Chapter 167 - The Bottom of Haunted-Mist Mountain
Chapter 167: The Bottom of Haunted-Mist Mountain
Eventually, a faint golden light was shining on Lu Han’s skin. Her pupils had also turned golden as if a blazing fire was burning in her eyes.
Moreover, every Blood Meridian and the Meridian in her body had turned golden, in which each of the inscriptions could clearly be seen.
Her breath was getting more powerful!
Zhang Ruochen held his breath and moved his body carefully, trying to seize the opportunity and escape from Haunted-mist Mountain.
Suddenly, Lu Han turned around and stared at Zhang Ruochen with her golden eyes. Her lips slight lifted, exposing two sharp teeth. She let out a creepy giggle and said, “Blood... fresh blood!”
Then, Lu Han’s legs thrust out like a cold wind and dashed toward Zhang Ruochen.
“Phew!”
Every step Lu Han made had caused a thick layer of frost on the ground. The icy air on her body was getting denser.
Zhang Ruochen had once read an ancient booklet about the Half-Saint’s Light. It stated that if a dead person integrated with the Half-Saint’s Light, it required plenty of fresh blood in order to enhance the power of their bodies.
The martial cultivation of Lu Han was at the Initial Stage of the Earth Realm.
Her body was incomparable to the body of a Half-Saint. If she wanted to withstand the power of the Half-Saint’s Light, she needed to absorb a large amount of blood, so she could refine her dead body.
“Waaa!”
Shortly after Zhang Ruochen transferred his Genuine Qi into the Wings of Wind, a pair of wings appeared on his back. He rushed backward at the speed of a hundred meters per second.
Behind him stood Haunted-mist Mountain.
Lu Han was chasing after Zhang Ruochen and he had nowhere to escape to, so he sprinted toward Haunted-mist Mountain.
If he hesitated for a second, his blood would have been all drawn, thus, he would have died.
Lu Han had only integrated a small part of the Half-Saint’s Light rather than fully mastered its power. Therefore, her speed was just slightly faster than Zhang Ruochen’s.
She trailed closely behind Zhang Ruochen and was rapidly gaining upon him.
Seeing that Lu Han was just a few steps away from him, he threw a Thunder Pearl out toward Lu Han.
“Boom!”
The Thunder Pearl cracked open and turned into strands of lightning.
Such a powerful destructive force exploded right in front of Lu Han that struck her far away.
Since she was protected by the Half-Saint’s Light, the Thunder Pearl did not harm her at all. She quickly jumped up from the ground, letting out a long, aggressive roar and continued chasing after Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen turned around and looked back. He was moaning in his heart, “I can’t believe that even the power of the Thunder Pearl isn’t strong enough to harm her. The Half-Saint’s Light is indeed incredible. If I could obtain the Half-Saint’s Light, I’m sure it’ll save me 10 years of practice.”
To a certain extent, the Half-Saint’s Light was equivalent to the legacy of the Half-Saints.
Even though warriors could not turn into a Half-Saint right away after absorbing the Half-Saint’s Light, they could still enjoy numerous benefits. Their speed of cultivation would be far better than those at the same age.
Due to the compression of miasma at Haunted-mist Mountain, even if Zhang Ruochen possessed the Wings of Wind, he was not able to fly. He could only rush to the mountaintop as fast as he could.
While he was rushing to the hillside, he suddenly stopped. The cold sweat on his forehead dripped as if it was raining.
Around 10 meters in front of him lay a green scorpion which was more than 10 meters long with a body full of sharp thorns. It exposed its two blue eyeballs and stared deadly at Zhang Ruochen.
The Gigantic Cyan Scorpion was settling next to a pond that was around 10 meters long and wide. Along with its edge, both green and black toxicate grasses.
The water in the pond had an extremely fishy smell that emanated a strong poison. The bones of human bodies floated in the water, which looked like they had been dead for years.
When the Gigantic Cyan Scorpion caught sight of Zhang Ruochen, it was excited and exuded a weird sound.
“Waaa!”
It swayed both of its sharp claws with its tail sliding on the ground. It bumped hard into the massive stones that released a metallic sound and emitted a shower of sparks.
At the same time, Lu Han had caught up to Zhang Ruochen and was getting close to him at a high speed.
Having a toxic savage beast in front of him as well as a heretic dead body at his back, it seemed that Zhang Ruochen had nowhere to escape to.
However, Zhang Ruochen was not desperate. He took two Thunder Pearls out at the same time, throwing one out toward the Gigantic Cyan Scorpion in front of him and one toward Lu Han at his back. Then, he instantly displayed Shadow of the Royal Wind Dragon, went through a deep cliff, and escaped in another direction.
Although Lu Han was relatively unconscious, she was able to ward it off when Zhang Ruochen threw out the Thunder Pearl the second time. She turned into a shadow immediately and clambered out behind him.
Her hands had turned into claws with which she wanted to grab onto Zhang Ruochen’s shoulders.
At the moment when Lu Han’s claws were about to tear into Zhang Ruochen’s shoulders, the space behind him distorted. Lu Han was shocked and stopped her claws in the air.
“Crash!”
Lu Han’s claws had torn the clothes off of Zhang Ruochen’s back and left 10 red scratches from his shoulders to his back. Drops of blood were dripping out from the claw marks.
Zhang Ruochen endured the icy cold pain on his back and continued to strike forward.
“Awoo!”
After Lu Han slightly licked the blood left on her finger, she erupted an aggressive roar and chased after it.
At the same time, the Gigantic Cyan Scorpion was diving toward Zhang Ruochen from the other direction. The Thunder Pearl he threw out earlier did not kill it but had greatly irritated it.
The Gigantic Cyan Scorpion spat out some toxic air where it condensed into a pillar-shape. It looked like a light beam and was streaking toward Zhang Ruochen.
When Zhang Ruochen was about to hide inside the Time and Space Spinel, all of a sudden, he recognized that there was a hole in the ground with an entrance that was only the size of a bowl. It looked deep and quiet as if it could access to the underground.
Zhang Ruochen’s face brightened. He quickly activated his Genuine Qi and opened the internal space of the Time and Space Spinel.
“Phew!” Zhang Ruochen disappeared in Haunted-mist Mountain and entered the internal space of the Spinel within a second.
At the same time, the Time and Space Spinel fell accurately into the hole as if he were falling down into a deep abyss.
Lu Han and the Gigantic Cyan Scorpion rushed toward the hole simultaneously. However, the hole in the ground was too tiny, so neither of them could squeeze in.
“Boom!”
The Gigantic Cyan Scorpion utilized its giant claw and cracked on the hole, trying to enlarge the hole so that it could chase after Zhang Ruochen.
Such a powerful force had successfully broken down the stones around the edge of the hole. Yet, the stones had blocked the hole up.
“Blood... fresh blood...”
Lu Han stared at the massive Gigantic Cyan Scorpion. She stretched out her claws, bounced on the Gigantic Cyan Scorpion and tore off its crust. Blood gushed out from the Gigantic Cyan Scorpion’s body and covered Lu Han’s entire body to a bloody red.
The originally pretty, dead body suddenly turned ferociously terrifying.
...
Since the hole went downward vertically, Zhang Ruochen had no idea where it would lead him to.
The Time and Space Spinel had been rolling down for quite a while before finally reaching the ground.
Zhang Ruochen endured the pain on his back, transferred his Genuine Qi into the Vessel of Spirit, and stimulated his Martial Soul. With the power of his Martial Soul, Zhang Ruochen was able to peek out from the Time and Space Spinel.
With the Time and Space Spinel being the center, 80 meters around it was a patch of darkness, where no breath of life could be found at all.
“I guess I’ve reached the bottom of Haunted-mist Mountain. Well, it’s not too bad. At least I’m safe for now. Both the Gigantic Cyan Scorpion and Lu Han cannot quickly break into such a tiny hole.”
Zhang Ruochen was not in a rush to leave the internal space of the Time and Space Spinel at all. He thought he should better heal the wounds on his back rather than go out with an injured body.
There was not a lot of Genuine Qi left in Zhang Ruochen’s body. He took a healing Pill and started refining in order to recover from the injury.
Two days later, his injury was more or less healed while his Genuine Qi had returned to its peak condition.
“Waaa!”
The light of the Time and Space Spinel flashed. Zhang Ruochen left the Spinel, arriving at this underground world full of darkness.
While other places inside Chikong Secret Mansion were boiling hot, the underground of Haunted-mist Mountain was extremely cold as if it were an underground icehouse.
Zhang Ruochen picked up the Time and Space Spinel on the ground and squeezed it tightly in his hand. He smiled and exclaimed, “Luckily, I own the Time and Space Spinel. Otherwise, I would have died twice in Chikong Secret Mansion.”
However, he noticed that the Time and Space Spinel seemed to have become smaller.
“Looks like the spiritual power of the Time and Space Spinel has also been consumed. One day, it’s going to be completely gobbled up.”
The Time and Space Spinel allowed Zhang Ruochen to practice three times faster than ordinary warriors, which was the advantage of Zhang Ruochen. Even if he lost the Time and Space Spinel, Zhang Ruochen was confident and determined to become a real and powerful warrior.
Zhang Ruochen stored away the Time and Space Spinel. He took out a Spiritual Crystal with fire nature from the Spatial Ring and injected Genuine Qi in it. “Phew!” The Spiritual Crystal was burning like a fireball.
The fire had lit up the dark space and revealed the complete view of the underground world. It had been covered by a natural stone wall that did not leave a trace of digging by human beings.
The stone wall and the ground had been covered by a white layer of frost where all sorts of shapes of Ice Crystals had been formed.
Zhang Ruochen stepped on the ice and strolled a hundred meters forward. Suddenly, he found a palm-sized broken piece of metal under the thick frost.
“Bang!”
He unleashed a palm out and shattered the frost. He straightened out his hand and picked up the piece of metal.
“It’s really heavy! It weighs at least 250 kilograms.”
Zhang Ruochen found it incredible that a tiny piece of metal was so substantial. He wondered what material had been used to produce it.
When he looked closer at the metal piece, he noticed that there was a tiny inscription carved onto it as if it were a broken piece of armor.
He also could not imagine how massive the power must have been in order to break such powerfully built armor into pieces.
A number of inscriptions had been carved on the interior part of the metal piece. Unfortunately, the inscriptions had all been fragmented. so that there was no way for it to be activated again.
Zhang Ruochen put down the piece and kept going forward.
When he had almost reached the end of the underground, there was a 60-meter-diameter pit in front of him. The surface of the ground was hollowed out while the surrounding area was buckled up. It looked like an aerolite had fallen down, causing the natural landscape.
At the bottom of the pit lay the bones of an elderly man, whose body had been fully sealed with frost.
The armor on his body had been broken into pieces, his chest had been pierced through, and his body had fallen apart. However, the body, which had been dead for hundreds of years, was still able to emit such a dense breath that an underground frosty world was built.
Zhang Ruochen was under huge pressure. He stared at the dead body and asked, “Perhaps he is Golden Cloud Half-Saint?”
Only warriors who had reached Half-Saint possessed such a massive breath of power after they had died.
500 years had passed and still the body of Golden Cloud Half-Saint did not decay.
Looking at the dead body, Zhang Ruochen was not afraid. Rather, he was delighted that he had finally figured out how to contend with Lu Han, or even remove her Half-Saint’s Light.