Apotheosis

"That clue should be right. Come on!" one of the human Souls of Light called out.

"But if it is, that'll prove the Ear Mice are wrong, won't it?" said the human girl.

Her brother nodded. "Yes. The Ear Mice want to use that corporeal body to destroy the wall, but it'll be a disaster—you can't even imagine."

"Will they all die? But what about the corporeal body?" the girl then eagerly asked.

"He will die too," said the little girl's brother without so much as a change in tone.

At that, the human girl's face sank.

When she heard the man mention the Nine Li race, something pinched her heart—she had a feeling he had something to do with them.

It was a pity to realize he would die in the Grand Sky Temple.

"Should I warn him?" she suggested.

But her brother only sneered. "Would he even believe our words? How are we going to explain where this clue came from? Tell him we're descendants of the Nine Li race and expose all our identities?"

That shut her up.

After the Nine Li race suffered the massacre, they all went into hiding.

Although they had finally settled down after all those years, they still had to live with great caution.

On the Other Shore, it was relatively easy for them to keep their identities secret, allowing them to cultivate without worry. But once one of them was exposed, they would all be put in danger.

As the group advanced, they drew peculiar patterns along the passageway.

Although some of the monsters there had been eliminated by the warriors ahead, they were still moving all too slowly. It was a while before a faint cyan light appeared before them.

Several fist-sized ghosts then emerged from both sides of the passageway.

As they were in the seventh passageway, which was considered the simplest one, the cyan ghosts were not to be trifled with.

Many other Souls of Light had been extinguished by these cyan ghosts in that particular passageway. The survivors had to fight for their lives just to get through.

"Crack..."

A group of bees flew right at those Nine

h the door and took out the three jade stones. With that, the gate closed with a cracking sound as it sunk into the wall, leaving no trace.

After leaving the 19th passageway, Zen and Dorothy found themselves walking down a row of stairs.

At this point, they had reached the middle of the Grand Sky Temple. An open, wide courtyard came into view, where a variety of Other Shore plants were growing. A huge willow in the middle of it drew their attention instantly.

"What are they doing?" Zen examined the willow and asked curiously.

Hundreds of branches hung from the willow—at the end of each was a non-human Soul of Light, greedily sucking on it.

"They are sucking on the essence of the holy willow," whispered an Ear Mouse.

Before something went wrong in the Dark Region, one of the reason why the Souls of Light on the Other Shore came to the Grand Sky Temple was for the willow.

The effect of the holy willow's essence was similar to that of the soul crystal, probably even better.

The Souls of Light from different races rushed through the passageways just to claim a branch to gain the essence from—it was a limited resource.

All the Souls of Light that failed to take up a branch were wandering around in the courtyard instead. Certain rare plants could make for special Other Shore Tokens—if they were lucky, they could nab something.