by <unknown>
The spiritual energy, bodily fluid, and smell, which escaped through the pores, were naturally kept inside the body.
Before, Li Yao had studied similar stealth techniques, but the general techniques only allowed him to hide himself in the still state. The Great Dream Tortoise Hibernation Art was much more incredible in that it allowed Li Yao to not leak any smell or wave while he was rushing forward.
The canyon was extremely deep. It was narrow at the top but got broader as he descended. After passing through the upper layer that was occupied by the overwhelming crowns of the trees, he discovered that dark fog was rolling up and down in front of him.
At the bottom of the canyon was a large river in pale white. Like an angry dragon, it was crashing and tearing apart the rocks on the two sides of the canyon. Occasionally, some of the rocks were ripped off and minced into pieces into pieces, disappearing into the river.
Even a feather could float on such a river!
Everything about the place was creepy and hideous. It seemed like a terrain where a few zombies could jump out at any time.
The mosquito flew toward into the rushing river at the bottom of the canyon. It was about to be smashed into pieces by the wave when it suddenly vanished into thin air after a flash.
Blinking his eyes, Li Yao discovered, after maneuvering Neltharion to take quite a few circles, that right behind a horizontal, half-dead tree on one side of the canyon close to the surface of the river was a crack that was well hidden and only allowed one person to pass through at a time.
Although the tree was not huge, its roots were rather dense and almost blocked the crack entirely like a natural barrier.
If Li Yao had not seen the mosquito crawling into it, it would have been difficult for him to notice the crack even if he searched with his full attention.
Neltharion passed through the gaps among the roots carefully and groped for a long time in the darkness along the zigzagging gap until there were suddenly no more obstacles ahead.
It turned out to be a very broad underground cave!
The underground cave was more than a hundred meters long and wide. Traces of manual work were obvious. There were quite a few cracks on the top leading to nobody knew where. Occasionally, pale white brilliance was leaking down, illuminating the entire cave.
When Li Yao calmed himself and observed again, he noticed that the cave was not just illuminated by the brilliance showered from the gaps on the dome but also by the bones that had occupied the entire cave!
Most of the bones were bright gold, deep red, bronze, and various other colors. They were countless times larger than the bones of human beings. However, the hands, feet, and skulls resembling those of human beings could still vaguely be distinguished.
They were well-preserved remains of the members of the Pangu Clan or the Nuwa Clan!
Li Yao's eyes suddenly shined. The remains of the Pangu civilization was another piece of evidence that the mysterious world of ancient Cultivators was deeply related to the Pangu civilization.
However, other than the primeval bones with intimidating auras, some of the skeletons belonged to human beings.
Judging from the dry residue on the skeletons, they had only recently been killed. Also, the dead bodies were rather young and small. They seemed to be little kids, if not newborn babies.
Is there an evil Cultivator torturing living people here?
Li Yao's eyebrow was immediately furrowed.
He knew that evil arts to baptize the magical equipment with living people existed in many worlds of ancient Cultivators.
It was also a tradition of the desolate Cultivators to magnify the power of their magical equipment by sacrificing the living people and melting the victims' souls into the magical equipment.
As for the victims to be sacrificed, infants, whose souls were still unpolluted, were the best choices.
If explained with modern theories, it was probably because the structure of the force fields of the infants were relatively stable because their souls had not been contaminated by cosmic radiation yet.
Li Yao found almost twenty skeletons of kids that were relatively intact. As for the scattered bones, there were simply too many of them to count.
Such a gory view stirred his mind and raised his killing intent despite his calmness.
In the deepest part of the cave was an altar made of black rocks. Ancient, mysterious spiritual stripes and embossments were carved everywhere on the altar, depicting the creepy scenes of fiends swallowing human beings.
Behind the altar were a vintage furnace and many devices for the refinement of magical equipment. They were of a reasonably good quality even in the eyes of a professional such as Li Yao.
As for the thing placed next to the furnace, it was even more interesting.
It seemed to be a part of some enormous armor.
More exactly speaking, it was half of the shoulder armor that should have belonged to the armor worn by a member of the Pangu Clan or the Nuwa Clan who was about twenty meters tall.
The half shoulder armor was almost five meters long, but it was riddled with holes and only had the framework left.
In front of the shoulder armor was a middle-aged man whose skin was pale and whose face was gloomy.
The man's eyes were deep, with a blue birthmark that looked like a giant bird opening its wings at the center of his brow, covering most of his upper face.
Hidden below the 'wings', his eyes were even deeper. His hawk nose boasted a large curve, and the tip of his nose was almost piercing into his lip. His lips were thin and protruded forward, which made them look like the beak of a bird.
Despite his ugliness and the shabby environment, the man had an intimidating aura around him, as if he were the invincible dominator of the forest!
Chapter 1342: Hundred Ghosts Edict |
The mosquito that returned from hundreds of kilometers away over all the mountains hovered around his head for a while before it reached his mouth, only to be swallowed in the next second. The guy chewed it for a while, his cheeks moving up and down, and spat out a mouthful of green saliva. Then he chuckled.
"Black Nose was truly a dumbass who hadn't grown any more intelligent after decades. He was still as stupid as swine and as greedy as a dog. After the slightest incitation from the few villages, he was bold enough to perform a head-on attack on the Appeasing Ambassador's army!"
The green-spotted freak shook his head in disdain.
As his facial muscles were twisted, the birthmark that looked like a bird seemed to be flapping up and down, making it even more hideous.
The three thousand Sectors all originated from Pangu and Nuwa. The mysterious world that had never been visited before had been raised by Pangu or Nuwa, too.
All the existent civilizations of human beings more or less inherited the essence of the Pangu civilization in terms of language and social system.
Therefore, their languages were generally similar to each other. They were like the dialects of the same language.
Having absorbed many of Ou Yezi's memory pieces, Li Yao was adept at many vernaculars of the medieval era in the first place.
During the five years of development of Kunlun, the federation had excavated a lot of remnants that stored the spells and runes of the Pangu civilization, allowing him to gain a deeper understanding of the language system of the Pangu civilization.
The language adopted in this Sector was similar to the 'Lotus Small Seal Calligraphy' at the early years of the medieval era, with slightly different strokes. Therefore, the words on the banner 'Appeasing Ambassador of the Fifth Prefecture of the Southland of Sorcerers' had been recognized by Li Yao easily.
The green-spotted freak's accent, on the other hand, was both blurred and creepy. It sounded like a viper zigzagging inside one's ears. Anybody who heard it would find goosebumps rising all over their body.
Li Yao listened carefully for a while and compared it to dozens of dialects in the age of the ancient Cultivators. Finally
, based on the context, he was able to get what the guy was saying.
The green-spotted freak sniffed and said, "Did it never occur to Black Nose what they were going through? Would the Appeasing Ambassador who was bold enough to assume his office at such a troubled time be easy to deal with? I only pity the great flesh on his body and the 'Gloomy Fire Blood Transformation Saber'!"
Although he was talking about 'pity', there was not any real pitifulness on the green-spotted freak's face, just as he was not really thinking that the Appeasing Ambassador was hard to deal with even if he was talking as such.
It appeared that the battle in the forest was completely disregarded by him. The Appeasing Ambassador's victory and the barbarians' failure were both trivial, not worth mentioning.
Li Yao realized that the so-called Black Nose must have been the fat, bald man who was riding the rhino demon beast.
Judging from the green-spotted freak's tone, he was an old acquaintance of Black Nose's, but the two of them were not in a good relationship.
Since he had been able to observe the competition between Black Nose and the female sword Cultivator and still scorn them, it was obvious that he was far stronger than either of them.
The green-spotted freak sneered for a while longer before he dropped the issue and refocused his attention on a few sword embryos and broken rune arrays on the altar.
It turned out that the altar was sort of a working table for him.
As a master of refining with knowledge about both the past and the present day, Li Yao realized what the green-spotted freak was doing after the first observation.
He estimated that the green-spotted freak must have accidentally discovered the mysterious cave where the armor and dead bodies of the Pangu Clan were hidden.
However, perhaps because of the passage of time, or perhaps because he wasn't the first lucky dog to discover the place, few relics there were still of value except for half of the arm armor.
Because of the Pangu Clan's enormous body size, even half of the arm armor would still be enough to be built into many marvelous weapons if it was refined into ingredients first.
Therefore, the green-spotted freak must have been living in the place in seclusion, dismantling the giant's arm armor and modifying it into magical equipment that he could use.
Judging from his monologue, he had not met Black Nose for decades. Also, based on the decorations of the cave, it was very possible that he had hidden himself here for ten to twenty years.
Li Yao vaguely saw that dozens of square holes had been dug out on the wall of the cave that was as smooth as a mirror. The holes had been smeared with a layer of bone powder at first before almost twenty semi-products were placed in them. It appeared that they were all plucked from the giant's arm armor, a job that could not have been finished quickly.
In the age of ancient Cultivators, the professions of Cultivators were not clear yet. The high-level Cultivators often studied multiple disciplines and knew a thing or two about medicine, poison, refining, rune arrays, and many other subjects.
The green-spotted freak was probably an expert in the Nascent Soul Stage who had lived in seclusion for decades after locating the 'treasure', partly to train himself and partly to build powerful secret treasures. It was a rather common practice for the ancient Cultivators.
However, the ancient Cultivators, who did not know much about the fundamental subjects, apparently would not study the basic mechanism as modern Cultivators would after receiving the secret treasures of the Pangu civilization.
The green-spotted freak was merely interested in the super alloys on the arm armor and considered it materials for his sword.
As for the aerodynamics, the circulation of spiritual energy, the ergonomics, and the mysterious mechanisms in many fields behind the arm armor, he turned a blind eye to them all. Li Yao could not help but feel that it was simply too wasteful.
That being said, the green-spotted freak indeed had his own expertise in refining.
He took over a sword embryo made of the remnants of the Pangu Clan's armor. Touching it in fascination for a while, he spat another mouthful of green saliva, which turned into a green fire the moment it reached the sword embryo. When the fire perished, a few zigzagging streaks had been left on the sword embryo.
The green-spotted freak narrowed his eyes and observed the streaks by aiming them at the light. Then, he unpacked a colorful silk bag on his waist and took out a black badge from it.
The badge was the size of a palm. Almost a hundred big-headed children were carved on the surface in an eccentric style. Every big-headed child was laughing in delight, but there was a creepy feeling hidden in the deepest part of their smile.
Such a picture of children laughing was truly more disturbing than a picture of ghosts walking at night.
The green-spotted freak recited his spell in silence. Two streams of bright green smoke escaped from his nostrils, circling around the badge nine times, before they diverged into green threads that were even thinning and crawled into the noses of the big-headed children in the picture!
A weird thing happened!
After absorbing his telepathic thoughts, the big-headed children who were rigid on the metal badge suddenly began grimacing. The delight on their faces was now mixed with misery and suffering!
Suddenly, the green-spotted freak extended his long, narrow fingers and snapped the badge three times. After a grunt, his telepathic thoughts fished up a few souls from the badge like lines!
The few souls looked like children if not babies, except that their bones were bulging and their bodies were twisted. They could not have looked queerer.
The green-spotted freak kept grunting. His immense spiritual energy crashed at the souls of the children like a few giant hands, kneading and torturing them as if they were mud.
Because of the painful suffering, the souls of the children were finally infuriated and launched counterattacks at him brutally!
However, how could the children whose souls were deprived of a body soon after they were born and had no specialties except for their pureness expect to compete with a great expert in the Nascent Soul Stage?
The green-spotted freak, on the other hand, was like a cat playing with the mice. He dealt with the souls of the children unhurriedly, building up their aggressiveness and bloodthirst.
This is much more an evil art to sacrifice the living people. This is a secret technique that looks like a way to tame ghosts!
Li Yao was more than shocked.
It was obvious that the green-spotted freak was to answer for the dead bodies of the children at the periphery of the cave.
He killed the children, plucked their souls, and sealed them inside the weird badge.
The badge was similar to an 'artificial body' in the modern Cultivation civilization, where one's remaining soul could be hidden and nurtured.
Naturally, the guy did not have any good intentions. He was hoping to cleanse and turn the ignorant souls of children into gremlins before he melted them into swords and artifacts in order to increase the power of the magical equipment!
To explain what 'gremlins' were, the notion of 'ware spirit' must be explained first.
According to the ancient Cultivators, the flying swords and the magical equipment were personable. With enough time, after absorbing enough natural essence, they would be connected to their owners, and a 'ware spirit' might be born. If so, the magical equipment would be able to automatically attack or defend without the control of the owner.
Magical equipment that boasted a ware spirit was also known as 'spiritual treasure', an existence of a higher level. They were also the ultimate treasures that countless ancient Cultivators sought after.
In the opinions of modern Cultivators, the so-called 'ware spirit' could be defined as artificial intelligence that could automatically search, cruise, make judgements, attack, or defend based on the tactical plans embedded.
It was very difficult to develop an artificial intelligence that
was a complete simulation of a human being's brain even for the Star Glory Federation, not to mention the medieval era where everybody was still groping in darkness.
Right now, a popular theory in the federation even had it that the 'ware spirits' were very common in the age of ancient Cultivators because they were the military artificial intelligences, and their mutants of the Pangu civilization left after the primeval war.
The primeval ware spirits were something tantalizing but often unreachable. Therefore, some of the evil guys turned their malicious eyes to human beings.
Killing human beings, retrieving their souls, and attaching them to the magical equipment could achieve the effect of 'artificial intelligence', too, if not better.
Children's souls were the best choices for such evil arts to transform human beings' souls into 'ware spirits'.
It was because the souls of children were pieces of unpolluted, white paper. They were like the 'initial state' of a crystal processor whose architecture was just constructed but had not been written with any front-end operation system and specific instructions yet. Therefore, the user would be able to fill in new instructions without bothering about the system conflicts.
Chapter 1343: A Test! |
However, one's soul was not a senseless artificial intelligence after all. Even if their memories were wiped out, they would still feel pain, suffering, and other emotions.
It was especially so when the green-spotted freak was refining the innocent souls of children into the most brutal ghosts. The pain that the children bore was certainly beyond any description.
The children had been thrown into a permanent slaughterhouse before they had a taste of life. They shouldered suffering that was a hundred times more miserable than being minced, and yet they could not kill themselves.
Even a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator such as Li Yao could not help but feel that his tongue was numb and his heart was racing when he thought of the torture.