Chapter 71 - Gu Xia, The Monster's City
Zhong Yue's soul heard the mumblings and he was shocked as he shouted out involuntarily, “Teleportation portal? Xin Huo, beneath this city, is the teleportation portal you and the last Xin Huo inheritor built?”
The little flame sat on top of his soul's head, Xin Huo nodded and said, “Yup, I personally selected this place to set up the teleportation portal because this mountain is actually an active volcano. The fire energy in it contains an unearthly sum of power that can maintain the operation of the teleportation portal so that it would not cease as time elapsed. These monster country bumpkins dared to build a city on top of my teleportation portal; if it weren't because for the fact that my teleportation portal is continually siphoning the energy from the volcano, these monsters would be fully cooked by now.”
Zhong Yue could hear Huang Shulang introducing the city to him, “Brother Long Yue, this is astonishing isn't? The Gu Xia City is an ancient city that stood strong since millions of years ago!”
He carefully gazed around and whispered lowly to Zhong Yue, “I hear that there lies a big secret in the city, something about a godly array hiding beneath it, almighty and powerful! All the previous city lords tried to crack the seal and open the array, countless lives were sacrificed but none of them succeed!
Hu Wensheng nodded, his expression was filled with fascination as he added, “I also heard that there are the treasures of a god in the array, whoever gets their hands on it can rule the whole East Wild, and claim dominion over the Great Wilderness, he would become the supreme leader of this heaven and earth!”
Zhong Yue blinked his eyes, his soul in the psyche ocean asked, “Xin Huo, what treasures have you placed in the array?”
Xin Huo was also baffled, he replied, “Nothing, it's just a simple array that functioned as a teleportation portal. I was just afraid that someone might accidentally enter the array and so I’d placed a stratum of seals and slaughtering arrays on the outer rim. Probably a little too much....”
Could it be that the monster cultivators have mistaken the portal as a coffer that held valuable treasures in it because of the seals and slaughtering arrays? Zhong Yue was stunned as he made an assumption in his heart.
Bai Xiushi said, “All these years, there were indeed some unearthly strong cultivators at the level of magnates that entered the seals, but sadly, even they couldn't fully break the seals and slaughtering arrays, most of them even died in their attempts. However, there is a rumor about an unimaginable pearl appearing in the array, it's aura was unworldly, and it bears an extremely frigid Qi within it, it would surely be the god's treasure!”
“It must be the moon.”
Xin Huo contemplated for moments before he realized it, “The teleportation portal's destination is the moon, hence, it is possible for the array to show the images of the moon.”
Hu Wensheng sighed and continued, “When the pearl appeared, it shone bright like a moon, elegant and graceful. It seemed close at grasp, but was always beyond reach. Those that were there were on the verge of losing their sanity; everyone wanted the lunar exquisite gem, lives were sacrificed, but none succeeded in its acquisition. The closest approach was by a magnate cultivator that managed to reach to the pearl. He reached his hands out and grabbed it, but he couldn't lift it up at all, in the end, he was overwhelmed and exhausted, and he died in the array.”
Zhong Yue's face turned eccentric as he thought to himself, Trying to grab and lift the moon? What an interesting thought that is.
“So did the Xian Kong City give up?”
Zhong Yue smirked and said, “An infinite treasure is just right underneath, how can you not try and claim it?”
Hu Wensheng said right away, “Of course not! The precious treasure left behind by the ancient gods, how is it possible for us to just give up? I hear that City Lord Gu Hongzi is also planning to explore the volcano. Although he is not a magnate, his prowess mustn't be underestimated either, in addition to his high intelligence, he will definitely be able to unveil the treasure beneath the city!”
Upon hearing the words, Zhong Yue was feeling relief, he said, “When the treasure is unveiled, it'll definitely be earth shaking!”
“Definitely! The rise of monsters will be unstoppable!”
The Gua Xia City was getting nearer; his heart trembled in shock as Zhong Yue measured it with his eyes. The city was like a military fortress, an impenetrable keep with walls engraved with marvelous totem carvings; there were also wooden pillars surrounding the walls, they were tall and long, and spaced in intervals of a few tens of feet – they were all totem god pillars!
While every thousand feet, there would be statues of beast gods of myriad kinds standing tall, they were all three to five hundred feet tall; solemn, majestic and dignified. Their existence suffused the air with surges of a wicked and nefarious aura that could seemingly devour one's soul!
As they got closer to the city, the statues of the beast gods were getting clearer, Zhong Yue's heart palpitated as he noticed that the totem carvings were engraved on the statues three-dimensionally!
The ordinary totem carvings are usually done on a clean and smooth two-dimensional plane, such as the totem pillars, the totem carvings would not twists and meanders, or otherwise, the power in it will leak out and be impaired.’
Zhong Yue's eyes glimmered, he thought to himself, But these totem carvings followed all around the shapes of the beast gods statues, this must be a type of profound engraving art. Could it be that these totem carvings can bring the statues to life? En, this method of engraving is quite similar to the ones that used by the previous headmasters I've seen in the Devil Soul Forbidden Land. It is indeed worth investing some time and research on!’
In the city, there were still ridges of mountains, but the crests were low; in it, there were palaces and caves wreathed in clouds, those would be the cave dwellings of the higher up Qi Practitioners.
Although Gu Xia City could not be compared to Swords Gate Mountain, it was still impressive enough, and this was only an ordinary city of the monster race, imagine how the sacred monster city, Xian Kong City would appear to be.
To besiege such a secure fortress, I wonder how many Qi Practitioners would die in the process ... the monsters are indeed a strong race!’
Zhong Yue praised in his heart, and he thought, The four Swords Gate young successors dare to come here in pursuit of the two island lords! Their courage, bravery, prowess, and breath of spirit are indeed admirable; these four are undisputedly the pillars for the next generation of humans!’
Not long later, Hu Wensheng, Huang Shulang, and the other two Qi Practitioners descended from the monstrous clouds into the city; the city was vast and spacious, even the streets were broader than the other cities.
Due to the bold and unrestrained nature of the monsters, they have explicitly designed the streets to be broad and wide so that they could engage in combats even in the middle of the street.
Moreover, the monster Qi Practitioners were monster beasts that had successfully cultivated to a certain level, some of them were enormous in their actual forms, and if they ever transmuted back into their true forms while in combat, they would destroy the houses beside the streets if the streets were too narrow.
Zhong Yue was unclear of the monsters' local customs and practices before this, but ever since his arrival in the Gu Xia City, Zhong Yue had seen many events that opened his eyes。
There were huge disparities between the monsters and humans. Some of the monsters on the streets were not entirely enlightened, they were still in their monster beasts form, but they were walking around on their rear legs like a human; while some others were civilized, only retaining a few significant parts of their body in the beasts form, it could be the beast head or a pair of cat ears or horns.
In contrast to Swords Gate, disorder and chaos ruled this place. Nearly every minute there would be an outbreak of combat, a simple dispute on trifling matters between two monsters could easily set them off, they would often transmute into their true form and gnaw on each other, two enormous monster beasts ramming and slamming in a fight – the scenes were bound to be soul-stirring!
At this point in time, immense killing intent sank down upon this city of monsters, the auras from the ace cultivators stirred the monstrous clouds above the city; the dense air around heavily pressured Zhong Yue!
Among the emanated auras, there was sharp and incisive Sword Qi, heavy and dense Monstrous Qi; they were like the stifling heat of a volcano on the verge of erupting and the suffocating pressure of lightning that was about to strike!
“Swords Gate four young successors, Fang, Feng, Lei, and Jun, are all in the city confronting the aces of monster Qi Practitioners!”
Zhong Yue carefully reached out his senses, his heart was thrilled, There are quite some monster ace cultivators that are at the same level as Fang Jiange, except for that Gu Hongzi, all the other aces of Xian Kong City are basically all here. Is the young generation of humans and monsters going to wage a war here ... But the battles between them will surely attract everyone's attention, and it will be a perfect opportunity for me to sneak into the teleportation portal. I wonder … just how do I get into the volcano?’
Zhong Yue glanced around, but the monster city was tremendously huge, it was not easy to find a route into the volcano, For now, I’d better head over and register myself on the record and change my identity to a Gu Xia City Qi Practitioner.’
“Brother Long Yue, I'll bring you to the Gu Xia Manor so you can put your name on the record!”
Hu Wensheng the four Qi Practitioners led the way, Zhong Yue followed them to the Gu Xia Manor and greeted the seneschal, after they told him regarding Zhong Yue's identity, he exclaimed out in shock, “The dragon race of East Ocean?”
The casual and insouciant attitude of the seneschal was no more, he was all inspirited and measured Zhong Yue with a pair of glimmering eyes, his face expression displayed his doubts and questions.
This seneschal is also a strong cultivator that is not any weaker than Swords Gate's Zuo Xiangsheng. Zhong Yue thought to himself.
Bai Xiushi and the others quickly informed the seneschal that despite the fact that Zhong Yue was still not a Qi Practitioner, but he still slew Sun Xiao in a strike. The seneschal pondered for a moment and said, “It is possible for a dragon to possess such exceptional prowess. Mister Long, I have no intention of looking for trouble, but the human cultivators have various peculiar techniques, it is hard to tell whether or not if any one of them is trying to masquerade as a monster. You claim yourself to be a dragon, then you will have to prove it.”
Zhong Yue responded, “How do I prove myself?”
The seneschal asked, “Can Mister Long unveil your true form?”
“Why not?”
With a shift of thought, Zhong Yue's psyche poked at the beast god inner core, a violent burst of beast god essence engulfed him and flowed all over his body; Zhong Yue released a long and intense dragon whistle, he turned into a Xiang Dragon with over forty feet long.
Everything was within his calculations; he had controlled the strength that struck on the inner core so that it would release the precise amount of beast god essence that could be refined in a short period, allowing him to rapidly revert himself from the Xiang Dragon to the half-dragon and half-human form.
“Indeed one from the dragon race!”
Light rays flashed in the seneschal's eyes, he could feel a surge of soul-stirring pressure on him, it was the dominating aura of bloodline suppression that was imposed upon inferior bloodlines by the superior ones. Even though he was already a Qi Practitioner, when faced with Zhong Yue who was a bona fide 'dragon', he could still feel the repression from the draconic bloodline trying to subdue him.
So this Mister Long is actually from one of the branch families of the dragon race, he is not a pure-blood dragon. Which makes sense, how is it possible for a pure-blood dragon to come to places like Gu Xia City?
However, even though he was only a Xiang Dragon, Zhong Yue's status was still fairly high. The seneschal dared not to treat him with even the slightest of negligence, he quickly registered Zhong Yue in the records and respectfully handed over a token to Zhong Yue, “Mister Long, from now on, the lands within the radius of five hundred miles around Falcon Ridge will be your territory. Mister Long can expand your territory once you've become a Qi Practitioner.”
Zhong Yue refined some of the beast god essence and reverted back to the form of ‘Long Yue’, he accepted the token, nodded and thanked the seneschal.
The seneschal watched as Zhong Yue slowly reverted back, he was more convinced that Zhong Yue was a dragon; without becoming a Qi Practitioner, a monster could not shift freely and casually between his forms, as Zhong Yue was still not a Qi Practitioner, it was normal for him to be slow in shifting forms.
“Mister Long is here at the right time because today is the day where our ace cultivators will be battling with the aces of Swords Gate.”
The seneschal smiled and continued, “I suppose that the battle has already begun, I wonder if Mister Long is interested in such an event?”
“The battle has started?”
Zhong Yue was baffled, he asked, “Why can't I see them at all?”
The seneschal guffawed and answered, “Seems like Mister Long doesn't know about it, if the battle is staged in the Gu Xia City, their prowess will tear the city apart; hence, they are battling in the volcano beneath the Gu Xia City.”
Bai Xiushi shouted out involuntarily, “Is it in the ancient seals of the volcano underground?”
Zhong Yue was overjoyed in his heart, but he remained calm on the surface and asked, “May I ask, how do I enter the volcano underground?”