"The One Emperor was the sole ruler of the colossal Empyrean dynasty a long time ago. His power was unrivalled, and I even think that it is way beyond the possibility of cultivation allowed in the Tian continent!" Elder Lin replied to Duan Li.
"Eh? You mean.. he is an immortal?" exclaimed Duan Li, feeling interested.
"That's not it. He called himself a Celestial and by the looks of it, he seemed to be stronger than the Immortals themselves, judging by how he disdained being called as an immortal by me before!" answered Elder Lin with a confident tone.
After all, he had personally experienced the might of the other party!
Hearing this, Duan Li cupped his chin and fell into a contemplation.
Celestial?
I think I've heard that somewhere before..
"Wait!!"
With widened eyes, Duan Li finally recalled.
If he was not mistaken, the first guardian of the Eternal Maze, Jing Zhianghu, told him something about people being called as 'Celestial' upon reaching a certain cultivation realm in the Nine Shackles of Mortality!
Specifically, once one unbounded themselves of the Sixth shackle and reached the Celestial Lord Realm state, they became known as a Celestial!
In Duan Li's mind, the Grand Immortal being worshipped by the nine guardians of the Eternal Maze should be someone of that level at least, because when they met after he subdued Queen Levy before, the other party felt like an ethereal existence!
That is unthinkable!
What is someone of that caliber doing in the Tian continent ruling a bunch of mortals for?
Duan Li couldn't imagine the level of power someone with that cultivation realm holds!
Perhaps, just a single finger from them would be enough to destroy the entire Tian continent a few times!
Although in that regard, it was now obvious how no one was able to beat the One Emperor back then!
"If this thing is really a danger to us all, the One Emperor would've destroyed it back then!" Elder Lin said.
"Hmm..." Duan Li pondered upon the latter's words.
That does make sense.. but..
"Or perhaps, he couldn't destroy it.." Duan Li said.
He just couldn't believe these monsters exist for anything else other than the apocalypse they would bring in the near future!
After a moment of thinking about it, Duan Li finally gave out a long sigh.
There must be a specific reason why even a Celestial did not destroy this giant crab..
Would finding the other eight Hermit Kings shed more clue to this?
I guess I could only find out then..
"Regardless, now that we know this thing is here, this place must be locked up at all cost!"
Elder Lin was silent for a while before nodding. "En! If things will go as you say your Excellency, then this place should be off limits! I will place several of my highest ranked undead desert monsters around to keep on a lookout!" he said and snapped his fingers together.
Wengg!!
On the ground, a huge black colored summoning runic formation appeared!
KREEEE!!
Slowly, four shadows of an elongated and bony monsters crawled out from the summoning formation, its aura suffocating the people around it!
"F-Fou.. four Skull Centipede Emperor?!" the crowd gasped in disbelief and terror!
Just a single one of these bastards had nearly killed them all despite ganging up on it, not to mention now four!
However, their shock didn't just stop there.
Instead, an even bigger monster came out with thicker bones and seemed metallic in nature!
What in the world...
Elder Lin chuckled seeing their agaped expression, "That is the Primordial Metal Centipede!"
Primordial Metal Centipede..
"Another extinct monster from the past..." Elder Cheng Chao remarked with a pale expression.
We definitely cannot afford to offend the Jiu Empire after this!
With such a servant at his disposal, the Imperial Overseer wouldn't even have to lift a finger to wreak havoc at the Doulou Empire!
Hais!
...
After locking the massive iron door shut and changing the lock to make it more complicated to open, Shen Murong, Wang Dong and Wei Wang told Duan Li about Zeng Jiangshi.
"What? Another member of the Dark Sect was here?" Duan Li was surprised and didn't expect to hear this kind of news.
"That's right, and we now know why your mother was trying to find her missing sister in such a flustered way without being able to tell you in advance!" Shen Murong replied with a grim voice.
After finally explaining all the details to Duan Li, there was a deep silence and tension in the air.
No one knew what Duan Li was thinking, much more so when his facial expression was hidden under his mask!
Needless to say, the silence was eery and made their skin cold down to their spine!
However, contrary to Shen Murong's previous assumption that Duan Li would ran amok and destroy half the Tian continent in his wake, Duan Li only gave out a single sentence in reply!
"I see." Duan Li said.
Despite the simplicity of this reply, everyone knew the real meaning behind it.
'I see.. so you have chosen death!' should be what Duan Li was trying to say just now!
Gulp!
"Do you guys know where his hideout could be?" Duan Li asked.
Elder Lin replied after giving it a thought, "He is a vampire, and the place he frequent to since back then that I know of is the Forest of Slumber due to how dark and damp that place is.."
"The Forest of Slumber?" Duan Li recalled that the Principal also mentioned the name of this place as the last place that his mother was seen going into!
If it is the place where vampires hang around, then the name does seem to fit..
"One of the forbidden zone in the Jiu Empire that connects to the outside border where he could slip past the border patrol anytime.. a perfect route to export kidnapped people to outside the empire!" Fei Longwei said.
He knew a little bit about the Forest of Slumber from his clan. Furthermore, the Dark Arts he was practicing has some relation to the place too.
After he told Duan Li the general direction to the entrance of the Forest of Slumber, Duan Li then created a teleportation portal.
Wengg!!
...
"For what purpose do you call us here?" a cold hearted voice questioned. This person wore the Dark Sect robe and his appearance was drenched with dried blood from top to bottom!
Furthermore, to add up to his distasteful and grotesque image even further, his bald head appeared like a cracked and dried up ground from drought while both of his eyes were devoid of pupils and was white entirely!
"You better have a good reason as I was in the middle of something before. If its worthless, I'll kill and dissect you now to make up for the lost time." another voice said. This person seemed to be hunched back and his appearance was also draped in black cloth entirely, which made discerning his face impossible.
Meanwhile, another figure was just standing still without talking, as if observing them silently. His pair of eyes was red in color with some specific pattern in it. If one happened to accidentally stare into his eyes, it was said that they will be trapped inside an eternal illusion and die!
All in all, there were only three people that came up after Zeng Jiangshi called them for an emergency meeting.
The well-renowned serial psychotic murderer, Chi Pisao, due to how he murdered countless people with nothing but an empty-handed stab using his hands, plucking out their still-beating heart directly!
He then gathered all the corpses together and performed a bizzare and demonic ritual to absorb their life force into him by eating raw the human hearts he collected!
The other was known to be obsessed with turning humans into his lifeless puppets. There were rumors about how he had already turned himself into a puppet too in order to live an eternal life.
His name was Muou Da.
The third person was considered to be the most odd out of them all. No one really know for sure on how did this person managed to join them. But one thing was for sure, that even they did not dare to stare directly into his eyes!
Apparently, his name was called Huan Jue!
"Damn the rest of those guys... did they suspect something?" Zeng Jiangshi cursed inwardly towards those that did not come.
"Well.. its actually like this.."
...
Hahaha I believe some descriptions of the characters in the end reminded you guys about certain individuals in a certain anime? :p If you like this novel, you can support it on my Patre0n by searching my name there, its up to chapter 416 already over there ;) Enjoy and thanks for reading!