Chapter 96 Enveloped

"The Sword Fanatic of Silent Monastery!"

"The daughter of the Crown Prince!"

Li Jianqi's identity shocked all of the practitioners from the Cultivation World. The question now was, should they trust her?

If the idea of destroying the relief river had originated from Li Jianqi at the very beginning, and she had told everyone her identity at the start, most of them would have believed her. However, it was very obvious to them now that the suggestion had been made by Ye Que, and she had chosen to support him because of personal reasons.

No one laughed or criticized her this time. Instead, everyone opted to remain silent.

They did not speak or voice their opinions in deference to Li Jianqi, but it did not mean that they thought Ye Que was right.

They did not care whether she believed him or not.

Li Jianqi's expression turned extremely ugly upon noticing that everyone was remaining silent. She turned around to look at Deputy Night Timekeeper Jue Shuo. "Since they don't believe me, we shall do it on our own. Get all of the Black Armored Warriors of the Judicature to destroy the relief river."

Jue Shuo did not move upon receiving Li Jianqi's instructions. Only his expression changed, to one of awkwardness.

"Do my orders no longer carry any weight?" Li Jianqi continued, her voice already turning cold. She was a naturally optimistic young girl and rarely displayed such emotion or spoke in such a tone. It was obvious that she was already furious.

"Your Highness," Jue Shuo shouted softly before trying to signal Li Jianqi with his eyes.

"Are you going or not?" Li Jianqi asked as she pouted.

Jue Shuo's inaction, lack of response and that glance that he showed to Li Jianqi had already told her what stand he was taking on the issue. "Everyone doesn't agree with Ye Que now. Even if all of the warriors from the Judicature went forth to destroy the river, our strength would be severely inadequate, and it will disgust all of the others. There wouldn't be any point to our action, and it'll be self-defeating."

"People who are easily swayed will always be discarded the quickest."

"We have to act as the situation dictates. We're not in the divine capital Luoyang now, and the influence of the Judicature is not enough to affect everyone here."

Li Jianqi gritted her teeth and did not bother about Jue Shuo any longer. She swung her sword and cut out a path for herself as she sprinted to the murals.

Ye Que and Red Bean did not remain idle any longer as they saw Li Jianqi move. They caught up with her in a few steps.

When words failed, it was time to make their actions count.

The two maidens, one wielding a sword and the other an umbrella, began attacking at the relief river on the murals. It took only one attack for both Li Jianqi and Red Bean to realize something strange. The mural looked ordinary, but the force that rebounded from their attacks was rather huge, especially at the spot where the river was located at.

Each blow of the sword and umbrella struck the river, and a thick bloody force surged into their Spiritual Seas, as if the river itself had a soul.

At the same time, a few dark souls had turned their attention back to the river. The creatures had been attacking Jiang Liuyun and the others, but suddenly they changed direction and came charging at Ye Que and the two ladies.

"Be careful, a few dark souls are charging toward us," Ye Que remarked, looking anxious.

"That's right, this proves that we made the right choice. The more the dark souls seem to care about the river, the more it tells us there's something wrong with it," Li Jianqi said excitedly. Even though she chose to attack the murals because of Ye Que, she also wished that her decision could be validated.

"You continue to attack the river. I'll stop the dark souls," Red Bean said as she glanced at Li Jianqi.

Li Jianqi still seemed to be angry with Red Bean and did not reply. She did begin to swing her sword with more vigor, however.

"You ladies carry on, I'll go check out the platform," Ye Que said. He noticed that the dark souls present in the main hall were divided up into three groups. One was attacking the disciples of the Cultivation World, another was surrounding Nan Fengxiu and the demons, while a small group had splintered off and were charging toward Li Jianqi and Red Bean, who were standing before the murals. The ritual platform in the middle of the main hall was standing there all by itself.

Ye Que circled around to avoid drawing the attention of the dark souls, before finally walking up to the platform.

The first thing that caught his eye was the two life-like statues. They depicted a warrior in gold armor and a huge dragon soaring into the skies. Strange Sanskrit texts were inscribed below the statues, and even the area around the platform was covered with mystical charms.

The gold python of Divine Energy above his Spiritual Sea began to toss and turn once again, transmitting an incredibly clear signal to Ye Que's brain.

Ye Que could not help but lift his right arm up slowly and place in down on the platform.

In a flash, an incredibly huge cage appeared within Ye Que's mind. A gigantic black dragon, the size of an entire mountain, circled in the air above the cage and a warrior clad in gold armor stood astride its back. In the center of the cage was a pool of azure gooey crystalline substance. It looked as though it was made of mercury; its shape kept changing.

It was shaped like a sword at first, before changing to a saber, then a huge axe capable of cleaving through mountains. The next second after the axe was fully formed, it transformed again into a huge hammer. Each time it transformed into another weapon, the grains on the crystalline substance even shaped into the structure of a ferocious beast.

The crystalline substance appeared only within Ye Que's mind. The immense aura it gave off was suffocating.

"River Soldiers?"

"This crystal should be the Divine Tool, River Soldiers!"

Ye Que thought. He realized, however, that the gold python of Divine Energy in his body had no reaction at all to the River Soldiers. His mind seemed to be obsessed with what was beneath the River Soldiers, as though there was something more magical hidden there.

However, when Ye Que tried to probe at the deepest part of the cage, the image in his mind suddenly broke up.

The platform was still a platform.

Ye Que immediately took his arm away before placing it back onto the platform. There was no reaction this time; there was no response from the platform at all, just like when Chen Qing came over to inspect it earlier on. The practitioner had felt that something about the platform seemed odd, but he could not find any mechanism to trigger it.

Ye Que was very sure now that the River Soldiers were definitely sealed within the platform, and there was something sealed inside there that he needed most urgently. Or rather, what the gold python of Divine Energy in his Spiritual Sea needed most urgently.

Any object that could draw the attention of Divine Energy from the Celestial World had to be at least an Immortal Artifact. Mortal objects like Cyan Luan did not interest the gold python in the least bit, even though it was a Class Three Monarch's Sword.

It was energy from the Immortals after all. As such, it had zero interest in Cyan Luan.

Ye Que turned his head back toward the main hall. He did not know how long he had remained in a daze. There was a drastic change in the situation back at the battleground.

Nearly all of the dark souls had begun to chase after Li Jianqi and Red Bean. The two teams led by Jiang Liuyun and Nan Fengxiu respectively finally had a chance to catch their breath.

As the two maidens had to fend off the attacks of dozens of dark souls now, they were unable to divide their attention on the plan to destroy the relief river on the murals. They could only circle around the main hall at top speed and slash at the murals each when they could. Every time they struck the river, the dark souls behind them would moan.

Their voices were exceptionally ear-splitting, and it spoke volumes of the dark souls' fear.

They were very concerned about the river in the murals and were very afraid that someone would destroy or damage it.

"Jue Shuo, what are you still waiting for? Does this still not prove that Ye Que's deduction was right? The relief river is the key to stopping the dark souls. Hurry up and destroy the mural, use your True Energy to do it," Li Jianqi shouted loudly as she ran around the Great Hall. She threw in some threats for good measure, "Let me tell you, if any harm comes to me, my father will carve you into pieces and wipe out nine clans of your family. You should be very clear on the consequences if anything bad happens to me."