Mesmerizing Ghost Doctor

Chapter 31 - 40

Chapter 31: Familiar Face Coming in from the West!
Upon hearing Feng Jiu’s words, Guan Xi Lin was taken aback a moment and was unable to speak for a long while as he walked with his head lowered in forlorn silence.

The two people did not just walked without stopping as Feng Jiu’s purpose in the forest was to pick herbs and the route they took was windy as they detoured. Especially after having shaken off the pack of wolves off their backs, they often went through areas thick with weeds and wild vegetation.

Having picked and plucked along the entire way, she managed to accumulate quite a sizable harvest of useful magical herbs, but from her assessment of the grade of herbs she found in this area, they were all of a more common variety and not anything incredibly precious or rare. Afterall, in a ninth ranked little country like this place, it would be impossible to be able to find herbs of the rarest and most precious kind anyway.

Hence, they continued along on their way and they came to the foot of a mountain peak.

The sharp eyed Feng Jiu was able to spot a clump of magical herbs swaying in the wind near the peak from there and her eyes lit up immediately: “You wait for me here while I go pick those magical herbs.” After searching for so long, she had finally found magical herbs that would be able to remove scars, so how could she not be excited?

“Little kid, you….. you will return here right?” Guan Xi Lin asked her a little uneasily.

After having taken a few steps, Feng Jiu was a little startled to hear Guan Xi Lin say that and she walked back, pulling out the roasted meat to hand it over to him.

“I will go pick the herbs now and I will return shortly. You have some of that roasted meat in the meantime. And, it’s best that you climb up one of the trees so that you won’t have to worry even if you come across a wild beast.” She looked around and saw a slightly bigger sized tree that towered high towards the sky. She pointed at it and said: “Are you able to climb that tree? I will come back here to find you after I have picked the herbs.”

Hearing that she had no intention of leaving him behind, Guan Xi Lin was finally able to smile as he assured her confidently: “Sure I can! Then I will wait for you up upon that tree and you must remember to come back and look for me!”

“Sure.” She patted him on the shoulder reassuringly before she turned and went towards the peak.

The steep mountain slope was precipitous and it was rather strenuous for her as she pulled herself up as she climbed. There were times that if she was careless with her footing, loose rocks and stones would become dislodged to roll down the mountain which required her to be extremely careful with every step.

It was about two hour later as she was getting close to the clump of herbs that she saw that there was a small hole beside the clump of magical herbs. A green venomous snake that was about the size of a finger’s width was hissing as it spat out its forked tongue from inside the tiny hole, its vicious eyes staring balefully ay her.

She surveyed the area in front of her a moment and noticed that there was another small hole beside the first one she saw, seemingly linked to each other.

She realised that before she was able to pick the magical herbs, she would need to first get rid of the snake. Having decided, her eyes scanned the surroundings a while and she grabbed at a fist sized rock from the mountain’s face that was filled with mud and stones. She then pushed herself up a little nearer and just as the snake had pushed itself out of the hole a little to take a peek, her hand immediately reached out and stuffed the hole shut.

At the same moment, the snake had speedily swished out, suddenly appearing from the other hole, its mouth opened wide showing its venomous fangs while it struck quickly closing in towards her arm.

With lightning quick speed, Feng Jiu had drawn her dagger and slashed out in an instant. The snake’s head was sliced off in one cut as its body dropped down the cliff. And after that, she carefully dug out the magical herbs from the mud and kept it into her Cosmos Sack.

“Whew! So tiring!”

Having picked the herbs, she climbed all the way to the peak, intending to see the surroundings from a high vantage point. However, she chanced upon a magical herb that was emanating a faint aura of spirit energy just at the side of the peak and she joyously plucked it and put it in her Cosmos Sack as well.

“What luck! I actually managed to find two types of magical herbs in this place!” She said to herself with a smile. Standing upon the high peak and looking down, she could see that a team of people were going deep into the woods on the west side.

The leader among them was a handsome man dressed in a suit of white, and recognised him to be the fiance of the previous owner of her body, the Third Prince of the Sun Glory Country, Murong Yi Xuan. And there was a girl at his side, dressed in a flowing water blue dress, with a face so undeniably familiar to her…..

Chapter 32: Strange Yet Familiar
“What a surprising coincidence!” She mumbled softly to herself, her eyes taking on a chilling gaze.

Cloudy Moon City was quite a distance away from here and even if they rushed, it would still take a few days’ journey. Why would she come all the way here? And even that Murong Yi Xuan as well?

Her gaze hovered on Murong Yi Xuan for a while. Obviously, he had not noticed that that Feng Qing Ge was no longer the same Feng Qing Ge. At that moment, she was suddenly curious. Do men only recognise people just from their faces?

Her gaze did not stay long on the pair as she soon discovered that surrounding her near and far, there were quite a number of teams of people heading deeper into the woods. Some of the teams were still a distance away from her, while some were just tens of meters away.

Recalling all her previous encounters on this journey, her eyes flashed as she calm down and thought to herself: [What is there in the deeper reaches of the Nine Entrapment Woods? It had drawn all these people here to go running in there!]

As she was deep in thought, she suddenly felt a pair of eyes filled with malice staring at her. She turned around quickly and that glance drove a persistent twitch to tug at her eyebrow: “A black bear!?”

At a distance barely five meters away from her, a black bear looking about two to three meters tall was crouched. Its teeth were all bared as it stared maliciously at her, its crouched body seemingly having been quietly approaching her but was discovered by her, and the huge black bear lifted its head to give out a loud roar as it lunged at her.

“Roar!”

The black bear’s loud angry roar caused the ground to slightly reverberate. The roar sounded out from that high peak and in a moment, it spread to reach a large part of the surrounding area, where all the teams of people in the woods heard.

Faced with such a gigantic black bear, Feng Jiu did not see the possibility of her winning in a battle with it, and she grabbed the chance to fall into a low crouch and slid to one side as the black bear lunged, summoning her mystical powers, she used her unorthodox form of movements to speedily stride down towards the foot of the mountain in escape.

“Roar roar!”

The huge black bear’s lunge yielded it nothing but air and it lifted its head to roar another two times. Its huge body turned and charged, suddenly moving extremely quickly in fierce pursuit of Feng Jiu.

“Damn! There’s another one!”

Fleetingly moving towards the foot of the mountain, Feng Jiu spotted another brown bear that bounded out and could not help herself but cursed: “What a darned bad day this is turning out to be!” Her eyes quickly turned around, looking for an escape route…..

The teams of people making their way into the deeper reaches of the woods who were currently in the areas surrounding the peak had upon hearing the black bear’s roar, suddenly stopped in their tracks, and looked up towards the source of the roar.

Black bears possessed incredible power in battle and the black bears in the Nine Entrapment Woods were not just ordinary black bears, but were high grade beasts of the second level.

Even when numbering more than ten, it would be impossible for warriors just in their initial stages of the mystical levels to be able to hunt down a second level high grade black bear. Hence, every single person who dared step into these woods knew, if they see a black bear from afar, they were to avoid it and not confront them in battle.

In the western part of the woods, Murong Yi Xuan’s heart suddenly winced and his steps stopped, his head turning quickly back to look towards the peak.

“Big brother Murong, what’s wrong?” The Feng Qing Ge dressed in a flowing blue dress had her flawlessly beautiful face creased up in concern. Seeing his gaze fixed unwaveringly on the peak, she turned her eyes to look into the same direction but did not see anything there.

“Nothing.” He shook his head and smiled gently at the person beside him, but the sense of unfamiliarity in him was becoming more and more intense.

As if…..

The girl before his eyes was entirely not the Feng Qing Ge he knew. Over the past few days they had spent together, she had been right in front of his eyes throughout the entire period, but he had not been able to feel the same pounding of the heart that he had always felt when he was with her before.

And that single brief assessing gaze earlier, had although been from a person he did not know, but somehow made him feel rather familiar…..

Chapter 33: Shocking Inexplicable Change
Under the scrutiny of that deeply serene gaze, her heart suddenly filled with unease as she raised her hand onto her cheek and asked softly: “Why is Big Brother Murong looking at me like this? Is there something on my face?”

He did not answer and only smiled gracefully: “Let us be on our way!” And he turned and started to continue their way forward.

Feng Qing Ge paused a moment before she caught up and followed at his side as they walked deeper into the woods.

As they walked, she would occasionally tilt her face slightly to the side and look at the dignified countenance. He was just so perfect, so gentle, which made her fall so uncontrollably hard for him, made her heart palpitate for him, mesmerized by him, even if that meant that she would have to live her life with someone else’s face, there would be no regrets…..

On the other hand, Feng Jiu was caught in a rather wretched situation. Because the two bears behind her had already been chasing her for more than two hours.

She had initially thought that she would be able to shake them off easily but the speed the two bears had been able to sprint had been unexpectedly fast and while running away, the reverberations she was able to feel under her feet and the occasional loud roars coming from behind did not allow her to slow down in the slightest.

She couldn’t afford to reduce her speed, but to run at that pace without stopping, even the deities wouldn’t be able to last!

“Argh! Stop chasing me already! If you make me mad, I will really fight you with everything I have!” She screamed with her head thrown back, her speed not reducing, but she was already panting very slightly.

She had merely picked a bunch of magical herbs! Did they need to chase after her all this way for more than two hours for that! ?

“Roar! Roar!”

The only response she got was just two loud roars from the bears with their undiminished speed.

She spotted a thick and strong tree in front of her and she turned her head to glance behind while gasping for air before she sped up her legs. And just as she was nearing the big tree, she bent her knees into a slight crouch and she leapt up with her hands extended to grab onto a branch, before quickly leaping up onto the branch and up into the big tree.

“Whew! I’m exhausted.”

She was done running. She sat high up upon the tree branch panting heavily as she saw the two bears quickly having caught up to her reaching the bottom of the tree in just a few breaths. The bears then attempted to use all four of their paws to climb up. Fortunately, the tree she chose was not only sturdy, but its tree bark was smooth and slippery, making it difficult to climb.

“Bam!”

As expected, one of the bears who had climbed about one meter above the ground fell onto ground its four paws waving in the air and Feng Jiu could not help herself but laugh at the sight.

“But, what kind of effects does that stem of magical herbs really have? Why would it make both of you chase after me so persistently for so long?” She retrieved the stem of herb she had picked earlier from her Cosmos Sack to take a look at it and as she had never seen it before, she didn’t know what kind of use it had.

“Roar roar!”

The two bears at the bottom of the tree had immediately upon seeing her take out the stem of magical herb, started roaring loudly again. Unable to climb the tree, the two bears combined their strengths and shook the tree, looking like they were thinking of shaking her out of the tree.

The tree shook violently, almost causing her to fall out of it. She held on to the tree with one hand and shouted down below: “Are you tired of it already? Thinking of taking this magical herb away from me? You can jolly well forget about it.”

“Roar! Roar roar roar roar!”

The two bears were infuriated and their angry roars sounded endlessly, shaking the tree so badly that Feng Jiu was thinking that she cannot stay up there any longer. Hence, she kept the stem of magical herb away and began to look around her, thinking to leap from this tree to another, to find a way for her to escape.

However, just as she stood up, the sky suddenly rumbled with a loud noise, sounding just like a loud thunderclap that had descended from the clouds. A powerful wave of oppressive aura fell from the clouds above as well and a strong wind suddenly kicked up under the overwhelming aura. The wind gusts were so strong the trees in the woods were swaying and the fallen leaves o the ground were thrown up into the air in the swirling currents.

“Woo woo arh…..”

“Roar!”

“Woo!”

The terrified sounds from the various beasts in the woods rang out, a discordant symphony of animal cries reverberating throughout the woods.

At that same moment, Feng Jiu saw the two towering bears at the bottom of the tree suddenly fallen to the ground in trembling heaps, all curled up in terror…..

Chapter 34: Ancient Mythical Beast
Feeling every bit of the heavy oppressiveness in the air, Feng Jiu raised up her head to look into the sky. That was when she saw that the entire sky was covered with a mass of cumulus clouds brilliantly lit up in fierce fiery blaze. And the blazing fiery coloured clouds gathered and slowly took shape to turn into a mesmerizing Fire Phoenix with its wings fully spread. It was a glorious sight to behold and so beautiful it caused endless pairs of eyes to stare at it transfixed…..

At that moment, the strange phenomenon in the sky stirred up many instances of ruckus in many parts of the land. Almost all the countries surrounding the Sun Glory Country had spotted the phenomenon in the skies above, and powerful exponents from everywhere were suddenly highly excited by the sight.

“Manifestation in the Heavens! That is the sign a Sacred Beast is born!”

“Clouds of blazing fire, an image of a phoenix! My Heavens! It’s the Ancient Sacred Beast, the Fire Phoenix! Hurry!”

The exponents from the various surrounding countries had after recovering from shock, gotten highly excited and joyously set off towards the Sun Glory Country’s Nine Entrapment Woods. Some rode on flying swords, while some rode their flying beasts, and there were even some who used magical items that allowed them to travel a thousand miles in a day…..

They all had only one goal, and that was to seize the Ancient Sacred Beast who had descended onto the mortal realm!

Some still not as powerful cultivators who were not capable of vying with the highly skilled exponents could only watch on as the exponents moved out towards the Sun Glory Country’s Nine Entrapment Woods and say with a sigh: “To think that a place so lowly like the ninth grade Sun Glory Country would have a Ancient Sacred Beast appear in it, no one could have expected that!”

“I really wonder what kind of person would that Sacred Beast fall to?”

“The most powerful exponents had all rushed there. The tiny Sun Glory Country would not be able to keep defend themselves against all the others and keep the Sacred Beast for themselves. I think the Sacred Beast will fall into the hands of someone from other countries.”

“Heh heh, that might not be the case. Who doesn’t know that destiny plays a bigger part when it came to Ancient Sacred Beast such as this. I think the fact that the Ancient Sacred Beast’s fiery clouds had manifested above the Sun Glory Country means that someone with a highly fortunate destiny is there.”

“That’s also true. After all, when the Ancient Green Dragon descended, hadn’t it been the same thing when exponents from all over had rushed there immediately as well? In the end, not a single one among them managed to even see the Sacred Beast.”

“Now that you mention it, it is really rather strange. The Ancient Green Dragon descended more than a decade ago but over the years, besides the sighting of the phenomenon when it descended, no one had ever gotten a glimpse of the Ancient Green Dragon ever since! No one knows just who the owner of the Ancient Green Dragon actually is till today!”

“The appearance of a Sacred Beast would rock people from the entire land. We will surely hear something about it in the near future.”

The few of them looked in the direction of the Sun Glory Country and in their hearts, they thought: [Another Ancient Sacred Beast has appeared. Looks like tumultuous days are near…..]

While back in the Nine Entrapment Woods, the mass of people heading into the deeper reaches were highly elated.

“Look! It the blazing fire cloud and the image of a phoenix! The Sacred Beast descending is the Ancient Fire Phoenix!”

“I heard that a Sacred Beast will be appearing, but I had not expected for it to be an Ancient Sacred Beast. It’s just fantastic! We must hurry and get there before everyone else and seal a contract with the Ancient Sacred Beast!”

And in the deepest reaches of the Nine Entrapment Woods, Ling Mo Han’s deep eyes had a strange glint in them when he saw the phenomenon in the sky and said to himself: “Ancient Sacred Beast, the Fire Phoenix?”

Although he was thinking it strange that he would see the image of an Ancient Sacred Beast manifest in such a tiny ninth grade country like the Sun Glory, but he still remembered that his purpose of being here was not for the Ancient Sacred Beast. He had something more important on his hands that he needed to do.

Hence, he turned his eyes away and continued to walk towards his destination…..

In another part of the woods, Feng Qing Ge who had also spotted the strange phenomenon in the sky was not able to contain her excitement as she tugged at Morong Yi Xuan beside her: “Big Brother Murong! Look! It’s the Ancient Sacred Beast! The Fire Phoenix!”

She was feeling highly excitedly in her heart while telling herself determinedly in her mind: [This Ancient Sacred Beast, the Fire Phoenix will be mine!]

Murong Yi Xuan had been shocked when he saw the image of the Fire Phoenix in the sky as he exclaimed: “It’s actually an Ancient Sacred Beast, that is the king of Sacred Beast.”

The moment he finished his words, from behind the blazing clouds of fire, came the cry of a phoenix sounding like it had come from ancient times. Immediately after that, a blinding shaft of golden light shot down suddenly like a shooting star from the Heavens…..

Chapter 35: A Chance Find of a Sacred Beast Egg
The people in the entire Nine Entrapment Woods only heard a loud crash reverberate around them. A flash of brilliant golden light with a powerful aura flared outwards from the spot it had crashed. Shock waves visible to the naked eye shimmered and rippled like water as it swept outwards, toppling a swathe of trees with its powerful force.

“Hurry! The Sacred Beast has manifested! Let’s go to the spot!”

The mass of people shouted excitedly, surging as one towards the loud crash in a mad sprint, deeply afraid that being a single step slower could mean that others would snatch it up…..

And no one knew that when that golden light had shot down from the Heavens, it had actually landed right at the foot of the tree that Feng Jiu was in.

The overwhelmingly powerful oppressive aura and the shock wave shook the enormous tree that had a girth larger than two men with their arms extended could go around, and pushed it to fall on its side, almost completely uprooted. Feng Jiu who was on the tree had naturally been knocked off the tree by the shockwave to fall towards the ground, to roll into the large hole created by the loud crash landing.

Caught in the powerful oppressive aura, she was suddenly finding it hard to breathe and she was suffocating. She was feeling the pain on her face as the shockwave tore past her, and she was not even able to open her eyes.

“Oof!”

As she fell deeper down the big hole in the ground, her stomach hit against something sticking out, causing her to groan out in pain. And at that same moment, the surrounding oppressive aura began to gradually dissipate.

As the suffocating feeling lifted, Feng Jiu was finally able to stand up and when she did, she saw the thing sticking out of the ground was actually a glittering golden egg!

“Is that the Phoenix egg from the strange phenomenon in the sky earlier?”

Her gaze was tinged with wonder, not with surprise, but more like questioning. The Nine Entrapment Woods was such a big place and all the other places to crash, it had to choose to crash right beside her…..

“Well, since it’s right here before me, it will be a shame if I do not pick it up. And since it chose to crash at my feet, then that means it’s mine to keep.”

She thought about it only a moment newbie she cradled the egg in her arms to take a look at it. She saw the glittering golden light starting to diminish and the complicated looking runes that was initially visible on the egg’s shell were disappearing as well. Besides it being gold in colour, and with it being several times bigger than an ordinary egg, she didn’t find anything else about it to be extraordinary.

Glancing around at the surroundings, she did not see a single other person. She had wanted to wanted to keep the golden egg in the Cosmos Sack and when she opened it, she found that she was not able to stuff it in. That was when she remembered that the Cosmos Sack could only store inanimate items, and you cannot put anything that is alive in there.

Immediately, she quickly stuffed the golden egg into her clothes, summoned her mystical powers and employed her strange steps to speedily leave that place…..

It was about an hour after she left that the first team arrived. The family clan saw the big hole in the ground and the humongous tree that had almost been completely uprooted and was leaning teetering on one side, and nothing much else but an emptiness.

“Why is there nothing here? Has someone come here a step earlier than us?” The team leader who was a middle aged man was bathed in sweat from his mad sprint, the high anticipation that had filled his heart suddenly turned to rage as he stared at the large empty hole in the ground.

“Who was it? Who had been faster than us! ?”

Just as he finished his statement, Murong Yi Xuan and Feng Qing Ge arrived rushing in at great speed. When they saw that there was nothing within the large hole in the ground, Murong Yi Xuan did not show much of a reaction, but as for Feng Qing Ge, her face immediately changed.

“Who was it?” Her malicious gaze turned sharply to look at the other team and she asked impatiently: “Where’s the Sacred Beast?”

At that moment, she wasn’t aware that Murong Yi Xuan was standing at the side and staring at her, seemingly deep in thought.

As in Murong Yi Xuan’s heart, Feng Qing Ge was a gentle and sweet tempered girl. She was also kind and thoughtful for others. He had known her from a young age and he had never seen her show an expression with her eyes so filled with such sharp malice like the girl before his eyes.

This had caused him to have to reconsider…..

Chapter 36: Experts Exponents Gather
Feng Qing Ge seemed to have felt something and she turned around quickly, and she immediately saw the pair of eyes that were looking at her, seemingly deep in thought. Her heart panicked and she said in a hurry: “Big Brother Murong, I….. I was just too anxious…..”

Murong Yi Xuan smiled gracefully and told her in a gentle voice: “For an Ancient Sacred Beast to have manifested in our Sun Glory Country is already more than anyone could expect and the fact that we had even been able to witness it’s divine light hit the ground is just incredible! A Sacred Beast’s descended? Actually, we don’t have to be too fixated on whether we can get it as all this has already been decreed by fate and chance.”

“Mmm, Big Brother Murong is right. Qing Ge has been too anxious.” She reverted back to her composed and gentle self and her eyes filled up with admiration for Murong Yi Xuan once more as she looked at him.

“Who has the Sacred Beast! ?”

A loud and forceful voice boomed down from up in the skies. The voice had been imbued with spirit power and it could be heard clearly within a large area of the woods.

Feeling the undulation of spirit power distinctly, which was different from mystical power, the people standing near to the large hole were shocked as they all lifted their heads, and saw a middle aged man standing on a flying artifact hovering in mid air, his hands clasped behind his back as he stared at them from his high vantage point. The exponent’s awe flared out instantly, engulfing the people down below.

The people below felt a thick and heavy presence suddenly pressing down on them like a mountain, like a huge rock had fallen upon the chest, finding it hard to breathe. Their legs were almost about to buckle under the immense pressure, where they would soon fall to their knees.

In fact, those who were less practiced in their cultivation had already crumbled before the oppressive pressure from above and plopped onto their knees, blood churning in their chests, to seep out down the corners of their mouths.

The powerful oppressive awe had driven cold sweat to run down Feng Qing Ge’s forehead, her face turned pale and her legs became weak, almost falling to the ground. Murong Yi Xuan who was standing beside her held her up with his arm and summoned his mystical power to shield her heart channels, to prevent her blood from surging.

“Senior, could you first retract your oppressive awe and allow your humble junior to tell you in detail?”

Murong Yi Xuan was looking up at the middle aged man in the air when he noticed a few more people coming in from the surrounding areas. He saw some of them riding their swords, some on flying beasts, and some standing on their flying artifacts.

“What! ? The Sacred Beast is gone! ?” An old man at the side exclaimed as he swept his eyes over the scene below. His brows creased up and he stared at the middle aged man who had released his oppressive awe and said: “Retract your awe and listen to what that kid below has to say. So, who’s got his hands on the Sacred Beast! ? Speak now!”

It might be because of the old man’s words, or it could be because Murong Yi Xuan standing below was being neither haughty nor servile, but the middle aged man retracted his oppressive awe and said: “Tell us everything you know!”

Once the oppressive awe dissipated, the people below felt the huge rocks lift from their chests and found that they could breathe again, and they were finally relieved.

Faced with such highly skilled exponents, none of the people below dared to be disrespectful to them.

Murong Yi Xuan cupped his hands together and offered his greetings to the expert exponents in the sky above in a bow before he said: “My esteemed Seniors, when your humble Junior rushed here, the Sacred Beast was already no longer here and I do not know who had taken it. Every word your Junior has just said is the truth and if you do not believe me, you can ask the gentlemen over there. They got here a step before us.”

His eyes were looking at another group of people and those men were already flustered and in a state of panic from the earlier oppression from the middle aged man’s release of his awe and they had naturally not dared to hide anything: “Yes, yes, it’s true. When we got here, there was no Sacred Beast to be seen and we do not know where the Sacred Beast has gone. If we have the Sacred Beast with us, we will definitely not dare hide it from all our revered and respected Seniors here.”

[Immortality cultivators! These people are really cultivators of Immortality! Even if they had a hundred lives, they would never dare lie to a cultivator of Immortality!]

At that moment, the gaze of another middle aged man from up in the air was fixed on the figure of Murong Yi Xuan, noticing that his demeanor was not ordinary, he asked: “Who are you?”

Chapter 37: First Suspicions
“Your humble junior is Murong Yi Xuan.” His voice was gentle, and his tone was unhurried as he spoke.

“So it is the Sun Glory Country’s Third Prince, it’s little wonder you showed such outstanding bearing.”

The middle aged man nodded and turned his eyes to the few others beside him and said with a laugh: “Gentlemen, the Sacred Beast had only just manifested and I believe it is still within the Nine Entrapment Woods. Let’s just compete based on our own abilities and see who gets it first!” When he finished, he threw his head back and laughed aloud as he rode his sword to go search out the surroundings…..

When the others saw the man leaving, they were afraid they would lag behind and they all left right after to search out the surrounding areas as well.

When the people below on the ground saw the group left, they all immediately heaved a sigh of relief unconsciously.

Cultivators of Immortality, and seven or eight of them appearing at the same time. Before this, all of them have only heard of these cultivators of Immortality and had never been fated to meet one. And the first time that they met them today had nearly scared them out of their lives.

Seeing the seven or eight cultivators of Immortality ride off on their swords so captivatingly graceful, Feng Qing Ge’s eyes were filled with yearning. She turned her head to Murong Yi Xuan beside her and said softly: “Big Brother Murong, when we have the chance, we should go together and get ourselves accepted into an Immortality Sect and learn to cultivate Immortality as well!”

“Sure.” Murong Yi Xuan responded in a gentle voice, his handsome face smiling faintly.

Seeing that he had nodded in agreement, her heart filled with delight as she said in a pliant voice: “Big Brother Murong, are we still going to continue searching for the Sacred Beast?”

“With those cultivators of Immortality here, we will not stand a chance. Even if we managed to find it, we will only invite persecution from those people upon ourselves.”

“Are we going back now then?”

Hearing that, Murong Yi Xuan looked up at her and said gently: “You can go back first! I’ll ask Guardsman Feng escort you back. I still need to go to the mountain pass in the deepest reaches of the Nine Entrapment Woods to help Old Qin retrieve some mud from the heart of the well.”

“I’ll go with you.”

She held on to Murong Yi Xuan’s sleeve and shook it before saying in a soft voice: “Big Brother Murong, I don’t want to go back so soon. I want to stay with you.”

“The deepest reaches of the Nine Entrapment Woods are not like the area around here. Every hundred meters deeper that we move in further would see different dangers. Especially at the heart of the well from the mountain pass. It is said that very few people go there as there are high grade ferocious beasts of the third level guarding the place. Be good, go back home first and I’ll go look for you when I get back.”

Hearing Murong Yi Xuan’s words, Feng Qing Ge knew that he would not be letting her tag along and she could only nod and said: “Alright! I’ll return home first. Remember to come look for me when you get back.”

“I will.”

He smiled slightly and after glancing once more at her, he picked ten men from the group he had brought along with him and gave them their instructions: “All of you escort Miss Feng Qing Ge back to her residence safely and if any mishap happens on the way, I will hold all of you responsible!”

“Yes!” The ten men answered respectfully and went to stand behind Guardsman Feng.

After hearing those words, Feng Qing Ge was feeling rather blissful as she reluctantly bade goodbye to Murong Yi Xuan, allowing Guardsman Feng and his men to escort her home.

Only after seeing Feng Qing Ge had gone a far enough distance, the smile on Murong Yi Xuan’s face faded and his deep and calm gaze peered at the far distant figures before he collected himself and hid the deep thoughts and radiance in his eyes.

On the other side, hearing the commotion behind her, Feng Jiu gave a great leap and rolled down the slope before picking herself up quickly, all the while cradling the golden egg in one arm as she stuck her back against a clay wall, trying her best to conceal herself behind the weeds in front of her, to escape discovery.

A few heartbeats later, a lone cultivator of Immortality was suddenly passing through the air riding on a flying artifact, his eyes scanning the woods below for any suspicious figures or signs of movement.

Feng Jiu stuck her back tightly against the wall and did not move in the slightest as she held her breath. It was until the figure flying through the air had gradually flown further away and disappeared that she finally breathed out.

“Whew! That was really close! This egg has really brought me a lot of trouble!”

Her face creased up in a frown as she stared at the golden egg, thinking how was she going to deal with it?

Chapter 38: Deep into the Ground
She reached out her hand to knock on it and there was no other sound other than the soft knocking she made.

She was thinking to herself that she would not be able to hide the egg and the moment she met someone, she would definitely be found out. Those guys flying in the air were still looking for this egg and they did not look like they will be leaving anytime soon. If she carried this egg with her to go look for Guan Xi Lin, irregardless whether she would manage to reach there safely, she would be dragging him into untold danger if she was with him.

“What to do? With this troublesome thing.” Her brows creased up as she recalled the method to seal a contract from her mind. Her eyes lit up and she immediately bit down on her finger to drip a drop of blood on the shell of the egg.

But somehow? That drop of blood was not absorbed into the shell of the egg but had instead rolled down the side.

She stared hard at it at said: “Isn’t it said that before beast types are born, dripping a drop of blood on them would contract them to you? Was that a hoax?” She did not give up and she squeezed out another two drops of blood to drip on it, but there was still no response.

Finally, she had no choice but to give up.

“Huh? What’s that noise?” She pricked up her ears and looked around, finally discovering that the faint noise seemed to be coming from below the ground.

As expected, when she looked down and observed the ground around her, she saw a spot that some earth was being pushed up, like something underground was boring through it.

“Burrowing Gopher? It shouldn’t be! There isn’t any Burrowing Gophers that is this big!”

She stuffed the golden egg into her clothes before her chest and had wanted to leap off the rumbling ground and her head had just popped up and she immediately saw a middle aged man riding a sword towards her area not too far away and she instinctively backpedaled. But that one step backwards had put her foot over loose soil and her entire person lost her balance and she fell into a home below the loose soil’s surface.

“Ahhhh!”

She cried out in surprise and everything suddenly turned black. Her body slid down a steep drop and the incredible speed that everything was happening at did not allow her any time to react.

Meanwhile at the top, just after Feng Jiu had down the slide, two Burrowing Gophers stuck their heads out of the ground, and chittered a few times as they looked too their left and right. Shortly after, they once again went back to digging, to fill up the hole that had been exposed to the surface.

Riding on his sword, the middle aged man who was searching for the source of the sound earlier looked all around, but did not see any human around nor could his detect the presence of anyone there before he frowned deeply: “Did I hear it wrongly?”

He released his consciousness to spread over the area a few times and when he still did not find anything, he finally left the area still riding his sword.

“AHHhhh…..”

Underground, Feng Jiu’s cry of surprise reverberated in the tunnel as her body continued to slide down. It was completely dark and she could see nothing. She only knew that the tunnel zigzagged left and right as she slid all the way down. Midway through the unstoppable fall, her foot seemed to have kicked into something fleshy and with a shrill squeak, that soft ball of flesh had rolled down together with her.

“Bam!”

“Ouch! Argh!”

She cried out in pain as her body fell forward from the momentum of the crazy slide. But she did not fall into the ground. She had fallen into the soft and fleshy thing that had been before her down that slide.

“Ow ow! That really hurts.”

Having slid down at such a pace all that way, the abrasions on her body could not be imagined as she felt her entire body burning up in pain. Even then, when she saw the countless pairs of eyes surrounding her staring at her as they glowed a dull green in the dim darkness, she quickly leapt up.

“Squeak squeak.”

“Squeak squeak squeak squeak.”

[Mice?]

She felt her skin crawl. Hearing the noises, they sounded like mice. But in the darkness, she could faintly see that the shape did not seem to be like the common type of rodents and they were still continuing to come surround her at that moment.

When she realized that the hole she was in was big enough to accommodate a human while her eyes were seeing all the rodent type animals before her, her body immediately tensed up tightly.

“Burrowing Gophers!”

She raised a hand to feel the golden egg within her clothes at her chest to make sure it was not damaged or broken while the other hand reached down her thigh, to grip the dagger lashed on the side of her thigh in her hand…..

Chapter 39: Fallen Into A Nest of Mice?
“Squeak squeak squeak!”

Surrounding her on all sides were about forty or fifty of those Burrowing Gophers, and every single one of them were of an enormous size. At that moment, she was surrounded by all of them, one by one all staring at her, squeaking incessantly.

With the powers she had, how was she going to get herself out of this predicament?

Kill all of these forty to fifty Burrowing Gophers? These Burrowing Gophers were obviously mutants and they might not be that easy to take out.

As she thought through her options, she felt a fierce wind rush from the side and saw a Burrowing Gopher leaping at her after giving out a squeak from the left.

She pushed the pain wrecking at all parts of her body away from her mind and her eyes steeled as they swung around with her hand lashing out gripping the dagger at the same time. A faint red glow of mystical power aura encased the sharp dagger slashing out through the air with a swoosh, aimed at the attacking Burrowing Gopher.

At that moment, the rest of the forty to fifty Burrowing Gophers squeaked out and they all leapt at the same time at her, completely surrounding her, biting and clawing.

“ARRRGH!”

The pain caused her to cry out, but even with forty to fifty Burrowing Gophers biting and tearing at her, the speed of her slashing dagger did not slow in the slightest. At that moment, she was like the incarnate of death as she screamed out while her body spun with her dagger lashing out lightning quick, piercing and pulling back, only one lone thought filling her mind, and that was to stay alive!

“Squeak!”

Squeak squeak…..”

The number of fallen Burrowing Gopher corpses on the ground grew more and more, and the rest of them did not dare to come too near her anymore.

The corpses of the Burrowing Gophers had already piled up to form a little hill around her and a thick stench of blood hung heavily pungent in the dark little space.

As for her, Feng Jiu was covered in dripping blood, both her own and the blood from the Burrowing Gophers….

“Come on! Not going to leap at me anymore?”

Her icy tone was heavily laced with devilish challenge and her gaze swept over every single one of those slowly retreating Burrowing Gophers. Her entire body flared with bloodthirsty murder and her gory blood covered self made her look every inch like the blood drenched death come to claim their lives. The terrifying bloodthirstiness emanating from her entire being alone was enough to make the rest of the Burrowing Gophers too frightened to take a step forward.

“Too scared! ? Hah! I am not done with the slaughter!”

The same moment her malicious voice stopped, her body immediately moved, the sharp dagger gleaming chillingly as it thrust towards another Burrowing Gopher. The incredible speed that the dagger moved at did not allow it to even dodge.

“Squeak!”

A pitiful squeak sounded, warm blood flowed, and another Burrowing Gopher was killed by the dagger.

“Squeak squeak!”

The rest of the Burrowing Gophers numbering slightly more than ten squeaked loudly and ran away through the tunnels in a panic.

She bit down on her lip as she stared at the tunnels a moment, before she went step by step towards a direction where she felt a slight breeze, with every one step she took, she left a footprint, and with every footprint, she left behind a drop of blood…..

She walked for almost close to an hour and the first sound she heard was the sound of flowing water, and thereafter, a gradually brightening ray of light. As there was water present, the surrounding air was rather humid, and she bit down hard with every step, tolerating the almost unbearable pain, taking step after step, till she reached the flow of water.

It was a deep pool, the bottom not visible but the water was crystal clear. The water was moving and flowing, but it was not known where the it flowed out to.

There were no other routes that she could see from here, the slanted light rays were coming from above her head seemingly like she was at the bottom of a deep gorge. As water flowed down the steep walls in thin rivulets, they were covered in green moss and algae, while vines hung down.

She gave them one glance and she turned her eyes back. What she needed to do now was not to leave this place, but to be concerned about the wounds and injuries upon her body.

If those bites and scratches from the Burrowing Gophers were not treated, they would become infected and fester. Fortunately, she had chanced upon this clear pool of water.

She removed the blood drenched clothes off her body and carefully placed the golden egg aside, before she slid herself into the pool, letting the clear and cool water cleanse and wash out her wounds…..

Chapter 40: Breaking Out of the Egg!
Feng Jiu’s eyes were narrowed as she felt the biting chill from the pool’s water and the pain from the multiple wounds on her body. But after the initial pain, came a feeling of soothing comfort, like a warm flow was softly passing over her weary body with gentle touches.

[Warm flow?]

She suddenly opened her eyes and looked at her body in the supposed to be chilly water. At that moment, she seemed to be able to detect a faint aura over the water’s surface.

[Not mystical power, but pure and untainted spirit power!]

Looking at the pool that was emanating with faint traces of spirit power aura, she thought back to those Burrowing Gophers she had encountered previously. [Was it due to the spirit power from this pool that had caused them to become so big and strong?]

[But why would there be such pure and untainted spirit power aura in a place like this?]

As she fell deep in thought, the golden egg she had placed high up on the side of the pool suddenly shifted a little and without any other warning, it began to roll towards the pool.

‘Ploom’

The golden egg dropped into the water and it quickly sank under the surface. Caught by surprise and shock, her hand grabbed at the Cosmos Sack and dagger and she quickly dived down into the water.

With her eyes open underwater, she could see the golden egg slowly and gradually sinking. But, she saw that as it got deeper down, the crystal clear water in the pool became dark and impenetrable by sight, looking like a bottomless pit filled with endless mysteries.

She was worried that if it sank deeper, her breathe would not hold out long enough, and she was also worried as she did not know what kind of things she would encounter if she went down deeper, hence, she increased her speed as she dived down. When she saw that she was getting nearer, she reached out her hand and grabbed at the egg, holding it close to her.

And just as she was about to swim up to towards the surface after securing the egg in her arm, she suddenly seemed to have spotted an algae covered stone door further down into the dark dim depths?

Although puzzled, she wasn’t too curious at that moment as she couldn’t hold her breath any much longer and she immediately kicked and pushed with her arm and legs to push her speedily up. And at that moment, the stone door deep down in the pool suddenly creaked open.

A tremendously strong suction came out from behind that door, just like a vortex from the bottom of the pool, that sucked all the water in towards the door, carrying her down together with it.

“Ugh!”

Caught within that tremendous suction within the water, she was not able to avoid getting herself spinning together with the whirlpool that had suddenly kicked up, and was sucked in through the door.

But the immense pressure from the water and being caught in that fiercely swirling vortex made her suddenly feel her heart’s blood surge into her chest and she vomited it out through her mouth, with most of it falling squarely onto the golden egg she had clasped firmly in her arm. But before she saw the heart’s blood that she coughed out being absorbed by the golden egg, everything suddenly turned black before her eyes and she lost consciousness…..

At that same moment, the golden egg began to emanate a faint golden glow, the complicated looking runes on its shell that had disappeared surfaced once more, spreading out over the exterior of the shell together with the golden light.

What was really beyond anyone’s expectation was that the golden egg that had been approximately the size of two fists was suddenly gradually growing under the golden light. It was still clasped in Feng Jiu’s arm, but it was now the size of a huge watermelon.

And right between Feng Jiu’s eyebrows, a scarlet red rune of the Fire Phoenix appeared. And at the same time when that rune appeared, her body was suddenly bathed in a golden light, and the multitude of wounds upon her body were closing and healing at a speed visible to the eye…..

A loud crash resounded. Feng Jiu who had been pulled in by that strong vortex was thrown straight onto the ground, the water from the whirlpool splashing onto her body. The impact and the stinging pain woke her as she gradually regained her consciousness. As she slowly peered her eyes open, she was almost blinded by a bright golden light.

‘Crack!’

The sound of a clear and crisp crack startled her and she looked down at the golden egg that had rolled out from her grasp which was now as big as a huge watermelon, with a long crack running down the side.

‘Crack!’

The crack sounded again and another long zigzagged line appeared on the shell of the egg. And when she saw the two halves of the shell break open, she was suddenly stunned and rendered completely speechless…..