Chapter 42: Out of the Lion’s Den and then Into the Wolf’s Lair

Even though he is in the middle of mortal combat with the enemy, the black-clothed man completely ignored those seven foundation establishment stage cultivators. It’s not that he doesn’t care, but that all of his attention was placed on that person in mid-air.

The person did not reveal even a hint of mana fluctuations, but it’s precisely because of this that he is so terrifying. It needs to be known that he is floating in the air using only his own mana, beneath his feet is a bottomless abyss.

That is a middle-aged man, he is white and fat and looks like a ball of kindness when he smiles. He is even fatter than Fatty Zhu who went to look for Zhu Yi’s trouble before. After this person appeared, those seven foundation establishment cultivators of the house of the Marquis stopped attacking.

The black-clothed man was still suffering from shock and also did not dare to act rashly.

The fat middle-aged man smilingly looked at Zhu Yi in the crowd of people, saying gently: “Young Master Yi, I’m here to take you home.”

Against this middle-aged man here to save him, Zhu Yi’s expression was even worse than those of the black-clothed man and co. He tightly clenched his fists and did not say anything.

The black-clothed man took a deep breath: “How do I address you?”

The middle-aged man lightly smiled: “You might have heard of my name before, the name’s Huang, people are used to calling me Huang San. (TL: 三, san, means, three, since he’s the third steward of the Marquis.)

Fatty Huang San still smiled amiably, but the faces of the cultivators of the Society of the Strong Gale had become as pale as death.

Huang San, the third steward under the Marquis of Xuanji Zhu Hongwu and his close confidant. He is specially responsible for dealing with some private matters for the Marquis of Xuanji. He is cruel and merciless and has significant fame, but he keeps a low-profile, very few people have seen his true face, but who would have thought that he is a fat middle-aged man.

Right now the black-clothed man’s entire body was as if he’d fallen through ice, because he knows that this fatty in front them who looks like a friendly merchant is an honest to god aurous core stage cultivator!

But the hatred of his fallen country, the vengeance of his people, his pride, his hatred, his anger, all made it impossible for him to submit before this person before him.

The faces of all of the cultivators of the Society of the Strong Gale revealed a steadfast expression, even if their bodies slightly trembled from instinctive fear, they still stood shoulder-to-shoulder, facing head-on the powerful foe in front of their eyes who can obliterate them with just one finger.

Huang San let out a long sigh: “Snowgale Country… No, now it’s our Zhou Dynasty’s Snowgale County. If you ask me, we should kill all of the natives and then immigrate people over from within the Zhou Dynasty, then there wouldn’t be any problems.” (TL: Genocide, does it work? History says… sometimes.)

The black-clothed man flew into a rage and manipulated the tornado spell formation, in an instant dozens of tornadoes roared out, attacking Huang San from different angles and directions.

Huang San laughed, a pair of eyes squinting to the point that they almost couldn’t be seen: “You guys still can’t figure out the situation.”

Before his voice had even died away, Huang San lifted up his hand slightly, a chilling wind like it had come from the abysmal depths of hell instantly swept through the entire underground palace!

Almost in an instant, this underground palace directly turned into a world of ice and snow. The stone walls were covered in a layer of crystal clear ice, a dazzling radiance flashes when the fluorite shines onto it. The entire space became brightened.

In the time of one breath, the entire underground palace turned into an ice hole.

The raging tornadoes were stopped in their tracks and frozen in pillars of ice. They still maintained their previous state, but looking at them now they were incredibly laughable.

This was just the start, what was frozen in ice was far from just the tornadoes.

Starting from the black-clothed man, a layer of white frost had formed from thin air on the surface of the bodies of all of the Society of the Strong Gale cultivators. In the end they were about to be turned into ice sculptures.

Yet, Zhu Yi who was standing in the middle of them was safe and sound. Not only was he not attacked by the ice, Zhu Yi couldn’t even feel a change in the surrounding temperature.

The black-clothed man’s expression changed rapidly, biting his teeth he raised his hand and threw out a talisman.

In the air, Huang San’s eyes flashed: “An aurous core talisman?” The talisman the black-clothed man threw out was shockingly an aurous core talisman. It is created by an aurous core stage cultivator and its power is the same as the full-powered attack of an aurous core stage cultivator.

The talisman exploded in mid-air, turning into rolling thunder, countless snakes of lightning shot out in all directions, ripping apart Huang San’s mana blockade in an instant.

Countless cracks appeared on the surface of the ice, crawling out like spider webs. The dazzling light of the lightning shone on the ice, illuminating the underground palace as if it were the daytime.

Countless pieces of ice broke apart, falling into the abyss below like it was raining. Amongst the calamity, the entire underground palace was like a doomsday where all hell had broken loose.

Even the expressions of those six foundation establishment stage cultivators who came with Huang San paled, doing their best to steady themselves. But they could still be considered calm, their eyes all looked towards the air at the lightning’s direct target, Huang San.

Huang San’s expression was as usual, he even had the spare time to laugh: “A dying struggle.” Lifting up his two palms, at this moment powerful mana revealed its towering presence, the massive space seemed to have frozen, at this moment the surging cold air actually froze the violent lightning!

In the snow-white chilly air, the violently thrashing lightning was like a bound flying dragon, but under the imprisonment of the cold air its movements became more and more stiff.

The cave that seemed like an earthquake was happening before had also calmed down at this moment, the doomsday-like sight had been casually quelled by Huang San.

Huang San smiled saying: “As aurous core stage cultivators, there is still a a separation of high and low.”

The cultivators of the Society of the Strong Gale became even more frightened, Huang San treats the talisman that possesses the attack of an aurous core stage cultivator as nothing.

The black-clothed man glanced at Zhu Yi, not daring to have any hesitation he grabbed Zhu Yi and directly threw him towards the abyss under their feet. He then charged towards the transportation spell formation in the depths of the tunnel without even turning his head.

Huang San smiled, splitting out a sliver of mana, he was about to catch Zhu Yi who was falling downward, but a strong foul energy suddenly surged up from the bottom of the abyss.

This foul energy was like a slumbering monster that had been suddenly awoken by the previous events.

“Hm?” Huang San’s eyes that had already become a slit jerked open, his fat body disappeared on the spot and at the next moment appeared in front of Zhu Yi, at the same time he also came in contact with that foul energy.

Cold air coiled around Huang San’s body, a lot of it was eroded by the foul energy, but he still suppressed the foul energy using his powerful mana.

But with this tiny distraction the black-clothed man and the couple of Society of the Strong Gale cultivators had already seized the chance and ran into the tunnel, activating the transportation spell formation.

The smile on Huang San’s face vanished, lifting his hand he formed a spell sign. The cold air instantly surged, wanting to freeze even the transportation spell formation.

The black-clothed man could also be considered very resolute, to fight for more time he threw away without any hesitation Zhu Yi whom they had worked hard to capture. But Huang San’s cultivation level is too high, even though he first blocked the aurous core talisman and then saved Zhu Yi, in the end he still has the ability to intercept them.

Too bad at the critical moment, that strange cloud of foul energy that rose up from the abyss helped out the black-clothed man. With this moment of delay Huang San was ultimately a step too slow.

The transportation spell formation had already been activated, under the influence of Huang San’s mana, the space the spell formation opened up was twisted and crooked, even ripping in half the body of one of the Society of the Strong Gale cultivators, but in the end it did open up a void path, allowing the black-clothed man and the others to escape.

Huang San said with a chuckle: “A couple of rats, though they are pretty slippery, but with my interference it’s impossible for you guys to be transported to the predetermined location. You’ll be lucky if you don’t die in the void turbulence.”

Zhu Yi who was being grabbed by him in the hand did not say anything.

Huang San stared at Zhu Yi, his eyes nearly unseeable from smiling: “These couple of little rascals are pretty smart, finding this kind of place with impure spiritual energy. Regular people who enter are completely unable to search this place, but people from small areas have short insight, they don’t know that under this kind of environment, aurous core stage cultivators can still locate their targets.

“Thank heavens we didn’t let Young Master Yi you fall into the hands of those rebels, or else the Marquis’ face would have been completely shamed by you.”

The other seven foundation establishment stage cultivators looked at Zhu Yi, their faces all revealing a playful smile like cats playing with a mouse.

Zhu Yi felt helpless in his heart, with just a sweep of his eyes he recognized these cultivators, they are all cultivators attached to the first wife of the Marquis of Xuanji, Lady Shao.

Even Huang San before him, even though he is the Marquis of Xuanji’s confidant, he is also Lady Shao’s trusted subordinate and regularly acts to deal with some shady matters for Lady Shao.

For example right now, Zhu Yi believes that he definitely doesn’t mind conveniently killing him off and then pushing the blame onto those people from the Society of the Strong Gale.

This really is coming out of the lion’s den and then entering into the wolf’s lair.

Sure enough, Huang San said smilingly: “A living Young Master Yi, no matter what cannot land in the hands of scum and then be used by them to threaten the Marquis. The Marquis naturally will not compromise, but if news spreads then the Marquis’ face will also be shamed.”

“But, if Young Master Yi is unwilling to make his father the Marquis distressed due to filiality and ends his own life, refusing to yield even in death, then if that spreads out it will instead be a beautiful anecdote, right?”

While speaking, Huang San’s beady eyes stared tightly at Zhu Yi, his entire body emitting a dangerous aura.

Zhu Yi instantly felt his heart being clenched by an invisible hand that rubbed vigorously, all of the blood in his body gathered in his heart, wanting to blast apart his heart!

Zhu Yi’s pupils gradually dilated, his eyes started to lose their light.

“I… Am I about to die here?”