Chapter 245 — Earthshaking

Ming Li's gaze gradually sharpened. He went to a crack in the stone wall and studied it in silence, but intently; then, brows knit tight, he reached out a hand and ran it up and down over the rough fissure. Small chips of stone fell away at the passage of his palm, struck the ground, bounced a few times, and rolled into a corner. Ming Li slowly withdrew his arm, then did something curious—he raised his palm to his nose and sniffed lightly, as though checking for some foul odor.

His eyes grew sharper and brighter still.

This uncanny power had surfaced twice since his return to Mount Huqi, and both times it had happened to coincide with his use of the Qiankun Reincarnation Plate to heal Bi Li. To claim there was no connection at all was truly untenable. And since it bore upon the healing of Bi Li, the thing he prized above all, he could no longer stand apart from it.

Deep within the caverns, the Blood Pool.

The wild, strange force of the Four Spirits Blood Array had subsided. Though a thick stench of blood still hung over the Blood Pool, the halo radiating from the Coiling Dragon Cauldron no longer heaved with any great fluctuation.

Master Ghost stood alone upon the platform, gazing up at the Coiling Dragon Cauldron suspended in midair. Amid the flickering crimson radiance that filled the heavens, his eyes were fixed fast upon the white pillar of light at the brow of the demon face upon the ancient cauldron's body.

That white pillar—shaped like a keen blade of light—was unmistakably brighter now than when he had last seen it, and its diameter seemed to have thickened by a full turn. As one waxed the other waned: the demon face was all the more twisted, and the blood-red radiance that had once all but suffused it had been driven back into its lower half. Now, by the look of it, even that last trace of deep crimson was dimming, as though it could not hold much longer.

Yet watching this dire turn of events, Master Ghost's eyes held none of their former anxiety and urgency; rather, there was more of delight in them. After a long moment he gave a sudden low chuckle and murmured, "So it is. So it truly is connected to that Star Plate..."

He stirred and walked forward, halting only at the very edge of the platform. Then he leaned out and looked down at the Blood Pool below, where four enormous spirit beasts lay steeped in the blood, every one of them listless and spent—plainly their true essence and spiritual qi had been drained to the dregs by this uncanny Four Spirits Blood Array Master Ghost had laid down.

Above, around the Coiling Dragon Cauldron, spiritual qi was impossibly abundant, resolving into streaks of red splendor that circled the cauldron without cease; the cauldron itself glittered unendingly, as if answering that qi. Yet at the crucial juncture—the very throat of the thing—the blade of light upon the demon face cut the channel clean through, so that the surrounding qi could not pour into the Coiling Dragon Cauldron, and the blood array could not be completed.

Master Ghost took in all these anomalies, and behind the black gauze his eyes narrowed slightly, a brooding light surfacing in them. His hands were clasped, his fingers tapping unconsciously—plainly his mind was turning something over, weighing and calculating.

Just then, from behind the Blood Pool platform came the sudden rush of fabric through air. Master Ghost sensed it at once and turned, and there was the Nether King, his face dark with gloom, striding over.

Coming to a stop before him, the Nether King wasted no courtesy and asked directly, "What is the meaning of this? How did the blood array's spiritual power run so wildly out of control?"

Master Ghost glanced slowly up at the blade of light upon the Coiling Dragon Cauldron and said evenly, "This quake and upheaval arises from the Asura power inherent in the Four Spirits Blood Array itself. It has a will of its own, and it struggles with all its might to break free of the Qiankun Lock, the divine art that binds it. In the struggle it stirred up the vicious blood qi here and the qi of the giant beasts drawn in by the array. Three forces unleashed at once—hence a shaking of the earth and mountains such as this."

The Nether King gave a cold snort and glanced up as well. "Fine words. But if the earth and mountains are shaking, how is it you still can do nothing about one little pillar of light?"

Master Ghost said evenly, "If an ancient divine prohibition could be undone so easily, it would not be an ancient divine prohibition."

A flash of anger crossed the Nether King's face. "I don't want to hear all that. Do you have a way or not to rid us of this damned Qiankun Lock?"

Master Ghost was silent a moment, then gave a sudden low laugh. "It was thorny indeed. But now—" He raised his head slowly and looked at the Nether King. "—now there is a way."

The Nether King was taken aback. "What? You've found a way?"

Master Ghost nodded slowly, but did not say outright what the way was. Instead he turned about and looked again at the Coiling Dragon Cauldron hovering in the air overhead—that ancient, ungainly vessel—and after gazing at it a long while, he said softly, "Bear with it a little longer. The hour of your birth is not far off now..."

In midair, the crimson radiance upon the Coiling Dragon Cauldron flickered without pause, and it seemed almost to possess a spirit of its own, silently watching over the people below.