Chapter 164: A corpse bringing equipment from a thousand miles away, the gift is valuable but the sentiment is even more!
Translator: Stardu5t Editor: Kurisu
The seal on the spirit-binding ice bead did not actually break!
The reason why the ghost spirit could take on a physical form and reveal itself was because it borrowed the strength of the saliva of ghost dragon, which allowed it to temporarily emerge from the seal!
Once the saliva of ghost dragon was consumed entirely, the spirit ghost would once again be banished and sealed into the spirit-binding ice bead. Hence, the contract had to be made with ghost spirit before the saliva of ghost dragon got exhausted.
After the ghost spirit revealed itself, it scanned the surroundings in a confused manner. Immediately after, it could see the formation of the ‘Five Elements Spirit Contracting Altar’ on the ground—even though it did not recognize the formation, its instincts told the ghost spirit that this thing wasn't something good for it.
A middle-rank ghost spirit sure possessed quite a degree of intelligence; it quickly knew that it was caught in a plight and started to struggle violently.
"Hur hur~" cried the ghost spirit in a childlike manner, ferociously charging towards Song Shuhang. It could tell that Song Shuhang was the person in control; all it had to do was to get rid of him to stop the formation.
"Rise!" Shouted Song Shuhang calmly in a low voice, interlocking both hands thereafter and patting lightly on top of the ‘Five Elements Spirit Contracting Altar’.
After placing both palms on it, the five elements stones and the materials inside the formation which represented the five elements started to light up one by one, forming a circle of barrel-shaped radiant light, rendering the ghost spirit firmly bound within the formation.
The ghost spirit ferociously charged, hitting against the layer of light, causing a "bang, bang" sound. Even though the layer of barrel-shaped light was thin and hence seemed fragile, it would not break. No matter how much the ghost spirit tried to charge or claw at it with all its might, the light curtain remained indestructible.
The frenzied ghost spirit could only continue its futile efforts within the ‘Five Elements Spirit contracting Altar’ by continuously charging and striking...
"Go ahead and start, subdue the ghost spirit before the saliva of ghost dragon, as well as the energy of ‘Five Elements’ Spirit contracting Altar’, gets depleted! You only have approximately an hour’s time left!" Senior White reminded him.
"Yes!" Replied Song Shuhang as he continued reciting the formula of the ‘Five Elements Spirit Contracting Altar’.
Thereafter, he got on his feet and performed the Eight Trigrams Footwork, which Senior White taught him in the morning, circling the ‘Five Elements Spirit Contracting Altar’ as he kept prancing about.
The way he looked at this moment was similar to the ‘Primitive Tribe Shaman’ when the latter performs the dance to invite the gods on TV—looking especially stupid.
But Song Shuhang didn't have a choice, the method to use the ‘Five Elements Spirit Contracting Altar’ was as such. Unless you could create a brand-new formation to make a contract with a ghost spirit yourself, you’d better obediently perform the dance.
After circling the formation once, Song Shuhang interlocked his hands and lightly shouted, "Metal, wood, water, fire, earth, Metal Tribulation!"
As his voice echoed out, the stone representing ‘metal’ in the formation lit up!
In the next moment, a large gold sword appeared out of thin air above the crown of the ghost spirit’s head, and ruthlessly fell in the direction of the ghost spirit!
"Eeek!" Shrieked the ghost spirit in fear, rapidly putting its innate skill to good use. A small golden shield was released, protecting the crown of its head, blocking the large gold sword.
The shield and the sword both refused to budge—the friction between them produced a sharp, ear-piercing sound. Within that short period of time, it was hard to determine who had the upper hand.
"Again!" Song Shuhang continued to circle the ‘Five Elements Spirit Contracting Altar’, performing the gods invitation dance once again.
After the circling was completed, he interlocked his hands once again, "I summon Wood Tribulation!"
The stone representing the wood element in the ‘Five Elements Spirit Contracting Altar’ formation lit up.
Within the formation, a total of ten thorny brambles emerged through the ground, coiling around the body of the ghost spirit. The sharp thorns of the brambles pierced into its body, and started to draw the ghost spirit’s spiritual energy.
"Arghhh..." cried the ghost spirit in pain. Gradually, its body became a lot more transparent.
"I am not done yet!" Song Shuhang once again performed the dance. After circling another round and interlocking his hands, he shouted in a deep voice, "Water Tribulation, move!"
This time, the stone representing ‘water’ lit up, and silver raindrops started to descend from above, on the side of the large gold sword. These silver raindrops possessed dreadful corrosive properties. As they fell onto the small golden shield above the crown of the ghost spirit’s head, small holes started forming in it as a result.
The ghost spirit started bawling, yet at the same time it could not do anything. The space within the ‘Five Elements Spirit Contracting Altar’ was only that big, after all—even if the ghost spirit wanted to hide, it could not do so. Additionally, it could condense only a single shield, so the ghost spirit had no choice but to receive the following attacks.
"Fire Tribulation, rise!" Shouted Song Shuhang once again.
Golden flames appearing burning out of thin air, and started traveling along the thorny brambles and eventually piercing through the ghost spirit’s body.
The ghost spirit writhed in extreme pain but still refused to give up and continued struggling with all its strength. It only knew that if it gave in, it would really be the end!
"The last tribulation, Earth Tribulation! Five Tribulations, fusion! Yield to me, and be relieved from the pain inflicted from the Five Tribulations!" Yelled Song Shuhang in a thunder-like voice, which traveled deep into the ghost spirit’s ears.
The ghost spirit’s body started to petrify starting from bottom upwards. The petrified parts also started to get burned by the flames, as well as rained on by the corrosive raindrops and pierced by the thorny brambles, resulting in pieces of it peeling off.
Its build got smaller and smaller, and it became weaker and weaker. However, it still refused to surrender and stubbornly struggled on.
Song Shuhang was not worried—according to the experience passed down to him by Senior White, the ghost spirit within the ‘Five Elements Spirit Contracting Altar’ would not surrender until it was near its deathbed.
The Five Tribulations demonstration had ended, and only approximately half an hour had passed.
What he needed right now was patience. In the next half an hour, he was to continue chanting the incantations and proceed with the Eight Trigrams Footwork with great patience in order to strengthen the power of the ‘Five Elements Spirit Contracting Altar’. Yet at the same time, he had to have full control of his strength to avoid accidentally killing off the ghost spirit...
The ghost spirit’s struggles weakened.
Next, all there was left was to see which would come first—if it surrendered first, or if the saliva of ghost dragon got entirely depleted first!
"Yield to me, and be relieved from the pain inflicted from the Five Tribulations!" After finishing each round, Song Shuhang would shout that phrase to attack its thoughts and break its willpower.
His gaze was fixated on the spirit ghost that was bound within the formation. He could only wait for the moment when the ghost spirit was on the verge of death to contract it.
The last step was to piece together one's character and the power to control the formation.
The more exquisite the control of power was, the easier it would be to make a contract with the ghost spirit when it was at its weakest.
Also, if his character was good, the contract would be completed in one go.
If his character was not good, he still would have to continue fighting the mental battle with the weak ghost spirit for much longer, till the ghost spirit was completely drained physically and mentally, before the contract could be completed.
However, if his character was bad... the ghost spirit might end up losing its consciousness and return to the spirit-binding ice bead, ultimately failing his attempt to make a contract if he couldn’t succeed before that.
Venerable White summoned up his energy—he was afraid that if he got distracted, he might end up leaking his aura accidentally and affect Song Shuhang. Furthermore, he was helping Song Shuhang support the formation—if anything went wrong, he could step in to help at any given time.
The voice of the ghost spirit within the Five Elements Spirit Contracting Altar started to soften—it was no longer akin to a child’s cry, but similar to a girl’s helpless whimper instead.
"Keep going, hang in there a little more!" Song Shuhang breathed deeply. His heart started to beat a little faster.
Even though the success rate in one attempt was rather low, but being hopeful was part of human nature.
If the contract was successfully made with the ghost spirit, it would be equivalent to opening 2x add-on when Song Shuhang practiced—him practicing once would be the same as other people practicing twice!
Minutes and seconds ticked by...
Suddenly, Senior White stood up forcefully with a doubtful expression.
Song Shuhang happened to see Venerable White’s expression. Could it be that something odd was happening to his formation?
"Don’t worry, concentrate on the ‘Five Elements Spirit Contracting Altar’ formation, you are doing great. Leave the other things to me," consoled Venerable White.
Thereafter, Venerable White opened his mouth and spat, and a sword light made of spiritual qi appeared above Song Shuhang’s head, protecting him.
After the preparations were put in place, Venerable White went to the window and opened it.
30 seconds later...
‘Swish’. A green figure from far drew nearer ever so swiftly in the direction of Venerable White.
Vaguely, a man with a green daoist robe donned on could be seen. In his surroundings were green radiant rays that were put together to form the shape of a huge sword, tightly wrapping around him.
"Bang!" The huge sword energy around the man in green daoist robe struck the barrier created by the Medicine Master outside the house; he fell through the opened window and landed on the ground, next to Venerable White.
The body of the man bounced and bounced; after quite a while, he could finally groan in pain, "Ow..."
At the same time, the huge sword energy surrounding him collapsed and broke into smithereens like glass as it disappeared.
When the sword light disappeared, the small sword that was left could only spin in the air for a bit before sticking into the ground.
The face of the green daoist robe man on the ground turned white—you could see from his eyes that he could not take the defeat lying down. He reached his hands to the sky and started clawing at the air, as though he was trying to grab something.
Slowly, his eyes started to lose focus and became more and more blurry.
Venerable White squatted and reached his hands out onto his body and lightly pressed it to examine his condition. Thereafter, he sighed and asked, "What is your name? Do you have any last words?"
"Loose cultivator, Li Tiansu..." The man used all his might to squeeze out these words.
Upon finishing his words, every inch of his body broke and reduced to countless dots of light, and he completely vanished from the surface of the earth; not even a piece of flesh was left behind.
"Ding... ding..." two sounds were made by an old bronze ring as it fell to the ground after the man disappeared.
Not to forget the lonely blue-colored short sword that was still stuck to the ground—a proof that the green daoist robe man used to live on this earth.
Venerable White secretly let out a sigh.
This loose cultivator was after all an expert of the Fifth Stage Spiritual Emperor Realm and possessed a Golden Core. If you were to put him in a great sect, he could easily become an elder, someone with great power.
However, he just had to encounter some big tribulation that caused him to use all his might to try to find a way to escape.
Even then, his plan did not work to save his life; in the midst of fleeing, he received another bout of attack and ended up losing his life ultimately.
Leaving behind the bronze ring and the short blue sword.
Venerable White picked up the bronze ring and short sword.
In the bronze ring lay three solidified magic spells. One of them should be a Second Stage fire magic, the other one was also of Second Stage, healing magic, and the last one was a rather decent spiritual power gathering magic—it gathered spiritual power beside its user.
The life of a loose cultivator was difficult. That cultivator of the Fifth Stage Golden Core Realm was wearing some equipment of the Second and Third Stage—just for the ‘spirit gathering formation’.
Venerable White examined the short sword—its quality was rather decent, it could forcibly be used for flying.
Before finding his own ‘Meteor Sword’, he could actually use this to get around first, Venerable White secretly decided.
At this time, Song Shuhang behind suddenly shouted, "Senior, help me!"
Earlier, after the loose cultivator’s body got reduced to dots of light and dissipated, the ghost spirit within the Five Elements’ Spirit Contracting Altar looked as though it took a senzu bean—a second ago it seemed like it was gonna die any moment, and in the next second, it was full of energy and vitality, as though it was going to break out of the ‘Five Elements’ Spirit Contracting Altar’ anytime...