Book 10 - Chapter 3

B10C3: Hallucinatory Magic Land

The ancient gate has the color of bronze but it lustrous and transparent like a kind of jade. The arrangement of those 9 holes is strange. Obviously it is some profound formation, but nobody present, not even the experts like Old Taoist Gan Xu, can understand it thoroughly.

The 2 jade swords go into 2 of the 9 sword holes easily like going into a soft liquid.

“Shoo!” A noise which sounds like a sharp sword getting unsheathed rises. Suddenly, the entire bronze-colored ancient gate brightens, shooting out a green light, which enfolds everybody present, making them uncontrollably narrow their eyes.

“I’ll stick it in the 8th sword hole.” Qin Yu says. At the same time, he goes forwards then slowly pushes his jade sword into its place.

After that, Azure Dragon, Yan Mo, Huo Lan and Reverend Yan Xu also stick their jade swords in successively.

All of the 9 jade swords have been inserted!

Holding breath.

Everybody is holding breath looking at that bronze-colored ancient gate with their heart pounding in their chest.

“Whizz!” A noise similar to the sound of breathing is heard. The 9 jade swords suddenly disappear. It seems they have been sucked in. At the same time, the 9 sword holes brighten and immediately send out 9 beams of light which intertwine as if they are ropes.

A deafening noise rises —

Dazzling!

Everybody present uncontrollably closes their eyes. It is not that they cannot endure the light, but was … a reflex response. When they close their eyes, the whole bronze-colored ancient gate sends out a group of parallel beams of light, enveloping everybody directly!

Vanish.

Everybody vanishes into thin air outside the immortal mansion just like that. The ancient gate does not open as they have thought since the beginning at all.

……

Vast and indistinct like an ocean of white clouds, the whole world seems to be filled with white clouds. At first sight, no limits can be seen. Moreover, very few things are visible as everybody can only see through several tens meters at most. Farther than that, there is only a vast expanse of whiteness.

Qin Yu opens his eyes. As soon as he takes a look, he is astonished.

“What’s this place?”

His first reaction is to look around. At this moment, he sees Li’er beside him and cannot help sighing with relief in his heart.

“This is a formation, an exceptionally mysterious formation. The arranger of this formation has very outstanding power.” Li’er says very positively.

“Oh, are you sure?” Qin Yu asks in reply.

She slightly sticks out her chest and says to him with her head raised: “Of course I am.” Qin Yu cannot help giving a smile.

“Old Taoist Gan Xu, you’re probably the most or 2nd most knowledgeable among us, so tell us what this place actually is. Just now we were still outside the immortal mansion, how have we now come to this mysterious place?” Huo Lan says.

At the moment, he and his brother Huo Can are looking around carefully.

Old Taoist Gan Xu strokes his beard, praising highly: “This place is exceptionally mysterious. I just used my holy sense to observe and discovered that it seemed to be under an enormous restraint. Its range of observation was even worse than my eyes’ range of observation. This is truly very fantastic.”

Seeing Old Taoist Gan Xu praise the place like that, Huo Can says coldly: “Don’t stay there wasting time, Old Taoist Gan Xu. A moment ago we were outside the immortal mansion but now we’re in this place … What actually happened? The most urgent thing for us now is to find out what actually happened, as well as how to get out of this bloody place.”

“Don’t be impatient. Calm down, calm down.” Old Taoist Gan Xu says smilingly.

At the moment, Reverend Yue Yan, a very good-tempered Reverend Shui Rou, Huo Lan and Huo Can are all impatient in their hearts. And naturally the juniors such as Yan Mo, Azure Dragon and Qin Yu are on edge too.

In this place, only Li’er, the black-haired old man beside Situ Xue and the 3 yellow-clad men behind Azure Dragon do not look anxious at all.

Old Taoist Gan Xu sweeps his eyes over everybody, saying: “Everybody, I see that this lady from the Stellar Tower, the 3 yellow-clad men beside Azure Dragon and that black-haired old man aren’t worried in the least. I know the details of this young lady from the Stellar Tower, but little friend Situ, that black-haired old man should be a member of your Yinyue Palace, right?”

Situ Xue frowns then bows and says: “You guessed correctly, senior. This gentleman is exactly my schoolmate.”

“Schoolmate?”

Old Taoist Gan Xu gives a smile, his eyes flashing: “Probably not an ordinary schoolmate, right?”

“Humph, the Qingxu Temple’s men seem to be too meddlesome already. Don’t care about him, Ah Xue. If my palace’s Dame Yan Ji were here, I wonder whether you’d still be so arrogant.” The black-haired old man says with a cold laugh. He is very disdainful of Old Taoist Gan Xu.

A cold light flashes across Old Taoist Gan Xu’s eyes like lightning.

“Old Taoist Gan Xu, what are you blabbering here for? The most important thing we got to do now is to find out what this place is and what we should do to leave this place.” Huo Lan is a bit annoyed.

Old Taoist Gan Xu, however, does not answer. Instead, he looks at the 3 yellow-clad men behind Azure Dragon.

“Early Kongming stage? Since when have the Azure Dragon Palace got such experts? Moreover, 3 came at once.” He asks rhetorically.

He does not care about early Kongming stage experts, but he always finds these 3 yellow-clad men somewhat mysterious.

Azure Dragon folds his hands, saying: “Senior, these 3 gentlemen are the 3 vice overlords of my Azure Dragon Palace who have been hiding in the palace all the time. I have never told outsiders about them. This time we wanted to open the Nine Swords Immortal Mansion so naturally my Azure Dragon Palace had to bring out its full power.”

“Oh.” Old Taoist Gan Xu says with a nod.

At this moment, Qin Yu frowns.

“What is this Old Taoist Gan Xu doing? He’s in no hurry to find out where this place is and not worried at all about the fact that he has fallen into this mysterious place. Could it be … he knows the secret about this place?” He looks carefully in the direction of Gan Xu.

Suddenly his eyes brighten.

A part of a rock has shown up behind Old Taoist Gan Xu and his junior brother Gan Shan.

With a movement of his body, Qin Yu moves horizontally several meters in an instant.

Stone stele!

Qin Yu finally sees clearly that there is unexpectedly a stone stele behind Old Taoist Gan Xu and his junior brothers, an ancient, simple-looking stone stele. Moreover, there is even handwriting on this stone stele …

“Ha-ha, you’re smart, little friend Qin Yu.”

Noticing Qin Yu’s action, Old Taoist Gan Xu knows that he can no longer conceal it so he immediately steps aside. The others also see that stone stele behind him at once.

“I know this handwriting.” Reverend Yan Xu exclaims.

“Oh?”

“When I was searching for the 9th jade sword with everybody, I saw the handwriting of the immortal who left behind the Nine Swords Immortal Mansion in a cave. And this handwriting is left behind by none other than that immortal.” Reverend Yan Xu says very firmly.

Qin Yu, Yi Da, Azure Dragon and the others have also seen the handwriting on this stone stele. It is indeed exactly like the handwriting they saw in that cave at that time.

“This is … the Hallucinatory Magic Land?”

Huo Lan exclaims as soon as he goes forwards and takes a look.

When the others see the handwriting on the stone stele, their expressions become solemn.

They all know that they have gone into none other than the Nine Swords Immortal Mansion. Moreover, the cause of this probably has something to do with the green light shot out from that ancient bronze-colored gate.

“Ha-ha, everybody, congratulations on entering the Nine Swords Immortal Mansion. However, the treasures of mine, Ni Yang’s, aren’t so easy to obtain. This place is the Hallucinatory Immortal Land, the outermost area of the Nine Swords Immortal Mansion, but … I feel it’s a bit better to call it the Hallucinatory Magic Land. If you want to obtain immortal treasures, you’ll have to live through this Hallucinatory Magic Land. Of course … you can’t decide this for yourselves. As soon as you came into this place, your life and death were already no longer under your control, ha-ha …”

Those several lines of lively and vigorous words are filled with an extremely insolent lordliness!

Obviously, the immortal who left behind the immortal mansion is a cold-hearted individual rather than a kind-hearted philanthropist. Even to those who are predestined to possess the jade swords, this immortal still wanted to leave behind some extremely dangerous traps to test them.

If they succeed, they will get the magic treasures. If they fail, they will die.

They cannot back away. There is no way to back away either.

“Ni Yang … this immortal Ni Yang is too overbearing.” Reverend Yue Yan exclaims.

Huo Lan, however, gives a rare smile: “I think this immortal Ni Yang is like us Xiumoists rather than an immortal, ha-ha … Look at these words. They don’t hide their intention at all, unlike some certain Xiuxianists who are vicious but still want to put on a nice face and are extremely hypocritical.” He takes a cold look at Old Taoist Gan Xu.

However, the latter keeps smiling.

“Everybody, you most probably already understand this immortal’s meaning. When we’ve come to this place, there’s simply no way to escape and we can only accept it. Whether we’ll die or survive depends on our individual abilities. This so-called Hallucinatory Magic Land is definitely not something the dangers we normally encounter can compare with.” Old Taoist Gan Xu says loudly.

These loose immortals and loose devils are all a little nervous.

But Azure Dragon, Yi Da, Yan Mo, Qin Yu and the others are extremely nervous.

The Hallucinatory Magic Land?

Those with a good chance of surviving it are naturally the ones of a high power level such as those loose immortals and loose devils. And the hearts of those whose power is weak are certainly pounding with fear.

Huo Lan says with a cold laugh: “This immortal Ni Yang created this trap to make things difficult for us, but … I think this immortal will let some of us obtain immortal treasures, so the difficulty level will definitely be limited and naturally those with enough power won’t have to worry.”

“Is that really so?” Reverend Shui Rou suddenly asks rhetorically.

Huo Lan is startled.

“What do you mean, Reverend Shui Rou?” He shouts.

“Treasures are given to predestined people. Sometimes luck is also very important. I think … if you keep being so careless, you may become the 1st to die.” Reverend Shui Rou casts a glance at Huo Lan and says smilingly.

“You …” Huo Lan is furious.

However, right at this moment —

Melodious sounds rise. In the beginning they are deep and hoarse like the sobbing of a resentful wife … but they tug at everybody’s heart. Even those such as Azure Dragon and Qin Yu cannot help feeling unbearably sorrowful in their hearts, their eyes also moistening.

However, on one side of Qin Yu, Li’er’s eyes brighten.

“Be careful, junior brothers. Keep your minds clear. Don’t let these flute sounds manipulate you.” Old Taoist Gan Xu immediately shouts.

Even though at the moment he is still clear-headed, he is feeling an unbearable sadness in his heart too, just like how his heart will unconsciously trembles if he sees a tragedy of a global scale. Even though he knows that the flute sounds are the cause of this, he cannot control his own heart.

It can only be said that the flute sounds are too strange.

Qin Yu is clenching his fists. Beads of sweat have seeped out of his forehead.

These flute sounds are so strange.

Qin Yu can feel clearly the particularity of these flute sounds. Compared to Li’er’s zither music, these flute sounds seem to have the effect of making listeners become obsessed and clouding their minds with some negative feelings whereas Li’er’s zither music makes listeners’ minds calm down and fuse with nature.

Except for Li’er, everybody at the scene is resisting the flute sounds.

Li’er only frowns a bit and has no other reactions. Obviously, those flute sounds do not affect her much. It is unknown if the cause of this is her mastery of music or something else.

The flute sounds change!

Now they are like tens of thousands of galloping horses and the fighting on a battlefield. The atmosphere of the entire Hallucinatory Magic Land becomes heavy and oppressive as if a killing aura has spread through every part of it.

Either you or I die!

That kind of life-or-death killing enters everybody’s mind completely.

“No good.”

Qin Yu feels that his entire mind cannot resist anymore. He likes fighting to the death and that kind of life-or-death killing shakes people’s hearts the most so naturally he is affected by it even more greatly. He even cannot help immersing himself in it.

Despite knowing that the problem lies in these flute sounds and that he should not let them manipulate him, he still has no way to control himself.

“Formidable. The way of music controls people in their unconsciousness. However, even though everybody knew clearly from the beginning that this flute music is dangerous, they still can’t control themselves and has to watch themselves sinking into it step by step.” Li’er praises highly in a low voice.

Nobody hears her praise.

Even the 3rd tribulation loose immortals and loose devils such as Huo Lan, Huo Can and Old Taoist Gan Xu are resisting the temptation of the flute music with all their might, so how can they still dare to get distracted by hearing what someone else says.

“Ah! Kill! Kill! Kill!!!”

Jiao Jiu suddenly yells.

Li’er takes a look at him, saying in a low voice: “Generally Xiumoists are very evil. This Jiao Jiu hasn’t even reached the middle Kongming stage so it’s natural that he’s the first to completely lose it.”

Jiao Jiu then runs south like crazy, his eyes very red and his mouth shouting “Kill, kill.” He keeps attacking forwards wantonly using his hands as if he has encountered something extremely terrifying. But at this moment —

“Kill! Kill! Kill all!”

Mad, furious shouts are heard. Another has become totally obsessed.

This is unexpectedly … Black Dragon Yan Mo.

While yelling, Yan Mo runs south at even faster speeds. At the same time, he attacks crazily.

“Yan Mo? There’s something wrong. He’s extremely determined so even though his mental level isn’t high, he’s even as tough-minded as those loose immortals and loose devils. How is this possible?” Li’er talks to herself while looking doubtfully at Yan Mo.

Suddenly, her eyes brighten.

She has seen a note of fierceness in Yan Mo’s crazy eyes. His target is none other than Jiao Jiu, who is in front of him.

End of b10c3.