Chapter 18 The Hellfire Shield
“Your name is Zhao Tianding? Say it, what happened.” Lyu Liang flew in front of him. “Leave the Divine Soul contract aside first. I am not planning to have any servant now. I just want to see if you are worth trusting or not.” Lyu Liang’s words were clear. If he believed Zhao Tianding, he would let him go. Otherwise, he would kill him.
Zhao Tianding waved his hand, and around him and Lyu Liang, a golden light curtain shrouded the two. “Senior, Buddhism Divine Pearl has the function of isolating the Divine Sense. In this way, our conversation will not be heard by others.
“I was from a small village in the fringe of the Wufang Territory. At that time, I had parents and two younger sisters. At the age of thirteen, a traveling monk was passing by there. He said that I possess a unique Wind Spiritual Root and I was a natural cultivation talent. He gave me a book, ‘Prajna-Mantra’ and a treasure, and then drifted away.
“When the people in the village and my family learnt about the incident, they were very excited. They think that it was a big fortune. I also became the only person in the village to cultivate. After that, I started to practice according to that Mantra. A year later, I reached Early-stage of Qi Refining. I also knew that the pearl was the immortal standard magic treasure, Buddhism Divine Pearl.
“After eight years, I have reached the Peak Qi Refining Stage, and when I felt that life could continue to be so beautiful, a disaster befell.
“One day, I practiced in the village as usual. Suddenly, the earth began to tremble and crack, and dark red flames continued to appear from those cracks. No sooner the flames appeared than all the people, animals, and even flowers and trees disappeared into powder when the flame touched them. I was in the air, and I was able to escape by the help of the body protection light from the Buddhism Divine pearl. But the village had become a hell on earth.
“I could hear countless mourning and crying voices. Some I was familiar with, and some were unfamiliar. Those voices were endless and enduring. I stared at the flames, but I couldn’t do anything. I wanted to save my family. However, I wasn’t able to pass through the horrible sea of fire. In the sea of fire, distorted faces appeared on the flames everywhere, they were either in anger, or in pain, and a desperate and bleak aura spreaded.
“After about an hour, the flame slowly dissipated. At the same time, the sky suddenly became blood red, and I felt a horrible heart-wrenching aura. I knew that high-level cultivators were coming. But it’s too late to escape. Only by using the Buddhism Divine Pearl to isolate the aura could I avoid being seen and heard by others.
“I looked for a crack to say to look at it. After a while, a hole was torn in the bloody red sky, and four black lights came out of it. Then, they turned into four figures. They were respectively an enchanting woman, a white-browed old man, a young man, and a bearded man. They wore uniform black robes with golden lines and a skeleton pattern.
“After they appeared, they surrounded a place with huge cracks and looked down. Then, the white-browed old man took out a bottle. With bottle mouth facing down, he poured a drop of bright red liquid into the crack. Following that, blinding bloody lights burst out from the crack.
“In the bloody lights, a huge shield burning with a dark red flame slowly emerged. It was engraved with distorted faces. I could hear the sound of their mourning. I even saw my mother’s face on it. At that moment, I felt like my heart was breaking. I couldn’t wait to rush and kill the four people instantly! But my last remaining sense told me that a wink by any one of them could kill me thousands and thousands of times.
“I knew that all of this must be related to this weird shield, and it was also inseparable from the four strange black-robed people in front of me! In the vagueness, I heard them saying the words of ‘Blood Divine Sect’. Soon, the bearded man unfolded a pocket and took the shield in. After that, they disappeared and the sky returned to normal. However, my village vanished completely in this realm.
“I was unwilling! I am outraged! I hate myself for being so weak! Just when I was being torn by grief, the traveling monk who gave me everything eight years ago actually appeared in front of me! He led me to this road of cultivation, now my life was also considered to be saved by him. I had already regarded him as a teacher and the only kin in this world. I had lots of grievances and wanted to tell the teacher, but he did not give me this opportunity.
“The teacher just shook his head and sighed, and threw me a parcel. Then, he only said a sentence and disappeared. The sentence was: Inside, there was a way to indicate your direction.
“After that, I opened the parcel, which contained a fiery red bead, ten pieces of mid-grade Primordial Stone, and a scroll. The scroll described a lot of things that the Xuanli Clan encountered in the Devil Realm. It also introduced a Guardian named Xuanli Feiwu and the Family Holy beast—Shadow Domain Beast. At the end of the scroll, it predicted that I would meet the people of the Xuanli Clan with the Shadow Domain Beast. As long as I could follow him, I would have a day to take my revenge.
“Senior! You are the one in the book scroll that is worthy of my follow-up, please grant my wish, senior!” At the last words, Zhao Tianding’s eyes were already bloody red, and blood had oozed out from the corners of his mouth.
Looking at the black-clothed man in front of him, Lyu Liang sighed while looking up the sky! This was a man who was so similar to himself! Although the encounters were different, their goals and determinations were exactly the same. Looking at him, Lyu Liang could recall the scene of his blood red eyes and sorrows.
“Okay! Since you have already made your life-bonded vow, I believe that you will not say anything about what just happened. As for following me, it is still too early. You have also seen that my current cultivation is only higher than you by one stage. Even if there are other opportunities and magic treasures, my ability is very limited.” Although Lyu Liang had completely believed in Zhao Tianding, he did not intend to have anything to do with him now. “Your strength is quite good compared to people in the same period of Qi Refining. Also, your special nature is Wind Spiritual Root. Your future should be limitless if you entered the Sword Character Immortal Palace. What you have to do now is to strive to enter the Immortal Palace!”
“Senior! I really wanted to follow you by heart! I know that by the strength of senior had, you will definitely enter the Immortal Palace! I, Zhao Tianding, although dull, also has a 70% confidence to enter! I will become stronger, one day, to become the help of senior!” Zhao Tianding kowtowed three times respectfully.
Lyu Liang stepped forward to help him up, and his tone became gentle, “Tianding, since you already knew my identity, you should understand how hard it will be to achieve our goals! Remember, until we have enough strength, we have to forbear! Also, don’t call me senior, I don’t have that qualification. We shall get along as friends.”
“Boss! Then senior shall be my boss!” Lyu Liang saw a smile on Zhao Tianding’s face for the first time, just like the kind of relief and burden free look he had seen on his father’s face before.
After communication for a few sentences, the two separated. As for the guy whose head was cut off by Lyu Liang, he was just a nameless person who was willing to follow Zhao Tianding after entering the testing ground.
After about thirty minutes, a beautiful red figure emerged in the place where Lyu Liang had the conversation. It was Shangguan Ying who had chased up.
However, at this time, Shangguan Ying was quite gloomy. Before entering the trial field, she began to look for Lyu Liang’s aura. Later, in a yellow area marked on the map, she felt the existence of Lyu Liang. It was the cave house of the yellow-haired bear. Of course, she came late, and Lyu Liang had already been driven out by Zhao Tianding and the others.
Later, when Lyu Liang assisted Li Yun’er, Shangguan Ying pursued him at the instant. Just when she wanted to use her Divine Sense to detect, Black happened to release the Shadow-devil Domain. Therefore, in the case of not being too near, the Divine Sense of Miss Shangguan was directly blocked outside.
Moments later, she finally felt the barriers that hindered her Divine Sense had disappeared. Then she saw Lyu Liang and Zhao Tianding who was kneeling down. When Shangguan Ying wanted to continue to detect, a golden light flashed, and she couldn’t detect anything again…
“How do these two guys have such high-level magic treasures to block Divine Sense? Never mind, I shall just follow up. I don’t believe that he will do this every time!” Shangguan Ying’s temper came up as well. “The more you don’t let me see, the more I want to see it!”
At this time, Lyu Liang was in contemplation. He was unaware of being tracked by someone. “According to Tianding’s description, the four people must be four of the Seven Disciples of the Blood Divine Sect undoubtedly! That shield, I have seen it in the Rare Treasure Hall. It should be one of the chaotic evil treasures—Hellfire Shield, the same level as Silence. I did not expect the Blood Divine Sect to have such treasures!” Lyu Liang frowned tightly. “Also, Tianding’s master knew so much about the past, and also specifically mentioned senior Feiwu and Black. If there is an opportunity in the future, I must see him. Perhaps this senior knows the whereabouts of the Xuanli Clan in the Ghost Realm.”
The hellfire, the fire burnt for evil deeds, and the big hellfire represented the Great Sin. For the cultivators, the biggest evil was to kill the mortal creatures. It was often said that a person had a Great Sin and was stuck with bloody light or something. That, only meant this person’s hellfire was ablaze, and he was sinking deep in sin! Such cultivators, when having their heaven ordeal, would encounter the most horrible Inner Devil. That was the most challenging level for the cultivators to survive the ordeal.
The ordeals were divided into five parts: wind ordeal, fire ordeal, water ordeal, thunder ordeal, and Inner Devil ordeal. The first four ordeals can be passed by relying on strength or magic treasures. Only the Inner Devil ordeal can only be passed relying on one’s own will and the power of the Divine Soul. The more sin, the stronger the Inner Devil. Thus lower chances of success for surviving the ordeal. Therefore, those cultivators might do evil, but there was very few who would kill the mortal creatures. Because such a hellfire was not ordinarily small, and sin was naturally more than usual!
The Hellfire Shield was born in the nourishment of sin and hellfire. Whoever holding this shield would become the body of the Great Sin. If someone attacked a person holding this shield, one would be suffering from the pain of burning in hellfire the moment one touched the shield.
Lyu Liang did not quite understand. “Wasn’t the Immortal Allies supposed to maintain the balance in the Mortal Realm? Were mortals not under its jurisdiction? So let the Blood Divine Sect to kill freely and without any restrains?” If there was a chance to contact the people of Immortal Allies in the future, he really wanted to ask them properly.
Lyu Liang still rushed to the yellow areas according to his plan. Soon, he found another place, but there was a clear fighting aura. After he hid his aura, Lyu Liang used his Divine Sense to take a look. He was shocked, and at the same time, he rushed towards there.
In this area, two people were fighting fiercely with a demon. But it was apparent that the demon had the upper hand. Out of the two people, the woman was injured and fell to the ground, relying on another man to resist. These two people were no other than the pair of the couple, Li Zidao and Li Yun’er.