Chapter 255 - Border
Chapter 255 - Border
These crystal threads were the Guyin Aura Qi Liu Ming had gotten from the treasure pit of Xuanjing’s earlier dynasty.
Liu Ming’s body shone with a blue light; he shook his sleeve, and a blue fog enveloped all the black crystal threads and brought them to the side of the bone scorpion.
At the same time, Liu Ming used his consciousness to forcibly order the bone scorpion to absorb these Pure Aura Qi.
Under the double duress of its own temptation and Liu Ming’s order, the bone scorpion could not endure; it opened its mouth wide, and a cloud of black gas rolled out. It swept the crystal threads nearby into its mouth, strand by strand.
Simultaneously, violet flames erupted from the bone scorpion’s body and enveloped its body within.
The Miasma in the surroundings also rushed toward the bone scorpion, as if provoked by something.
The reason for the bone scorpion acting quite strange for a while now as well as swallowing these Guyin Aura Qi was naturally, it was because it had reached the point where it would condense its own Symbol Qi and join the liquid realm.
Liu Ming felt the surrounding Yuan Li tumbling and smiled slightly. He took out two small bottles and tossed them at the black fog. Then, he gave a number of orders to the bone scorpion through his consciousness, and pulled out a stack of Formation Flags and laid down a hiding formation. Afterwards, yellow light flashed on his body and he flew upwards.
After a moment of work, Liu Ming had flown from the silt into the air and the yellow light on his body had also dissipated and went out.
Liu Ming stopped the cloud in midair and used his strong mental energy to observe everything underground.
Time passed little by little; he stayed here for an entire day and night.
On the morning of the second day, when sunlight began to shoot over from between the mountain-peaks far away, Liu Ming had not yet discovered anything extraordinary under the ground, and finally decided to get up and leave.
But when he swept his gaze around the swamp, he still felt slightly uneasy.
If the bone scorpion could advance to the level of a Liquid Level Ghost, it would be a great help to him. But he needed to rush to the borders now; he definitely could not stay here and spend many months with the sole purpose of guarding the scorpion’s advancement. And the scorpion, while advancing, could not be disturbed by outside forces. Although this place was desolate, who knew if there might be some person or beast who accidentally came in here. If it ruined the bone scorpion’s opportunity at advancing, it would be too late for regrets.
Thinking this, Liu Ming gritted his teeth and slapped the other pouch at his waist.
A ‘pu” sound later, a cloud of black gas shot from the pouch; after solidifying, a man’s head appeared.
It was the Flying Head!
“Stay here and protect the scorpion until it has finished advancing!” Liu Ming ordered in a low voice.
Flying Head, making several ‘ga-ga’ laughing sounds, flew toward a nearby tree. A blur later, it had vanished between the trees.
Seeing this, Liu Ming let out a breath; with a wave of one hand, he threw out a cyan-colored ball.
Clenching one hand, the ball made a ‘ga-bang’ sound and turned into a boat several tens of feet long.
It was the mechanical boat he had gained from the Xuanjing auction.
Liu Ming leaped onto the boat and became a ball of cyan light, shooting through the air.
Keeping Flying Head at his side would gain him one helper, but at the level, it was now, the Flying Head could not be of much actual help to him. Like this, it would be better to leave the Flying Head here and let it protect the bone scorpion so that it could advance safely.
Though he did not know how likely the bone scorpion was to succeed in advancing, it had swallowed a lot of red dragon skin and scales. So that was something worth anticipating.
Thus, as the flying boat gradually disappeared into the distant sky, the swamp finally recovered its initial peacefulness, as if nothing had ever happened here.
After another day or so, Liu Ming finally caught up with the group of Barbarian Ghost Sect boats and appeared on the bone boat.
He turned off and folded up the flying craft beneath him, and landed gently on the bone vessel. He ignored the surprised stares of the other disciples and walked calmly towards his room.
In a different room on the bone boat, a ‘weng-weng’ sound came from the body of the Ghost Barbarian Sect Leader.
His expression changed and he took out a plate from his sleeve. After reading the new words that had appeared on it, his face broke into a smile; after putting the plate away again, he shut his eyes and continued to meditate.
Two months later, on a mountain range several tens of thousands of miles long, the group of boats flew over a high peak of more than ten thousand feet. Then their eyes lit up and before them appeared a desolate lowland that reached further than the eye could see.
Not far from them, a city stronghold surrounded by a wall a thousand feet tall stood majestically.
Though this city was only a hundred acres or so, it was put together using light silver bricks. From afar, the entire city shone with strength and majesty.
But the exterior of the city wall was full of dents and holes. In some areas, it had even cracked apart. Some of the small cracks were only an inch or so wide, but some of the larger ones were several feet wide.
The whole city looked as if it had just been through a tremendous war, and was still in ruins.
At the edge of the city, there were also ten-odd stone towers of uneven height. They were made of the same silver stone, but the tallest was over ten thousand feet high, while the shortest was only a thousand of feet high. They were all protected by a thick white light. An object hung on each of their peaks. Respectively, the objects were a big press, a short ruler, a halberd, and other artifacts.
There were people going in and out of every stone tower. They entered the big city from the towers or flew into one of the stone towers from the big city.
Atop both the stone towers and the large city, there were some people riding clouds. They drew spirit inscriptions on the silver stone with Glyph Pens or used chisels and small hammers to engrave patterns onto the stone. There were also some people holding round barrels and spraying some sticky silver liquid on the surface of the city wall.
On being sprayed onto the cracks in the wall, this liquid became as solid as steel and firmly mended the cracks.
On the city walls, there were rows of armored knights going back and forth on guard. Ten-odd large black birds, about as big as a mountain goat, circled in the nearby air and kept watch on the surroundings from above.
As a result, when the group of flying boats flew out from the mountain peaks, people in the city quickly discovered them.
A sharp cry rose from the middle of the city. A cloud of black gas flew out from the city and rolled in this direction with a thunderous sound. Within moments, it had reached the flying boats. It dissipated and revealed a grey-robed elder whose hair was bound with a triangular comb.
It was Martial Ancestor Yan, who was one of the crystal level experts in the Barbarian Ghost Sect.
The Barbarian Ghost Sect Leader who had led Liu Ming and the other Spirit Masters out was shocked and hurriedly bowed. “Martial Uncle. Why did you come in person?”
Liu Ming, Lin Caiyu and the others also bowed respectfully.
“I looked at the time and thought it was about time you arrived. So I came out to make sure of that. It must have been hard for you to have come from so far away. Let’s go inside the city, and then we can talk.” Martial Ancestor Yan said with a slight smile as his gaze swept over the people on the flying boats.
The Barbarian Ghost Sect Leader naturally agreed.
So the flying boats, under the personal guidance of the elder, flew with great swagger into the city and landed in the area specially designated for the Ghost Barbarian Sect.
Liu Ming saw that in the city, there were many stone houses, arranged neatly and segregated into a number of areas. The Ghost Barbarian Sect completely occupied one of them.
As the flying boats descended, some waiting disciples of the Ghost Barbarian Sect came forward to welcome them.
Under the instruction of the Ghost Barbarian Sect Leader, the elders led the new disciples who came down from the flying boat into some of the stone houses and made their living arrangements.
The Ghost Barbarian Sect Leader, Liu Ming, and the other Spirit Masters followed Martial Uncle Yan to a large stone hall that stood among the group of stone buildings.
When Liu Ming walked into the large building, he looked around. Ten or so higher-ups of the Barbarian Ghost Sect already sat there. There was the Lei Spirit Master, Nun Zhong, and others.
“Teacher!” Liu Ming walked over immediately and bowed deeply to Nun Zhong.
Nun Zhong, on seeing Liu Ming, stood up and waved. She said with her face all smiles, “You did very well. I heard from Martial Brother that you advanced to the liquid realm on your first attempt. Not bad. I was right to notice you back at the beginning. But you are now also a Spirit Master, so you only need to call me teacher, and no longer need to bow. I’m ashamed, actually. I gave you very little guidance at the beginning. The achievements you have now are largely your own.”
Someone sitting beside Martial Aunt Zhong said happily as he rose, “Indeed, both I and Martial Brother Gui judged wrong. We never thought that ‘Martial Nephew Liu’ could actually become a Spirit Master. But I hope that you won’t hold a grudge against the two of us.” It was Zhu Chi.
Liu Ming said repeatedly, “I wouldn’t dare”.
The newly-arrived Spirit Masters joined in the commotion in the large hall. They exchanged greetings or directly asked about the situation with the Sea Race. The entire hall bustled with activity.
At this moment, Liu Ming’s expression changed. He sensed a hostile gaze and immediately turned his head to look in that direction.
A tall youth watched him expressionlessly.
It was Gao Chong.
Liu Ming’s expression did not change, but in his heart, he frowned. Before he could react, a youth wearing a silver mask walked in his direction.
“Martial Brother Liu. I’m surprised that in the few years we haven’t seen each other, both of us have advanced to Spirit Masters.”
Liu Ming replied with a slight smile, “Martial Brother Yang. I’m very ashamed. Your martial brother is not of good stock, and so I had to accumulate a few more years. I couldn’t attack the bottleneck upon returning from the secret realm like you did.”
At the beginning, when he communicated using the formation in Xuanjing, he already knew that Yang Gan was following closely behind Gao Chong, and had suddenly successfully advanced to Spirit Master without fanfare.