Chapter 595: Ghost-Devourer
Li Qiye looked at the monster while harboring many feelings in his heart. This mythical creature truly existed, and this was his first time seeing it. Although he was aware of the legends from the ancient past, countless wise sages and invincible existences didn't believe that this thing was real!
Prior to this, he wasn't too sure if this monster was actually imprisoned up here or not; it was only a possibility according to his intuition, so he was quite sentimental seeing it in person.
The terrifying monster was quite angry to see this group of ants before it. In the past, these ants would have been frightened to death after seeing it. Unfortunately, it was now suppressed and trapped inside this place. It was angry at them for staring at it like a caged beast, but it couldn't do anything since it lacked the ability to move.
Lan Yunzhu took a deep breath and asked while looking at the monster: "Just… what is it?"
"The Ghost-Devourer!" Li Qiye was also a stranger to this name since he had never seen one before.
"Ghost-Devourer?" This was the first time the two had heard of this unfamiliar name.
Li Qiye noticed their surprise and smilingly added: "It is understandable that you two haven't heard the name before. Since the start of time, very few people had seen it, and I'm afraid most who did have already died. There has only ever been one Ghost-Devourer, and it has been imprisoned here since a very long time ago."
Lan Yunzhu and Xian Fan became even more shocked. Who actually had the power to suppress this terrifying Ghost-Devourer in this place? The person must have been extraordinary!
Li Qiye looked at the angry devourer and said: "Don't be mad, I will take you outside for a stroll. Maybe you will even thank me in the future."
The devourer understood his words and glared at him with a terrifying gaze that could send even Virtuous Paragons' souls straight to the heavens.
Li Qiye slowly took out an ancient box. He obtained it from the Heavenly Dao Academy; they gave it to him as part of the agreement after he helped them repel the sects' joint attack.
The devourer's eyes changed after Li Qiye took out this box since it could sense a certain breath from it.
Li Qiye took out something from the box that resembled a dog collar. It had been heavily worn out from what seemed to be heavy usage.
The devourer's expression quickly changed. Its eyes narrowed, showing some fear after seeing this collar.
"What is it?" Xian Fan speculated that other than Immortal Emperors, nothing in this world could control this terrifying creature, but now it was shivering after seeing the thing in Li Qiye's hand. This was quite hard to believe. The worn-out dog collar in his hand didn't look like a supreme treasure at all.
"A Ghost-Devourer Lock." Li Qiye answered. With that, Li Qiye activated it and, with a clanking sound, it flew towards the neck of the devourer. The monster didn't want to be sealed so it struggled vehemently. Unfortunately, it couldn't move with the four thick chains suppressing it.
The devourer was sealed by the lock, and its terrifying aura disappeared like a deflated ball. The lock was its nemesis so no matter how heaven-defying it might be, it would lose to this fatal weakness.
Lan Yunzhu and Xian Fan were in disbelief to see this frightening Ghost-Devourer being locked by this broken collar and losing its temper. Its powerful aura was dispelled entirely, becoming a leashed pet!
"Clank!" Right when the devourer was sealed, the four thick chains automatically fell down. With the Ghost-Devourer Lock, there was no longer a need for the four chains made of True Immortal Steel to suppress it.
Li Qiye held the chain that connected to the devourer's collar and shouted: "Come!"
The chain started to shake and, on the other side, the subdued devourer slowly shrank down and eventually became as small as a fist.
The little devourer was not scary at all; on the contrary, it looked a little cute.
Li Qiye opened the ancient temple to place the little devourer inside and formally put it away.
The other two were dumbfounded at the events that had unraveled before them. Even Lan Yunzhu, who had followed Li Qiye for quite a while, couldn't contain her shock. They knew just how powerful the beast was, but now it was just a tiny pet being brought along by Li Qiye. No one would believe this astonishing scene.
"This works… too?" Xian Fan stuttered. Li Qiye was bringing along an existence even more terrifying than a Godking, something that was beyond one's imagination.
"Why not?" Li Qiye shrugged and said: "Me bringing it along is the same as saving it, so it should be thanking me in the future."
This was the first time Lan Yunzhu saw the collar, so she apprehensively asked: "What… is the Ghost-Devourer Lock?"
An item capable of locking the devourer and turning it into a pet was quite fearful. It seemed that Li Qiye was able to read her thoughts, so he smiled and replied: "This collar is only effective against the Ghost-Devourer. All things have mutual generations and mutual restrictions, so when the Ghost-Devourer appeared, it was already fated to not be able to escape the lock because they restrict each other." 1
"You, where did you get the lock from?" Xian Fan asked while looking at Li Qiye. This lock was so terrifying that it would instill dread in anyone.
Li Qiye smirked and casually replied: "I picked it up on the street."
However, this answer didn't only annoy Xian Fan, even Lan Yunzhu was not happy, so the two of them leered at Li Qiye.
Li Qiye noticed their discontent so he smiled and said: "Fine, let me tell you two a story. A very long time ago, there was an existence who chose to walk the path of defying the heavens, to accomplish something that had never been done before — creating life."
"Creating life?" Lan Yunzhu and Xian Fan were both startled.
This was the business of the heavens and not the responsibility of cultivators. Even Immortal Emperors wouldn't be able to accomplish this.
"It was just the initial stage and couldn't be considered true life creation." Li Qiye continued his story: "He took out one of his ribs and borrowed the prime source of the heavens to create a miracle. Unfortunately, the experiment was a failure and suffered the heaven's punishment… Thus, the Ghost-Devourer was born.
"He didn't wish to create a bloodthirsty creature, but alas, his will was overshadowed by the heaven's punishment. Besides the devourer, the lock also came into being; this is the nature of mutual generation and restriction. From then on, the one and only Ghost-Devourer appeared."
Xian Fan was enjoying the tale and quickly asked for more: "What happened after?"
Li Qiye continued: "The Ghost-Devourer was created as a heaven's punishment, so it was both murderous and bloodthirsty. That existence couldn't change this, but luckily, the lock also came out from the punishment. Because of the lock, despite its murderous nature, the beast became a great assistant to that existence."
Li Qiye paused for a moment before continuing: "Nothing lasts forever in this world; a big change eventually occurred. The lock was lost and the other existence couldn't calculate its whereabouts."
Both the girls exclaimed in shock: "The lock was lost?" They could already imagine the terrifying consequences when a murderous creature like the Ghost-Devourer was on the loose without the lock to restrain it.
Li Qiye went on to say: "You can imagine the consequences after the lock went missing. The Ghost-Devourer escaped and brought about the beginning of a calamity. The world became stained with blood as the nine worlds trembled. At that time, countless people died, creating flowing rivers of blood and mountains of corpses. The most incredible part was that the ghost race almost went extinct!"
Li Qiye's few words described it very lightly, but Xian Fan and Lan Yunzhu could imagine the scene where the devourer massacred the world. Just like Li Qiye said, this was a great disaster that couldn't be described with words.
"How come we have never heard of this story? There are no records from the ghost race as well." Xian Fan asked emotionally: "Such a devastating event should be recorded, right?"
Li Qiye replied with a grin: "Do you know how long ago this was? It happened in an untraceable era. Plus, a few things aren't meant to be recorded. For example, do you know the true background of the Ancestral Realm? Do you know what ghastly thing is lying below its grounds?"
Lan Yunzhu and Xian Fan looked at each other after being asked this by Li Qiye. Not to mention them, even the ghost race itself didn't know too many things about the Ancestral Realm.
595 TeaserLi Qiye looked at the monster with many feelings in his heart. This mythical creature truly existed, and this was his first time seeing it. Although he was aware of the legends from an ancient past, countless wise sages and invincible existences didn't believe that this thing was real!
Prior to this, he wasn't too sure that this monster was imprisoned up here; it was only a probability according to his intuition, so he was quite sentimental to see it in person.
The terrifying monster was quite angry to see this group of ants before it. In the past, these ants would have been frightened to death after seeing it. Unfortunately, it was now suppressed and trapped inside this place. It was angry at them for staring at it like a caged beast, but it couldn't do anything since it lacked the ability to move.
Lan Yunzhu took a deep breath and asked while looking at the monster: "Just… what is it?"
"A Ghoathe!" Li Qiye was also a stranger to this name since he had never seen one before.
[collapse] 相生相克 – A concept of the five elements; for example, fire creates/generates earth; woods breaks up the soil thus controls/restricts earth. ↩Chapter 596: Legend Of The Devourer
Although legends stated that the Ghost Progenitor was slumbering there, it was only a legend and no one had seen the progenitor before. The realm's background was even more mysterious. To sum it up, it was too archaic and had existed before there were written records from the ghosts.
Xian Fan couldn't help but curiously ask: "If no one else knows and there are no records, then how do you know?" This was Xian Fan's first time hearing about the mythical existence who tried to create life despite coming from the Immortal Kingdom.
"Well, that is… a secret." Li Qiye answered mysteriously.
Xian Fan was not satisfied with this answer, but what could she do except glare at Li Qiye?
Lan Yunzhu brought the topic back to the Ghost-Devourer: "Then the devourer was captured later on, right?"
Li Qiye nodded and said: "Yes. That existence exerted a lot of effort to capture the devourer again. However, it was no easy task to capture such a monster without the lock."
"Then what about killing it?" Xian Fan inquired.
"This idea was indeed feasible since that existence could kill the devourer. However, killing it required killing himself because, as you know, the devourer came from his rib. Without killing himself, it would be virtually impossible to kill the monster…
"… Eventually, that existence caught the devourer after many earth-shaking events. Some of these events even shaped the final direction of the ghost race itself."
At this point, Li Qiye stared at the distant horizon and continued: "After capturing the devourer, that existence imprisoned it in this unknown island. Due to a couple of events, that existence didn't wish for the devourer to see the sun again, so he sunk the island down into the depths of the ocean for eternity."
"As for what happened next… You already know the story. Both the devourer and the lock disappeared and no one saw them again." Li Qiye smiled and added: "The devourer had always been in the depths of the sea, unknown to everyone. No one knew that there was a monster suppressed there, a monster that had swept through and bloodied the myriad realms. They didn’t even have an inkling of its tale."
Lan Yunzhu looked at Li Qiye and now understood that he appeared back at the Thousand Islands just for the devourer. All of his plans came into fruition today!
All the cultivators and sects with a bit of greed in the Sacred Nether World assumed that the lost mythical island hid an amazing treasure, such as divine eggs, so both the young and the old risked their lives to reach the island only to meet their demise due to the mist.
"So this ends with you coincidentally picking up the Ghost-Devourer Lock right when the lost mythical island came into being. You got yourself quite a bargain from it." Xian Fan said as she leered at Li Qiye. She didn't know the truth or the process, but she felt that the whole thing was not as simple as he made it out to be.
Li Qiye only responded with a smile. The person who picked up the lock was not Li Qiye but an ancestor from the Heavenly Dao Academy, and of course, he didn't pick it up randomly from the street.
This ancestor was quite knowledgeable. Although the lock appeared to be a regular chain collar, he knew that it was an extraordinary item. After picking it up, he didn't simply throw it away. However, he couldn't find the use for the lock. This was not surprising since no one had ever seen the devourer before. If Li Qiye didn't have a trustworthy source, he wouldn't have been so determined to tame the Ghost-Devourer.
Since this ancestor from the academy couldn't research the lock thoroughly, he left it behind at the academy where it was forgotten. It wasn't until Li Qiye demanded it from the academy that it saw the light of day again.
"Who is this legendary existence?" In the end, Lan Yunzhu asked. Such an unbeatable existence shouldn't be nameless, but she had never heard of this person before.
Xian Fan also couldn't contain her inquisitiveness and chimed in: "Is he an Immortal Emperor? Which one was he?"
"I also don't know the name of this legendary existence." Li Qiye beamed and said: "However, he was certainly not an Immortal Emperor and rather something even greater. That era was even older than Immortal Emperor Gu Chun's time; there were no Immortal Emperors back then."
Lan Yunzhu and Xian Fan stopped asking after this because they knew they wouldn't get an answer. Immortal Emperor Gu Chun was the first to bear the title of Immortal Emperor, and this was during the Desolate Era. This was a very long time ago to the present, and many things were not written down. They were all to be lost in history.
If this existence was even older than Immortal Emperor Gu Chun, then he had to exist back in an untraceable era, so it was not strange for future generations to not know of his name.
Li Qiye then told the two of them: "Now that this is all over, it's time to leave."
The three then left the island. The monk was not at the Heavenly Cemetery and no one knew where he went.
Li Qiye was busy so he didn’t wait for the monk before leaving the Prime Ominous Grave. Very few cultivators stayed behind at the grave after such a big event; even those who stayed behind had all began to leave.
Lan Yunzhu finally heaved a sigh of relief after leaving the grave. She had quite an amazing harvest this time, but the most important part were her broadened horizons. The knowledge she accumulated from her entire life so far was not equal to what she had seen and heard during this short trip. These couple of days in the grave allowed her to see many magical and miraculous matters.
Lan Yunzhu looked at the grave one last time before speaking: "We can finally go back now."
Xian Fan also wanted to go back to the Immortal Kingdom. Her trip was over and her results were quite fruitful as well.
"No, it is you guys who will be returning." Li Qiye shook his head and said: "I won't be going back to the Thousand Carp River."
"Where do you want to go?" Lan Yunzhu felt unease after hearing Li Qiye; her intuition was normally very accurate.
Li Qiye narrowed his eyes towards the horizon and answered: "The Ancestral Realm! It is time to destroy the Ancestral City and annihilate the Ancestral Realm."
"Are you joking?" It wasn't just Lan Yunzhu, even Xian Fan jumped after hearing this. Anyone would lose their mind after hearing this.
This phrase was no longer classified as being arrogant, it was stepping into the realm of impossibility. Even an imperial lineage would not be able to do such a thing. For example, Xian Fan's Immortal Kingdom didn't have this capability even after mustering all of its strength.
Li Qiye looked at Xian Fan, in her elemental armor, and asked: "You think I am kidding?"
Xian Fan met his gaze while being silent. Li Qiye was not joking at all! However, destroying the Ancestral Realm was an appalling undertaking.
"The Ancestral City is one thing, but do you know how terrifying the Ancestral Realm is? Not to mention the numerous members of the Divine Guard and the nine Supreme Gods, the scariest part is that the Heavenly God had reached an unfathomable level. Rumor has it that the Heavenly God had easily slain an eternal existence once. Some predicted that even if the Heavenly God was not comparable to an Immortal Emperor, obtaining the title of Godking shouldn't be an issue for him!" Xian Fan solemnly said.
The Godking title was not something that could be bestowed to just anyone. Even those who called themselves Godkings were not necessarily accepted as such by the masses. Only when all the worlds accepted the title bestowment would the person be considered a true Godking.
For example, the Sacred Ancestor of the Thousand Carp River who was extremely ancient and heaven-defying. Even Immortal Emperor Qian Li praised his cultivation, but the Sacred Ancestor was reluctant to call himself a Godking. Others also only considered him a God-Monarch. This powerful and genuine God-Monarch didn't dare to take the extra step of pronouncing himself a Godking.
"Godking? So what?" Li Qiye nonchalantly stated: "An Immortal Emperor might be interesting, but even an emperor wouldn't be able to stop my determination to stomp the Ancestral Realm!"
"Because of the matter with the blood ceremony?" Xian Fan asked. As a fellow human genius, Xian Fan didn't want Li Qiye to die early. She believed that if he could continue on his path, then he would definitely become the Immortal Emperor!
"No, only a personal vendetta." Li Qiye replied with a smirk.
Lan Yunzhu noticed his firm determination, making her heart heavy; she couldn't help but advise: "The Ancestral Realm is eternal. Even an Immortal Emperor wouldn't be able to eradicate the Ancestral Realm. Legend states that even the most heaven-defying Immortal Emperor, Immortal Emperor Fei Yang, who had once turned the realm upside down in his rampage couldn't destroy it completely and could only suppress it for thousands of years. Immortal Emperor Qian Li, our patriarch, also took a trip to the Ancestral Realm, but nothing came of it."
Li Qiye noticed her worried appearance and gently stroked her hair before saying: "I know. Since the start of time, among all the emperors in the Sacred Nether World, it wasn't just Immortal Emperor Fei Yang and Immortal Emperor Qian Li who attacked the Ancestral Realm…
"… However, this doesn't mean that emperors are not strong enough!" Li Qiye continued: "Emperors are indeed wondrous, but they didn't wish to risk their lives. More importantly, all of these emperors lacked a certain something, but I have this 'thing' that they did not!"
"But…" Lan Yunzhu still couldn't help but say: "This is something easier said than done; it is simply impossible if even emperor’s couldn't do it…"
Li Qiye interrupted her and added: "Girl, don't worry about me. Even the grim reaper won't take this thing and the king of hell won't keep it. More importantly, a few things should come to a conclusion; this is personal!" Having said that, he coldly glared at the far distance.