Chapter 349
Chapter 349
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Translator: Ace
Chapter:
Chapter Title: Thunderstrike on the Ghost Gods
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"The Peng Bird Clan's corpses are still warm. They haven't been dead long—the murderers can't have gone far!"
Chen Shi took a step forward but suddenly halted. He hesitated for a moment, then mobilized his mana to sweep up some divine blood and rosy glows, storing them away in the little temple.
Behind his head, the blood pool roared as it spun, digesting the power from the divine blood and rosy glows with all its might. Chen Shi mounted a bolt of lightning and soared into the air. He vaulted over Boundless Cliff and hovered in midair, scanning in all directions.
Standing in the sky, he looked everywhere but saw no trace of the murderers. He turned his head—there were no ghost gods in the air, either. Above Boundless Cliff lay peaks large and small, but unlike the rest of Yin Mountain, this region enjoyed a different climate. Verdant vegetation blanketed the slopes, lush and green.
A number of skeleton imps like him dotted the mountain path. Spotting him floating overhead, they shouted urgently.
"Come down! Get down here, quick!"
Chen Shi descended. Those few skeleton imps still wore clothes embroidered with intricate talismans in gold and silver thread—charms refined specifically to process yin energy. They were finely made.
"You... you're human cultivators? You're still alive?"
Chen Shi blurted in astonishment.
This was the underworld's Yin Mountain. Chen Shi frequented the underworld but had seldom stumbled upon this place. How could human cultivators be here?
The lead skeleton imp spoke in a raspy, aged voice—an elder, most likely.
"We're in a state of feigned death right now, come to the underworld for herb gathering. Aren't you a Medicine King Sect disciple?"
He sized up the blood pool hovering behind Chen Shi's head, visibly surprised.
Moments ago, they had seen Chen Shi take to the air and assumed he was a Medicine King Sect disciple out collecting medicine. But that blood pool made it clear he wasn't practicing any orthodox technique. His voice carried a boyish immaturity, too—just breaking, so he couldn't be old.
"Medicine King Sect?"
Chen Shi asked.
"Do you pay homage to Medicine King Sun Simiao as your founding patriarch?"
The elder gasped in surprise.
"You know our Medicine King Sect founder's name?"
Chen Shi replied.
"There's an ancestral temple to him from his days in the Western Cattle Divine Continent up on Qianyang Mountain. Your founder and I are well acquainted."
The skeleton imps grew wildly excited. The elder's voice trembled.
"There's truly an ancestral temple on Qianyang Mountain? Heaven pity us—we've finally found the patriarch! You're not tricking us, are you?"
"Trick you? Why would I?"
Chen Shi shook his head.
"Your founder's lingering spirit had scattered. I was the one who roused it. Now he's the god of Qianyang Mountain."
The elder dropped to his knees at once and pleaded.
"I am Tong Qianshou, current sect master of the Medicine King Sect. Please, senior—escort us to pay respects to the patriarch!"
Chen Shi helped him to his feet.
"I'm Chen Shi, nominally thirteen years old—not any 'senior.' Call me Top Scholar Chen. I've got business: chasing down some ghost gods. Seen any pass nearby? Wearing armor."
Peng Bird Village held many ghost god corpses clad in armor—standard issue. Chen Shi pegged them as ghost gods because he'd also spotted small yaksha bodies, some clutching incense.
The Medicine King Sect folk plainly couldn't care less about some Gold List top scholar. Chen Shi felt a twinge of disappointment.
Sect Master Tong Qianshou said.
"A squad of ghost gods hurried past just now. Seemed headed for the Tianchi Kingdom capital."
One Medicine King Sect skeleton spoke in a woman's voice.
"That squad wore armor, little imps burning incense atop their heads. Right—one carried a shoulder yoke with a birdcage slung from it. Peng Bird inside."
Her observations were keen. She went on.
"That Peng Bird was a girl, all dolled up. They went that way!"
Chen Shi said.
"That's them—exactly who I want!"
Lightning crackled underfoot as he prepared to launch skyward. Tong Qianshou called out in haste.
"Top Scholar Chen, no flying! Too dangerous here—you've got to go on foot!"
Chen Shi asked.
"Why no flying?"
Tong Qianshou explained.
"Demons haunt these mountains. Peculiar beings, born of heaven and earth's evil qi clotted together—formless, yet tangible. They lurk to possess people. Fly overhead, and they'll chase, latch on, and seize your body. If Top Scholar Chen's after those ghost gods, let me guide you."
Chen Shi offered thanks.
The Medicine King Sect woman said.
"Sect Master, I know the terrain hereabouts. I'll tag along—backup."
Tong Qianshou hadn't paid close enough heed earlier and feared losing the trail.
"Come along, then."
She said.
"Top Scholar Chen, I'm Sang Xixi, Medicine King Sect elder."
Chen Shi nodded.
"Let's move."
Tong Qianshou turned briskly to the other skeletons.
"Head back first. Elder Sang and I will scout ahead for the top scholar!"
The skeletons assented.
Sang Xixi dashed ahead at top speed, clouds blooming beneath her feet, breezes gusting from her sleeves—like gliding on wind, blisteringly fast. Glancing back, she saw Chen Shi matching her stride effortlessly, neck and neck with Tong Qianshou. She thought.
"This top scholar's no slouch in cultivation."
Chen Shi sounded young—a boy, by her ear—but his pace betrayed a cultivation rivaling her own.
Chen Shi asked.
"What herb are you after down here, Sect Master Tong?"
Tong Qianshou said.
"Yinchen Flowers. The kind right there!"
He pointed to the hillside. Ghostly green plants slunk out long tendrils, ends blooming into vat-sized buds. Stamens unfurled from within, tipped with staring eyeballs that sized them up.
"Only in the underworld. Vines, with priceless medicinal flowers—extend mortal lifespans, refine into treasures."
Tong Qianshou said.
"We harvest, ship to Medicine King Sect. Alchemists brew longevity elixirs, fetch good prices. Keeps us fed."
Chen Shi asked.
"I've heard only dead cultivators' souls reach here to possess skeletons. How'd you manage it?"
Tong Qianshou chuckled.
"Medicine King Sect knows drugs inside out. Pre-dive, we dose to fake death, coffin up. Ox-heads and Horse-faces reap our souls. Drug fades, we revive—lifespan intact—so they ship us topside. Bribe 'em with ghost money, we stay. Possess skeletons, pick Yinchen Flowers."
Such schemes need cronies topside. Gather quota, they summon souls home—lest true death claim you.
Tong Qianshou added.
"But the flowers are fierce. Botch the pick, they pick you. Plenty from our sect snared, mulched into root fertilizer."
Gloom tinged his words.
Sect master though he was, disciples perished on herb runs, helpless to stop it. Self-reproach gnawed.
Tong Qianshou went on.
"Yin Mountain crawls with ghost gods, holed up in peaks, lording domains. Skirt their turf, or offend—and their power rivals Great Vehicle Realm experts."
Ghost god might spans lows to highs—lows mere Incarnation Realm match, highs eclipsing Great Vehicle.
Take Peng Bird adults: several zhang tall. Coin buys little yakshas for daily incense—ghost god status. Barely nudges past Incarnation.
Thousand-zhang behemoths? Terrifying. Those were the ones to dodge.
Yet they stuck to territories, endless ghost captains and imps under heel. No trespass, no trouble for skeleton imps like Chen Shi.
Chen Shi's Yin Mountain lore was thin; now he grasped his flight's peril.
"Top Scholar Chen seeks those ghost gods for what?"
Tong Qianshou asked.
Chen Shi said.
"Promised a ghost called Peng Ju I'd watch his sister. Those ghosts nabbed her. Rescue time."
Tong Qianshou's brow creased faintly.
"That bunch had a three-headed brute. Formidable. We might not manage..."
Abruptly, Sang Xixi eased her pace and whispered.
"They're ahead!"
Chen Shi and Tong Qianshou slowed too. Chen Shi peered frontward: peaks thinned, giving way to irregular lakes great and small, linked by streams in a tangled web. Source: rent heavens, cascades thundering down—distant view like a Milky Way slung midair.
Closest lake's edge: over a dozen armored ghost gods pressing on. Heights varied; shortest three or four zhang. Little yakshas clung to many, incense ablaze.
Chen Shi banished the whirling blood pool behind his head and hastened toward them.
Tong Qianshou kept up, murmuring.
"Top Scholar Chen—see the hunched one, arms twin longknives? Knifearm Clan ghost god. Arms hammered a thousandfold—deadly."
Chen Shi spotted it: grotesque ghost god, stooped, noseless earless head just vast maw. Nostrils? Backside pits, fist-wide, belching green fumes on breaths.
"That ax-wielder? Thunder Ape Clan ghost god. Loiters in thunderclouds, ambushes from above."
Tong Qianshou pitched his voice low.
"Bigbelly no-head? Face rides the forward gut—blind from here. Ears flank the rear. Greatbelly Clan—strength unbound."
Chen Shi asked.
"And the three-headed one?"
Tong Qianshou's tone grew leaden.
"Underworld's infamous battle breed: Azure Fiend Clan. Combat freaks. Seen this one in Tianchi capital a few times—manifested hundred-zhang ghost form! Refining God cultivators hit hundred-zhang souls; soul-flesh merge for flesh that size! Near Refining God tier!"
Chen Shi shook his head.
"Not quite. No arts, bloodline alone—Three Corpses Realm tops."
Tong Qianshou wavered.
"Truth, Top Scholar Chen: haven't severed three corpses myself. Body Fusion only—divine embryo, nascent soul, flesh as one. Might not aid..."
Body Fusion marked him millennium's mightiest sect master. Predecessors paled.
Yet one realm shy of Three Corpses: chasmic gap. Refining God? Laughable.
Sang Xixi said.
"Sect Master—why not deploy the sect treasure?"
Tong Qianshou said.
"You mean?"
Sang Xixi beamed.
"Gunpowder—blast 'em!"
Tong Qianshou shook his head.
"Didn't bring any..."
"Brought two hundred catties myself!"
The skeleton woman vibrated glee, proffering a cosmos pouch. Tong Qianshou clenched jaws.
"Hand it over! Benefactor, seize the opening..."
Chen Shi said.
"Need to close in."
"What?"
Tong Qianshou blinked.
Chen Shi strode toward the ghost gods.
Tong Qianshou snatched the pouch and hissed to Sang Xixi.
"Xixi—back to the sect now! I don't return—you're master!"
He bolted after Chen Shi, knuckles white on pouch, gut knotted.
Pi Chi and the ghost gods ambled, jesting. They clocked the incoming skeleton imps—shrugged. Tianchi capital crawled with such; shrewd traders, peddling junk.
Chen Shi neared to dozens of paces from Pi Chi's crew when Tong Qianshou overhauled him.
A ghost god clocked the cosmos pouch—whirled, nocked bow on Tong Qianshou.
"What's that?"
Tong Qianshou beamed.
"Medicine! Yin-lifespan boosters!"
He jiggled the pouch.
"Great lords, this old bone whipped up spirit drugs—hundred times Peng meat! Care to sample?"
"Hundred times?"
The ghost gods stirred, eyes on the three-headed Azure Fiend.
"Lord Pi Chi, shall we...?"
Pi Chi's gaze lit on Chen Shi beside Tong Qianshou.
"Let 'em approach."
A Knifearm ghost hollered.
"Come on, then!"
Tong Qianshou edged ahead of Chen Shi, muttering.
"Trail me—don't crowd."
Leg bones quaked. Distance to Pi Chi? Brain whirred.
"Farther, and powder shreds us too."
Thirty paces.
Two hundred catties powder, Nine Yang Heavenly Thunder Talismans—slay Pi Chi? Dicey.
Tong Qianshou pressed on.
Twenty paces. Ought to vaporize Pi Chi. But pouch flight gives him dodge room—gap widens.
Tong Qianshou ground teeth, advanced.
"Ten steps more—then..."
The Knifearm ghost eyed askance.
"Imp—legs shaking... Halt! Stop!"
Tong Qianshou quivered, set to lunge—then Chen Shi's voice from behind.
"This range'll do."
Crack!
Blinding lightning burst behind him. Chen Shi surfed roiling thunder, plunged into the ghost gods' midst.
Blood pool vaulted from behind his head, howling spin. Blood sword-qi shrieked from extended fingers, lightning-jabbing colossal ghost frames—ripping blood qi and souls!
Lightning ran red in heartbeat, blood sword-qi engorged on a dozen ghost gods' vitality, potency exploding—lunging at Pi Chi!
Inconceivable speed. Yet Pi Chi, high bloodline ghost god awakened, bulked as sword neared—stumbled back, palmed forward thunderously. Palm swirled blinding runes, weaving shield!
Azure Fiend ultimate guard—unbreakable!
Battle-bred Azure Fiends thrived on havoc. Survive this blade, and he'd pulp Chen Shi.
Palm met blood sword-qi—Chen Shi bellowed. Atop blood pool, little temple spat a divine blood droplet—smashed home!
Boom!
Blood Lake True Canon ignited the divine blood's fury. Godpower detonated, blood pool ballooning—threatening to rupture Chen Shi's frail skeleton frame!
Undigested divine blood might—all funneled into the sword-gleam! Blade blazed!
Pi Chi's eyes bulged. Palm-shield shattered crackling; crimson sword pierced dorsum. Half-hand spun airborne, withering.
Thunder-riding Chen Shi materialized before him, seizing the sword-gleam. He swung!
Blood sword whisked across Pi Chi's necks.
Chen Shi slammed groundward, bones snapping riotously. Blood pool behind head thundered—sucked a dozen ghost souls, Pi Chi's included, into its depths.
Blood Lake True Canon—breakthrough. Blood Lake Hell, forged!
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