Chapter 39 – B.B. Ghost Vine

 

The next day, Xu Liao made his way to Huai Demon Street straight after school.  As he walked into the bamboo house, he saw Sun Bo Fang at his usual resting spot. Xu Liao only glanced at Sun Bo Fang for a moment before turning his head away as he strode towards the courtyard, not even bothering to greet him. In return, Sun Bo Fang also couldn’t be bothered with any pleasantries.

Transforming into a dark beam of light, Xu Liao dived into the black hole summoned by Sun Bo Fang. When he finally reached the Void World, instead of landing onto the ground, he turned his body towards the direction of the Ghost Vine’s seal station. While maintaining his demon form, Xu Liao is able to fly ten meters above the ground. Though his flying speed cannot be considered to be fast, when comparing to his running speed in his human form, flying is much faster.

Xu Liao wasted no time as he flashed across the sky towards the seal station, only stopping momentarily to retrieve the Drunken Concoction, and then swiftly transforming back into the dark light as he continued his journey.

When he reached the location, he noticed an old dried up ruined well overgrown with moss and creepers. Apparently the seventh seal station is located under this well.

With the help of the shadowless whip, he used it as a rope to secure himself as he made his way down the well. The well was roughly forty to fifty meters deep. As Xu Liao’s feet touched the bottom of the well, he tested the ground by tapping his feet several times before finally jumping down. Under the surface by over forty meters, his surroundings were void of any light. However this didn’t hinder Xu Liao’s vision due to the display light on his battle system, he could see everything as if it was day. The moment his eyes swept over his surroundings, he couldn’t help but feel a shiver down his spine.

The bottom of the well was very spacious; the cavern stretched to at least a size of half a basketball court. White bones littered the ground throughout the cavern, paired together with the deathly silence; the scene could be described as something straight out from a horror movie. Right in the center of the cavern, a single stone lay on a pile of bones with vines creeping on the sides.

Xu Liao’s eyes widened in shock as he exclaimed:

“Just how long had this Ghost Vine been down here? It is as if the seal station could not contain it any longer and the vines even started growing outside of it!”

Xu Liao heaved a sigh of relief as he was glad that he wasn’t in any danger so far. He whipped out the bottle from his backpack and tossed it carefully at the vines creeping on the stone. Once the bottle successfully smashed onto the stone, the Drunken Concoction splashed onto the vines.

Then, right at that moment, the ground suddenly shook violently and emitted a deafening grinding sound. A strong force rushed out from the ground and filled the entire cavern with a deathly energy with the vines in the middle being the epicentre.

The energy was overpowering, greedily devouring all the essence and flesh in the area. Fortunately Xu Liao had retained his demonic form, if not he would definitely be in trouble. He immediately activated the Heavenly Demon Purgatory to resist the devouring energy as he pushed his way towards the middle of the cavern. However, he only managed to walk one to two meters before being repelled back violently.

The force shook him right to the bones and Xu Liao felt his whole body going numb. Both of his eyes turned black as he firmed his resolve.

“If I fail, I will die!” Xu Liao gritted his teeth and struggled to move forward.

It was this kind of mentality and perseverance that shaped him into what he was now. If he didn’t have the determination, he would have long ago been defeated.

Xu Liao didn’t know how many times he fought against the force, but he couldn’t guarantee that the outcome will be the same for the next. He then threw all the remaining bottles containing the Drunk Concoctions.

With every bottle smashing onto the vines, Xu Liao realized that the devouring energy seemed to be flickering each time; it didn’t lessen as a whole, but rather, it could not coagulate into a single force to resist Xu Liao, as if the energy was getting drunk. However, there was another different force of energy that did not seem to be affected by the concoction. It struggled against Xu Liao’s demonic powers, forcing him to employ the Stars Devouring Formula.

Soon, Xu Liao forced his demonic powers into the ground and assimilated the whole land. As he was devouring the land, the seal station below the pile of bones started to reveal itself. The seal station had a cube-like shape with transparent, pure white crystalline material that was seemingly without a speck of dust, giving off a feeling that it was a sturdy as a block of steel. On the sides of the seal station, there were dark runes embedded on it.

The demonic energy that devours all essence and flesh came from the Ghost Vine, while the other mysterious force came from this seal station.

The quest scroll that Xu Liao received earlier did not explain how to break the seal on the seal station. Initially, he decided to use his high frequency blade waves to disintegrate the seal, but the situation differed from what he had planned. Instead, he had been entangled by both the energy of the Ghost Vine and the seal station at the same time which gave him a headache and made him unable to move closer. As a result, he could only use the Stars Devouring Formula.

Because of the effects of the Drunken Concoction, the Ghost Vine was suppressed by the Stars Devouring Formula. The Ghost Vine’s energy was even being devoured by the Stars Devouring Formula!

Xu Liao pressed on and on and on!

Then, as if he broke through a traffic jam and entered an expressway, the dark demonic energy suddenly felt no resistance from the Ghost Vine. Instantly, it rushed up every vine possessed by the Ghost Vine. This feeling was so smooth that it was borderline eerie.

Xu Liao’s consciousness started to flicker as he entered some sort of weird time and space distortion. Illusions appeared everywhere in this Yin Yang time space. Could it be that he had already controlled the Ghost Vine? Or was he lost in the illusion? Thoughts like this raced through Xu Liao’s mind as he employed the Heavenly Demon Purgatory once again and followed the control method provided by the quest scroll. He had to first completely dominate the Ghost Vine before resolving the effects of the Drunken Concoction.

The Ghost Vine was still in the state of drunkenness. The effects from the Drunken Concoction still had not subsided.

At this moment, he finally realized how powerful this Drunken Concoction was. It actually lasted for such a long period of time against such a powerful foe.

Finally, after four hours, the Ghost Vine was fully dominated and purged of the Drunken Concoction. Its demonic energy once again burst out and surged.

The Jasper Seven Stars Mantis Demon then scanned the demonic energy of the Ghost Vine. The energy soared up and broke through the 70k limit! Xu Liao then manipulated the energy to collaborate with his own to lift the seal from the seal station.

Under the strain of both demonic powers, the seal station that had been already struggling against Xu Liao started to show signs of defeat as it slowly darkened with strands of dark energy.

As the dark energy became thicker, the once pure white cube slowly turned black.

After successfully refining the seal station, it suddenly floated up and shrunk to a size of a chess piece before landing in Xu Liao’s palm.

Once the seal was broken, the Ghost Vine started appearing from the ground once again.

The Ghost Vine had been growing for countless years, even with the large space at the bottom of the well; it couldn’t grow to its maximum potential.  In front of Xu Liao, the Ghost Vine grew upwards, countless of vines twirled and entangled each other, filling up the space within the cavern.

Due to the lack of space, the vines would sometimes disappear and appear, travelling between the slit in between the Yin and Yang world.

Although the Undead Tree ranks above the Ghost Vine, Xu Liao only inherited a portion of the blood pulse. Compared to that, this Ghost Vine was near its maturing stage.

This is the first time Xu Liao witnessed what “journey in Yin Yang” meant and couldn’t help but feel shocked as he utter to himself:

“I don’t know if there is really a Yin World, but this Ghost Vine is totally a subspace demonic being! It can freely roam into other dimensions, and also in between the Yin and Yang worlds, forming an illusion that doesn’t exist, like a world of its own. This ability is just too amazing! If this Ghost Vine hadn’t been drunk by the concoction and not in a sealed state, just with my ability it would be impossible to control such a high level being!”

At this moment, Xu Liao was extremely elated as he enjoyed his fruits of his labor, not to mention that he was also glad that he didn’t have to do anything on impulse that might cost his life.

Xu Liao then opened the quest scroll and a beam of light connected with the scroll. The same moment the light appeared, a few lines flashed across Xu Liao’s mind.

“Unsealed the 7^th Seal Station; Acquired the Ghost Vine

Mission Success!

Chapter 39 (Part 2) – Battle Beast Ghost Vine

 

When Xu Liao saw the notification; he immediately felt like he was on cloud nine. Three words kept ringing in his mind…

“Demonic King Class… Demonic King Class… Demonic King Class!!!”

At that very same moment, it was clear to him that this Ghost Vine was too valuable to hand it over to Sun Bo Fang.

“This Ghost Vine is a Demonic King Class Battle Beast! If I find another way to cure Mother, then I wouldn’t need to be threatened by Sun Bo Fang. I don’t believe that after I hand over this Ghost Vine Sun Bo Fang would honor his promise. Furthermore, if this Ghost Vine landed up in his hands, killing me would be easy as killing an ant! I believe I can put up a fight with him, but only if he doesn’t utilize the Golden Bug… What should I do..?”

As Xu Liao pondered over the situation silently to himself, a nearby vine accidentally rolled a bottle over.

Surprisingly, when the bottle reached his feet, Xu Liao noticed that it was still intact! Apparently, this bottle might have hit a softer surface when it was thrown earlier, so it didn’t break. Just as Xu Liao was about to pick it up, an idea suddenly struck him. His eyes lit up as he gazed at the bottle which he hastily grabbed in an instant.

“Even this powerful Ghost Vine was weakened by the Drunken Concoction… What would happen if it was Sun Bo Fang who got hit…?”

Xu Liao puffed his chest with pride as he praised himself for thinking of such an ingenious plan. He then transformed into a dark light and flew out of the well.

The Ghost Vine also tried to follow Xu Liao by extending its vines out of the well. Xu Liao had to wait for a full hour just for the vine to gather its whole mass in front of Xu Liao. Then the vines started twisting violently into a ball that was roughly twenty meters in diameter.

Every vine had leaves that were of emerald colour. On each of the leaves was what appeared to be a human face, it opened and closed its mouth periodically, letting out soft rustles instead of a voice. For a long time, the Ghost Vine had been sealed in the Emperor Court. Without having any sort of contact from humans, it couldn’t learn the human language. If it actually did learn, then each individual face on the leaves could howl, cry, laugh and roar – it’ll be enough to annoy those mentally weak people to death!

When Xu Liao made it out of the well, the quest scroll suddenly lit up and transmitted all controls of the battle beast into Xu Liao’s mind.

Battle beasts are profound beings, although they are somewhat alive, they do not possess any self-consciousness. It wasn’t that they had their self-consciousness destroyed, but rather, they didn’t even have them in the beginning.

The difference between Demonic beings and demons is the presence of the spiritual consciousness. Battle beasts inject normal demonic beings with artificial spiritual consciousness. Because of this, they do not have self-consciousness like normal demons.

Not only can they battle, they also can assist the host by providing various functions.

Xu Liao already possessed two battle beasts and could be considered somewhat experienced with the functions of the battle beasts. He easily swiped his fingers over and summoned the Ghost Vine’s control panel.

The Ghost Vine is a Demonic King Class battle beast, one rank higher than the Jasper Seven Stars Mantis Demon, and it was because of the rank, Xu Liao’s Star Devouring Formula wasn’t able to completely assimilate it and could only manipulate it previously.

If it wasn’t for the authorization provided by the Emperor Court which gave Xu Liao full control over the Ghost Vine, he would definitely not allow this battle beast to fully utilize its battle powers. Of course it was different now that he had full dominance over the Ghost Vine. So as long he familiarizes with it a little, he can command it freely.

As Xu Liao willed it, the Ghost Vine slowly rolled up its vines and enveloped him. It transformed into some sort of rectangular cabin with Xu Liao inside of it.

The interior of the cabin contained several circular high-tech monitors. These monitors revealed the surroundings of the cabin and displayed several other data. If it wasn’t for the vines that camouflaged the cabin, it could even be mistaken for some sort of high tech battle droid cockpit.

The control cabin would sometimes flicker in and out of the dimension due to the innate talent of the Ghost Vine.

As he adjusted the settings of the Ghost Vine, a screen on his right flickered and revealed the battle beast’s stats and performance.

After sifting through several lines on the screen, his eyes locked on a few familiar words on the screen. His face immediately changed.

The Shadowless Whip Technique was apparently one of the strongest Longevity Sect’s Martial arts!

This Ghost Vine is a battle beast created just to compliment the Shadowless Whip Technique. It allowed the host to immediately master the first sixteen levels!

Even the Ghost Vine’s innate talent, Yin Yang World, could be modified to simulate the highest realm of the Shadowless Whip Technique – – the Yin Yang Illusion!

Xu Liao’s mind reeled back in shock as he shouted:

“Shadowless Whip Technique! Isn’t this a skill scroll that I received from killing the huge demonic tree? Why is it related to the Ghost Vine?”

When Sun Bo Fang and Xu Liao clashed previously, Sun Bo Fang didn’t particularly show any insanely strong ability, but instead, he used the underhanded methods to force Xu Liao into entering the Void World.

After meeting up the second time, Sun Bo Fang used even more underhanded methods to threaten Xu Liao to acquire the Ghost Vine. He even secretly made Xu Liao hold him in contempt. Furthermore, he manipulated Xu Liao’s mind to make him think he was weak.

However, now that Xu Liao had found the Ghost Vine, naturally he started to piece the puzzle together.

“The Emperor Court was formed by the Million Demon Clan and four Xian factions… Although Sun Bo Fang did not mention which four, but one of them definitely is the Longevity Sect! The fact that Sun Bo Fang is so desperate to acquire the Ghost Vine must be because he cultivated the Shadowless Whip Technique as well! So he needs the Ghost Vine to assist him in breaking through. In other words … he had been concealing his true abilities… He always used those black beetles to fight his enemies which I thought it was his most powerful move..”

When Xu Liao acquired the Shadowless Whip Technique in the Emperor Court previously, he even planned it to use this skill as a hidden card against Sun Bo Fang. Just thinking of how disastrous it could be made Xu Liao sweat.

After a while, Xu Liao decided to exit the Emperor Court. He transformed into a dark light and flashed towards the exit. Once the appointed time was up, Sun Bo Fang waved his hand and opened the path for Xu Liao to return.

When Sun Bo Fang saw Xu Liao’s appearance, he was slightly startled, but he soon regained his composure and asked Xu Liao:

“Did you meet a strong demonic beast? You look like as if you came back from a war.”

Xu Liao had gone through a life and death battle under the ground, and even managed to smash the seal station to release the Ghost Vine. As a result, his clothes and skin were all covered with mud and dirt.

“Hmph, it was nothing to me!”

Xu Liao didn’t bother to explain as he spoke blandly.

Sun Bo Fang merely smiled and did not bicker with Xu Liao as he spoke with a hint of ridicule in his voice.

“You got to hurry up. The Golden Bug will devour the host’s essence and flesh… your mother is a normal human and wouldn’t last a few days!”

Translated by Gary. Edited by Jason