Stellar Transformations

B8C13: Black city

At a place more than 2 million li deep into the Wilderness on the Qian Long continent,

There is a Dragon Rocky lion that is dark red from head to toe, over 100 m long, several tens meters tall and covered entirely in red-rock-like armor. His neck even has 6 thick, sharp spines and his head has a golden horn.

At the moment, the Dragon Rocky lion Qin Yu once met is rushing about in all directions extremely fast with peerless ferocity, causing loud rumblings in the process --

Even high-grade flying sword cannot penetrate his rocky armor, which is several meters thick. "Roar ~~~" The Dragon Rocky lion roars. His golden single horn is flashing nonstop with a frightening light. Flying swords are shattered, miserable cries are heard continuously, heads are sent flying, limbs are severed, flesh fragments are scattered and blood flies up in the air wherever that dark red blur goes.

"Divine beast, it's a divine beast. Quickly run!"

A Dongxu stage guardian of the Azure Dragon Palace shouts loudly. Now his expression is ferocious, but there is terror in his eyes.

……

In terms of volume, there is a beast even more terrifying than the Dragon Rocky lion -- a Nine-Headed snake, or to be exact, it should be called a Nine-Headed dragon. This Nine-Headed snake is more than 100 m long and the most important thing is that each of his 9 heads is 10-odd m long.

When the 9 heads attack in all directions together, they are even more frighteningly destructive than the Dragon Rocky lion.

Hissing ~~~

The Nine-Headed snake glances coldly at the leader of this over 10,000 strong army of the Azure Dragon Palace, a middle Dongxu stage guardian, with his grim eyes. One of his 10-odd m long necks then turns into a blur and swings at that guardian.

Clack ~~

The middle Dongxu stage guardian dies miserably on the spot without being able to resist at all.

The 9 long snake heads then attack in all directions. The tail of the snake is swung horizontally, smashing Xiuyaoists' bodies wherever it goes. Even a Dongxu stage expert's flying sword can only leave a white mark on the body of this Nine-Headed snake at most.

……

Meanwhile, several tens thousand other demonic beasts have formed a complete blockade. The over 10,000 Xiuyaoists from the Azure Dragon Palace have been encircled. None of them can escape now because inside they are being massacred by divine beasts while outside they are being surrounded and exterminated by countless demonic beasts.

In only less than one hour, the forces Azure Dragon mustered have been annihilated.

……

With a movement of his body, the Nine-Headed snake turns into a 3 m tall lanky man. Only this man has 9 snake heads, looking very frightening.

After going through the 6-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation, divine beasts can transform to look like humans, except for their heads, which remain unchanged. This is called 'half humanization'. Only after overcoming the 9-from-9th Heaven Tribulation can they take complete human forms. This Nine-Headed snake is an extremely formidable divine beast and his power has surpassed the Dongxu stage.

"Lord Xue, the Azure Dragon Palace's forces have been destroyed."

Nine-Headed snake stands still and says respectfully.

Ahead of him, there is unexpectedly … a snow-white cat, a cute snow-white kitten. However this kitten's eyes are golden. At this moment, the snowy kitten nods and says: "Nine-Headed, remember that whoever dares to intrude even half a centimeter must be killed."

"Yes, Lord Xue." Nine-Headed snake answers respectfully, not daring to hesitate in the least.

The snowy kitten nods its head: "Nine-Headed, I have to go report this matter to Overlord. You arrange someone to deal with the corpses a bit." After saying so, the kitten makes a movement with its body. In an instant, a white, icy gust of wind rises within several tens meters of it and the cat also disappears.

Only after Nine-Headed snake sees the snowy cat disappear does he let out a long breath.

The snowy cat's power is simply not something he can imagine. And just thinking about the 'Overlord' mentioned by the cat terrifies him.

……

Several tens thousand li away from the place where 10,000 subordinates of Azure Dragon were killed, there is a quiet deep cave which goes into the ground vertically. Nobody knows how deep this cave is.

"Ah ~~~"

Anguished cries keep echoing in the cave until they come out.

The faces of all the members of the 2 groups outside the cave change color greatly. The 2 leaders take out a transmitter each and message the members in charge in the cave. However, they get no replies regardless of how many messages they send.

One message is sent after another, but none of the members who entered the cave answers.

"Men from the Penglai Immortal Region listen. This quiet deep cave was found by our Purple Flame Devilish Dungeon first. If you hadn't vied with us by sending several thousand men down, why would our Purple Flame Devilish Dungeon have suffered such huge losses? I'm going to report this to Dungeon King."

The leader of the group from the Purple Flame Devilish Dungeon, a black-robed old man, shouts to the leader of the group from the Penglai Immortal Region, a blue-gowned juvenile.

That blue-gowned juvenile says with a cold laugh: "You found it first? It should be my man who discovered this secret place first but your men killed him to silence him. Luckily he had already sent a message, or else we still didn't know. This time you are to blame for my Penglai Immortal Region losing several thousand men."

In just a while, these groups have lost more than a third of their power.

The black-robed old man and the blue-gowned juvenile both feel that they cannot account for this so they put the blame on each other.

The black-robed old man says with a cold laugh: "Men from your Penglai Immortal Region are pretty good at lying. All of you are very hypocritical. I won't waste time talking to you anymore. I'm going to report this to Dungeon King." He immediately begins to send another message through the transmitter in his hand.

The blue-gowned juvenile also sends another message.

……

In a residence in a small town of the Qin dynasty near the Wilderness,

The leaders of the 6 powers from the overseas Xiuzhen world are gathering here. Searching for that black jade case in the Wilderness is the job of their subordinates. All along, these high-ranking leaders have been strolling about the Qian Long continent to relieve boredom or practicing quietly.

However, now all of them are here.

In just a few days, Azure Dragon's forces of more than 10,000 have been exterminated while the Penglai Immortal Region and the Purple Flame Devilish Dungeon have both lost a third of their men. Such heavy losses never occurred during the 10 previous years, so the 6 big leaders have been shocked by them.

There are 6 thrones.

Qin Yu is sitting in one of them. Hou Fei and Hei Yu are standing behind him. The other 5 seats have been taken by Azure Dragon, Old Freak Three-Eyed, Di Long, Reverend Yan Xu and Dungeon King Yi Da. At the moment, the atmosphere in the house is a bit oppressive.

"What happened, Azure Dragon? How did all of your subordinates die with not even one escaping?" Old Freak Three-Eyed is still in disbelief.

Azure Dragon lets out a sigh. There is, however, very little sadness in his eyes. After all, the forces sent to carry out the search this time all lived near the Qian Long continent and the core forces of his Azure Dragon Palace have not been used yet so he does not really mind after these forces were wiped out. However, from now on, he cannot have anybody on the Qian Long continent search for the black jade case for him.

"Now my forces are all gone so I'll tell you this piece of info. After going more than 2 million li into the Wilderness, you'll see a huge black city with at least several hundred thousand Xiuyaoists inside." Azure Dragon says positively.

The face of everybody present changes color.

Several hundred thousand Xiuyaoists? Even though any of the 6 powers has more subordinates than this, the Wilderness is not their headquarters. They only have a little more than 10,000 subordinates here.

"The forces inside the black city are just a portion. The area outside the city is several tens times larger than the city. This area is full of Xiuyaoists and all of them have at least reached the Jindan stage. Their number even surpasses a million." Azure Dragon says very solemnly.

Qin Yu and the others all draw a cold breath.

Over a million?

This is perhaps an imaginary number but all of them can see very clearly that the area around that black city must be part of the city's real power. Such a power with probably 2 to 3 million subordinates is definitely not weaker than the Azure Dragon Palace.

"Then how did your subordinates die?" Old Freak Three-Eyed asks.

However, in their mind, everybody has figured out that they were most likely annihilated by that enormous power.

"That day, a guardian of my Azure Dragon Palace was leading his subordinates searching carefully for traces of that black jade case. They then arrived in that area. A local little Jindan stage Xiuyaoist unexpectedly told my subordinates that whoever entered this area should be killed." There is a tinge of annoyance on Azure Dragon's face.

Who is Azure Dragon? Since when have other people been able to treat him this way?

Moreover, there is even the dragon clan behind him so naturally he was not frightened.

"I told my subordinates to only search for the black jade case and not to hurt anybody for no reason." Azure Dragon suddenly says with fury: "Who could have thought that soon after they advanced, they would be completely surrounded by countless Xiuyaoists and even divine beasts would appear at the same time. So, in just a while, my forces were all gone."

Everybody remains silent for a long time.

"Everybody, do you still remember a strange thing about the Wilderness?" Qin Yu suddenly says.

Reverend Yan Xu and the others all look at him. Qin Yu says smilingly: "Originally, we could see demonic beasts when going 100 li into the Wilderness. But after we started the search, though we encountered demonic beasts in the beginning and lost quite a few troops because of this, later we didn't see a single demonic beast. Everybody, do you still remember?"

"Indeed." Di Long says solemnly with a nod. "We went in 2 million li but we didn't see a single demonic beast. Now looks like … that black city is a certain power. Perhaps it ordered all demonic beasts directly to gather around the city and not to clash with us."

"Humph."

Standing behind Reverend Yan Xu, Reverend Huo Tian gives a cold humph. "That city is very powerful. Its Xiuyaoists can already match the Azure Dragon Palace in number. We didn't send many troops to this place at all, so why would the power in that city have feared us? Why would it have wanted every demonic beast under it to gather around that city?"

"Fear? Does reluctance to clash with us definitely mean fear? You Xiuxianists' intelligence is so low." Yi Da says with a cold smile.

"Yi Da!" Reverend Huo Tian is furious. "Don't go over the line. This time the Penglai Immortal Region's men discovered that quiet deep cave first, but your men killed them to hide it from us and monopolize it. Humph, you've gone overboard."

Yi Da says nothing. But Jiao Jiu beside him laughs out loud: "Huo Tian, you're still such an arsehole."

"Where's Miss Situ?" Qin Yu suddenly asks with a smile.

He is amused thinking about her. That Xun Feng of Su Yan City has unexpectedly been chasing her with sincerity and perseverance. Situ Xue has naturally been annoyed by this, but Qin Yu helped him so she promised not to take his life.

Because of Situ Xue, Xun Feng has been bustling about for the past 10 years, but …

If he is like a deliberate fallen flower, then she is like a passionless running stream. She feels weird and uncomfortable because a man pursues her, but she is an early Kongming stage Xiumoist after all, how can she possibly accept a mortal's feeling for her?

"Situ? She's in the Wilderness." Yi Da suddenly bites his lip, causing his blood to ooze out.

Azure Dragon frowns. Those who are familiar with Yi Da all know that, when bites his lip, he has made an important decision. Azure Dragon says smilingly at once: "That quiet deep cave is just a dangerous place, Yi Da, Reverend Yan Xu. Do you think you should fight over it like this?"

Yi Da suddenly says: "I've got something to tell everybody. The 9th jade sword is most likely in that cave. However, this cave is even much more dangerous than the places where the other 8 swords were kept."

The 9 jade swords were originally kept in 9 different places. Every place is more dangerous than the previous one, and the 9th place is the most dangerous.

"How can you be sure?" Old Freak Three-Eyed says doubtfully. "Impossible … you're plotting something, right?"

Yi Da says with a cold laugh: "Three-Eyed, I've given you some face by telling you this info, but you even doubt me. Then you should just stay home. Situ Xue personally sent me this info. She discovered that this quiet deep cave had that familiar aura."

Familiar aura?

Everybody knows what that familiar aura is.

Of course it is the aura of the immortal that left behind the Nine Swords Immortal Mansion, a place with a lot of treasures. Given Situ Xue's status, naturally she has seen the Purple Flame Devilish Dungeon's black jade cases. In the past, Yi Da, Situ Xue and Jiao Jiu even joined forces to get rid of the Dust Removing Spells of those cases.

Immediately, everybody no longer has any doubts.

"Tomorrow my Purple Flame Devilish Dungeon's men are going to set off for that quiet deep cave. As for whether any of you will go or not, I just don't care." The corners of Yi Da's mouth curve up. A faint smile that is both grim and evil appears on his face.

"Go, of course I'll go. If I don't go take a look, I'll be very disappointed. After all, I've put so much effort into this." Azure Dragon is the first to say. On one side, Old Freak Three-Eyed also says: "Azure Dragon will go so I'll certainly go. I must obtain this 9th jade sword."

Reverend Yan Xu says smilingly: "My Penglai Immortal Region's men found this cave first so I'll surely go."

"Since you will all go, my Nine Demons Hall will go as well. But … you must not forget that this cave has already killed several thousand men of the Purple Flame Devilish Dungeon and the Penglai Immortal Region each. It's definitely not a nice place." Di Long folds his arms before his chest and says with a smile.

Qin Yu stands up, turns around and starts to leave.

"Everybody, tomorrow my Stellar Tower will go with you. But … don't forget that mysterious city. Why did it want all Xiuyaoists to gather around the city?" When he finishes talking, he has already left.

Hou Fei, carrying his black stick on his shoulder, and Hei Yu follow Qin Yu to also leave.

End of b8c13.