Chapter 41: Random Side Quest
“Host has triggered random side quest, Black Cloud Underground Palace.”
Lin Feng was dazed for a moment before reacting over. He’s already got a quest on his hands that he still hasn’t even completed yet, and this damned system has actually given out a new quest.
Could this also be time-bound or else he’ll be killed?
Lin Feng shakingly opened up the quest description.
Random Side Quest, Black Cloud Underground Palace.
Quest Background: The underground palace was originally the cultivation abode of the wandering cultivator Daoist Master Hei Yun. When Daoist Master Hei Yun established his abode he accidently opened up a void space, causing the lowest level of the underground palace to be connected with the Nether Blood River. Daoist Master Hei Yun suffered disaster and died. (TL: 黑云, hei yun, means black cloud.)
Quest Goal: Host obtains Daoist Master Hei Yun’s soul-bound magic item the Black Cloud Flag that he lost in the cultivation abode.
Quest Time-Limit: Seven days, quest becomes invalid if it is not completed on time.
“Quest becomes invalid?” Lin Feng blinked his eyes and let out a long sigh of relief.
The system may be full of crap, but it always screws him over upfront and not secretly behind his back. Since it says there’s no penalty if the quest is unfinished when the time limit is reached, then there shouldn’t be any danger.
Looking at it now, only the main questline has a death penalty while side quests are a lot better. If completed there’s probably a reward, if imcompleted then that’s okay too.
Lin Feng’s mind started to turn: “Daoist Master Hei Yun, Daoist Master… Then he’s an aurous core stage cultivator.”
The Heaven Primal world has a couple of common rules, aurous core stage cultivators can be called daoist master and primordial spirit stage cultivators can be called true lord or progenitor.
These titles are all universally acknowledged and are not easily wrong. If a foundation establishment stage cultivator dares to call himself daoist master so-and-so, then that’s not even a problem of being laughed at, trouble could very likely come knocking on the door.
But the quest background mentioned that the deepest part of this Black Cloud Underground Palace is actually connected to the Nether Blood River, this instantly made Lin Feng’s balls hurt.
Legend says that in the Netherworld there is an endless and boundless Nether Blood River, within it flows tainted blood that is called Absolute Blood River Water.
Absolute Blood River Water is one of the seven great absolute waters of the world and is also a water of uttermost evil and foulness. It is the most foul thing in the world, even the greatest spells and most spiritual magic items, as long as they are stained with the slightest bit they will instantly be polluted and lose their mana.
This cultivation abode’s previous owner fell precisely to this blood river, such danger made Lin Feng quite hesitant.
The people of the Society of the Strong Gale are also probably just moving around on the upper level of the underground palace, they still might not know yet that this place harbors a great danger.
“I guess I’ll just see as I go, anyhow I’ve got to go down to find Zhu Yi, at most I just won’t go to the deepest part.” Lin Feng thought for a moment and then made up his mind. He then said towards his two disciples beside him: “This underground palace is not ordinary, you guys stick close to me and don’t run around.”
Xiao Yan and Xiao Budian can both see the serious expression on their master’s face. Thinking that even their “almighty” master was so serious the two people nodded their heads at once.
Lin Feng waved his sleeves: “Let’s go.”
……….
Deep in the underground palace, the cultivators of the Society of the Strong Gale held on to Zhu Yi and were hastily advancing.
They’ve already walked out of the tunnel, appearing in front of them is a massive pit. The group of people followed along the edge of the pit and went around, the narrow pathway only allowed one person to advance sideways, looking incredibly dangerous.
The black-clothed man said while walking: “Everybody watch your step, if you fall from here we won’t even be able to find your bones.”
Amongst the group, Zhu Yi’s eyes flashed and he lowered his head.
As if knowing what he was thinking in his heart, the black-clothed man said coldly: “Don’t have any ideas, everybody here can crush you like crushing a mosquito.”
Zhu Yi was silent.
One cultivator of the Society of the Strong Gale asked: “Head, isn’t this place our secret base in the heart of the Zhou Dynasty?”
That black-clothed man said: “This is a cultivation abode an elder master left behind. It’s already been abandoned for a long time, spiritual and foul energies exist together so it hasn’t been discovered by anyone this entire time, the Society also only just discovered it not too long ago by accident.”
“After exploration it was discovered that this place is not suitable for cultivation, but we could set up a transportation formation. Its distance is not far away from the Zhou dogs’ capital city Tianjing, so we used this place as a path of retreat to help us retreat after our operation.”
Speaking here, the black-clothed man’s expression was a bit pale, touching the scar on his face with a lingering fear: “But this underground palace still has a lot of things that we haven’t figured out, especially the depths of the underground palace. Not a single one of the mates who went in to investigate returned, they all went missing!”
Speaking here, all of the Society of the Strong Gale cultivators subconsciously glanced at the pitch-black pit beneath their feet. That place is like a bottomless abyss, and also like a monster opening its giant mouth, devouring all who dare to pry.
Zhu Yi’s blood also froze from listening, looking at the abyss below his feet his expression was terrified.
Nobody had the mood to talk, in the darkness only the fluorite in their hands released a faint glow that constantly flickered.
The group of people went around the giant pit, in front of them appeared the entrance of another tunnel. Zhu Yi closely observed it, different from the previous tunnels that they passed through, this tunnel is clearly newly dug.
Through this tunnel is the location of the the transportation formation set up by the Society of the Strong Gale. It can shift the space between two fixed locations, but only once. If it weren’t for the fact that they didn’t have any other choice, the black-clothed man really didn’t want to use it.
Especially since after their exposure this time, this cultivation abode will definitely be discovered by the Zhou Dynasty. Even if they want to set up another formation it would be impossible.
The black-clothed man shook his head: “Wait here for a bit, if Hui Ku and them still can’t catch up then we can only go on ahead first.”
“Whether or not other people can catch up is not important, as long as we catch up then it’s good.”
In the dark space a voice suddenly rose up. The expressions of all of the cultivators of the Society of the Strong Gale paled. the next moment they saw a human figure appear in the air, just steadily standing in the air above the abyss like that.
The black-clothed man’s heart sank, they were still caught up to.
Wave after wave of powerful mana fluctuations sprang up in the surroundings, right now the hearts of the people of the Society of the Strong Gale sank to the bottom.
Seven, a whole seven foundation establishment stage cultivators have surrounded them.
Amongst them, besides the leading black-clothed man being a foundation establishment stage cultivator, the rest of them are all qi disciple stage. Yet the opposing side has a whole seven foundation establishment stage cultivators, just half of them can take care of them all.
The middle-age man in purple fine clothes at the front laughed saying: “Stay behind all of you.” His two hands rising up together, nine rings of light flew out from his palms, heading towards the heads of the cultivators of the Society of the Strong Gale.
The rings of light looked to be flying very slowly, when they arrived above their heads they suddenly stopped. Each ring of light released a white pillar of light, beaming on their respective person.
One Society of the Strong Gale cultivator released a loud shout, bringing up a water spell to withstand it and casting a water screen before him, but it did not have any effect, the pillar of light beamed onto his body unhindered.
No changes occurred when the white pillar of light beamed on his body. The Society of the Strong Gale cultivator was dazed, he didn’t understand why a foundation establishment stage cultivator would do such a meaningless thing.
But the next moment, the pillar of light suddenly changed from white to red. Being beamed on by the red pillar of light, the eyes of the cultivator of the Society of the Strong Gale instantly went blank, his entire body was completely frozen as if he had been hit with a petrification spell, he couldn’t move even a pinky finger.
At this time, the ring of light in the air followed the red pillar of light and landed downwards, slipping onto his neck and then directly carrying away that Society of the Strong Gale cultivator flying upwards, his body uncontrollably flew towards that purple-fine-clothed middle-age man.
The nine rings of light each completed their tasks, capturing alive nine cultivators of the Society of the Strong Gale in an instant.
Don’t mention fighting back, these Society of the Strong Gale cultivators couldn’t even put an end to themselves.
Capturing these nine people, the purple-fine-clothed middle-age man took off the rings of light around their necks, but they still couldn’t move. The purple-fine-clothed middle-age man repeated the same steps, waving his hands the nine rings of light then flew towards the remaining cultivators of the Society of the Strong Gale.
The black-clothed man released a furious shout and brought out a small drum. The pounding sounds of the small drum rose up, the piercing sound made the six foundation establishment stage cultivators on the other side all involuntarily frown.
The sound of the drum brought up waves of invisible ripples, blocking the nine rings of light in the air making them unable to fly over.
The purple-fine-clothed middle-age man slightly frowned, he said towards the other people: “Friends of the Five Elements Sect, please give a helping hand.”
Amongst the remaining six people, five people were wearing apparel of the same style but the colours were all different. They were white, green, black, red and yellow, signifying the five elements metal, wood, fire, water and earth.
The leading yellow-clothed old man let out a dry cough: “No need to be courteous fellow daoist, this is part of our duties.”
In an instant, powerful mana fluctuations surged together from the bodies of the five people, filling the entire space.
The black-clothed man’s expression slightly changed, he shouted saying: “We the Society of the Strong Gale have operated here for years, how can we allow you guys to run wild here?” Finishing speaking he crushed a jade tablet, the originally chaotic spiritual energy in the underground palace suddenly became calm.
A spell formation flashing with a dazzling spiritual light surfaced in the air, the sound of wind travelled out from the formation.
The next moment, massive tornadoes rushed out from the formation, roaring towards the seven cultivators of the house of the Marquis like angry dragons. (TL: Probably irrelevant, but the Chinese word for tornado, hurricane, twister, etc contains the word dragon.)
A dozen of tornadoes rampaged around, mingling together and turning the cave into a world of storms.
Everything in the path of the tornadoes were all ripped to shreds, on the stone walls they left behind countless deep gashes.
For a while, violent winds howled and the earth split as if it were the end of the world.
This spell formation is enough to rip apart foundation establishment stage cultivators, only those with aurous core stage strength can remain safe.
But those five cultivators of the Five Elements Sect were not nervous. Looking at each other the yellow-clothed old man amongst them laughed saying: “We’ll have you see what we can do.”
The five people launched their spells together, shouting out together: “Inverse Five Elements Demon Sealing Formation!”
Five-coloured divine light rose up to the skies, instantly illuminating the entire cave, even the pitch-black abyss below became brightened.
Them five people come from the same sect, each of them practises a dao technique of a different attribute. This Inverse Five Elements Demon Sealing Formation the five people work together to set up is enough to suppress all enemies below aurous core stage!
The violent gale was overwhelmed by the five-coloured divine light, being frozen in the air and unable to continue wreaking havoc.
Right now the black-clothed man was soaked in sweat, on one side he has to control the small drum to intercept the purple-fine-clothed middle-age man’s rings of light, on the other side he also has to urge the spell formation to confront the enemy’s Inverse Five Elements Demon Sealing Formation.
Being attacked on two fronts, even if he has the homeground advantage he’s still being heavily suppressed.
Right when he was feeling anxious, a voice unhurriedly rose up: “Why are you guys so slow? Seven against one and you guys still need so much time?”
The next moment, a human figure surfaced in the air, just steadily standing in the air above the abyss like that and looking down on everyone.