Chapter 169: Quest (Part 2)
King of Hunting. He lived during the ancient era when cultivators still considered the Soul Nascent stage to be the peak of power.
His name shook everyone. It is said that with one strike, he destroyed a mountain range and turned the surrounding landscape into endless valleys.
Although his fame was bright, shining, and powerful… it was short-lived.
Hundreds of years of martial exploits eventually ended when the King of Hunting offended an Immortal, who in anger cursed him. From that day on, the King of Hunting lost his sight and aged faster and faster with each passing year.
“There were rumors that he had already come up with a way to cure the curse of blindness before his death… Now I understand why Li Yuilan wanted to come here,” Xie Qing recalled as he gazed at the plains and ruins of the ancient city.
Every self-respecting ancient cultivator built sect-cities. The King of Hunting was no exception, so his city, or rather its ruins, were what many archaeologists eagerly wanted to explore.
However, the territory was under the protection of the Starry Stream Sect, which did not allow outsiders to enter the area.
“Formation of protection… from the inner system. Wow,” Xie Qing raised his eyebrows in surprise, then took out a token that immediately glowed with a golden light and made a hole in the formation, allowing the young man to enter inside: “I need to hurry, the entrance will close in two seconds.”
Xie Qing did not hesitate and entered. After the entrance closed and the barrier became whole again, he could see the city without any restrictions.
The beautiful buildings had turned into ruins, and although they looked extremely pitiful, the air still retained an aura of greatness.
“Now I can understand those cultivators who desperately search for the ruins of antiquity. After all, the most valuable treasures of cultivators are hidden here… their history!” Xie Qing thought.
Undoubtedly, he was not one of those people who considered history to be super important, but he appreciated it. After all, it was interesting to look at the legacy of the past.
“Li Yuilan…”
The young man could not help but sigh. How could he not understand her thoughts? After all, she also lost her sight because of her talent to see the threads of fate. This was very tragic for such a young girl like her.
However, even if Xie Qing tried, he could not find an item in the System’s store that could cure such a thing. After all, for Li Yuilan, this was more of a restriction imposed by the Heavens rather than a curse.
“Even if I want to very much, I have no chance against the Heavenly Laws…” Xie Qing thought.
Li Yuilan probably also understood this, but she did not give up trying to find a way out of this situation. Foolishness or persistence? Xie Qing, alas, did not know.
Nevertheless, since he did not want Li Yuilan to encounter danger because of his careless behavior, the young man immediately channeled Qi into the token and closed his eyes.
After a few minutes, he opened them. His black eyes sparkled.
“I found her. However, it seems that there is a concentration of negative energy near her… the karma from these ruins is extremely negative. One can only conclude that there was once a mass murder here,” Xie Qing thought.
He cracked his neck and began to walk towards the largest building. Compared to the other buildings, it was like a two-story house and a ten-story building, so it immediately caught his eye.
“If the legends are to be believed, this is the Hunter’s Pavilion… listen, these cultivators definitely had the ability to give good names!” Xie Qing thought and admired.
Although it was doubtful that his mind was in order, nevertheless, the sight of the pavilion alone was breathtaking.
Built entirely of black stone, it looked ominous, giving the impression that a devilish cultivator lived there.
“In ancient times…” Xie Qing suddenly remembered: “The division into righteous and devilish cultivators did not yet exist, so even those who seemed ‘good’ on the outside engaged in evil rituals and conducted experiments on living beings. There were often massacres to test dao techniques, sword techniques, etc…”
Of course, the dark aspects of the stories of characters such as the King of Hunting were always kept under the “TOP SECRET” classification, but Xie Qing as Xu Mei’s disciple had access to this information.
Therefore, he knew that the King of Hunting had such a strange and perverted hobby – arranging massacres of mortals to test his techniques.
Xie Qing did not particularly approve of this, because killing without reason… was more like something madmen would do. But he was not pure either.
And so, entering the pavilion, Xie Qing expected this, but the scene of ruin and decay instantly erased all his expectations.
“Damn… well, the Starry Stream Sect did thoroughly investigate this place before, so it’s not surprising… it’s only been a year since Chang Mei said that a secret passage to the underground was discovered, which is still being explored,” Xie Qing thought and channeled Qi into the token that Chang Mei had given him.
As soon as the Qi touched the surface of the token, a complete map of the explored area was transmitted to Xie Qing’s mind. He was pleasantly surprised.
“Hm… not bad… they have explored many places, but as expected, there are places covered in darkness,” Xie Qing thought, scratching the back of his head: “And… damn, how could it be so easy…”
He sighed. After all, the place where Li Yuilan’s aura was felt, was in the unexplored areas, which were most likely full of dangers.
“Well, let’s dive headfirst into this deep crap with our heads held high,” Xie Qing thought, stamping his foot on the ground.
Creak…
A passage opened under his feet, and he fell down.
“Damn!”
“Why did it open under my feet?!”
Boom!
***
In the pitch darkness, in a gloomy and dimly lit room with a damp smell mixed with the stench of rotting flesh, Li Yuilan sat in the lotus position.
Large drops of cold sweat dripped from her forehead. Her beautiful eyebrows were furrowed, and her body trembled as if she was cold.
“The world is so good… but dangerous… why don’t you accept my power…?”
“The Heavens are against you… don’t you see?…”
“Accept… accept… my… power…”
The annoying whisper was clearly audible in the large room. And the content of this whisper was somewhat ominous.
“Damn!”
“How did I even catch a heart demon?!”
Li Yuilan unconsciously opened her eyes, which were just as empty as before, and then closed them again. Her face looked scared and angry at the same time.
“I’ve been wandering here for a month…” Li Yuilan bit her lower lip and cried out in disappointment: “And I haven’t found anything! There are only bare walls here! Could it be that… the legends lied? Although, what else could I have expected…”
Li Yuilan showed regret and despair on her face. In her hands was a broken token that helped her meditate and resist the heart demon.
“In such conditions, I won’t last long… it’s too dangerous!”
“I need to go home!”
Li Yuilan had spent a lot of strength and resources on this trip. And although it was extremely bitter to return with nothing, life was more valuable. Therefore, standing up, she began to look for a way out.
And while she was lost in thought, suddenly a loud and ominous scream was heard:
“You… dare… reject… me?!”
Rumble!
“Wh-what…”
Li Yuilan barely managed to keep her balance. The entire underground began to shake as if a giant was running!
Li Yuilan’s heart skipped a beat. She felt a terrifying Qi coming from the direction of the entrance!
“This is…”
Her face darkened. A creature of negative karma… An Evil Ghost!
***
Rumble!
“What’s this?”
Xie Qing, who was following Li Yuilan’s aura, stopped when he felt the earthquake. The ground under his feet cracked and cracks appeared on it, from which negative karma seeped out.
“This is… dangerous!”
The young man could clearly feel how his Qi became extremely weak and was destroyed as soon as the Negative Karma touched him.
The natural enemy of cultivators!
“This is… this is… damn!” Xie Qing was shocked: “This Negative Karma is mighty! It would take more than a million mortal lives here…”
He could not help but wonder if the King of Hunting was really a madman? After all, such Negative Karma would first of all affect the perpetrator himself, and even if he left here, his Dao Heart would be damaged, and further cultivation would become impossible.
“Definitely a madman! Who would ruin their own Karma and expose themselves to danger for the sake of entertainment? Only madmen!”
Xie Qing did not have any protection against this situation, and he did not even have a token, so he had to move forward very carefully.
Because Negative Karma began to fill the underground, the token was covered with interference and could not accurately calculate Li Yuilan’s location.
“Damn!”
Xie Qing gritted his teeth and continued to move forward.
He could not stop!
***
Li Yuilan was in an even worse situation. In front of her floated a semi-transparent creature of black color. It vaguely resembled a human, but too vaguely.
“Level… Soul Nascent!” Li Yuilan’s face darkened. In her eyes appeared despair: “I’m only at the 5th level of Core Formation! I’m no match for him!”
And this was a ghost created from Negative Karma! And what if there were many of them? Li Yuilan felt despair.
***
“Why are they all heading towards me? They’re like flies to shit… uh… the analogy isn’t the best, it’s like I just insulted myself.”
Compared to Li Yuilan, Xie Qing had no problem killing a few ghosts. Most of them died with one hit.
Since his karma was mostly positive, he had immunity to the attacks of ghosts. Therefore, for him, everything looked like a walk in the park.
The token became useless – it could not sense Li Yuilan’s aura due to the interference, so he decided to just follow his heart.
“In any case, the luck of a cultivator of my level is quite good. Maybe I’ll find…” Xie Qing thought.
Rumble!
“What the…?!”
Xie Qing stopped when he felt a sharp surge of Negative Karma.
“This is… a ghost with the level of Soul Integration? Damn!”
