The Old Gods

Chapter 822 Playing with Death

Lu Ran had never imagined that the process of capturing a soul would be so long!

"Left, right, up," he murmured to himself, suppressing his heart pounding as he dodged and weaved through the thousands of wind blades.

The faceless jade spirit before him was still closing in and merging into his eyes.

hurry up!

Hurry up!
The sound of wind blades tearing through the air from all directions made Lu Ran realize that another wave of wind blades was coming!

With a "whoosh," as the soul completely entered his eyes, Lu Ran's figure flashed away.

Just two or three seconds after he left, fine wind blades crisscrossed and intertwined! Let alone a living person like Lu Ran, even a small fly would probably be torn to pieces.

"Hehe." Lu Ran was panting heavily in the sky dozens of kilometers away.

He hadn't felt this thrilling in a long time.

As the saying goes, fortune favors the bold.

But this is way too risky!

That's no ordinary Flying Wind Token or Night Phantom Blade, but a blade from the ultimate move, North Wind Blades!

Lu Ran also absolutely did not believe that his defensive capabilities were comparable to those of the Faceless Jade Venerable Clan.
"[Emperor Wu, have you tasted it yet?]" Lu Ran asked in his mind as he calmed himself down.

"Refining in progress," Wu Xiao replied in a deep voice.

"This faceless jade deity has been hunting on the outskirts of the sacred mountain for a long time. Does it contain a lot of holy spirit energy?" Lu Ran asked.

In fact, during the process of capturing souls and entering their eyes, Lu Ran could also roughly sense the strength of the energy of the deceased souls.

"Yes." Wu Xiao indeed gave an affirmative answer. "If I get a few more souls of this quality, I'm sure I can advance."

Lu Ran: "."

I asked you to praise me!

You said you'd appreciate it if I told you to say thank you for cooking for me, Master.

You've already ordered food?

Lu Ran's gaze sharpened, fixing on another faceless jade spirit. A wave of "sword rain" had just swept through the area where the spirit was located.

This is the perfect time to take advantage of the situation!
"Whoosh~" Lu Ran didn't hesitate and his figure flashed again.

Although he was grumbling to himself, his body betrayed him.

What should we do then?
It's our own martial arts actor, so we should pamper him!
Thanks to Luo Shen's successful advancement yesterday, Lu Ran's mind stopped buzzing; otherwise, he would never have dared to venture into the battlefield.

During Lu Ran's desperate robbery, the Night Demon Clan surged forth like a tide, while the Faceless Jade Venerable retreated just as quickly.

After all, the Faceless Jade Venerable had no intention of engaging in a direct confrontation with the massive surprise attack from the North Wind-Night Phantom.

Thus, the chaotic battlefield gradually returned to calm.

Lu Ran was getting a little anxious!

With the wind blades present, he was worried; without them, he was even more troubled!

Lu Ran is indeed invisible, but he has a physical form. When he casts spells, there are fluctuations of divine power, and when he moves, he causes storms.

And the North Wind - Night Demon minions are best at listening to the sound of the wind!

Hurry! Faster!
Lu Ran frantically darted around the perimeter of the sacred mountain, extremely anxious, knowing that once the battlefield fell completely silent, he would have no cover.

Never underestimate how sensitive North Wind-Nightmare is to the wind!
"Om!!"

Suddenly, Lu Ran's mind went blank.

Just as he was eyeing his next target, having his cake and eating it too, the stone statue of Emperor Wu of the Heavenly Emperor in the garden suddenly began to tremble.

Lu Ran was overjoyed. After capturing the dead soul in front of him, he did not leave.

Who told him to see what was in the pot?

With a "whoosh," Lu Ran's figure flashed again, arriving behind a faceless jade statue.

Just then, a Night Phantom suddenly changed direction and rushed towards them.

Lu Ran's heart jumped into his throat.

broken!

You shouldn't eat from the pot
What did Xiao Yuanxi say again?

Anyone who thinks they'll "make one last job and then quit" is bound to get into trouble!
The Netherworld Horn in Nightshade's hand could clearly detect the location of the dead souls; otherwise, she wouldn't have made such a sharp 90-degree turn.

"Hiss," Nightshade, veiled in mysterious black gauze, let out an alluring hiss.

She stood a few meters in front of Lu Ran, her pale hand lifting the black veil, and placed the Netherworld Horn to her lips, beginning to play:

"Woo~~~"

Lu Ran: !!!
He gripped the Silent Night Blade tightly, hovering in mid-air with the help of the divine weapon, not daring to move.

Movement will stir up a ripple.

Teleport away?

That clearly tells the other side that there is an invisible entity secretly causing trouble on the field.

Lu Ran was caught in a dilemma, feeling quite uneasy!

The Netherworld Horn has begun to capture souls, attempting to imprison the Faceless Jade Venerable within its horn. However, the problem is that most of the Faceless Jade Venerable's souls have already entered the Sculpture Garden.

No one witnessed this bizarre and thrilling scene.

High in the sky, everything appears calm, except for the presence of the Night Demon.

However, in another dimension, Lu Ran and Youmingjiao are locked in a tug-of-war!
Lu Ran had already swallowed the upper half of the dead soul, and the Netherworld Horn continued to play, sucking onto the feet of the Faceless Jade Venerable.

"Woo!!"

Youmingjiao clearly sensed that something was wrong.

Without the Nightshade playing, it increased its volume on its own.

"Whoo~"

The soul of the Faceless Jade Venerable was broken at the ankle!
It was forcibly torn off by Lu Ran and the Netherworld Horn!
The vast majority of the dead souls were given to Lu Ran, who seized the initiative, leaving only a pair of feet, which were captured by the dark horn.

Hmm. So, the Netherworld Corner isn't a bad deal after all?
Lu Ran stared intently at Ye Mei in front of him, afraid that she would continue forward.

Fortunately, Nightshade picked up the Nether Horn and turned to head towards the sacred mountain, seemingly to report back.

so close!

Lu Ran remained motionless, deducing that the communication between Nightshade and Netherhorn wasn't going smoothly. Netherhorn, being an object-type demon, was indeed difficult to communicate with.

One side believes that the souls of the dead have been completely incorporated into the horn.

The other party couldn't quite explain it, only feeling that there were no more wandering spirits before them, and that they could stop casting the spell.
Only after Ye Mei's figure disappeared into the distance did Lu Ran teleport away.

The Sea-grade Shadow Flash allows him to teleport tens of thousands of meters at a time.

The Heavenly Grade · Shadow Flash increases the distance tenfold, allowing a single teleportation to reach a distance of 100,000 meters!
A full 100 kilometers!
Calling it short-distance teleportation is somewhat of a misnomer.

Lu Ran ran incredibly far!

If this were in the mortal realm, he would have slipped directly from the capital of the Great Xia Dynasty back to Rain Alley City.
As for the souls that Lu Ran snatched back, they were completely devoured by the Divine Sculpture Dust Shadow Flower.

He teleported several times, arrived at his stronghold, and disappeared into a large stone peak.

Then, Lu Ran activated the teleportation mirror.

Mount Holy Spirit is just one step away!

"call!!"

The moment Lu Ran stepped onto the edge of the sky, he swiftly dispersed the bronze mirror.

"Hehe." Only at this moment did Lu Ran dare to breathe heavily.

It's finally safe!
Isn’t this too exciting?

You can't do this again next time. This is only possible because it's a Netherworld Horn. If it were another soul-capturing race, such as the Prisoner Demon, the Soul-Splitting Demon, or the Soul-Hooking Demon, they would be able to clearly tell that the captured soul is not quite right!

That said, the Netherworld Horn only took away a pair of feet; with the soul so badly damaged, it would be difficult for it to exist normally.

Before Nightshade could even return to the sacred mountain, would the so-called souls in the horn vanish into thin air?
It's unknown what the mind of the Demon Netherworld Horn is like.

How did this kind of object-based demon reach such a height?
Lu Ran was very puzzled and even more curious about the origins of the object-type demons.

The demons like the Black Lantern and the Netherworld Horn generally have pitifully low intelligence; to put it bluntly, they are not even as smart as the little tabby cat!

Could they be...?
The black lantern's mortal enemy is the flower lantern.

The deity lantern is a human-shaped sculpture, holding an exquisite eight-sided lantern in its hand.

From this perspective, the evil god Black Lantern is more like the opposite of that eight-sided lantern.

Are black lanterns considered magical artifacts of the gods?
It wasn't even a complete magical artifact, but only half of one!

"Sect Master, is that you?" a trembling voice came.

Lu Ran looked up and, through the fog that obscured his view, saw several beautiful pheasants circling above the sea cliffs.

He must be a disciple of the Burning Gate's Heavenly Sparrow Pavilion.

"Continue patrolling." Lu Ran waved his hand, his figure flashing to the outside of Tianya Residence. He looked around, "Shadow Guard?"

"Master!"

"Master." Several figures immediately appeared in a flash.

Lu Ran found Yan Shuangzi among them and asked, "What's the date today?"

"The fourteenth day of the eleventh month."

Lu Ran nodded, muttering to himself, "It really took Xiao Ruyi quite a while to advance; it almost took a month."

From a time perspective, carrying out the mission near Mount Kailash was indeed very fruitful!
It took Lu Ran a month to train Deng Yuxiang to advance to the second level of the Heavenly Realm, while it only took him a little over half a month to train Luo Shenjiang and Wu Tiandi.

Especially today's battle at the sacred mountain, it really gave Lu Ran a good beating!

In this light, choosing to live in seclusion and cultivate oneself near the sacred mountain was indeed the right decision.

However, this "mountain of flowers" is by no means the most suitable place to live.

Whether it was the Ice Butterfly Clan with their extremely wide range of perception, or the powerful North Wind-Night Demon minions, they all gave Lu Ran a red flag.

Hmm. Going there occasionally to freeload is fine.

We should still look for the next sacred mountain.

As Lu Ran pondered this, he stepped into the tunnel entrance. Once in the hall, he released the three people from inside the gourd.

"Everyone," Lu Ran said, sitting in the armchair and recounting what he had just witnessed.

“Northern winds and night demons, ice butterflies and ice burials.” Bai Rao frowned slightly and speculated, “Xiao Lu should be in the north.”

Yan Chou nodded: "It is indeed in the north. Young Master, this kind of sacred mountain inhabited by demons and monsters is probably not suitable for your seclusion and cultivation."

“That’s what I was thinking too,” Lu Ran pondered. “I plan to search for other sacred mountains, but I need to find a way to go into one of them and see if any of my mother’s old subordinates from the Cloud Sea are there.”

Lu Ran is the pride of the Great Xia Dynasty; it would be unwise for him to willingly offer himself up to the gods and demons.

Yan and Bai were also powerless to help, as they were now "dead" and could not appear alive.

Deng Yuxiang said, "Shall I take the Cloud Sea Dust Clearing Sword and go for a stroll in the mountains?"

After a moment's hesitation, Lu Ran said, "Let's put this matter on hold for now."

Deng Yuxiang's hatred and murderous intent towards the Beifeng faction could be concealed by her magical artifact, the Smoke Green Gauze, but she was also young and promising.

Being three years older than Lu Ran does not rule out her suspicion.

On the contrary, the vast majority of the proud sons of summer are the same age as Deng Yuxiang!

Are Luo Ying and Wu Xiao suitable candidates for the mountain exploration?

Lu Ran pondered for a moment, then said first, "Everyone has worked hard. Rest at home for a few days and wait for the Martial Emperor to advance. I'll go to Hundred Demon Island first to nurture the Dust Shadow Stone Sculpture and bring Elder Lu in."

"Next time you go to space, you'll be able to act independently in small teams."

"Young Master, let this humble servant accompany you to find a suitable place to live in seclusion first."

Lu Ran interrupted, saying, "Now I have a general understanding of the situation on the Heavenly Realm battlefield, and acting alone is more covert and faster."

I've put you on the right track and done what I was supposed to do. What you need to do is grow as quickly as possible.

He raised his hand to cast a spell, his words unusually serious: "My Silent Night Blade may have clashed with the divine weapon domain of some god or demon, and I'm in a hurry!"

"Whoosh~" The bronze mirror in Lu Ran's hand transformed into a full-length mirror.

"Currently, I should not have been exposed. Whether I have been exposed or not, I don't want to wait for the other party to come looking for me!"
Lu Ran's gaze pierced through the white mist, looking at the people inside the room: "I want to grab a knife, lead my men, and take the initiative to storm their door!"

After saying that, he retreated into the mirror and disappeared without a trace.

The hall was silent. The three Celestial Realm beings, some standing and some kneeling, remained silent.

There is another chapter tonight.

(End of this chapter)