hurriedly nodded their heads.
In order to protect them, their teacher had left a surge of zhenqi within each of them. Even if some soul oracle were to charge up to them, they would at least be able to avoid being possessed.
“Un, that’s more like it! Alright, that’s all. You all should continue cultivating!”
After finishing his instructions, Zhang Xuan waved his hands.
Nodding, Zhao Ya and the others nodded and dispersed.
“Just like that?”
The others thought that Zhang Xuan was going to conduct a detailed briefing so they were filled with expectations. However, after hearing those words, the mouths of Zhao Feiwu, Hall Master Sai, and the others twitched; their nearly fainted on the spot.
There was no one who wouldn’t be filled with trepidation when heading toward a soul oracle tomb, fearful that something might catch them off-guard… Yet, this fellow made it seem as though he and his students were just going on a picnic!
What in the world was with that official ‘allow me to have a bite first before you all devour your food’ announcement…
“Cough cough!”
Luo Zhu even choked on his saliva.
For this trip to the soul oracle tomb, he had prepared many things. In fact, he had even written his will… And yet, the other party seemed to treat it like a leisure walk, and there wasn’t the slightest worry in his attitude.
Humans were truly born different…
Suppressing his frustration, Luo Zhu glanced downward at the geographical terrain, did a rough calculation on their current location, and walked up to Zhang Xuan.
“Zhang shi, we’re about to arrive at the soul oracle tomb!”
Zhang Xuan looked around and asked, “About to arrive? Where are we now?”
“We’re currently at the Myriad Kingdom Alliance’s Nine Folds Mountain.”
“Thousand li of Nine Folds Mountain, ten thousand li of Red Ripple Sea. This is where the border with Mingxia Empire is located?” Zhang Xuan’s eyebrows shot up.
There was a map on the Myriad Kingdom Alliance in the Appraiser Hall, and Zhang Xuan had browsed through it. As such, he had a rough idea on the various landmarks across the empire. He had thought that the soul oracle tomb would be located in the middle of the alliance so he was surprised to learn that they were at the border.
Mingxia Empire was another empire of equivalent standing to the Myriad Kingdom Alliance. They were also one of the twenty-seven powers participating in the Master Teacher Tournament.
The Nine Folds Mountain was the boundary between the two powers, and battles broke out here often. As such, it was considered as one of the danger zones.
“It isn’t at the border yet, it is located at the third fold, Coax Ridge!” Luo Zhu said.
The Nine Folds Mountain consisted of a total of nine folds. There was a more specific name for each fold, and Coax Ridge was located at the third fold.
Legend had it that a powerful expert was once assaulted by a spirit beast stampede passing through the region. Thus, he calmly coaxed them and eventually, the spirit beasts decided to back off, thus came the name of the Coax Ridge.
Spiritual energy was concentrated in this region, thus resulting in many spirit beasts and savage beasts roaming the area. Thus, even though it wasn’t the border of the two empires, it was considered as one of the more dangerous locations. Most people would avoid coming here if possible.
“There are many spirit beasts on the Coax Ridge so we can’t fly over. Otherwise, there’s a chance that we might be assaulted by aerial spirit beasts!”
Upon hearing the name of the location where they were headed to, Jin Conghai frowned.
A Transcendent Mortal expert was still incapable of flight yet. As such, it could prove to be dangerous if they came under the assault of other aerial spirit beasts. After all, if they were to fall from the sky, at such a high altitude, they would most probably die immediately upon contact with the ground.
Thus, very few people would dare to ride a flying mount through where aerial spirit beasts were numerous.
“Elder Jin is right. However, there’s no need to worry. Since Gongzi’s spirit beast has reached Transcendent Mortal 3-dan pinnacle, most spirit beasts wouldn’t dare trifle with it. We should be able to fly straight to our destination.
“But of course, we can’t land directly at the location itself. There’s a formidable aerial spirit beast living in the vicinity of the soul oracle tomb. I’m afraid that we might incur its wrath if we were to approach carelessly!”
“You mean that [Demon Cinque Beast]?” Jin Conghai asked.
“Elder, you also know about this beast?” Luo Zhu was taken aback.
“Of course I do! On top of its ability of flight, it has reached Transcendent Mortal 4-dan pinnacle, thus making it a fearsome existence. It has terrorized some of the neighboring villages and killed on numerous occasions. In order to deal with it, the alliance has tried sending many experts to kill it several times, only to end in failure!”
With a grim expression, Jin Conghai continued, “Furthermore, on top of its speed and strength, it is said to possess a Dragon Bloodline, thus granting it nearly invincible defense. As such, it’s a troublesome adversary to deal with. Even the Beast Hall isn’t able to do anything about it. You said that the soul oracle is near to its nest, may I know how far away it is?”
“It is only several hundred meters away from its nest. The last time I came, I studied its habits and sneaked in while it was busy looking for food. There are more of us this time around so it will be easier for us to get caught. Thus, I think we should proceed carefully,” Luo Zhu said.
“Several hundred meters? That’s a little too close…”
Jin Conghai frowned.
At Transcendent Mortal 4-dan Clarifying Turbidity realm, one’s soul would gain a certain level of autonomy from one’s body. Under such a state, just by one’s senses, one could easily perceive the happenings within a radius of several hundred meters around one.
At such a distance, it was almost impossible for them to alarm the other party even if they were to proceed carefully.
Even though Jin Conghai was a Transcendent Mortal 4-dan expert as well, he was only at primary stage. On top of that, the Demon Cinque Beast was an aerial spirit beast possessing a Dragon Bloodline. He wasn’t a match for the other party at all.
Even though he could resort to poison, he needed the other party to be unguarded first. Putting aside how the Demon Cinque Beast was wary of humans, the Dragon Bloodline also provided it with an extremely high immunity to poison. If he were to fail to kill it in a single shot, he might incur the other party’s fury and cause everyone’s death.
The soul oracle tomb was already dangerous by itself, to think that there would be such a ferocious fellow camping in the surroundings on top of that.
After hesitating for a moment, Luo Zhu said, “It is an extremely short distance, but after hiding in this region for three months, I managed to find some patterns in its behavior. As long as we proceed carefully, we shouldn’t get noticed.”
“Since you managed to find some patterns in its behavior, why don’t we do it this way?” After contemplating for a moment, Jin Conghai turned to Zhang Xuan and asked, “Zhang shi, shall we stop two kilometers away from the Demon Cinque’s nest and slowly walk over?”
Unknowingly, Zhang Xuan had become the de facto leader of the group.
It had become a habit for them to look to him for answers.
“Alright.” Zhang Xuan nodded.
He had never been here before, and he didn’t know about the Demon Cinque Beast or how strong it was. Since the duo had already discussed it, he thought that it should be fine to go along with their decision.
Two kilometers wasn’t much of a distance to cultivators of their capability.
“Alright. Tell me when we’re nearing the location. I’ll have the tamed beast make a landing,” Jin Conghai said.
“Un!” Luo Zhu nodded.
While the others were discussing, Sun Qiang, upon seeing Hall Master Sai’s face turn pale after hearing about the Demon Cinque Beast, couldn’t hold himself back and asked, “Have you heard of that Demon Cinque Beast as well?”
“Of course I’ve heard of it!” Hall Master Sai smiled bitterly. “That fellow is incomparably strong. It’s said that the head of the Beast Hall has once led twelve elders to encircle and subdue it, but the operation eventually ended in failure!”
“Twelve elders?”
“That’s right. Those who are qualified to become elders in the Beast Hall possess cultivation at least that of my level. Much can be said about the strength of the Demon Cinque Beast given how they failed despite mobilizing so many experts!”
Hall Master Sai shook his head, “Not only is that fellow capable of flight, due to its Dragon Bloodline, it possesses incredible defense as well. Even Spirit intermediate-tier weapons could do no harm to it.
“On top of that, it has a violent temper and it is extremely territorial… If it is really guarding that area, it won’t be easy for us to approach…”
“Are you afraid?”
Interrupting the other party’s words, Sun Qiang uttered in disdain. “If you are scared, you might as well leave right now. To think that you’re still the head of the Appraiser Hall…”
“Me… afraid?” Seeing the other party’s expression, Hall Master Sai nearly fainted.
To think that a Transcendent Mortal 4-dan expert like him would be looked down on and mocked by an insignificant butler…
Infuriated, he was just about to lash out when Luo Zhu’s voice echoed.
“We’re here…”
After which, the aerial spirit beast began on its descend, headed straight for the winding mountain range.
Demon Cinque Beast:
This is a little tricky one. Cinque has the meaning of five. The original text is ‘chen’ which has the meaning of the chen hour.
(Just to explain, the denomination for time in ancient China works intervals of two hours. As such, there are a total of twelve (two-)hours a day, and each of these (two-)hours have a Chinese character to denote them)
Chen is the fifth hour on the timing system (7AM – 9AM). At the same time, the Chinese zodiac is aligned with the timing system, and the Dragon is ranked fifth in the zodiac. All in all, this is a particularly obscure hint to denote that the Demon Cinque Beast actually possesses the Dragon Bloodline.
