“Again! That one doesn’t count! It doesn’t count!” Fierce Shadow Star Soul shouted it with his fists clenched. In the space of a blink, before he had struck once, before he had shown any of his formidable attack power or the unbroken sword intent he could release in this world too, he had been outmaneuvered into a crushing defeat. How could he possibly accept it?
Murong Qiushui pursed his lips, having nothing to say to that.
“Why doesn’t it count?” Ye Tianxie walked over, his face expressionless.
“He took me by surprise… and if I hadn’t had the rotten luck to be knocked down, I would certainly have beaten him! I don’t accept this one. Again!” Fierce Shadow Star Soul’s brows knotted hard and he said it through his teeth.
Ye Tianxie’s brow twitched. “You lost, and lost is lost. Never look for excuses for your own defeat, and still less for reasons behind another man’s strength. If you don’t understand even that much, then you will never beat Murong Qiushui. In a real duel, only the winner is qualified to smile. Whether it was a surprise attack, whether it was luck — none of that counts for anything at all.”
“I—” Ye Tianxie’s words left Fierce Shadow Star Soul with nothing to say.
“The Heaven Soul mercenary corps recruits only the strongest elites. Come and find me when you’re genuinely strong enough. As you are now — you’re not weak, but you’re too green… Goodbye!”
Ye Tianxie gave Zuo Pojun and Murong Qiushui a rough account of things and hurried back to the city with Su Feifei. Fierce Shadow Star Soul stayed where he was, staring blankly at the spot where Ye Tianxie had stood, and said nothing for a long while.
Not weak, but too green…
In his head, Lingyun looked at him with calm eyes, and then said, mildly, four words — “You are too green.”
His fists tightened without his deciding it. He turned abruptly and said to Murong Qiushui, “We’re fighting again.”
“I refuse.” Murong Qiushui turned away, without a care in the world. “I fought you just now purely because my Second Brother asked it. Otherwise I’ve no interest whatsoever in raising a hand against a snot-nosed child who thinks too much of himself… The loser has no right to make demands. Come back and find me in two or three years, when you’ve matured a little more… Phweee. Your Big Brother Qiushui will give you one last piece of advice. Level matters, but a high or low level doesn’t tell you high or low strength. If you were genuinely strong enough, my Second Brother would be willing to let you into the Heaven Soul mercenary corps at level 0.”
Something flickered across Fierce Shadow Star Soul’s face, and he suddenly looked up. “Xietian is your Second Brother?”
“Yaa! You’ve gone and uncovered a secret as tremendous as that. Here now, remember to keep it to yourself, or else… oh ho ho ho ho…”
A violent shudder went through Fierce Shadow Star Soul from head to foot.
The City of Stars.
Ye Tianxie reached the City Lord’s manor as fast as he could and walked in without a single obstruction the whole way. When he saw the City Lord of the City of Stars, the man was pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back, agitated; the moment he caught sight of Ye Tianxie he came hurrying over to meet him and said, without preamble, “Xietian, you’re here at last… There’s an extremely important matter, and I’ve thought it over and over, and it’s only if you’re the one to do it that I can rest any easier.”
“What is it?” Ye Tianxie asked.
The City Lord drew a tightly sealed letter out of his robe and pressed it into Ye Tianxie’s hands. “This time it really is an extraordinary matter. Three years ago, when the Hour of Fate that sealed the Tower of Fate suddenly disappeared, the Eight Demon Kings sealed inside it combined their strength and escaped in a single night… But after so many years locked under the Hour of Fate’s power, their strength must have been eaten away to almost nothing, far below what they are in their proper state. So for these three years the Eight Demon Kings have all stayed hidden, recovering their strength rather than coming out to stir up trouble. And in order to be rid of this terrible calamity, our one Imperial City and five main cities have spent these years searching for them with everything we have…”
The City Lord let out a long breath and went on. “And just now, the City of the Lost sent urgent word by thousand-li message talisman. The City of the Lost’s greatest Spirit Prophet has finally located one of the Demon Kings, out of the faintest ripple of demonic energy from the south… It is the Dark Nether Ghost King, one of the Eight. And the place he has hidden himself is less than five kilometers north of the southern main city, the City of Heaven’s Sun—”
Ye Tianxie: “……”
The City Lord went on. “And here is what makes it impossible not to worry. If the guess is right, that place should be the ruins of the once-flourishing Phantom Beast race, and one of the forbidden grounds of the Lost Continent’s south. It is said that though the race perished, the last traces they left behind were sealed about with a truly terrible seal, and nobody has ever gone inside… Small wonder the Dark Nether Ghost King can hide that close to the City of Heaven’s Sun without being discovered. And there is a more terrible rumor still about the Phantom Beast race — that they were determined to protect that last ground of theirs even in their extinction, because gestating there is the most terrible and the last hope of the Phantom Beasts: the Holy Mark!”
“The Holy Mark? What is that? Some terrible weapon?” Ye Tianxie said, frowning.
“I don’t know. But according to the vague records concerning the Phantom Beast race, if the Holy Mark is reborn, then even with the Phantom Beast race wholly destroyed, there is hope of their returning to life. And the Dark Nether Ghost King’s reason for hiding himself there is plainly that he wants to obtain this Holy Mark. Whatever the Holy Mark may be, if it is as powerful as the rumors say, it absolutely cannot be allowed to fall into the Dark Nether Ghost King’s hands. The consequences do not bear thinking about.” The City Lord said it gravely.
“And what is it you want me to do?” Ye Tianxie lifted the letter in his hand.
“I hope you can help by delivering this letter into the hands of the City Lord of the City of Heaven’s Sun within ten days. The City of Heaven’s Sun is several thousand li away, and the savage beasts and demon creatures along that road are beyond counting. To arrive inside ten days would be next to impossible even with a clear run the whole way. This is a difficult task, and you are the only one I can think of to complete it.”
Deliver a letter? Ye Tianxie asked, not quite certain about it, “My lord — since the people of the City of the Lost have the ability to send word across a thousand li, why not send it straight to the City of Heaven’s Sun instead of routing it to the City of Stars and having someone from here carry it the rest of the way?”
“There is no help for that. Thousand-li messaging depends on the thousand-li message talismans, which are beyond price, and this kind of talisman requires that each side hold one, linked by divine power; two such talismans can send word directly even a thousand li apart. The talisman linking the City of Heaven’s Sun to the City of the Lost was lost two years ago — and thinking about it now, there is every chance the Dark Nether Ghost King stole it… At the same time, even if the City of Heaven’s Sun’s talisman were still there, the energy fluctuation of a transmission has a certain chance of being detected by the Dark Nether Ghost King. So the word can only be carried by hand. Xietian, are you willing to do me this great favor?”
“Ding… The City Lord of the City of Stars entrusts you with delivering the ‘Emergency Letter’ into the hands of the City Lord of the City of Heaven’s Sun in the south of the Lost Continent. Quest attribute: Unique. Quest reward: unknown. Quest time limit: ten days; after ten days have passed, for each further day of delay the reward is reduced by 50% from the previous day. Quest penalty: none. Accept?”
Ye Tianxie had once studied the map of the Lost Continent carefully. It was only the very simply marked map that every player carried, but the positions of the one Imperial City and five main cities were set down on it with particular clarity. Calling it back now, he rapidly worked out in his head the distance from the City of Stars to the City of Heaven’s Sun…
This world had no trains and no aircraft. There was nothing for it but to ride hard. To cross close to half the span of the Lost Continent in ten days would be difficult indeed even traveling day and night without a single obstruction.
“All right. Rest assured, I’ll have it there at the first possible moment.” Ye Tianxie put the Emergency Letter away in his pack, then lifted his head and nodded.
“That you agree is a very great relief. If anyone else were to do it, I truly could not rest easy. In that case it would be best to set out now. This bears on the safety of the City of Heaven’s Sun and the stability of the whole Lost Continent, and it must arrive in the shortest possible time.”
(End of Chapter 209)