Chapter 533: Hunting dead souls
Translator: Sigma Editor: Hitesh
The dead souls' evil lairs were the most mysterious exotic area of the Dead Soul Mountain range. However, these evil lairs wouldn't stay still. They moved, and someday it would disappear leaving no trace, only to reappear somewhere else.
Normally, only the dead souls could sense the exact location of the evil lairs. The region where the evil lairs often appeared would attract many dead souls.
This kind of an area in the Dead Soul Mountain range was the forbidden place. Warriors who didn’t have the absolute confidence would never dare to operate alone in these regions.
The Five Devils sent Shi Yan their roars, then completed their transformation, in which their power seemed to advance one step further. Then, they sent him their thoughts and said that they wanted to get near to that area.
This surprised him. He hesitated for a while, then came to that area to check the situation.
Although Cherry didn’t feel good about this, she couldn’t change his thoughts. So, she had to follow him to the forbidden area where the dead souls’ evil lairs appeared.
It was a valley covered with thick gray clouds. There was no sunlight shining on the valley, even though it was still daytime, which gave people a dark, gloomy atmosphere, irritating them.
There were many wild blades of grass in the valley, some of which looked like scythes. Bushes jutted from the ground just like sharp swords grown on the ground.
"That’s the Bone-picking grass... So dangerous. When a human falls into the bushes, they will swarm together and scrape the meat out of their bones to suck the marrow inside."
Cherry arrived, her face solemn. She pointed at the grass underneath and advised him. "Don’t fall into the Bone-picking bushes. Even if you are excellent, it’s hard to escape."
Shi Yan smiled and nodded. Looking at the Bone-picking grass under his feet, he said, "Can we use this strange grass as medicine?"
Cherry’s brow arched as she beamed a faint smile. "You have a good imagination. The Bone-picking grass’s a strange flora. How could we use it to refine medicine? Ah, no. If you need some poisons, the juice from that grass can help. It can erode the bones and marrow, which stiffens people’s limbs."
"Does anyone collect the Bone-picking grass?"
"I'm not sure. I've never tried to refine poisons, so I don't care about it much." Cherry's blue eyes glared at him with strange light as she was shivering inside.
This man, is he interested in making poison?
Alchemists who created poisons weren’t welcomed in the Dead Soul Mountain range. If he were interested in making poisons, he could be a sinister guy, too. She should be more cautious.
"There’s some battling!"
Shi Yan’s pupils shrank. He attentively looked at the direction ahead of him, speeding up.
Cherry hurried to follow him.
Inside the valley covered with ash-gray clouds, five Sky Realm warriors were using secret treasures to fight against three clusters of dark green mist. The three clusters of mist floated vaguely. Sometimes, they appeared like the ferocious demonic beasts. Sometimes they wore hollow human faces, which never stopped changing.
From the block of dark green mist, evil, cold aura exuded out, as if it could penetrate into people’s minds.
The clusters of mist had changed many times, their shapes unidentifiable. They shot out the cold, evil aura, which formed invisible soul attacks, rippling like waves of water, and affecting all corners.
Among the five Sky Realm warriors, there were males and females. However, they weren’t alchemists. Each of them was like they were fighting against strong enemies. The secret treasures in their hands all had Yang attributes. The halos around them were scorching red.
"Dead souls!"
Cherry let out a low scream to remind Shi Yan not to go closer. She whispered, "They’re hunting dead souls. You shouldn’t go there and mess up their business."
"Hunting dead souls?" Shi Yan was surprised, frowning. "Didn’t you say that the dead souls are really evil and they will erode human souls? If they are that sinister, what do they need to hunt them for?"
"Although the dead souls are dangerous, they aren’t useless. They’re precious materials to a blacksmith." Cherry stood away from them, explaining with low voice. "When they want to make their weapons which have intellect, they can apply some different methods. Among those, the way to make their weapon absorb the natural power of heaven and earth to gain the intellect is the most difficult and mysterious."
She paused for a while, and then continued, "However, most of the blacksmiths can’t do that. So, it’s easier to find the things that are similar to the soul and seal them in their weapon. It’s the popular method to make the tool gain intellect. The dead souls are a sort of sinister souls, as they have a strong fighting will. If they can fuse the dead soul and the tool, the power of that tool will be increased marvelously. A Mystery level treasure can be advanced one level to reach the Profound level."
"So, you mean they are hunting the dead souls to forge weapons?" Shi Yan was amazed. "They aren’t blacksmiths though."
"Perhaps they want to find some blacksmiths to forge weapons. And because they want to have intelligent weapons, they have to hunt the dead souls." Cherry understood the situation of the Dead Soul Mountain range well. "They will erase the independent consciousness, then seal the dead soul in the treasure. Afterward, they will use a special method to activate the ferocious nature of the dead soul, which could increase the power of the treasure. The higher the level of the dead soul is, the stronger the treasure will be."
"People always do that in the Dead Soul Mountain range?"
"Not really. It’s not easy to hunt the dead souls. They have to equip the right secret treasures to subdue them. And, they also need the Rock Panacea. Because, they have to make sure the dead souls can't possess them first. If they can have the right chance, they can catch them. This is very dangerous. If they encounter the low-level dead souls, perhaps they can succeed. But if they have a bad luck facing the dangerous dead souls, they will have to use their lives to make it up."
While they were talking, it seemed the five warriors ahead of them had almost gotten what they wanted. The three dark green dead souls had low levels; they didn’t even have a shape. Under the continuous attacks by the nemesis treasures, the three dead souls were struck scattered. Gathering them again was a hard job to do.
The three dead souls were divided from the center. Just like ragged cloth, they were floating and fluttering in the air, trying to escape.
The five warriors wore serious faces, not daring to relax. The treasures in their hands were constantly sparking fire, forming a fire wall that could block a piece of space.
When the dead souls were divided, their powers reduced massively. They didn’t dare to cross the fire wall, but just increased their erosive soul attacks.
The five warriors paled. Sweat beaded on their foreheads. Apparently, this kind of erosive soul attack had troubled them seriously.
"Be persistent!" One of them said through his gritted teeth while he was drenched in sweat. "These three dead souls can’t gather again. We just need to resist the last wave of their soul attacks and we can get them! Don’t let your efforts be wasted. Endure it!"
Those five Sky Realm warriors had big age gaps. The leader seemed to be around fifty years old. One of the other four was roughly forty. Some looked like they were in their thirties, and there was a young girl about seventeen or eighteen years old. She looked pretty young.
As the five of them had joined hands, their treasures constantly moved, generating more flames, which made the three dead souls struggle harder.
"The dead souls are afraid of the powers of flame and lightning. Usually, they don't dare to come close to the flames, but it's hard to burn them to death. Only lightning is their archenemy. In the Dead Soul Mountain range, when it thunders, the dead souls will hide away…"
Cherry explained to Shi Yan about the features of the dead souls while looking at the situation ahead of them. "It’s not hard to find the weapons with flame attribute. However, the weapons with the lightning power are scarce. Even in the Dead Soul Mountain range, this sort of secret treasures is still rare. Warriors who have the lightning attribute treasures won’t need to worry ‘bout the dead souls in the Dead Soul Mountain anymore. As long as they see the treasure, the dead soul will run away in fear. They won’t dare to come close."
Shi Yan nodded, feeling more secure.
With the Earth Flame here, he didn't need to be afraid of the dead souls. At the same time, the Nine Serenities Soul Devouring flame was the nemesis of this kind of soul beings. If he encountered some brave dead souls, he just needed to release the Nine Serenities Soul Devouring Flame to purify them.
Roar Roar Roar!
Strange roars came up from his Sea of Consciousness. He hadn’t had time to do anything, and the five dark silhouettes had shot out from the back of his head. They then jumped through that fire wall agilely, grabbed the three dead souls and swallowed them. Seconds later, they had finished the whole three dead souls.
Seeing their efforts about to be fruitful, the five warriors had been ready to capture the dead soul. However, they suddenly felt dizzy and immediately found five other grey figures inside their fire wall. These figures then besieged and devoured the dead souls.
Shi Yan changed his visage as he felt bad inside.
Strange light flashed in Cherry’s blue eyes. She instinctively looked at the back of Shi Yan’s head, her face disbelieving.
The Five Devils had flown out fast. Although she stood next to Shi Yan, she only saw five silhouettes dash out from behind Shi Yan. Thus, she wasn’t sure that they came from Shi Yan’s body.
"God damn it!"
The fifty-some old man clenched his fists and gritted his teeth indignantly, looking at the five figures behind the fire wall. He scolded, "What the heck are those? Dare to take our goods! Go die!"
The sword in his hand suddenly gushed out a ten-meter long fire, shooting towards the Five Devils.
The other four reacted timely. They clenched their jaws and urged the powers of their secret weapons to attack the Five Devils.
To hunt those three dead souls, the five of them had spent half a year to borrowed enough secret weapons. They had also waited for more than a month in this area to find dead souls. After a hard struggling time, they’d almost got them. It wasn’t easy to back them into the corner. And now, someone had snatched the spoils of their strenuous war. How could they press down the anger?
The five of them joined forces again. Fiery flames shot out from the flaming attribute weapons, striking toward the Five Devils.
After the Five Devils had swallowed the dying dead souls, they didn’t feel pleased yet. They didn’t concern about the scorching flaming attack, turning back into the five dark, gray shadows, gathering in front of Shi Yan and asking him to find more dead souls to fill their stomachs.