Translated by Team DHH. Happy New Years everyone!
Book 2: The Golden Lock of the Eight Gates
Chapter 42: Good Luck
The trees and bushes were turning into soldiers?
Princess Qianyou watched the soldiers gather around them, "These are all imaginary soldiers, they become stronger when opposing stronger opponents and turn weaker if the opponent is weak. Remember, keep your wits about you."
"Yes." Her followers all immediately answered.
Zhong Shan discovered then none of the soldiers had a face. Or, was it that he couldn't see their faces? They had no faces?
Over a hundred soldiers had already approached them.
Princess Qianyou, Gu Lin, Ah Da, and Ah Er stood in the center, the other 8 subordinates quickly raised their swords and rushed towards the soldiers around them. Beiqingsi also used her sword to block the soldiers in front of Zhong Shan. Obviously, they weren't going to stand there without resisting.
"Dang~ ~ ~ ~ ~dang~ ~ ~ ~ ~dang~ ~ ~ ~ ~dang~ ~ ~ ~ ~"
Fighting erupted all around them, each soldier was on par with their opponent.
Furthermore, Zhong Shan had a new, absurd discovery. Each soldier's weapon transformed into a replica of their opponent's.
Exactly the same?
The machetes the three soldiers in front of Beiqingsi held transformed into white swords, the same as Beiqingsi's sword.
Zhong Shan noticed that everyone in his group, except Beiqingsi, was shocked by the changes. Though the soldiers could not defeat them, they looked like as if they had seen ghosts.
"Ci."
A soldier was cut into two halves by Beiqingsi, turning abruptly into a blade of grass sliced in two. Many more soldiers swarmed into the spot left by the previous soldier.
Suddenly, a soldier bypassed Beiqingsi and stood right in front of Zhong Shan.
Zhong Shan released the girls' hands and took out his machete to defend. The two girls also drew their weapons. As the soldier moved closer, Zhong Shan's heart skipped a beat.
The soldier had a face now. An exact replica of his own face. He was looking at the soldier as if he was looking into a mirror. A doppelganger?
At the same time, this soldier had his machete, 'Nightmare', in hand and swung downwards at Zhong Shan. The power of the machete looked exactly like when Zhong Shan was at his weakest point.
The fourth level of the Xiantian Stage?
The two girls also saw the inconceivable transformation. As they were about to go forward with their weapons, Zhong Shan got ahead of them.
The fourth level of the Xiantian Stage? The soldier was the reflection of the strength of the opponent? He was at the fourth level of Xiantian, so the soldier was at the same level?
"Ci."
Zhong Shan waved his machete, cleaving the soldier in two.
Zhong Shan suddenly understood the meaning of her words. The soldier turned into your own image to fight against you. What if there were ten of you, hundreds of you?
Zhong Shan was horrified as he saw more and more soldiers rushing towards them while simultaneously pleased with himself at the same time. He found out how to protect himself now. Princess Qianyou and the others didn't engage the soldiers because it was not wise to do so. If Princess Qianyou fought with the soldiers, the soldiers would become much too powerful for the rest of the group.
"You two stay put." Zhong Shan told Yinglan and Tianling-er.
"En." Both of them nodded, though they didn't know why Zhong Shan told them not to fight, they had enough confidence in him to follow his instruction. Besides, didn't Zhong Shang easily take care of that soldier just now?
Princess Qianyou had noticed Zhong Shan as soon as he engaged that soldier.
She didn't do anything to the soldiers because Mr. Shuijing had already explained everything to her. She also wanted to use the opportunity to see how her subordinates handled themselves under the circumstance.
It was what she had expected, except those three who had lost their minds before, all the others were able to quickly defend themselves. Even those three were able to regain their minds in the end.
Princess Qianyou also noticed the other part of her group. Beiqingsi was able to face ten soldiers, ten of herselves, on her own unperturbed. She handled the situation even better than her own subordinates. When was there such a person at Kaiyang School?
But it was when Zhong Shan started fighting that visibly surprised Princess Qianyou. The way a Xiantian Stage person handled these soldiers was even more amazing than Beiqingsi.
One slash for one soldier; he could take care one after another by a simple slash from his machete.
How could it be? Princess Qianyou had never seen anything like this. There was a strange smile in her eyes when she looked at Zhong Shan. How could I miss such talent?
Zhong Shan cut down each soldier as if he were chopping vegetables. Yinglan and Tianling-er watched him with admiration. Beiqingsi also carried a murky smile on her face as she fought alongside Zhong Shan.
The other subordinates who saw Zhong Shan from the corners of their eyes during their own fights were also surprised by Zhong Shan's performance. When they used energy swords, the soldiers would use the same. When their swords turned into long, long Sword Shields, the soldiers would do the same. The soldiers were as strong as they were. Some of them even suffered cuts from the soldiers' blades.
When they saw Zhong Shan, they all felt dejected. Zhong Shan was only at the Xiantian Stage. How could that be possible? Those soldiers facing him couldn't even deploy energy swords? Why was he so lucky to face such inferior soldiers while they had to stand up against these soldiers who were equally capable as themselves?
Gu Lin widened his eyes as he saw Zhong Shan cut down all those soldiers so easily. His thought that Zhong Shan was much too lucky, just like the others. Energy swords flew everywhere when the others fought, as for Zhong Shang, it seemed as if the soldiers were lining up to die. How could it be? Could it be that Zhong Shan was in disguise all along, that he was actually far past the Xiantian Stage?
"Ci."
With ease, Zhong Shan cut down another soldier.
Zhong Shan's interest in this formation grew and grew. Illusion? No, it wasn't just an illusion. The strength of those soldiers was decided by their opponents. How strange.
He thought this was only a formation set up by one single person. If one had a large army as its foundation, the power of the formation would be tremendous. It would be a great boon if he could acquire the formation!
Zhong Shan imagined as he continued to mow down the soldiers.
Zhong Shan was sure by now that he and the two girls wouldn't be in any danger here.
At another site of the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation, the Si(Death) Gate, Mr. Shi and his group were finally moving into the gate. Zhong Shan's shadow double followed in the distance.
There were nine of them. Other than Mr. Shi, all the others were at the Nascent Soul Stage. It was a formidable group.
When they entered the gate, they were facing a mind formation as well. However, these nine people were so strong willed that they moved into the second gate without even stopping inside the first.
The shadow double followed.
Inside the second gate, a huge dragon eye also hung in the sky. Instead of grass and tree soldiers, there were jiangshi everywhere, all kinds of jiangshi. Jiangshi that would bite whoever entered the gate. It was a horrifying scene. Inside, there were already hundreds of bodies littering the ground, some badly mutilated.
This was truly the Death Gate, where the most fatalities occurred.
Mr. Shi walked forwards from the group, and with the turn of his hand, 23 coffins suddenly appeared. He took away the seals, removed the nails, and opened the coffins. All the Copper Jiangshi jumped out and quickly made a circle facing out towards the jiangshi outside.
Jiangshi against jiangshi?
Copper Jiangshi had strong bodies and had nothing to fear from being bitten by jiangshi. They stood there in circle, surrounding Mr. Shi and his group. The other jiangshi were too afraid to come closer.
The shadow double hid in the shadow of one of the jiangshi and carefully watched those people inside the circle.
"Keep them off me." Mr. Shi spoke.
"Rest assured, Mr. Shi." The emperor immediately replied.
Mr. Shi lightly nodded and retrieved the evil heart again. He held it in his right hand and began to chant in a strange tongue.
The bloody heart tremors slightly. All of a sudden, a drop of black blood seeped out of the bloody heart. The black drop of blood fell onto the ground and transformed into a huge altar, the same as what Zhong Shan had seen before.
Mr. Shi quickly took out another coffin. The Gold Jiangshi slowly walked out of the coffin. Mr. Shi didn't take out the Silver Jiangshi, just the Gold Jiangshi.
After the Gold Jiangshi exitted its coffin, Mr. Shi immediately put away all the coffins. He sat down cross legged and began to chant weird spells with both eyes closed.
The Gold Jiangshi gradually sank into the ground.
The shadow double of Zhong Shan knew that wherever the Gold Jiangshi was going should be his target too. The shadow double also sank his body into the cracks on the ground. Though he had some difficulty, he eventually caught up with the Gold Jiangshi.