Chapter 1316: Chapter 495: Alchemist Secret Realm
Manager Liu was quite shocked at Zhou Xuan’s identity.
"It’s actually a true disciple of Wuwen Mountain, the Seventeenth Route... The people of Wuwen Mountain are not entirely dead, not entirely extinct."
Manager Liu seemed to be touched by something sad; he waved his hand, indicating the other pig-headed people to pay respects to Zhou Xuan.
The five of them knelt down on one knee, raising their butcher knives, and lamented: "We never thought that Mr. would actually be the hope of Wuwen Mountain, while we... are the shame of Wuwen Mountain."
"Why are you working for the Fire Sect?"
Zhou Xuan always felt that these five swordmen from Wuwen Mountain, appearing in this fire pit, had some hidden stories.
In the "Gui Hun Temple," his Perception couldn’t be released, unable to judge Manager Liu’s Incense Fire Level through his Sword Momentum.
But from the recent "Flowing Wind and Returning Snow," it was clear that these people’s incense weren’t those of three or four Incense disciples.
If they had five Incense Fire, in the great human world of Jing Country, where couldn’t they go? Why come to this ghastly place, to let the Fire Sect cut Dead People and refine Human Pills?
"After the disaster of Wuwen Mountain, the great swordmen were entirely slaughtered by the people dispatched from Earth Child, the remaining disciples, like us small roles, were all captured by the Fire Sect, and sent to various Big Fire Pits as Alchemy Workers."
Manager Liu pointed to his pig head mask and said: "This mask is the shackle that the Fire Sect put on us."
Zhou Xuan walked over slowly, tapping gently on Manager Liu’s forehead with his fingertip.
"Dong."
After a slight tremor in the mask, a buzzing sound of insect wings flapping emanated from the pig’s head bone cavity,
The sound was very shrill.
"What’s strange about this pig’s head?" Zhou Xuan asked.
"Mr., the bone cavity inside these pig heads we’re wearing contains a kind of insect reared by the Fire Sect, called ’Storage Fragrance Worm.’
Manager Liu, towards Zhou Xuan, had no hostility, even fully disclosed everything he knew, afraid of leaving out any detail.
"What is the function of the Storage Fragrance Worm?" Zhou Xuan asked again.
"This Storage Fragrance Worm can be seen as a container in insect form, to infuse the outside world’s Fragrance Souls and Fire Insects into it."
Manager Liu pointed to the knife in his hand and said, "Look at us, being able to use Incense Fire Divine Power and Wuwen Mountain’s Sword Momentum, relies on the incense stored in advance within these insects."
Only then did Zhou Xuan understand why he couldn’t use Incense Fire Divine Power in the Ancient Hall, but Manager Liu and others could.
"These insects are also our overseers; if our five brothers leave this space, these insects will explode on their own, blowing us to smithereens."
"They’re both the source of power for your divine skills and the iron shackles that imprison you."
Zhou Xuan nodded and said, "So, is the old man outside refining elixirs also from Wuwen Mountain?"
"He is not! He is an Alchemy Master from the Fire Sect, called Ning Bukong."
Just as Manager Liu was speaking Ning Bukong’s name, an elder’s voice floated into the cave.
"I’ve long heard the unbearable noise; if it weren’t for the elixirs outside being at a critical juncture, I would have come in long ago."
Ning Bukong said to Manager Liu and others: "You wretches from Wuwen Mountain, after refining elixirs here for so many years, still can’t refine loyalty to the Fire Sect?"
"All of you are sinners under the Heavenly Dome, it’s the Fire Sect that sheltered you; you not only don’t repent but become rebels, revealing the secret of ’Storage Fragrance Worm’ to outsiders?"
"So many years, even a piece of stone should have been warmed up."
Ning Bukong cursed while using the cigarette pipe in his hand to strike at Manager Liu, much like a slave owner whipping his slaves.
And Manager Liu, the former swordman, only dared to lower his head, enduring the beating and scolding.
Zhou Xuan couldn’t stand by idly; immediately, he used "Star Body" to strengthen his physique and threw a punch towards Ning Bukong,
However, his solid punch felt like it hit cotton, as Ning Bukong’s figure shattered like light and shadow.
In the cave, only his voice remained.
"Zhou Xuan? Mr.? A Wuwen Mountain descendant? I don’t care who you are, having entered the Ancient Hall, don’t expect to leave alive."
"The elixirs I’m refining here have to pay fifty percent of their potency to the Hall Master, which is not given in vain."
"Hall Master, kill this stranger who came out of nowhere."
Instantly, the entire Ancient Hall echoed with the sound of "ghostly cries," countless hands appeared out of thin air, reaching towards Zhou Xuan,
Zhou Xuan resisted the monstrous hands in the hall with Star Body, but those hands transformed into countless filaments, penetrating his defense like omnipresent threads, drilling into Zhou Xuan’s body.
Zhou Xuan felt his Life Force being absorbed.
At this point, he also recalled some scenes he observed from a height at the fire pit—the white vapor emitted from the fire tower used to refine elixirs would be absorbed by some invisible and intangible "people."
Now thinking back, those so-called "people" were the "Hall Master" Ning Bukong had mentioned, the true ruler in the Ancient Soul Returning Hall.
As for the absorbed white vapor, it was the "protection fee" Ning Bukong paid; once someone caused trouble in the Ancient Hall, the Hall Master would intervene to resolve it.
"Hall Master, kill this wretch! Kill this wretch!"
Ning Bukong, seeing more and more hands penetrating Zhou Xuan’s body, grew increasingly arrogant, his voice mixed with cruelty.
"Zhou Xuan, judging by your abilities, in the outside world you might be a big shot; but here in the Ancient Hall, even if you’re a dragon, you’ll have to coil up; if you’re a tiger, you’ll have to lie flat for us."
