18 The Gourd's Mist (3)

Raising his frontal body, Xia Ye had his frontal hooves come down onto the ground like a meteor. On impact, his Qi flowed into the earth below him and immediately reacted. The ground around him began to upheaval and upheaved, ripping themselves apart and rising into the ground. Having rock's infused with Xia Ye's Qi acting as shrapnel. The ghost in range were torn apart like paper.

Breaking into a charge, Xia Ye was like an unstoppable force. "Ragh!" One of the ghosts screeched as Xia Ye rammed straight into him. Its ethereal body was sent hurtling into the air before dissipating. Only around twenty of the ghosts remained after Xia Ye's attack. Having no sense of fear or hesitation, the rest of the twenty charged forth.

Ten came from behind him while the other ten approached from the front. Reacting quickly, Xia Ye kicked back with his hind legs. Despite hitting nothing but air, the ground behind him ruptured as a multitude of Qi infused spikes made purely of earth rose from the ground. Each ghost behind him was impaled and sent over a dozen meters into the air.

On the other side, the remaining ten ghosts had arrived right in front of Xia Ye. Slashing and grabbing towards him with their shriveled up hands, their attacks seemed on a direct course for a hit. But at the last second, Xia Ye deactivated the 72 Earth Transformations turning his Golden Ox body back to mist as his size changed.

The majority of the attacks missed him by a hair as the two ghosts in front of him hit him in the chest. Their strength was in no way to be underestimated, even though they were mostly mindless and slow. Xia Ye felt the full impact. Feeling his body recoil slightly, he grit his teeth and counter attacked.

"Hya!" Swinging too and fro, he slammed Ruyi Jingu Bang into the two closest ghosts before dodging the remaining eight by jumping into the air. Holding Ruyi Jingu Bang with both hands, it began growing in both size and length. Its weight began instantly exceeding its original eight tons as it grew up to a hundred meters in length.

Being twice as wide as a tree and much more heavy, Xia Ye used all his strength to swing it downwards. The ghosts could only let out screeches and screams towards Xia Ye high up in the air as their deaths approached. The ground collapsed in on itself despite already being destroyed as debris and dust flew everywhere.

The ground shook as the nearby dead trees and plants were sent flying uprooted from their place. In the end, only a canyon over twenty meters wide had been left behind, being over half of Ruyi Jingu Bang's length into the ground. Falling to the ground, Xia Ye slammed into it roughly. His breath was rigid, and he felt like his strength had been depleted by a lot.

'That was exhausting… What the hell were those things? They saying your name.' Xia Ye was probing for answers as Sun Wukong replied. [The Purple Gold Red Gourd's ability is strange even I don't completely understand it. But what I can say from personally being trapped inside of it is that inside of the Gourd is an entirely different world. Infinite in its dimensions, it's really a world of mist. When supplied with Qi from its user, you can release this mist outside of the gourd. You could say it's capable of entrapping and sealing anything within.]

Xia Ye was a bit taken back hearing that last part. "Anything?" Sun Wukong let out a sound of confirmation as he continued. [However, its true ability comes from when whatever is captured goes inside of the gourd. With three hours being the minimum, the gourd will liquefy whatever is sealed within, turning it into a drink. A portion of the strength and life of whatever is liquified will be passed on to the drinker, becoming a part of their own.]

Feeling immediately disturbed, Xia Ye stood up. "What? You mean it lets you drink people? Wait a second you said three hours minimum?" Quan Huanying had previously stated how the mist would liquify whoever stays within it for three hours, no exception. Technically, there was an exception: the time it took depended on whatever it was trying to liquify.

They were all just too weak to make the mist take any longer. It was terrifying to think about, especially knowing Sun Wukong was caught within the gourd himself at some point. "So right now the Gourd has no master is simply leaking the mist which is turning every person who enters it into… Anyway what does this have to do with the ghost?"

[Yes, the gourd can turn anything physical into a drink within a rather short period of time. However, the soul's of those captured take much longer. Normally they would simply wander within the gourd, slowly deteriorating before disappearing entirely. However, depending on their will, that process takes longer than just a few hours. Years, decades, maybe even centuries.]

Xia Ye felt he understood what Sun Wukong was saying as he looked around him. "So… These were the spirits of the people you trapped in the gourd? No wonder they were so angry and deformed. Their anger had probably boiled over thousands of times when they were trapped in the gourds world."

It also made sense that they would immediately attack him while screaming out the name of Sun Wukong. He was the current Monkey King, after all. [I never expected something like this could happen. Despite my urgency, I should have been a little slower when sending the treasures here.] Sun Wukong sighed to himself as he said something in a more serious tone.

[Either way, it just highlights how important it is you get to the gourd as quickly as possible. If left alone, who knows how much of this world it will devour. And if it ends up in the wrong person;s hands, they may end up worsening the crack in it.] He didn't need to explain what would happen if that crack got any bigger.

In a span of fifteen years, it had already covered miles upon miles of area and dwarfed a city in size. "Welp there goes any hope of resting on the ground for a bit." Xia Ye laughed at himself before standing up. Dusting himself off, he began making a Beeline towards his destination. His pace was slower than before as he focused on recovering as he ran.

Although significantly slower, some groups eventually took care of the hateful ghost. Following the same logic Xia Ye used, they began heading westward, going deeper in the mist. Of course, not everyone was lucky enough to survive. Those too few in numbers or strength were torn apart and turned into nothing but skeletons and bones.

Their overall numbers had dwindled from the two hundreds to the double digits. Minute by minute, with Xia Ye in the lead, everyone began getting closer to the ultimate prize. Continuing to run through the desolate dead forest Xia Ye for another half an hour, Xia Ye narrowed his eyes. The mist had gotten so thick at this point he could barely see his hand in front of him.

But something strange is happening now. Instead of getting harder to see, it felt like the mist was letting up. 'A clearing?' Although the forest and grass around him were already dead, what he saw before him was beyond that. It was a wasteland, and the ground looked as if it had become fine sand.

"This is weird… Something doesn't feel right." The clearing was mostly empty, excluding a cave opening in the centre. It seemed to go underground, but Xia Ye couldn't see much from where he was. [Xia Ye there, the gourd is in that cave. I'm getting the same feeling, though… You should be careful, especially due to the others.]

Xia Ye looked confused when Sun Wukong mentioned others, but that cleared up as he saw a small group walking into the clearing. "The mist here is strange. Though it looks like we are the fi- Huh?" Shi Xinya's eyes locked on Xia Ye, who noticed her as well. "Hu Xinyi, Lang Xun look." The two disciples walking with her looked over and saw Xia Ye as well.

"What? How did he get here before us?"

"Especially after those strange ghosts appeared. We needed Lady Yuechan's help to deal with them."

Chu Yuechan standing behind the group, looked over at Xia Ye with her normal cold gaze. However, there were hints in intrigue buried within them as well. "Well that's not good." Chu Yuechan was the strongest person here. And that also meant she was the biggest hindrance for him to get the gourd.

He was already on guard since entering this place, but this just made his cautiousness spike. "Oh? Xae Ye you made it here!" Turning around, Xia Ye spotted Quan Ning. With him was Quan Hanying and her advisors, along with the soldiers they had brought with them. Their numbers had dwindled sharply compared to before, with the reason being obvious.

"Looks like you were right Mu Jin. He made it this far into the mist all by himself. He doesn't even seem injured." Quan Hanying had a smile on her face seeing Xia Ye had made it this far. She had taken Mu Jin's word that he was quite special, and that proved to be the case. "Of course my eyes have not deceived me yet."

Mu Jin spoke calmly, but deep in his heart, he was actually quite surprised. Both them and those from the Frozen Cloud Immortal Palace wondered how Xia Ye had truly gotten here. His survival just seemed too impossible. A few minutes passed as two voices broke through the atmosphere. "Ah, it seems we were slower than the rest of you."

Walking out of another section of the dead forest was the Xiao Sect. Eight of the original ten disciples were following behind the Xiao Sect Elder. A few moments later, an old female voice flowed out as well. "Yes, though it seems we are the only ones who have made it here. The others must have turned back or perished."

The Burning Heaven Clan had made it as well, with their original twenty disciples being diminished to a mere seven. There was no need to speak about how many losses they had taken. However, they seemed unphased by that for the most part. It was through this that there was a four-way deadlock.

Qing Ning, who was originally about to head over to Xia Ye, froze. His eyes narrowed as he noticed the air of the situation. The atmosphere had completely changed, and that was because of one thing. Everyone knew the 'Artifact' they so desperately were after was near. Quan Hanying took the first advance on the situation and spoke.

"Considering the Frozen Cloud Immortal Sect was the first to arrive. The 'Artifact' would belong to them by right. No one is willing to refute such a claim, correct?" The elders of the Burning Heaven Clan and the Xiao Sect went silent hearing Quan Hanying's words. Her advisors silently nodded in agreement with her decision.

Even if they couldn't obtain the artifact, at least it wouldn't go to the Xiao Sect or Burning Heaven Clan. The Frozen Cloud Immortal Palace is a reserved Sect and wouldn't abuse its power on Crescent City. At the same time, Chu Yuechan was the strongest person here. Strength outdid all the rules and laws set before it.

The Xiao Sect Elder remained silent as the two Burning Heaven Clan elders looked at one another and nodded. "Of course that would be only fair. However before that we of the Burning Heaven Clan had another matter to sort out." The elderly old man of the Burning Heaven Clan said this while staring directly in Xia Ye's direction.

This time Xia Ye felt it for certain. Pure killing intent was being directed towards him by the old woman of the Burning Heaven Clan. "Xae Ye, that's your name correct? You're the one who killed my disciple… Fen Yuange." Xia Ye's eyes widened in a brief moment of surprise. Fen Yuange was the Burning Heaven Clan disciple he fought before arriving in the city.

'How did she know that? Unless Fen Yuange's ghost came to her in a dream she wouldn't know what I look like.' Quan Hanying stepped forward and spoke up. "Elder Jian If I may ask what this is about?" The Burning Heaven Clan Elder spoke with anger boiling in her voice. "I sent my disciple Fen Yuange into the forests not too far from here for training along with others."

Clenching her fist, she glared at Xia Ye. "Of course, being my disciple I took plenty of precautions. None of the Profound Beast in that forest could ever kill him yet somehow he died. One such precaution was a seal that would show me his final moments if he ever died. And to behold I did see his killer. It was you!"

She harshly pointed at Xia Ye, who grit his teeth. 'Oh come one what kind of person puts a seal like that on a disciple. That's just being overly cautious for no reason.' One thing he could say was that she hid her intent to kill him well. She only showed normal levels of hostility towards him until they finally entered the mist.

Just like Quan Ning said, the moment laws aren't binding them; people show their true intentions. "Xae Ye is this true?" Quan Hanying looked over at Xia Ye, who sighed, putting Ruyi Jingu Bang over his shoulder. "He attacked me first. Teaching your disciple the price of robbery should have been your first lesson."

Elder Jian laughed out loud as she smirked. "Like my disciple would ever bother lowering himself to steal from someone like you. No matter what you say your life alone would never be enough to atone for your sin. Surely no one here wishes to defend such a person?" Elder Jian was addressing everyone but clearly was looking towards Quan Hanying.

"But that…" Quan Ning wanted to speak out but was stopped by Advisor Mu Jin. "I know you have grown fond of him but we must not risk anything. Despite his talents he has offended the Burning Heaven Clan. It would be best if we stick to our own. We can consider our job here done with the Frozen Cloud Immortal Palace obtaining the 'Artifact'."

His words caused Quan Hanying to halt as well before sighing. No one spoke against the Burning Heaven Clan, although multiple eyes bearing no ill will were on Xia Ye. Two were from Quan Hanying and Quan Ning, and the other was from Shi Xinya. Although they were not sympathetic, she could only shake her head.

She had asked Xia Ye about this matter before, yet he spoke confidently in his decision. Now it was time to reap what he sowed. Elder Jian let out a cackling laugh from her voice as her eyes lit up, staring at Xia Ye. "Don't worry I won't kill you yet. You'll suffer for your crimes so until then I'll just capture you!"