Chapter 2220 - Ban Qing
Chapter 2220, Ban Qing
The other person was also on guard against Yang Kai as he checked him out.
Yang Kai identified the other man’s Third-Order Dao Source Realm cultivation quite easily by scanning with his Divine Sense. The other man appeared to be middle-aged, around forty years old, and had a steady and solid appearance, but currently, his eyes contained panic and fear.
Yang Kai was certain that the other party wasn’t hostile.
However… This was the first time that Yang Kai had met a cultivator from the Divine Ascension Mirror World, so he was naturally quite curious. Upon closer observation, Yang Kai discovered that the other man’s body was just like his Soul Avatar, a body made of pure Spiritual Energy.
[There really are so many wondrous things in the vast world!] Yang Kai couldn’t help but mentally exclaim.
“If you don’t want to die, then run away immediately!” The other man suddenly called out to him with a serious expression and a low voice.
“What?” Yang Kai furrowed his brow. The other man’s words were impossible for him to understand with no context.
However, the other man obviously was in no state of mind to explain, simply using his strength to rush towards a certain direction as he shouted again, “You won’t be able to escape if you don’t hurry.”
Yang Kai instantly felt an ominous premonition after he heard this and faintly realized that perhaps there was a powerful existence that was currently chasing this person, and that existence was obviously incredibly dangerous and vicious.
Considering all this, Yang Kai decided to immediately leave this dangerous location.
He was only here because Gao Xue Ting had brought him into this world for some training, so he had no interest in getting involved with this world’s great forces, cultivators, and the grudges between them. He was only going to stay here for one month, after all.
Yang Kai immediately started to take action as he thought of this.
However, something suddenly happened at that time.
A powerful pressure belonging to an Emperor appeared and descended from the sky. The pressure seemed almost tangible, to the point where one couldn’t help but mistakenly feel that the sky was crushing them.
Yang Kai’s body immediately became shorter and his expression turned extremely unpleasant.
At the same time, he saw from the corner of his eye a ghostly figure appear to the side of that other cultivator.
This figure wasn’t very tall. In fact, it was even rather short. Yet, Yang Kai hadn’t noticed this person at all before he appeared, as if he was originally there already but no one had detected him yet.
When this Emperor Realm Master of unknown origins appeared, a light flashed in his hand as a dagger-like weapon suddenly appeared.
This weapon was composed of Spiritual Energy, rather than being a Soul-type artifact.
The dagger shone with a chilly light as the Emperor Realm Master stabbed out before the fleeing middle-aged man could react.
Yang Kai felt his head going numb as he heard the soft sound of metal being inserted into flesh.
The Third-Order Dao Source Realm middle-aged man, who was trying to escape, had no time to react or defend himself as he was stabbed right through the chest.
In the outside world, this absolutely would have been a fatal injury since the injury was right through the heart. No matter how strong a cultivator was, he would likely die instantly if he suffered a blow like this, unless that cultivator had cultivated some type of Heaven defying Secret Art, or he used his powerful cultivation to suppress his injury. Only then would the cultivator barely manage to survive.
But in the Divine Ascension Mirror World, since the living beings didn’t have physical bodies, this injury wasn’t fatal even though it seemed to be serious.
The Emperor Realm Master immediately stopped moving after he succeeded with one strike. He coldly glanced at the middle-aged man with no emotion in his eyes, as if he was looking at a piece of wood.
Meanwhile, the middle-aged man screamed in pain as he stiffly stood where he was.
Yang Kai glanced over and saw that the dagger still remained in the middle-aged man’s chest. Spreading from the injury was a strange energy that radiated in all directions as it gathered into a complex image that resembled a mysterious and powerful seal.
This strange power restricted the middle-aged man’s movements and prevented him from moving even one inch.
Strands of Spiritual Energy were leaking out from his injury, and it was evident that he was losing his strength. If this injury remained untreated, the middle-aged man would definitely lose all his Spiritual Energy.
He would then obviously die.
“Are you the Star of Calamity?” The Emperor Realm Master asked calmly after he succeeded in capturing the middle-aged man.
“Sir… what do you mean?” Although the middle-aged man was seriously injured from an ambush, he didn’t dare to get angry. He could only look at the Emperor Realm Master with a pleading expression as he asked in obvious confusion.
“Forget it!” When the short Emperor Realm Master heard this, he replied in a bored tone, “No matter if you are or aren’t, I’ll know once I take you to the palace for interrogation.”
After that, he decided to ignore the middle-aged man.
“Palace!?” However, the middle-aged man heard some unusual information from the Emperor Realm Master’s words. The middle-aged man widened his eyes as he stared at this Master, his expression fluctuating several times as he asked with difficulty, “May I ask… might Your Excellency be Senior Ban Qing?”
“Oh?” Ban Qing was surprised this time as he looked at the middle-aged man. “You recognize me?”
The middle-aged man couldn’t help but smile bitterly when he saw that Ban Qing didn’t deny it, “The four subordinates of Great General Zhou Dian, Guardian of the Country. Who wouldn’t know the four Vice Generals’ names?”
“Since there are four people, why are you certain that I am Ban Qing? Couldn’t I be someone else?” Ban Qing seemed to be in no hurry to deal with Yang Kai as he casually chatted with interest with his prey.
The middle-aged man answered, “Vice General Lian Yan has the obvious trait of having red hair. Vice General Yu Man is a woman. As for Vice General Yuan Qing… rumours say that Vice Commander Yuan is as beautiful as a flower with a countenance like white jade, and that ordinary women seem less beautiful than him… Since Your Excellency is from the palace and has such cultivation, I can’t think of anyone you could be apart from Senior Ban Qing.”
“Hahahaha!” Ban Qing suddenly laughed out loud, “As beautiful as a flower? So, that’s how people talk about Yuan Qing? I wonder what he’ll think if he hears this… En, your analysis is correct. This King is indeed Ban Qing!”
The middle-aged man gave up completely upon seeing Ban Qing finally admit it. He seemed to wither as he exclaimed, “Rumours never match up with the real thing. Senior Ban’s concealment and assassination techniques are truly outstanding!”
“Hmph!” Ban Qing coldly snorted with disdain, not caring about the middle-aged man’s flattery.
“However… Senior Ban, I have no grudge at all with you, so why…” Although the middle-aged man was unable to move, he still wanted to plead with Ban Qing to release him.
However, Ban Qing obviously didn’t intend to give him such a chance. Ban Qing had entered the Heavenly Monster Mountains under the command of Zhou Qian to capture the Star of Calamity that had appeared, so although he couldn’t kill people for no reason, it was no problem to seriously injure someone.
That was why Ban Qing reached out with his hand and clenched it in front of the middle-aged man before he finished speaking.
The dagger inserted in the middle-aged man’s chest suddenly released a flash of light, causing the seal which was suppressing the man to suddenly become stronger.
The middle-aged man reacted as if he was struck by lightning, his body shaking as he stiffly fell over, unconscious.
Although he wasn’t dead, he had fainted. Even if he woke up again, it was likely that he wouldn’t be able to restore himself to peak condition. Ban Qing’s blow just now had already damaged his foundation.
Ban Qing drew the dagger back into his hand having finished his task. He then turned around and coldly looked Yang Kai over.
Yang Kai was also thinking at a high speed at the moment…
Previously, he didn’t really understand what had happened, but now he could faintly figure out what was going on thanks to listening to the conversation between the two.
He even had some of his own guesses about the overall situation in this place.
The two of them had mentioned a palace in their conversation. This meant that the Divine Ascension Mirror World likely had a ruler at the very top.
Under the ruler was apparently this ‘Guardian of the Country’ whose name was Zhou Dian.
Under Zhou Dian were then four Emperor Realm Masters like the one in front of him!
Currently, these Masters should have all entered the Heavenly Monster Mountain to capture that so-called Star of Calamity…
The middle-aged man was either the capture target or an unlucky bystander. Yang Kai surmised that he was the latter, since judging by the middle-aged man’s words, he had no idea what that Star of Calamity was.
It was the same for Yang Kai!
Ban Qing and the others didn’t have any idea who they were trying to capture, so they simply spread out in a wide area to capture as many as possible. Anyone that they ran into definitely wouldn’t be able to escape.
‘I’m so damn unlucky!’ Yang Kai mentally cursed.
It was a rare opportunity to train in this world, yet he came across a conflict between the local cultivators here, and an Emperor Realm Master was the first to show up… Yang Kai really wanted to complain about his luck.
“Not bad, boy!” Ban Qing suddenly smiled and nodded with a friendly expression after looking at Yang Kai for a while.
“What are you trying to say?” Yang Kai asked in a heavy tone.
“This King was trying to say… Since you’ve already realized that you can’t beat this King, you decided not to flee. En, you’re an obedient one, so this King can allow you to suffer less,” Ban Qing then changed his tone to a much chillier one, “But if you don’t know what’s good for you, you’ll suffer the same fate as him!”
He pointed at the middle-aged man on the ground as he spoke.
Yang Kai couldn’t help but furrow his brow, remaining silent for a moment before saying, “This Sir…”
“Don’t talk to this King about being innocent or whatnot!” Ban Qing seemed to know what Yang Kai wanted to say, so he interrupted the latter and spoke impatiently, “This King is under orders, so if you really are the Star of Calamity, then just admit that you’re unfortunate. If you’re not the Star of Calamity, you’ll naturally be safe… mostly.”
As he said this, he stared at Yang Kai and asked, “Are you going to surrender yourself without a fight, or are you going to make this King act? Let me tell you beforehand that if you choose the second option, this King won’t guarantee that you’ll still be in one piece afterwards!”
“I see…” Yang Kai sighed helplessly due to the failure to negotiate successfully. He had a heavy expression as he asked, “Junior just has one question he would like to ask.”
“Say it!” Ban Qing responded in a cold and aloof tone.
“Earlier, I heard Sir and this… Brother’s discussion. Apparently, there are three other such existences as yourself, so I was wondering about those three…”
“They are leading teams to search in other locations right now. At this moment, the entire Heavenly Monster Mountains have been sealed off, so don’t even think about escaping. It will be meaningless.”