Chapter 248 - The Dead Cannot Testify
Zhong Yue was speechless. Treating their guests with monster god inner cores was just way too sumptuous. He needed such a long time to digest only a portion of a monster god inner core. Just imagine how long it would take for him to digest all the inner cores served on a plate!
Xin Huo smirked and said, “Those invited for a feast by the Fu Xi Celestial Race were huge figures, what’s wrong with treating them to a few plates of beast god inner cores?”
Zhong Yue then asked, “Do the celestial races have inner cores?”
“No matter what race you are, as long as you reach the level of Inner Core, an inner core will automatically form in your body. Then, as you progress, the inner core will become better and better. The same applies to humans as well.”
Xin Huo continued, “The inner core usually resides in the psyche ocean, and after the owner died, one can easily extract it with his or her psyche.”
Zhong Yue walked towards Lian Xin. He was unsure if her inner core was still there as he split Lian Xin apart and crushed her skull.
His psyche gushed out. He was stunned when he searched around her crushed head, as he really did find an inner core to extract from her head. This inner core was not big at all, only the size of a grape, but it contained immense energy that was several times stronger than Zhong Yue’s power!
He then looked around, and retrieved the inner cores of the four Xiao Mang Celestial Race’s Qi Practitioners that had died as soon as Lian Xin and the old man fought. The inner cores of the four Qi Practitioners were even smaller than Lian Xin’s, as their cultivation bases were lower than hers.
Then, he went for the Heavenly Dharma old man’s inner core, only to discover nothing but pus water. The old man’s inner core had been dissolved along with his body by Lian Xin’s deadly poison that could corrode anything it touched.
Seems like there’s only five inner cores… Oh yeah, almost forgot about the body of Chi Liannu!
Zhong Yue then quickly found the body of Chi Liannu. When he used his psyche to check for her inner core, he discovered and retrieved Chi Liannu’s inner core, which had escaped the fate of dissolution by Lian Xin’s poison.
Two Heavenly Dharma level and four Inner Core level inner cores, not bad!
Zhong Yue was satisfied by his gains. He summoned his Six-Eyed Starry Toad Yuan Shen to carry him back to the city, moving along with the thousands of Jiao Dragons formed by his psyche, each of them carrying various loot he had obtained from the battle.
The loot was so heavy that it greatly slowed his speed, causing him to only arrive at the Gu Xia City four days later, traveling for three thousand miles each day!
(Ed. Note: The hell. The border was a million miles from the city? I think the author has math problems)
When he arrived at the city, he saw the city were shrouded by colorful rays emitted by various totem carvings on the city walls, while the watchtowers along with the cannons were ready to fire, making the situation tense and appearing incredibly intimidating.
The beast god statues standing on the city walls felt like they would come alive at anytime, along with the colorful totem carvings moving all around the statues’ surfaces. Then, the statues suddenly turned around to face the city with their backs pointed towards the outside. The spikes on their backs were standing up, their claws raised up high, ready to strike their foe down at anytime!
Long ago, Zhong Yue knew that this city was also a war machine, and when it entered its defense mode, lots of lives would need to be sacrificed before taking down this fortification!
However, this was his first time seeing the castle in this mode, which was incredibly terrifying.
Other than that, he even saw a huge godly spirit standing in the middle of the city. It was about a thousand feet tall, and emitting a majestic aura as it stood there.
This godly spirit was a spirit with bird’s head, human body and two pairs of wings, which made it look similar to the Yuan Shen of Gu Hongzi... except it was a hundred times stronger! This godly spirit was the spirit of Gu Xia City, the one that Gu Hongzi and everyone else in the city worshipped!
In Gu Xia City, both the godly spirit and the citizens relied on each other. The citizens prayed and worshipped the spirit, using their power of belief to sustain the spirit, and preventing it from fading away. The godly spirit played the role of its worshippers protector, keeping them from harm.
When Zhong Yue looked at the godly spirit, he realized that the spirit was staring at a certain position in the city as if there was an enemy there.
What happened? Are there enemies around?
Zhong Yue was confused. He thought, Even when the four young aces of Swords Gate came, the godly spirit was not summoned. But since it was summoned out this time, could it be that the enemies are even stronger than the four of them?
Of course, when the four young aces of Swords Gate arrived in Gu Xia City, there were many other strong monster Qi Practitioners present, and Gu Hongzi was also a secret disciple of the headmaster of Swords Gate, which was why the godly spirit was not summoned at all back then.
On the other hand, when the Qi Practitioners on the city walls of Gu Xia City heard loud and frequent footsteps from the outer area, they all turned around to look, only to be shocked at the what they saw.
Thousands of huge Jiao Dragons were charging towards the city, running past mountains and rivers while they carried countless gigantic soul weapons.
And the one in front of the dragons was a huge jade toad with six eyes that looked like the full moon, jumping and leaping towards the mountain where Gu Xia City stood.
“That’s…” The monster Qi Practitioners then saw the figure standing on top of the toad. They were immediately relieved as they said, “It’s Master Long Yue of our Gu Xia City! Quickly report to the city lord at once!”
The other Qi Practitioners then quickly left the city walls and rushed to the City Lord’s hall to report the return of Zhong Yue.
---
Meanwhile, in the City Lord’s hall, Gu Hongzi, Lang Qingyun and Xiao Chuwen was still facing off. They had felt the great turbulence going on in the border area, but suddenly the aura of one of the two Heavenly Dharma Qi Practitioners faded away, leaving them to wonder which Heavenly Dharma cultivator died.
Then, the remaining Qi Practitioner’s aura dispersed as well, and the three of them felt a godly aura ascending into the sky... but they had no idea what was happening.
The three of them were all very nervous, and they wanted to check what happened at the border area. But they were all stuck in this stand-off, preventing any of them leaving.
Gu Hongzi did secretly send out some monster Qi Practitioners to check on the situation, but there were not many strong ones who were free among the monster Qi Practitioners, as the Inner Core and Awakening level Qi Practitioners had to stay back to maintain the operation of the array formations. Gu Xia City had once had their own Heavenly Dharma level Qi Practitioners, but after Gu Hongzi killed his father and usurped the position of the city lord, those Heavenly Dharma Qi Practitioners had been bribed and recruited away by Shi Buyi.
Thus, the Qi Practitioners Gu Hongzi sent out were only a few Awakening level Qi Practitioners. With their low levels, they traveled very slowly compared to the other higher level Qi Practitioners, and were still on the way back from the battlefield.
“Gu Hongzi, how much longer are you planning to keep me here?”
Gu Hongzi remained expressionless as he said, “You can leave anytime, I won’t stop you.”
Lang Qingyun suddenly stood up. Immediately, cold sweat broke out on Xiao Chuwen’s forehead, as he would die for sure if Lang Qingyun left.
“But I don’t feel like leaving now,” laughed Lang Qingyun as he sat back down.
And almost the same time, a monster Qi Practitioner ran into the hall and shouted as he report towards Gu Hongzi, “My lord, senior martial brother Long Yue has arrived!”
“Long Yue has returned?”
The three of them had a shock; Lang Qingyun and Xiao Chuyun felt terrible, while Gu Hongzi also felt a little nervous, but he soon returned to normal. He quickly ordered, “Open the gates and bring him to me, make haste!”
The monster QI Practitioner nodded and quickly left.
The three of them then looked at each other, all hiding their thoughts to themselves as they continued drinking their tea while enjoying the scenery in the garden. But no matter how beautiful a scene is, one will get bored after looking at the same scene for seven days straight.
After half an hour or so, they heard heavy footsteps and noises outside of the City Lord’s hall, along with monsters shouting, screaming, shrieking, talking, and yelling, making the situation very confused.
Another few moments later, a ground-shattering voice could be heard and suddenly, the sound of walls crumbling could be heard, making Gu Hongzi feel that his hall was being torn apart.
Finally, the three of them saw the huge Six-Eyed Starry Toad walking into the garden with thousands of Jiao Dragons following behind, carrying huge objects on their backs.
At first, the lunar crescent chakram and the hundred feet long snake skin did not shake them, but the Wu Yang River managed to cause some rapid emotional changes among the three strong individuals.
Gu Hongzi was especially speechless, as in order to bring this river into the city, Zhong Yue must have destroyed lots of properties, including his own City Lord hall!
His eyes twitched and asked Zhong Yue, “Junior martial brother Long Yue, couldn't you just leave them outside of the city?”
Zhong Yue jumped down from his Yuan Shen and replied, “What if they were stolen by other people?”
His reply was answered by the angry Gu Hongzi, “Who dares to rob you in my territory!?”
Gu Hongzi’s words fell onto deaf ears as Zhong Yue bowed and greeted the three of them, saying, “Greetings, city lord and senior martial brother. This is-?”
“The white robe priest of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race, Xiao Chuyun.”
Xiao Chuyun’s eyes twitched as he stared at the Six-Eyed Starry Toad Yuan Shen. After he exhaled a long breath, he asked, “My friend Long Yue, where did this Starry Toad come from?”
Zhong Yue blinked his eyes and replied with a laugh, “This is my Yuan Shen and I obtained it after sensing the moon spirit, any problems?”
Xiao Chuyun’s eyes twitched even more vigorously as he said, “Nothing. However, there are some soul weapons belonging to my people, may I ask their whereabouts?”
“They died.” Zhong Yue sighed theatrically and continued on, “The heaven despise the talented, the few dozen kind brothers tried to save me from my forth senior martial sister, Lian Xin and died at the border of Gu Xia City. There was also this Heavenly Dharma mister among them.”
“Lian Xin?”
Xiao Chuyun grit his teeth and said, “So it was her!”
Lang Qingyun, opposite him, suddenly asked, “Little junior martial brother, where is Lian Xin now?”
Zhong Yue then put up a sad face and said, “Senior martial sister Lian Xin died protecting me from the evil hands of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race. Why did they kill her? She was such a nice and gentle girl with many good traits!”
Lang Qingyun and Xiao Chuyun were so angry that they trembled as Zhong Yue was literally talking nonsense right in front of them, telling two different stories about the same incident as he hid the truth about what happened!
“Junior martial brother, why do you have the soul weapon of Chi Lian?” asked Lang Qingyun when he saw the silk gauze on the back of a Jiao Dragon.
“What a pity!” Zhong Yue put up an even sadder face as he said, “Senior martial sister Lian Xin was so cruel and cold-hearted! She snuck up on senior martial sister Chi Lian, killing her before she swallowed senior martial sister Chi Lian whole! Fortunately, she learned her mistake and regretted what she did, resulting in her saving me from the hands of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race. Then before she died, senior martial sister Lian Xin entrusted her and senior martial sister Chi Lian’s soul weapons to me, asking me to take over their possessions.”
Lang Qingyun asked angrily, “What about the godly aura, then?”
Zhong Yue acted dumb as he replied, “What godly aura?”
Lang Qingyun grit his teeth, but after a moment, he suddenly laughed and said, “The dead cannot testify?”
His question was answered by a smiling Zhong Yue with a helpless smile and nod.