Book 3: Chapter 40: One Million Bronze Statues
Book 3: Chapter 40: One Million Bronze Statues
On an island in the Silver Moon Sea:
Ding ding ding ding ding!
Elegant music rang out. It was Fairy Waner focusing on playing a piece as she sat on the grass.
As Fairy Waner played, countless flowers bloomed in the grass, competing in vibrancy. Even the fish in the sea felt attracted, swimming over to this island as though intoxicated by this moving music.
There were even hundreds of azure fairies flying around the island.
When the fairies heard Fairy Waner’s music, they suddenly started flapping their wings, affected by the music. That was how moving Fairy Waner’s music was.
“Why is it not here yet?” Impatience flashed in Fairy Waner’s eyes.
More and more azure fairies arrived around the island. When almost one thousand had gathered, a sound rang out.
Buzz!
When this sound rang out, all the azure fairies around quickly moved aside. A yellow fairy suddenly appeared.
“Ensnaring Performance’s soul?” Fairy Waner’s eyes lit up.
Fairy Waner had determined its direction by listening to the sounds, giving chase to this place. However, this yellow fairy was extremely crafty. It immediately ran the moment she approached; she failed several times.
Some excitement flashed in Fairy Waner’s eyes. “Humph! This group of zitherists is all trash. To think that you dare to mock me. Up until now, only I have managed to find Ensnaring Performance’s soul. How are you all qualified to mock me? Because of Gu Hai?
“Wait until I catch Ensnaring Performance’s soul. I’ll give you all a ruthless face slapping. Humph!” Fairy Waner’s eyes appeared both nervous and excited.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
The yellow fairy flew around Fairy Waner. After all, fairies enjoyed music a lot. While the zitherists possessed excellent hearing, the fairies’ hearing was not inferior. While the zitherists searched for them, the fairies searched for music.
Up to now, only Fairy Waner, out of the six hundred zitherists, managed to attract the fairies with music, drawing them to fly around her.
“Come a little closer…come a little closer, and I can catch you. A little closer, and you won’t be able to escape.” Excitement flashed in Fairy Waner’s eyes.
Fairies were soul bodies. Ordinary ritual arrays and enchanted treasures could not capture them. One could only use one’s hands. Although Ensnaring Performance’s soul was attracted to the zither music, it still felt wary of Fairy Waner, so it maintained a certain distance as it flew around.
Ding ding ding ding! Fairy Waner’s zither music rang continuously. She believed that she could soon trick the yellow fairy into capture range. When she obtained Ensnaring Performance, she would definitely show Gu Hai up.
——
At Gu Hai’s ritual array:
Lu An no longer belittled Gu Hai. Instead, he felt chills all over when he looked at Gu Hai.
Gu Hai finished off sixty-eight gigantic dragons, leaving none alive and reducing them all to bones?
Fang Minghou watched as Gu Hai brought back the final set of dragon bones. His eyelids twitched wildly as he did so.
It was easy to see that Gu Hai was only in the early stage of the Golden Core Realm. However, these powerful gigantic dragons had all died at his hands?
As there was a vast fog, Fang Minghou could not see clearly.
However, he had vaguely made out that Gu Hai used two enchanted treasures: a bone saber and a black imperial seal. Aside from those, Gu Hai only used a ritual array to kill all the dragons.
Although Gu Hai killed the dragons one by one, he had killed them by himself.
“Young Master An, the trouble you brought back this time surpasses our imagination by too much.” Fang Minghou smiled bitterly.
When Gu Hai returned, he did not say much. Instead, he sat down cross-legged.
After the bone saber consumed the sixty-eight gigantic dragons, the one-thousandth of the energy it fed back was tremendous. Gu Hai flushed red, looking exceptionally ferocious.
Boom!
Gu Hai controlled the energy in his body to charge at the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidney apertures. The immense impacts hurt a lot. However, he still failed to open a single one.
“Are the five apertures difficult to open because I cultivated physically?” Gu Hai opened his eyes, showing a bitter expression.
“Gu Hai, are you alright?” Long Wanqing asked worriedly.
Gu Hai shook his head as he stood up. “I’m fine.”
Indeed, Gu Hai was fine. He just had too much energy in his body. He had to suppress the urge to vomit blood as he waited for the energy to disperse slowly.
“Let’s go down and take a look,” Gu Hai suggested.
Venerable Liu Nian looked at Gu Hai worriedly as he nodded.
Gu Hai waved his hand, and a hole opened in the ritual array.
Gu Hai, Long Wanqing, Shangguan Hen, and Venerable Liu Nian went through the hole together.
Splash!
The group jumped into the sea, and the hole in the ritual array immediately closed.
Sizzle!
The energy in Gu Hai’s body generated a lot of heat, immediately evaporating the water around him. Many bubbles promptly appeared.
“Gu Hai, why is your body so hot?” Long Wanqing gave Gu Hai a worried look.
“It’s fine. I can deal with it. I’ll be fine after a while!” Gu Hai smiled faintly.
Long Wanqing frowned as she nodded. Since Gu Hai did not want to say, she could not do anything about it. The group continued to sink deeper.
——
Inside the ritual array:
Fang Minghou let out a long breath and said, “Alright, they finally left.”
“Hmm?!” The gagged Lu An gave Fang Minghou a confused look.
“Young Master An, I will struggle free of this monster with all my might. Be careful,” Fang Minghou said.
Lu An looked at Fang Minghou in shock.
“This ritual array is too strange. Its power approaches my limits. Had I fought with all my power earlier, I could have struggled free. However, Gu Hai still had plenty of maneuvering room. Had I struggled free, I would have been in an even sorrier state. Now that they are gone, I can break the ritual array. Be careful,” Fang Minghou said.
“Umm! Umm! Umm! Umm!” Lu An nodded excitedly.
——
Gu Hai’s group sank to the bottom of the sea, quickly reaching a large trench.
“Your Majesty, this is the place. I can sense the snake head!” Shangguan Hen said, his eyes lighting up.
“Oh?”
The four moved towards the trench.
After the four traveled through a long, winding passage, they arrived at a huge underwater plaza. When they saw it, they all goggled.
A gigantic jade-green snake head floated above the plaza. This snake head was about three hundred meters wide. Despite it having been beheaded long ago, it still showed a ferocious look in its eyes.
The snake head revealed long, venomous, dark-green fangs as it pressed against an extremely large piece of ice below.
That was a cube-shaped block of hard ice that covered the entire plaza. With the snake head sitting on it, the block of hard ice looked incredibly small.
The snake head’s venomous fangs pressed on the hard ice, trying to melt it. About ten percent of the hard ice had already melted, while the remainder continued melting slowly.
One million bronze soldier puppets stood in the hard ice.
“A terracotta army?” Gu Hai felt startled.
“What’s a terracotta army?” Long Wanqing asked, feeling confused.
“No, this is not a terracotta army. They are just similar. A terracotta army is made of clay. These seem to be made of bronze. They are bronze statues wearing armor?” Gu Hai frowned.
“Indeed. What is the use of these bronze statues? There are one million of them, all looking exactly the same?” Shangguan Hen asked, puzzled.
“Look! The frontmost bronze statue is holding a large banner.”
“Silver Moon? The banner has the words ‘silver moon. Teacher Yinyue made them before sealing them in this hard ice? Those sin dragons guarded this place so that they could use the snake head to melt the hard ice?” Long Wanqing appeared confused.
“However, this hard ice does not seem that cold?” Venerable Liu Nian said, feeling bewildered.
“Hah!” Suddenly, Shangguan Hen let out a roar and opened his mouth to suck.
Rumble…!
The gigantic snake head seemed to get pulled by something, slowly floating up in the water.
“Your Majesty, I’m going to eat it. I can’t wait anymore!” Shangguan Hen said excitedly.
“Eat it!” Gu Hai smiled.
“Don’t touch this ice. I’ll tell you how to deal with it later!” The thrilled Shangguan Hen eyed the snake head.
Whoosh!
An immense force wrapped around the three-hundred-meter-wide snake head, which instantly shrank. Then, Shangguan Hen swallowed the snake head in one bite.
“Huh?” Venerable Liu Nian appeared somewhat shocked.
He had been helping Shangguan Hen to find food over the past few days, but he did not know what for. Now, he saw Shangguan Hen consume a three-hundred-meter-wide head in one go.
“Shouldn’t this snake head be very poisonous? How could he eat it?” Venerable Liu Nian said worriedly.
Boom!
Suddenly, a Veritable Essence image appeared around Shangguan Hen’s body, showing one tortoise and one snake—a black tortoise. The tortoise head and the snake head both had ferocious expressions.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
Shangguan Hen sat down cross-legged, regulating his energy. His body gave off flashes of green light. It seemed like this snake head was great nourishment, triggering a qualitative change in his body.
Boom!
Suddenly, Shangguan Hen’s body shook, sending out intense ripples.
“The Nascent Soul Realm? He broke into the Nascent Soul Realm?” Venerable Liu Nian looked at Shangguan Hen in shock.
Water ripples spread out from Shangguan Hen’s body. His cultivation continued to soar, surprising Venerable Liu Nian.
Gu Hai let out a long breath, satisfaction flashing in his eyes. At least everything he did previously was worth it.
Gu Hai stood guard over Shangguan Hen.
However, Venerable Liu Nian walked over to the hard ice. He eyed the hard ice sealing the one million bronze statues with misgivings.
“Hard ice? But it is not cold? If the sin dragons want the bronze statues in there, why didn’t they just break the hard ice?” Venerable Liu Nian looked at the hard ice suspiciously.
Long Wanqing also walked over. “Indeed, it is not cold at all. That banner has the words ‘silver moon. Did Teacher Yinyue leave them behind back then? The Silver Moon Mountain Manor’s bronze army?”
Venerable Liu Nian took out a sword to test the hard ice.
The instant the sword touched the hard ice, cold energy suddenly rushed out along the sword.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
“Oh no!” Venerable Liu Nian’s expression changed.
The cold energy traveled along the sword and rushed into Venerable Liu Nian’s body, instantly freezing his right arm and continuing to spread throughout his body.
“Venerable!” Long Wanqing’s expression changed as she extended her hand to launch a palm strike, wanting to shatter the hard ice.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
Long Wanqing’s manifested palm immediately froze. Then, the cold energy traveled through her Veritable Essence and charged into her body.
The two turned into ice statues in just an instant.
Before this cold energy, a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator could not even resist.
“What?” Gu Hai turned his head, his expression changing.