Chapter 1: The Third Red Dot (Part 2)
Qi Ling nods, teeth chattering in fear. He stumbles towards the backyard while nodding.
“Hey,” just before Qi Ling breeches the exit at the back, Lijier stops him, “You better hurry up, and if you try to escape, I won’t be happy.”
After Qi Ling left the lobby, Lijier turns her head around, vision concentrated intensely on what’s outside the door of the inn, “Ai yah, they’re here. Why did Kins and Liuna run, as if I’m some sort of terrifying creature, they don’t know that, running out, is when they truly meet a group of monsters……” A faint layer of sorrow looms over her youthful features, as if she really feels sorry for the two.
At this very moment, the wind blows a gap through the storm clouds overhead, the moonlight beams down from the sky, falling onto the path outside the inn, at the crossroads two hundred meters away from the inn is where Kins and Liuna’s corpses currently lie. The pale moonlight covers their corpses with a thin layer of frost.
Fifteen minutes before this, only Lijier is left in the lobby of the inn, and now, the place is suddenly bustling again, taking into account Lijier and Qi Ling, there is now a total of ten people.
The eight new comers are all clad in similar-styled white robs, clean and noble. The men are all wearing headpieces of which you can tell their status with one look, at their waists are golden swords. The women all wore flowing dresses, akin to snow and fog, the fabric flowing around their figures like smoke when they move even without the presence of wind, lightly and wildly, like gradually changing smog, looking as if they’re from a divine plane. On all of their wrists are bracelets made from ice-blue beads, looking as translucent as the tears of the ocean.
The eight of them are seated at one end of the lobby, and opposite them, is Lijier who is still folded lazily in her seat, looking as if her soul has left her.
Two blatantly different auras fill the lobby.
“Why are people from the family of Shen like you joining in the chaos?” Lijier addresses the eight people in white coldly, “Don’t all of you have enough soul beasts?”
The eight people look back at Lijier, although they do not have terror on their faces, but they look slightly cautious. This can be seen from the moment the eight of them entered the inn. When they saw Lijier tucked in the corner alone, their surprise had been obvious.
A man of thirty sitting among the eight, looking as if he is the chief, while drinking the tea Qi Ling poured for them, he says with a low voice: “There aren’t many who have the ability to subdue Bing Mo, that’s why, people from godly families like us will be here naturally, also Bing Mo is a high-leveled water-based beast, seen only every century, of course us families wish to have a few more of these advanced soul beasts.” He sets down his teacup and looks at Lijier, “What about you, don’t you think you’ve been unbridled enough in the imperial capital of Gelanerte? And you’re still here.”
“Ai yah, ai yah……” Lijier puts down her legs and stretches, “Just what what you just said, I was already so unbridled back in the imperial capital of Gelanerte, in a small town like this, of course I will cause an even larger ruckus.”
She pulls herself up slowly, moving her body from side to side, the bangles on her arms and legs tinkering, “It’s just that so many of you came at the same time, if I want to compete with you guys with just one person, it’s going to be tough……” With an extremely peculiar movement, she stretches her body that had turned stiff from sitting too long, a weird crackling sound can be heard coming from her small body, “Look at all of you, how shameless can you be, so many people competing with a young girl……”
“You? Young girl? You should be an old lady……” Among the people in white, a young man muttered with a cold snicker.
Lijier’s expression freezes, looking like the dead frozen over with frost, “Say that one more time.”
Two flexible icicles suddenly fall from the ceiling like two snakes, sharp and tough, but as agile and soft as snakes, these two icicles hang down slowly, aiming themselves precisely at the young man’s eyes, as if they are cobras ready to attack at any moment.
The boy pales, it is clear that he’s embarrassed greatly, yet he doesn’t dare to put his life on the line, thus he swallows his saliva and clenches his teeth tightly.
Lijier’s expression softens again, looking like the spring wind crossed her. The two icicles dissipate into the air like steam.
The middle-aged man turns to reprimand the boy softly: “Don’t create trouble.”
Lijier returns to her seat, her gaze turning empty and strange once again.
Originally, Qi Ling had prepared to escape after delivering the food to Lijier and after pouring tea for the new guests. To tell the truth, no matter how intrigued he is by the mysterious soul masters from the imperial capital, after the death of so many, he doesn’t wish to stay not even for another second.
Just when he is about to escape from the backdoor with the tea set in his hands, his feet is caught by something unknown, his whole person loses balance and he falls forward.
He had already closed his eyes in preparation to crash to the ground, but, suddenly a touch of something soft reaches him, as if he fell onto a spongy bed.
Qi Ling opens his eyes, before him is a face so pretty people may think they’re staring at that of a goddess. he looks down to see that he fell onto a silver-white web, those white threads like that of a spider’s web intersects in the air, catching the teapot, cups and himself on it.
Qi Ling struggles to stand up, and then he hears the girl who had been staring at him before talking to him: “Are you alright?” After saying that, she raises her hand, in an instant those silver-white spider web withdraws into her palms like smoke.
“I’m……alright.” Qi Ling’s face burns, looking at the girl of similar age to him before him, her white robe flowing, her raven hair tied at the top of her head shimmering smoothly. Her eyes are round and dark, her long lashes looking like fog, decorating her features perfectly. Her sharp and small face, her fair skin, like soft snow, her whole person seemed like a young and noble princess.
“My name is Shen Yin (lit. Godly sound), I come from the imperial capital of Gelanerte.” She looks at Qi Ling and smiles gently.
“My name is Qi Ling……” Qi Ling, who had wanted to escape, is totally attracted now, if the scenes before felt like a nightmare to him, right now, he feels as if he fell into the most beautiful dream. He stands at her side carefully, in his chest the blood of youth boils, he’s never seen such a pretty girl in this small town, he hates how good for nothing he is, even his breath is laborious.
“You should sit down, stop standing.” Shen Yin gestures towards him.
Qi Ling sits down gratefully, he looks at Shen Yin’s face that is so beautiful that she seems unearthly, the terror from before long forgotten, even if a bull-drawn carriage pulls him now, he probably can’t be pulled away.
“Jiejie…… are you a soul master too?” QI Ling looks at her straight on with wide eyes.
“Yes, we all are.” Shen Yin places her hand on the table; on her wrist is the strand of translucent beads. “My clan is quite famous in the imperial capital, everyone in the family is a soul master. They are all my relatives, look at the one who spoke just now, the one right in the middle,” Shen Yin leans over and tells Qi Ling softly, “He is my brother, Kins, he’s always so stoic, so scary.”
Qi Ling glances at Shen Yin who sat closer to him, his breath felt more rushed. He can smell the faint fragrance of magnolia drifting from her body, barely there, not overwhelming, and yet very fresh, as if a flower bloomed in an unseen location in the dark night.
“Woah, are you guys the most powerful soul masters in the imperial capital?” Qi Ling’s eyes brightens, his curiosity for the world of soul powers piping up again.
“You’re talking about us? Our clan is probably quite alright among soul masters, but if you’re talking referring to the whole world of soul powers, the most talented are no longer called soul masters, they are known as ‘Noble Lords’, they are the peak of the entire world of soul powers.” Shen Yin smiles as she explains to the curious Qi Ling in front of her. Since there’s still quite some time before Bing Mo’s appearance, rather than waiting with those of her family in silence, she rather converse with the handsomely-pretty youth before her.
“Ah? Then is your brother a noble lord?”
“My brother?” Shen Yin looks at the youth who knows nothing about the world of soul powers before laughing with her hand covering her mouth, “Even if there is a hundred of my brother, it will still be an ‘Instant Kill’.”
“Instant kill?”
“Yeah……like just now when Gu Die Lijier killed Lu Ya and Tuoka. In the world of soul masters, if the level of soul powers between two are too far apart, if one overwhelms the other, then, the stronger side will be able to restrict the soul powers of the other, and they can kill the other in an instant.”
“Noble lords are so powerful?!” Qi Ling’s eyes widen.
‘Of course. You don’t understand our world. Since young, we basically have no opportunity to meet a noble lord; those who have in the imperial capital are few and far between. To us who learned soul powers since young, noble lords to us are like the gods in the skies, they rarely appear in everyone’s vision, many times they exist like legends.”
“How many noble lords are there?” Qi Ling can’t resist asking.
“Seven,” Shen Yin’s face under the light looks as if it’s carved from the most flawless jade, “Since the start of record-keeping in our empire, there has seven ‘noble lords’ and there is only seven. Only when the older noble lord dies, will there be a inheritor who fills in the place of the previous noble lord. ‘Noble lords’ will not increase, neither will they decrease, there will always be only seven. The inheritors of the lords are known as ‘Disciples’, every noble lord has their own disciple.”
“Are they all so powerful?”
“Of course they are, you can’t even imagine. Noble lords are ranked based on the strength of their soul powers, from ‘Lord to the 7th Degree (7th Lord)’ to ‘Lord of the 1st Degree (1st Lord, Top Lord)’, their soul powers get stronger and stronger. The top three noble lords, after they became noble lords, even before they became noble lords, basically none of us knows who they are or how they look like. They’ve almost never appeared publicly in our country. Before I was even born, there was a year when tens of thousands of soul beasts in the Valley of the North lost control at the same time, at that time, my mother saw the ‘Lord to the 5th Degree’ appear to subdue the soul beasts. That is, in the history of my clan, the highest-leveled noble lord any of us ever saw. Nobody knows how grand the soul powers of noble lords actually are; no one ever saw the appearance of their soul beasts either."
“Why hasn’t anyone ever seen them? Even I already saw two, a lion and a butterfly……or maybe it’s a bat……I don’t know what that thing was, I didn’t dare to examine it, too scary, that thing had countless sticky tentacles, don’t even mention how horrifying it was.” Qi Ling tells Shen Yin softly while glancing sneakily at Lijier at the same time, fearing she’d hear.
“Of course it’s a lot easier to see an average soul master’s beast, I let out my soul beast often too. It’s different for noble lords, first they themselves rarely appear, we don’t even get to see them usually; secondly their soul powers are terrifyingly powerful, there’s rarely the occasion where they’re required to release their soul beasts.” When Shen Yin talks about noble lords, on her face is the express of infinite respect and idolisation.
Qi Ling takes in her heavenly appearance, unable to stop himself, he envisions how noble lords are like. After thinking for a while, Qi Ling suddenly remembers and asks Shen Yin: “Jiejie, what is your soul beast like?”
Shen Yin purses her lips as she smiles, saying: “I shouldn’t tell you, I’m scared I’ll frighten you.” After saying that, she points to the spot where there had been silver-white webs before, Qi Ling suddenly remembers something, looking pale, he says: “Don’t let it out……those things are what I’m most afraid of……” He pauses, “Then they are really the most powerful in the world? That’s almighty!”
“Yes, actually you should say that they are the most powerful of our Aslan Empire. Odin Mainland is separated into four counties in four directions. We are the water county Aslan of the West, there’s also the fire county of Foliaier Empire in the East, the wind county Inde Empire of the North, and there is also the largest and most mysterious Garcia Empire, which is the earth county in the South. In every country, there are seven noble lords. So you should say that the twenty-eight of them are the most powerful masters of the soul on this landmass.”
“Oh yeah, jiejie, what is this Bing Mo all of you are talking about?”
“It’s a soul beast, if you’re able to capture it, you can turn it into a soul beast controlled by your soul powers, no matter if it’s for battle or making it do other things, it can help a lot. Usually the soul powers of soul beasts are greater than that of the human. So put it more simply, you can take soul beasts as our weapons. And this Bing Mo is a high-leveled soul beast of the element of water, so us born in the Aslan Empire, it’s a great soul beast to have. Because we’re born in this region where the land’s nature is water, our soul powers have a natural strength to control water. That’s why so many people want it. But those not of a certain level are just here to lose their lives.”
“Jiejie don’t you already have a soul beast, why are you still here?”
“I don’t want Bing Mo at all, it’s my brother Kins who wants it.” Shen Yin sticks out her tongue. Qi Ling fells dazed.
“Then why did so many of you come?”
“Bing Mo is a pretty powerful soul beast, even if it’s not as powerful as my 'Dreamweaver', haha,” Shen Yin leans closer to Qi Ling, “Don’t tell that to my brother, if not he’ll be angry again. Capturing a soul beast is no laughing matter, because you have to release most of your soul power to swallow that of the opponent, I’ll put it more simply, it’s basically when you release your naked soul from your body and then getting it to swallow the soul of the opponent, if anything goes wrong during this process, it’s easy to be swallowed by the opponent. Then it won’t be fun……that’s why, usually we concentrate on attacking the soul beast until it’s life is hanging by a thread, and then taking the opportunity to engulf it when it’s soul powers are at its weakest, making it ours. Which is why, today we’re here to be the hunters for my brother, we’re in charge of attacking it until it’s almost dead, and then my brother will be in charge of engulfing it.”
“Ah, so it’s like this……” Qi Ling nods without understanding.
The dark night is permeated with the bitter-coldness of a lake.
At forest at the end of the path, it’s deafening silent in the night. In the darkness that has no end in sight, enormous sounding footsteps, like the beat of a large drum, approaches.
Light snow falls from the sky, at first they are just a scatter of snowflakes, reflecting starlight in the night, yet in the blink of an eye, the surrounding temperature drops drastically, the whole town as if being pulled into the depths of a valley of glaciers, a second before the ground is full of soft soil, the next second they became hard, frozen soil.
In the gloomy forest, the dense snow spreads forward in a speed that destroys everything in its path, engulfing everything frozen between the heavens and earth.
The calamity-like danger is approaching the inn at lightning speed, yet those inside don’t seem to realise that, seeming like squirrels resting peacefully in their hallows, unaware of the blizzard outside.
“Jiejie do you still want to drink water? I’ll go get some for you.” Qi Ling shivers, looking out the window, it seems as if the wind has started to blow. Standing up, he shuts the windows tightly, turning to get some firewood, he moves towards the fireplace to light the charcoal in it. The temperature of the room is becoming unbearable. “Why did it suddenly become so cold? It’s just the start of window.” Qi Ling pokes at the firewood as he tightens his collar.
At this moment, Lijier who has been curled up in the chair far from them, stands up lightly, waving her hands around, the bangles slam into each other creating a sound akin to music. An icy-blue glare emits from her pupils, on her face is that pure but unsettling smile, “Ai yah, it seems to have arrived.”
After saying that, lightly, she steps towards the door, in a corner of the lobby, a lump of blurred yet dense green light gradually appears, in the light there swims some strip-like shadows, winding, tangling. When Lijier passes by Kins, she looks at him and smiles: “I shall go first then —“ Just as she finishes speaking, she whips her hand back, her whole body contorting into an extremely unsettling position, like that of a bird before its taking flight, and the next second, with a loud crash—
Within the large ball of green light in the corner, the massive Gu Die suddenly appears in thin its dense bones of the dead spreading, releasing unsettling cracks, in a flash, it has extended its wings to the fullest and dashed towards the sky, with its wings fully open, it resembles a ghoul enveloping the sky, uncountable slime and green liquid splatter from from its wings like rain. It knocks a large hole on the rood, destroying the beams and tiles, they become numerous splinters of wood and rubble, crashing down in disorder, just as Qi Ling is going to escape, Shen Yin raises her hand gently, her fingertips moving in a complex pattern with a humming sound, a large silver-white web of silk umbrellas out over their heads. All the rubble crashes on the web instead.
Jilier looks at Kins, without opening her mouth, a cold voice sounds from the strange smile on her face, she says: “Oh, look at that, I have really bad luck, encountering such strong competitors sighting for Bing Mo with me, I’ll have to strike first to get an advantage then.”
Kins scoffs coldly, saying: “It’s good that you know that.”
Lijier tilts her head and giggles, her gaze complex but halting, she exits the inn slowly. Turning her had back after exiting, she looks at the back view of Kins, as if in a dream-like state, she murmurs: “By opponent, I wasn’t referring to you, I was referring to the thing conversing with the little kid over there, comparing the two of us, the real monster should be her……”
In the room, Shen Yin who is currently speaking to Qi Ling with a smile, seems to have sensed something, turning her cheek lightly, she glances out the door at Lijier, throwing her a mesmerising smile.
After Gu Die Lijier left, the only people remaining in the room are the members of the Shen family and Qi Ling.
A woman sitting beside Kins who looks slightly older turns to speak to him: “Are we really going to let her go first?”
Kins says: “It’s fine, with her abilities, she won’t be able to subdue Bing Mo. It’ll be good to let her consume some of Bing Mo’s powers first.”
When Qi Ling hears this, despite having no positive feelings towards Lijier, at this moment he pities her. At the same time, a negative impression of Kins forms, a group of adults letting a young girl die first, no matter how you think of it, it’s unethical. Qi Ling looks at the silhouette of the twelve or thirteen-year-old girl disappear at the end of the path, a faint feeling of sympathy appearing in his heart — of course, if he looks up at this moment at the thing that’s following Lijier slowly, the Gu Die circling above her head with its wings spread like a large ghoul, that is another feeling all together.
After the time of one lamp passes, Qi Ling really can’t stand the silence in the room anymore. Maybe because everyone is preparing for the round up in the near future, even Shen Yin isn’t speaking much.
Just as Qi Ling is going to leave, a bone-piercing coldness spreads from his chest. As if losing strength in his legs, he collapses onto a chair.
At that moment, the whole room is enveloped in a bright white light; a thin layer of ice on the ground creeps from outside, very soon, the whole floor has frozen.
The door is blown open by a gust of wind with a loud bang, unsure of the exact time, Lijier is already standing outside, on her face is a slightly twisted smile of extreme excitement, it looks appalling.
In the air, there the unsettling sound between that of a string instrument and of a hummingbird, piercing the eardrums, no one knows where the sound originates from, as if an invite extended from Hell, luring a person’s soul. The bright light outside the window grows paler and paler, seeming like the tragedy of an apocalypse.
Just like when she left, step by step, she moves in, raising her hand gently, she half-covers her mouth, “Hehe, really happy, today……” Her gaze sweeps over everyone in the room.
Kins’s heart falls. He clenches his teeth in hatred. “Seems like I underestimated you……I’ll forget it today, I don’t want Bing Mo anymore!” Standing up with force, he suppresses his anger, as he gets ready to leave.
“Ai yah,” Lijier smiles her unsettling smile, “I’m not done yet.”
When Kins turns to look at her, it seems as if he’s seen his worst nightmare, he steps back in shock.
And Qi Ling, he’s already petrified in his seat.
From Gu Die Lijier’s right shoulder to abdomen, it’s looks as if it’s being sliced open by an invisible sword, just like the sediments on a mountain after a hurricane, the flesh on her left arm and her small beasts all collapse from her body, the guts and intestines on the right half of her abdomen gurgles out. Her vision is murky, it is clear that her life force is disappearing from her body at high speed, yet she’s still smiling, her face as pale as joss paper, “What I’m happy about is that, hehe……hehehehehe……” From her abdomen, another two internal organs roll out, unclear of which they are, they splatter onto the frozen round, in the air is a suffocating sanguinary stench, “What I’m happy about is that……today, everyone is going to die here.” Her legs suddenly break into four or five portions, out of nowhere, a few short flashes of thin and speedy light appears, Lijier’s whole body falls to the ground like rubble. Her long, long hair is soaked in her blood and innards, her skull is currently perched atop the broken pieces of her corpse, it’s still speaking, it looks of an unspoken terror, “What came isn’t Bing Mo…… it’s ‘Cang Xue Zhi Ya’ (lit. Teeth of the snow of dusk)…… the information we were given, they are all wrong……”
After saying that, her skulls cracks open from the middle, her two eyeballs exploding into two resplendent ice flowers.
Shen Yin and Qi Ling turns their head through their fright, unsure of when it had happened, Kins’ chest has a lump of large and bright icicles protruding from it, as if a man-eating flower that’s blooming with menace, the sharp and tough petals are squeezing out from his chest, guts and intestines, they hang steaming on the ice, after a while, they turn into ice.
[West of Aslan Empire - Heart]
The last time Yin Chen walked into this large architecture known as the ‘Heart’, it had been three years ago.
Three years has passed and nothing has changed here. The tips of the structure pierces into clouds, in the vast atrium, the high courtyard wall resemble large cliffs that surround the palace, the whole structure is constructed on a large peak, the tip of the tower looks as if it is going to pierce through the blue sky, attracting the infinite magnetic field of soul powers, there seems to be an invisible thunderstorm.
This structure is known as the Heart of the imperial capital of Gelanerte. It sits massively and volatile on the peak at the dead center of the imperial capital.
Within a one-mile radius of its location, there is close to no ordinary people.
All citizens live along the foot of the mountain; the whole city is centred around the Heart and bloom outwards.
It is the center where the imperial household lives. It represents the tip of the top of Gelanerte, the few silvery-white points, always shrouded in the clouds. Occasionally there will be large birds flying past. The resonant godly music comes from the highest clock tower of the Heart, every morning, a beautiful melody like euphemistic poetry envelops the whole of Gelanerte.
Yet only very few know that, the real center of the imperial capital is under the surface of the Heart. With the ground surface as the line of symmetry, there is an identical infrastructure that is upside-down deep in the palace.
And at this very moment, Yin Chen is at the most bottom of this upside-down structure.
The depth of this place is known as the ‘Source of Prophecies’.
Yin Chen stands in the middle of the barren hall. Surrounding him are the light from the grand walls, on them are densely and intricately carved designs, above him is a large dome— despite being inverted deep under the ground, there is still bright rays of light shining down from the top. This is the grand soul power concentrated in the Heart.
Yin Chen walks along the hall, the space is overly large, his footsteps echo as if from the depths of a deep valley. The heavy silence in the air, something like a miracle, makes it hard to breathe.
And the real miracle is currently beneath Yin Chen’s feet.
The whole piece of ground is constructed of pre-historic crystal with no cracks; the barren ground of the hall is made up of this one piece of crystal. No one will doubt that this is the strength of god, because there is no human strength that can cut and create such large a piece of crystal ground in its entirety.
If you look closely, you will be able to see that from the surface of the crystal the as deep as the eye can see, glowing veined patterns are cared into it, these are all secrets of the soul powers passed down from ancient times.
And the ones who know the secrets, are the three sole ‘Silver Priests’ of this country.
The three of them seem to have been here even before the construction of this grand palace — their life is an eternal mystery, no one knows how long they’ve lived, no one knows when they started to exist here, no one knows why they are trapped under the surface of this crystal. They exist in the fear of people for tens of thousands of years:
The three of them lie face-up in the depths of the crystal, located at the dead center of the fall, their heads connect, forming a pattern with three edges, their bodies are engravings of this grand crystal— their bodies are enveloped by it, they are cladded in a unique outfit, something akin to armour of battle, yet it is not of the style of Aslan, only their hands and head are not covered, yet, maybe because it has been such a long time, their faces seem to be part of the crystals, translucent and without flaws, the three identical faces seem to be made of crystal, their eyes are shut tightly, they are expressionless, sleeping in the depths of the crystal. No one knows how thick or deep this crystal goes, underneath them, if you keep looking down, it becomes dimmer until it finally becomes a pitch-black abyss.
Two male priests, one female priest.
They wear noble yet complex outfits, coupled with their godly appearance; they are solidified underneath the large crystal of soul powers for eternity.
Yin Chen walks before them and kneels.
A voice drifts out of nowhere and fills the whole hall.
Yin Chen listens intently with his head down, he knows that this miraculous voice is from the shared spirit of the three silver priests.
“Yin Chen, beneath your feet right now is a map, it is a map of a small town at the West of the Aslan Empire known as Fauser.”
Yin Chen looks at the large crystal beneath his feet, underneath the surface, a map made of bright threads of light appears, on it are a few blue dots and three blood-red points.
“Yin Chen, we need you to head towards this town to find a boy named Qi Ling. He is the newest disciple.”
“Okay, I will set off now.” Yin Chen lifts his head to look at the three silver priests deep in slumber at the depths of the crystal before turning back to look at the three burning red dots on the map, his features, as cold and passive as frost, yet perfect, seem to look slightly puzzled. he moves his lips that are as thin as a blade, saying: “Master priest, why is it that, there will be three noble lords appearing in this small town?” Yin Chen’s pupils are like silver.
“You’re wrong. Yin Chen, when you head to that place, there will only be you, the noble lord. These three red dots that seem to have the soul power at the level of ‘noble lords’, one is the soul beast Cang Xu Zhi Ya, another is your disciple Qi Ling.”
“There is one more, that red dot, “Yin Chen looks over at the priests deep in slumber underneath the crystals, punctuating his sentence, he asks, “What is that thing?”
Chapter 1: The Third Red Dot (Part 2)
Qi Ling nods, teeth chattering in fear. He stumbles towards the backyard while nodding.
“Hey,” just before Qi Ling breeches the exit at the back, Lijier stops him, “You better hurry up, and if you try to escape, I won’t be happy.”
After Qi Ling left the lobby, Lijier turns her head around, vision concentrated intensely on what’s outside the door of the inn, “Ai yah, they’re here. Why did Kins and Liuna run, as if I’m some sort of terrifying creature, they don’t know that, running out, is when they truly meet a group of monsters……” A faint layer of sorrow looms over her youthful features, as if she really feels sorry for the two.
At this very moment, the wind blows a gap through the storm clouds overhead, the moonlight beams down from the sky, falling onto the path outside the inn, at the crossroads two hundred meters away from the inn is where Kins and Liuna’s corpses currently lie. The pale moonlight covers their corpses with a thin layer of frost.
Fifteen minutes before this, only Lijier is left in the lobby of the inn, and now, the place is suddenly bustling again, taking into account Lijier and Qi Ling, there is now a total of ten people.
The eight new comers are all clad in similar-styled white robs, clean and noble. The men are all wearing headpieces of which you can tell their status with one look, at their waists are golden swords. The women all wore flowing dresses, akin to snow and fog, the fabric flowing around their figures like smoke when they move even without the presence of wind, lightly and wildly, like gradually changing smog, looking as if they’re from a divine plane. On all of their wrists are bracelets made from ice-blue beads, looking as translucent as the tears of the ocean.
The eight of them are seated at one end of the lobby, and opposite them, is Lijier who is still folded lazily in her seat, looking as if her soul has left her.
Two blatantly different auras fill the lobby.
“Why are people from the family of Shen like you joining in the chaos?” Lijier addresses the eight people in white coldly, “Don’t all of you have enough soul beasts?”
The eight people look back at Lijier, although they do not have terror on their faces, but they look slightly cautious. This can be seen from the moment the eight of them entered the inn. When they saw Lijier tucked in the corner alone, their surprise had been obvious.
A man of thirty sitting among the eight, looking as if he is the chief, while drinking the tea Qi Ling poured for them, he says with a low voice: “There aren’t many who have the ability to subdue Bing Mo, that’s why, people from godly families like us will be here naturally, also Bing Mo is a high-leveled water-based beast, seen only every century, of course us families wish to have a few more of these advanced soul beasts.” He sets down his teacup and looks at Lijier, “What about you, don’t you think you’ve been unbridled enough in the imperial capital of Gelanerte? And you’re still here.”
“Ai yah, ai yah……” Lijier puts down her legs and stretches, “Just what what you just said, I was already so unbridled back in the imperial capital of Gelanerte, in a small town like this, of course I will cause an even larger ruckus.”
She pulls herself up slowly, moving her body from side to side, the bangles on her arms and legs tinkering, “It’s just that so many of you came at the same time, if I want to compete with you guys with just one person, it’s going to be tough……” With an extremely peculiar movement, she stretches her body that had turned stiff from sitting too long, a weird crackling sound can be heard coming from her small body, “Look at all of you, how shameless can you be, so many people competing with a young girl……”
“You? Young girl? You should be an old lady……” Among the people in white, a young man muttered with a cold snicker.
Lijier’s expression freezes, looking like the dead frozen over with frost, “Say that one more time.”
Two flexible icicles suddenly fall from the ceiling like two snakes, sharp and tough, but as agile and soft as snakes, these two icicles hang down slowly, aiming themselves precisely at the young man’s eyes, as if they are cobras ready to attack at any moment.
The boy pales, it is clear that he’s embarrassed greatly, yet he doesn’t dare to put his life on the line, thus he swallows his saliva and clenches his teeth tightly.
Lijier’s expression softens again, looking like the spring wind crossed her. The two icicles dissipate into the air like steam.
The middle-aged man turns to reprimand the boy softly: “Don’t create trouble.”
Lijier returns to her seat, her gaze turning empty and strange once again.
Originally, Qi Ling had prepared to escape after delivering the food to Lijier and after pouring tea for the new guests. To tell the truth, no matter how intrigued he is by the mysterious soul masters from the imperial capital, after the death of so many, he doesn’t wish to stay not even for another second.
Just when he is about to escape from the backdoor with the tea set in his hands, his feet is caught by something unknown, his whole person loses balance and he falls forward.
He had already closed his eyes in preparation to crash to the ground, but, suddenly a touch of something soft reaches him, as if he fell onto a spongy bed.
Qi Ling opens his eyes, before him is a face so pretty people may think they’re staring at that of a goddess. he looks down to see that he fell onto a silver-white web, those white threads like that of a spider’s web intersects in the air, catching the teapot, cups and himself on it.
Qi Ling struggles to stand up, and then he hears the girl who had been staring at him before talking to him: “Are you alright?” After saying that, she raises her hand, in an instant those silver-white spider web withdraws into her palms like smoke.
“I’m……alright.” Qi Ling’s face burns, looking at the girl of similar age to him before him, her white robe flowing, her raven hair tied at the top of her head shimmering smoothly. Her eyes are round and dark, her long lashes looking like fog, decorating her features perfectly. Her sharp and small face, her fair skin, like soft snow, her whole person seemed like a young and noble princess.
“My name is Shen Yin (lit. Godly sound), I come from the imperial capital of Gelanerte.” She looks at Qi Ling and smiles gently.
“My name is Qi Ling……” Qi Ling, who had wanted to escape, is totally attracted now, if the scenes before felt like a nightmare to him, right now, he feels as if he fell into the most beautiful dream. He stands at her side carefully, in his chest the blood of youth boils, he’s never seen such a pretty girl in this small town, he hates how good for nothing he is, even his breath is laborious.
“You should sit down, stop standing.” Shen Yin gestures towards him.
Qi Ling sits down gratefully, he looks at Shen Yin’s face that is so beautiful that she seems unearthly, the terror from before long forgotten, even if a bull-drawn carriage pulls him now, he probably can’t be pulled away.
“Jiejie…… are you a soul master too?” QI Ling looks at her straight on with wide eyes.
“Yes, we all are.” Shen Yin places her hand on the table; on her wrist is the strand of translucent beads. “My clan is quite famous in the imperial capital, everyone in the family is a soul master. They are all my relatives, look at the one who spoke just now, the one right in the middle,” Shen Yin leans over and tells Qi Ling softly, “He is my brother, Kins, he’s always so stoic, so scary.”
Qi Ling glances at Shen Yin who sat closer to him, his breath felt more rushed. He can smell the faint fragrance of magnolia drifting from her body, barely there, not overwhelming, and yet very fresh, as if a flower bloomed in an unseen location in the dark night.
“Woah, are you guys the most powerful soul masters in the imperial capital?” Qi Ling’s eyes brightens, his curiosity for the world of soul powers piping up again.
“You’re talking about us? Our clan is probably quite alright among soul masters, but if you’re talking referring to the whole world of soul powers, the most talented are no longer called soul masters, they are known as ‘Noble Lords’, they are the peak of the entire world of soul powers.” Shen Yin smiles as she explains to the curious Qi Ling in front of her. Since there’s still quite some time before Bing Mo’s appearance, rather than waiting with those of her family in silence, she rather converse with the handsomely-pretty youth before her.
“Ah? Then is your brother a noble lord?”
“My brother?” Shen Yin looks at the youth who knows nothing about the world of soul powers before laughing with her hand covering her mouth, “Even if there is a hundred of my brother, it will still be an ‘Instant Kill’.”
“Instant kill?”
“Yeah……like just now when Gu Die Lijier killed Lu Ya and Tuoka. In the world of soul masters, if the level of soul powers between two are too far apart, if one overwhelms the other, then, the stronger side will be able to restrict the soul powers of the other, and they can kill the other in an instant.”
“Noble lords are so powerful?!” Qi Ling’s eyes widen.
‘Of course. You don’t understand our world. Since young, we basically have no opportunity to meet a noble lord; those who have in the imperial capital are few and far between. To us who learned soul powers since young, noble lords to us are like the gods in the skies, they rarely appear in everyone’s vision, many times they exist like legends.”
“How many noble lords are there?” Qi Ling can’t resist asking.
“Seven,” Shen Yin’s face under the light looks as if it’s carved from the most flawless jade, “Since the start of record-keeping in our empire, there has seven ‘noble lords’ and there is only seven. Only when the older noble lord dies, will there be a inheritor who fills in the place of the previous noble lord. ‘Noble lords’ will not increase, neither will they decrease, there will always be only seven. The inheritors of the lords are known as ‘Disciples’, every noble lord has their own disciple.”
“Are they all so powerful?”
“Of course they are, you can’t even imagine. Noble lords are ranked based on the strength of their soul powers, from ‘Lord to the 7th Degree (7th Lord)’ to ‘Lord of the 1st Degree (1st Lord, Top Lord)’, their soul powers get stronger and stronger. The top three noble lords, after they became noble lords, even before they became noble lords, basically none of us knows who they are or how they look like. They’ve almost never appeared publicly in our country. Before I was even born, there was a year when tens of thousands of soul beasts in the Valley of the North lost control at the same time, at that time, my mother saw the ‘Lord to the 5th Degree’ appear to subdue the soul beasts. That is, in the history of my clan, the highest-leveled noble lord any of us ever saw. Nobody knows how grand the soul powers of noble lords actually are; no one ever saw the appearance of their soul beasts either."
“Why hasn’t anyone ever seen them? Even I already saw two, a lion and a butterfly……or maybe it’s a bat……I don’t know what that thing was, I didn’t dare to examine it, too scary, that thing had countless sticky tentacles, don’t even mention how horrifying it was.” Qi Ling tells Shen Yin softly while glancing sneakily at Lijier at the same time, fearing she’d hear.
“Of course it’s a lot easier to see an average soul master’s beast, I let out my soul beast often too. It’s different for noble lords, first they themselves rarely appear, we don’t even get to see them usually; secondly their soul powers are terrifyingly powerful, there’s rarely the occasion where they’re required to release their soul beasts.” When Shen Yin talks about noble lords, on her face is the express of infinite respect and idolisation.
Qi Ling takes in her heavenly appearance, unable to stop himself, he envisions how noble lords are like. After thinking for a while, Qi Ling suddenly remembers and asks Shen Yin: “Jiejie, what is your soul beast like?”
Shen Yin purses her lips as she smiles, saying: “I shouldn’t tell you, I’m scared I’ll frighten you.” After saying that, she points to the spot where there had been silver-white webs before, Qi Ling suddenly remembers something, looking pale, he says: “Don’t let it out……those things are what I’m most afraid of……” He pauses, “Then they are really the most powerful in the world? That’s almighty!”
“Yes, actually you should say that they are the most powerful of our Aslan Empire. Odin Mainland is separated into four counties in four directions. We are the water county Aslan of the West, there’s also the fire county of Foliaier Empire in the East, the wind county Inde Empire of the North, and there is also the largest and most mysterious Garcia Empire, which is the earth county in the South. In every country, there are seven noble lords. So you should say that the twenty-eight of them are the most powerful masters of the soul on this landmass.”
“Oh yeah, jiejie, what is this Bing Mo all of you are talking about?”
“It’s a soul beast, if you’re able to capture it, you can turn it into a soul beast controlled by your soul powers, no matter if it’s for battle or making it do other things, it can help a lot. Usually the soul powers of soul beasts are greater than that of the human. So put it more simply, you can take soul beasts as our weapons. And this Bing Mo is a high-leveled soul beast of the element of water, so us born in the Aslan Empire, it’s a great soul beast to have. Because we’re born in this region where the land’s nature is water, our soul powers have a natural strength to control water. That’s why so many people want it. But those not of a certain level are just here to lose their lives.”
“Jiejie don’t you already have a soul beast, why are you still here?”
“I don’t want Bing Mo at all, it’s my brother Kins who wants it.” Shen Yin sticks out her tongue. Qi Ling fells dazed.
“Then why did so many of you come?”
“Bing Mo is a pretty powerful soul beast, even if it’s not as powerful as my 'Dreamweaver', haha,” Shen Yin leans closer to Qi Ling, “Don’t tell that to my brother, if not he’ll be angry again. Capturing a soul beast is no laughing matter, because you have to release most of your soul power to swallow that of the opponent, I’ll put it more simply, it’s basically when you release your naked soul from your body and then getting it to swallow the soul of the opponent, if anything goes wrong during this process, it’s easy to be swallowed by the opponent. Then it won’t be fun……that’s why, usually we concentrate on attacking the soul beast until it’s life is hanging by a thread, and then taking the opportunity to engulf it when it’s soul powers are at its weakest, making it ours. Which is why, today we’re here to be the hunters for my brother, we’re in charge of attacking it until it’s almost dead, and then my brother will be in charge of engulfing it.”
“Ah, so it’s like this……” Qi Ling nods without understanding.
The dark night is permeated with the bitter-coldness of a lake.
At forest at the end of the path, it’s deafening silent in the night. In the darkness that has no end in sight, enormous sounding footsteps, like the beat of a large drum, approaches.
Light snow falls from the sky, at first they are just a scatter of snowflakes, reflecting starlight in the night, yet in the blink of an eye, the surrounding temperature drops drastically, the whole town as if being pulled into the depths of a valley of glaciers, a second before the ground is full of soft soil, the next second they became hard, frozen soil.
In the gloomy forest, the dense snow spreads forward in a speed that destroys everything in its path, engulfing everything frozen between the heavens and earth.
The calamity-like danger is approaching the inn at lightning speed, yet those inside don’t seem to realise that, seeming like squirrels resting peacefully in their hallows, unaware of the blizzard outside.
“Jiejie do you still want to drink water? I’ll go get some for you.” Qi Ling shivers, looking out the window, it seems as if the wind has started to blow. Standing up, he shuts the windows tightly, turning to get some firewood, he moves towards the fireplace to light the charcoal in it. The temperature of the room is becoming unbearable. “Why did it suddenly become so cold? It’s just the start of window.” Qi Ling pokes at the firewood as he tightens his collar.
At this moment, Lijier who has been curled up in the chair far from them, stands up lightly, waving her hands around, the bangles slam into each other creating a sound akin to music. An icy-blue glare emits from her pupils, on her face is that pure but unsettling smile, “Ai yah, it seems to have arrived.”
After saying that, lightly, she steps towards the door, in a corner of the lobby, a lump of blurred yet dense green light gradually appears, in the light there swims some strip-like shadows, winding, tangling. When Lijier passes by Kins, she looks at him and smiles: “I shall go first then —“ Just as she finishes speaking, she whips her hand back, her whole body contorting into an extremely unsettling position, like that of a bird before its taking flight, and the next second, with a loud crash—
Within the large ball of green light in the corner, the massive Gu Die suddenly appears in thin its dense bones of the dead spreading, releasing unsettling cracks, in a flash, it has extended its wings to the fullest and dashed towards the sky, with its wings fully open, it resembles a ghoul enveloping the sky, uncountable slime and green liquid splatter from from its wings like rain. It knocks a large hole on the rood, destroying the beams and tiles, they become numerous splinters of wood and rubble, crashing down in disorder, just as Qi Ling is going to escape, Shen Yin raises her hand gently, her fingertips moving in a complex pattern with a humming sound, a large silver-white web of silk umbrellas out over their heads. All the rubble crashes on the web instead.
Jilier looks at Kins, without opening her mouth, a cold voice sounds from the strange smile on her face, she says: “Oh, look at that, I have really bad luck, encountering such strong competitors sighting for Bing Mo with me, I’ll have to strike first to get an advantage then.”
Kins scoffs coldly, saying: “It’s good that you know that.”
Lijier tilts her head and giggles, her gaze complex but halting, she exits the inn slowly. Turning her had back after exiting, she looks at the back view of Kins, as if in a dream-like state, she murmurs: “By opponent, I wasn’t referring to you, I was referring to the thing conversing with the little kid over there, comparing the two of us, the real monster should be her……”
In the room, Shen Yin who is currently speaking to Qi Ling with a smile, seems to have sensed something, turning her cheek lightly, she glances out the door at Lijier, throwing her a mesmerising smile.
After Gu Die Lijier left, the only people remaining in the room are the members of the Shen family and Qi Ling.
A woman sitting beside Kins who looks slightly older turns to speak to him: “Are we really going to let her go first?”
Kins says: “It’s fine, with her abilities, she won’t be able to subdue Bing Mo. It’ll be good to let her consume some of Bing Mo’s powers first.”
When Qi Ling hears this, despite having no positive feelings towards Lijier, at this moment he pities her. At the same time, a negative impression of Kins forms, a group of adults letting a young girl die first, no matter how you think of it, it’s unethical. Qi Ling looks at the silhouette of the twelve or thirteen-year-old girl disappear at the end of the path, a faint feeling of sympathy appearing in his heart — of course, if he looks up at this moment at the thing that’s following Lijier slowly, the Gu Die circling above her head with its wings spread like a large ghoul, that is another feeling all together.
After the time of one lamp passes, Qi Ling really can’t stand the silence in the room anymore. Maybe because everyone is preparing for the round up in the near future, even Shen Yin isn’t speaking much.
Just as Qi Ling is going to leave, a bone-piercing coldness spreads from his chest. As if losing strength in his legs, he collapses onto a chair.
At that moment, the whole room is enveloped in a bright white light; a thin layer of ice on the ground creeps from outside, very soon, the whole floor has frozen.
The door is blown open by a gust of wind with a loud bang, unsure of the exact time, Lijier is already standing outside, on her face is a slightly twisted smile of extreme excitement, it looks appalling.
In the air, there the unsettling sound between that of a string instrument and of a hummingbird, piercing the eardrums, no one knows where the sound originates from, as if an invite extended from Hell, luring a person’s soul. The bright light outside the window grows paler and paler, seeming like the tragedy of an apocalypse.
Just like when she left, step by step, she moves in, raising her hand gently, she half-covers her mouth, “Hehe, really happy, today……” Her gaze sweeps over everyone in the room.
Kins’s heart falls. He clenches his teeth in hatred. “Seems like I underestimated you……I’ll forget it today, I don’t want Bing Mo anymore!” Standing up with force, he suppresses his anger, as he gets ready to leave.
“Ai yah,” Lijier smiles her unsettling smile, “I’m not done yet.”
When Kins turns to look at her, it seems as if he’s seen his worst nightmare, he steps back in shock.
And Qi Ling, he’s already petrified in his seat.
From Gu Die Lijier’s right shoulder to abdomen, it’s looks as if it’s being sliced open by an invisible sword, just like the sediments on a mountain after a hurricane, the flesh on her left arm and her small beasts all collapse from her body, the guts and intestines on the right half of her abdomen gurgles out. Her vision is murky, it is clear that her life force is disappearing from her body at high speed, yet she’s still smiling, her face as pale as joss paper, “What I’m happy about is that, hehe……hehehehehe……” From her abdomen, another two internal organs roll out, unclear of which they are, they splatter onto the frozen round, in the air is a suffocating sanguinary stench, “What I’m happy about is that……today, everyone is going to die here.” Her legs suddenly break into four or five portions, out of nowhere, a few short flashes of thin and speedy light appears, Lijier’s whole body falls to the ground like rubble. Her long, long hair is soaked in her blood and innards, her skull is currently perched atop the broken pieces of her corpse, it’s still speaking, it looks of an unspoken terror, “What came isn’t Bing Mo…… it’s ‘Cang Xue Zhi Ya’ (lit. Teeth of the snow of dusk)…… the information we were given, they are all wrong……”
After saying that, her skulls cracks open from the middle, her two eyeballs exploding into two resplendent ice flowers.
Shen Yin and Qi Ling turns their head through their fright, unsure of when it had happened, Kins’ chest has a lump of large and bright icicles protruding from it, as if a man-eating flower that’s blooming with menace, the sharp and tough petals are squeezing out from his chest, guts and intestines, they hang steaming on the ice, after a while, they turn into ice.
[West of Aslan Empire - Heart]
The last time Yin Chen walked into this large architecture known as the ‘Heart’, it had been three years ago.
Three years has passed and nothing has changed here. The tips of the structure pierces into clouds, in the vast atrium, the high courtyard wall resemble large cliffs that surround the palace, the whole structure is constructed on a large peak, the tip of the tower looks as if it is going to pierce through the blue sky, attracting the infinite magnetic field of soul powers, there seems to be an invisible thunderstorm.
This structure is known as the Heart of the imperial capital of Gelanerte. It sits massively and volatile on the peak at the dead center of the imperial capital.
Within a one-mile radius of its location, there is close to no ordinary people.
All citizens live along the foot of the mountain; the whole city is centred around the Heart and bloom outwards.
It is the center where the imperial household lives. It represents the tip of the top of Gelanerte, the few silvery-white points, always shrouded in the clouds. Occasionally there will be large birds flying past. The resonant godly music comes from the highest clock tower of the Heart, every morning, a beautiful melody like euphemistic poetry envelops the whole of Gelanerte.
Yet only very few know that, the real center of the imperial capital is under the surface of the Heart. With the ground surface as the line of symmetry, there is an identical infrastructure that is upside-down deep in the palace.
And at this very moment, Yin Chen is at the most bottom of this upside-down structure.
The depth of this place is known as the ‘Source of Prophecies’.
Yin Chen stands in the middle of the barren hall. Surrounding him are the light from the grand walls, on them are densely and intricately carved designs, above him is a large dome— despite being inverted deep under the ground, there is still bright rays of light shining down from the top. This is the grand soul power concentrated in the Heart.
Yin Chen walks along the hall, the space is overly large, his footsteps echo as if from the depths of a deep valley. The heavy silence in the air, something like a miracle, makes it hard to breathe.
And the real miracle is currently beneath Yin Chen’s feet.
The whole piece of ground is constructed of pre-historic crystal with no cracks; the barren ground of the hall is made up of this one piece of crystal. No one will doubt that this is the strength of god, because there is no human strength that can cut and create such large a piece of crystal ground in its entirety.
If you look closely, you will be able to see that from the surface of the crystal the as deep as the eye can see, glowing veined patterns are cared into it, these are all secrets of the soul powers passed down from ancient times.
And the ones who know the secrets, are the three sole ‘Silver Priests’ of this country.
The three of them seem to have been here even before the construction of this grand palace — their life is an eternal mystery, no one knows how long they’ve lived, no one knows when they started to exist here, no one knows why they are trapped under the surface of this crystal. They exist in the fear of people for tens of thousands of years:
The three of them lie face-up in the depths of the crystal, located at the dead center of the fall, their heads connect, forming a pattern with three edges, their bodies are engravings of this grand crystal— their bodies are enveloped by it, they are cladded in a unique outfit, something akin to armour of battle, yet it is not of the style of Aslan, only their hands and head are not covered, yet, maybe because it has been such a long time, their faces seem to be part of the crystals, translucent and without flaws, the three identical faces seem to be made of crystal, their eyes are shut tightly, they are expressionless, sleeping in the depths of the crystal. No one knows how thick or deep this crystal goes, underneath them, if you keep looking down, it becomes dimmer until it finally becomes a pitch-black abyss.
Two male priests, one female priest.
They wear noble yet complex outfits, coupled with their godly appearance; they are solidified underneath the large crystal of soul powers for eternity.
Yin Chen walks before them and kneels.
A voice drifts out of nowhere and fills the whole hall.
Yin Chen listens intently with his head down, he knows that this miraculous voice is from the shared spirit of the three silver priests.
“Yin Chen, beneath your feet right now is a map, it is a map of a small town at the West of the Aslan Empire known as Fauser.”
Yin Chen looks at the large crystal beneath his feet, underneath the surface, a map made of bright threads of light appears, on it are a few blue dots and three blood-red points.
“Yin Chen, we need you to head towards this town to find a boy named Qi Ling. He is the newest disciple.”
“Okay, I will set off now.” Yin Chen lifts his head to look at the three silver priests deep in slumber at the depths of the crystal before turning back to look at the three burning red dots on the map, his features, as cold and passive as frost, yet perfect, seem to look slightly puzzled. he moves his lips that are as thin as a blade, saying: “Master priest, why is it that, there will be three noble lords appearing in this small town?” Yin Chen’s pupils are like silver.
“You’re wrong. Yin Chen, when you head to that place, there will only be you, the noble lord. These three red dots that seem to have the soul power at the level of ‘noble lords’, one is the soul beast Cang Xu Zhi Ya, another is your disciple Qi Ling.”
“There is one more, that red dot, “Yin Chen looks over at the priests deep in slumber underneath the crystals, punctuating his sentence, he asks, “What is that thing?”
