Chapter 998: Chapter 997 Witch Queen’s Words_1
The hundred-zhang-tall statue of the Witch Queen stands as the symbol of the entire Witch Queen Temple. Within a fifty-zhang radius, no one is allowed to approach.
However, today, under the solemn and solemn chanting of nearly a hundred Witch Heavenly Guards, and accompanied by the five Great Witch Servants, Shi Xiaole, clad in black and with a slender figure, confidently circled around the statue, approaching the gigantic stone door he had once neared.
Ten zhang from the stone door, the five Great Witch Servants came to a halt, shock flashing across their faces.
There, they felt a terrifying pressure. It seemed that one more step would cause them to be crushed into a pile of flesh by this force.
In contrast, Shi Xiaole, with a harmonious blend of eighty percent witch blood and a certain aura, ignored this pressure, allowing him to continue forward.
"Sixth Witch Servant, the next part is up to you. Please be careful. If the situation becomes impossible, you must find a way to protect yourself."
The Great Witch Servant instructed from behind.
"Thank you, I understand," Shi Xiaole responded without turning back, and couldn’t help but smirk when he noticed that the array on the surface of the stone door had been concealed.
Standing in place, he extended a finger, forcing out a drop of the Witch Ancestor’s blood, which floated above his fingertip. In that instant, the entire Witch Queen Temple shook, emitting a strange sound.
"What’s going on?"
In the imperial study, Xia Xiaonine looked up towards the back of the palace, while the expression of the chief eunuch, Tong Shi, who was beside him, flickered with a hint of terror.
In the Min family’s garden, Min Yunshu swiftly moved next to Min Tianliang, his voice extremely somber, "The Witch Queen’s disk in the clan has shown changes. Someone... has condensed the blood of the Witch Ancestor."
Bang!
Energy rippled out. Min Tianliang couldn’t even retrieve it in time and just stared blankly in the direction of the Daxia imperial palace.
Recently, the news that Shi Xiaole had become the Sixth Witch Servant had left him dizzy, and now, learning of this, the first thought in his mind was still the silhouette looming over his head.
That his father Min Yunshu did not go to gather news also proved his own guess.
In the silence, Min Yunshu suddenly burst into laughter.
"Father, what are you laughing at?"
"I’m laughing at that kid, who is oblivious to his impending doom," Min Yunshu whispered, and moments later, Min Tianliang exclaimed, "Is this really true?"
"It’s absolutely true."
Indeed, the Witch Heavenly Guards stand above the royal family and the Ancestral Temple, but it just so happens that a portion of them come from the royal family and the Ancestral Temple, a connection that can’t be severed. The Witch Queen Temple also needs this connection.
Coincidentally, one of the confidants of the third Witch Servant was an elder from the Min family who had revealed some inside information to Min Yunshu a few days ago, shocking and delighting the master of the Ancestral Temple.
"Too much is as bad as too little! If Kirin hadn’t gotten involved in these muddy waters, I believe he would have been a formidable rival to my son, a brilliant figure even in a grand era. Unfortunately, the grand era has just begun, and some are destined to fall," said Min Yunshu, his face bearing a sneer as he talked lightly, "My son, you must remember one thing: only those of small mind concern themselves with short-term success or failure. Of the countless generations of heroes of the past, which one did not experience setbacks? Those who truly dominated their peers and enjoyed smooth sailing are few and far between at the pinnacle of power."
"Yes, father, I have learned," Min Tianliang replied with his head lowered, his heart somewhat complex. But as his father said, a person destined to die couldn’t matter less, no matter how stunning they were in life. Years later, who would remember?
A dead person will never win against the living.
Kirin, may your journey be smooth!
...
Shi Xiaole was somewhat nervous. If he couldn’t open the stone door, his only option would be to use the Array System to escape. Although his life would not be in danger, it would mean all his efforts up to this point were meaningless, which was not what he wanted to see.
But soon, as the Witch Ancestor’s blood merged into the door, the stone door began to shed its dust with a purring sound, and with a booming noise, it cracked open just wide enough for one person to pass through.
The five Great Witch Servants behind him breathed heavily, their faces reddening.
Especially the Great Witch Servant, completely losing his composure, wished he could take Shi Xiaole’s place. The remains of his reason forced him to calm down with difficulty, he shouted, "Opportunity knocks but once, Sixth Witch Servant, quickly go in!"
Without needing to be told, Shi Xiaole had already darted inside because the Demon Bone inside him was violently struggling, as if urging him on.
Another loud noise and the stone door closed once again, restoring peace to the Witch Queen Temple.
"Great Witch Servant, could there be any problems?"
All things were moving in the predetermined direction. Next, if Kirin were to die, there would be nothing more to say; if he were to return successful, then the Witch Queen Temple would undoubtedly undergo a huge change!
The fourth Witch Servant had thought through all aspects, certain there was no error. His question seemed less of a doubt and more like an anticipation and longing for the future.
"Success is planned by men and decreed by heaven, rest assured, heaven will not let down our years of effort," the Great Witch Servant calmly said, forcibly maintaining composure.
"Hahaha..."
All of them burst into loud laughter.
Behind the stone door, there was no passage. With just one step, Shi Xiaole found himself in the midst of a hilly landscape.
In the distance lay layers of mountains, rolling and undulating, with dense, shady forests and the faint sound of flowing water.
Around him, circular stone walls soared dozens of feet high. In front of him was a small pond, where black strange fish, water snakes, and turtles swam about now and then.
As he approached, the agitation of the Crystal Demon Bone increased tenfold compared to before.
Wanting to understand the layout of his surroundings, Shi Xiaole suppressed the impulse and dashed outward with all his might.
With his current speed, a mere quarter of an hour would be enough to cross millions of miles, but even after two 2-hour periods, he still could not leave this place.
Moreover, he discovered that there were hardly any tall mountains in this land; mostly hills and forests, and the climate was extremely humid and hot.
Along the way, countless venomous insects and strange birds lurked in the woods, with some areas shrouded in vast swathes of miasma capable of poisoning even a Dragon Gate Realm Lord.
"This place, how is it similar to Miaojiang region? Witch Queen, Witch Queen, could it be she is related to the land of Miaojiang?"
Shi Xiaole was shocked.
In the present world, there’s a saying of "one sea and a half land," where the one sea refers to the depths of the South Sea. The half land refers to the land of Miaojiang, both universally recognized by the Martial World as the most mysterious and forbidden territories.
In fact, there was a rumor that the founder of the Shu Tang Sect of the Flying Horse Dynasty was from Miaojiang, possibly belonging to a branch of one of the major races of Miaojiang, showing how terrifying the power of Miaojiang could be.
"No, that’s not right!"
All of a sudden, Shi Xiaole flinched. He closed his eyes, maintained a guarded and focused state, and when he opened them again, he was back within the original stone walls, with the distant green mountains as before.
"So this was merely an illusion created by the Witch Queen. She almost fooled me. The Witch Queen of those times must have been a peak Martial Emperor in terms of her accomplishments on the Spiritual Path!"
What is a peak Martial Emperor?
That is, a Forbidden Martial Emperor!
In the current age, even Heaven Realm Martial Emperors are rare, and Forbidden Martial Emperors are legendary figures. Among the people Shi Xiaole had seen and heard of, perhaps only that blue-clothed man suspected to be Shi Xuanzhong and the elder without origin, had stepped into this realm.
Shi Xiaole suppressed the agitation of the Crystal Demon Bone, skirted around the pond, and after another assessment, finally discovered the hidden Array System within the stone walls. Following the flaws, he quickly entered an array within an array.
The space here was only a few hundred square meters large, the stone walls were square, and Shi Xiaole first took notice of the mural on the eastern side.
"This..."
He froze in place.
Because the woman in the painting had been seen by Shi Xiaole before—in the Divine Transformation Tree Hollow under the city of Divine Transformation, there was just such a sculpture with a face identical to this.
It was also there that Shi Xiaole came to realize that a man was secretly concocting a herb that could deprive all martial artists of their abilities, swearing to take revenge for the woman the sculpture represented.
Could it be that the Witch Queen was connected to that woman?
However, according to that man’s description, he had only left the city of Divine Transformation for a few decades, making the possibility of him intersecting with the Witch Queen quite unlikely.
Shaking his head, Shi Xiaole put aside his doubts and turned his gaze to the text carved next to the mural on the stone wall.
"We have all been deceived!"
The first sentence that met his eyes was filled with sorrow, anger, and even a formless force tinged with towering killing intent. It rushed madly at Shi Xiaole, and before he could react, he spat out a mouthful of blood and slammed against another stone wall.
One could guess this was inscribed by the Witch Queen herself, but because it was imbued with her will, after an unknown number of years, just by touching upon it, it had injured Shi Xiaole, who had the strength of an Earthly Realm Martial Emperor.
How powerful was that?
"Dao Jisheng, this deceitful villain, he used the catastrophe of the common people as a lure to set up a shocking plot. He made the experts of my East Victory Continent suffer heavy casualties, yet he would sit calmly on the wall and benefit like the fisherman. They all fell one by one, the Ancestor Tianyu, the Boundless Sword Emperor... The Boundless Sword Emperor sacrificed himself to let me escape, but my lifeblood is dried up, my soul darkened, and my life is soon to end."
"Regrettably, my East Victory has fallen, but how can I bear to see my homeland occupied by Outer Heaven Demons. I have no more strength and only hope to leave a bit of opportunity for the later generations, offering the last bit of my effort..."
The despair and pain in the words seemed right before him, and Shi Xiaole felt as if he could see a remarkable woman, who should have stood tall between heaven and earth, being betrayed and struck repeatedly by enemies, dragging her heavily wounded body back here and carving her last words.
A lifetime of pride and brilliance, fading away into loneliness and desolation—who could pity her?
Based on the Witch Queen’s message, the events she experienced must have occurred before the formation of the Golden Abyss Alliance, perhaps even earlier than imagined, long before the Daxia Dynasty had even come into existence.
No wonder, the heritage of the Witch Queen’s temple was so terrifying; it was probably one of the oldest forces in the Martial World!
Standing still and silent for quite some time, Shi Xiaole sighed and stepped out of the place, moving to the edge of the pond, and with a leap, he dove into it.
At the bottom of the pond, three items were suspended.
On the left was a three-inch-long black command arrow, the Witch God Order. Originally, aside from establishing the Witch Queen Temple, the Witch Queen had also formed an even more secretive force in Miaojiang. With this arrow, one could command battles.
In the middle was a book; this was the true "Wizard Scroll."
Because she feared that later generations might not have the aptitude and could stray off the path, the Witch Queen kept a backup. The "Wizard Scroll" that existed in the outside world could only be cultivated up to the eighth level, which explained why Shi Xiaole had not made any progress before.
On the right was a Witch God Pill, a condensation of the Witch Queen’s entire lifeblood and essence. As long as one swallowed this pill, there was a chance to reach the realm once attained by the Witch Queen.
