Chapter 672 - Lake Like Mirror
Zhong Yue led his companions around the incoming mist and waited patiently until the mist had passed before continuing on their journey
Ma Sansou was puzzled by his weird actions but didn’t say anything.
As of now, the other two partes had come into their sights. Ma Sansou’s scalp tingled when he saw the mist sweep past over twenty Qi Practitioners on its course. The flesh of the twenty Qi Practitioners fell off from their bodies, their bones were reduced to ash, their Yuan Shen melted away and even their soul was blown apart within the mist!
The Qi Practitioners were completely wiped out from existence, they couldn’t even reincarnate into their next lives!
Fa Bisheng quickly ordered everyone to step back and avoid contact with the mist. Even Jun Wudao also led her followers away and evaded the mist.
“The mist…” Fear swallowed Ma Sansou’s heart, if it weren't for Zhong Yue, they would’ve been dead already!
So this is the power of the exhaled air from the ancient existence? How terrifying! Zhong Yue heaved a breath as well.
“Brat Yue, avoid the water pools!” Xin Huo suddenly said, “Close your eyes as you move and don’t ever catch your own reflection on them!”
Zhong Yue looked to the front and saw a pool of still water, other than the fact that it was clear and smooth like a mirror, there was nothing odd about it at all.
He even cast out the divine eyes that could perceive everything but the pool of water was just ordinary water. He couldn’t help but ask, “What’d happen if you are reflected in the water?”
“No idea.” Xin Huo shook his head, “But the water pools are from the sweat of the ancient existence. The sweat contained the impurities and contaminants of her body, we must not let our guard down!”
Zhong Yue looked up and understood why they couldn’t fly in the sky. The water pools were like mirrors, flying in the sky would easily get them reflected by the water pools!
Close the eyes? Don’t think I can do that now. Zhong Yue thought helplessly. He was in the skeleton form with no actual eyes. He saw through the ghost fires burning in his eye sockets, and there were no eyelids for him to cover his ‘eyes’.
He took out the mirror scale he had and shone it at the water pool. Immediately, a small crack could be heard from the scale.
Zhong Yue was shocked, he quickly returned the mirror and saw a crack on its surface!
Not only did the mirror scale not glean anything from the water pool, it was instead damaged by the water pool’s power!
He was in utter shock knowing that even the ancient existence sweat was this frighteningly strong!
He briefed Ma Sansou and Bai Canghai, ordering them to not open their eyes and to follow him closely as he led the way.
Zhong Yue glanced around, there were many water pools around the lough. It wasn’t easy for him to find a way that could prevent them from reflected by it. However, if he was just careful enough, it could be done.
Faraway, Jun Wudao and Fa Bisheng were exploring the lough as well. They were both the leaders of the respective parties and were valued greatly by their followers. Thus, it was always their followers that walked in the front and allayed the hidden dangers for them.
Even so, Fa Bisheng and Jun Wudao had both scanned every piece of land with their greatest divine eyes and or skills.
Not only them, but their followers also scanned for any dangers around with their respective methods and tools.
All of a sudden, the Qi Practitioners that walked in the front stopped, they stood still in front of a water pool and stared right into it. Even the Qi Practitioners behind that walked up to inspect them ended up the same as well.
They all had the same smile that broke out on their faces as if they had met with the best thing in life.
At the back, Jun Wudao and Fa Bisheng both frowned. They ordered a few Qi Practitioners to check it out but even those they’ve sent fell victim to the illusions in the water pool.
“Halt!” Fa Bisheng shouted, he ordered everyone to stop while he closed his eyes and bolted to the front and dragged one of the victims back to the crowd.
Fa Bisheng then opened his eyes and looked at the Qi Practitioner he dragged back to them. As soon as the Qi Practitioner’s eyes looked away from the pool of water, his eyes turned dry and weathered into ash within seconds!
“His soul has also disappeared!” Fa Bisheng was shocked, not only were the Qi Practitioner's eyes gone, his Yuan Shen and soul had also disappeared!
He only spent a few moments beside the water pool, and now both his Yuan Shen and eyes have disappeared?
And exactly where had his Yuan Shen and eyes disappeared to?
Fa Bisheng turned and looked at the water pool from far and his heart shuddered in cold.
On the other end, Jun Wudao ordered one of her followers, “Yuan He, leave your Yuan Shen here and scout the water!”
Yuan He, a young man with a patch of red flesh on his head and five eyes with different colors heed to her command. He separated his Yuan Shen beside Jun Wudao while his mortal body walked toward the water pool.
He looked down into the water and slowly moved back step by step.
When he finally returned to the crowd and turned around, the crowd were in utter fear as the five eyes on his face were gone!
Jun Wudao sent his Yuan Shen back to his body and asked, “What is in the water?”
Yuan He’s face was pallid, his eyes were no more but the smile on his face was never this brighter before. He said happily, “Eyes, eyes everywhere, layer after layer!”
He was smiling, happily and contendfully.
Jun Wudao frowned, she comforted, “Don’t worry, I will teach you the Immortal Body and you can regrow your eyes.”
“No, no need for that. For I… I will return to the pool…” Yuan He suddenly gave an eerie laugh, he leaped into the sky and dived into the water.
The water pool was shallow and Yuan He was tall, but he disappeared into the water without even causing the slightest of ripples.
One of the Qi Practitioners was shocked, he suddenly laughed and said, “If we can’t walk over it, then let’s just fly over and not look at it!”
Then, he hovered up and flew above the water pool. At the next second, his lifeless body fell from the sky, even though he didn’t look at the water, his eyes and Yuan Shen were still stripped away from his body!
Jun Wudao inhaled deeply, she swung her sleeves and said, “Avoid the water and move cautiously! Do not fly under any circumstances!”
On the other end, Fa Bisheng also led his followers carefully across the water pools. But the lake was full of dangers, anything in here could be hidden with dangers, even the land itself.
The mist was the exhaled air of that ancient existence, the withered leaves were her dried skin flakes, and the water was her sweat.
Among all, there was something peculiar looming within the earth. They were shaped like tentacles and would sneakily crawl out and drag Qi Practitioners into the underground. Those that were brought away never returned.
“Her hair,” Xin Huo looked at the black tentacles and explained to Zhong Yue.
From time to time, there were also some godly rays that flashed across the sky. These godly rays would sometime turn into eerie eyes with creatures of long limbs trapped in it.
Although the creatures couldn’t leave the eyes, their limbs could extend out from the eyes and once it captured a victim to replace it in the eye, it would be able to free itself and disappear in the mist with a series of eerie laughter.
“Xin Huo, what are those?” Zhong Yue dodged a few of the strange eyes and asked.
“Creations.” Xin Huo answered solemnly, “Something happened here and the Dao that this ancient existence had been upholding crumbled apart. However, the Dao she cultivated contains the power to create and bring life to things. These strange eyes and the creatures are the deformed living beings formed from the remnants of her scattered Dao. But the creatures are trapped in the eyes and for them to escape, they need to replace a victim with themselves to be trapped in the eyes… Careful! Don’t step on the ancient existence’s footsteps!”
“Footsteps?” Zhong Yue looked around and saw nothing but mountains, he asked puzzlingly, “What footsteps?”
“You see the mountains and ridges?” Xin Huo said, “Those are her footprints. Take a detour away from this region. The ancient existence is an innate god, her skin, body and everything contained the innate Dao patterns and innate totem patterns. Stepping on it will trigger the power of these innate totem patterns. Look at them, that’s what will happens if you trigger it!”
Zhong Yue looked at the other two parties. A few Qi Practitioners were hiking the mountains and suddenly, their bodies dispersed into ash along with their souls!
Then, a few Qi Practitioners evaded the mountain and tried to move through a canyon beside it. But a wave of wind swept past them and the ashes of their remains swayed along with the breeze.
These Qi Practitioners were talents of the Prison Realm, yet, all of them were killed suddenly and not even their souls could remain!
When Fa Bisheng and Jun Wudao were leading the Qi Practitioners exploring the ways to safely tread across the mountains, Zhong Yue led Bai Canghai and Ma Sansou and took a detour of over thousands of miles, drawing nearer to the floating palace.
In stark contrast to the other two parties, their journey was mostly safe and sound without encountering much dangers even until they’ve reached to the front of the palace.
Ma Sansou felt as if he were dreaming, Zhong Yue was like a prophet that knew it all. He could always foresee the incoming dangers and avoided it before it even arrived!
Ma Sansou looked back and saw Fa Bisheng and Jun Wudao left with fewer than twenty followers each while the others had all died along the way.
How strange, is this winged lamb cultivator the Innate Comet Spirit Body or the Innate Blessing Spirit Body? He looked at Bai Canghai and thought.
Whereas Zhong Yue was thinking about something else, What did the ancient existence see or what happened to her? What is so shocking that even the Dao she has been cultivating and upholding was shattered apart? If she was just experimenting on the Six Paths Reincarnation, that alone shouldn’t have been enough to cause her Dao to shatter...