Chapter 914 - Pillar of Punishment
Translated by: Berrrybunz
Edited by: TN and DeAndreR
The pure and gentle white Holy Flame emitted an aura that felt divine, causing people who felt it to have a desire to kneel and bow towards it. But the scene in front of them was extremely bizarre, causing everyone to feel extremely cold.
Clan Elder Seuss' head was chopped off, revealing half of his broken neck, and everybody were able to clearly see the white bones and red flesh. In any ordinary situation, the wound would spill with blood. But the strange thing was that not an ounce of blood came out from Seuss broken neck.
Whooosh, A burst of white Holy Flame surged out from Seuss neck.
The headless Clan Elder Seuss's body stood erect, and looked like a human candle that was stuck in the ground.
The white Holy Flame devoured him silently.
Seuss flesh acted like the wax for the white flames, and continued to disintegrate to the fire. The corpse melted at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the Holy Flame continued to become stronger and larger.
No one knew what was going on, but their hearts were tensed, as though they were in a horror movie, and something terrible was about to happen to them. But no one knew how to stop the flames, even destroying the head was useless, they could only watch the flames helplessly.
Clan Elder Seuss' body seemed to be the best fuel for the Holy Flame, it combusted extremely quickly, and in the blink of the eye, only his waist and legs were left, the originally arm sized Holy Flame had increased by a hundred times.
The burning Holy Flame spewed in all directions, and the remaining half of Seuss turned into a torch.
The expressions on everybody's face changed, and the ones closer to the flame all retreated. The Holy Flame continued to strengthen and become more dangerous.
Tang Tian stared at the burning corpse, beads of perspiration trickled down his forehead, his back was drenched with perspiration.
He did not retreat, but stepped forward, protecting Qian Hui who was behind him.
His intuition was extremely sharp, and the sensation he had was far more intense than the others.
Tang Tian had fought against Roger before, and was not unfamiliar with the Honorable Martial Holy Flame. In that battle, he had suppressed Roger right from the start, preventing Roger from having any opportunity. At that time, although he felt that the Honorable Martial Banner of Knights had a justified reputation, but he had the confidence of beating them.
But, the Holy Flame in front of him completely overwhelmed the impression he had of Holy Flames.
The two were of completely different grades, Roger's Holy Flame was like a weak candlelight, but the Holy Flame in front of him felt like flames from a volcano.
What made him even more anxious was that the Holy Flame was growing stronger with no end, growing in size and quality, the Holy Flame's various attributes were quietly changing, and he could sense the changes.
The burning Holy Flames did not have any berserk aura, it remained divine and solemn, but it became even more intense, as though the God Monarch from Heavens was overlooking down on life, even the air in the area had become denser, as an invisible pressure enveloped everyone present.
~Wait a minute!~
Tang Tian's
pupils suddenly constricted, within the blazing Holy Flame, there was a faint figure that was struggling in pain.
The faint figure's silhouette was obviously Clan Elder Seuss!
Ah Xin had noticed the figure, and cried out: "How is that possible!"
~That is not a spirit general~, Tang Tian immediately noticed.
~Soul, that is Clan Elder Seuss' soul.~
Everyone stared at the Holy Flame in shock, all of their faces revealed looks of fear and shock, even Tang Tian was not an exception.
Compared to the people of Sacred Saint Galaxy, Tang Tian from Heaven's Road was much more familiar with the concept of spirit and soul. Spirit Generals, Spirit Cards, these were ordinary things in Heaven's Road, and was the most common creatures in Heaven's Road, they had difference in quality, but in essence, they were all the same.
But Tang Tian had never seen a real soul before. Spirit Generals were not souls, and even the secret to the formation of Spirit Generals had never been unravelled. But they were inextricably linked, and the majority would think that spirit generals were formed from the merger of a martial artist's obsession and soul.
But no one had ever seen a pure living soul.
The soul that was alive was trembling incessantly in front of Tang Tian.
Clan Elder Seuss' soul was struggling in pain inside the Holy Flame, which was silently swallowing him and burning up, but for some reason, everyone seemed to be able to hear his heart wrenching screams and wails.
When the last bit of Seuss' flesh finally melted inside the Holy Flame, the pure white flames became dyed with a layer of gold.
The soul inside the Holy Flame started to melt away, releasing a golden liquid. This golden liquid quickly assimilated into the Holy Flame. The struggling soul became weaker and weaker, smaller and smaller, dimmer and dimmer, and when the last drip of golden liquid assimilated with the Holy Flame, the initially white holy flame became a noble gold color.
The place where Clan Elder Seuss originally stood had nothing left.
The golden Holy Flame's flames started to churn slower, as though every movement of the wick moved a weight of a thousand catties. It was like a mythical god that had awoken from its slumber, gradually releasing its consciousness, its gaze able to shatter the world.
"Step back." Tang Tian told Qian Hui without turning his head back.
He looked as though he was facing a powerful enemy, every inch of his muscles were tensed up.
Qian Hui did not argue, she quickly retreated. She knew that there was something wrong, and just like how Tang Tian believed in her judgement and intellect, she too held absolute belief in her Big Brother Tian when it came to battle.
On Tang Tian's left, Ji Ze disregarded everything, and held the blood red bewitching blade. His hand that held the blade was extremely stable, but his forward slanting position made him look as if he was a beast ready to pounce on its prey.
Xiao Ran was half a step behind Tang Tian, both her hands were on Zanbato, guarding Tang Tian's right flank, she was ready to support him at any moment.
She looked at Ah Xin who was close by.
Ah Xin already had Undying Sword in his hand, his playful face
face had disappeared and was replaced with an unprecedented seriousness, along with anger, a deep anger.
She knew why Ah Xin was furious, she was equally angry. Using another person's soul was pure evil. The combustion of the soul meant true death, and Seuss did not even have the chance to become a Spirit General.
As a Spirit General, the emotions they felt would be more intense.
Bang!
A gold light pillar shot out from the golden Holy Flame, and into the sky.
The roof of the hall was extremely weak against the gold flaming pillar, and completely disintegrated upon contact.
Qiu Ning was silently in ambush, he had waited for a full two days and two nights.
When he saw the four Aristocrats' armies stationed outside Snow City, he knew that they were prepared to impose emergency measures for the city. Once the city was in lockdown, the security around Mace Field Trading would become extremely tight and stringent, at that time, it would become extremely difficult for him to sneak in.
That was the reason why Qiu Ning had sneaked in two days earlier, to avoid the tight security.
He controlled his aura extremely well, without revealing any traces of himself, he was even able to conceal himself from Tang Tian, and had perfectly concealed himself from everybody else.
He had chosen an extremely strategic location, and that was on a beam above the hall. The atmosphere in the hall was extremely tense, and everyone's mental state were stretched taut, thus no one noticed him.
Qiu Ning had been waiting for an opportunity the entire time, but the situation had changed so quickly that it rendered him helpless. Clan Elder Seuss' transformation almost made him cry from shock.
~What the hell is going on?~
From a young age, Qiu Ning could never be frightened or surprised. He felt that he had seen all the oddities and bizarre things in the world, and was never afraid. But upon seeing Clan Elder Seuss' transformation, he was truly shocked out of his skin.
When the pure white Holy Flame shot out from Clan Elder Seuss' broken neck, all the hairs on his body stood up.
He had never been so afraid in his entire life before, it was truly a horrifying scene!
The intense fear spread through his entire body, causing his mind to go blank. He had never encountered such a situation, the scene was so cruel, so evil, far more than what he thought he could ever see.
But he quickly regained his senses, and his first reaction was to escape.
~What family glory, what values, I need to escape from this place.~ The fear that took over him made him want to leave as far as possible.
And when the gold liquid appeared inside the Holy Flame, Qiu Ning's entire body turned cold, the cold intent shooting to the deepest parts of his bones.
~Temple, this is the real Temple….~
He felt extremely cold, even as someone born in the Qiu Family, even if the Qiu Family had intentions on Temple, he always respected Temple in his heart as though he respected a God. He had never thought that such a fanatical and terrifying thing would actually come from Temple itself.
~What's more, it was from the highly esteemed Great Clan Elder!~
The noble and beautiful
and beautiful gold liquid assimilated into the Holy Flame, increasing the sovereign of the Holy Flame multiple folds. The overbearing and beauty of the flame overwhelmed Qiu Ning.
Without any hesitation, he completely disregarded the fact that his cover would be blown as he rushed out with all of his strength.
~I need to leave this place as far as I can!~
That was the only thought in his mind, the unprecedented fear and caused him to unleash his hidden potential, and with an unprecedented speed, he rushed out.
At that time, no one cared about him, everyone were locked onto the horrifying scene. The stronger the power, the more dangerous and intense feeling it gave off, and everyone stared at the golden Flames as though they were staring at their greatest enemy.
No one knew what the regiment of Holy Flames were, but they knew that the Great Clan Elder's plan was within the terrifying golden Flames.
Qiu Ning had just reached the door, when he suddenly felt something erupting from behind him. An ice cold divine aura enveloped his body and mind.
He instantly turned sluggish, and the moment he turned his head to look back, the golden Holy Flames shot into the sky.
The golden flaming pillar shot through the clouds, the ice cold Divine Aura came from this powerful golden pillar of flames.
"The Pillar of Punishment!"
Sadra's voice came out from behind him.
Qiu Ning's face changed once again. Pillar of Punishment, he had heard of it before. It was Temple's most cruel punishment, and only the most unforgivable guilty members that could not be pardoned would be tied to the Pillar of Punishment. These guilty members that were tied onto the Pillar of Punishment would become fuel for the Holy Flame, and their bodies would combust slowly. In the entire process, the guilty member would not die, but instead, they would be completely awake, and their senses were amplified by countless times. Thus, the pain would be amplified countless of times.
It was Temple's most brutal punishment, the pain was far worse and brutal than being in Hell.
When many of such guilty members knew that they were to be trialed by the Pillar of Punishment, they would do their best to commit suicide.
Temple had not used the Pillar of Punishment for many years, but it had finally appeared.
Qiu Ning forcefully suppressed the fear and horror in his heart, he disregarded everything else and ran, he knew that at such a time, he had to be more determined. Any slight hesitation would only cause him to lose his opportunity to escape.
No one stopped him, and in the blink of the eye, he had rushed out of the hall and onto the street.
He heaved a sigh of relief, ~Finally, I escaped from that horror, I barely managed to escape with my life.~
~Temple is too scary, the Great Clan Elder is too scary, this is completely insane and ridiculous!~
The sense of having a renewed life allowed him to relax, and his footsteps became lighter. He planned to leave immediately, away from Snow City, away from Saint Continent.
He was not a fool, the Great Clan Elder dared to incite such a fanatical and ridiculous matter, he definitely had an impenetrable deployment ready.
~Trap!~
~It had been a trap the entire time!~
~Right from
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~Right from the time when the Holy Bell was rung, everything had been a trap set by the Great Clan Elder.~ Qiu Ning smiled bitterly, upon thinking about his own family, all the various Prestigious families, all of those who thought they were bestowed with talent, all of those who had run into the fire without hesitation, every single one of them had played right in the hands of the Great Clan Elder.
~Even the rising and new Prestigious Families, the Great Clan Elder never thought to let them go, he plans to get everyone in one sweep. Right from the beginning, Temple were acting when they were trying to entice and support the new Prestigious Families. Everyone thought that Temple wanted to use them to destroy the current Prestigious Families, causing them to feel as though they were important, as though they were able to bring in new life and able to benefit from it.~
~They can never imagine that they are being played right into the Great Clan Elder's illusion.~
~In the eyes of Temple, they are all pawns, all pawns used to paralyze the current Prestigious Families, pawns that will eventually be destroyed as well.~
~Temple is too scary! The Great Clan Elder is too scary!~ Qiu Ning did not know how many times he had felt shocked in the same day.
It was the deepest emotion he had ever felt. There was only the Great Clan Elder in his mind, a fear that he had never experienced.
The Great Clan Elder was that far ahead, he had planned much further than anyone could imagine, everyone was moving in accordance to his plans, and no one saw through his intent. He was that cold and emotionless, even for Clan Elder Seuss, who was completely loyal to him, was being used as wax for his flames, and even his soul was not let off.
Qiu Ning immediately judged that in the war, the only victor was but one man, the Great Clan Elder!
~The Saint Continent is in danger!~
~The Great Clan Elder cheated everyone to come to Saint Continent, the Saint Continent is itself a trap, this place must have been deployed with countless of killing techniques by the Great Clan Elder.~
Upon thinking about what the Great Clan Elder had said, that all the families would not get away, Qiu Ning still could not imagine what the Great Clan Elder would do next, ~What method is available for him to get rid of ALL the families?~
But Qiu Ning knew that it would be extremely dangerous and scary.
~We need to leave the Saint Continent, we have to leave now!~
He frantically rushed towards where Qiu Yu was hiding, he did not have many friends, Qiu Yu and grown up together with him and they had a good relation, and he planned to get Qiu Yu out alive.
He only rushed out a few meters when he suddenly stopped, he raised his head to look up into the sky, and was stunned by what he saw.
From the distant horizon in all directions, one after another, golden flaming pillars shot into the sky, as though they were connecting to the Heavens.
Qiu Ning suddenly turned around, behind him, there were countless of golden flaming pillars shooting into the sky as well.
The blood on his face completely receded in an instant.