A Will Eternal

As the ghost hand moved forward, the air around it distorted, causing everything near Bai Xiaochun to be completely locked down. Bai Xiaochun couldn’t escape any more easily than he could have escaped from a locked cage!

Because of the profound sensation of crisis, his eyes were completely bloodshot, and blue veins even began to bulge out on his face and neck. Just when the hand was about to grab him, though, he roared and called deeply upon his Undying Hex.

He took a step forward, causing his body to suddenly begin to turn blurry. By the time his foot landed, he had suddenly vanished!

A boom rang out as the shocking ghost hand closed around the space Bai Xiaochun had just occupied, and yet, grabbed nothing but air.

An enraged roar filled the pit, a roar so loud that it broke through the spell formations, causing everything to tremble and attracting the attention of numerous people in the area.

Meanwhile, only about five hundred meters beyond the entrance, Bai Xiaochun appeared, staggering forward, coughing up numerous mouthfuls of blood, his face ashen.

Shockingly, his back was also bloodied, and five long wounds had been scraped down it!

It looked the type of serious injury that could even damage internal organs. Thankfully, Bai Xiaochun had a very powerful fleshly body, and thus managed to hold himself together. Blood was oozing out of his mouth, and his heart was pounding with lingering fear, and yet he didn’t even pause for a moment before speeding off.

Even as he shot out of the strange mountains, a black pillar of light rumbled up into the sky behind him, creating a shockwave that rolled out in all directions.

The natural restrictive spells in the area were all smashed by the powerful energy shooting out from the pit, and were completely destroyed.

Bai Xiaochun was scared out of his mind, and was fleeing for his life through the wild terrain, heart pounding as he focused solely on getting back to the Great Wall.

“I'm finished. Kaput. I got too greedy, didn’t I, and summoned something big…?” Feeling very dismayed that he had brought about such a catastrophe, he pushed forward with greater speed.

Meanwhile, many savages and soul cultivators near the pit could see what was happening, and looked over in astonishment.

“What’s going on!?”

“Those fluctuations are unbelievable!” Even as they cried out in surprise, they began to head in the direction of the pit to investigate.

Thankfully for them, after the black pillar of light shot up and destroyed the spell formations and natural restrictive spells, the enormous ghost hand didn’t appear again.

Therefore, they weren’t in any extreme danger, and in fact, after they arrived at the pit and peered down inside, some of them flew in to look around more.

The forces in Great Wall City also noticed the black pillar of light. Chen Hetian stepped out of the huge pagoda, and looked at the black pillar and its incredible fluctuations, a very serious expression on his face.

“Send someone to investigate,” he ordered. “Find out what that is!” Even as he passed down orders, Bai Lin saw the black pillar and sensed its fluctuations.

Further out in the Wildlands, on the plain with the encampment of hundreds of savage tribes, a large tent could be seen in the middle of the camp. Seated inside that tent was a young woman in a long red robe, who was none other than Mistress Red-Dust. Suddenly, her eyes opened, and she looked up into the sky at the pillar of light.

“Could that be...?” After a moment of hesitation, she passed down orders for people to go investigate.

Even as the two major forces sent people to look into the situation, two figures could be seen standing in the mountains a few kilometers away. One was a young man, the other a young woman, and they appeared to be in sore straits. Their clothing was ripped and torn, and haunted expressions could be seen in their eyes, the type that would leave anyone who saw them shaken. They almost looked like wild beasts.

There was nothing about these two that indicated they were cultivators. They had soul fluctuations rippling off of them, and also possessed shockingly murderous auras.

The young man seemed cold and proud, while the young woman was extremely beautiful. Both of them had clearly been injured fairly recently. Although their injuries had healed, the evidence of their presence was clear; apparently, these two had fought numerous bloody battles.

This young man and woman were none other than Zhao Tianjiao and Chen Yueshan!

After leaving the Great Wall years ago, they had begun to travel about in the Wildlands. They had fought many battles, and even built up a small team composed of other cultivators from the Great Wall whom they had encountered during their travels. However, at this point, everyone else was dead, leaving them as the sole survivors. They had gone through what was essentially a baptism of blood, leaving them completely reborn inside and out.

In the past, there had been something tender and immature about them, but that was long gone now. Instead, they were completely composed and cold-looking!

“We need to get back to the Great Wall as quickly as possible....” Zhao Tianjiao said. “I already sent a message to Master. Once we get back, we can spend the rest of our time as members of the five legions.” He chuckled, causing the scar that ran from the right corner of his mouth to his ear to twist in ferocious fashion.

Chen Yueshan seemed slightly distressed as she stood there next to Zhao Tianjiao. In response to his words, she looked over at him and nodded, her gaze lingering on his scar. He had earned that scar in battle when he had saved her from a dangerous necromancer.

The mere thought of the bitterness of that battle left her heart thumping with fear. Thankfully, their training outside the wall had resulted in injuries, and yet had resulted in them finding a deva beast soul!

Just as they were about to head back to the Great Wall, they saw a shocking black pillar of light shooting up into the air off in the distance. After some discussion about the matter, Zhao Tianjiao sent a message to his master Chen Hetian asking for instructions about what to do. After word came back, they began to head, not toward the Great Wall, but toward the black pillar.

Thanks to the black pillar of light, both the Wildlands and the Great Wall were sending people to investigate the situation.

Meanwhile, Bai Xiaochun was speeding along at top speed, his face ashen. Eventually, he caught sight of the Great Wall, whereupon he gritted his teeth and yet again called upon the Undying Hex to pass inside.

After coughing up some blood, he staggered back into his residence in his command center, whereupon he fell over, unconscious.

Three days later, he woke up and struggled into a cross-legged position. After examining himself, he found that his five yin organs and six yang organs were all in extreme pain, and his cultivation base was in total chaos.

“That ghost hand was absolutely horrifying,” he thought. “And it didn’t even grab me, just graze my back....” When he thought back to everything that had occurred, the fear in his heart continued to eat away at him. Of course, he also knew that one of the reasons he was so hurt was because he had used the Undying Hex to pierce through the air and get past multiple spell formations.

Whether it was the natural restrictive spells from the mountains, or the Great Wall’s spell formation, piercing through the air to get past them was very harmful to him.

Thankfully, his Undying Live Forever Technique was very powerful, and was able to sustain such stress. Normally speaking, even a Nascent Soul cultivator would hardly be able to accomplish what he had accomplished.

Another upside to the situation was that Bai Xiaochun’s regenerative powers vastly exceeded those of normal people. In combination with all of the medicinal pills he had at his disposal, it only took him about seven days to be almost completely recovered.

During that time, he didn’t dare to go out. As he pondered the ghost hand, the black pillar of light, the destruction of the necropolis, and the enormous, 300,000-meter crocodile skeleton, he came to the conclusion that the pit definitely harbored some monumental secret!

Then he thought about how he was the one responsible for everything that had occurred, and it struck him with even more fear. At the same time, he felt wronged.

“It’s not like I did it on purpose....” he thought, sighing. After all, he had only been trying to get his hands on some souls.

During his period of recovery, he continued to get reports from Zhao Long and the rest of his regiment. That was how he learned that both Great Wall City and the Wildlands had taken the matter of the black pillar of light very seriously. In fact, quite a few people had entered the pit to explore the area.

Unfortunately, there was no other news than that.

Another half a month went by, during which time bits of news continued to trickle in. Considering that Bai Xiaochun was only a colonel, he didn’t have access to very many details. Therefore, he went to Bai Lin to ask for more information. Apparently, quite a few people had been sent to gather intelligence, and although there had been some conflicts with the Wildlands forces, they were still able to send back some useful information. Supposedly, there was a big necropolis in the area where the beam of light had originated. When Bai Xiaochun heard that, he felt a bit more at ease.

“I guess I just opened a necropolis, that’s all,” he said to comfort himself. Looking out at the quiet streets in the city, he rubbed his bag of holding, and his eyes began to shine. “Well, the whole reason I went through all of that was to become a major general. I think now the time has come to finish the job!”