Shrouding the Heavens

Chapter 54: Ancient Palace Hall

“It seems that the Ling Xu sanctuary elders have been alarmed and are currently all headed to this area.”

Currently, the sky had already turned dark and the sky was filled with stars.

The two people continued advancing for several miles and unknowingly entered a ruined piece of land. The area was desolate with nary a grass in sight and could absolutely be considered a scorched earth. Only remains of broken rock and shattered debris lay everywhere with nothing else in sight.

In the night, this area was emitting a mysterious aura and there was a faint black mist that was circulating.

“It’s already been several thousand to tens of thousands of years, these ruins still don’t have any vegetation growing, it’s really strange. No wonder it’s been designated as a barren land where even birds don’t take a dump.” Pang Bo mumbled bitterly, he felt hungry and thirsty and had wanted to pick some fruits to quench his hunger.

He had just spoken when suddenly an immense force was felt, he stumbled before falling to the ground in the darkness. Ye Fan was speechless, he could not believe his eyes. Pang jumped up as he looked back and immediately felt shivers as he backed away.

Just up ahead, a cold body was floating there, bone was wrapped in wrinkled skin as though it were dried up wood. There was actually a shrivelled corpse there!

“This…… what is going on? Where did this dry corpse come from?” Pang Bo felt his hair stand on end. A shrivelled corpse suddenly appeared for no reason, anyone would feel unsettled.

Ye Fan was also stupefied, he had not seen how the corpse appeared. They continued to survey their surroundings, this barren piece of ruins besides being full of debris there simply was not anything else. Being like this made one feel unsettled, this piece of land had been here since ancient times and some ‘dirty things’* may exist here that caused this.

[T/N* ‘dirty thing’ in Chinese refers to evil spirits and ghosts]

The sky became darker and darker as even the lights from the stars grew dim. The surroundings of the ruins became pitch black as the faint mist continued to swirl.

“Why is it so eerie? It’s actually getting colder and colder…..” Pang Bo was nervous as he broke out in cold sweat: “Where did this corpse come from……”

“Let’s hurry and leave this place.” Ye Fan felt that something was amiss and wanted to immediately leave.

“What sort of nonsensical place is this? How can it be so strange and evil!” Pang Bo softly muttered, his back already drenched in cold sweat.

“Bang!”

Suddenly, Pang Bo was once again flipped onto the ground and as he gingerly climbed back up there was another dried corpse by his side.

“Who…… who is so inconsiderate, randomly throwing around a corpse.” This joke was simply not funny as the two people felt chills throughout their body as their goosebumps stood up while they continued to carefully stare at their surroundings.

Two dried up corpses laid on the ground, their bodies were covered with some clothing but upon lightly touching they would disintegrate. Who knew how long they had existed.

“What exactly are you! Come out!”

“Bang!”

Another corpse appeared once again knocking down Pang Bo.

“Your granddaddy, you think that I Pang Bo am easily bullied!” Pang Bo was terrified but incensed at the same time, Ye Fan who was beside him did not get hit by the corpses at all.

“What’s out there, hurry and reveal yourself!” Ye Fan exclaimed.

“Boom!”

The ancient ruins seemed to violently tremble as Ye Fan was tossed into the air and Pang Bo cut a sorry figure as he tumbled into the distance.

“Bang!”, “Bang!”, “Bang!”

This time, it was not just Pang Bo but Ye Fan also had been hit several times as ancient corpse after ancient corpse fell from the sky and knocked the two around. If it were a normal physical body, their bones might have already been shattered. However, the two people had exceptional physiques and were not in any danger.

The ground was littered to tens of corpses and the entire area seemed eerie, cold that seemed to pierce the bone like one had been put into an icehouse permeated the area and the two people shivered, they simply did not know what was going on.

“Shuaaa”

At this moment, Ye Fan suddenly felt all the hairs on his back stand as though something was flying closer at high speeds. He did not bother to turn around as he hurriedly dashed forward while maneuvering his body to dodge, swift as lightning.

Two indistinct green lights had shot past his body and stopped several tens of metres away, it seemed like ghostly fire as it continually jumped around. At the same time, within the ruins it was pitch black like black ink such that one could not even see their five fingers in front of them, the stars in the sky were complete shrouded making it impossible to see.

“This place is haunted!” Pang Bo unconsciously attempted to grab at something but it was a pity that his bronze plaque was not here with him.

At this instant, besides the two indistinct lights they could not see anything. A black mist had thoroughly shrouded the entire area. The two green lights were as big as a person’s face and seemed like two ghostly fires, eerily it also resembled two large eyes that seemed sinister in the dark mist.

“There really is some ‘dirty thing’!” Ye Fan and Pang Bo were beginning to feel more nervous.

“Shuaaaa”

This time, the speed of the two balls of green light were much faster and in the blink of an eye they had already gotten closer. They were still aimed at Ye Fan and although Pang Bo wanted to help, four to five corpses that fell down knocked him away.

The green lights moved faster and faster and had completely locked down on Ye Fan. The lights continually moved haphazardly and finally with a flash the two green balls disappeared and entered his body.

“Ye Fan!” Pang Bo shouted but had no way to prevent anything from happening.

At the same time, Ye Fan felt an icy coldness within his sea of bitterness, as though it had been frozen. He hurriedly tried to circulate the mystical arts recorded in the Dao Scripture and a golden light was emitted.

“Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!”

The sound of a howling sea exploded and Ye Fan’s sea of bitterness became a vast golden body of water, surging violently sending the two balls of green light spiraling to the sky.

“Boom!”

There was a loud rumbling noise and the two balls of green light seemed to be frightened as they rushed out of Ye Fan’s sea of bitterness, moving speedily away. At the same time, Ye Fan’s sea of bitterness immediately regained its calm and the soybean sized golden light hung there like a divine lamp.

“Shuaaa”

The green lights were exceptionally fast and upon rushing out of Ye fan’s sea of bitterness they immediately rushed towards Pang Bo, speedily entering his body. Pang Bo cursed before falling like a stick to the ground, leaving Ye Fan shocked as he rushed over.

“Pang Bo, what’s the matter?”

Before Ye Fan even got close, Pang Bo suddenly sat up. In his eyes a faint green light could be seen as he stood up letting out a low growl like a wild beast as he coldly stared at Ye Fan for several minutes before shifting his gaze.

“What are you? Leave his body!” Ye Fan shouted.

‘Boom!”

At this moment, turbulent winds began to bellow as the sand and rock flew into the sky, the black mist surged up as Pang Bo stood there, his messy hair was flying about as he suddenly took big strides and left, the surrounding tens of corpses all floated and followed him into the depths of the ruins.

The area suddenly became calm as the stars in the sky appeared once again and in the distance Pang Bo could be seen flying with black mist surrounding him, sand was flying all around and tens of corpses were moving together with him.

“Pang Bo!” Ye Fan shouted as he began to chase.

Pang Bo’s current speed was simply too fast and could compare to the speed of those elders riding mystical rainbows, swift like the wind he disappeared from Ye Fan’s view in no time at all.

Pang Bo was currently possessed and his life and death were hanging in the balance, Ye Fan was anxious but he could not keep up with the speed.

The area ahead was vast and endless but Ye Fan had no other option but to continue deeper, he could not be bothered about what dangers were possibly there.

Late into the night, Ye Fan had travelled for many miles and finally seemed to be reaching the innermost depths of the ruins. The oppressive sound was even more forceful here and after a period of time it would resound. Each time it felt as though someone were beating on his heart and Ye Fan’s countenance was pale as he stumbled along. With his exceptional physique he was barely able to hold on and if it were a normal person their heart would likely have already burst.

The vegetation here gradually thinned and the disintegrated remains of old constructions became more abundant. The spiritual qi was dense and thriving with vitality, such that it was much thicker, it was simply a better treasured land than that of the Ling Xu sanctuary.

“Dong!”

An oppressive sound resounded again as Ye Fan scaled a mountain and looked into the distance. The innermost depths of the ruins were just up ahead, ancient constructions were clustered together and although they were dilapidated and mostly ruined, one could imagine the majesty of the area back in its heyday.

What was most shocking was that the endless amounts of ancient constructions were actually surrounding a volcano and the lights from the fire shot to the sky, lava could be seen gurgling within the volcano and although it did not flow out, the scene was stupefying and half the sky was painted in red.

Endless majestic ancient constructions surrounded a volcano and made one feel mystified.

At this moment, Ye Fan was shocked because he saw an unbelievable scene. Following the bubbling of the lava, there was a translucent majestic ancient palace that seemed to be bobbing up and down within the lava.

“Dong!”

The oppressive sound actually originated from within the volcano, or more accurately, from the ancient palace within the lava. It was bright and translucent, emitting an aura of timeless age as divine clouds seemed to float around it.

A 1.5 metre tall divine bird could be seen amongst the cluster of ancient constructions below the volcano, its entire body was flashing with golden light as electricity snaked around its body. This was the Lightning Bird that had fought with the ape king two days ago. It seemed to be completely unscathed and the outcome of the ape king was rather clear.

The Lightning Bird was a supreme species of fierce birds and elder Wu Qing Feng had mentioned that even if he were to meet it he would only be able to avoid it. It controlled the entire region there and no living thing dared to go near it.

Of course, it was not the only existence there. Within the cluster of constructions, there were over twenty fierce birds and barbaric beasts, all unique and a majority of them had never been heard or seen before, absolutely mystifying.

Examples of such: A grasshopper with silver wings that were as thick as arms, spanning two metres, its entire body flashing as though made of white gold. It silently lay there and no other creature dared to go near it.

A body of a bull and head of a lion, its entire body covered in green scales, over ten metres in height like a small mountain as it stood there, holding its own territory.

Over twenty terrifying creatures were enough to show how frightening the depths ruins. At this moment they were all gathered around the volcano and seemed to be nervously looking at the ancient palace floating within the lava.

At this point, Ye Fan had finally found Pang Bo sitting under the volcano within a patch of the ruins as he finally let loose a sigh of relief. Elder Wu Qing Feng and the other elders had surrounded him and thoroughly trapped him within.

There were over twenty elders from Ling Xu sanctuary and their numbers almost matched the number of birds and beasts, it could be said that the strengths of the two factions were rather equal.

“That’s……”

Ye Fan realised that he had miscounted, there were some living things atop the volcano. A two metre tall being whose arms were covered in scales appeared majestic under the glow of the lava. By his side there was a young female, she did not have arms but had two golden wings and her hair was like golden silk that flashed with light. There was also a python that was with them, it horns on its head and claws under its belly, it had transcended the level of a snake and had already become a river dragon from legends.

Ye Fan felt shivers in his heart as he recalled that these were the great demons from legends that could turn into human beings.

“There’s more…..” Ye Fan was in shock, he realised that on another side of the volcano, there were another three great demons there of which one was a giant being, extremely stalwart exceeding 3 metres and although he had a complete human body, there were two bull horns atop his head.

At the same time, Ye Fan noticed that there were four to five genuine humans, one of which was the Ling Xu sanctuary sect leader who he had seen in the distance. By his side were four old man with white hair and mustaches, they were the closest humans to the volcano.

It was clear that positions were decided based on strength and the several birds and beasts were below the volcano together with the Ling Xu elders . Atop the volcano were existences on a higher level, their objectives in coming here were the same and it had something to do with the ancient palace.

All the experts were nervously looking towards the opening of the volcano, the lava was bubbling and a divine glow was emitted from the ancient palace, as though the power of time were flowing and made one feel a timeless ancient aura.

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