Chapter 103: Yellow Bird
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Yellow Bird
The tree shook even more violently, with the Black Water Mystical Viper’s enormous body on it, even this unfathomable sky-towering strange tree seemed to tremble too.
It seemed to be a ferocious beast from the ancient times, the Black Water Mystical Viper used its mammoth body to wrap around the trunk and left a ruin of leaves and branches in its wake and the strange vines flowers withered and crushed. It swaggered ahead, the human species in front of it were like ants, not even worth bothering.
Lu XueQi’s face looked slightly pale, she stepped forward, her eyes still staring at that approaching ancient gigantic beast, she quietly asked Zeng ShuShu, “What happened?”
Sweat appeared on Zeng ShuShu’s forehead, he said, “When we were below just now, we suddenly saw this terrible beast. With just our current level of cultivation, naturally we could only run. But at that time it did not seem to mind us and appeared to be looking for something, so it left very quickly. Unexpectedly it actually, actually crawl up here.”
Everyone looked at each other, even though they were all cultivators and different from the common people but the strength of a human was limited, especially in front of this extremely horrible gigantic beast, any efforts made would be laughable.
At the critical moment where the Black Water Mystical Viper was nearing, Jin PingEr suddenly exclaimed, “Oh no, this beast seem to be coming for the thing inside the Celestial Emperor Treasury.”
Everyone’s expressions changed.
Ghost Li frowned slightly, his face was expressionless. He suddenly recalled while in the miasma wall when he first entered into the inner marsh, he once encountered an inconceivable-sized beast but due to the miasma, he was unable to see it clearly. Just that since then, he had a familiar sense of feeling towards the special bloody smell in the atmosphere and as seen today, what he had encountered that day was actually this Black Water Mystical Viper.
Watching the Black Water Mystical Viper’s continuous approach, the mammoth black body causing the tree trunk to shake unceasingly and almost made one worry if this tree might collapse under its weight. And its massive head high up, the bright red forked tongue under its fangs, flicked unceasingly, it growled softly towards the direction of the Celestial Emperor Treasury, appearing to be very excited.
Right now, anyone could see that this enormous beast’s goal, was indeed the item located inside that Celestial Emperor Treasury behind them.
Ghost Li turned back and looked at that Celestial Emperor Treasury, that thick solid door had not move the slightest. The spot of sunlight which shone in the sea of flowers before it, had now shifted to the door, the four big ancient seal characters, ‘Celestial Emperor Treasury’, glinted in the sunlight.
Fa Xiang watched as that enormous snake body like a small mountain, came nearer and nearer, he sighed softly and turned swiftly around and spoke to the rest, “This Black Water Mystical Viper is an ancient demonic beast and is not what a human can fight against, we are definitely not its match so let’s not force ourselves, we better quickly leave.”
Actually everyone knew this fact, Zeng ShuShu, Lin JingYu and the rest nodded, Jin PingEr on the other side humphed and showed her unwillingness but looking at her expression, she was getting ready to leave.
Everyone started to wield their magical weapon and prepared to disperse, Ghost Li’s hand started to glow with dark green light and he was about to turn back and call Xiao Hui who was still hiding beside the stone door, when at this moment, suddenly above the Celestial Emperor Treasury stone door, a muffled rumbling sound was heard.
At that moment, it was exactly where that sunlight across the horizon, shone onto the uppermost horizontal stroke of the Celestial character in the four ancient seal words, ‘Celestial Emperor Treasury’.
[Hong!]
Almost at the same time, the Black Water Mystical Viper suddenly sped up, it swiftly climbed up while growling at the same time. For a moment, everyone panicked, Jin PingEr, Zeng ShuShu, Lin JingYu, Fa Xiang etc all flew up first.
In the air, the pungent smell of blood assaulted the nose, a violent gale started to blow from nowhere, cutting across their faces like knives.
Ghost Li suddenly turned and leapt back, flying towards the Celestial Emperor Treasury, Fa Xiang and the rest who were already in the air were all shocked. Turning back to look, the Black Water Mystical Viper appeared agitated and infuriated, its huge eyes widened and wisps of black gas seemed to shoot out from its mouth, its enormous body twisted and moved continuously and it looked like it would soon reach the Celestial Emperor Treasury entrance.
The Celestial Emperor Treasury stone door which appeared huge to the humans, right now was only more or less the size of that Black Water Mystical Viper’s head.
Ghost Li in the air, felt darkness suddenly behind him and that darkness was like toppling the mountain and overturning the sea, charging towards himself. Without turning his head, he knew that the Black Water Mystical Viper’s enormous body was just behind him.
He turned into a stream of green light, in front of this enormous beast, like lightning, flying towards that stone door.
Ahead of him, the monkey Xiao Hui suddenly shrieked!
A dark shadow smashed down, the huge gust of wind was so fierce, even before it touched his body, it could actually blew Ghost Li’s body to the side.
Ghost Li felt alarmed but right now he was already no longer that youth in the Forsaken Abyss, in an instant he moved with his thoughts, as if he had eyes behind his back, he steered the Soul-Absorbing stick from the crushing Black Water Mystical Viper’s body and escaped by a hair’s breath.
Right now, the sound of the Celestial Emperor stone door gradually became louder, together with the rumbling sound, an originally perfect piece of huge stone door, under the sunlight, a crack suddenly appeared in the middle and slowly moved away to the side.
A gold dazzling light, from that crack, burst forth. Even though it was daylight but it was so resplendent and hard to view it directly, even the sun which was slowly ascending in the horizon also seemed dim in comparison.
There seemed to be something howling within the Celestial Emperor Treasury, roaring within the golden light!
The entire Black Water Mystical Viper body suddenly turned taut, making an earth-shattering howl, it disregarded everything else and its massive snake head charged directly towards the Celestial Emperor Treasury stone door.
And between it and the stone door, that stream of green light seemed to be one step earlier than it, looked like it was going to enter that Celestial Emperor Treasury…
If, without that resplendent autumn-waters-like Tian Ya Celestial Sword.
A screen of blue light had already reached towards Ghost Li’s head, condensed to form an enormous light sword and cleaved down. The red light in Ghost Li’s eyes surged, the stone door was just in front of him but if he did not block this light sword, most likely he would be cleaved into half on the spot. He had no choice, the green light reversed and flew up towards the sky, the blue and green light, in the approaching threatening black shadow, clashed violently. Immediately, invisible energy waves propagated in all four directions, even Jin PingEr and the rest who were in the air were shocked at it.
Even though the force was such powerful but for that Black Water Mystical Viper and the strange golden light in the Celestial Emperor Treasury, they were not affected at all. The dazzling golden light increasing in its intensity, the Black Water Mystical Viper too charged over, this guy and girl, in the turbulent changing perilous scene, still holding on bitterly, both refusing to give way.
Until, both were covered totally in their magical weapons’ lights, their faces turned paler and paler but the most important was, in this flint-spark moment, the enormous black shadow, arrived before them.
The cultivated human’s magical weapons, activated by their internal energy, collided with the Black Water Mystical Viper, vanished like smoke into the thin air.
Lu XueQi and Ghost Li were thrown forward at the same time, Ghost Li felt the turmoil of blood and energy in his chest and a ringing sound in his head, his entire body’s energy channels seemed to turned upside down by that powerful collision with the Black Water Mystical Viper. A mouthful of blood was stuck in his chest, if not for Tian Yin Temple’s Great Brahman Wisdom in his body protecting his heart and circulating rapidly at the same time, blocking and dissipating the external force layer by layer. If not he would be spitting out blood immediately.
But even though it was so, he still felt severe pain in his entire body, he wondered how many bones were broken. He in the air, suddenly forced himself to turn his head and looked at Lu XueQi.
That cold and cool girl seemed to be worse, on her snow-white dress, blood stains on her chest, beside her lips on her pale face, blood trickled down, it appeared she had already coughed out blood.
Qing Yun Sect’s skills although were ingenious but on shielding the body and strengthening the heart aspect, Buddhism Great Brahman Wisdom ranked higher.
The Good Faction people hovering in the air were all staring in shock, the events happened in an instant and before they could react, Lu XueQi had already stopped Ghost Li and in the next moment, both were hit and thrown forward by the Black Water Mystical Viper, looking at their figures, most likely they were hurt badly.
Lu XueQi was after all a Qing Yun disciple, and needless to say, Ghost Li was still that Zhang Xiao Fan and had close connections with that group of people. With this change of event, the Good Faction reacted and immediately flew over, although they could not hold back the ancient evil beast Black Water Mystical Viper but they hoped to provide some assistance to the two of them.
At the same time Jin PingEr quietly flew to the other side but under the Black Water Mystical Viper shadow, her pair of bright eyes were instead concentrating on that dazzling golden light from the Celestial Emperor Treasury stone door, her bright eyes gleaming.
Far ahead, the sun which was just coming up, rose a little more.
Under the sunlight, from that uppermost stroke of the Celestial character, it shifted up a little.
Suddenly, the stone door which was opened halfway, about three chi wide, stopped moving and after a moment it actually started to close up and that golden light gradually dimmed.
Ghost Li, although his body was on the point of breaking but he and Lu XueQi were still conscious, just that the collision force from the Black Water Mystical Viper was too great and within the short time, he was unable to control his body and it looked like he was going to crash into the solid thick stone door. With the speed at which he was going, even with three schools of true ways protecting his body, he would also most probably still be smashed into pieces.
And the scary part was, that stone door, was in the process of closing up with a muffled groaning sound.
A distance away, it seemed like from the mid-air, cries of alarms came from Lin JingYu and the rest!
Ghost Li’s mind, in that instant, suddenly felt like in a trance, indistinctly there seemed to be a girl dressed in light green, under the blue sky, smiling at him. Just that, for some reason, her smile was blurred.
Time, in this instant, seemed to slow down suddenly.
His body was still turning in the air, he saw the savage-looking Black Water Mystical Viper which had arrived behind him, saw the solid stone door closing in front of him, and also, saw that beside him, the white-attired girl who also like him, flying without control in the air.
He suddenly felt an urge to ask Lu XueQi, what was it for, that she would risk her life and still insisted on stopping him?
[Zi zi, zi zi!] a sound that seemed to be next to his ear, Xiao Hui’s shrieks woke him, Xiao Hui had ran to that stone door crevice and was jumping up and down in urgency, shrieking loudly and right then, the opening of the stone door crevice was already less than two chi.
Watching helplessly, about to smash onto that stone door.
Watching helplessly, about to end this life.
Watching helplessly, the blue sky and white clouds, pressing down on him.
If, giving up…
He gritted his teeth, using his last bit of strength, turned his body around slightly and in that instant, the corner of his eyes saw what was ahead, that crevice was directly facing him.
Maybe, he could escape from the gates of hell?
He sighed in relief, as if like he was going to die, not a single bit of strength left in him.
The harsh sound of the wind, he suddenly felt that, someone was watching him.
He raised his eyes.
Lu XueQi, had already regained conscious and was beside him, looking at the direction of her fall, it was for sure that she would smash onto the solid stone door. But, for some reason, on this delicate and beautiful girl’s face, there was no sign of fear at all.
In this moment where it felt like the sky and earth were spinning around, in this critical moment of life and death, her body involuntarily heading towards death but on her face, not a single trace of grief, not a single trace of fear.
Like a night-blooming cereus, her figure embellished with dark red blood, among the alarmed cries far away, before Ghost Li, no, the then Zhang Xiao Fan, she suddenly smiled.
The pale smile had a gentleness not seen before, in this piercingly cold wind, her lips parted slightly and closed, gazing at the person beside her.
There were four words, traversing through the wind, past the blood and as if even through the times, pacing lightly between the ten years, then, lingered beside his ear and reverberated deep inside his heart.
“You, come back…”
x x x
She closed her eyes, her body seemed to sink suddenly, soon, she would leave him, it seems like the last bit of her strength also disappeared with that four words.
Black hair lifted up by the wind, slightly covered one side of her fair face, that girl drifted with the wind, at the corner of her mouth, there seemed to still have a faint smile.
But what was it, that reverberated deep inside the heart, such burning emotions? Like a raging flood bursting through all obstacles, everything else in the world could disappear but right now right here, that white figure.
How could it give up?
How could it abandon?
A low hoarse cry in his throat, he struggled in inexplicable tears, in the fierce biting wind he struggled, to stretch out his hand, stretched out his hand, stretched out his hand…
Tightly, held on!
Just like ten years ago, beside Forsaken Abyss, in the rain of stones, that white-attired girl ran to him without a care and grabbed his hand.
Tightly, held on…
Before his last bit of conscious slipped away, he used all of his strength to pull that girl towards himself.
Ahead, the crevice with only one chi of gap, the golden light behind the stone door had vanished totally, leaving only darkness.
A faint warm, in his palm.
He closed his eyes, the vast darkness, like ten years ago, drowned over them, swallowed them.
x x x
The stone door closed with a bang, at that last moment, Xiao Hui following its master, also slipped in.
And immediately after which, the enormous stone door once again, with a loud sound, became whole and that crack in the middle suddenly vanished.
[Bang!] The Black Water Mystical Viper’s massive snake head pounded onto the stone door, the force was so powerful that the trunk of a few zhangs thick shook violently, like it was going to split.
The Black Water Mystical Viper watched as if its delicacy was about to reach its mouth but flew off at the last minute, sunk into an uncontrollable rage, its massive snake head started a frenzied attack at the stone door, the force of it making even the people who were a great distance away in the air to change their expressions.
Jin PingEr bitterly took flight, staying far away from that Black Water Mystical Viper, cursing non-stop in her heart. Just now she took advantage of everyone’s distraction and secretly followed along on the other side of the Black Water Mystical Viper’s dark shadow to get near to the Celestial Emperor Treasury, initially she wanted to take the chance to slip in but unexpectedly the situation had an unforeseen change and that Celestial Emperor Treasury for unknown reasons, suddenly closed up again.
Jin PingEr was a step too late and she was extremely vex but there was nothing she could do, and the Black Water Mystical Viper in its rage had started to notice the people in the sky, Jin PingEr sensed something was not right when the Black Water Mystical Viper raised its head and quickly retreated for another several zhangs.
As expected, the Black Water Mystical Viper suddenly opened its snake mouth and ejected a black poisonous liquid towards them, the pungent smell of blood overwhelmed and made one nauseous, each of the Good Faction people scrambled to avoid and for a moment they looked pathetic, Jin PingEr was quicker and considered calm. But looking at that Black Water Mystical Viper howling in rage and again using all of its might to smash against that stone door, most probably she would not be able to get anything today, and if she continued to wait, that group of Good Faction instead might have hostile intentions to herself so the best way out would be to leave.
As such, Jin PingEr quietly left and flew towards the direction where she had came but flying for only a short distance, she had a shock. On the pathway where the Black Water Mystical Viper had travelled, destruction was left in its wake but somehow there was a patch of vines’ flowerbed which were actually untouched and within this patch of flowerbed, under the sunlight, there seemed to be indistinct dark red lights glinting, arranged disorderly but looking careful at it, it instead looked abstruse.
Jin PingEr frowned slightly, looked carefully for a while and a realization flashed in her eyes, she seemed to have look through it and with a quick look, glanced around and at the same time she sneered and quietly said, “So even they have come!”
She hesitated slightly for a moment in the air but eventually still flung back her head and flew off without even looking back.
And before the Celestial Emperor Treasury, the Black Water Mystical Viper was still raging and it continued to smash against the stone door, the Good Faction guys who were in the air initially intended to go down secretly and see if there was any way to assist the two of them but once they went near that Black Water Mystical Viper, they would be attacked and a few times they were nearly hurt by it.
After a few times of failed attempts, Fa Xiang signalled to the rest to gather around, he quietly said, “We cannot continue on like this, we don’t know what is in this Celestial Emperor Treasury that make this beast so infatuated with it. With it keeping vigil here, there is no way we can enter the treasury.”
Lin JingYu’s expression was grim, he kept staring at that Black Water Mystical Viper below, Zeng ShuShu also looked anxious but even with his quick-wits, right now he had no solutions.
Just when everyone was worrying over it and the only sound left in the world seemed to be that Black Water Mystical Viper’s howls, at this moment, suddenly, the sky darkened.
Zeng ShuShu and the rest were startled, it was still bright and clear a moment ago, how could it suddenly turned dark, all of them raised their heads to look.
And with this look, all of them were dumbfounded, in the nine heavens above, a sheet of tangerine yellow color appeared, almost more than several zhangs wide, enveloping their heads and almost obstructing the sunlight.
Following which, a clear whistle that sounded like a phoenix cry came from the horizon.
The frenzied Black Water Mystical Viper suddenly stopped its actions, it raised its massive head and its expression turned extremely infuriated, it opened its mouth and bared its fangs, roared towards that cloud.
That piece of cloud blotted out the sky and the sun and landed down, although it was not as colossal as the Black Water Mystical Viper but it was not much difference.
From afar the crowd saw it clearly, it was a strange gigantic bird with orange yellow coloured feathers, it spread its wings and took off, circled around and did not show any fear towards the Black Water Mystical Viper which had trespassed on the trunk and instead looked like it intended to attack.
And the Black Water Mystical Viper, while facing this strange bird, kept its insufferable arrogance attitude and coiled its body, its snake head hissed and readied for combat.
“This, should be the legendary Nine Heavens Divine Bird - Yellow Bird!” (Note 1)
Fa Xiang watched the two gigantic beasts in confrontation, muttered.
x x x
Note 1: This literary quotation phrase was taken from [Classics of Mountains and Seas. Classics of Vast Southern Wastelands. Mt Wu Yellow Bird]: Mt Wu, Yellow Bird in the West. Emperor’s Medicine, Eight buildings. Yellow Bird at Mt Wu, monitoring the mystical snake.
Other note: Emperor refers to Celestial Emperor, Medicine refers to immortal’s medicine, namely immortality medicine. Mystical snake means the Black Water Mystical Viper.