The Sword Dynasty

Chapter Forty-Five: Transformation

From a certain point of view, he looked down at most of the grandmasters of the Qi Dynasty because he himself was mad.

Zheng Xiu had given the twelve Shamans to the Qi Emperor. As one of the conditions, Su Qin received permission from the Qi Emperor to enter this ancestral hall, and as an envoy of Zheng Xiu, the Qi Emperor valued him highly, but this did not mean that the Qi Emperor would care greatly about his life or death.

The formation of this ancestral hall came from that founding master. Cultivators who did not cultivate yin energy were foreigners here, and the hall's restrictions only held cruel murderousness towards foreigners.

Also, the formations here had gone through time. Even the people who guarded the hall could not predict the changes within. Su Qin could be easily killed by the formations here by surprise. But this hidden threat was not much to someone who was insane.

Su Qin walked at the end of the group. When he was at the end of the stairs, and reached the doorway to the hall, the stone seal in his right hand had cracked, and the powerful stone seal had been used up.

His expression did not change. His left hand released streams of vital energy, and he held another similar stone seal. He had ten of such black stone seals with him. Before these seals were used up, he had to leave here. The ancestral hall appeared very small from the river outside, but when Su Qin was truly standing here, his eyes unconsciously narrowed into cracks.

The ancestral hall seen from outside the mountain was just the gate to the ancestral hall. The gate was halfway up the mountain.The upper half of the mountain was the ancestral hall.

In front of the black gates which were tens of feet high, especially when the black gates had been stained by the yin energy over time into a deep black demon crystal, any life would appear as small as an ant.

The ever present yin energy was even stronger in front of the gates. The black lines that seemed to live in the air around him were even more lively. While they were so slow in advancing towards his body they seemed to have stopped, outside the cold energy which surrounded him, these black lines started to dance without order.

For the hundreds of youths walking in front of him, the yin energy was like a great medicine. The closer to the gates, the faster their blood flowed, and the more their emotions increased. Even their vital energy grew stronger. They wanted to see the inheritances of the Twelve Shamans as soon as possible, so they walked quickly.

When the first of the young cultivators stepped into the ancestral hall, their excitement reached a peak. Their energies rushed to their heads, and roars sounded in their mind. The orderly group grew chaotic but no one attended to the uncontrolled people.

The young cultivators who were not bowled over by the great excitement sensed that their vital energy inexplicably grew stronger. As they took their next breath, the roaring in their minds disappeared.

This was a natural process of survival of the fittest. From the moment so many people came into the ancestral hall together, they themselves knew very well.

When Su Qin truly crossed the gates and entered the ancestral hall, his steps grew heavy. He also was strangely affected.

The energies from the stone seal in his hand protected his presence and stopped it from arousing the killing intent of the formation. But the speed at which his vital energy was lost was twice as fast as outside. And just like he had known, his perception was limited to a hundred feet, and he could not communicate with the primal energies of the universe outside. He frowned slightly, and then sped up his walk, passing many of the people ahead of him.

The ancestral hall was the place that invincible cultivators of the past used to receive his disciples' worship and to pass on the cultivation records. So the internal structure was not complex. Behind the main hall used to receive disciples was a straight passage.

The end of the passage should be the center of the mountain. There were also twenty caves of various sizes. Of them, twelve were the halls of the Twelve Shamans. They were the most powerful treasure hoards of the ancestral master. The other hall caves were the hubs of the mountain's formation.

Square and straight, this was the sign of a ruler. It was very similar to the set up of Changling's streets. But walking on this wide and flat passage, Su Qin still could not help but feel shocked.

There were all kinds of plants along the passage. These plants grew from the cracks on the stone walls and ground. They did not need sunlight. All they needed was the yin energy of the hall. They grew up robust and strong, and some even produced black jade-like fruits.

He carefully moved past, and did not touch any of the plants. During the process of getting towards the Twelve Shaman's halls, he used up another three stone seals. If he needed five stone seals to reach the halls of the Twelve Shamans, then he may only get to take a quick glance at the halls before he needed to immediately leave this place.

But reality proved that these ancient seals were truly effective. Before reaching the halls of the Twelve Shamans, no accidents had occurred. So now was his time.

Su Qin's expression was absolutely calm, and his steps slowed. The vital energy flowing from his left hand controlled the sixth stone seal, while his right hand silently gripped something else.

This was a black piece of crystal. Its material was very similar to the ancient trees that grew outside but was even clearer. This crystal stone was just the size of a thumb, and a hexagon column. There were complex seal scripts on the surface of the crystal, very similar to the scripts on the doors to one of the side halls.

There were about twenty young cultivators in the group walking at the front. At this time, they had reached the halls of the Twelve Shamans. There was such a shock that most of the people knelt in front of these statues. These statues which were more than a hundred feet high had such a density of yin energy it was unimaginable. But around these statues with dense yin energy, golden flames pulsed.

These golden flames carried a terrifying temperature, clearly having formed from the true fire of the sun. They flowed around the completed statues, and as they danced, formed ancient golden scripts and complete pictures.

Yang fire was forming in yin places. This itself was a profound transformation that could not be described in words, and was an extreme transformation.

With just this, these young cultivators of the Qi Dynasty were certain that the orthodox methods of this ancestral master, the yin and ghostly methods did not fear true fires like that of the Zhao Sword Furnace, and would not be subdued.

Just as these young cultivators gazed upon these scenes in shock, something heated up between Su Qin's fingers. The black crystal he held in his right hand started to rapidly heat up, and then turned crimson.