Chapter 533 – The Strange Bewitching Maiden
Yun Che’s body stopped, “What did you discover?”
“That little lake, there seems to be a very special aura emanating from it.” Jasmine said slowly, “And it is similar to an aura that I am familiar with… In fact, it seems to slightly resemble… the aura of the Golden Crow!”
Golden Crow?
“You have come in contact with the aura of the Golden Crow before?” Yun Che asked reflexively.
“That isn’t important right now. Even though it is very faint, it is extremely unusual for a lake to be able to exude an aura which is similar to that of the Golden Crow. Go down and confirm it.”
The power of the Golden Crow belonged to the element of fire, but a lake would naturally be filled with water, so it did sound extremely unusual. After Yun Che confirmed that there was no one else in the surrounding area, he complied with Jasmine’s words. He drifted down and landed on the side of the lake.
This was a very small lake. In fact, it was not much bigger than a pond, and with just a glance, you could see its limit. However, the water in the lake was exceptionally clear; even under the hazy moonlight, one could still see directly to the bottom of the lake.
The area that was seventy meters beyond the lake was covered in a thick swathe of uneven and wild foliage, but the plants that grew there were not a healthy green, instead, they seemed to be dry and withered. Within that circle of seventy meters surrounding the lake, an area which should have been most suitable for plants to grow, there was not even a single blade of grass which grew there; it was just flat ground.
The night wind drifted up from the lake’s surface, and this night wind, which should have carried along with it the cool and refreshing feeling of lake water, instead caused Yun Che to experience a distinct feeling of dry heat, which was extremely bizarre. His heart skipped a beat and he crouched down, dipping his hand into the lake… The water was not cool, it was instead, practically at body temperature.
Demon Imperial City was already located to the north of the Illusory Demon Realm so it should’ve been a cold region. Right now, it was night time, so the lake water should be cool to the point of being icy cold. It definitely should not even be anywhere near this warm.
“Within the waters of the lake lies an aura which is definitely similar to the aura given off by the Golden Crow’s flames. However, I cannot confirm that it is actually the Golden Crow’s flame energy.” Jasmine said evenly.
Yun Che muttered under his breath, stood up, and said in an uncertain tone, “Could it be because this place is in such a state because it is close to Golden Crow Lightning Flame Valley?”
“No!” Jasmine retorted, “Take a look at your surroundings. Only the small area which is near the lake is devoid of any sort of plant life. It’s as if everything around the lake had been burned up completely. Yet once it gets further away from the lake, you can see that a thick undergrowth has sprung up all around this area. If it was really due to Golden Crow Lightning Flame Valley, then it should’ve happened to this entire region. If I am not wrong, there is someone who is releasing the Golden Crow’s flame energy into the lake, and from the looks of it, it wasn’t too long ago that this happened; only two or three days ago at most.”
“Releasing flame energy into the lake water? Why?” Yun Che asked in a mystified tone.
“Perhaps it wasn’t done on purpose, but it was the Golden Crow’s flame energy within the person’s body that was left behind after the person had been submerged in the lake for some time. But it is far more likely that someone cannot completely control the Golden Crow’s flame energy within his body, so that person relied on the lake’s water to help calm it down. This alternative is the far more likely one, because the flames of the Golden Crow are incomparably fierce and explosive; if you do not cultivate the 《Golden Crow’s Record of the Burning World》 and you just rely on profound energy alone to try to control the Golden Crow’s flame energy like a normal profound flame, that would basically be impossible! Also, the purer your Golden Crow bloodline is, the more true that statement becomes!”
“Hm, so that’s it…” Yun Che slowly nodded his head. The Illusory Demon Royal Family all possessed of some measure of the Golden Crow bloodline and the bloodline of the Demon Emperors possessed the purest strain of this Golden Crow bloodline. Could it be that someone from the Illusory Demon Royal Family had bathed in this lake?
But there didn’t seem to be any value in investigating any further. If he wanted to witness the Golden Crow’s flame energy, he could simply do so by entering Golden Crow Lightning Flame Valley. That place was somewhere he definitely could not miss out on!
However, this place was a blanketed in a sea of stillness and there was no one around to disturb him, so Yun Che felt that it was a good place to practice his sword skills.
“The night is still young. Since I have travelled so far, I might as well put myself through the paces and practice my sword skills!” Yun Che extended his arm, “Hong’er, you’re not allowed to sleep, prepare to…”
“Wait!!” Jasmine suddenly shouted, “Hide your presence and conceal yourself immediately, someone’s coming… and this person is an extremely powerful individual!”
To be able to be described as ‘extremely powerful’ by Jasmine, this was definitely no laughing matter. The person who was coming was at the very least someone he definitely had no way to deal with. And if it happened to be an enemy or a villain, he could not even call for help in this remote place which was so far from the Demon Imperial City. Yun Che swiftly used Hidden Flowing Lightning to conceal his presence, and after that, he soundlessly submerged himself into the wild undergrowth behind him.
The foliage was not very tall, but it was extremely dense, so it could cover up Yun Che’s entire body. Not long after he hid, a vague figure appeared in the sky directly within his field of vision. After that, in just a fraction of a second, the figure seemed to slip through the night sky like flowing light, closing approaching until it was only one hundred meters away from Yun Che…
So fast! Yun Che exclaimed in his heart. At the same time, he quickly ducked his head to prevent the other party from noticing his gaze… Once your spiritual perception had achieved a certain degree of acuteness, even if you did not use your eyes, you would definitely notice it if you were being watched… and Yun Che had this kind of ability. The other person’s astounding speed was a manifestation of an incomparably strong strength… This person’s strength might not even lose to his father, Yun Qinghong.
Right after Yun Che had even made his gaze inconspicuous, he suddenly realized that the other person’s speed had noticeably slowed. After that, the other party came to a stop not far from where he was, still hovering in midair.
Yun Che suddenly froze… Could it be that I have been discovered? Shit! How could this Hidden Flowing Lightning suddenly become useless at the most critical juncture?! Or maybe… the other person’s profound energy is simply too strong, so even after I used Hidden Flowing Lightning, I am still unable to escape his spiritual perception?
But after a short while, Yun Che breathed a silent sigh of relief. Because even though the other person had come to a stop, he did not notice any gaze being directed towards himself. A profound energy aura was released from this person’s body and it swept across the surrounding area. It also swept across Yun Che’s position but it continued without any interruptions, so this was proof that Yun Che still had not been detected yet… But once that profound energy aura had swept through his body, it caused his entire body to violently stiffen while the organs in his body tightened up suddenly. A bone-piercing chill filled him entirely, even seeping into his blood.
This person… What a terrifying aura!
Yun Che was completely convinced that the strength of this profound energy aura was not inferior to Yun Qinghong’s in any way!
The strength of this profound energy aura was actually secondary to the fact that it also clearly carried with it an exceedingly heavy feeling of suppression! The strength of this suppression made Yun Che feel like all the blood in his body was going to congeal.
And if Yun Che was affected to this extent, then if it was someone else, it was possible that under this oppressive feeling, that person would directly kneel on the ground while trembling all over.
What kind of individual is this… He did not discover my presence, but he stopped here anyways. This meant that this person was going to come here all along.
A Sovereign Profound Realm expert; what was someone like that doing here in the middle of the night?
That person floated in midair for a good long while, and after confirming that there was no one in the vicinity, that person withdrew his spiritual perception. At the same time, Yun Che raised his head with the utmost caution to look in that person’s direction. Because in the relatively clear moonlight, he could clearly see this person’s features. And after he did, his expression instantly became stunned…
Someone who was possessed of such a strong profound energy and emitted such a shocking feeling of oppressiveness; Yun Che had expected to see an old person who had a grand and mighty visage, or perhaps a middle-aged person with a severe and reserved countenance… Or at least, even if it was someone who seemed to looked very young, he would not have been so flabbergasted.
But directly in his field of vision, there was clearly a….
Little girl?!
Yun Che tightly shut his eyes, then opened them again, and what he saw…. was still a little girl!!
The girl looked to be very young, at most fourteen to fifteen years of age. She even looked younger than the initial appearance of Feng Xue’er all those years ago. She was wearing an ill-fitting ugly grey long dress… No, it could not be called a dress, it was instead an unornamented, dark grey robe. The girl’s figure was extremely small and delicate, and even these robes which were not too big could not show her figure. Instead, as it was billowing in the night wind, the hem of the robe had nearly engulfed the girl’s ankles.
This girl… was dressed really strangely.
But this strangely dressed little girl had an exceedingly beautiful and delicate face; her complexion was also exquisite. At least for the Yun Che who had seen far too many outstanding beauties in his life, after he saw her face, even he felt like he could not breathe for a while. It was practically on par with the impact he had felt when he had first seen Feng Xue’er…
Xia Qingyue had a kind of pure and cold beauty, Feng Xue’er possessed an illusory and ethereal beauty and Jasmine had a bewitching enchanting beauty… While this girl also had a beauty that was incomparably strange and bewitching, but the bewitching feeling she gave off was different from Jasmine’s. It was a kind of sinister and dangerous feeling of enchantment. It caused Yun Che to unwittingly feel like he was staring at a cold-blooded emotionless death god when he looked at her. And it made him feel like if he came near her or made contact with her, he would die a terrible death.
Even though she looked like she was only a young girl, her features were already at the pinnacle of beauty. However, the sinister and bone-chilling cold she emanated was even more extreme than that. Yun Che definitely believed that when people faced her, the first thing they would notice was not her breathtaking beauty, but would first feel pure terror because of her aura… and gaze!
While floating in the middle of the night sky, her eyes were also an unusual gloomy black, and they gleamed with a dull black light under the moonlight. After noticing those pair of eyes, Yun Che felt like he had been drawn into a boundlessly deep night sky; one which had no limits. And once he fell into that gaze, it was as though he had been consigned into an eternal abyss of pure darkness, never to escape… He practically averted his gaze instantly while a chill ran down his spine.
This little girl… who exactly was she?!
Moreover, a young girl who looked like she was only fourteen or fifteen, yet actually possessed the profound strength of a Monarch… and she should even be a mid stage Monarch!
Monarch; this was a term that represented the pinnacle of the profound world. Within the Profound Sky Seven Nations, it was an existence that was akin to myths, but in this place… Father was a Monarch, Mother was a Monarch, Uncle was a Monarch… and even a fourteen or fifteen year old girl had the strength of a Monarch!!
This grand term, Monarch, just when did it seem like this title had become worth so little!
“This person! What a heavy vicious aura she is emitting! Looks like she has killed her fair share of people.” Jasmine said in a bland voice. With her capabilities, she would naturally not be frightened by this little girl, “She should belong the Illusory Demon Royal Family.”
“How did you know?”
“Because she has the presence of the Golden Crow bloodline within her body.” Jasmine warned Yun Che, “You better hide as best as you can and pray that you don’t get discovered. Based on the vicious aura she is emitting, if she discovers your existence, she will slaughter you with no hesitation whatsoever!”
Yun Che, “…She came all the way here by herself in the middle of the night. What is she intending to do? Could it be that she is waiting for someone?”
After Yun Che had finished speaking to Jasmine, the girl who had been still for a long while suddenly moved, and her body slowly descended to the ground.
Her hair was very long and it grew all the way to below her hips. It was as pitch black as a starless night sky. The night wind brushed her hair across a face which was like white jade. Once the soles of her feet touched the heart of the lake, she stopped there and lightly closed her eyes.
In the instant she closed her eyes, the heavy, sinister and icy-cold aura that was emanating from her vanished without a trace, as the oppressive feeling that weighed on Yun Che’s body and mind vanished as well… The young girl quietly stood in the heart of the lake, her expression serene, while her black hair lightly danced in the wind. It painted a picture of ethereal beauty that no one would want to disturb… Yun Che just stared at her in a daze, to the point where he even suspected that his previous perception of her was all a misperception.
Slowly the girl spread out both her arms, and a pair of small white hands that were as tender and translucent as jade porcelain peeked out from under her broad sleeves. Following that, her body continued to descend, until her calves submerged in the lake… At this time, a cluster of scorching flames sprang forth from her body.
The flames were dull, but they spread rapidly, and soon, they engulfed her entire body. In the midst of the flames, her black hair began to dance wildly… But, it was not the wildly dancing hair which grabbed Yun Che’s attention. Because as the fire began to burn on her body, her grey robe quickly turned into grey ashes… Once the fire died out, a snow-white, delicate, fine jade body which would move the heart of anyone revealed itself proudly as the night wind blew… and it also appeared directly before Yun Che’s eyes.