All who were within the boundaries of the Great Mountain Guarding Array were sent flying, Liu Bi and the rest had quickly run towards the Mo Palace when they had heard the noise so they had escaped calamity.
“Damn! Someone must have gotten there first and activated the Great Mountain Guarding Array.” Liu Bi was a Half-Immortal Elder; she was very sharp so she understood at a glance what was going on.
“Impossible, we were the first one through the teletransportation array!” a person from the Thousand Ghosts Sect exclaimed.
“There are other entrance points,” various people interjected.
Some from the demonic sects suspected that the Liuyun Sect had gotten ahead of them, maybe Ding Ziyu had given them some extra clues. However, Elder Liu Bi was there, so they did not dare to say anything.
“Shishu, the big array has been activated, does that mean that we can’t get out anymore?” Mo Xiong looked towards the invisible dome over the sky, which occasionally shimmered under the light of the sun.
Xuanji lowered his head and said nothing.
“You’ve come so far, what’s the hurry?” A deep and aloof voice came from far away, it contained the profound and resounding power of a divine soul, shocking those who had low cultivation and making them quiver.
Even Liu Bi panicked, that divine soul was obviously stronger than hers. If it was not a Demonic Beast, then…
Xuanji, as a true Demonic Beast, was unaffected, but since he had already looked upset, it was impossible to tell.
“This voice… It’s Lord Duantian!” When the Elder of the Thousand Gu Sect realized that it was Duantian, his face immediately twisted in an expression of horror.
“A ghost?” someone from the Thousand Ghosts Sect asked quaveringly.
“Nonsense, since when do ghosts have divine souls?” Someone else from the same sect kicked him. Our sect specializes in refining souls; how can he be afraid of ghosts?! The utter disgrace!
The Thousand Gu Sect’s Elder paid no attention to these people, he fell on the ground with a thump and kowtowed in the direction of the Mo Palace. “Milord forgive us, we entered the Mo Palace by accident and were just leaving. I hope Milord will not take offence!”
When the junior demonic cultivators saw that the Elder of the Thousand Gu Sect’s was so frightened, they became uneasy. Of the several other Demonic Lords they had had the honour to meet, none of them got along with each other. Legend had it that this Lord Duantian was so volatile and devious, that even several Demonic Lords were afraid of him.
Though they waited for a long time, they did not see Duantian emerging to kill them, the surroundings remained still.
“Lord Duantian has been dead for more than 300 years. If he was still alive, he would have come for revenge. Why wait until now?” A Liuyun Sect disciple who stood beside Liu Bi felt like he had some back-up, so he was not that afraid. Even if Lord Duantian was alive, he was just a Half-Immortal, when it came to age, he was not even as old as Elder Liu Bi, so he surely would not be able to beat her in a fight.
Liu Bi, who did not know the damning contents of her disciple’s thoughts, felt that what he had said was sensible. “It may have been a mere wisp of soul left by Duantian; it will dissipate now that the array has been activated”
“Idiots,” the Thousand Gu Sect’s Elder said with a mocking laugh. “What kind of residual divine soul can remain for three hundred years without extinguishing? Lord Duantian had been exceptionally powerful, maybe there was some sort of immortal tool in his Mo Palace that could preserve his soul, just waiting for the right moment so he could possess someone and be reborn.” Regardless of whether Duantian was still alive or not, given the threat, he did not dare to take any risks, so he did not dare to utter even half a word of disparagement about the Demonic Lord.
The only team that had manage to enter the Mo Palace started fighting among themselves.
Mo Tianliao ignored them for the time being and went to his warehouse to get a set of array flags. The array had enough lingshi, and it had been restarted, but its gap was still there. The Great Mountain Guarding Array was too complex, it would be difficult to shore it up with his present cultivation, to be able to repair it, he must first return to the Half-Immortal stage. For now, he would just patch it.
The gap was located on a barren stone mountain, yet who knew how many cultivators had met their end here, the stone had been dyed a dark brown.
“If you’re gonna die I won’t object, but why do you have to dirty my mountain?” Mo Tianliao kicked the black stone under his feet in disgust. He snapped his fingers, producing a bunch of cyan flames. Another snap and the fire leaped to the stone, making it burst into flames.
The bugs that the Thousand Gu Sect had left ran away in a panic when they encountered Mo Tianliao’s woodfire, but they were quickly swallowed by the flames, they screamed shrilly as they died.
Mo Tianliao stood in the middle of the flames, letting his woodfire burn off the topmost layer of the black stone until it turned a glowing red. Only then did he wave his hand to retrieve the woodfire.
By now, he was able to control his woodfire with ease. As the Everlasting Wood, he was completely unconcerned about the flames, even standing amidst the fire, not even a corner of his robes got singed. With a wave of his hand, all the flames became a single small flame once more, then returned to his palm.
There were flags planted on the red-hot stone, their poles made from fine steel were firmly inserted, their fabric fluttered in the wind.
They were the flags of the Thousand Ghosts Sect; the array was still oozing black fog. Mo Tianliao sneered. What an inefficient setup.
He picked up several of the scattered Thousand Ghosts Sect’s flags, changed their position and then mixed in the flags he had brought. Mo Tianliao took out a piece of lingshi from his storage bracelet, melted it in the palm of his hand, then quickly drew an array between the flags. The liquid lingshi connected all the flags together, Mo Tianliao jumped into the air, made a seal with his hands, and activated the array.
The complicated array suddenly lit up then became quiet once more, the flags of the Thousand Ghosts Sect no longer released black smoke.
“Shit!” someone from the Thousand Ghosts Sect suddenly exclaimed, “Someone touched my flags!” His flags could only deter those who came in from the outside, the array could still be dismantled from the inside. If someone destroyed it internally or played some sort of trick, they would not be able to get out.
The people from the Thousand Ghosts Sect rushed to the gap, those from the Thousand Gu Sect also did not feel like staying, so they followed them.
Liu Bi hesitated for a moment, then decided to ignore the demonic sects and kept walking towards the Mo Palace. Before leaving, the Sect Leader had given her a clear mission, she must make sure to bring back Lord Duantian’s Taiji Sky Burning Furnace, the future of the Liuyun Sect depended on it. Looking for treasures in the Mo Palace was sure to be an extremely dangerous endeavour. How could one get cold feet over such a minor set-back?
The people from the Thousand Ghosts Sect quickly rushed to the gap on their flying swords; all they saw when they arrived was a calm but curious array. “Who messed with our ghost array?” The head disciple walked over and tried to pull out the now out-of-place ghost flags.
“Aghhh!” The disciple had just walked within ten zhangs from the flag array when suddenly, his body was entangled in huge amounts of ghost qi and then instantly torn into countless pieces. Blood sprayed everywhere, drenching the faces of the people from his sect that were standing back. They screamed uncontrollably.
“This, this, this…” The people of the Thousand Ghosts Sect were frozen in shock. When had their ghost array become so terrifying?
“Thousand Ghosts Extermination Array!” The Elder of the Thousand Gu Sect was no fool, when he realized which array this was, he took several steps back. This lethal array was enough to kill a Half-Immortal cultivator, they should keep their distance.
“The Gu insects!” The people from the Thousand Gu Sect searched for a long time, but they could not find even a single insect carcass. “Elder, the Gu insects are gone!”
“Are you guys looking for something?” A deep and remote voice rang out from behind them, making them freeze at once.
The Thousand Gu Sect’s Elder turned around slowly, only to see a man dressed in a pitch-black wide-sleeved brocade robe patterned with clouds floating in mid-air and looking at them with a sinister smile. The man held out one slender hand and slowly opened it, inside, there was a little heap of black ash.
“I respectfully greet Lord Duantian, he who burns the sky and destroys the earth, may he be as eternal as the heavens!” The Thousand Gu Sect’s Elder threw himself on the ground with a thud and kowtowed with great deference.
The disciples from the Thousand Gu Sect did not understand what was happening but they still instinctually copied their Elder.
The blood splattered disciples from the Thousand Ghosts Sect had been scared stupid, so they did not move.
“This Excellency has been dead for three hundred years, how nice of you to still remember me.” Mo Tianliao smiled and slowly sprinkled the ash on the heads of the people from the Thousand Ghosts Sect. “Do you also still remember what this Excellency said about insects being forbidden in my Mo Palace?” There was no anger in his voice, it was as if he was merely asking, “Can’t you remember that this excellency doesn’t like coriander?”
“This humble one deserves to die. I’ve not disciplined my disciples enough, allowing this to happen in a moment of inattention.” When the Thousand Gu Sect’s Elder heard him speak, he was even more afraid. He saw that Mo Tianliao could float, so he knew that he was still a Half-Immortal and what was worse, they were in his Mo Palace, where he could turn the earth upside down with barely a thought; he was thoroughly incapable of fighting back. “Who released the Gu?”
The disciple who had released the insects froze in shock, before he could even try to make an excuse, he was slapped on the head by the Elder. His eyes rolled back, dead as a doornail.
“Heh,” Mo Tianliao laughed mockingly. “Is that any way to treat your sect’s disciples? How will you explain it to your Sect Leader when you get back?”
“The Sect Leader is also Milord’s subordinate. How could he blame this humble one?” The Thousand Gu Sect’s Elder replied smartly.
The demonic cultivators at Mo Tianliao’s feet were sweating profusely. He smirked.
There was a short distance between the edge of the Great Mountain Guarding Array and the wall of the Mo Palace’s outermost structure. This wall was the thick face of a precipitous cliff, its top was close to the top of the large array, making it very hard to cross.
Liu Bi and her group searched for an entrance along the cliff, but what they ended up running into was the Thousand Gu Sect’s insects.
Mo Tianliao stood in the air with his hands behind his back and silently watched the people below fighting and killing each other.
“Er… Sh-shidi…Um.” Meng Hu, who had come to watch the show, scratched his head for a long time, only to stutter as soon as he opened his mouth. “Why is it that you can suddenly ride qi?” He clearly remembered that Mo Tianliao possessed only a Nascent Soul level cultivation, only those in the Half-Immortal stage could dispense of their sword entirely to fly, using qi to seemingly walk on nothing.
Mo Tianliao shifted his feet, revealing a flying sword under his robe. The sword was very small, only as big as the sole of his foot, making it completely unnoticeable to people under normal circumstances. If one were to look, it seemed like there was no flying sword at all.
Meng Hu’s mouth twisted. “Are you… Are you really Lord Duantian?”
Mo Tianliao raised his eyebrows.
The tortoiseshell-coloured wristband flew up, turned into a big mouth and flew around Meng Hu. It laughed like a crow and said, “Wow, even a stupid tiger can sometimes get a clue.”
Meng Hu looked at Taishi, then slowly lowered his head.
“Shut up.” Mo Tianliao caught Taishi, then turned to Meng Hu and said, “Yes. I’m indebted to da-shixiong for his care all this time. We’re still family.”
The dejected Meng Hu, suddenly looked up. “Really?” he asked, his pair of tiger eyes sparkling. We’re still family. That meant… That Mo Tianliao still recognized him as his shixiong! A tiger that had not even formed his own Nascent Soul, but already a Demonic Lord’s shixiong!
Mo Tianliao raised his hand and rubbed the big tiger’s head. “Of course, you can call me shidie in the future.”
“Yeah!” Meng Hu nodded happily. Once Mo Tianliao had walked away, he suddenly paused. For some reason, he felt like something sounded a bit odd about that…?
“Shidi and shidi–ya are not the same thing”
Big wet chest: What did you just ask me to call you?
Big wet chest: Oh, I must have heard you wrong
Carpenter: Come on, repeat after me: Shidi ya, shidi ya
Big wet chest: Shidi ya... shidiya, shidie, shidie
Unedited, please point out any mistakes
Large Wet Boobies: Shidi… shidi ya… shidaddy…? (⊙ω⊙;)
Scratching Post: Good boy (っ^＿^)ﾉ(╥ω╥)