Chapter 313

The Seal

“A Fiendish Python? You mean this is a Liquid Advanced Stage Fiendish Python rather than a Demonic Python?” Liu Ming, who had always been rather composed, couldn’t help but exclaim.

With a level of cultivation such as his, it was impossible that he was ignorant of the distinction between demonic and fiendish beasts as new spirit disciples were.

With horror, he tried to recall. All that he had read in the ancient classics about the fiendish beasts flooded rushing back towards him.

‘Of course! Fiendish beasts are demonic beasts that have been transmuted by fiendish spirits.’

It was said that once the demonic beasts transformed, their body would show signs of fiendish mutation; their temperament would be taken over by extreme ferociousness and thirst for blood; their power would be boosted to twice of that of the demonic beasts of the same rank. They would also gain incredible fiendish powers. Fiendish beasts are truly horrifying beings.

‘The good news is that there is few places across the Yun Chuan Continent where fiendish spirits are found. The few places where they are found are territories of different sects, where demonic beasts are strictly kept off. Therefore, in the last few thousands of years, fiendish beasts are virtually extinct from the continent and exist now only in legends.’

But now there was a Liquid Advanced Stage fiendish beast in the Suppressing Demon Tower! No wonder Liu Ming was surprised.

“So it is a fiendish beast, then. No wonder brother Han felt unsure of the task,” said Liu Ming. Finally resuming his composure, he asked with a serious face: “But isn’t Suppressing Demon Tower a place to confine demonic beasts whose power has been sealed? How could a Fiendish Python be in here?”

“I’m not sure about that. It seemed that the appearance of this Fiendish Python on the sixth floor was rather sudden. When they were on the fifth floor, no one had ever seen it. Perhaps it has escaped from the Secret Realm,” answered the young man.

“If that is the case, there might be fiendish spirits in that Secret Realm, which is connected with the Tower,” Liu Ming said, his face lit up.

“That’s hard to say. In our sect, many times we have sent people to search the Secret Realm and no fiendish spirits were ever found,” replied the young man with some thinking.

“Not having found any does not mean that there is none in the Secret Realm. But this doesn’t concern me. Since it is now a Fiendish Python that we are dealing with, it’s indeed tricky,” said Liu Ming. He then thought for a while and asked: “But since fellow cultivator Xu is confident to send you, there must have been some special preparations, aren’t there?”

“Yes. The sect leader has given me two talismans, a set of formation flags and a special spirit weapon. They should be able to constrain the fiendish beast,” answered Han Li without thinking.

“In that case, it might not be wholly impossible for us to fight that demon in collaboration. But we need to use some strategies, though, rather than having direct confrontations. Otherwise even if we did win, it would be but a Pyrrhic victory,” said Liu Ming thoughtfully, touching his chin.

“Do brother Liu have any good ideas?” asked the young man with a blink.

“My brother Han, could you please tell me all that you know about this Fiendish Python, including the environment of its former residing place and the situation on the sixth floor?” said Liu Ming with a serious look.

“No problem. The sixth floor is where…” The young man readily consented and began explain to him.

Liu Ming listened attentively, nodding his head from time to time.

……

“Shan Gan” was hovering above two hills of cluttered rock, all the formation tablets swirling around him, buzzing and emitting colorful rays of light.

On the ground below him lay the corpses of several giant stags, whose bodies lay around severed into dozens of pieces.

“Shan Gan” stared at the tablets with excitement.

“They finally have reactions! I know it. It must have been sealed here somewhere. Great. If I find it, I will definitely find the entrance, even if the living years of this mortal body would be halved.”

Muttering these few words, the young man flicked his sleeves, and countless light balls darted out and scattered in all directions, then flashed and disappeared.

The ground of several mus’ (mu is a unit of square. 1 mu equals to 2/3 square kilometres) large below shook violently and from it, arrays and arrays of stelae sprinted out. Hundreds of stelae were closely compacted, they varied in height, with the small ones being no less than three to four zhangs’ tall and the big ones being as much as ten. Each was engraved with numerous black spirit textures on the surface and crowned by a dark glimmering crystal on the top, together forming a huge formation of charms.

“Shan Gan” looked down at the huge formation and frowned.

Though these stelae were one-off tools, the materials they were made of were extremely rare. It had taken him, the former leader of Yun Chuan Continent, more than a hundred years to collect them.

‘If the charm does not work this time, it would be impossible to perform it once again.’

With this in mind, he clenched his teeth and pulled out a white curved antler, whose surface was as crystal as an amber with a tinge of lava red glimmering on the inside.

“Shan Gan” put the antler floating in front of him. Then, with a mere twist, the whole antler was already crushed into twinkling powder. He scattered the powder onto the formation.

The instance these twinkling bits touched the formation, they all vanished into the stelae.

Amidst an ocean of sparkles, the pale grey stelae miraculously turned translucent.

Seeing that this was done, “Shan Gan” gave a wave of his hand and a ready-made spell shot downward.

Poof!

The spell vanished into a stela at the center of the formation.

The next moment, the stela trembled, and one after another, the stelae surrounding it lit up. Countless pale black words of charms escaped and hovered around the stelae, vaguely forming a huge sphere of charms.

Just at that moment, “Shan Gan” took a deep dive and landed exactly in the charm sphere. He formed a sign with a hand, and the several formation tablets around him all darted towards each other and merged into a basin-size larger tablet.

The huge tablet spun around and a huge siphoning power came roaring forward.

All the black charm words rushed towards the huge tablet in a craze, considerably multiplying its size. Then with a muffled boom, a black light column shot out from its inside into the empty place between the two small hills.

Boom!

At the struck of the black light column, a surge of invisible waves occurred in the originally empty place. The empty place blurred, and an enormous light formation appeared on a bright seven-colored screen, on which zillions of golden characters in Zhuan (an ancient form of Chinese character, used primarily before Qin Dynasty) style was floating.

Seeing this, “Shan Gan” was even more thrilled. He suddenly opened his mouth and spitted some blood essence into the formation before him.

Immediately the black light column was tinged by colors of blood. The still-standing formation started to tremble.

“Shan Gan”’s face, however, seemed to have slightly changed.

The force of this seal was unexpected. It might take a considerable amount of time and quite a few years of life from this mortal body to break it.

But since he had found it, it would be impossible for him to back down. He took out some pills from the chest pockets, swallowed them, and every once in a while spitted some blood essence to sustain the black light column at the peak of its power.

Finally, under the constant attack of the black light column, the golden light formation wobbled and gave rise to rounds of light waves across the surface. …

Liu Ming and Han Li had left the woods and, staying carefully away from any middle staged demonic beasts, had successfully found the charm formation to enter the sixth floor with a map. Then with a flash of white light, they vanished into the formation entrance.

Liu Ming opened his eyes from all the dizziness and looked about. What he saw surprised him.

Except for the white curtain surrounded formation they was in, the rest of the place was a vast endless desert.

“What happened?” The young man was astounded, “According to the sect leader, the formation on the sixth floor should be within a hall like on the fifth floor. It should be surrounded by a huge lake instead of a desert!”

“The sect chief Xu is trustworthy. In that case, this desert is most likely to come into being in recent years. It’s the only explanation,” Liu Ming postulated after some frowning and some contemplation.

“Recently? But it was only a few years ago that the fellow disciple Jin had last entered the six floor…” the young man murmured.

“If that’s the case, this Fiendish Python is even trickier than we have expected. It must have moved its nest to this area so that we have to forfeit our previous plans,” Liu Ming retrieved his glance and said with a sullen face.

“You mean…” Han Li couldn’t help but asked. Talented as he was, he was, after all, too young and not that experienced.

“Else aside, let’s see if the beast is right on the outside,” said Liu Ming, eyes flashing with alertness. In the meantime, he performed a charm with one hand and tapped his forehead with a finger.

Instantly an enormous surge of force came rushing out from between his eyebrows and spread across all directions.

Seeing this, Han Li followed him in searching the adjacent area with a charm.

Shortly afterwards, they ended the charm.

“It’s not around here! Seems like this beast is no fool. It knows that being too close to the light screen serves it no good. Since it’s nowhere near, let’s get out. Most probably, the beast is ten lis (a unit of distance; one li equals to 500 meters) away,” said Liu Ming, putting his arms down.

“Ten lis away! Brother Liu, how can you be so sure?” The young man was rather surprised.

“Well, obviously this Fiendish Python has intellect. Since it is not ambushing us at the formation, then there is no reason to stay too close. But now we need your help to locate it,” said Liu Ming, perfectly composed.

“No problem. One of the talismans I have brought can trace the fiendish spirit,” answered Han Li without hesitation.

“That would be great. We need to first find the python and set formations around it. Other things can wait,” Liu Ming said, sighing slightly, and walked out of the light screen in strides.

The young man thought for a while, and raised no objection, followed him out of the light screen. Then he turned his hand, and a pale yellow talisman appeared. With a wave, the talisman was in flames.