CH 017 Is This A Monster?

The boundless blue waves, the small dragonflies flitting among the lotus flowers, the vast mist-covered water extending into the distance, hazy like a beauty draped in light muslin.

The indistinct drifting mist, the echoing gentle song.

Paradise on earth was nothing more beautiful than this scenery.

However, the disciples of Kun-Lai who fell into the water as soon as they passed through the exit only exchanged glances, a hint of precaution in their eyes.

The mist was understandable, but where did this faint singing come from?

It seemed to pass through the endless fog to reach the ears from all directions.

Ye Han yawned.

Having been on high-alert for several days, feeling a little tired should be understandable—and then he was slapped in the face.

"Soul Capturing Melody, quick, recite the Purifying Spirit Incantation." Feng Qingxiu swiftly wrote a small incantation of one hundred and ten words on his hand.

Ye Han was a little angry and a little aggrieved, but he couldn't vent at all, so he could only bow his head to memorize the incantation.

"It's this thing again. I didn't expect it to be so useful." A senior brother who was carrying a sword recited the incantation several times. Instantly, he felt that the sleepiness was gone quickly and he was back to feeling energetic. He sighed, "I used to jump off the cliffs of Yangshuo Peak because I couldn't recite this."

"Who didn't jump, a life without jumping off cliffs is not a complete Kun-Lai life!" The person next to him said, but also sounding a little bit sorrowful, "but to be honest, is having to memorize so many incantations really not a specially set up obstacle to reduce the number of disciples?"

"Being able to recite incantations in the lower school eliminates idiots first and lazy people second. It is quite reasonable. Is there a better way than the checkpoints personally set by the Sect Leader?" Feng Qingxiu defended.

"Ye Han, I think if you had gone to the lower school your name would have been weeded out in the first month's mini examination." Someone next to Ye Han teased him. The upper, middle and lower schools of the outer sect held exams every month over twelve years, and those who failed the exams would be kicked out of the mountain sect.

"Where is this?" Not wanting to argue, Ye Han changed the subject.

"It looks a bit like Wuling Sea?" Feng Qingxiu compared it to one of Western Continent's scenic spots.

"It is the Wuling Sea!" The senior sister who was petting her red snake replied, looking very solemn and worried. "My family is from the Tianhua prefecture in the Wuling Sea. 'Thousand miles of mist disappearing into the distance, ten thousand miles without a trace of footprints, where is the most dangerous place between heaven and earth, surely it is within Wuling.' This saying refers to this place."

"What do you mean?" Ye Han didn't understand.

"That is to say, there are no people within these thousands of miles, and it is one of the most dangerous places in the world." Feng Qingxiu explained to him in a low voice, "Originally, Wuling Sea was the largest lake in the Western Continent, but it was later occupied by the Great Xuan to expand its borders. The human races in the Western Continent migrated and settled in large numbers since then. Although there had been human races who settled here before Great Xuan, they were all small tribal nations and can be considered as bordering the Outlands."

"Yes, later the Great Xuan collapsed and one of the princes established himself as the ruler of the Great Western Kingdom here in the Western Continent. Unfortunately, he was later attacked by the Celestial Alliance. The imperial family retreated to their imperial mausoleum and ended in mutual destruction with the Celestial Alliance at the time. The mausoleum is located in the lake hundreds of miles away." The senior sister of the Yushou Peak went on to explain, "Later, the Sect Leader's sword cut the main mountain, and introduced the waters of the South Sea into the Western Continent. After the water element on this land was sufficient, the Wuling Sea began to expand year after year, becoming thousands of miles of blue water. As for the exact location of the mausoleum, no one knew anymore."

"What is the Celestial Alliance and what is the Great Xuan?" Ye Han asked again in a whisper.

"The Celestial Alliance is the alliance of all cultivators in this world. Its existence was brief, after fighting the Great Xuan Immortal Dynasty, civil strife began to disperse among their ranks. The Great Xuan was the empire that unified the human race thousands of years ago." Someone next to him explained to him, "When we go back, go look through "A Brief History of Human Cultivation", only possessing more knowledge would you not be so easily fooled in the outside world."

Ye Han felt that he was being silently disparaged, and felt a little aggrieved. He stopped asking questions and secretly vowed to go back and read more.

Everyone started discussing what to do next.

"Hiss!" The little red snake suddenly straightened up in the arms of the senior sister, baring its fangs.

"There are snakes!"

"Be careful of the water!"

Under the bottomless water, there were faint black oblong figures approaching.

"I have realgar." Feng Qingxiu took out a large piece of ore from his pouch, crushed it and sprinkled it into the water.

"I have this too."

"Me too."

***

After one round, he actually received a hundred catties of realgar. Several disciples of the Yushou Sect were so angry that their complexions were blue. With just a glance, they knew that these realgar were prepared to guard against them. And more importantly, their precious little beasts were about to vomit, ai~ such distress.

However, those black figures were still rapidly converging.

The closer they got, the more they realized how huge the number was, a large black swath that almost turned the entire sea black.

"Let's go!" Feng Qingxiu pulled up a previously injured junior brother, "Take out all the Water Treading Talismans, don't bother saving. And everyone's pet food supply or Azure Rice, throw a handful!"

The senior sister of the Yushou Peak gritted her teeth, held down the red snake that was almost going wild, took out a dozen live mice from her pouch and threw them into the water.

The mice exploded into panic in an instant, scattering and dispersing away in all directions.

The remaining people who also had live food also threw a bunch of worms.

The snakes paused for a moment and then rushed to the food in an instant. After all, the humans were too big. Although they haven't seen live food for a long time, these rats that could be swallowed whole were their hearts' favorite.

As for the disciples, they have all turned into countless rays of light, flying off into the distance.

"Kun-Lai mice, senior sister is really rich." Someone praised her while escaping.

"That's right, sister, are you still short of snakes? I can be your snake..."

"Shut up!"

***

Countless black snakes looked at their distant figures, but did not chase them anymore. Instead, they grabbed a dozen mice and retreated into a cave under the water.

A nightingale singing softly paused in its singing and turned to look at the face of the person next to it.

He was a young and elegant looking man with long slender eyebrows, with an unexpected resemblance to Ye Han. He had a golden snake hairpiece tying up his hair and a gentle demeanor, but there was an uncontrollable wicked glint in his eyes.

He sat next to a konghou (TN: Chinese harp), staring at the colorless strings.

"How long has it been?" The young man picked up a mouse handed over by the black snakes, swallowed it in one bite, and asked the nightingale beside him with an expression of enjoyment.

"It's been 1,500 years." The nightingale's voice was clear and melodious, "No living person has entered Wuling Sea in 1,500 years."

"These Kun-Lai mice were fed with spiritual rice. There is no trace of impurities, and the meat is very tender. It would not lose to the delicacies at an imperial banquet." The young man sighed leisurely, "I was also a bigshot who could compete with Yin Xianjing in the past, but now I have fallen on such hard times, having to compete with spiritual beasts for food. Fate does like to work in odd ways."

His food was not even as good as the fodder of spiritual beasts. This feeling was quite strange indeed.

"This sect is quite rich," the nightingale said nonchalantly, "Is that young man who opened the imperial mausoleum his reincarnation?"

"There's some similarity, but also not." The young man smiled, "Back then, Su Wan cooperated with the High Priest and tampered with the treasure of Great Xuan—the Three Lives Three Worlds Divine Codex, so that those of us who had reached the end of our lives were cast into animal reincarnations, unable to utilize the human fortune to cultivate. I wonder if he ever found the whole and intact version."

"Do you want to eat them?" The nightingale asked.

"We won't be able to eat them, an important guest has arrived." The young man raised his head and looked in front of him.

Under the nightingale's surprised eyes, a halo of brilliance flashed, revealing the hem of dark robes.

That person had white hair and wore sweeping obsidian black, his eyes were still and waveless, his presence powerful and indomitable. Even they themselves who possessed impressive cultivation levels could not help but feel that this was a being completely out of reach when laying eyes on him.

Accompanying this new arrival was a hint of invisible sword intent.

So frightening that their souls started to tremble involuntarily.

This was simply inconceivable!

Sweat dripped down from the young man's forehead, and he asked in a low voice, "Dear brother, were we really stuck here for only 1,500 years?"

"The water clock calculated so!" The nightingale shrank back and shivered on his shoulder.

"Then how come there would be a monster who is able to cultivate the Calamity Sword?" The young man gritted his teeth, "Does he have hatred against all the living creatures in this world?"

Extraterrestrial celestial demons rained chaos on the world, always tempting those who were not strong in mind and will to fall into the abyss. The power of this sword could break all the world's incantations and spiritual techniques with a single strike, the Great Xuan Immortal Dynasty had encountered cultivators who tried to cultivate the Calamity Sword several times, but everytime it only led to the massacre of countless lives.

"Idiot, if you don't know, then how should I?"