Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 319 - 312: Variable Middle

Chapter 319: Chapter 312: Variable Middle

Lin Xin parried an attack from an armored person, and Fairy Si Jue, drenched in sweet sweat, gasped for air and said,

"Zhao Lang, don’t panic, there must be a turnaround. The team leader has already notified the nearest cultivators for support, and we have received a response. As long as we hold on a little longer, we can..."

Before she could finish, the sky suddenly turned fiery red, dimming underneath.

The sky, which had been brightly sunny, suddenly darkened as if painted by a sunset, completely dimming, as if coated in a layer of red paint.

"What is this...?!!"

Not only the cultivators paused, but even the armored individuals fighting stopped and quickly sheathed their weapons, all retreating.

They strangely turned to look westward, the red light in their helmets flickering uncertainly, as if they were exceedingly agitated.

Thump.

An armored individual suddenly kneeled down facing west on one knee.

Then the second, and the third—soon, all armored individuals knelt facing west, heads bowed.

An exceptionally solemn atmosphere slowly spread out.

The cultivators were at a loss as they looked at each other.

Quietly moving forward, a cultivator ruthlessly swung his sword, fully striking in a sneak attack, and completely severed the head of an armored individual.

The head rolled on the ground, yet all surrounding armored individuals showed no reaction, as if the dead was not their comrade.

The cultivators seemed alerted and hurriedly took up their weapons, striking at the kneeling, motionless armored individuals.

Zhao Ke and Fairy Si Jue participated as well, looking at these armored individuals allowing them to slaughter them. Although doubts weighed heavy on their minds, they could only suppress it. Addressing the crisis was their urgent priority.

The kneeling armored individuals were quickly slain to half.

Boom!!!

Before the people could strike the remaining half, a distant dune suddenly exploded, a massive cloud of sand shooting into the sky like spires, piercing the heavens.

The ground shook, and the air became increasingly hot and agitated. Some faintly heard what seemed like voices screaming and howling.

Zhao Ke was startled, quickly grabbing Fairy Si Jue’s hand, warily looking around.

"What is that!?" Someone suddenly exclaimed.

Following the direction of the voice, Zhao Ke’s pupils suddenly contracted.

He saw that the giant sand column that had burst skyward from the explosion had solidified, forming a hundreds-of-meters-tall massive stone pillar.

The yellow stone pillar’s surface was all spikes, with iridescent light faintly flowing from its top. It seemed as if some anomaly had emerged.

"Could it be a rare treasure has appeared?!" Zhao Ke thought intensely.

"It’s not a treasure; it is an anomaly we cannot provoke," Fairy Si Jue soberly stated.

This was also what the other surrounding cultivators believed.

"Sand..."

Amidst the wind, it seemed as if someone was crying out, uttering a single syllable.

It was the sound of the word "sand."

The cry was mournful, eerily sending tingles down one’s spine, especially as the syllable oddly jittered at the end, making one’s heart shudder when heard.

"Zhao Lang... we should hurry back. It’s not wise to stay here too long," Fairy Si Jue softly pulled Zhao Ke’s hand.

"We’ve finally encountered a legendary adventure; how can we retreat now? This is an opportunity, one most cultivators can’t even hope to come across. If we pass this up, it would be a waste," Zhao Ke became slightly excited.

"Let’s wait to see what other cultivators decide to do, then follow along with everyone else,"

"But..." Fairy Si Jue was worried.

"Don’t worry, trust me. This might be a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Missing it now might mean never encountering it again," Zhao Ke was genuinely excited.

Seeing her partner’s eagerness, Fairy Si Jue found it hard to object further.

"Then you must promise me not to venture too deep alone, wait till other cultivators venture forth," she said.

"Okay! I promise," Zhao Ke agreed.

"This anomaly is too strange. I will take my leave first; you all decide for yourselves," said another team captain.

"To give up such an anomaly just like that, isn’t it too regrettable?" a man with a knife frowned as he spoke.

"Even if it is a treasure, we might be lucky enough to find but not fortunate enough to enjoy," the man said with a bitter smile.

Without further words, he quickly led his team away.

But before they had gone far, he suddenly stopped and came staggering back. His expression was awful."

"We can’t leave..."

Like him, a few others in his squad bore similarly grim expressions.

Zhao Ke’s heart sank, and pulling on Fairy Si Jue’s hand, he quickly ran towards the exit.

The same went for the other cultivators with him."

But something strange happened.

With each step he took away from the stone pillar, his heart rate would increase by a tenth."

After walking more than a dozen steps, his heartbeat had sped up by more than double. Startled, he was forced to stop."

"Now we’re in trouble..." He exchanged a glance with Fairy Si Jue, both seeing a touch of gloom in each other’s eyes. The excitement they had felt just moments ago completely evaporated.

************************

Yuan Dou Demon Sect.

The unyielding Wu Ding Mountain floated quietly above several Snow Peaks.

The sky was cloudless, bright and clear.

Lin Xin walked slowly on the surface of the mountain, surrounded by a myriad of towering spiked stone pillars.

Each black stone pillar was bound with many black metal chains.

The shorter ones were over a person tall, while the taller ones reached up to twenty or thirty meters, exceptionally spectacular.

"This is the most famous Punishment Column of Wuding Mountain." Accompanying Lin Xin were more than thirty people.

An Intent Level expert, over ten servants, and more than ten guards.

Everyone formed a large group, slowly wandering through the desolate areas of Wuding Mountain.

"Punishment Column..." Lin Xin reached out and touched one of the pillars, it felt cold and somewhat soft, seemingly solid metal yet unexpectedly gentle, akin to human skin.

"Indeed."

The one explaining was a woman among those five Intent Level experts, Shuang Chi Zi.

Shuang Chi Zi, from the eastern division of the Yuan Dou Demon Sect, was a well-known veteran expert with a vast family behind her. Willing to come and align with the new Crown Prince, she ultimately harbored some speculative intentions.

Naturally, she was excessively enthusiastic about her new master, Lin Xin.

"Without hiding anything from Your Highness, the chains on the Punishment Column, as long as someone is deemed guilty by the Sect, will autonomously attack. They all possess divine skills akin to space traversing, forming part of the defensive array."

Lin Xin nodded and continued walking forward, occasionally looking at the various uneven pillars on either side.

"By the way, how is the task I assigned earlier progressing?"

He suddenly changed the subject.

Shuang Chi Zi smiled slightly.

"Your Highness, rest assured, all of us have different family connections behind us. Here in Wuding Mountain, every person who enters is no ordinary individual. There’s a vast network operating behind each, much larger than one can imagine."

She paused in her speech.

"Moreover, the items you requested are not of any critical rarity."

"That’s good," Lin Xin nodded, "Although the Demon Talisman Seed is not a crucial item, I am not the only one who needs it. So this matter might not be as simple as you think."

"Your subordinate understands."

The two, along with their team, casually toured around again.

The Punishment Column was the most famous site on Wuding mountain, followed by the Spiral Spring.

The endlessly swirling spring water of Spiral Spring was said to extend life and cure diseases with just a mouthful for mortals.

Being the Crown Prince, Lin Xin entered under guard to check it and casually took a small bag to store in his Storage Bag and also took some to distribute to the others.

Such things had no effect on cultivators, but they were perfect for building good relations.

Other areas included the Princess’s Palace, Dharma Storage Hall, Deer Monarch Platform, among others, with the largest and most majestic being the palace used by True Monarch Huang Yuan when he came to rest—the Ape King Palace.

However, Lin Xin had yet to visit before he received news that was neither good nor bad.

The Demon Talisman Seed was not obtained.

The group returned to the Crown Prince’s Palace.

Shuang Chi Zi, responsible for this matter, blushed with embarrassment and bowed her head in shame.

"I truly did not anticipate this, I hope Your Highness will forgive me. It was my overconfidence..."

"With such a large territory, surely the sect couldn’t fail to find even one, right?" Lin Xin frowned.

"After some gathering, we found only six. And no matter what, we couldn’t find any more. These were from our own collection, intended to add variety to the Treasury," Shuang Chi Zi said in a low voice.

The other four Intent Level experts were Golden Core Cultivators. The first task Lin Xin assigned was to collect Demon Talisman Seeds, and they too returned to the hall somewhat shamefaced.

"We are incompetent, Your Highness. The first task you assigned, we could not accomplish. We truly are accountable to Your Highness’s trust."

Another male cultivator, Qing Tan Zi, said apologetically.

"What’s strange is that we often used to hear of people possessing Demon Talisman Seeds, but we didn’t expect that when we actually started to collect them, there were also others doing the same," stated the old man Huang Sha Ju Shi with a frown.

"Indeed." Huan Qinglian, also one of the five and with a cool temperament, spoke. Among the five, she appeared the coldest, not overly reverent towards Lin Xin nor too distant, just maintaining a simple subordinate-to-superior attitude.

"If Your Highness truly needs them urgently, you may issue a Crown Prince’s decree to mobilize the whole Sect to collect them. However, the Crown Prince’s decree can only be used once every ten years..." the old man Huang Sha Ju Shi solemnly said.

Lin Xin sat on the throne in the grand hall, hand propping his face, eyebrows slightly furrowed.

"Can you determine who else is collecting the Demon Talisman Seeds?"

"We have already found out," Huan Qinglian said calmly, "As the number of Demon Talisman Seeds collected was not large, in order to provide an explanation to Your Highness, we had already traced the clues earlier."

"Please elaborate." Lin Xin’s expression became slightly solemn. This person also collecting Demon Talisman Seeds had a significant chance of being another son of the nether palace like himself.

Ever since entering the nether palace, he had yet to encounter others of his kind in his own world. Now was a good opportunity to interact with other children of the nether palace.

Huan Qinglian seemed to have substantial authority among the group of five; upon her opening her mouth to speak, the rest listened intently.

At the inquiry, she lightly raised her hand.

Swish!

A pristine white lotus seed suddenly flew out, exploding mid-air between Lin Xin and the five others, turning into a soft white circular light screen.

Quickly, an item was displayed on it.

It was an invitation.

Purple-red in color, rectangular, with only a strange rune embossed on it.

The invitation suddenly flew out of the light screen, gently heading towards Lin Xin.

Lin Xin caught the invitation in hand, glanced at Huan Qinglian, who made a gesture of invitation and also began to explain.

"This was found in an abandoned room. The room was rented in my family’s Cultivation Tower, and when no one renewed the lease or claimed the items after it expired, we confirmed that the owner had either vanished or perished. Coincidentally, as Your Highness was collecting Demon Talisman Seeds, we found this among his belongings; it might be what Your Highness needs."

Lin Xin was slightly curious, gently unfolding the invitation.

Inside, there was only one line of text.

"Specially inviting Xia Haiji, Baihua City, Three Travelers Cave. Gather every hundred days." (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it at qidian.com, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)