Chapter 151 - 23: Trial of the Remnant Ruins?
When Zhang Deming arrived, Xue Su and another agent sized the two of them up. Their gazes then settled on Zhang Deming, as if in confirmation.
Zhang Deming’s face was currently obscured and indistinct, but no one commented on it.
Zhang Deming didn’t try to strike up a conversation either, merely exchanging a look with Xue Su.
The atmosphere was tense.
The nine people present were split into five groups.
Li Shifan and Zhang Deming formed one group; Xue Su and the other agent, a second.
Of the remaining five people, one was a lone individual who, like Zhang Deming, kept his face hidden.
The last four were split into two pairs. All five groups tacitly kept a certain distance from one another.
No one made any introductions during the brief silence.
It was Xue Su who finally broke the silence. "Alright, everyone’s here. Let’s get started."
At his words, the others exchanged glances and each took out a Command Token.
The five Command Tokens, now in close proximity, seemed to sense one another. The surface of each had become as transparent as water, revealing faint, blurry scenes beneath.
As the five token-bearers stepped closer to each other, the Command Tokens in their hands began to vibrate before abruptly flying from their grasp.
The five Command Tokens spun as they ascended, coming to a halt several meters above Falling Turtle Lake.
All eight of them stared intently as the Command Tokens spun faster and faster, eventually blurring into something resembling a Wind Wheel.
CLICK...
With a crisp click, the rapidly spinning objects came to an abrupt halt.
The five Command Tokens had vanished, replaced by a round, transparent mirror five or six inches in diameter floating in the air.
The instant they got a clear look at it, the mirror expanded dramatically, growing to be three or four meters across.
Right before their eyes, it drifted gently down onto the lake and settled into the surface, fitting as perfectly as an inlay.
The face of the mirror then swirled into a vortex, and it seemed as if the lake water beneath it was also being pulled into a slow rotation.
With that, all movement ceased.
The eight of them looked at one another, unsure of what to make of the situation.
On the lone wolf’s obscured face, only his eyes were clearly visible.
A glint appeared in his eyes as he abruptly announced, "Everyone, I’ll be going on ahead."
A Spirit Wind surged at his feet. As the others watched, he tapped his feet lightly on the surface of the lake a few times before leaping into the mirrored vortex.
He vanished into the mirror without causing so much as a ripple in the vortex.
"It seems this is the entrance," Xue Su remarked.
As he was speaking, two more people stepped forward. They nodded to the rest of the group, then quickly crossed the short expanse of water and leaped into the mirror.
Zhang Deming glanced at Xue Su, but didn’t offer any pre-arranged pleasantries. Instead, he spoke in a deliberately hoarse voice, "See you on the other side!"
Light Wings materialized at his heels. Tapping the surface of the lake, he drifted gently into the mirror and vanished in an instant.
Li Shifan, who was standing behind him, followed silently, his expression cold as he clutched his sword, not uttering a single word.
With Zhang Deming’s face obscured and the cold, wild, sword-clutching Li Shifan at his back, this master thespian, who treated life as his stage, had played their mysteriousness to the hilt.
The eight people entered the vortex one after another. The mirror remained for about fifteen minutes, then flickered twice and vanished in the blink of an eye.
Falling Turtle Lake was calm once more. All that remained was the thunderous roar of water, as if no one had ever come to this place.
...
After jumping through the entrance, Zhang Deming felt a brief moment of disorientation.
The instant he came to, before he could even get a clear look at his surroundings, he sensed an attack closing in fast from behind.
Although his Spiritual Shield was active, Zhang Deming still threw himself into a roll to dodge the attack.
His hands moved through the gestures of a Spell, and vines sprouted rapidly from the ground. They rose like striking snakes, coiling protectively around Zhang Deming.
Having done all this in the blink of an eye, Zhang Deming finally had a moment to take in his surroundings.
He was clearly no longer at the bottom of the lake, having been teleported to some unknown location.
He now stood in a dense grove of low-growing trees.
His attacker was an Advanced Apprentice-level Demon Beast.
It had a petite body, with fiery red fur on its back and a snow-white underbelly. Its legs were also fiery red, but the fur on its paws was white, creating a striking contrast.
It looked like a fox, except it had two tails. Its huge eyes gleamed with wisdom.
’A Two-Tailed Demon Fox?’
’Weren’t they nearly extinct in the Hengduan Mountain Range?’
’At least, they were on the verge of extinction in the outer and even the middle regions.’
’The main culprits were the Cultivators of the Celestial Spirit Sect’s Bloodline division.’
’And the root of this calamity was the unique nature of this Demon Fox’s Bloodline.’
’The Bloodline of the Two-Tailed Demon Fox isn’t particularly powerful, but it is very special.’
’On its own, the Two-Tailed Demon Fox Bloodline isn’t worth implanting.’
’But its Bloodline has a special property: it enables fusion and mutation.’
’If you fuse two different Bloodlines with the purified Bloodline of a Two-Tailed Demon Fox, the resulting Bloodline Technique will very likely retain the traits of both.’
’There is even a small chance that a third characteristic will emerge from the fusion.’
’For example, if you were to mix a Fire Element Bloodline with an Earth Element Bloodline, fuse them with the Two-Tailed Demon Fox Bloodline, and then condense a Bloodline Technique Rune...’
’...then you would very likely have both the corresponding Fire Element Technique and Earth Element Technique within a single Bloodline Rune.’
’If your luck is off the charts and a fusion mutation occurs, that Bloodline Rune could even possess a third characteristic, such as a Metal Element Technique.’