Underground Palace
“You can’t be serious…”
From the other side, Xiaoshuai performed hand gestures for them. They could see his mouth moving, but the screen muted him.
“I prefer these kinds of straightforward challenges. Fighting is lame,” cheered Mu Yu, stepping through.
The barrier forbade entry on Mu Yu’s previous attempt to cross for he was mentally amped up to fight. Upon trying again with his eyes closed and purely the desire to hurry and find an exit, he was able to cross through. The feeling could be described as crossing through warm water. He determined he successfully crossed once he heard Xiaoshuai’s voice. Opening his eyes, he was still within a passageway. Gazing at the screen from this side didn’t sting the eyes as it did from the other side, allowing him to see Qiao Xue.
“By the way, weren’t there two fishes here?”
“No, they merely projected their silhouettes onto the barrier. I heard them say it was raining outside; they sounded quite happy.”
“Rain? Happy? Why?”
Mu Yu gestured for Qiao Xue to hurry and join them. It took her several tries to clear her mind and get through. Mu Yu put aside his suspicions of her, and the two continued after affirming there was no danger. The passageway fell dull partway through. At the end of the passageway was an underground palace. There were several hundreds of fiend beast eyes on them when they stepped out of the passageway.
“Oh, no!” cried Xiaoshuai, racing back to Mu Yu’s shirt.
“Sorry, we were just taking a stroll.”
The duo armed themselves immediately. To be frank, they weren’t even sure they could escape against those numbers. For some reason, none of the fiends responded.
“Why are they so friendly, not that I can complain?” Mu Yu mumbled.
Mu Yu kept his head still and moved just his eyes. Only then did it occur to him they were broken statues. He exhaled heavily and conveyed, “What the heck did you fiends set up so many statues for, to shave off people’s lifespan? If so, you got me.”
The underground cave they were in was as high as hundreds of metres. There were thousands of fiend beast and fiend statues on the walls. There were gold steps two metres wide in the direction opposite the passageway. A ferocious fiend statue was placed on each side of the staircase. There were roughly ninety-nine steps. Right at the top was a red-jade throne.
“This is the fiend race’s underground palace at Second Heaven. Now I know why the desolate wolf and banishing falcon stopped their pursuit,” enthused Qiao Xue.
“Are all the statues there to reduce the empty feeling?”
The mud stones were softer than what Mu Yu expected.
Qiao Xue flew up to the throne. She ran her hand along it with her eyebrows plastered together and then looked up.
Mu Yu flew up and joined her. “Pretty majestic if you ask me.”
“A throne? Let me see.” Xiaoshuai hopped onto the throne and kicked back in it. “You may all rise.”
The throne was sparkling clean. Mu Yu heard Qiao Xue remark, “Where is it?”
“What are you searching for?”
“… There’s a legend claiming the white ape fiend king’s core is worshipped in their underground palace. The ten fiend kings are immortal beings, the ancestors of the fiend race. We have sealed them for millenniums. You didn’t know about this?”
“White ape fiend king…? That’s what Ghost Gates’ duo mentioned,” Mu Yu muttered.
“Who is also after it?”
“Ghost Gate. I think they’re after the white ape fiend king.”
“Ghost Gate?” Qiao Xue’s expression changed for a split second before returning to its former state. She explained, “Another mission of ours is to find its core. We were ordered to bring it back if we could locate the fiend race’s underground palace.”
“If my memory doesn’t fail me, Ghost Gate wants the white ape fiend king’s physical body. They want to activate a Nine Walk-ins Formation. Since you want its core, will you two sects have a dispute?”
“Really? They want the white ape fiend king? From what I know, I doubt they want its body but its soul. I shouldn’t have to explain the significance of fiend kings for the world of cultivation. If Ghost Gate wants to take matters into their own hands, we must stop them.”
“Count me out. I just want to get out of this place.”
Mu Yu’s only interest was procuring the herbs to help his shifu.
Qiao Xue spent over two hours scouring the underground palace with nothing to show. She surmised the core was hidden somewhere more secretive. “Where would the core be here?”
“Where would the exit be?”
Xiaoshuai suddenly stopped mumbling after hearing Qiao Xue. He climbed onto Mu Yu’s shoulder. Befogged, Mu Yu turned his head and asked, “Xiaoshuai, why aren’t you making a peep all of a sudden?”
Xiaoshuai looked up to Qiao Xue and whispered, “I know where the honey pea is.”
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