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墨書 Inktalez
Before them were steps that extended downward in levels, seemingly endless.
Chu Xi held the illuminated Crystal Bottle in her left hand, while her right hand rested in Li Hong's palm. Li Hong tightly grasped Chu Xi's hand, never letting go.
Behind them was Chuxiong.
In the darkness, the three of them silently descended the seemingly infinite steps, moving in unison without a word.
The steps began to curve, gradually tilting to the left, and after a while, they turned to the right. Soon, a fork appeared ahead.
The passage split into two paths here, one leading left and the other right.
The three of them stopped.
Li Hong's Divine Consciousness extended toward the left passage and "saw" more steps that seemed to go on forever. When he probed to the right, after traveling several miles, he discovered something strange lying on a few steps.
Li Hong immediately made a decision and pointed toward the right passage: "Let's go that way!"
Upon reaching the end of the path, they used the Crystal Light from the Crystal Bottle to see clearly. Chu Xi stopped in surprise: "There's a corpse!"
It was a peculiar corpse. It was evident that it had been dead for many years; perhaps due to the strangeness of this passage, it remained well-preserved. The corpse had lost all moisture, shriveled down to the size of a six or seven-year-old child, with a head full of disheveled White Hair. A long, dry white beard hung down to its chest, indicating that this person had been an old man in life.
The corpse wore no clothing but was clad in armor. This armor perfectly fit the now three-foot-tall stature of the corpse, shimmering with treasure light, with visible Black Light swirling around it.
Surprisingly, it had not lost its effectiveness over all these years. Li Hong stared at the armor in increasing astonishment; it was clearly a Celestial Artifact!
Chu Xi and Chuxiong also recognized it. The three exchanged glances, and Chuxiong could no longer contain himself. He rushed forward and shouted, "What a treasure!" He prepared to strip the Treasure Armor from the corpse.
Suddenly, an alarm went off. Li Hongfei grabbed Chuxiong by the front and said solemnly, "Wait! Something's not right!" He turned back and pulled Chu Xi as well; the three retreated several paces, warily watching the corpse.
The corpse seemed motionless, but somehow all three felt that… the armor seemed "alive."
The armor was crafted from an unknown black exotic metal, interlocked with scales layered upon each other. At its chest was a strange beast head with two white gemstones embedded in its eyes. This beast head was clearly the activation point for the entire armor. Li Hong could sense weak spiritual energy fluctuations emanating from it, flowing throughout the armor. However, at the same time, Li Hong keenly sensed another type of energy fluctuation within this beast head that did not belong to normal spiritual energy.
A thought crossed his mind; Li Hong vaguely guessed what it might be but deliberately said, "It's unlucky to touch dead things. Let's continue moving forward." After saying this, he took Chu Xi's hand with one hand and pulled Chuxiong with the other as they slowly passed by the corpse.
Just a few steps past the corpse, Chu Xi couldn't help but turn back, suddenly shuddering, "What is that!"
In the shimmering Crystal Light, the three saw it clearly. A glowing, egg-sized azure sphere was slowly squeezing out from the beast head at the chest of the armored corpse.
Indeed, it looked as if it were being squeezed. The sphere felt alive, straining to push itself outward. First, a small part broke free from the beast head, then half, and finally most of it emerged. Just as the three were dumbfounded, the sphere suddenly relaxed and fully detached from the beast head, flying towards them.
Li Hong quickly pulled Chu Xi and Chuxiong behind him and began to form hand seals for the Summoning Technique. He could already sense the life energy fluctuations contained within this sphere; in other words, there was indeed a soul inside—it was a ghost!
The Azure Sphere immediately sensed Li Hong's Awareness field fluctuating and stopped in its tracks, slightly shimmering as a voice echoed through the passage.
"Who are you?"
The voice was slow and carried a metallic rasp that made one's eardrums ache. Upon closer inspection, they realized it was actually the sound produced by the friction of the armor scales.
Chu Xi and Chuxiong were quite surprised, but Li Hong was already prepared. He maintained his focus without a hint of relaxation and coldly replied, "Weren't you trying to possess us just now? Hmph, now you ask who we are!"
"Good lad, you actually figured it out and managed to hold yourself together! Quite strange; you're merely a little cultivator who hasn't even formed a Nascent Soul. How could you see through me? This is truly puzzling!"
"Enough with the nonsense! What do you want?" Li Hong demanded.
"Tsk tsk, it's better if you don't speak. But now that you've said that, it shows you're feeling nervous."
Of course, Li Hong was nervous. This ghost must be the old man's corpse clad in Celestial Artifact Armor. To call it a ghost would be an understatement; more accurately, this person's physical body had perished while their Nascent Soul survived independently. With the aid of the Celestial Artifact Armor, this Nascent Soul had managed to endure all these years without dissipating, retaining its Divine Consciousness and wisdom from when it was alive. From this point, one could infer that even if this person hadn't ascended before death, they were on the verge of doing so. In life, their cultivation level had already been equivalent to that of an immortal!
Li Hong had never encountered an independently existing Nascent Soul before; today was his first experience with such a life form. The more he learned about it, the more his curiosity and competitive spirit were ignited.
If he hadn't been vigilant earlier, Chuxiong would have certainly fallen prey to possession. Even if you were an immortal in life, attempting to take over Chuxiong's body would be your undoing!
With murderous intent rising in his heart while feigning fear on his face, Li Hong asked with a hint of "trepidation," "What exactly do you want?"
"Let's talk first. How did you three little brats get in here?"
"We stumbled upon this place by accident," Li Hong replied with feigned fear.
"Well, well, what luck! You have quite the courage; it seems my chance has come. Boys, let’s make a deal. You're going to the Star Sect Temple to find treasures, right? If I give you directions, can you take me along?"
Star Sect Temple? Li Hong was taken aback; this person—or rather, this Nascent Soul—actually knew the origins of the Ancient God!
He tried hard not to show his excitement, but his eyes betrayed him. The Nascent Soul immediately noticed and after a moment of silence said, "How strange. It seems you three little ones don't even know about the Star Sect. Could it be... what that person said is true?"
He seemed to be mumbling to himself. Hearing this, Li Hong felt a wave of shock; who was that person?!
Li Hong thought for a moment and clasped his hands in his sleeves, bowing slightly. "Senior, we are all people of the Cultivation World; helping others is also helping oneself. However, since you are already a Nascent Soul, where could you not go? Why not go out on your own?"
It should be noted that a Nascent Soul is essentially an energy entity that can vary in size and can fit into a mustard seed. How could it not leave this place and instead require someone to take it out? Li Hong was quite skeptical.
The sphere flickered, and the metallic sound became increasingly grating. "Are you mocking me? This is the Wandering Path of the Stars at the Star Sect Temple; only physical bodies can come and go freely. A Nascent Soul will dissipate if it leaves its body for more than seventy-two hours. Aren't you from the Star Sect? How strange; I see you clearly practice Star Sect techniques, yet you don’t even know this?"
The murderous intent vanished without a trace, replaced by a euphoric thrill at having stumbled upon treasure. This Nascent Soul actually knew so many secrets about the Ancient God! Could it be that the Star Sect was indeed the sect of the Ancient God? His previous wild guesses were actually correct! The Six Spirit Salty Ritual was truly an Ancient God technique!
As for the Wandering Path of the Stars and treasures—compared to these secrets, they seemed trivial.
With this in mind, Li Hong decided he must extract more information from it. He kept his hand gestures steady and asked, "May I ask your esteemed name? Are you from the Star Sect?"
The sphere of Azure Light flickered again, and with a sound like scales rubbing together, it replied, "I don’t want to say." After a pause, it continued, "Kid, have you made up your mind? This deal only benefits you! You don’t even know about the Star Sect or the Wandering Path of the Stars; how do you expect to get by? Why not let me guide you? Just take me along! Hey, big guy and girl behind there, can’t you two agree that this would be mutually beneficial?"
Li Hong pondered for a moment; logically speaking, taking it along wouldn’t hurt since it knew the way—only...
A familiar voice echoed in his mind; it was Chu Xi. She transmitted, "Don’t agree to it; something feels strange. If it knows the way, why would it die here? That’s the biggest doubt."
Li Hong slowly shook his head. "Senior, I don’t believe you! If you know the way, how could you have perished here?"
After a long pause, the sphere finally said slowly, "You can look at my Corpse. I was heavily injured while being pursued by enemies; I barely made it here before perishing. There’s no need for me to elaborate further."
Li Hong's Divine Consciousness reached out. Upon closer inspection of the corpse, he found that its skull was indeed cracked open and there was a large gash in its chest where several ribs were missing—it was severely injured. But that didn’t clarify everything.
Seeing that the three remained silent, the Nascent Soul began to rub its armor and mutter to itself: "These three little ones don’t seem bad at heart; perhaps I should just tell them everything... No... That person promised well back then; when it came down to it, did they not change their mind at the last minute and deceive me? This is my last chance; I'm willing to take a gamble... Don’t say anything more; if I tell them everything honestly, those three kids will know everything..."
Listening to this nonsensical monologue, Li Hong suddenly understood how the Nascent Soul was passing the time while stuck here. It had created two personas for itself, using the armor to create sounds, often engaging in a dialogue of affirmation and rebuttal, finding amusement in this way to pass the long hours. Over time, it had even begun to do this in front of strangers. It seemed that if it didn't get out soon, this Nascent Soul would surely suffer from a split personality. At that point, any random antics could lead to its soul scattering.
A surge of sympathy welled up in Li Hong, and he blurted out, "Alright! I'll take you with me!"
The Nascent Soul was overjoyed, and the Azure Sphere thumped excitedly as it said, "Great! I knew you had the best heart, little one!"
"But I have conditions. You must promise to lead the way and not deceive us!" Li Hong said sternly.
"Deal!"
Chu Xi, anxious, couldn't help but stomp her feet but saw that Li Hong was already approaching the corpse. "How do we carry it? Are we supposed to take your shed skin along?"
The Nascent Soul quickly retreated into the beast's head and replied through the armor's friction, "No need for that. Just take off this armor and wrap it up to carry on your back. Also, please burn my shed skin; I would be immensely grateful. After that, I will guide you without any worries."
"Okay." Li Hong bent down to prepare to remove the armor from the corpse.
"Be careful!" Chu Xi screamed.
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