Chapter 412: Red Herring
Chapter 412: Red Herring
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
Of the cultivators from the Heavenly Lake Sect, there were people that participated in the previous Spiritual Conference of Huanghai. Therefore, they could recognize with one look that the people sitting atop the head of the black dragon were Zhu Yi and Yue Hongyan.
The gigantic body of the black dragon emerged from the crack in the void and, immediately following, was a beast the size of small mountain. It was grey all over, did not have any horns, had only one leg and looked like a bull.
A pretty-looking youth sat atop the head of this giant beast. Long black hair were flowing behind him and his skin was white and pale, and the contrast in his eyes were clear while they were spinning around.
Once their identities were loudly revealed by the Heavenly Lake Sect, everybody knew that the people that just appeared in front of them were from the Celestial Sect of Wonders. When the young man appeared, they also knew at once that this was the renowned prodigy from the Celestial Sect of Wonders, Shi Tianhao.
Previously, at the battle of Mount Kunlun, of all his disciples the one with the most outstanding performance was Shi Tianhao, also known as Xiao Budian. He exceeded everybody’s expectations and defeated Yu Shiling of the Yu Family with but intermediate mastery in the aurous core stage, compared to the latter who was an intermediate level nascent soul stage grandmaster. Everybody present was bedazzled by his brilliance.
Some people lauded his performance and were full of compliments, while others were suspicious that it was because of his master Lin Feng’s help that he could achieve what he did. However, what people could not doubt was that Xiao Budian truly shocked the world to the point where even immortal soul stage holy men had to pay attention to his existence.
Of course, the youth sitting on top of the Kui Cow King was none other than Shi Tianhao. Beside him sat two other ladies – an older one and a younger one.
The older one looked like she was only eighteen or nineteen, and was curiously peering at the borderless frozen sea beneath her. There was a little golden mouse perched on her shoulder, and its ears were perked as it scanned the frozen sea beneath it as well.
The younger one looked about the same age as Shi Tianhao at about eleven or twelve. She was resting her cheeks on her palms and was simply staring ahead, daydreaming. She had a face of extreme boredom. Her eyes, though, were spinning round and round in their sockets as if she was cooking up some crazy idea in her head.
The young ladies with Shi Tianhao were Zhuge Fengling and Jun Zining. The three of them sat together on top of the Kui Cow King and were close behind the Black Dragon Jieyu as they surged across the void together and descended upon the Northern Polar Sea.
Once Zhu Yi, Shi Tianhao and the rest appeared, there was an instant commotion amongst the cultivators nearby. The reason was not just because of the recent reputation of the Celestial Sect of Wonders, it was also because the cultivators heard rumors that the Celestial Sect of Wonders was coming to retrieve the Secret Manual of Kun Peng.
The whole bunch of people were already getting headaches searching for the Secret Manual of Kun Peng but could not find any kind of headway. Now that Zhu Yi and Shi Tianhao showed up, their eyes sparkled as they immediately felt like a beacon of hope and guidance had appeared.
The legendary leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders was not at the scene but the current lineup was not much less intimidating and formidable.
Two demonic lords, two "monsters" that could rival the battle strength of nascent soul stage grandmasters was equivalent to four nascent soul stage cultivators teaming up.
Fearful of their strength, the surrounding people did not dare to do anything much. However, they began to gather to follow behind Zhu Yi and company as they wanted to rely on them to discover the precise pathway to the entrance of the Secret Manual of Kun Peng.
It was not before long that the throng of people following behind Zhu Yi and Shi Tianhao swelled even more in size. Gradually, there were so many people in the group that they resembled a flowing river. They kept a considerable distance behind Zhu Yi and company, much like a group of sharks which smelled blood in the ocean.
At this moment, everybody temporarily put aside their conflicts and followed the steps of Zhu Yi and Shi Tianhao in silent harmony. Even if the future brought those people more bloodshed and conflict, along with the fact that they just had a bloody fight, they still put their animosities aside for the moment. They could be very close to their adversaries but they still ignored each other.
The desire to obtain the Secret Manual of Kun Peng had suppressed everything else at this moment.
After a moment of hesitation, the River Map Grandmaster also brought his group of disciples to follow behind them. However, the more they walked the more he felt like something was wrong. "They are moving towards the center of the frozen sea. Could it be that my calculations were wrong? I don’t think so…"
The black dragon Jieyu and the Kui Cow King flew side by side in the air while Zhu Yi and Shi Tianhao sat on them respectively. There was a considerable distance between them but they glanced at each other and smiles appeared on their faces.
Far away from the area where the River Map Grandmaster was active, another gap opened in the void. What came out of it looked like a little girl of only five or six years old. She was cute and pretty and she still had a little bit of baby fat.
The little girl had two pony tails and her big eyes were rolling about mischievously. She glanced around the icy lands, which had returned to its original tranquility, and laughed. "A little extraordinary standard is just different. This is great for me."
The little toddler girl was the little Taotie Tun Tun, who was currently in her human form. She clapped her hands and a ball of golden flame appeared in the middle of her palms. It was burning bright like a miniature sun, and needle-like spikes flickered around the edge with blinding brilliance.
Tun Tun had successfully completed the thunder tribulations and formed the demonic soul and had returned to the demonic lord beginner stage of her days in the Barren Expanses. Her standards had since then improved and she was now able to control a greater volume of the Grand Sun Primordial Fire.
The golden ball of flame landed upon the surface of the ice. The layers of ice began to melt with breathtaking speed as the needle-like radiance from the Grand Sun Primordial Fire exploded repeatedly to destroy the layers of ice.
The outer layer of ice was melted by the Grand Sun Primordial Fire in the blink of an eye, but the deeper she went the slower it became while the chilly energy became stronger and stronger.
Tun Tun’s eyebrows furrowed. "I’ll be damned. So this is the Million Star Black Ice. No wonder even space and time can be frozen at this place. This is indeed the coldest thing under the sky… Even the Xuanming Primordial Water and the Nine Nether Draught pales in comparison."
Below the surface thousands of miles around the Northern Polar Sea were all composed of this kind of black ice. The exact volume was so great that it was impossible to count and they were all lumped together. The amount of ice energy was naturally incredibly vast.
Towards the end, Tun Tun felt that controlling the Grand Sun Primordial Fire became more and more challenging. She grew upset and channeled her primitive energies and even began to use her Engulfing Theurgy. The two sources of power worked together to melt the Million Star Black Ice.
The engulfing theurgies of the Taotie tribe were indeed strong, and they could swallow everything even if it were Million Star Black Ice. They consumed it like normal people eating a popsicle.
However, the problem was that when a person consumed a dozen kilograms of popsicles in one go that person would definitely collapse.
In the end, Tun Tun had to give up her engulfing theurgy and reverted to using the Grand Sun Primordial Fire to melt the black ice.
"If only I could master the Undying Demonic Soul… Then I would have no trouble melting everything with the Grand Sun Primordial Fire." Tun Tun thought to herself in frustration. "If that old man Golden Grow knew about this earlier he would have no trouble retrieving the Secret Manual. However, if that happened we would have gotten nothing."
Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat and she spun around and realized that four shadows had appeared behind her.
The first individual looked old and exotic with a hunched back. His face was extremely weird – a bird face and a fish head and looked nothing like a human being. He looked at Tun Tun and laughed coldly, "So, surely all of you believe my words now?"
The old man was the Brilliant Lunar Grandmaster. One of his avatars was captured by Lin Feng, so the being that appeared in front of her now was his original body.
The three people beside him were helpers that he had hired to help him hunt for the treasure, and were all in the advanced level of the nascent soul stage.
A scholarly-looking middle-aged man beside him was called the Black Frost Grandmaster, and was one of the strongest individuals amongst the local inhabitants of the Northern Polar Sea. He had an independent cultivator’s background, thus his standard as an advanced level nascent soul stage cultivator was relatively impressive.
The Black Frost Grandmaster said, "Those other disciples from the Celestial Sect of Wonders were indeed simply distractions."
The Brilliant Lunar Grandmaster continued proudly, "I have perused over materials on the Celestial Sect of Wonders. Besides the leader of the sect, the only two people that can control the power of the primordial fires were the eldest disciple Xiao Yan and this infant Taotie."
"These two were not in the ranks of the group of people just now, so naturally I knew it was a red herring."
Of the other two people, one of them was big, burly, and had a big talon-like nose, was born of the demon race and was called the Nine-Talons Condor King and was the human form of the Nine-Talons Golden Condor.
The original form of the Nine-Talons Condor King was already incredibly strong, but paled in comparison to the person beside him. The other guy was more than ten feet tall, and was a demon whale from around the Northern Polar Sea. His reputation around the area was also impressive and he was known as the Northern Sea Whale King.
"Why did the leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders not come to retrieve the magic treasure himself?" The Nine-Talons Condor King had a shrill voice, much like that of an eagle. The Brilliant Lunar Grandmaster replied, "I have already received news that Lin Feng is busy handling the immortal soul stage grandmasters who have come to retrieve the treasure as well."
The Brilliant Lunar Grandmaster began to laugh villainously. "If that wasn’t the case, then he wouldn’t have simply sent his disciples to retrieve the treasure. The only reason is because he had other things to do."
The Northern Sea Whale King began to make grunting noises and said, "I thought he captured and killed your avatar?"
The Brilliant Lunar Grandmaster’s lip curled momentarily and he scoffed. "I can guess that his avatar must be hiding nearby as well and is simply waiting to ambush us."
"That’s because he knows that I can determine the exact location of the Secret Manual of Kun Peng."
As he said those words, the Brilliant Lunar Grandmaster took out a talisman. "Therefore, I have spent a great sum of money to obtain this Original Magical Mirage Talisman. The purpose of it is to avoid the eyes and ears of that leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders. Even though the strength of his avatar is formidable, ultimately, it’s only a nascent soul stage avatar and not at the immortal soul level yet. He can’t bypass the Original Magical Mirage Talisman’s cloaking spell on our location!"
The Northern Sea Whale King nodded his head and said, "Then let’s stop wasting time. Let’s capture this little girl. We can’t kill her because then we won’t have anymore Grand Sun Primordial Fire."
The Black Frost Grandmaster laughed and said, "Come and accept your fate." Subsequently, he use his mana to conjure a huge frost hand and made a grab at Tun Tun.
Tun Tun’s eyebrows shuddered and channeled the Grand Sun Primordial Fire onto the giant frost hand. The flames crackled upon contact, and she opened her little mouth and channeled the world-devouring theurgy at the same time. The mana from the giant frost hand, which was already weakened by the Grand Sun Primordial Fire, was immediately swallowed by Tun Tun.
The Black Frost Grandmaster’s move was repelled into nothingness by Tun Tun just like that.
Taoties were an ancient race of demon, and they were naturally stronger than other individuals of the same level of mastery. The Tun Tun of now was back on the path of forming the demon soul and was about to ascend to the Demonic Lord Stage. In truth she was stronger than her days in the Barren Expanses.
A moment of carelessness by the Black Frost Grandmaster almost incurred a great loss. Murder flared in his eyes as he felt intense embarrassment suffered at the hands of Tun Tun. He channeled his mana once more, and the fading giant frost hand regained its strength and became much more powerful than it was, then it came bearing down on Tun Tun once more.
He was, after all, an advanced level nascent soul stage being and even if he did not display the Cosmic Form, he was still extremely strong.
Tun Tun was still very calm however and smiled mischievously at the Black Frost Grandmaster, then at the Brilliant Lunar Grandmaster behind him, then at the Nine-Talons Condor King and lastly at the Northern Sea Whale King. Her eyes were a greenish-black, as if she was looking at her food.
The four of them were intensely upset at being shot with such a gaze from a little girl at the beginner level of the demonic lord stage. Still, alarm bells went off in their minds – something was wrong!
The same thought surfaced in their minds at the same time. However, before they could do anything in response, purple energy charged the heavens and a shadow appeared from the gap in the void – it was Lin Feng!
The Brilliant Lunar Grandmaster at Lin Feng for a long while and said with a hysterical look on his face, "This is your avatar of the nascent soul stage mastery, how could you have seen through the cloaking spell of my Original Magical Mirage Talisman?"