Chapter 230 - Aura Zombie
The headless zombie nonetheless walked a short distance before falling to the ground with a "putong" sound. Remaining there, it slowly transformed into a pile of white ashes in the flames.
Liu Ming raised his hand and beckoned at the pile of ash.
With a "sou" sound, a black steel plate flew out from the pile, hastily landing in his hand.
Liu Ming merely lowered his head and sized up the steel plate in his hand with a few glances. Then, with a jerk of his body, he flew back.
"Fellow, this Steel Zombie is..." The moment Liu Ming's two feet landed on the ground, the fat man dressed in black stammered out a few sentences.
But with a wave of his hand, Liu Ming cut the fat man off before he could finish his sentence and flung the steel plate towards him. He asked, face expressionless:
"Is this the instrument of which you had spoken about? If it is, then open the seal for me at once; I don't want to listen to any more of your nonsense.”
"Yes, it is the instrument that must be used to open the seal. I’ll go and undo the seal right now." Though Liu Ming didn’t mention the Steel Zombie that came from the coffin, the fat man dressed in black still trembled. Receiving the steel plate, he gave it a couple looks before rushed to respond, tripping over his words.
He immediately proceeded to the center of the cave. With one hand holding the steel plate high above his head, he opened his mouth and spit a ball of essence blood. With that, words began to pour from his mouth in a long recitation.
His incantation was strange - cryptic - but carried an indescribable rhythm.
With a "pu" sound, white light suddenly shot out from the ordinary-looking steel plate. The light grew brighter and brighter until it finally escaped from the fat man's grasp with a tremble and shot towards the top of the cave.
The white light flashed away and the steel plate disappeared into the top of the cave without another trace.
A moment later, countless white light symbols gushed from the top of the cave. They drizzled downwards and disappeared one-by-one into the cave’s floor without a trace.
After a muffled rumble from underground, the entire cave started to tremble slightly. A five-colored formation emerged from the ground. With just one turn, an extremely terrifying restrictive aura unfurled from it.
At the same time, the ground at the center of the formation disintegrated into countless tiny pieces and a large dark hole was formed. The faint whistles of ghouls sounded faintly from inside it.
“This is the entrance to the Aura Pit?” Liu Ming was looking at the dark hole and a glint of fire passed through his eyes as he spoke.
“Should be.” The fat man dressed in black was looking at the dark hole as well. A similar hint of excitement played across his face as he spoke.
“Alright then, in that case, you go ahead and enter it.” Liu Ming glanced at the fat man dressed in black and spoke.
“Fellow wishes for me to descend first?” Hearing these words, the fat man dressed in black’s face hardened slightly.
“What, were you thinking of having me go down first? Don’t worry, I will have the two of them go down with you.” Liu Ming’s eyebrows were raised as he spoke.
“Alright, I will go down first.” The fat man seemed to understand that he was utterly without recourse and forced his face into a smile.
As he cautiously neared the dark hole in the ground, he peeked out. After taking one look at the hole. He forced himself to dive in. The flying skull and bone scorpion also followed close behind.
After a short moment, Liu Ming, not sensing any danger occurring to the bone scorpion and flying skull, also flew into the dark hole.
The hole was not deep and Liu Ming arrived before another tunnel in only a couple breaths’ time.
However, aside from the small area controlled by the formation on which he had landed, everywhere else was full of dense dark smoke, which prevented one from seeing the cave clearly.
The fat man dressed in black, the flying skull and the bone scorpion were all waiting obediently at the center of the formation.
“This doesn’t remotely resemble Pure Aura Qi!” Liu Ming scanned the thick dark smoke surrounding the formation and spoke with brows raised.
“I know that this certainly is not. However, the Aura Pit is presumably somewhere nearby. Why don’t the four of us look for it!” The fat man dressed in black looked out at the dark smoke on all sides and spoke with some hesitation.
“Look around? Alright. You go ahead and step outside and try to find out what this dark smoke is and then we’ll talk.” Hearing the fat man’s words, Liu Ming laughed coldly as he responded.
“Fellow must be joking! This place has been outfitted with a restriction to block this dark smoke– they should be avoided from being in contact with.” An unrestricted expression of embarrassment showed on the fat man dressed in black’s face when he heard Liu Ming’s words.
However, at this moment, the dark smoke, which had previously appeared still, suddenly began to stir and began to flow in the same direction, congealing there.
A moment later, the dark smoke, originally having completely permeated the cavern, suddenly withdrew and concentrated at the top of a deep pit seven or eight meters in diameter not far from them.
Within the ball of dark smoke, a magnificent golden throne floated in the air. A figure sitting upon it and gradually raised its head to face Liu Ming’s direction.
His gaze was like lightning!
It was a thin, feeble youth clad from head to toe in a yellow robe. He also carried a silver sword at his waist. His face was very pale but his features were remarkably delicate. His face also carried a faint resemblance to that of the fat man dressed in black.
The ball of dark smoke, after rotating for only a few breaths’ time, completely disappeared into the youth’s body.
Seeing such a strange, spooky situation, Liu Ming unwittingly let out a cold breath.
But before he could decide how to respond, the fat man dressed in black, who had been standing obediently to the side the whole time, suddenly jumped up without warning and ran madly into the center of the large pit, at the same time yelling out:
“Your Prince Majesty, save me! I am your humble descendant! It is I who opened the seal and specially came to release you!”
While his body appeared to be quite large, he moved with unrivaled agility。 With a few leaps, he had impressively arrived within a few meters of the large pit.
Seeing this, Liu Ming’s face darkened.
With a strange laugh, the flying skull, which remained by his side, nodded abruptly.
The strand of long hair which remained tightly connected to the fat man dressed in black’s body was instantly pulled taunt.
With a “pu” sound, the fat man dressed in black’s heart to which one end of the strand of long hair was attached, was shattered in one pull. This caused him to yell out in pain before producing a ball of blood from his open mouth.
But, after stumbling about for a moment, he returned to his normal state and continued to leap around as before.
Seeing this, Liu Ming couldn’t help but stare, mouth agape, in shock.
“Ha ha, child, you couldn’t have imagined this. I actually have two hearts. The mystery and power of Beast Transformation Technique is not something that you can imagine. You restricted no more than a grafted monster heart, and I had switched it with my own heart long ago. My main reason for coming here this time was not for the buried treasures of our ancestors, but rather to release the prince who has been here for a thousand years.” With a jerk, the fat man dressed in black jumped into the air just in front of the golden throne before turning his body and speaking with a loud, smug laugh in Liu Ming’s direction.
Hearing this, Liu Ming’s complexion turned ugly.
But right at this moment, the fat man dressed in black suddenly let out a cry of pain. An emaciated hand pierced through his chest from his other side, a faintly beating fresh red heart clutched in its fingers.
“How can this be, ancestor? You….” The fat man dressed in black couldn’t believe his eyes, but he labored to turn his head around. Behind him was only the thin, feeble youth and no one else.
The one who had pierced through his heart was indeed none other than the youth who sat on the golden throne.
“Are you aware that you have committed two wrongs?” The corners of the youth’s mouth twitched and formed a very strange expression.
“You…” Eyes wide, the fat man dressed in black felt the energy throughout his body quickly elapsing and spoke only a single word, unable to say more.
The thin, feeble youth continued to speak unhurriedly:
“First of all, under no circumstances should you be nearly this close to me. Do you know how many years it’s been since this body has tasted fresh blood? Even if it were my own son standing so close to me, I would slowly devour him bite by bite. Second, I am certainly not the ancestor of whom you speak. This body’s original owner, that so-called prince of a dynasty past, went crazy and killed himself a thousand plus years ago due to extreme loneliness. I am merely the new owner of this body, who was born later. Of course, I have absorbed a few figments of that royal prince’s memory. However, as you have exerted so much bitter effort to open the seal, I will have you die a quick death; otherwise, I would naturally have to consume you bit by bit, as fresh meat is tastiest when enjoyed in this way.”
As the youth spoke this last sentence, his fingers suddenly clenched together, breaking the fat man’s heart into pieces. He then raised his arms abruptly, grabbed the fat man dressed in black around the waist in one motion and placed the fat man on his knee before lowering his head and biting into the fat man’s neck, sucking in his blood voraciously.
Seeing this, Liu Ming’s facial expression changed several times. Suddenly, with a jerk of his body, he soared into the air and flew towards the opening through which he had entered the pit.
There was a “peng” sound.
As soon as he had neared the entrance, a black light barrier suddenly materialized in front of him.
“Don’t waste your energy. Unless I leave here first, this place will automatically seal itself off. Of course, given your strength, breaking through this barrier will not take you long, but that would also require me to allow you that amount of time.” The thin, feeble youth finally wiped away the blood dripping from his mouth, exposing two enormous fangs which he bared at Liu Ming as he casually spoke to him.
“Are you a zombie?” Liu Ming’s face was quite dark but he glanced at the center of the large pit which appeared to be of an endless depth and spoke slowly.
At the same time, he slashed at the air in front of him with the light green sword he carried in one hand and after a “ding dang” sound rang out from his other sleeve, a silver chain flew out from it and began to slowly wrap itself around his body.
The long hair on the flying head started to rise as its eyes started to flash silver. the white bone scorpion bowed lower and its tail started to wobble unsteadily.
“Aura Zombie! Yes, this body of mine certainly counts as one. That year, my body was destroyed by my archenemy and my remaining soul was sealed off with this Aura Pit. I never thought I would see the day that I could escape and I certainly never imagined that there would be someone who would activate this Aura Pit once again. In addition, they would send me an Aura Zombie body so obediently. Hah! It looks like the heavens have not forsaken me after all!” Hearing the words spoken, the thin, feeble youth suddenly smiled like a madman.