Quest Maker of Soul Land

Sorry for such a slow pace. Thr construction of roof is already completed but my family wants to renovate the ground floor a bit too since it is a level below the road outside and I've come down with the same throat infection again. At this point I just fell it's an allergic reaction to something I eat so gonna get to the doctor tomorrow.

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The Slaughter Arena was surely the center of the Slaughter City but the most revered location of the city happened to be a castle in the distance with droves of dread knights and a Titled Douluo level Dread Knight guardian the location and maintaining order. The mysterious Slaughter King had somehow gained the ability to allow his subordinates to use their spirit abilities and even had a Titled Douluo level guard hooked. Redstar also explained that Slaughter King was not a speck lower in strength when compared to Qian Daoliu. This made Slaughter Palace a location full of suicidal ideas for Ja Sun that he kept suppressed.

Even his trait seemed to affirm his caution as no mission could be formed in trying to deal with Slaughter King that justified Redstar's own dread towards such an entity.

Within Slaughter Palace constructed from pitch-black materials reminiscent of cobblestones, there was a throne room with lustrous black floor and ceiling. A large, ruby red chandelier basked the space of the throne in an eerie red glow.

In the center was built a raised platform to set an overbearing throne made of blood-red crystals with a skull-shaped headrest on the top and on it could be seen a man in crimson armor and long red hair cascading over his broad shoulders. In terms of defining features, this man looked similar to Redstar. Ja Sun might even conclude that Redstar was this figure's sibling or a bastard. But there was an aura of senseless sadism that revolved around the figure.

Redstar had a malevolent aura, sure. Ja Sun felt it. He was visibly excited by it since it meant a strong mission just waiting to be completed. But the figure in the throne leisurely drinking viscous red liquid from a crystal glass and having a dazed expression was simply on a different level. While Redstar purposely kept a sense of malice around him, this figure did not even try.

If this figure was a woman, Ja Sun would be undoubtedly aroused. The sheer pain that this figure could induce was something Ja Sun surely hadn't experienced and it would have made him shiver in excitement.

The Slaughter King is the only title this figure is known for. His pale skin in contrast with his pure red eyes made his visage chilling.

At this moment, the blood in his crystal glass trembled momentarily. Still dazed, even revealing a momentary look of struggle through his eyes, the figure did not take any notice of this change.

*Weng*

*Weng*

Soon, the blood in his glass heated and began trembling. It splashed and when the first drop of blood touched the man's finger, his expression suddenly changed. Hurriedly chugging down the glass, the man snapped his head 180° and looked in the direction of the Slaughter Arena only for a furious and bestial howl to escape his lips.

"Stop!"

A crimson sword materialized before him but it was too late. The giant vortex of blood expanded. It left every structure untouched. In fact, it dissolved everything— decorations, men, and women— aside from the original structure of the Slaughter City. Dread Knights, too, were unable to do anything, and suddenly, the blood-red sword that seemed to obey the man trembled and shot forward. It stabbed the man's chest and kept him rooted on his seat but the Slaughter King's expression only revealed annoyance.

He hurriedly expanded a bloody red ring of light and silently closed his eyes as if slumbering. A totem of a crimson bat appeared on his forehead while fleshy wings tore from his back and covered his body.

---

"Hmm, this should clean the city for the arrival of new visitors," Ja Sun hummed thoughtfully as he looked around. He was standing on a small circular platform with only a thin road ahead and nothing but a deep abyss around him. Not far away from him, Xie Xan remained unconscious.

Ja Sun didn't hurry to wake him up.

Originally, the only way to leave the city was through winning hundred matched in Slaughter Arena. This was the rule. But Ja Sun's skill-set allowed him to be the rule maker instead and he tweaked without feeling the slightest bit hesitant. Ja Sun knew fully well that this would make him a target of Slaughter King but the moment the Blood-red vortex sweeps out, the entire city would be locked. The city was built on spatial arrays and Ja Sun simply had to nudge the encompassing spatial lock again.

Right now, he was contemplating his next move.

Of course, it was obvious that they had to leave but Ja Sun had felt many things underground— this location itself.

Peeking down from the edge of the platform, Ja Sun saw nothing but darkness. However, he felt the sheer amount of impure killing intent being refined into slaughter energy that filled the sea of blood within and gave it a lava-like 'glow.'

"Ugh..." Xie Xan rubbed his head while sitting up with a groan.

Taking a few seconds to recollect himself, Xie Xan observed his surroundings and stood up. He gazed at Ja Sun before looking down from the platform, revealing a look of disgust, "The density has increased... Though, it's still manageable."

He referred to the slaughter energy that affected one's mind alongside the infectious killing intent.

"Come on, let's go," Ja Sun shrugged. He was barely affected since his mental fortitude was already baptized with this kind of intent.

The duo began walking towards the only way out. It was a thin path and the two couldn't walk on it side-by-side. Instead, Xie Xan took the lead while Ja Sun covered from behind. The lack of railings on either side and the fact that small rubble would fall down deep into the abyss due to their movement made them very uncomfortable.

They couldn't even use their spirit skills, too.

Ja Sun had also confirmed this road to be normal for the most part and only the platform behind had a strange transportation array that he had noted down to study later.

"What do you think the trials are?" Ja Sun inquired. Bibi Dong must have told Xie Xan a few things but contrary to his belief, Xie Xan shook his head, "Sister Dong didn't tell me anything. She said that she crossed the road without information so I should, too."

The word 'Trial' by itself would have been considered by his trait before giving the mission the difficulty of A-rank so Ja Sun could only wonder what other surprises the final portion of this blessed land had.

*Chii*

*Chii*

*Chii*

The duo came to a stop. With the two of them cultivating their eyes, they could easily see a flock of bats flying towards them. No, it was more like a cloud of bats in this underground system that made the duo's body stiffen for a moment.

"Be careful to not fall down," Ja Sun spoke as his body instantly grew burly. His clothes were now made of more flexible materials and simply stuck to his body while his third eye opened up alongside his hair turned silver and his limbs turned into phoenix talons.

Xie Xan, meanwhile, used the gun itself. Seeing a large number of critters, he was more willing to expend the ammunition before his spirit energy and Ja Sun had the same thought.

With a grin, he raised his arms. His forearms and talons were covered by the pair of Vajra Gauntlets and now fatal needles continuously shot out of its surface that instantly began to lower the number of the bats who were still far away.

Xie Xan did the same with the bullets.

For Ja Sun, the only ammunition for his dragon beard needles were his blood since the pair of Gauntlets was his Blood Artifact and any damage or expenditure of the artifact can be recovered by blood.

"I need a refill!" Xie Xan spoke as Ja Sun silently withdrew a new magazine.

"It's the last one," Ja Sun warned. It wasn't hard to create the gun but when it came to bullets, Ja Sun had already expended the last of his materials. Not to mention that the remaining portion of guns was still only a prototype with unstable arrays inscribed on their surface. Using these works might just be disadvantageous as they might explode without any reason.

After all, the only reason Ja Sun advanced so quickly in the art of arrays and formation was due to a large source material gathered through his trait. If forced to experiment alone on new aspects then Ja Sun, too, would need a subsequent amount of time, and this past month, he had focused more on the formation that created the Slaughter City.

The duo continued their barrage. Especially Ja Sun. The dragon beard needles didn't stop piercing through a single bat and took five to six spirit beasts down. What was strange about this whole predicament was that no spirit ring was formed.

Granted that even Ja Sun's spirit souls couldn't emerge from his body, the fact that the Slaughter City could even suppress the rule of this world that spirit beasts above the age of 10 would leave a spirit ring greatly surprised Ja Sun.

"They stopped," Xie Xan narrowed his eyes. Flashes of red passing through them while the three of Ja Sun's eyes gleamed. At this moment, his mental energy and physical strength alone far outstripped a Titled Douluo at face value. The only thing he lacked was spirit energy.

"It doesn't feel well," Ja Sun mumbled while taking out a few herbs he had collected around the ice and fire yin yang well to recover his blood. He even retracted the Vajra Gauntlets to let them nurture inside his bloodstream.

The two silently continued forward. Finally, they reached the location where a few corpses of the bats were laid and after a cursory observation, Ja Sun was the one to absorb them. They were valuable to him as materials.

The other thing the duo noted was an increase in temperature and intensity of slaughter energy as they continued to move forward. Ja Sun, despite his body soon drenching in sweat and matting his silver fur with it, didn't remove his spirit transformation while Xie Xan, too, grew cautious. As they continued, the sense of foreboding only grew stronger for both of them.

Below, they finally saw a hint of red.

The lava-like pool of blood on either side of the path grew clear and even the ceiling began to reveal rocky growths in the form of spikes from where a few bats could be seen. The fact that these bats chose not to attack made Ja Sun and Xie Xan more confident that something was definitely up. These bats were not stronger than hundred-year-old spirit beasts but Ja Sun wasn't having it.

*Shii*

*Shii*

Dragon beard needles continued to shoot out that greatly roused the enmity of the flock of bats but their numbers continued to dwindle as they tried to hide behind the rocky ceiling.

"I'll help you out," Xie Xan didn't remain idle seeing Ja Sun at work like this. This time, he activated his martial soul and shot out his moon blades that rotated fiercely and sliced off multiple spikes on either side to reveal the bats hidden behind. Although manageable, the slightly crazed intention in Xie Xan's eyes was hard to hide at this point. The environment was affecting Xie Xan at a greater pace than he could regain his composure but for the time being, he could maintain his sanity. And if nothing goes wrong, he would be able to reach the end of the line without losing his mind.

After continuing like this for another ten minutes, the two found the further road ahead devoid of bats completely. Ja Sun was quite satisfied as he managed to gain a few more corpses. Why these bats didn't give any spirit ring could be researched once they are out of this location.

"We're being targeted," Xie Xan whispered without any change in his expression but the grip around his moon blades was tightened. The only source of light was the increasingly shortened distance between the path and the glowing stream of blood below them.

The path was straight without any alleviation so the only thing that changed was the position of the stream as they moved forward.

As Xie Xan stated, they were being targeted. But whatever it was, it refused to show itself. With their eyesight, the duo could have seen quite far ahead but this wasn't a matter of distance. Ja Sun, too, didn't want to spend his mental energy needlessly. It was his greatest tool of attack but due to suppression, even after the three-fold enhancement of the Fiery Golden Pupils, Ja Sun's attack wouldn't reach its full potential and the expenditure itself would be higher than normal.

This meant that there will be an overdraft of mental energy should he go all out. He wasn't worried about injuring himself permanently since the other half of his mental energy was suffused with life attribute that healed any and every possible harm to his world of consciousness but he would certainly be defenseless physically should this come to pass.

"Maybe it's afraid?" Ja Sun speculated but Xie Xan's shoulders trembled and he spat coldly, "It should just stop hiding!"

His spirit energy exploded while Ja Sun narrowed his eyes.

The situation hadn't gone out of Xie Xan's control so Ja Sun didn't unnecessarily suppress him using his own intent. In fact, the more Xie Xan adapted, the better it was for him.

*Trt*

The two of them came to a stop as they sensed a spiritual force erupting without any warning from their left and as they turned to look in that direction, they saw a three-headed dark golden bat suddenly emerging from behind one of the larger spikes as the three of its head revealed to have dangerous tusks and horns.

"Do you know which Spirit Beast is that?" Xie Xan grunted.

"From the looks of it, a bat."

Ja Sun calmly proceeded to poke fun however his blood, too, began to boil. This was the first spirit beast that seemed to be simply layered by a large amount of slaughter energy.

Hearing his words, Xie Xan's eyelids twitched before he hurriedly shook his head and let out a groan.

"Wait, I feel something else," Ja Sun suddenly frowned and looked down.

From deep within the pool of blood, Ja Sun and Xie Xan saw a giant crimson serpent slowly emerged. Right behind its head, large bumps could be seen that pulsated with red light as if alive.

"Wow, it looks like a snake," Xie Xan stated sarcastically.

The two of them observed the situation. It was clear that the strange-looking giant bat did not want to deal with Xie Xan and Ja Sun alone and waited for the emergence of this strange serpent. It was true that Ja Sun did not know about these two beasts despite his extensive knowledge.

But without missing a beat, he shot four needles from his gauntlets the moment he saw the bat flying down with the clear intention of picking the serpent.

"The serpent cannot climb up from here so keep the bat busy," Ja Sun remarked while Xie Xan suddenly shoot out two of his moon blades. Within five meters, he could control his moon blades as he sees fit and he aimed at the serpent with his pistol. Unlike humans, beasts have tough hides, especially these giant ones. The small-sized bats were easily killed but as Xie Xan shot at the serpent, aiming for its eyes, he was startled by the fact that the bullets melted even before reaching the beast. The serpent's cruel gaze locked onto Xie Xan before it dove into the stream of blood and moved towards the direction where the duo intended to leave.

*Chiiii*

Meanwhile, the three-headed bat screeched in annoyance as it quickly flew away towards the regions where Ja Sun and Xie Xan couldn't reach easily.

It was clear that the two beasts were sufficiently intelligent to mark Ja Sun and Xie Xan as a threat that they were unwilling to face alone.

"They will surely attack us together. Come on, if that serpent moved, it must know the way to this location. Let's move forward and ambush the bastard before dealing with the bat... if it does appear later."

Ja Sun sighed softly and Xie Xan's shoulders slumped. That snake and bat were easily above the rank of 10000 years of cultivation. Facing the two of them together without any spirit skill was simply a nightmarish task.

"What did you mean by ambush?" Xie Xan inquired as Ja Sun let out a hollow chuckle. He took out few processed tendons of the beasts and then took out a set of boots before sitting down cross-legged.

"If that bat shows up now, be sure to entertain it until I'm finished... you all should learn arrays already. It's amazing," Ja Sun mumbled the last part with a reluctant mumble as he set up the War God's Cauldron around him.