Chapter 152: Rolan’s Golden Palace
Translator: Ninetales Editor: Fish_Creek
He didn't give Qin Mu a chance to say his words and muttered, "I'm just afraid Grand Shaman this fellow will play a shell game on me and find people to fight me one after another, keeping me busy and unable to get away… This is getting slightly difficult."
Not long later, Rolan's Golden Palace finally appeared in front of everyone's eyes.
Qin Mu looked in the distance and saw a lake suddenly appearing in the boundless prairie. With bluish green ripples undulating, the lake was so vast that it was like an ocean in the prairie.
Qin Mu looked into the distance and could faintly see huge mountains extending forever into the distance. These mountains were wrapped in silver and piled up with snow.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the towering mountains, there was a golden mountain shining gloriously. Qin Mu opened his Heaven's Eyes to take a look and finally saw that it wasn't a golden mountain but a golden palace in its glorious splendor.
There were simply too many palace halls which completely covered the entire mountain, therefore from afar, it looked like a gold mountain.
There was no fix currency on the prairie and only gold was accepted therefore they had used the gold ingots that General Bian Zhenyun had given to them to pay for their meals throughout the entire journey.
To the commoners on the prairie, gold was very rare and had an extremely high value, and the palace here was constructed out of entirely gold, it showed how luxurious the golden palace was.
Chancellor Ba Shan came to the lake and Qin Mu looked around. There was a wooden boat berthed there and there was a man who grew horns on his head on the boat. He was dressed in black and stood at the bow of the boat while leaning on the bamboo pole used for rowing the boat.
On the shallow water regions of the lake, there are also wooden poles stabbed there and on every wooden pole, there was a decomposed head hanging on it.
"The shamans' soul collection skills are even more devilish than our Heavenly Saint Cult."
Qin Mu looked at that man and the face of this man was like a mountain goat, although it was a brown mountain goat which was different from the usual white mountain goat. Furthermore, there was not much hair on his face.
"Goat-faced shaman?" Qin Mu was slightly stunned.
When he was in the capital city, he had treated a few soldiers who had suffered from shaman poison and heard the soldier said that they had met a barbarian that grew horns on his head. That barbarian had used a mirror to reflect them, making them fall into a coma.
Qin Mu had originally thought that the shaman had worn a mask and now that he had seen the shaman on the wooden boat, only then did he know that there were actually barbarians that grew horns on their heads.
That goat-faced shaman glanced at them and gave off a sharp voice, "Martial Khan, Grand Shaman has waited for quite some time! Please board the boat!"
Chancellor Ba Shan boarded the boat and smiled, "The water of this lake is weak water and has no buoyancy. Even feathers sink when they land on the surface of the river. We have to rely on the boat of Rolan's Golden Palace to be able to cross. Let us get on the boat."
Qin Mu and Ling Yuxiu boarded the wooden ship along with the green bull and Hu Ling'er. The eyes of that shaman landed on Qin Mu and Ling Yuxiu before sneering and pushing the boat over to the opposite shore.
Ling Yuxiu smiled, "If we can't step on the weak water over, can't we walk around it? We can also fly across it."
That barbarian shaman laughed sarcastically, "Fly over? You can try the air here and see if you can fly? The air here is dead."
"The air is dead?" Ling Yuxiu asked puzzledly.
The green cow beside her spoke in a low muffled voice, "The air here is indeed dead, you can't fly here."
He was good at controlling the tempest and he could feel that the air didn't flow at all. When a person breathes normally, air would circulate when they breathe in and out. If the air doesn't flow, the air under their nostrils would be emptied when they take in a breath, turning that space into a vacuum. When the air beside can't be resupplied to the area under the nostrils, one would naturally suffocate.
This Weak Water Lake was as such. The air above the lake was fixed in place by an ineffable power and wouldn't move at all. Only when the wooden boat slid forward, the people on the boat would move as well so they wouldn't feel any peculiarity when they breathed. If the boat stopped, they would breathe in all the air under their nostrils and when this went on for a period of time, they would definitely suffocate.
If they executed skills of flying, it would be pretty impossible for them to fly above the lake. Skills of flying required one to vibrate the air to form an updraft. However, vibrating the air here would only form a vacuum, making one unable to fly.
Hu Ling'er also gave it a try and discovered that the spells to call the wind and summon the rain were completely useless here.
That barbarian shaman chuckled, "It's not impossible to walk around it. However, Weak Water Lake is too wide and if you walk around it, it will take you two days. Furthermore, when you reach the snow mountains, hehe, there aren't many who can walk out of it."
Ling Yuxiu was speechless.
Qin Mu secretly opened his Heaven's Eyes and Green Heaven's Eyes to look up at the sky. He could faintly see some indiscernible fog like muslin shrouding the entire sky above the lake, making his heart stirred slightly, "I guess it should be this muslin which made the air unable to circulate?"
This thin muslin couldn't be touched yet it really existed. This should be the restriction which Chancellor Ba Shan had mentioned.
He inadvertently looked down into the water and his heart trembled slightly. At the bottom of this lake were sets of white bones which made Ling Yuxiu gasped when she looked down.
Chancellor Ba Shan said, "These are all the slaves used by the shaman cult to refine their spells."
Qin Mu felt a bone-chilling cold.
The goat-faced shaman rowed the boat rather quickly as he had a unique secret method to travel around the surface of the lake like the wind. Even the weak water couldn't sink this boat.
Not long later, the wooden boat berthed at the bottom of the snow mountain. That goat-faced shaman laughed mischievously, "Martial Khan, please!"
Chancellor Ba Shan gave a smile and walked toward the golden mountain.
Toot toot.
A long and deep sound sounded out from the bugle horn. The sound was so deep and resounding that it vibrated the eardrums in resonance. In the distance, an avalanche suddenly happened on all the mountains, adding an imposing grandeur to it.
Chancellor Ba Shan laughed out loudly and suppressed the rumbles given off by the bugle horn and avalanche. Qin Mu and the rest couldn't feel any abnormalities but the qi and blood of the people on the mountain flared up from his laughter and everyone had their blood rushed to the heads, making them feel as if their heads were going to explode yet they couldn't suppress it down.
At this moment, a deep voice traveled out from the top of the mountain, "The vigor of Martial Khan's cultivation now has far surpassed the vigor of yours in those days. Was there a need to show off your strength the moment you have arrived? Martial Khan, please come up the mountain and meet me!"
This voice sounded very clear among Chancellor Ba Shan's laughter. The voice was old yet was full of power, therefore, it was obvious he was also an exceptional expert.
"Grand Shaman's words, I naturally have no choice but to obey. However, the purpose of me coming today is to block your mountain gate and not to catch up on the past."
Chancellor Ba Shan and the old voice spoke to each other leisurely from a distant, "I'll go up the mountain right now!"
Qin Mu raised his head and saw a gold staircase laid all the way up to the mountain and after walking up for a brief moment, there was a golden gate erected there and the gate had no hinged barriers.
This gate which was formed from gold was over thirty yards in height and over sixty yards in width. It was embedded with precious jades and precious pearls and really luxurious.
Back then it was Butcher who had brought Chancellor Ba Shan here and blocked the gate for three months, defeating all the young talents of Rolan's Golden Palace and the experts who had rushed in from every part of the prairie after they had heard the news.
Thus Chancellor Ba Shan was honored as Martial Emperor by the prairie.
Back then Butcher had also experienced a hundred or so battles of all sizes and gave all the older generation of Rolan's Golden Palace a beating, receiving the fame of Heaven Khan, the Heaven Emperor.
Chancellor Ba Shan brought them to the front of the mountain gate and saw many shamans already waiting there. There were also strong practitioners of the prairie and they were not the disciples of Rolan's Golden Palace but they were also guarding there. They must be the famous existences of the prairie and had rushed over when they heard the news.
"Bull bull!" Chancellor Ba Shan gave a shout.
The green bull mooed deeply and his body suddenly swelled up. His muscles bulged and he grew taller and taller until he became a bull-head monster with a muscular human body. Taking great strides to the golden gate, he raised his shoulders upwards and uprooted that incomparably heavy mountain gate!
The barbarian shamans and strong practitioners at the side were all dumbfounded.
Chancellor Ba Shan said indifferently, "Bring the gate up the mountain!"
Qin Mu's heart slightly trembled as he knew Chancellor Ba Shan's intention. If they blocked the gate under the mountain, it would be difficult for them to enter the interior of Rolan's Golden Palace. By carrying the gate up and blocking it in front of the main hall of Rolan's Golden Palace, it would be much easier to steal the lower body of Butcher back.
However, by doing this, he had completely offended Rolan's Golden Palace. They would definitely fight to the last gasp.
If they entered deep into Rolan's Golden Palace, those strong practitioners just had to block the mountain path leading down and they would be trapped. In that case, they would be in a very bad situation.
Chancellor Ba Shan gave a cold grunt and walked forward, transmitting his voice to Qin Mu's ears, "After going up the mountain, it wouldn't be just you two blocking the mountain gate. They would probably make a move on me. Things are slightly different from what I have imagined…"
Qin Mu comforted him, "The person who taught me stealing is a cripple, he's really powerful."
"How did he get crippled?" Chancellor Ba Shan asked.
Qin Mu hesitated and said honestly, "It seems like he got one of his leg chopped off after getting caught stealing."
Chancellor Ba Shan laughed grimly, "When I heard that you said he was a cripple, I knew he got crippled after getting caught stealing. Have you stolen anything before?"
Qin Mu hesitated again and shook his head, "I haven't tried yet."
Chancellor Ba Shan completely lost his wishful thinking and his expression was mixed. Suddenly he stuffed a map to Qin Mu and said, "This is the geographic map of Rolan's Golden Palace, keep it with you first… however, I hope you won't have to use it. We'll have to take things step by step now. When we reach the golden palace, we'll have to adapt according to the situation. We just might be able to find the chance to steal back our master's lower body!"
The staircase of Rolan's Golden Palace was extremely long and stretched all the way up to the mountain peak. Qin Mu and Ling Yuxiu followed Chancellor Ba Shan up the mountain and looked around. He could see numerous golden-bright and dazzling statues of gods. Each and every statue looked extremely weird. They were human and yet not human, devil and yet not devil, god and yet not god. They had the characteristics of human, devil and god all at the same time, having all kinds of variations in their appearances.
Walking on this kind of road, it made people feel even more stifling and even Hu Ling'er who liked to squabble the green bull had quieted down. Only the green bull incomparably heavy footsteps could be heard.
Qin Mu looked back and the eyes of the strong practitioners and the shamans were spewing fire as they followed them without a word.
In front, numerous golden-bright and dazzling palaces appeared and there were some strange and weirdly shaped humans standing under these palaces. Some of them had horns on their heads and some had wings on their backs. There were some that had heads of beasts and some that grew tails of snakes.
Yet, on the contrary, they weren't the demon race. The demon race had a demon air around, for example, Hu Ling'er had demon air and even though the demon air of the green bull was very faint, he still had it after all.
Meanwhile, these mutants had no demon air.
Hu Ling'er and the green bull were transforming in the direction of a human whereas the strong practitioners of Rolan's Golden Palace were transforming in the directions of a non-human.
That was a different cultivation mentality between Eternal Peace and beyond the Great Wall. Transforming to a non-human and becoming closer to devil and god meant shaman.
However, there were also some people looked like ordinary humans. These people should be able to control their bodies and transform freely using their divine arts.
There were also numerous cages in front of the hall which were stuffed with humans in ragged clothing. They should be the 'ingredients' that the shamans of Rolan's Golden Palace used for practicing their techniques.
Ling Yuxiu's expression changed slightly and got angry, "Those are the people of our Eternal Peace Empire!"
Qin Mu said nonchalantly, "Eternal Peace Empire has also captured the people of my Great Ruins and treated them as slaves."
Ling Yuxiu's body trembled and she kept silent.
"Young master, they not only use humans to practice their techniques, they also capture demons."
Hu Ling'er stuck her nose out and Qin Mu looked over in the direction to see some demons getting locked in a few cages.
Chancellor Ba Shan said, "The shaman cult has an unusual technique that could use souls to cultivate, to use them to change their bodies' structures. For example, by absorbing birds' souls, they could grow wings or even replace their heads with birds' heads. By absorbing the souls of goats, their bodies could transform to goats. Those who manage to cultivate divine arts are called great shamans while those that haven't are called shamans. Those who reach Celestial Being Realm are called shaman kings. Rolan's Golden Palace is the sacred grounds of the shaman cult and their technique is called Grand Shaman Ruda Scriptures which is pretty extraordinary."