novelraw Chapter 299 : Eternal Lamp
Chapter 299 : Eternal Lamp
Chu Sang had encountered a Kun Peng at the bottom of a cliff in the Demon Realm years ago. Unfortunately, it was only a half-blood Kun Peng, not a true ancient pure-blood Kun Peng. Moreover, that Kun Peng later perished, leaving behind only its essence.
Although she didn't know what this essence was for at the time, it was still an extremely rare Kun Peng essence. Her hoarding habit kicked in, and she kept it, nurturing it in her dantian, thinking there might be some turning point in the future. However, there had been no movement until half a year ago when she obtained the lamp from the box on the top floor of the Demon-Locking Pagoda. She sensed that the Kun Peng essence seemed to... show signs of revival?
The seemingly ordinary lamp Chu Sang got from the tower didn't appear to have any use, but she couldn't bear to throw it away. She even spent several days in the library pavilion but couldn't find the origin of this tower. So she went to ask Immortal Chanyu.
This usually unreliable master actually proved reliable for once.
"If this seat is not mistaken, this is the long-lost Eternal Lamp. It is said that a long, long time ago, it was a soul tool made by some evil cultivators using the blood tears of the North Sea Merfolk race, which went extinct a thousand years ago. Each Eternal Lamp houses at least a hundred Merfolk souls." She sighed, "This item has the miraculous ability to reverse yin and yang and repair broken souls. Officials and nobles coveted it, and evil cultivators, having tasted success, began to hunt North Sea Merfolk on a larger scale, indirectly leading to the extinction of the Merfolk race......"
"Later, the method of making Eternal Lamps became a completely forbidden technique in the cultivation world."
"I thought the Eternal Lamps had long disappeared in the river of time. I didn't expect you to have one in your hands?"
"I also obtained it by chance in the Demon-Locking Pagoda," Chu Sang said.
The Demon-Locking Pagoda had devoured countless things over ten thousand years. This Eternal Lamp should also have been obtained from some evil cultivator.
Hearing the origin of this Eternal Lamp, Chu Sang was a bit surprised, but not much.
Then she heard her master continue, "This soul lamp is an excellent tool for repairing divine souls, but the method of making it is truly cruel. It can be called an evil artifact... However, whether this item is used to save or harm people depends on its owner. This soul tool falling into your hands can also be considered a kind of fate."
Immortal Chanyu had lived for an extremely long time and knew many things. She taught Chu Sang how to use the Eternal Lamp.
The operation of this soul tool was quite simple. Chu Sang silently recalled her master's technique and then lowered her head to operate.
She first took out the Kun Peng essence residing in her dantian, a faint blue light. The halo transformed into a blue Kun Peng phantom circling in her palm. Then, she used her divine sense to control the Kun Peng phantom to cover the extinguished lamp wick.
The miniature Kun Peng circled around the lamp again and again, but the lamp wick did not relight.
Chu Sang rubbed her chin. Could it be that after such a long time, this Eternal Lamp was broken? No longer usable?
"Why don't you try using some blood?" The little pagoda spirit floated out at some point, speaking earnestly, "I can't remember when I got this thing, but I put it on the top floor, so it must be an old item. After such a long time, the energy inside has probably dissipated almost completely. Ordinary spiritual power probably won't be of much use. Why don't you try putting some blood in it?"
After saying this, it quickly explained, "Your blood is really special. Although I don't know exactly what's going on, I have to admit that your blood has an excellent restorative effect on artifacts. Anyway, you don't lack this bit of blood, why not give it a try?"
Chu Sang pondered for a moment, then nodded. It was indeed worth trying.
She lowered her head and bit her palm. Blood flowed out. The previously dim soul lamp, at the scent of fresh blood, didn't even need Chu Sang to actively press the blood onto it. It pounced over as if awakened with a "whoosh!", frantically absorbing the blood.
The milky white lamp almost turned crimson.
Damn!
Chu Sang's expression changed slightly. She was really worried about being drained by this lamp. When the scene before her eyes became somewhat blurry, she quickly waved the lamp away.
The previously extinguished lamp wick was completely dyed with flame-like crimson. The originally semi-transparent, almost disappeared pale blue Kun, under the rebirth of the flame, raised its head and let out a clear bird cry, transforming into a fiery red burning Peng bird, slowly ascending.
Its body was more massive and elongated than the legendary phoenix. Flames covered its body, becoming its feathers. Each falling feather was a burning star of flame.
The fiery red Peng bird phantom left the lamp, circled around Chu Sang in the air, then slowly landed on her open palm, indescribably docile and affectionate.
With a thought from Chu Sang, the fiery red phantom in her palm instantly transformed into a stream of light, leaping into the sky.
A Kun Peng that blotted out the sky appeared before everyone's eyes.
The pressure came like a tidal wave, covering the sky and the earth.
The disciples present were all shocked by the sudden appearance of this massive beast demon, retreating one after another.
"Damn, what, what kind of beast demon is this? I've never seen anything like it!"
"This beast demon doesn't have any of the evil or murderous aura of ordinary beast demons. Rather than calling it a beast demon, it's more like... a spirit beast?"
A disciple from the Beast Taming Sect, who had seen much, said,
"This is the legendary Kun, no—it's Peng! It's the legendary divine beast that was thought to be extinct!"
"Divine beast??"
"My goodness, Chu Sang, where did you get this from? I've only seen records of divine beasts like Kun Peng in books. Only pure-blood Kun Peng have the chance to fully evolve into Peng, but wasn't pure-blood Kun Peng said to be extinct long ago?"
The disciples who had gathered around were all amazed, looking at Chu Sang with envious gazes. She had so many good things, it was enough to make people cry with envy!!!
Chu Sang remembered clearly that when she first encountered that dying Kun Peng in the Demon Realm, it was definitely not a pure-blood Kun Peng, but a real half-blood Kun Peng.
The soul lamp could only repair the Kun Peng essence, it couldn't purify the Kun Peng's bloodline.
So, it wasn't the Eternal Lamp that made this Kun Peng evolve into a pure-blood Kun Peng, but... her blood.
No wonder Chang Yu in the original story wanted to get her blood so badly. Her blood was too strange.
It was like a walking cheat code.
But at the same time, she also understood an extremely serious matter. The special nature of the blood could bring her unexpected benefits, but it also harbored an unpredictable disaster.
She had dealt with one Chang Yu, but now that the secret of her blood was exposed, there might be a second Chang Yu, a third Chang Yu, a fourth Chang Yu...... Chu Sang casually put away the Eternal Lamp and said nonchalantly, "I encountered a pure-blood Kun Peng in the Demon Realm before. When it was about to die, I happened to collect its essence. Just lucky, I guess."
Going to the Demon Realm once and obtaining the essence of a pure-blood Kun Peng, and dismissing it with a casual "just lucky"? It was too heartbreaking.
Of course, this topic didn't continue for too long. With the help of the Kun Peng, they could reach their destination in the shortest time possible.
The massive and majestic body of the Kun Peng was large enough to carry hundreds of disciples. It let out a clear cry towards the sky, its wings flapping, borrowing the wind's power to leap into the sky.
The space before their eyes shimmered slightly, like a transparent wall of rippling water.
Then, the massive body of the Kun Peng disappeared from the sky in an instant, and in just a few moments, it appeared in another place thousands of miles away.
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After dropping off the disciples from other sects and families, Chu Sang also followed her senior brothers and sisters to Suiyan Mountain. According to the map, there was a time-space crack on this mountain, which was the first destination of their journey.
Time-space cracks could only be closed using divine sense.
Even closing just one time-space crack consumed a large amount of divine sense. Several people were almost drained. Fortunately, Mu Chihuai had prepared plenty of soul-restoring pills before coming, enough to support their divine sense overdraft for the remaining month.
There was no time to rest. As soon as they finished repairing one time-space crack, everyone quickly rushed to the next destination. For a whole month, they barely had a chance to catch their breath. Both divine sense and physical strength were pushed to the limit before they finally managed to close most of the time-space cracks in the Lingqing Sect area within the deadline.
Tang Yanling used a jade plate to contact disciples from other sects, and their progress was also almost complete.
Now, only one last time-space crack remained on the map to be resolved.
It was also the most difficult one to deal with.
It should be noted that most time-space cracks were not formed simultaneously in an instant. There was a sequence, and the later-formed time-space cracks covered smaller areas and were relatively easier to resolve.
But the first batch of time-space cracks that appeared could be said to be stubborn "nail households", requiring more divine sense to resolve. Especially the last one remaining on the map, which seemed to be among the first batch of time-space cracks that appeared in the cultivation world. The fact that it was left until the last shows how high its difficulty was.
After half a day of travel, upon entering the area covered by the time-space crack, Chu Sang's first thought was—that she had suddenly come to an eternal night without daylight.
Just a second ago it was broad daylight, but the moment they entered the area, everything before their eyes turned into night.
"Whoosh......"
Even the sound of the wind seemed extremely eerie. The black mist wandering everywhere was so thick it seemed almost solid, covering the entire area.
From time to time, several malicious wisps of black mist tried to launch attacks from behind.
Chu Sang's eyes turned cold. With her body as the center, countless strands of divine sense threads, invisible to the naked eye, spread out at will, intersecting to form a huge net that covered the entire mountaintop, bringing it into her domain.
"Whoosh......"
The rampant black mist seemed to smell something extremely dangerous and scattered away, not daring to approach the group again.
Tantai Ming said, "They ran away just like that? I thought we were going to have a big battle!"
Chu Sang slowly opened the map in mid-air, selected a location, and turned her head to say,
"Let's continue forward."
With her ridiculously strong divine sense protecting them, the black mist didn't dare to easily target the group again, and they proceeded unobstructed.
Before long, they reached the center of the area.
The area was completely enveloped by black mist, with the sun and moon obscured. In the place where the sun should have been, a slowly twisting black hole crack appeared.
Found it!
Chu Sang's palm flashed with flowing fire as she summoned her divine bow. Without a word, she drew the bow and shot an arrow towards the black hole.
But the black hole disappeared in an instant.
This thing could actually run away???
It was quite different from the time-space cracks they had encountered before. This one seemed to have a bit too much intelligence?
"Everyone be careful, this time-space crack is very likely to be the source......"
As soon as Wen Renyue's voice fell, a black energy suddenly rushed towards her chest. She took out a jade flute and struck it back, while also staggering back several steps, her face suddenly cold.
The group was surrounded on all sides by black energy.
And in the sky above, the time-space crack appeared again, seeming to... gloat.
The black energy showed no sign of the fear from earlier. Instead, it appeared extremely excited. One strand, two strands...... countless strands of black energy gathered together, actually turning into the forms of [people].
Like the shadows of [people], they rotated ninety degrees and stood up stiffly like zombies, holding knives and guns, surrounding and charging.
Tantai Ming kicked down a black shadow that rushed forward, a flash of sword light passed, and the shadow's head separated from its body, scattering into black energy that fled in all directions.
He charged back and forth, completing one sword move and slashing more than a dozen black shadows. "You bunch of sneaky bastards, if you've got the guts, come at me! See if this young master doesn't kill you all!"
Charging too far forward, he completely failed to notice a black shadow emerging from the shadows behind him. A knife fell towards his chest, and at the critical moment, Big Senior Sister made a clean cut, slicing the black shadow in half with a backhand stroke.
Tantai Ming quickly retreated a few steps, returning to the team.
A full hundred flying swords were all deployed, spinning rapidly around the group like the wind. Any approaching black shadows were instantly torn to shreds by countless sword energies.
They couldn't get close at all in the short term.
"Big Senior Sister, Seventh Senior Brother, help me hold out for a while longer."
Chu Sang said.
She was going to properly search for where that dog was hiding.
Speaking of which, Chu Sang had never tried to find out what the limit of her divine sense overdraft really was.
Her divine sense was not just several times stronger than cultivators of the same realm, but like an ocean, almost endless. If it weren't for the limitations of her physical cultivation, it could almost be said to be inexhaustible and limitless.
Chu Sang took a light breath and closed her eyes. Before her was not a pitch-black darkness where one couldn't see their hand in front of their face. On the contrary, the visualization of all things became clearer.
The aura of every person, every living being, was clearly visible.
The black mist enveloped the entire area, so she used strands of divine sense to weave a net, enclosing the black mist within it.
Every breath, every wind direction, every movement of the black mist in her sea of consciousness, all clearly formed into a trajectory of action......
Countless strands intertwined together, densely packed. Other people would probably have collapsed from divine sense overdraft by now, but she could precisely find the time-space crack hidden behind the black mist from these countless strands.
"It's there!"
She suddenly opened her eyes, a flash of golden light passing through her pupils. Her palm pulled back, and the black mist in the sky was instantly torn apart by an extremely great force, revealing the time-space crack hidden behind it.
Seeing the situation turn unfavorable, the time-space crack wanted to run again.
This time, Chu Sang wouldn't give it a chance to escape.
Her right hand closed its five fingers again, and an airtight net of divine sense trapped the seemingly insubstantial black hole within it. The black hole struggled more and more violently, and the fine threads seemed about to break at any moment.
Ugh......
A needle-like, dense pain came from her sea of consciousness.
Chu Sang's nose stung, and drops of blood flowed down. Tantai Ming beside her panicked at the sight. "Little Junior Sister!" Without thinking, he tore off a piece of cloth from his clothes to wipe the blood from her face, then placed one hand on her shoulder, transferring his divine sense power to her.