Chapter 132 - Eerie Forest
The great shaman after being silent for a while, said, "Yes."
Ghost Li turned silent.
The great shaman continued on, "This sacred weapon involves the survival of the southern border commoners, I only hope you can give a hand to our people."
Ghost Li's lips twitched, said, "The five tribes of southern border, have great number of people, why must you seek help from an outsider?"
The great shaman shook his head, his voice desolated, said, "Ever since the five tribes splitted up, the shaman power weakened as the days went by, to find a decent talent now to shoulder this responsibility is already impossible. You beseeched me to help in your friend's soul-returning matter, I agree, just that the circumstances that you have described, is not the same as what had happened at southern border, I do not have confidence but I will do my best, tomorrow morning I will go with you all to Central Plains!"
Ghost Li and Xiao Bai were stunned, they did not expect the great shaman to be so anxious. Ghost Li, for BiYao, did not even fear death, whatsmore retrieving the so-called legendary sacred weapon? Just that although he was elated but he could tell that the great shaman was still heavily injured and said, "Senior, your fight last night...don't you want to rest for a few more days?"
The great shaman with a soft sigh, said, "My days are numbered, before that, I will give it all for you, I only hope you will, for this dying old man, for the countless commoners of the southern border, lend a hand."
Ghost Li was silent, actually how could he not see that the great shaman's body was weak but he did not expect that it had reached until this stage. Xiao Bai beside him suddenly said, "Great shaman, you have just said, only if the five sacred weapons return to the ancient cave, that evil beast could then be revived, right?"
The great shaman nodded and said, "That's right."
Xiao Bai said, "Since it is so, even if the Miao tribe lost one sacred weapon, there are still other four, you don't have to be so anxious..."
"Two, it was two!" The great shaman suddenly cut in, after speaking, a violent fit of coughing again racked him.
Xiao Bai, stunned and said, "What?"
The great shaman waited until his cough finally subsided, sighed and said, "On my tribe sacred weapon Black Staff, it is set with another sacred weapon, Jade Bone, which was taken from Li Tribe 200 years ago by our tribe."
Xiao Bai "Ah" exclaimed, her expression peculiar and did not speak anymore.
The great shaman after a period of silence, said, "Actually, two hundred years ago, we have already sensed that something was not right, we received news surreptitiously that Zhuang, Tu and GaoShan, the three tribes’ sacred weapons, within these few hundred years were actually mysteriously and bizarrely lost, at that time only Li and our Miao tribes still have the weapons. At that time, within the five tribes, only the shaman skills of our Miao altar still possessed some power and so we took the sacred weapon, Jade Bone, from Li tribe and safe-guarded it within our altar, and hoped for the best, unexpectedly in the end, still..."
Ghost Li and Xiao Bai did not speak, taking others' sacred weapon, it was after all not very honourable.
The great shaman also knew this and did not wish to elaborate further, he turned and spoke to Ghost Li, "Therefore with the current situation, it is actually really very urgent, all of the five tribes sacred weapons have disappeared and it might be done by that evil beast. And last night that Li tribe person, the powers he was using was what the fiend beast had, Black Fire Evil Skill, I, I, I am really very worried..." Before he could finish, he had already started coughing, breaking his voice.
Ghost Li breathed deeply, slowly said, "I promised you."
The great shaman was overjoyed, nodded his head in succession, said, "Many, many thanks."
Xiao Bai suddenly said, "Great shaman, what was the name of that shaman lady, I really admired her!"
The great shaman's face changed, he sighed, slowly straightened his body, a revered expression also surfaced on his face, slowly said, “That lady's name, was called 'Ling Long'!"
The duskiness without seeing daylight, the lofty black trees entangled with each other, human and beast bones remnants seen everywhere in the forest, there was even eerie flickering phosphorescent lights from the white bones, all of these, was what Jin PingEr was looking at.
Ever since she followed the evil shaman and entered into the mysterious eerie ten thousands great mountains forests world, after trudging across two dangerously steep mountain ranges, she came to a huge expanse of black forest and presented before her, was this scene.
This was her third day in the black forest.
The boundless darkness before her, it was unmoving as if it had froze, anxiety appeared on Jin PingEr's lovely face. She walked forward one step and a light sound was heard from her feet below, she looked down, a ghastly white human skull rolled to a side on the ground, how long exactly has this person been dead here?
Jin PingEr sighed, slightly shifted with her foot and swept the skull to the side.
Even though she was already mentally prepared before entering the ten thousands great mountains but Jin PingEr did not expect that it would be this other-worldly and perilous in here. Not to mention the toxic miasma that would be fatal if not careful. On her journey in, she met quite a number of unheard strange beasts, to describe as strange beast would also seemed inappropriate, these things seemed most likely were transformed over from some species of ferocious beasts, like tiger and leopard fusion, pig and bear etc but these did not seem to be as intelligent as the previously encountered human fish tribe.
However although these abnormal animals were savage, they were only so to ordinary people, to Jin PingEr who hailed from Evil Sect HeHuan Sect, they were still easy to deal with and therefore she still found her journey easy, just that the omnipresent miasma made her on tenterhooks everyday, not letting her guard down even for a minute.
And the evil shaman that she was stalking from afar, seemed not to be expecting someone would follow him into the ten thousands great mountains so that was why until now, Jin PingEr did not lose him but just that that ferocious dragon beside the evil shaman really gave Jin PingEr a headache. No matter how she concealed herself, whenever she went near the evil shaman, that rapier-like sense dragon would always be alerted, after a few times, Jin PingEr did not dare to go near the evil shaman again.
And now, Jin PingEr using HeHuan Sect handed down pursuing skill, following the evil shaman from afar, and after they entered the black forest, in those three days the evil shaman never once rest, using the same speed traversing the forest.
Jin PingEr was highly-skilled and three days without rest to her was still sustainable but regardless she would still feel some tiredness and that evil shaman ahead of her seemed not to be a human, travelling ahead using the same speed.
The phosphorescent lights glimmering in the black forest, like a feeble light in the darkness undecided between staying alive or dying out, again like a silent other-worldly eye, watching this intruder.
Suddenly, a loud cry in the darkness, a pig-head-bear-body strange beast suddenly dashed out from the side, pounched towards Jin PingEr, Jin PingEr frowned, her body flew up, slashed and waved her hand while in the air, a brilliant purple light flashed twice in the darkness.
Purple Light Sword!
The beast charged past the place where Jin PingEr was just standing and overshot it a few good steps, suddenly it made a strange long howl, its entire body emitted a light muffled sound at the same time, [pong] a sound, blood splattered everywhere, this strange beast's body split into half from the middle, fell onto the ground and twitched a few times and then ceased moving.
The blood that flowed out, under the faint phosphorescent lights of the forest, slowly seeped into the ground, turning into a dark colour.
Before Jin PingEr could land, in the darkness ahead, countless of wild beasts' roars suddenly erupted, instantly breaking the tranquility, like hundred of beasts crying out to the sky, rippling in the darkness, the next moment behind those glimmering phosphorescent lights, pairs of various sizes ferocious eyes emerged, glinting in the darkness.
Jin PingEr inhaled deeply, her face turned pale a few degrees.
Following a long long howl, like a gigantic river gushing down abruptly, the galloping footsteps sounds broke the stillness, slowly lengthening, surrounding Jin PingEr in the centre.
[Roar...]
In that instant, innumerable strange beasts dashed out from the darkness, pounced towards that solitary figure.
Jin PingEr's figure weaved among the avalanche of beasts, at the same time the purple light glimmered in her hand, each time she brandished, there would be animals that cried out and died. Just that the number of beasts was really too many, in a short while they packed tightly into the large swathe of land, Jin PingEr almost had no place to land, until the end, she was already leaping and moving using the backs of the animals.
In a short time, the number of beasts killed by Jin PingEr's Purple Light Sword had already exceeded twenty but Jin PingEr's legs and feet had also been slashed with several wounds. And in the darkness ahead, there seemed to be still endless number of beasts charging out, really made one perplexed as to where exactly did all these beasts come from in this black forest.
Jin PingEr closed her lips lightly, knew that she could not get entangled with those ferocious animals, her right feet stretched a little down onto a tiger-head-leopard-body beast's back and leapt up entirely into the air, flying upwards.
Initially Jin PingEr did not want fly above the forest top as firstly she would be revealing her objective and it seemed like the miasma also extended up to the forest top; secondly even more important was, after leaving the forest, to continue stalking the evil shaman, it would be even harder.
However at that moment, she could not care more. Her body flying straight up, although the beasts on the ground were savage but it looked like not one could fly, numerous beasts congregated below roaring, extremely terrifying and horrible.
Just when Jin PingEr was about to reach the top of the trees, suddenly a strange sound was heard, the black trees which were densely crowded together, suddenly seemed to come alive all together, the black shadows flickered and numerous black figures pounced down from above, thick bloody smell wafted out, most likely those were also toxic.
Jin PingEr although was shocked but was calm, her body paused in the mid-air, purple light flashed, a purple halo immediately appeared above her head, the next moment those dark figures struck down from the air, once they touched the purple light, crackling sounds erupted unceasingly, instantly several dark figures disintegrated and scattered flying, looking at it from afar, it was those black tree branches but in the air, black fluid splattering also carried a extremely bloody odour.
Although Jin PingEr managed to block the trees but her body was still being beaten down, the innumerable strange beasts on the ground turned excited, each howl and roared, a few even excitedly jumped up, leaping towards her body.
Jin PingEr's face was pale, she brandished the sword in succession, the purple light surged and immediately shifted down from her head to below her body, before her body landed, hair-rising sounds of [tut tut] were already made incessantly, within the purple light circumference, several beasts' bodies broke apart with a blast, blood spattered and even Jin PingEr's clothes was also dyed a big patch of red.
But the smell of blood aroused the strange beasts surrounding her, immediately several other strange beasts again pounced over. Sweat began to form on Jin PingEr’s forehead, without any hesitation, the purple sword waved and blocked a group of beasts, exerting strength her body flew up.
Right now, Jin PingEr was in an extremely dangerous situation, below her innumerable savage beasts pursuing, above her limitless bizarre trees obstructing, she could neither go up or down and could only fly with all her might in-between the forest.
In the black forest, by now howls and roars of the strange beasts reverberated far and near, the black wind whistled, a scene of hell on earth.
Dodging the sharp claws of the beast which had leapt into the air, Jin PingEr with one slash chopped across the middle of a black tree what had obstructed the path ahead, flying across it. And what revealed ahead, was even more strange beasts and boundless demon-like black trees…
Escaping ahead while fighting like that, not knowing how much time had passed, just when Jin PingEr was reaching her limit, suddenly in the stretch of darkness ahead, a trace of light was seen.
Jin PingEr was exulted, her spirits boosted greatly, the Purple Light Sword exploded with light and struck directly onto the head of an enormous grey wolf which had pounced up from the ground, her body flying ahead with all her might.
The shadows danced, like demons crying, numerous black trees pressed down from above, Jin PingEr was sheltered by the purple light, killing beasts upon sight and chopping trees upon sight, blood and flesh splattered everywhere, ghosts wailed and wolves howled, she in this sinister, unfathomable black forest, forced out a path by killing. Behind her, remnants of trees, animals corpses, blood and black fluid, splattered and sprayed.
When she dashed out from that forest, this lovely mesmerizing woman, was covered from head to toe in blood, like a blood human, an unspeakable horror.
But when she took a clearer look at her surroundings, while panting heavily, her countenance changed. Where she was now, was actually on a cliff, just that there was a huge rock stone exposed outside the black forest, under the rock, clouds drifted, when the light from the horizon shone through, a strange colourful light seemed to shift in it.
With one look, Jin PingEr knew those colourful clouds contained the most poisonous miasma, an immediate death for one. Right now, the black forest behind her, roars from the innumerable beasts again rang out, just right behind her.
Jin PingEr clenched her teeth, grabbed the Purple Light Sword tighter, she whipped around but felt a ringing sound in her head, almost unable to stand upright, even her body wavered a few times. For the past few days, she did not have any rest and today facing the innumerable beasts and evil trees, even a man made from iron would also find it strenuous.
She got a shock, a thought flashed past her in this flint-spark moment, “Don’t tell me I have to die here”, regrets secretly started to form, she should not have discover the clandestine relationship between the evil shaman and ShangGuan Ce and took the risk to come in. However, in the next moment, she suddenly realized, those beasts were still howling and roaring, even standing at where she was, indistinctly she could see the beasts in the dark forest leaping around heavily, extremely enraged but for some reason, not one walked out from the black forest.
Maybe, they originally did not belong to this world and so could only live in that eerie forest…
This realization made Jin PingEr finally heaved a sigh of relief and under the light, those black demonic forests seemed to be frozen and did not make any attack movements towards her anymore.
Standing on the rock, she could feel the mountain breeze behind her carrying an indistinct foul odour from the cliff, Jin PingEr’s body softened and sat precariously down.
The wind fluttered her clothes, she then discovered her body was covered in dirty blood, inspite of all of these, she was still a girl and this discovery made her felt disgusted, she quickly bend her head down and started to tidy up.
Suddenly, in the black forest, a deafening rumble boomed out, immediately suppressing the innumerable beasts’ cries, before Jin PingEr could look up, a sheet of huge shadow leapt out swiftly from the forest and in her direction.
Jin PingEr only felt the entire sky had abruptly darkened and shrouded in that shadow, cried out in alarm and subconsciously used the Purple Light Sword to block above her head. The Purple Light Sword had only just started to light up when the shadow had already arrived, a wave of huge strength hit her flying out, her body in the air and it could be seen that she had already thrown up blood.
Her body flipped and turned in the air, after a few times, she had already flew over the rock under her feet, going down, the mountain breeze whistled and the next moment, her figure could not be seen anymore.
[Hou!]
A deep low roar, that shadow landed on the ground, it was that ferocious dragon beside the evil shaman, it stretched its predator’s mouth wide opened, a fierce glare sweeping all around, those strange beasts in the forest seemed terrified of this dragon, by now there was no other movements, all actually had quietly fled.
The black figure wavered, the evil shaman in black unhurriedly drifted out from the forest, passing by the dragon and came to the cliff, the humongous dragon body unhurriedly followed behind him.
The evil shaman leaned forward and glanced down the cliff, he saw only indistinct ripples within the colourful clouds, evidently something had dropped down, he turned and nodded slightly, gently patted the ferocious dragon’s body.
The dragon quietly rumbled.
The evil shaman sneered, without turning his head, he drifted into the forest, the dragon was about to follow when suddenly it stopped, glanced towards the cliff but there was only stillness, nothing had happened.
The dragon’s fierce eyes shining, stopped for a while and eventually turned and ran towards the direction of its master, [suo suo] sounds were heard from the forest and then gradually lowering until it disappeared.
The mountain breeze blew, rolling up the fine dust on the ground, covering the blood stains, as if nothing had ever happened.
After a very long time, suddenly a quiet sound, purple light flashed from the side of the cliff, a human figure flipped over from below the rock, it was Jin PingEr.
Once she landed, she immediately breathed heavily, on her fair snow-white jade-like face, blood stains beside her mouth, clearly her injuries were not light. Beside her right hand, the purple light slowly withdrew and returned into her sleeve. And her eyes, already towards her left hand, for some reason, there was an additional unusually-shaped knife, the back of the knife was serrated, its design primitive and crude, the thick short knife body suffused with the forest cold light, clearly she could see two words engraved on it - Kill-the-living!
Jin PingEr slowly raised her head, glanced at the direction where the evil shaman and the dragon had left, in the cold black forest, there was only stillness. Staring deeply for a long while, as if she was contemplating something, after half a day, her eyes again returned to that strange knife on her hand.
Her eyes, seemed to have a strange glint, the mountain breeze blew past, indistinctly heard her muttering to herself.
“Was it Kill-the-living Monk…”