Chapter Seven Hundred and Twenty Seven – Ghost Soldier
A ghost soldier dressed in armor and shrouded by yin energy appeared at the cave entrance. Its empty eye sockets were filled with two balls of black flame.
If Zuo Mo was here, he would be surprised to find that this ghost soldier actually gave off faint shen power ripples.
The ghost soldier suddenly opened his mouth. Like a whale inhaling, the yin energy was sucked in. The black fire in its eye sockets more than doubled in size with a snap. The yin energy around the ghost soldier turned into thin wisps of black flame on its armor.
To A Gui, other than the black fire the ghost soldier didn’t seem to be any different than the ghosts before it.
The purple fire in A Gui’s eyes jumped and her body suddenly disappeared from her spot.
The black fire in the ghost soldier’s eyes also jumped and its body also disappeared at the same time.
Bam!
A black and a purple hand hit in the air.
The black and purple flames shot in all directions but the two did not seem to detect it. Their hands continued to collide. Bam bam bam! It was only possible to see two shadows in the air, and light that would occasionally illuminate the environment. The black and purple flames were everywhere. Once it came into contact with something, it would be burned to ash.
Such enormous noise finally disturbed Zuo Mo who had been in a trance.
After focusing slightly, Zuo Mo immediately understood the situation. At this time, the jinzhi was more than halfway finished. He did not immediately interfere and observed in the shadows for a few moments.
This ghost soldier was strong, and what Zuo Mo hadn’t expected was that it gave off evident shen power. This was the reason that it had been able to fight A Gui for so long. The other reason was that while it looked wooden, it was experienced in combat. Zuo Mo was shocked and intimidated by many of its moves and reactions. It must have been a very powerful expert before its death.
After observing for a few more moments, Zuo Mo understood even more. The ghost soldier was actually slightly weaker than A Gui. The reason that it was evenly matched with A Gui was because of its greater battle experience.
However, A Gui who relied on her instincts to fight was not controlled by her emotions. In a short amount of time, she started to copy the other’s fighting style. A Gui quickly gained the upper hand.
Zuo Mo’s curiosity was piqued by the shen power vibrations of the ghost soldier. Its shen power was filled with thick death energy. It was different from any shen power that Zuo Mo had ever seen before. There wasn’t any record of this shen power on the gold leaf.
A completely new kind of shen power!
Zuo Mo’s mind moved. At present, he knew the value of a completely new kind of shen power.
His fingers flickered and numerous lights entered the ground.
The ghost soldier that was gradually being suppressed by A Gui detected that it was losing and tried to turn and run into the cave. Suddenly, the surrounding yin energy became chaotic. The ghost soldier was surprised. The dense yin energy in the surroundings that he relied on for power, had turned chaotic without any warning. It panicked.
For A Gui whose battle tactics had improved greatly, how could she pass on such a good opening?
Her body flickered, and two images of A Gui suddenly appeared in front of the ghost soldier. The ghost soldier stilled.
Suddenly, it felt a grip on its neck. Its vision blurred, and a hand covered in purple fire raised it up and smashed it hard against the ground!
A Gui had used shen power and the power of the strike was great. The ghost soldier’s entire body was deeply embedded into the ground. The black fire in its eye sockets wavered from the smash.
Before it could regain clarity and struggle to stand up, two fingers covered in purple flames pointed at the two balls of black fire in its eye sockets.
The ghost soldier immediately became docile. That face covered in yin energy showed fear.
Zuo Mo quickly appeared next to A Gui, crouched down and looked curiously at the ghost soldier.
Zuo Mo had killed things like ghosts and fiends before but he hadn’t studied them greatly. Even in the xiuzhe world, xiuzhe of this kind were rare. Because of the yin energy, they were not welcomed by other people.
This ghost soldier’s power was extraordinary to have been able to fight for so long against A Gui. Zuo Mo was even more curious about the shen power it had. Zuo Mo’s fingers flickered. Several streaks of light entered the ghost soldier. The ghost soldier’s body froze and was unable to move.
A Gui moved her hand away and stood at the side. The ghost soldier stared at Zuo Mo with unusual terror. Zuo Mo’s presence was its bane. The sun shen power was the utmost yang and masculine, the natural enemy to ghosts that were born from yin energy.
This was also why while this place was dense in yin energy, Zuo Mo didn’t fear it at all.
After a momentary inspection, Zuo Mo was slightly shocked. The shen power the ghost soldier had was from before its death. Due to some reason, while it was dead, its shen power had not completely dissipated, and been kept. This portion of shen power that had been kept continued to merge with the yin energy to form a new kind of shen power that had never appeared before.
The ghost soldier’s intelligence was not high and it fought based on instinct.
Zuo Mo’s mind moved and he turned to look at A Gui. A Gui’s usually expressionless face showed a rare desire. In a moment, Zuo Mo understood. This kind of shen power filled with the energy of death was very beneficial to A Gui.
A Gui’s shen power was the Undying shen power, and came from the Undying Shen punishment. While it was called Undying, it originated from the same source as death although its expression was of the complete opposite.
In the traditional understanding of death, death was the final destination but also the start. A beginning and ending, they were twins.
The Undying Shen Punishment was to be forever unable to escape, an imprisonment that would be trapped them in an endless, hopeless, and painful death. It was a death of the undying. The endless pain, suffering, hopelessness, those were the sources of the Undying shen power and also were powers that belonged to death. Yet if one could break free of the hopeless death, then it was undying life!
Life forever needed to come from death!
This was the foundation of the Undying shen seal!
Suddenly, Zuo Mo had a great understanding. Yet his emotions were complex. This path was dangerous, and multiple times harder than the system of traditional death.
Life was forever harder than death!
Zuo Mo did not show his emotions. He moved to the side and left the ghost soldier to A Gui.
A Gui did not hesitate. Her hand slapped down and the yin energy shrouding the ghost soldier immediately crumbled to expose the two purest balls of black fire. A Gui opened her mouth and sucked in. The black fires were immediately sucked into A Gui’s mouth and the purple fire in A Gui’s eyes grew.
Zuo Mo immediately took A Gui’s hand for an inspection.
What was being nurtured in A Gui’s body became slightly clearer. The pure shen power that contained death energy was greatly beneficial for A Gui.
Zuo Mo was slightly relieved.
While he was curious what the cave held, time was tight, and this was not a good moment to explore under the ground. But this cave entrance that was continuously spewing out yin energy would give his jinzhi great help.
A Gui was standing guard outside the entrance. She appeared like a hungry child. Zuo Mo couldn’t help but grin. He set up several jinzhi near the entrance in case A Gui encountered some danger.
Who knew what else was inside the cavern.
After setting this up, Zuo Mo continued to set up his jinzhi.
The [King’s Forbidden Firmament] which was taking shape started to give off an intimidating power.
———
Kuai An’s face was covered in wounds. His eyes were like two burning balls of flame. He gripped the Blue Horsefly tightly with its head pointed up.
“It’s useless,” Elder Xu looked down expressionlessly. The crystal at his forehead was a pure blue and there seemed to be a faintly discernible ripple of a vast ocean, and the sound of waves coming from it.
Elder Xu’s shen power was not strong but it had a presence as vast as that of an ocean.
He raised his hand. The faint sound of the waves suddenly grew stronger like a storm forming above the ocean.
Kuai An’s vision blurred. He was suddenly surrounded by the angry waves of the ocean. Terrifying power came from all directions, pulling, twisting, and tearing. He had a hard time to keep his position.
An ocean, it was truly an ocean!
Kuai An was shocked. This wasn’t an yao art!
Shen technique!
The two words exploded in Kuai An’s mind.
A light flashed through Ceng Lian’er’s eyes. The other was very strong but his shen power wasn’t pure. This was related to the path the other had taken. The merging of shen power and yao arts had formed a completely new kind of shen technique!
As expected of a member of the Yao Council of Elders, he was able to create such an unique shen technique. It really was powerful. Yao arts were full of transformations to start with, and after shen power was added, its flexibility was maintained while its power was dramatically increased.
However, this new kind of shen technique was not without its weaknesses. It impurity was its greatest weakness!
Ceng Lian’er had cultivated shen power for a long time, and knew that the purest shen techniques did not have many complex transformations. Pure shen power could make the simplest moves extremely powerful.
However, this new kind of shen technique was easier for yao to learn. It was possible to see that the yao had a breakthrough in the study of shen power.
If these people all cultivated shen power, then there was great trouble!
Ceng Lian’er was secretly shocked. Looking at Kuai An struggling in the shen art, her eyes flashed with light and she was about to attack.
Kuai An suddenly shouted!
The Blue Horsefly in his hand suddenly lit up. The serene blue light illuminated all of the ocean.
Pew pew pew!
Sharp bone spikes broke out of Kuai An’s body. The bone spikes were about five cun long and the thickness of chopsticks. In a blink, bone spikes covered Kuai An’s entire body.
Then the bone spikes left Kuai An’s body and floated around him. There was a point of white energy at the tip of every bone spike, so many that people’s scalps prickled.
Ceng Lian’er’s eyes flashed and she suppressed the urge to attack.
Spear Hedgehog Mo Physique!
She hadn’t thought that Kuai An who had a non-descript appearance was one of the Spear Hedgehog clan. The Spear Hedgehogs were natural experts in spears and other polearm weapons. What they were most famous for was the Spear Hedgehog mo physique.
One of the top mo physiques that could use spear type mo skills to their true potential.
And the Blue Horsefly in his hand was one of the top spear type mo weapons!
Ceng Lian’er’s curiosity was immediately aroused.
Woosh!
The Blue Horsefly flashed with blue light suddenly exploded into tens of thousands of blue fragments. These blue energy fragments were like an enormous school of tiny blue fish that swam in the ocean.
The terrifying power of the ocean did not pose any difficulty for them.
In the opposite side of the fish, the bone spikes that floated around Kuai An gathered towards his hand at a rapid rate. A bone spike spear that was formed from the bone spikes appeared in Kuai An’s hand.
The ferocious waves and the great pressure that came from all directions could not stop this from forming.
The moment that the bone spike spear formed, the deep blue school of fish suddenly stilled.
Kuai Ai widened his eyes. He ignored the water around him, following his intuition, and made a textbook and perfect spear stab with a twist of his waist!
Translator Rambling: I don’t get how being a hedgehog relates to being good with spears but I guess that’s why it’s a fantasy world.