Critical: Ages Below Critical - Chapter 5.2

Chapter 5: Golden Soul Mist (Part 2)

The joyousness and rowdiness of the mortal realm remains distant from him. No festivals or celebrations, no ordinariness or smoke rising from chimneys.

Yin Chen looks back at the silver robe hanging on the rack beside the bed. He remembers Qi Ling looking at it and saying “The clothes of lords are really so pretty, I’ve never worn something so nice in my life before, so pretty”, he remembers Qi Ling’s serious and envious expression back then, and his eyes rimmed with thick lashes, like two precious jewels surrounded by soft black feathers. “Will I have clothes as nice as this later on? Do disciples dress as handsomely as lords like you?” He had looked at Qi Ling then and said: “Of course you can. When we’re passing the city, there will be places that sell clothes; I’d buy some for you then. But if you’re still going to climb around like this, jumping on trees and digging holes in the ground, it doesn’t matter how nice the clothes you’re wearing are, you’ll ruin them anyway.” Qi Ling waves his hands, “How can that be! I won’t bear to! Such nice clothes!”

Perhaps if there is time before Qi Ling heads to the Grave of the Souls tomorrow, he’ll buy a presentable soul-bending robe for him in Rennes. He is, after all, a noble disciple of this country. Maybe that lil’ kid hasn’t even realized his fate has changed completely.

Yin Chen rests lightly on the bed, smiling as he closes his eyes.

Even he himself hasn’t realized that, in the past few days, he has smiled more than he had in the past few years combined. He seems to care more and more about the boy that is as clean as a piece of white paper. Maybe this is the fetter between a lord and a disciple. Emotions thicker that blood, a soul companion that’s purer than soul mates, countless warm emotions flow though his heart slowly.

So many familiar scenes start appearing in his mind after he purposely shut them away, like a long monsoon season shrouding the soul, under the heavy rain are mine fields of memories that people dare not tread upon. The appearances of those people are currently floating tenderly in the space above his face, their sorrowful and moving gazes caressing his cheeks,

A transparent layer of tears glazes over Yin Chen’s eyes.

[West of Aslan Empire – Abyss Corridor]

A constant pain can be felt from the lord’s seal on her body. The pain from the constant beating of the lord’s seal attacks her brain. The message of her body tells her that Nether is calling for her again and again continuously; this proves that he is facing fatal danger. A situation like this has never appeared before in her memory. Looks like Nether……

Shen Yin crosses the eerie mist briskly, the chain of crystals on her wrist casting an eerie blue glow, but the light can only penetrate through the space of a short distance, beside her are the sounds of strong winds blowing across trees, like the callings of horror. The overgrown crowns above her head have cut off the light, only the spooky darkness fills her surroundings.

Occasionally, a soul beast will attack at lightning speed from the thick and dark fog; Shen Yin will always rip the howling monster into a pile of blood and meat with her silver metal whip that is covered with sharp thorns. Already to a ‘Disciple of the High Levels’, for soul beasts with average formations, they can overpower them unquestionably, even if there’s no instant kill, she’d still be able to end its life within a few seconds, further more, she is crowned with the title of a killing disciple.

Yet after killing everything in her path, Shen Yin’s brows furrow gradually, the deeper she gets in the Abyss Corridor, the more she senses how vicious and ruthless the soul beasts are. When she first came into the Abyss Corridor, she only required the soul powers of narrowing her eyes to shatter a few soul beasts into dust; and now, she has to withdraw her soul weapon from her body in order to make sure she won’t be held back. The last soul beast she had killed was a Golden Glow Horned Lizard; it even managed to scrape the back of her hand. It can be said that the difficulty level is rising level by level. Oh no, to be more precise, the soul beasts had rose in level with every one thousand steps, and now, every hundred step she takes, the soul powers of he soul beasts are obviously a rank above the previous…… and from her lord’s seal, she can sense that Nether is still far in the depths of the place……

Fear creeps into Shen Yin’s heart and clenches tightly to her heart just like the thick and cool fog shrouding the place. She’s never been so deep into the Abyss Corridor before, back when she first became a disciple, she only trained at the edges.

The pain from the lord’s seal becomes stronger and more violent, yet the tinges she senses from Nether is becoming weaker and weaker, Shen Yin can’t help but move her legs faster……

A thick wave of the stench of blood.

Shen Yin stops at a black cliff.

In the crevices of the cliff in the distance, there is a cave resembling a monstrous beast with its bloody mouth open, on the empty space outside the cave, countless broken pieces of corpses of soul beasts, innards and skulls pile together, as if countless remains of dead bodies fell form the sky. At the mouth of the cave, a long stalk of white bone like a towering tree lies horizontally at the mouth of the cave, what’s left of the blood and meat are gurgling as they rot away, turning into brown blood and thick foam……

Shen Yin’s stomach contracts.

Her white dress that had looked as pure and white as the first snow has long been dyed red by thick blood and minced flesh, making it a killing robe with the tinges of Hell.

Dead silence surrounds everything, as if the grim reaper crossed this place and left this hell behind.

She moves towards the dark cave step by step, the lord’s seal on her body buzzes with every breath she takes.

Just as Shen Yin sets a foot into the mouth of the cave, she suddenly feels abnormal flows of the tracks of soul powers in the air, yet before she can respond, countless sharp thorns explode from the surface of the ground, piercing into her shoulder instantly, “Nether, it’s me!” She yells into the cave, murky fresh blood dripping form the corners of her mouth, her voice twisting from the pain.

With a loud swish, all the icicles retreat back to the ground.

She pushes her soul powers through the return circuit on her body, just as her flesh closes up, she hears a ghoul like voice saying: “Come in”.

The eerie blue glow from Shen Yin’s wrist illuminates the pitch-darkness of the cave, at the deepest part of the cave; Nether’s long eyes appear between the thick hair on his face, his green irises making him look like a ferocious beast. His entire right arm has disappeared, even most of his shoulder and décolletage has smashed into pieces, a few ribs piercing out from the ripped flesh, exposed in the air, large chunks of half solid black balls of blood coat the edges of his chest, through a layer of muscle membrane, the outline of his heart beating can be seen, any deeper and the innards from his chest and abdomen will have gurgled out……

The whole cave is filled with the stench of rotting flesh.

Shen Yin’s voice quivers as she asks in horror: “Who……did this to you? Impossible……”

“Bring me to the end of the Abyss Corridor, that golden lake,” Nether’s voice echoes in the cave, sounding like a dying devil, “I need to revive my arm, but the concentration of the golden soul mist in this place is too low.”

“Okay……” Shen Yin suppresses the fear in her heart, “But, I’m not sure how far I’d be able to go, the soul beasts I met on the way here are almost at the level of my soul powers……”

“Of course you won’t succeed by yourself,” Nether interrupts Shen Yin coldly, “If it wasn’t for the fact that I killed two thirds of the soul beasts on your day, hah hah, you won’t even make it to this cave, let alone fight those hovering before the cave just now……hah hah…… did you see that large bone? That’s the shin of one of the beasts.”

Shen Yin gazes at Nether’s proud and evil face, unspeakable fear and surprise in her heart. All the while she thought that, as the killing disciple, even if she’s not as powerful as Nether, she’d be similar to him, yet now, Nether can finish off so many soul beasts even with such heavy wounds……the broken pieces of corpses outside the cave seems like a badge to prove Nether’s abilities, emitting a dense white glow.

“Then I……” Shen Yin looks at Nether, unsure of what he’s planning. Since she won’t be able to advance forth in the Abyss Corridor with her abilities, then……

Nether lifts his head and sits straighter. He looks at Shen Yin, an evil smirk on his face, and then with his long fingers, he thrusts them into his throat, fresh blood flows down along his snow white fingers, yet he maintains the evil yet handsome and eerie smile, digging in his throat continuously as if looking for something, his fingers stuck deep in his throat, the sound of the friction between flesh and blood has an unspoken spookiness to it.

“Take it.” Air is escaping through the large bloody hole at Nether’s throat; his voice sounds hoarse and unpleasant. He digs an emerald jewel the size of a seashell from his throat and tosses it into Shen Yin’s hands before narrowing his eyes, a few strands of soul powers flowing along the return circuit on his body before fathering at the wound at his throat where the flesh flips out, the tendons and skin retracting and healing like flower petals.

“Your……soul weapon?” Shen Yin holds the jewel that is emitting a haze green glow, her voice shaking as she speaks.

“Yes, hah hah,” Nether leans against the wall behind him as if he’s drained of all his energy, “This is, even if you place it alongside every single soul weapon that has ever existed, it can still rank someone up top, the ‘Mirror of Dead Souls’, I’m sure you have heard of it before……try injecting some soul powers into it.”

Shen Yin suppresses her excitement; the golden patterns are faintly discernable through her robes, a few quick attacks from her arm and a few threads of golden soul powers injects into the emerald green jewel, a massive sharp, bird like call echoes through the cave, a large and translucent green shield hovers like a ghoul before Shen Yin.

The shield seems to be carved from a complete transparent green jewel, but if you look closer, you’d see that in the inner workings of the jewel are countless intricate and complex white carvings.

“Although the Mirror of Dead Souls is a soul weapon of the armour category, it is different from the other defensive qualities of the soul weapons in the same category such as the ‘Zhanshen Shield’ and ‘Longyuan Shield*’, it is a defensive weapon that is offensive. It reflects and clones the enemy according to their level of soul power, no matter if the opposition is a soul master, soul beast or even a noble lord. As long as the opposition’s soul powers is beneath you, an exact clone known as a ‘Dead Soul’ will be projected and will take your place for the battle, and the most powerful about the Mirror of Dead Souls is that, in theory, as long as your soul powers do not stop, then the projections will be limitless, and so if one Dead Soul is killed, the next will be projected, and so, the opposition is basically battling countless projections of themselves until they die alongside their last Dead Soul.”

Shen Yin stares at the Nether before her as if looking at an unbelievably powerful ghoul.

This is the first time she heard about his soul weapon after becoming his disciple, she never thought that it’d be powerful to such an extent. He is worthy of being the terminating destroyer second only to the Lord to the First Degree. At this moment, the Nether lying in a pool of dirty blood still has the strong aura of something originating from the depths of hell shrouding him, like a double-edged sword stained with blood, dense but sharp.”

“Take the Mirror of Dead Souls and lead the way, if you see a god, kill a god, if you see a ghost, kill a ghost.” Nether struggles to stand, chunks of flesh fall continuously from his unstable body, “Of course, if it’s not for the horrible condition my body is in and I’m unable to summon my soul beast, how would I need a lowly disciple to rescue me.”

Nether moves over slowly, his handsome yet evil face nearing Shen Yin’s, using his remaining hand, he squeezes Shen Yin’s chin, pulling her exquisite but fearful face towards him. A smile fills his eyes, making them resemble two vast green lakes, he uses his blade-like thin lips to capture Shen Yin’s as he caresses them gently, as if kissing a tender flow petal, he uses his hoarse and low voice to murmur tenderly: “Even if you have to go into your ‘Darkness State’, you have to protect me so I can get to the golden lake successfully, you do know that, you can never be separated from me……”

[West of Aslan Empire – Port city of Rennes]

The streets of the entire city are filled with people.

Qi Ling has been walking through the streets for the whole afternoon. At this moment, dusk is settling, the warm sea breeze during the day is gradually cooling down. All sorts of liquor shops of the city are filled with people, so many people gathering together to enjoy the best dishes of the festival.

It feels as if all citizens left their houses to day, everyone joyously taking part in this celebration to worship the God of the Ocean. Every single person, no matter if they’re adults or children, are dressed in their finest clothes, all sorts of restaurants and shops have put their signboards on roadsides to usher in more business, there are tanned boys standing at the entrance to restaurants calling out the names of the dishes to the passerby’s, there are also beautiful women dressed in dancing robes stationed at the doors of inns, dancing as they welcome guests, looks like everyone is planning to celebrate all through the night.

Be it the bright festive music echoing throughout the city or the countless bronze lights and silver candles hanging everywhere, the wandering poets performing with their piccolos on the wide space before the church or stages built for the festivals, and the children running around with the lighted metal lanterns, every corner of the city states that the people of the port city of Rennes are blessed and peaceful.

Qi Ling moves along with the people, taking in as much he can of the surroundings.

From time to time, fireworks will light up in the sky, reflecting on the peaceful green surface of the ocean, looking like a galaxy that fell from the sky and flowing in the ocean, countless large cargo ships are parked at the port, every single ship has kept their sails, their heavy anchors weighed at the seabed, the numerous sailors and crew singing songs on the decks loudly, eating maple candy and drinking bubbled sweet wine, surrounding the coast are the large flags set up by the royal family of Rennes to represent the Aslan Empire, the eye-catching badge of the water source spreading with the flags in the wind.

These are all scenes Qi Ling has never seen before in the town of Fauser. He looks at the aristocrats dressed in expensive clothes, many of them looking like they are masters of soul powers, and there are even those who recklessly let out their soul beasts to follow them at their side. On the streets are silver leopards, snow wolves with nine tails…… extremely rare avian can also be seen occasionally in the sky. And perhaps the citizens of Rennes has long gotten used to the pure-blooded aristocratic soul masters, hence their gazes are all of admiration and envy, unlike the people of Fauser who had been in fear when they saw soul beasts.

Qi Ling’s gaze is envious as well, but the thing he is envious about is that on those young boys, they are wearing exquisite soul bending robes or silver armour, and on himself he’s just wearing clothes made of coarse cloth, making it obvious that he’s from a small town. Qi Ling sighs, but in an instant he’s full of energy again, thinking, it’s alright, I am Yin Chen’s disciple, none of these people are as powerful as I am, Yin Chen said that, once they get back to the imperial capital, I’d look ten times as handsome!

Thinking until here, he suddenly remembers the Cang Xue Zhi Ya he has in his body, with a sudden surge of energy, he wordlessly employs his soul powers, with a loud pop, surprising everyone around him, dust flies everywhere as the ground of the street cracks. After the dust has been blown away by the sea breeze, everyone stares at the massive silver lion with large white wings extending from its shoulders, Qi Ling moves to Cang Xue Zhi Ya’s ear and whispers: “Slightly bigger, you’re not cool enough yet.” Cang Xue Zhi Ya side-eyes Qi Ling with a dismissive glance but still obeys his words as he roars before enlarging his body to twice its size, his gigantic wings spreading to a length of five meters, the air folds with the movement of the giant pair of wings, forming into small tornadoes, Cang Xue Zhi Ya rests its front claws on the ground before lowering his head tamely, Qi Ling suppresses the joy in his heart and climbs up.

Everyone is staring at the handsome youth high on the back of the lion, the lion’s thunderous roars accompanied by the turbulence of the sea breeze, the wind brushing through Qi Ling’s dark and thick hair, rustling in the wind, looking as if his whole person is a young god shrouded in silver light.

Faraway, Yin Chen is resting in bed as he smirks slightly, “This kid, can’t resist showing off again.”

The onlookers let out gasps of surprise continuously, a few of the children clapping and cheering on Qi Ling as he sits atop the large lion, Qi Ling feels elated, his pride radiating off his features.

He swaggers on his equally as boastful Cang Xue Zhi Ya slowly on the streets, the crowds he passes by all compliment his soul beasts. And at this moment, Qi Ling sees a silver-armoured, swordsman looking person approaching him, this person looks around thirty to forty years old with stubbles on his chin, looking extremely masculine.

“Hey little brother, what a grand soul beast you have, you must be from the imperial capital?” He moves towards Qi Ling.

However, just as this person nears Qi Ling, he feels a surge of soul powers on the surface of the ground, a sharp icicle suddenly pierces through the hard stone surface an inch before his feet, causing the man to retreat hastily in fear, following that, with a few loud crashes, five or six similar icicles the height of a man pierces from the ground, forcefully pushing him back a dozen or so steps. The icicles only stopped attacking when the man is very far away from Qi Ling.

The person laughs awkwardly as he looks over at Cang Xue Zhi Ya’s cold and sharp glare. Qi Ling pats the lion’s furry ears in embarrassment, “Be good, don’t attack, we still don’t know what he wants.” Before gesturing in apology at the man.

“I mean no harm, I am the leader of the guards for Rennes' First Family of Tianshu, and our entire Tianshu household is currently looking for a marriage partner for our princess of the imperial capital, Tianshu Youhua. I saw that you looked very imposing just now, so I am extending an invitation for you to come into the house and let us treat you as a honourable guest for you are young and accomplished.”

“Ah? Marriage? No no……how old am I, I’m only seventeen!” With a blush on his face, Qi Ling shakes his hands in rejection.

“Heh heh, our little princess is sixteen this year, which means our princess and you match perfectly. And it doesn’t mean that you will be the chosen one, many young and accomplished aristocrats have came to ask for her hand in marriage, this little brother, just treat it as a being a guest.”

“I still can’t, tomorrow I have to……” Qi Ling pauses as he speaks until here, thinking that he can’t tell him he’s going to the Grave of the Souls tomorrow as that means he’s announcing his status as a disciple, he continues, “Tomorrow I have to bring my mother to the doctors, I’m taking my leave first.” After saying that, Qi Ling leans down to rub at Cang Xue Zhi Ya’s furry neck, preparing to leave.

And at this moment, Qi Ling feels his entire back freeze with a gush of cold wind, a large wave of soul powers moving towards him, Cang Xue Zhi Yabeats its wings as it soars to the sky, the heavy turbulence hitting the rocks and sand of the surroundings. Qi Ling finally focuses his vision after Cang Xue Zhi Ya turned back quickly in the air, he sees a dozen bright shadows crashing towards him, causing Qi Ling to close his eyes in fear. And at this moment,Cang Xue Zhi Ya lets out a thunderous roar before enlarging to thrice its original size, its large physique as if a legendary beast from myths, and in this tidal wave like gush of soul powers, the bright moving object scatters before landing against the outer walls of the buildings along the sides of the streets, falling to the ground, it can be seen that those beings are now countless hawks covered with snow white feathers.

Yet Qi Ling barely manages to get a grip on himself before a white cloud-like figure attacks him at lightning speed, countless sharp knives of ice attacking him like meteorites. Qi Ling subconsciously trembles, the lord’s seal on his tailbone suddenly boiling, his eyes narrow as the objects approaching him explode into powder from the soul powers emitting from his body, with a pleasant tinkering sound, the cloud-like figure suddenly appears before him.Cang Xue Zhi Ya raises its large claw, daggers growing in place of its claws, and slashes towards the shadow, the white figure flips back in the air quickly and draws a large curve in the air before landing with a boom on the street surface.

Qi Ling is dumbfounded with fear. He pats Cang Xue Zhi Ya’s head quickly before steering them towards the building behind them, if Yin Chen knew that he got into so much trouble, he’d be held prisoner with no food for three days. Cang Xue Zhi Ya’s silhouette disappears in a flash in the shy, everyone surprised and dumbfounded by the scene.

The middle-aged man from before rushes forward to the white figure on the ground that is standing on the ground with a deadly look on her face. She waves her hand, the dozen of large snow hawks that had been blasted away by Qi Ling just now came flying back towards her, settling down behind her.

The middle-aged man bows. Politely, he says: “Welcome, princess Youhua.”

Tianshu Youhua looks in the direction Qi Ling has disappeared to, her gaze as cold as a lake that has been frozen three feet deep, her clear voice spits coldly: “Who is the person that had escaped just now? Search through the entire city of Rennes to find him. He dares to block my way, does he not want to live anymore?!”

[West of Aslan Empire – Abyss Corridor]

The silence of the heavens and earth is a silence that only occurs after chaos.

The violent stench of blood cannot be waved off throughout the entire vast valley. The blood plasma that has splattered around, coats the trees, thistles and thorns, rocks, painting them a horrifying red. As if a month’s worth of scarlet has poured from the sky, everything is dampened in red.

Countless emancipated skulls of different monsters resemble large aerolites, scattered across the entire valley.

Shen Yin falls weakly in a pile of corpses, her chest rising and falling fiercely, after the tragic battles from before, she is only left with a tired and weak body. Beside her, her hill-like Dreamweaver has collapsed. She turns and crawls over with her battered body and caresses the only leg remaining of the five Dreamweaver once had, the sharp needling punctures her hand, yet she feels no pain, she caresses its stone-like coarse yet hard shell with a tender heart as if caressing an infant’s smooth skin. She lifts her head, looking at the quivering emerald eyes and the bloody opening of its mouth; her tears fall. She uses the last bit of her soul powers to transform Dreamweaver into mist and absorbs it back into her body.

Although soul beasts can regenerate and recover in the lord’s seal as long as it doesn’t die, but for a while at least, Dreamweaver will no longer be able to go into battle mode.

Shen Yin looks around at the carcasses, as if the massacre that happened just a while ago had been a nightmare, if she hadn’t had the Mirror of Dead Souls in her hand, any of those soul beasts that seemed as if they rose from the depths of hell could have killed her. It’s only because Nether had constantly channeled his soul powers into her that the mirror could reflect so many powerful souls to counter these soul beasts.

She had watched as the beasts battled their own reflections, she projected them continuously, yet she had to deploy Dreamweaver to protect Nether who had been regenerating and passing on his soul powers in the lake.

It feels as if she took a walk around the boundaries of Hell and came back.

Shen Yin collapses to the ground and turns her head, staring at the golden lake at the very end of her vision. A while later, her ear that was against the ground hears a massive ringing from the depths of the ground, the vibrations growing gradually from weak to strong. Ripples appear on the surface of the golden lake, cutting through the silence, in the next moment, the surface of the lake towers, an extreme explosive splash is seen before golden droplets started raining from the sky, and among these golden droplets is Nether who has revived from the depths of the lake.

He crosses the surface of the lake with his body uncovered. His entire physique is enveloped by a bright golden gleam, his smooth skin glowing as if gold-plated, endless cycles of unyielding energy radiates from his lean torso, broad shoulders and chest and from his legs and muscular arms, as if his life hasn’t been hanging by a thread before, a faint yet cynical smile can be seen on his face, below his thick and sharp blows are his long and shadowy emerald irises, undeniable power engulfs his entire being, that is the symbol of sexual desire, of life, of evil and of massacres.

He walks slowly towards Shen Yin, layers of silk-like black mist start wrapping around his body before gradually morning into his representative black robe of dead and massacres, once again, and his body is bonded in his robes that seem to be made from the black ink from Hell.

He moves before Shen Yin, crouches down before taking off his hood, his prominent features appearing through the golden mist, resembling a flaw free god from the heavens. He reaches out his hand and tells Shen Yin: “Now, return it to me, my Mirror of Dead Souls.”

Shen Yin squeezes the emerald in her hand and remains silent; not handing it over to Nether, nobody knows what she is thinking.

Yet in the next moment, she sees Nether’s eye narrowing, and then a striking sound pierces her eardrums, she then sees, as if time has been slowed down, countless droplets of blood scattering across the sky. And that emerald stone, and her right hand that had been holding onto the stone.

“Wh……what……” Shen Yin looks down and sees blood gushing from the clean circular wound on her amputated wrist; her hand has been chopped off cleanly by Nether’s soul powers in an instant.

Nether catches the jewel and then using his sharp fingernails, he slashes open his throat and places the jewel into his flesh, his movement as graceful as one pinning on a collar flower. Then, Nether grabs Shen Yin by her hair, heaving her up, he tosses her into the golden lake.

At the same time the water seeps into her throat, a gush of soul powers as endless as an ocean rushes into her body. She closes her eyes, while tears streaming down her face; she clenches her teeth and regrows her hand.

Crackle——

The white bones of the fingers grow first from the amputated wrist, then appear the blood vessels and muscles interweaving over the bones, sharp and terrible pain scratches through her mind. Yet, Shen Yin’s face remains expressionless as if she feels no pain. Her tears mix with the gold of the lake, emitting a glimmer of light.

She crawls up the bank of the lake, dripping wet with lake water, lifting her head, she looks at Nether who is shrouded in his mist-like black robes. She then looks down at her hands pushing herself up from the ground, her freshly revived right-hand looks smooth and pale, not a single flaw can be seen.

Nether’s voice sounds from atop her head. His voice is hoarse yet appealing, “You should know that, if you seek revenge, it’s long before your time.”

Shen Yin keeps her head down, as she remains silent.

Nether turns to leave, his figure gradually disappearing in the thick fog.

“You should hurry up and follow me, if not, when the other monsters come, you can only die here.”

Shen Yin stands, wiping the traces of the mixture of lake water and tears and follows him.

“Also, we have other more important things to do. The person who shattered an arm of mine, I am going to get something back from him – aside from an arm, every other part of his body must shatter into dust.”

[West of Aslan Empire – Port city of Rennes]

Qi Ling makes multiple turns between the crevices of the buildings; only letting out a sigh of relief when he makes sure no one has followed him. He has already drew Cang Xue Zhi Ya back, if not he won’t be able to hide no matter what with an eye-catching white lion like that. Only after many other turns does Qi Ling finally feel at ease.

The crowd around him is still enjoying the celebrations of the festival.

Qi Ling looks up and realizes that somehow he has reached the seventeen statues he had seen during the day.

Qi Ling moves over in curiosity and stops before the chess piece that leads to the Grave of the Souls. He stares at the eye-less witch’s statue for a long time.

As he stares intently at the statue, noise and excitement sounds from the mouth of the tunnel, a large number of happy citizens has rushed in, from their words, it seems as if the worship ceremony is starting soon at the central plaza.

And so, most people choose to go to the central plaza through this short cut.

Qi Ling moves aside to let the people pass, the crowd dances and cheers as they move by. Qi Ling is influenced by their happiness as well, the incident from before has been pushed from his mind completely.

Just as he is about to move towards the central plaza with the rest of the people, someone from the crowd pushed him with force and he topples backwards, just as his hand touches the chess piece, a violent vibration can be felt in the air, his vision disappears, as if someone has reached out a hand and twisted it around his stomach before dragging him into he darkness, it is as if his whole person has been tossed into a bottomless abyss, with a flash before his eyes, Qi Lin’s vision darkens.

Yin Chen who has been lying on the bed suddenly feels a sharp pain at his lord’s seal that is located on his tailbone, and then a moment later, the feeling disappears.

His heart sinks, “Unless he entered the Grave of the Souls himself?”

He flips and rises from the bed, in a flash; his lean body has exited through the window and rose high in the dark night sky.

—–He hasn’t told him what soul weapon to take from the Grave of the Souls yet.

—–He also hasn’t warned him of which is the exit after getting his soul weapon. There are two chess pieces at the exit, but only one leads outside to the Abyss Corridor. The other chess piece leads to death.

—–The most important thing is that, at the bottom of the Grave of the Souls, the most evil and vicious soul beast of the Aslan territory is imprisoned there, if he nears it even a little bit……

These are all things he has yet to tell Qi Ling. A terrible pain spreads through Yin Chen’s heart, that familiar sense of fear fills his chest once again.

“I don’t want to……lose again……”

A suddenly ear-piercing humming rings across the sky of the entire Rennes.

Everyone covers their ears in agony as they lift their heads towards the sky, what they see is a bright shadow flying towards the seventeen statues like a meteorite, they do not know that it is Yin Chen, they can only see the sharp and piercing light emitting from his silver robes in the distant sky.

And in the alarm-like sound, Tianshu Youhua suddenly launches into the sky from the Tianshu family palace and rushes towards the seventeen statues.

The people of Rennes have similar expressions of terror on their faces, withstanding the pain generated from the large amount of soul powers in the air. The reckless turbulence and explosive sounds fill the sky of Rennes.

At this moment, aside from Yin Chen and Tianshu Youhua, in the distant night sky on the horizon, there is another silver silhouette flying towards the seventeen statues at high speed, as if an aerolite falling form the sky, descending towards Rennes.

No one knows who the shadow is.

Yet, as if written down by fate, more and more people, as if led by the hands of destiny, they start to gather in this mystical area surrounded by water.

*Lit. ‘Battle God Shield’ and ‘Dragon Abyss Shield’