Chapter 81 – The Eternal Veil (III)

Chapter 81

The Eternal Veil (III)

Cao Qiu flinched when she noticed the descending array of swordlight that suddenly appeared in front of her. The kneeling man was no longer in front of the gates but rather just in front of her.

Before she could even try and flee or defend herself, the descending swordlight was shattered as a phantom-like figure shuttered just past her, a scent of sandalwood briefly entering her nostrils.

In the next moment, she saw the stout man lose his balance and stumble sideways as a flash of the blade cut through the side. An arm flew off, blood spraying out alongside a cry of pain.

The stout man tried to retreat, but the phantom-like figure rushed further out and swiped the sword yet again, cleaving at the man’s knees and leaving him completely immobile.

The boy she thought a burden knelt next to the whimpering mass of bleeding flesh and yanked him by the hair, pulling him over the dirt and toward her.

“Senior Sister,” he called out, startling her awake. “I know who this is.”

“He isn’t the mayor?”

“No,” he shook his head. “He’s my family’s butler–I recognized him by his voice. However, nothing else matches him; the butler wasn’t a martial artist, and he was an elderly, tall, and thin man.”

“Then who is he?” She frowned and crouched, yet, just then, a strange thing transpired–the man who had just been whimpering, crying, and begging for mercy suddenly broke out into strange, cackling laughter. “Who are you?!” She drew her sword and pressed it against the man’s throat.

“He he he, it seems we’ve drawn over a big fish,” the body began to… molt. She winced and pulled back as the motes of steam began to flow out of the fading flesh. Within a few moments, there were only the robes… and nothing else.

Her breathing quickened, her eyes veered up toward the town, now full of terror.

“We need to let the Master know of this immediately!” The boy’s voice pulled her as the two spun around and left, garbed in horror.

**

Long Tao casually walked through the parting illusion; it was a surprisingly high-quality array, the kind that eclipsed even the Spirit Sword Sect. For him, of course, it was nothing, but for this corner of the world it may as well have been an ancient treasure.

The world took a swift turn as he stepped through the membrane, though only in one department–the streets weren’t empty.

He stepped out between a set of buildings and toward the main street that cut through the entire town. Both sides of the road were lined with people, sprawled lifelessly, though most were not actually dead. He wasn’t surprised–this was what all Soul Furnaces were like.

Extracting the purest essence of one’s being takes a while, and, most importantly, the people cannot be aware of it. Otherwise, the essence becomes corrupted and useless.

Stolen story; please report.

As soon as he saw the Gray Matter, he figured that somebody had the ever-so-brilliant idea of concocting a Soul Furnace. Except… it was incomplete.

Ordinarily, at the heart of every Soul Furnace was a Dao Seed–specifically, a Soul Dao Seed. This here was merely an approximation; or, rather, the furnace was made in an attempt to create a Soul Dao Seed. It was impossible, of course–the quality of the souls here was nowhere near enough, but if whoever was behind this did manage to purify the entire town, they would have made some headway.

“Dao Seed, Dao Seed…” he mumbled to himself, a glint in his eyes uncertain.

It couldn’t be just a coincidence that the rumored third treasure of the Spirit Sword Sect was a Dao Seed while somebody was trying to make one right at their doorstep.