Chapter 500: Epic Cave Story
Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy
The next morning, Wang Lu and Ouyang Shang found the tribal great elder and directly put forward their request.
"Magic mark?"
The great elder was having breakfast in the tent—a plate of light vegetable soup. As soon as he heard the request of the two people, he drank the vegetable soup through his nose on the spot.
"How did you know the existence of the magic mark?"
For the desert demon tribe, the magic mark could be considered as an absolute secret, their top-level secret for the spark as their only hope. But in just one day, outsiders were able to hear it!
Wang Lu laughed and said, "What a joke, after letting a professional adventurer walk around your city for a day, do you still expect to have any privacy left?"
From the side, Ouyang Shang argued, "Junior Brother Wang Lu, what you just said is somewhat abnormal."
"Senior Brother Ouyang, you seem to be saying that I'm not abnormal."
"…"
The great elder gazed at Wang Lu seriously for a long time and then sighed. "Since you guys already knew, then so be it. It's just that, you guys want us to give you the magic mark, so that you can observe the devil up close? I can't accept this request."
Wang Lu said, "Are you afraid that by taking this risk, you guys would be implicated by us? Then why did you let us in?"
The great elder hesitated—it was apparently hard for him to make the decision.
By inviting outsiders to come in, of course, he was ready to take the risk, but… in just a day, it had already progressed to the extent of directly facing the invisible devil, which was something that was beyond his expectation.
However, Wang Lu didn't intend to give him time reprieve.
"It doesn't matter if you don't want to provide us with the magic mark, it's the same as if we're going there bare naked. According to my understanding, the invisible devil is not sensitive to the creatures other than demon race. In the past two thousand years, the desert also welcomed many outside visitors, but they enjoy freedom to come and go. Even when they came close to the desert oasis, it did not easily cause a curse. Therefore, when the time comes, we just need to be careful not to trigger the sand poison. Well, then, goodbye."
With that, Wang Lu turned around and left. But how could the great elder let him go just like that? Not to mention that the two of them were the only ray of hope that the great elder had ever seen in many years… Even if they could not care about their lives, if they accidentally provoked the devil, causing the curse to erupt, the entire tribe would suffer!
"... Do you want to have the magic spell? Okay, but at least give me a day to prepare."
"Is it really that long? Would half a day be enough?"
"…"
Seeing the gloomy face of the great elder began to darken, Wang Lu realized that he had probably stepped on the bottom line of the opposite party.
"Very well, then let's see you tomorrow."
—
On the second day, still inside the tent of the great elder, Wang Lu and Ouyang Shang made another visit. Only this time, in addition to the great elder, there were two more people in the tent. They were two wrinkled old men who were already at the end of their lives. Their age… should be around fifty and could be considered as seniors within the tribe.
The great elder's face was gloomier than the last time. After seeing the arrival of the two people, he let out a humph and said, "Let's start the preparation."
Then, the two people beside the great elder suddenly pulled out their blades. Cold light gleamed from them.
Seeing this scene, Wang Lu was astonished thinking whether this was the preparation prepared for a day by the great elder? Throw down the cup as a sign and let out the ambushing five hundred executioners? The problem was… based on the two frail old men, were they worthy to be considered as executioners?
It was true that there were many gifted individuals in this tribe. And in terms of stage, there were twenty to thirty Jindan Stage level or higher people. But in terms of actual fighting capacity… Wang Lu alone was enough to kill the entire city inhabitants more than ten times. Thus, it was simply beyond foolish for the opposite party to resort to violence!
But the next moment, he saw the blades turn around and directly cut down their head!
Seeing the two fountains of blood that surged out toward the sky, Wang Lu frowned and asked Ouyang Shang, "... Is this the tame head 1 technique?"
"... I think you must have misunderstood, the tame head technique does not mean dropping your own head 2 !"
However, Ouyang Shang was not sure what the other person was thinking. Giving their own head on the first meeting, this must the weirdest gift on the first meeting ever. But soon he understood the hidden meaning of it.
The expression of the great elder of the demon race was gloomy as he gathered his arms together, and the stream of blood that rose to the sky was invaded by an invisible force into countless trickless and drawn a complex graphic in mid air.
"... Is that the magic mark?"
Upon seeing this scene, even a dull person could realize the truth. It turned out that the magic mark of the demon race was drawn using people's head's blood as the ink. No wonder the great elder's face did not look good when they previously asked for the magic mark. And at this time, his face was also very unsightly.
The great elder, with exquisite magical power, manipulated the people's blood in the air into intricate and delicate patterns. And then he let out a humph sound and the blood mark in the air flickered a few times and then disappeared. Ouyang Shang and Wang Lu each felt hot on their wrist as a miniature mark was printed on it.
After placing the magic mark, the great elder looked very tired. "It is done, do what you must do."
"I thought it was 'do what we can for sex.'"
"…"
—
After having the magic mark, the two of them didn't feel any different from before. They tried to analyze the secret of the magic mark using various ways, but could only feel a weak and mysterious force condensed in the mark. After specifically analyzing it, it was somewhat similar to mojibake 3 —it didn't have any practical significance.
Exactly why demon race were able to avoid the perception of the invisible devil through such a garbled QR code on the wrist was unknown. But considering that the true body of the invisible devil was still unknown, perhaps its way of perceiving was completely out of common sense, therefore, for the time being, they had to accept this setting.
In short, after accepting the magic mark, the two of them were ready to go to the invisible devil's den, which was a magnificent lofty shrine in the middle of the city. The tribal rituals such as the blood sacrifice and other ceremonies were performed there.
The shrine, which was made of white rock, seemed exceptionally conspicuous in the city of tents and mats. It was hard to imagine how they collected resources to build this shrine with how frugal the people's lives were. But the influence of the invisible devil in this city was also visible. It was also easy to imagine how terrified the demons here of the invisible devil that they wasted so much of their resources to build the shrine.
But as they approached, the stone sculptures on the wall of the shrine clearly recorded the unyielding spirit of the tribe. Each mural recorded their fellow tribe member who died from the struggle, even if that demon was only ordinary in their life. Over the past two thousand years, the wall was densely packed with such murals.
Perhaps in the construction of this magnificent shrine, the demon race realized that their struggle would be protracted, even so much that it has no end, so there was plenty of space to record those brave martyrs. Unfortunately, after two thousand years, the outer wall of the magnificent shrine had finally closed to run out of empty space, but the invisible devil was still strong and the demons could not see the hope of liberation.
Pushing over the desolate front door of the shrine, they only saw a few pale-looking priests. After seeing Wang Lu and Ouyang Shang, they nodded indifferently and then opened the stone door that went to the deeper part of the shrine.
Along the passage behind the stone gate, the surrounding air turned from scalding hot to cold. The passage way seemed to spiral down. After walking for about several hundred meters, a door appeared at the end of the passage.
The surface of the door was covered with magic marks and symbols made of blood. And the blood was still flowing slowly driven by a mysterious force, reflecting the light from the torches on both sides of the passage. The blood mark on the door was much stronger than the mark that was printed on the wrists of Wang Lu and Ouyang Shang. Its effect was simple and clear—to prevent all unauthorized person from entering the door, to avoid the wrath of the devil.
Behind that door was the altar where the desert demon performed the blood sacrifice ceremony, which was the closest place in the entire oasis city to where the devil's true body resided. Every once in a while, the high priest of the tribe would preside over the blood sacrifice ceremony by gathering the tribe's seniors who already became feeble to offer them as blood sacrifice to the devil. Of course, there were times when the devil would demand some sacrifices, but the scope of the demands was completely random. Sometimes, it would be an important tribal elder, but other times, it would be ordinary tribe members. Whenever that happened, their life partner within the tribe would follow them in life and death.
In the time outside the blood sacrifice ceremony, this door would not be opened, and it was not possible to break the blood mark on the door by force based on the strength of these demons. However, this safety lock was less absolute for people that came from outside the oasis. A few days ago, Feng Yin and the others broke the blood mark on the door, sneaked into the blood sacrifice area, and mistook the desert demons for having the ability to manipulate the sandstorm.
Feng Yin and the others could break the door lock, so it was even easier for Ouyang Shang and Wang Lu to do it. Ouyang Shang did not even touch the blood mark but merely put his hand on Wang Lu's shoulder, and the next moment, the two appeared behind the door—he used the extremely brilliant earth shrink technique.
Behind the door was an empty circular space with a bloodstained altar in the middle. The two of them went to the altar and then closed their eyes. With rapt attention, they constrained the fluctuation of magical power from all over their body, even to the point where they stopped breathing and reduced their body temperature, just like a dead body.
The next thing to do was the feat that the demon race had never tried before for two thousand years. Even if there was the protection of the magic mark, they had to take further precaution.
The two people lifted the altar.
The heavy huge stone was lifted directly from the ground just like a straw in the hands of two Daoist Masters of Jindan Stage. The process was smooth and silent as all the fallen debris and crushed stones were wrapped and melted by the gentle and subtle force of Ouyang Shang. Below the altar was a bottomless pit.
According to the legend of the demon race, underneath the altar was the true body of the devil, but no one had ever seen it except for the first group of brave demons two thousand years ago. After the first group of brave demons rushed into the cave, no one could escape. The demons at that time were not as weak as the present.
When the mouth of the cave was exposed, Ouyang Shang and Wang Lu felt a gust of wind crush into their head, which caused them to raise their vigilance to the extreme. Wang Lu was about to use his Non-Phase Sword Qi to travel around inside his body, to ensure that he wasn't invaded by poison...
However, the next moment, their tight nerves snapped.
"Oh, it's two little guys that I haven't seen before."
The sudden voice that echoed in their ears made the minds of the two Daoist Masters of Jindan Stage who had been accustomed to winds and waves simultaneously shake.
…