317 - The peak of the divine mountain
With Ye Qingyu's control of the [Supreme Ice flame] today, not only would it not hurt him, but it would even be able to increase his vitality.
"Cough cough..." The armoured old man began coughing acutely, spitting out a mouthful of blood with pieces of his organs contained within it. His complexion was slightly red. This was evidently the last moments before his death. He was clear in his own heart that his death was imminent, but he finally had the strength to speak, "So it... it was Ye... .young hero Ye, I... I won't be able to make it..."
"Do you have any last wishes or words?" Ye Qingyu asked.
"Cough cough... I... did... I did not think I would overlook someone. Ye... young hero Ye... just who are you..." the armoured old man asked with great difficulty.
"Youyan Pass, Ye Qingyu." Ye Qingyu did not hide who he was.
When he had entered, he had not held the intention of hiding his identity deliberately. But it was just that the other experts, seeing his strength was low, did not place any importance to him at all. They did not even give him the opportunity of introducing himself.
"So... so... it was so..." The armoured old man had an enlightened expression. "So it was... [The Leaf of Youyan], Marquis Ye... you... you really are... I am... Snow... Snow Empire, Snow capital... I..."
The armoured old man's breathing intensified, not able to last much longer.
Finally, he took out a coiled dragon jade ornament and stuffed it in Ye Qingyu's hands. He struggled to say something more, but ultimately he could not even let out one more breath. He died.
Ye Qingyu looked at the dragon jade ornament in his hands, with shock.
Snow Empire?
Snow capital?
Could it be this old man was someone belonging to the Snow Empire?
Just what did the last words of the armoured old man mean?
And just what did this jade dragon represent?
Ye Qingyu let out a sigh, shaking his head. His hand covered the eyes of the armoured old man, so he would die with his eyes closed. Then he slightly arranged his corpse, digging a hole beside him and buried the armoured old man.
"Wait until I enter the Snow capital. If I am able to obtain enough clues, I will definitely hand this dragon jade to your descendants. Then you can rest in peace."
Ye Qingyu erected a tomb with a nameless plaque.
Then he brought the big headed dog to enter deep within the center of the forest, leaping as he went.
On the way, they would occasionally meet with the vestiges of battle, as well as the corpses of those fallen experts.
Ye Qingyu took care and buried all of hem.
After wasting a whole two hours, they finally reached the most central part of the forest.
Song Xiaojun had always remained following behind him.
The golden masked young girl stood in the air on her demon lotus with the wind blowing on her red dress as if she was independent from the world.
A mountain was in front of them, with white mist encircling around it. This was not the terrifying [Fog of Annihilation], but it was a divine mist that contained hints of Spirit qi. Just by breathing it in, it would make someone feel refreshed, as if they had just eaten a divine pill.
Under the highlight of this white encircling mist, the peak of the mountain seemed extremely mysterious.
There were little stone steps in a poor state, that rose up in a coil to the top of the mountain and then disappeared in the white mist.
Next to the first step of this little stone passageway was a stone sign, the height of one person. There were two lines of ancient characters etched onto it. It was not the characters of the God and Devil Age, but the ancient characters of the era of the Three Sovereigns.
Ye Qingyu carefully inspected and translated it.
"This path leads to seclusion, and within lies the formation grounds within the Ninth Heaven. The battle will soars to the heaven and the incredible descends upon the mortal world.”
And next to these two lines of ancient characters, there were two other smaller characters etched onto it
Luo So.
There was the little face of a little cat sticking its tongue out next to these two lines of characters.
Everyone knew that there was once a sacred twelve winged moonlight beast that followed beside Luo So. It’s appearance was like a cat. It was extremely famous. In the era of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, it was known as the moonlight beast. It was a mighty existence, and therefore the seal of the Formation Sovereign had always been the image of a little cat sticking its tongue out.
"In other words, at the peak of this mountain, there really is the palace of the [Formation Sovereign] Luo So?”
Ye Qingyu stared at the stone plaque thoughtfully.
According to what some of the ancient texts had said in the library of White Deer Academy, before this, the Human Race had seen hundreds of palaces of the [Formation Sovereig] Luo So. But the vast majority of them were evidently false, it was the misleading clues Luo So had left behind in his later years. There were only seven instances where they had truly discovered some of the legacy left behind by the [Formation Sovereign] Luo So. This had brought huge hope to the Human Race.
But sadly, the things obtained from these seven palaces were not completely intact.
According to the explanation of the [Formation Treatise]---some of the sacred treasures held by the [Formation Sovereign] had not yet appeared.
If it was not wrong, then on the top of these stairs should be the eighth true palace of the [Formation Sovereign].
"Master, what the hell are you standing around for, looking at the stone plaque dumbly. Woof, you are really infuriating me." Little Nine was so impatient he was about to cough up blood.
"En, go, let's go." Ye Qingyu took step by step up the stone steps.
The silly dog was astounded and incredulous. "You can't have been thinking of going step by step up?"
"Then how else should I go up?" Ye Qingyu countered.
"Jump it, or perhaps transform into a Sky dragon and fly over it... don't waste time." Little Nine really wanted for Ye Qingyu to bring him up by flying.
Ye Qingyu smiled, the rows of ancient characters left on the stone sign flashing by in his mind. Shaking his head, "No, no, for this road, we must take it step by step up."
Little Nine was dumbfounded.
Ye Qingyu shook his head with a smile, beckoning to Song Xiaojun in the air.
Song Xiaojun shook her head.
"You have to walk this path with your feet. Believe in me." Ye Qingyu opened his mouth.
Song Xiaojun shook her head. "We have different aims.”
"Ah?" Ye Qingyu was taken aback.
Song Xiaojun did not say anymore.
She was like a shadow that floated above Ye Qingyu. She was not fast or slow, as if she was not even slightly impatient.
There were some guesses in Ye Qingyu's heart, but he could not further insist. If he intereferred with Song Xiaojun's fortuitous encounter, that would not be good. After thinking, he began running on the stone step, one step after another. He ran very quickly, but he stepped on every step, not missing or skipping over any step.
He seemed like a shadow that madly charged towards the top of the mountain.
Song Xiaojun followed closely behind him.
After approximately fifteen minutes later.
"Huff, huff... in total, there are eleven thousand, one hundred and eleven steps." Ye Qingyu looked at the end of the little passageway, an arched shaped stone gateway appeared. When one passed the stone gateway, there would be a flat yard. At the end of the yard, one could see the towering majestic palace they had seen on the shore.
On the courtyard, there were many figures.
There were twenty or thirty figures that silently stood at the entrance to the divine palace, as if they had fossilised. No one said anything. It was unknown what they were thinking, it was as if something had attracted all their attention, as if they had lost all their souls. They seemed completely motionless. From far away, they seemed like strange statues. The situation was incomparably strange.
Ye Qingyu stepped onto the courtyard.
At that time, he finally realized that the stone tiles of the courtyard were exceedingly strange.
There was faint blue strange markings on every faintly yellow tile.
It seemed like a formation, but also not so.
And the marking on every tile was different from each other.
It you carefully inspected, you would discover a strange light flickering within the blue brush strokes of the marking like it was a liquid. But when you reached out your hand to touch it, you could only feel the rough texture of the yellow tile.
After inspecting it for a while, he did not seen anything strange about it, so he headed on towards the deepest parts of the courtyard.
The sky was clear with little clouds.
There was a faint wind blowing past.
There was an exceedingly strange sensation in Ye Qingyu's heart as he came to be behind the twenty or thirty figures.
They were definitely the experts who had arrived beforehand.
Because Ye Qingyu could see Ximen Yeshui, as well as Qin Zhishui who was also standing there motionlessly.
There were frozen expressions on these two fellows that stood at the very front. Their muscles did not even twitch, their eyelids freezing in place. There was an expression of overjoyed delight on Ximen Yeshui's face, his white teeth showing. And there was a thoughtful and shocked expression on Qin Zhishui. Both of them stood there dumbly, staring at the sky.
Ye Qingyu followed their gazes.
There was nothing at all.
There was nothing at all in the sky.
Apart from these two fellows, the other twenty or so people also stood where they were. The others expressions were also much like so.
There was aproximately ten meters separating every person. What was below them were yellow tiles with different blue markings. The light blue light faintly emitted, and surrounded and protected them within.
Ye Qingyu attempted to come closer, but this blue light prevented him from nearing.
"Eh? This fellow is also here?"
Ye Qingyu's gaze fell on a figure, and was stunned.
A person wearing a sky blue robe, his figure slender and well proportioned, stood there. He word a golden hoop, and at his waist, there was a golden gilded jade hilt long sword. His expression was somewhat lazy, and there was a nobility about him. He had an expression that was a smile that was not a smile as he stared at the sky.
Blue Sky.
He had once pretended to be a teacher in White Deer Academy. He had brought Ye Qingyu and the others for their first training, and had once killed everyone within the [Boundary Canyon Battlefield]. He was the handsome and unreliable fellow that had once been imprisoned along with Ye Qingyu in the disciplinary hall.
Ever since leaving White Deer Academy, Ye Qingyu had not ever seen this fellow.
But he faintly felt that the background of Blue Sky was definitely not common.
He did not imagine that today, he would see this lazy and unreliable fellow.
It made Ye Qingyu completely shocked.
Apart from Blue Sky, he did not recognize anyone else.
But what made him really shocked was that there was a figure whose body was already completely destroyed from his abdomen and below. He only had an upper body left, but he floated above a stone tile. He was similarly staring at the sky, his expression calm and peacefully without the slightest trace of pain. It was as if he was immersed in something beautiful.