Chapter 543: Calamity
Translator: Sigma Editor: Hitesh
Mount Heaven Whistle…
Inside a gloomy cave in the center of the mountain, countless dark green dead souls hung on the walls, covering the entire surface. A pond of corpses situated in the middle of the cave where bodies piled up. Dark green blood was constantly oozing. Many blocks of meat were stuck into the corpse refining pond, sucking the nutrition from the dead bodies. They kept enlarging continually.
Dark green dead souls were floating around the pond, emitting their cold, evil aura as if they were guarding it.
Mount Heaven Whistle was a small and poor mountain among almost one thousand mountains of the Dead Soul Mountain range. The heaven and earth aura here was faint, and no warrior stayed on this mountain to cultivate. Inside some caves in Mount Heaven Whistle, green light columns as big as tree trunks were shrinking, and a large amount of Yin Qi was overflowing from them.
Flows of this kind of an evil aura poured into the big cave in the center of the mountain one by one.
Dead souls inside the cave were spurting out a dark green, viscous liquid onto the meat chunks. This liquid then turned into layers of energy, getting absorbed into the meat chunks.
Time passed quietly.
Crack!
The cracking sound of an egg hatching rose. The membrane covering the meat chunk cracked, then fell on the ground piece by piece.
A green, short-limbed creature which was as tall as a ten-year-old child emerged from the meat chunk. Its skin was wrinkled like an ugly toad. Its three pupils had a deep, cold, dark green hue, and its look was sinister to the extreme.
It was a humanoid creature, with a pointy head and no ears. There were many holes on its cheeks, and its nostrils moved as if it were breathing the evil aura of this cave.
Dead souls in the cave suddenly got excited. They led that short-limbed creature towards the dead souls’ evil lair.
Hundreds of dead souls joined hands and fiercely pushed that creature into the dead souls’ evil lair inside the cave.
Swoosh!
The first body of the dead soul that was refined from the Corpse Refining Pond had been pushed into the dead souls’ evil lair.
A sinister green halo expanded from the evil lair as its center, rippling out. The size of the evil lair doubled in just a blink.
From outside the evil lair, it looked like numerous dark green tentacles were piercing into the dead soul body, transmitting the evil energy just like a drip-feed.
The dead soul body grew quickly. Immense green light shot out from the holes in its cheeks, as it gradually gained the size of an adult.
Deep inside the dead souls’ evil lair, a flow of green light zoomed over from a distant area, hitting the body instantly. The bizarre, cold eyes of the dead soul body became more evilly intimidating after the dead soul had entered it. A gloomy evil aura shot out from the evil lair.
Crack Crack!
Crispy cracking sounds echoed from the evil lair. A dead soul body was occupied. It then struggled out of the evil lair and descended in the cave of Mount Heaven Whistle. Hundreds of dead souls surrounded the evil lair and cheered. Their sounds were sharp, their whistles seeming like thousands of ghosts crying miserably. An aura of resentment soared to the sky.
Inside Mount Heaven Whistle, blocks of meat enlarged fast. Soon, another dead soul body was born.
The first dead soul with its body got out of the evil lair, then walked to the pond in the cave. Countless green tentacles extended from its waist like worms, and pierced into the newborn dead soul bodies.
Evil energy quickly poured into the newborn bodies, enlarging them.
Not long afterward, excited high-level dead souls floating around all stormed over at the same time, choosing a body and entering their new hosts.
…
Dead Soul Mountain range…
It’d been half a month, but not many warriors and alchemists left the place because of the dead soul event. They decided to stay and cultivate. However, some of them started to disappear into thin air.
During half a month, hundreds of warriors, alchemists, and blacksmiths seemed to evaporate. Some people had taken risks intruding the Dead Soul Mountain range to hunt the dead souls and harvest the treasures from the dead souls' evil lairs. They all disappeared one by one.
"Have you heard the news of Zhang Yue and his team? They were operating in the East of Mount Heaven Whistle. It’s been seven days, and they haven’t returned yet."
"I heard that not only Zhang Yue, but also a group of members of the Radiant God Cult led by a First Sky of Spirit Realm expert went missing. No one can contact them."
"My master told me that many of the alchemists and blacksmiths living in some mountains have gone missing."
A group of warriors was discussing quietly in a shop in the Spirit Potion Valley with frightened faces.
The same discussions were repeated in some corners of the Precious Tool Valley and the Spirit Potion Valley.
Recently, warriors, alchemists, and blacksmiths had gone missing continually. The others couldn't contact them using the Sound Stone, and no one found them either. The anomaly of the Dead Soul Mountain range became more terrible at this moment. Some people who had intended to wait and watch the change in silence started to leave the place at their fastest speed.
Some of the ones who decided to leave vanished even before they could get out of the Dead Soul Mountain range.
The news of their missing status came to the Precious Tool Valley and the Spirit Potion Valley, which made the ones who hadn’t left yet scared, giving up the thought of running away in their heads.
The situation became grimmer day by day.
Li Zheng Rong, the blacksmiths of the Precious Tool Valley, together with the experts from the Pure Land, the Radiant God Cult, and the Devil Valley discussed daily to identify the news of new missing people.
These days, according to the statistics of the Spirit Hall and Tool Hall, at least seven hundred warriors went missing.
Warriors living in the two valleys all felt insecure.
Li Zheng Rong was so busy, and was even having a serious headache. When he went out searching for the dead souls, he didn't dare to go alone, and often departed with hotshots of the Tool Hall.
It was unknown why when his group came out searching in the regions of the Dead Soul Mountain range, they usually didn’t find anything abnormal. Even a single dead soul was hard to see.
This doesn’t fit the common sense.
Before the dead souls had the anomaly, they could easily meet the dead souls near the area of the evil lairs. It was impossible that they couldn’t find even a single dead soul for several days.
After the dead souls had some big changes, according to normal sense, this should be the time the dead souls operated more crowdedly, and slaughter everywhere.
After several failed searching missions, Li Zheng Rong and his group became more panic-stricken.
People still kept going missing mysteriously. This situation hadn’t stopped yet. Gradually, Li Zheng Rong recognized a fact he found it hard to accept.
It wasn’t true that the dead souls had stopped all of their operations. They were still slaughtering everywhere else. The reason why they hadn’t met them was that the dead souls had sensed their presence and missions beforehand to stay away before they reached the area.
Also, this meant the dead souls hadn’t gathered enough power. They understood that they didn’t have sufficient force to battle with the human warriors. So, they were hiding and waiting for the chance to snatch other groups of human warriors.
After he’d confirmed this finding, Li Zheng Rong and the blacksmiths of the Tool Hall started to feel scared, as their worries about the dead souls swelled up in their hearts.
The Spirit Potion Valley and the Precious Tool Valley were sealed up.
To prevent more warriors from going missing when they went out, the Tool Hall and the Spirit Hall had announced the common curfew. Whoever was staying in the Spirit Potion Valley and the Precious Tool Valey had to stay inside, as they weren’t allowed to go out of the valleys.
Once a warrior's soul was eroded, he would become a newly dead soul, and be a part of the dead soul's formidable force. To prevent the dead souls from being stronger, Li Zheng Rong and his group had to set up this poor plan. They were now guarding the Precious Tool Valley and the Spirit Potion Valley, as they were waiting for a face-to-face battle with the dead souls.
In fact, even if they didn’t set up the curfew, no one had such big guts to go out.
When the news of the searching teams going missing mysteriously was leaked, the warriors living in the two valleys finally recognized the dangerous situation.
Everybody feared death. When they found out that the experts stronger than them had disappeared after leaving no trace, they became more well-behaved.
At the same time, the Spirit Hall and the Tool Hall had sent the message to the warriors cultivating in the surrounding mountains, asking them to come to the valley quickly. The ones they couldn’t contact, they couldn’t do anything more for them.
At the same time, after the Pure Land, the Radiant God Cult, and the Devil Valley sent their Elders to the site, they couldn’t help but pay more attention to the moves of the Dead Soul Mountain range tightly.
Some said that True God Realm warriors of these three factions had gradually come back from their secluding cultivation. They would hurry to the Dead Soul Mountain range soon.
All of a sudden, the Dead Soul Mountain range had become the focus of the entire Divine Great Land. After the ancient factions got the information of the anomaly in the Dead Soul Mountain range, they all used their ways to collect the news from there.
…
The Ice Emperor City…
Bing Qing Tong, Shuang Zu Zhu, Leng Dan Qing, and Han Cui had been cultivating in the bone-chilling ice chamber. When they woke up from their cultivation, Bing Qing Tong received the news from the General Union. Her smile ceased.
"Sister, what's up?" Han Cui let out a light laughter. Her beautiful eyes brightened, as the cold aura ameliorated her shining smile with an outstanding bearing.
"There’s a big change in the Dead Soul Mountain range. According to the General Union, it’s a big calamity…" Bing Qing Tong narrated the news she received in detail.
After the bad experience with Yu Li Ming and Ning Du Quan, the bond between the four sisters had restored. They had no grudges now. They had spent time together to cultivate in the ice chamber. Both their realms and Ice Jade Technique were improving fast.
At the moment, Bing Qing Tong seemed to have entered the peak of the Spirit Realm. Han Cui had a significant improvement as well. Furthermore, Shuang Yu Zhu and Leng Dan Qing now could urge their Ice Jade Technique more fluently.
After they had a notable increase in their realms, the General Union showed them a better attitude, much better than before. When they received the news of the Divine Great Land, they would immediately send to the women here.
Ning Du Quan actually wanted to trouble them more. But when he knew that the women’s realms had been much improved, he couldn’t help but give up his attempt, washing away the thought of declaring war.
The Ice Emperor City had changed.
"Didn’t that bastard go to the Dead Soul Mountain range? With his speed, he should be there already. What should we do?" Han Cui was scared. She shot up from her seat, her face worried.
Shuang Yu Zhu and Leng Dan Qing slammed their brows together.
"We should go and look for him," Leng Dan Qing stood up, her face agitated.
"No," Bing Qing Tong shook her head, "The situation of the Dead Soul Mountain range’s much complicated now. We can’t get there on time. With his capacity, Shi Yan can protect himself. We shouldn’t worry about him that much. We’d better keep an eye on the information. I think he would be okay. Anyways, even Ning Du Quan had no way to catch him. If it isn’t a True God Realm warrior, I think he will be alright."
Hearing Bing Qing Tong say so, Shuang Yu Zhu and Leng Dan Qing contemplated, then nodded. However, they still wore anxious faces.
…
Precious Tool Valley...
Lin Ya Qi approached a house which was specialized in offering quiet chambers for warriors to cultivate. She didn’t keep the smiling face as usual, frowning while quietly walking to a gravitational room. She called with a low tone, "Shi Yan, open up. I have something I want to tell you. Let me in. Quickly."