Chapter 56 – Elder Ghost
“Jia Lan!”
Once Lei Zhen saw the girl’s face, he immediately let out a surprised shout.
“Junior Lei?” The cyan-clothed young lady saw Lei Zhen and proceeded to speak indifferently. However, when her eyes fell on Liu Ming a flash of astonishment arose.
“Junior Lei? You are Senior Lei’s nephew?” Once the beautiful woman in front heard this, her eyes swept across the youngster like a knife as she coldly asked a question.
“Greetings Martial Aunt Bing!” After hearing the remark, Lei Zhen looked at the cyan-clothed girl once more before hastily bowing to the Martial Aunt.
The small girl to his side also bowed in a flurry.
“Stand up. My relationship with Senior Lei is quite good so you do not need to be so polite.” The beautiful woman’s expression slightly relaxed as she raised her hands to allow the two of them to stand. Her eyes then involuntarily fell on Liu Ming.
“Disciple Bai Cong Tian of Nine Infants Mountain greets Martial Aunt Bing!” Although Liu Ming was unsure of who this beautiful woman was, he could only summon his courage and slowly bow.
“Nine Infants Mountain!” The beautiful woman nonchalantly nodded her head and without seeming to care about it and brought Jia Lan to a corner of the large hall. Soon after, she also stood still, waiting in her spot without moving.
Due to the beautiful woman present, Lei Zhen and the small girl naturally did not casually converse.
For a while, the large hall was extremely quiet.
This time it only took the time it takes to have a cup of tea before the one of the side doors to the large hall opened. From these doors walked in a black-robed man who seemed to be around forty years old. He had a massive aquiline nose and his features were rather gloomy.
“Sister Bing, what are you doing here?” The black-robed man saw the beautiful woman in the large hall and was immediately startled.
“Senior Li, why can this younger sister not come here? This time I am going to bring Jia Lan into the Ghost Hell Region to accomplish a few things.” The beautiful woman calmly said while exuding familiarity with the black-clothed man.
“So it was like this. However, junior should be well aware that the Contribution Points required to transport a Spirit Apostle and a Spirit Master are completely different.” Once the black robed man heard this, his expression became very serious.
“Of course I am aware of this so before coming here I collected enough contribution points. It should be enough to enter once.” The beautiful woman was indifferent as she replied.
“If junior is willing to spend contribution points like this, then there is no problem.” The black clothed man’s face relaxed.
The beautiful woman faintly smiled and did not say anything else.
At this time, the black-clothed man’s eyes fell on Liu Ming and the others and after glancing over them he said, “Since there are another three people here, it should be enough for a teleportation. All of you come over here.”
After speaking, he ignored the three Spirit Apostles and took out a sinister looking ghost head iron medallion from his sleeve. He then walked toward one of the tall walls in the large hall without regard for the Spirit Apostles.
The beautiful woman leisurely took Jia Lan over there.
Lei Zhen, Liu Ming, and the others naturally followed.
The black-robed man’s arm moved; he waved the iron medallion toward the nearby wall. A black light shot out from the medallion and entered the wall before disappearing with a flash.
A second later the wall became indistinct, and a dazzling white light door suddenly appeared on the wall.
Without the slightest hesitation, the black man walked into it with large strides.
The rest of them naturally followed him through the light door.
Liu Ming saw the white light explode in front of him as he entered the door, and suddenly he appeared in a small secret room.
The light from the portal door reflected off the metallic sheen of all four walls. On closer inspection it could be seen that many profound and beautiful Spirit Marks were engraved on the walls. The entire room radiated an unspeakably mysterious feeling.
In the middle of the secret room lay a three meter long silver formation. At the edge of the formation were special notches meant for Spirit Stones.
Once the black-robed man withdrew the iron medallion, the light door behind him disappeared in a flash and a faint golden short rod appeared in his hand.
When everyone else saw this, they passed over their name plates one after the other and paid their Contribution Points.
The black-robed man put away the golden rod after collecting all the Contribution Points and took out a few crystals the size of a thumb. He then put them in the notches at the edge of the formation.
TL: No idea why the author starts using crystals instead of Spirit Stones. They are the same thing though.
These crystals were completely different from any that Liu Ming had seen before. They unexpectedly emitted a faint black light like small black stars.
When the cyan-robed young girl saw these crystals, her expression changed.
“These are space attributed crystals and are not Spirit Stone of the normal five attributes. Thus they are extremely rare items. Or else, just transporting you guys to the Ghost Hell Region would not have cost so many contribution points. Normally three to four crystals would be enough to transport you but with me included, the cost is now more than ten times the usual.” The beautiful woman seemed to be able to discern her disciple’s curiosity and indifferently resolved it in a few sentences.
After hearing this, not only did the cyan-clothed young girl nod her head but Liu Ming and the others also came to a sudden realization.
Although they had heard of space attributed crystals before, this was the first time they had actually seen these items.
Liu Ming further examined these items closely as if he was trying to engrave them into his mind.
The black-robed man acted as the beautiful woman had said; he placed over thirty space attributed crystals around the formation in one go. Then he stopped, turned around and said in a solemn voice.
“Okay, you can now enter the formation. Although you probably know about the dangers of the Ghost Hell Region, I still have to warn you. That area is a genuine ghost area with lots of Miasma. No matter how high one’s cultivation is, he or she can stay there for at most one month. If one were to surpass this time, his or her body and spirit would be assimilated by the Miasma. There would be a very high probability of becoming a ghost. Thus you must return to the teleportation formation within a month. Any later and you must bear the consequences on your own.
After saying this, the black-robed man formed a sign with his hand above the formation.
A buzzing sound rang in the air and the entire formation started to radiate a multicolored light.
The beautiful woman, Liu Ming and the others naturally did not hesitate to successively stand on the colorful formation.
A violent fluctuation rose again and the beautiful woman, Liu Ming, and the others flashed and disappeared.
The black-robed man let out a soft breath of air and sat down cross-legged nearby. He calmly closed his eyes and started to meditate.
……
Liu Ming felt a fierce wave of dizziness before finally opening his eyes.
Astonishingly, the beautiful woman and company were standing in a different secret room. Below them was another similar looking golden formation.
Moreover, the surrounding walls were made of an unknown black rock and there was a half closed stone door. Besides them, there was no one else in the room.
“Let’s go!” The beautiful woman said indifferently before bringing the cyan-clothed young girl outside of the formation. She then pushed open the door and they left.
Lei Zhen and the young girl looked at each other and also proceeded to leave.
Within a few moments only Liu Ming was left.
Liu Ming lightly sucked in a breath of air and felt that the nearby Yuan Li was a lot more sparse than in the Barbarian Ghost Sect. Further, there was an indiscernible cold and negative energy mixed within the air. Even breathing would make the body feel strained.
Liu Ming shook his head and walked out of the stone doorway.
Outside the room was an extremely large plaza.
The ground of the plaza was made of the same black stone and on the edge of the plaza stood tall bronze columns. The area beyond the plaza was enveloped by an abnormally thick layer of milky white light.
In the center of the plaza lay thirty to forty black stone rooms.
In between each stone room were approximately ten Ghost Barbarian Sect disciple assembled together and chatting with each other.
“Hey, is this your first time in Ghost Hell Region?”
As Liu Ming observed his surroundings, he suddenly heard a shrill voice from behind him.
Liu Ming jumped with fright and quickly turned his body. He discovered a yellow leather gowned elder with green hair sitting next to the stone door.
In the elder’s hand was an unremarkable silver disk adorned with scarlet red arrows on one side. More importantly, Liu Ming had failed to sense the elder despite him being so close.
“Recently I just saw that girl Bing here. Ze Ze. Since that girl has become a Spirit Master, this is her first time coming here; this is very rare.” The old man said.
“Senior is…”
The old man had lowered his head so Liu Ming could not see his face but after hearing his tone of voice, Liu Ming didn’t neglect his manners as he asked his question.
“You can call me Elder Ghost. I am the person in charge of the formation that sends you back to the sect.” The old man leisurely replied before finally raising his head.
When Liu Ming saw the Elder’s face, even with his bold courage, his heart still froze.
The Elder looked no different from a regular old man except for his eye sockets which were empty without eyes. Instead there were two pea sized green flames that faintly flickered in the place of the eyes.
“Junior greets Elder Ghost!” Once Liu Ming’s thoughts had passed, he forcefully suppressed his fear and once again spoke with courtesy.
“Not bad! Among the youngsters who see me for the first one, you can be considered one of the brave ones. Since this is the case, I have something for you to do. If you finish it, there will naturally be benefits.” Elder Gui said as the green flames flashed.
“I do not know the task, but my Fa Li is insignificant and thus may not prove to be very beneficial.” Liu Ming hesitated slightly after hearing this.
“Hehe, its only a trivial matter and absolutely does not require a lot of Fa Li. I have a Miasma Compass here that can accurately show a ghost’s location to an extent of a thousand feet. If you are able to find some Ghost Faced Fish in a Miasma River for me then I will give you this compass.” Elder Gui laughed as he spoke. He then showed the silver compass to Liu Ming.
“It can show a ghost’s location? Are you not joking!” Once Liu Ming heard this, his heart stirred.
“With my status do you think I would trick you? One and a half kilometers in that direction is a Miasma River; quickly go and come back.” Elder Gui seemed a bit impatient.
“Since it is only one and a half kilometers, I will attempt to finish the task.” Liu Ming was still a bit perplexed, but after hearing the distance and seeing the compass in the Elder’s hands, he ultimately agreed.