Chapter 15: The Phantom snake

"Tian Ling follow my order and don't let anyone enter this mountain range no matter what. I am going to enter the first level of the Stairway of Hell"

"Yes sect Lord"

Kuo Fang stepped on the Stairway of Hell and entered the first level- The path of nihility.

"Huh! it's real. I can't use Qi and my martial soul. all of my power is sealed and my surroundings are all pitch black but I can see light coming from far ahead. I think I have to reach there and I will complete this level. Then I shouldn't Waste any time"

Kuo Fang tried to use lightning steps.

"Huh? oh! I forgot that I can't use any martial arts here"

Kuo Fang started walking towards light.

Meanwhile outside,

Tian ling silently standing and looking at the Kuo Fang, who is now like a statue after stepping on the stairs.

"The glare he has in his eyes is like a fire that could burn down the whole Heaven and at the same time it looked like an abyss. with him as the sect leader of the Heavenly Demon Sect it will regain it's former glory in some years"

Tian ling turned around and was going to set a defensive array to not let anyone come in here but then suddenly Kuo Fang showed some movement.

"Huh! H-he is moving. He has already started moving. An hour out here is twenty days in there and to be able to move in such a small amount of time, it's impossible. The most genius person in our sect took almost an hour to start moving and to complete the first trial he took thirty three hours"

Tian Ling is shocked but she didn't waste anymore time and put up the defensive array- The four auspicious beast array.

Ten hours later,

"It's only been ten hours and sect leader had almost cleared the The path of nihility. He is truly a monster"

meanwhile at Kuo Fang's mansion,

"Hey! Wang Junjie, why isn't the leader still home"

"How would I know?"

"Then we should go and search for him"

"I think she is right. Leader could be in danger"

"You also Li Zirui.... Okay! we will go to search for him but Yang Jia Li you will stay home"

"But why me?"

"Because you didn't have learnt any martial arts. And Cheng Qiang you will stay with her"

"Okay"

They all left to search for Kuo Fang. First they went to the Yuan mansion and investigate if they have seen him.

"Sorry sect guardians but we haven't seen sect lord"

After that they spread all over the dongcheng and search for any clue they could find and After an hour they reached the Satan mountain range by tracing the Qi of Kuo Fang.

They entered the mountain range. The defensive array attack them but they were able to defeat the formation easily because they have learnt about this Defensive array.

"Huh! Who has entered the mountain range and they have already defeated the Defensive array"

She looked at Kuo Fang "I can't let them disturb sect leader"

Tian Ling went to see who entered the mountain range.

"Who are you and why are you here?"

"Sorry for disturbing you but we have came here to find our leader"

"But I can't let you in. My sect leader ordered me to not let anyone come in"

"Wang Junjie stop wasting anymore time talking with her"

"Wait! I am getting a similar feeling from all of you. can you tell me which sect you are from?"

"We are from the Heavenly Demon Sect"

"What! Heavenly demon sect? What is your position"

"We are the Guardians of the sect"

"What! you are the six guardians"

"Yes. But how do you know?"

"This servant Tian Ling greets the Six guardians and sect leader is now practicing and told me to not anyone get in"

"Are you from our sect"

"Yes, and the sect leader is training so he told me not let anyone enter"

"Can we see him"

"Yes, please follow me"

Tian ling bring them to the Stairway of Hell.

"Why is leader statued? what kind of training is this?"

"Right now he is inside an illusion where all of his power is being sealed and he has to overcome that illusion with his own will"

"Okay. Then we will wait here"

Meanwhile inside the Path of Nihility,

"It has been more than Six months since I am walking but I still haven't reached that light. Will I ever be able reach? Or is this an visual illusion? Have I been walking towards the wrong way?" Every kinds of thought came to Kuo Fang's mind.

*snap* Kuo Fang slapped himself " No! I can't let these thoughts win. I am not going stop until I reach that light"

After four hours later,

"I can see that I am getting closer to that light"

Kuo Fang started to run and soon he is infront of that light.

"so this is where the light was coming from"

Infront of Kuo Fang is a huge door.

He went through that door. He wasn't able to see anything for some time but few seconds later when he opened his eyes he saw that he is out of that area.

the Path of Nihility has strengthened his mental strength greatly.

And when he looked behind he saw that Tian ling and others is standing.

"Hey! what are you all doing her?"

"We came to find you"

"Oh! Then come here. Let's see our sect"

"What?" Everyone is shocked

"Yes! Our sect is here, on this mountain range"

"What! Really?"

"Yes. Tian Ling, open the formation"

"Yes. sect leader"

All the mist that was covering the mountain range soon disappear and in front of everyone's eyes is standing the mighty Heavenly Demon Sect.

The Heavenly Demon Sect is divided into four parts. First is the Outer area. This place is for Outer disciples. After that is the inner area and it's for inner disciples. Then comes the Elder area where Elders of the sects stays and at last it's the throne area where the throne room and other halls are located.

"Wow! I haven't thought that our sect would be this big"

"Wu Hao Ran this is just beginning. Everyone lets work together and bring glory of Heavenly Demon Sect back"

"Yes Sect leader" Everyone said at the same time.

The Next day all of them came to Heavenly Demon Sect after giving the training.

"Do we really have to clean the whole sect?"

"Yes and no slacking off especially you Liu Yichen"

After Sixteen hours,

"God! Please save me. I think I going to die because of over working"

"At last we have completed the cleaning"

"Tian Ling please you shouldn't say that. you didn't even help"

"Liu Yichen stop your nagging"

Everyone one is exhausted after the hardwork but now the Heavenly Demon Sect is fully repaired and cleaned.

"It's already night lets go home"

After few minutes they reached home,

"Why are you all la.... Hey! what happened to you all?"

"Ask him" Liu Yichen point towards Kuo Fang and he fell on the couch.

"They are just exhausted. Everyone first go and wash yourself"

"I am not going to move a single inch"

"Can anyone tell me what you were doing all day?"

"Cleaning"

"What?"

"Yes and tomorrow I will bring you to our sect"

Next day at the Yuan Mansion,

"Everyone, today I will bring you to Our sect. Elder Yuan tell everyone to follow me"

"Yes sect leader"

Infront of the Dragon staircase,

Everyone is admiring the Dragon gate.

"From Now on you will get your trainings here. you will stay here from now on and you are not allowed to enter the Inner area and to go out of Outer area. In the sect there is an Hierarchical system. From High to low it is Sect Leader, Six Guardians, Supreme Elders, Hall Elders, Inner Elders, Inner disciple, Outer Elder, Outer disciples"

"Wu Hao Ran please give them a tour of the outer area"

"Everyone please follow me"

Wu Hao Ran took Everyone to see the Outer area.

"Elder Yuan please come here. I have something to say"

"What is it Sect leader?"

"The wasteland trips that I asked to you, did you arranged them?

"Yes. I have arranged a trip. you can go three days later"

Three days later,

"Does Everyone one know why we are gathered here?"

"Yes"

"Then be prepared. Today we are going to a Swamp wasteland. The Swamp wasteland are one of the dangerous wasteland because most of the beast has poison attribute"

After thirty minutes of traveling they are infront of the Swamp wasteland.

"Everyone. Be careful and cautiously follow me"

Kuo Fang is searching for beast and soon he saw two poison antler deer.

"Everyone I saw two second level warrior grade poison antler deer. all of you will break into two group and be careful of the antlers"

Yuan Fen became the leader of the first group and the other one who was also from the Yuan branch family became the Leader of the second group.

Both of the group surrounded the poison antler deer and because their hard training and with the good commanding skill of their group leaders they were soon able to defeat those beasts.

"Because the group leaders contributed the most they will get the soul of the soul of the beast"

After they absorbed the beasts soul Kuo Fang asked that person who is from the Yuan branch family to meet him.

"Sect leader did you call me?"

"Yes. Tell me your name"

"I am Yuan Wei"

"With you progress you can be a candidate for the personal guard of the next Elder of the Gold family"

"Thank you for praising me sect leader"

They hunt for few hours and after taking some rest now they are returning.

In this trip everyone has benefited greatly.

"Everyone pack all the beasts corpses we are returning"

After packing everything up they started their returning journey but suddenly infront them appeared a eighth level warrior grade Phantom snake.

"Oh my God? It's a eighth level beast"

"We are going to die. How could we defeat a eighth grade Phantom snake"

"Everyone calm down and stay behind me. I will take care of it and meanwhile you try to escape"

Kuo Fang unsheathed his sword and reinforce it with the Demonic Qi. The Qi boosted the attack power and durability of the sword.

"Asura Body forming"

"hissh" Phantom snake let out a Illusion wave to trap everyone in his illusion.

"Your Illusion will not work on me" He repel all the illusion wave.

"Now meet your demise. Sword calligraphy First form Flying crane - First move Wind surfing crane"

Kuo Fang give the phantom snake some shallow wounds.

Because of the phantom snakes agility he was able counter attack him with his tail.

Kuo went flying away and he took at least some damage even while using the Asura Body.

"Now don't blame me for not being kind. Martial soul activate- God slaughtering asura martial soul, first move- Coercion"

That phantom snake is now trapped inside the dark domain.

But since the Phantom snake is an illusionary type beast. It was able breakthrough Kuo Fang's Coercion and Because of that Kuo Fang sustain huge damages internally.

"gaghh" He spit blood.

Now Kuo Fang is in disadvantage and that phantom snake is readying himself to attack Kuo Fang.

Kuo Fang is holding his sword infront of him and is going to defend the attack with all of his power.

"Huh!"

Before the Phantom snake could reach him it was stopped in his track by Yuan Fen and Yuan Wei.

"Hey! Why did you come back"

"What we have become today is only because of you sect leader and how could we leave you when you are fighting for our lives"

"Sect leader we are going to holding him, try to end this fight fast"

"Then hold him for some minutes for me. Flying crane third move- Crane's peck piercing the mountains"

Kuo store the Qi on the tip of his sword.

"Both of you get out of the way!"

The huge amount Qi went towards the snake and killed it one shot.

"Hissh! The snake cried loudly.

The Phantom snakes half body is destroyed completely. The Soul appeared.

Kuo Fang absorbed the soul and his mental strength and his agility has risen.

Everyone from the guard team came out from where they were hiding.

"Sect leader please forgive us for not be able help you"

"It's okay and with your strengths all of you will only would have slowed me down"

Everyone is ashamed of their strength but because of this they get a goal to become powerfull.

"Then pack the corpse of this Phantom snake also"

After the journey they returned to the Yuan mansion.

Seeing Kuo Fang's condition Yuan Hong Hui came running towards him.

"Sect leader are you alright. What happened to you?"

"It's nothing. We just came across an eight level warrior grade Phantom snake"

"What!"

"Everyone give all the corpse of the beast to Elder Yuan"

Seeing the corpse of the Phantom snake Yuan Hong Hui is shocked.

"It's really an eight level warrior grade Phantom snake's corpse... but where is other half"

"It was destroyed by me"

'What! With the skin of an eight grade Phantom snake a four star weapon could be made'

"Okay I take will care off this... sect master you should go and take some rest"

"Yes but Elder Yuan I would like to change the schedule of the trips. For the main attack force it will be once a month and for the side guard team it will once every two months"

"As you wish sect lord"

After that Kuo Fang went to his mansion.

Yang Jia Li opened the door. She is shocked after locking Kuo Fang's condition.

"What happened to you? How did you get so many injuries and why do you look so pale?"

"It's nothing. I will be okay after some rest and from tomorrow your training will start"

Kuo Fang went upstairs.

Inside Kuo Fang's room,

He is sleeping on his bed but the Phantom snake appeared in his dream.

Inside Kuo Fang's dream,

"Why did you come here"

"Did you forget that you absorbed my soul"

"Then does that mean after absorbing a soul it stay inside the Sea of Consciousness"

"No hss... It's you who is special. It's like I am trapped hss but since you let me live hss I will give my secrets hss. I have been living for hundreds of years and in that time I found a dungeon that is deeply hidden in that swamp wasteland hss but I will only tell you the location after you reach the Master martial artist rank hss"

"But you are not telling me this for free. So What's the catch"

"Nothing hsss just tell me about your origin"

"Why do you want to know about my origin"

"Hsss The feeling when I first enter your sea of consciousness is same as the feeling I got from that Dungeon"

'Does that mean that dungeon is. no! It can't be 'that' thing'

"Sorry but I can't tell you that now"

"It's okay because I have a feeling that I will get to know it eventually"

Then that snake slowly vanished in darkness and Kuo returned to his sleep.

[Author's disclaimer: This is a work of fiction based on fictional characters and events. It is unrelated to any real people, organization, Locations and events]

The grade of the equipment in this story:-

1)Star Grade [Divided into 1 to 10]

2) Earth Grade [Divided into Normal, Rare, Epic and Legendary]

3)Heaven Grade [Divided into Low, Mid, High]

4)King Grade [Divided into Low, Mid, High]

5)monarch grade [Divided into Low, Mid, High]

6) Emperor grade [Divided into Low, Mid, High]

7) Divine grade (Only be held by gods)