Chapter 241
“The soul furnace is on? What the hell is that?” Xu Ziyan’s eyes widened.
Wei Qing didn’t answer, but his expression showed that it wasn’t a good thing.
Xu Ziyan lowered his eyes slowly. This matter should involve some secrets of the Wei family. As an outsider, it is really inconvenient for him to continue asking.
However, Xu Ziyan’s thoughtfulness obviously did not positively impact Xu Zirong, it was about his brother’s safety, so he didn’t care whether this matter involved the Wei family.
“What is the soul furnace? If it is turned on, will it threaten our safety?”
Wei Qing only spoke after a long while, “back then, when the soul furnace was open, the 21 disciples in the maze all died.”
“What?” The expressions of the other three changed abruptly. They instantly became much more attentive and stared firmly at Wei Qing.
“Make it clear. What’s going on?” Xu Ziyan frowned. If it only involved the Wei family, he would choose to avoid it, but since it’s about his life, he had to figure out what was going on.
Wei Qing explained in a heavy tone, “I don’t know the specific content, but according to the record I read, I only saw the words ‘the soul furnace is opened and the 21 disciples are dead.’ I once asked specifically about this to my father and the patriarch, but every time I did, they refused to answer me directly and they always tried diverting the topic. Also, since I never really entered the True Dragon secret realm, I stopped asking after a few times. However, I remember the patriarchs once said that the soul furnace wouldn’t open easily and I’m not sure why it did this time…”
Xu Ziyan and Le Hu looked at each other. Xu Zirong stood aside and sneered with cold eyes, “whether you know it or not, we’re already caught up in it now. It’s no use talking about it, let’s find a solution first.”
Wei Qing looked a little embarrassed, “don’t be in a hurry, I’m still not sure if the soul furnace is opened. After all, we’re still not sure whether there are really more monsters. Could it just be some kind of coincidence?”
“Coincidence?” Xu Zirong raised his eyes and looked at Wei Qing thoughtfully, “I don’t know if it is a coincidence, but I do know that not only the number of these monsters has increased, but even the types have also changed.”
As soon as he said so, there was a loud noise from the vine behind him and it was hit on the ground.
There was a sudden howl from the originally flat ground, followed by five or six boa emerging from the ground. They opened their blood-red eyes, pouncing on Xu Ziyan and the others.
“The wall!” Xu Ziyan turned around to avoid the python’s attack, but he saw that a bulge suddenly appeared in the array on the wall.
He held a longbow and there’s thunder in his fingertips. A slender purple thunderbolt landed on with a crackling sound. The seemingly raised wall twitched violently, there was a layer peeled off from it, there was a dark gray monster like cicada wings.
This monster doesn’t seem to have an organ like a mouth, but from its twitching body, one could still tell that it’s suffering from enormous pain.
After this monster fell to the ground, it quickly turned from dark gray to black. It was lying on the ground and it’s hard to tell the difference.
Xu Ziyan couldn’t help but gasped when he saw this creature called the face-devouring monster.
This kind of monster was extremely rare. Although it wasn’t so powerful at this time, once it grew up, it could surely become one of the most furious monsters.
This kind of monsters had absolutely excellent camouflage skills and it’s usually parasitic. No matter what kind of monster it was, once it was parasitized by this face-devouring monster, quickly transforming into a very special creature.
The body of this creature was almost entirely composed of spiritual power, so it was extremely fast in cultivation, which led to some idiots who mistakenly thought that this gnawing face was a kind of spiritual object that could be used to increase one’s level of cultivation. They even proactively looked for them to increase their level.
And that’s simply stupid!
Being parasitized by this monster simply meant one’s soul being taken away. However, it takes a cultivator to take another’s soul, but this face-devouring creature was simply a monster. It’s said that a hundred years ago, there was a confused and lost casual cultivator who had his level of cultivation dramatically increased in one night. Not only did he kill all the enemies that had hunted for him previously, but he also relied on his strength and joined one of the biggest sects, taking over the leading role.
Later, at a critical moment of a certain battle between human beings and monsters, this cultivator suddenly rebelled and killed two nascent soul cultivators. He also joined the demonic cultivators. At that moment, people finally understood that this cultivator had already been parasitized by the face-devouring creature decades ago.
After that incident, the human cultivators had been at the disadvantaged position for several years on the battlefield at that time. In the sect who was led by that parasitized cultivator, all the disciples joined the extreme west, leading to the final decline of the sect…
This face-devouring monster could do things that tens of thousands of monsters couldn’t accomplish. If this monster had a much shorter growth period, and if it was stronger before becoming a parasite in a host, the whole Xuan Yu realm would be turned upside down.
Since then, when several major sects recruited disciples, they would pass a test to distinguish races. Later, they really relied on this method to find out a few cultivators who were parasitized by the face-devouring creature, and the blood slaves who were controlled by the demon race.
Back then, when Xu Ziyan and the others joined the Liu Guang sect, the same thing also happened. It’s only that this face-devouring creature was simply too powerful, if one’s fooled by it, there would very serious consequences.
“Is this the face-devouring creature?” Wei Qing said in surprise, looking at the thin layer on the ground.
“Yeah.” Xu Ziyan nodded solemnly.
Because of the disaster back then, the cultivators discovered the dangers of the face-devouring monster, so they specially attacked this monster. Not only did they take action on the territory of the cultivators of the human race, but they even did the same for the monster race. They even exposed the few agents that were deeply hidden and completely wiped out this race.
Unexpectedly, this kind of monsters couldn’t be seen outside but there’s a mature body inside the True Dragon maze. This made Xu Ziyan worried. What kind of secrets were there with the True Dragon maze and what the hell was this soul furnace?
Taking a deep sigh, Xu Ziyan believed more and more that they might not pass this round of competition…
At the same time, the head of the Wei family and several elders were looking at Tang Tianlang and several other representatives of the sect with a sad look.
“Are you saying that…we cannot open the True Dragon maze?” There was a smile on the charming woman’s face but there was a hint of coldness between her brows.
Wei Liancheng, the head of the Wei family, looked in awe. Although he had a good cultivation level and he was a nascent soul cultivator, he dared not offend so many people at the same time.
“The exit of the maze… is automatically closed.” Wei Liancheng’s eyebrows were almost tied, and he explained to the others with a deep look.
“Automatically…closed?” The woman smiled, but her tone was sharp, “is patriarch Wei joking? More than a hundred elites of the Xuan Yu realm are in the True Dragon maze, and you’re telling me that it has automatically closed?”
Wei Liancheng was silent and he did not speak, yet the deep expression on his face was enough to prove the authenticity of what he just said.
The smile on the charming woman’s face was gone, and her slightly murderous gaze slowly swept over Wei Liancheng and Tang Tianlang. She sneered, “I thought…that this competition is the beginning of our cooperation between the two sides.”
Tang Tianlang frowned, “of course.”
The charming woman raised her eyebrows, “then what does leader Tang mean?”
Tang Tianlang’s expression remained unchanged, and he looked at her indifferently, “what? Do you think I purposely dug a hole to bury you?”
The charming woman smiled lightly, but there was no smile in her eyes, “I’m not sure, as no one would know if leader Tang is making use of the opportunity to get rid of us.” After saying so, she looked at the fat cultivator and the skinny old man.
The fat cultivator’s expression was subtle, his lips moved a little, neither refuting nor agreeing. The skinny old man had always been expressionless from the beginning, and now he looked even duller, as if he hadn’t heard what the woman had said.
Tang Tianlang looked at the woman and said calmly, “many disciples of righteous cultivation are also trapped inside.”
The charming woman waved her hand, “how do I know if you aren’t together?”
Wuchen smiled slightly, “what cultivator Xi said is not accurate. If we really want to break with the demon cultivators completely, then it wouldn’t be these young disciples who would suffer. Instead, it would be the deity cultivators hidden somewhere that would be at risk.”
The charming woman’s eyes narrowed slightly and her expression relaxed a bit. Wuchen’s words made sense for her. Although these disciples were excellent, they didn’t have decisive strength. Tang Tianlang and Wuchen had no reason to make this choice that would destroy their relationship, unless there’s overwhelming success of righteous cultivation in terms of deity cultivators.
“Then, can cultivator Wuchen tell me what this is all about?” The charming lady stopped pushing and was so much kinder.
However, when Xi Yayu thought of her disciples trapped in the secret realm, she couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious.
Wuchen did not speak, but he turned his attention to Wei Liancheng.
Wei Liancheng didn’t know what to do at all, as he’s also under the pressure of five nascent soul cultivators. He could only tell the truth unless he wanted to die.
“Soul furnace? What is that?” Xi Yayu heard Wei Liancheng’s speculation and immediately asked.
Wei Liancheng paused and he only explained that it’s a giant and dangerous thing.
Everyone there was extremely smart. Although Wei Liancheng didn’t make it clear, everyone knew that the soul furnace was an extremely rare treasure. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be so nervous.
“So, when the soul furnace is opened, no one can come out, right?” The fat cultivator asked.
