Cthulhu Gonfalon

Of course, Ray and Steele did not know this name, but in Sui Xiong’s world, it was practically a household name, at least in the cultural circle connected with his language.

The original version of Jinguquan had only two effects: the first was that it could not be taken off one’s head once he or she wore it; the second was that when someone silently chanted the spell “Jinguzhou”, the headband would tighten. No matter if the talented Monkey King who wore it changed into a fish, into an earthworm, into a drop of water, fire, or even left his body as only his soul, the headband would cause an intense headache and he would admit defeat.

The Jinguquan that Sui Xiong made was different from the original one. It could not only be activated like the original version, but also had a default way of starting. Of course, this inspiration was not from the Journey to the West, but from Stephen Chow’s movie “A Chinese Odyssey”.

According to Sui Xiong’s design, there was one thing that could start the Jinguzhou and tighten the Jinguquan. Of course, it was not so strict as whether the person wearing it was tempted by sexual desire. If it were, Steele would die after a few days because the band would be too tight on her head…It might not even take a full day.

Sui Xiong set a guideline for Steee, which meant she could not force others to have sex with her. As long as she had such a thought, the Jinguquan would tighten before she could take action. If, after being warned, she still did not repent and would not give up, then the Jinguquan would continue to tighten…Strictly speaking, the headband didn’t really tighten a person’s head so much as to kill them, but if they weren’t careful, that person might lose consciousness due to the pain.

Sui Xiong explained the effect of this band and said with a smile, “According to the legend, the Jinguquan was used on an extraordinary hero who wreaked havoc in heaven and frightened the trayo dhātava. To tell you the truth, I cannot match its power, but I think it’ll have a positive result for us too.”

He tossed the band to Ray. “Let’s just think of it as disciplining a naughty child who loves to burn others…Ray, put it on her head, and afterwards, chant the spell of Jinguzhou.”

Without any thought, Steele flapped her wings and started to run away, trying to escape by using her ability to fly.

However, in front of Sui Xiong, how could she escape? Sui Xiong laughed loudly, changed himself into a giant palm, plucked her out of the sky, and pressed her under his palm as if he had swatted a fly. Then the giant palm changed into an iceberg shaped like a five-fingered hand, firmly pressing her underneath.

“Hey! You naughty woman, how dare you intend to escape the Five Finger Mountain of me, a Buddha?!” Sui Xiong shouted in Chinese, full of a sense of accomplishment. Unfortunately, no one in this world could understand his Chinese, so his sense of accomplishment inevitably felt a bit undermined.

After pinning down Steele, Sui Xiong taught Ray the spell of Jinguzhou, asked him to put the Jinguquan on Steele’s head, and then withdrew his magic and destroyed the iceberg.

“I believe that with your wisdom and knowledge, you can suppress this wild woman so that she won’t make so much trouble.” Sui Xiong could not help but smile, because he saw that Steele couldn’t remove the headband. She tried a few options out, such as magic and drawing her soul out of her body.

Sui Xiong then said to Ray, “You decide when to chant the magic words and how many times you chant them. And, if necessary, you can always chant the spell in reverse to temporarily pause the effect of the Jinguquan. Of course, then she can also get rid of it.”

Ray was very pleased, nodding along as Sui Xiong spoke. He began to chant the spell in his mind silently, and suddenly Steele felt the headband began to tighten around her head. At first, it wasn’t very tight, and she was able to endure the pain. But as Ray chanted the spell more and more, the band became tighter and tighter, and she felt like her head was about to crack open. Steele cried out and yelled loudly and even rolled into the muddy water, but she had no solution. So she could only beg for mercy from Ray so that he would spare her.

Ray stopped chanting the spell. It was strange that as he stopped reciting it, Steele immediately felt no pain in her head. Terrified, she touched the Jinguquan on her head and could not help but burst into tears when imagining this new debacle she found herself in.

This was the end of her happy life, a time when life was leisurely and carefree!

During the rest of their trip, Steele behaved herself as the band restricted her. Not only did she stop harassing Ray, she even disappeared into the wild to have sex with less frequency.

However, this had advantages and disadvantages. She often felt a sudden headache while flying, falling to the ground and screaming in pain. This greatly reduced her efficiency as a scout.

It also allowed Sui Xiong and Ray to really see how powerful the band was. Basically, Steele’s mind was full of lust anytime and anywhere, and within less than a day, the Jinguquan had been triggered more than twenty times. She made do with it for a day, but she really couldn’t stand it at night. She cried and begged Sui Xiong to change the settings of the Jinguquan.

“I can’t live this way at all!” she cried sorrowfully. “If I can’t even think about having sex, then what’s the point of living? You’d better just kill me!”

Sui Xiong was speechless hearing this woman’s belief that she’d rather die than be forced not to have sex. After some bargaining, he finally changed the settings of the Jinguquan.

First, he lifted the restraints on lust.Simply thinking about having sex was innocent enough. Although his original intention was to correct Steele’s wayward thinking with harsh constraints, it seemed that this woman was beyond that, and there was no possibility to change her pattern of thoughts, so Sui had to give that up.

Second, based on the principle that with every punishment should also come some kind of consolation, he added a secondary function to the Jinguquan: as long as Steele strove to constrain her lust, she could store the energy she used during sex until it was time for her to use it again.

“Does this mean that most of the time I can store my lust, and then when I need to have sex, I can cast a large-scale and indiscriminate spell to make everyone around aroused and hold intense naked congress?” Steele responded, eyes shining and mouth watering.

Sui Xiong sighed and gave up the lengthy argument that he’d originally prepared. This woman simply couldn’t be cured!

After finally having solved this problem, the team finally arrived at the Broken Cloud Mountains.

The Broken Cloud Mountains were a series of mountains known as the roof of the mainland. The west end of this mountain range was on the shore of the vast sea, spanning diagonally from the southwest to the northeast. Near the center of the continent, it spanned from west to east, separating the Ancient Forest and the Eagle Kingdom. It spanned northward a bit, forming an arc, then spanned eastward and extended to the vast eastern plains, into the territory of the Kingdom of the Blue Moon.

The defining feature of this mountain range was its incredible height. Except for the part that stretched to the vast eastern plains, most of the mountains were endless cliffs that connected with each other. From the foot of a mountain, one cliff after another could be seen extending above the clouds, as if the peak was cut off by the dense cloud cover—thus the name Broken Cloud.

This mountain range was not only a natural barrier that cut off the north-south traffic on the continent but also a famous sacred place for self-cultivation. According to Ray, at least half of the world’s legendary heroes and over 70% of the strongest men lived in these steep, towering mountains.

The reason was very simple: high concentration of magic.

The magic concentration distribution was roughly as follows: with the sea level as the dividing line, the magic concentration would increase upward and downward. The magic concentration in places of high altitude and deep seas was very high, so powerful magical monsters either lived in the mountains or the deep sea.

Regardless of the situation in the deep sea, the highest mountain on the continent was in the Broken Cloud Mountains, so most powerful magical monsters on land lived here. Also, because of the high concentration of magic, the men who had surpassed the limits of mortals all liked to live here, hoping to increase the possibility of further breakthroughs.

In this world, there were many so-called “forbidden places”. For example, the central area of the Gobi desert was a forbidden place. But the Broken Cloud Mountains were not a forbidden place, because for people that were not strong enough, even if they wanted to, they couldn’t climb up the mountains.

High concentration of magic was not only able to spawn powerful monsters but was also no different from a virulent poison for creatures that were used to environments with low concentrations of magic. If you could not break through the magical limit and step into the legendary realm, you were not even eligible to climb mountains.

Want to commit suicide? It’d be more realistic to look for a rope and hang yourself on a tree.

“I’m sure I can’t cross the Broken Cloud Mountains,” Ray panted. He shook his head as he saw the cliffs ahead were even higher and felt a heavier concentration of magic in the air, gasping after climbing up a steep peak. “It really won’t work, I cannot do it.”

Sui Xiong didn’t give him a hard time. Instead, he looked at Steele.

“I think…it does not matter…” Although Steele still sounded determined, she was betrayed by her breathlessness.

Obviously, for their team of adventurers, crossing these mountains was a really difficult challenge, and neither Ray nor Steele seemed capable of pressing on.

Even more complicated was that unlike the Mountains of Barrenness, which had notches and plateaus, the Broken Cloud Mountains were the roof of this continent, and they were long and unbroken without a reasonable place to rest.

If you wanted to cross the mountains, you either had to be strong enough or compromise and take a detour.

Looking at his teammates who were struggling to hold on, and seeing the unbroken mountains ahead, so tall and straight and unknowably high, Sui fell into meditation.

After a while, he finally came up with a solution.

“Your Majesty, are you sure therre really won’t be a problem?” Ray asked. For all the bravery he had, Ray couldn’ help but be somewhat frightened when he saw the bloody mouth big enough for an adult to enter and exit. “This approach… does not seem very reliable…”

“Yeah, let’s take a detour!” Steele had reached a consensus with Ray, which was rare, and she nodded her head like a chicken pecking.

It was no wonder they were afraid, because they saw that Sui Xiong had transformed into a room-sized jellyfish and asked them to walk into his stomach. They were asked to take the “Jellyfish Airship” to fly over the Broken Cloud Mountains.

To be honest, it wasn’t such a bad idea, because they could effectively solve a variety of problems that might be encountered.

The magic concentration was too high? Sui Xiong could absorb and filter it.

The air was too thin? Sui Xiong could suck in the nearby air and increase oxygen levels artificially.

There were dangerous demon beasts flying at high altitude? Sui Xiong could drive them away.

Unable to see the road clearly when flying? Sui Xiong could use magic positioning.

In general, except for its frightening shape, the Jellyfish Airship was indeed very good.

However, it was horrible. Yes, horrible!

Horrible indeed!

So horrible that it must be said three times!

Normal people absolutely could not step into the stomach of a huge demon beast!

Frankly, Ray and Steele weren’t even considered normal people. But even these two, a solitary robber and an eccentric slut, could not convince themselves to go into the jellyfish’s stomach in order to hurry on their journey!

“No way!”

“Yes! No way indeed!”

They did their best to resist.

But in the end, they still gave in.

With a laugh of excitement, the huge floating jellyfish slowly rose and flew toward the clouds…