Chapter 459 — The Sinister Old Ghost

The pearl was azure as jade, crystalline and translucent, and within it a dragon soul swam gently. When Shen Mu's palm closed around the Water Dragon Pearl, the azure dragon soul wore a look of disdain; yet when Shen Mu had Xiong Qi'er press her palm to the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl, the azure dragon soul seemed quite at ease, gently touching Xiong Qi'er's hand through the pearl. "A child, pure and flawless — that is the finest material for cultivating the Myriad Gods Natural Art.

" Shen Mu sighed with feeling. The chief reason Zhentian Palace needed a little princess was precisely that a little princess was pure and flawless, free of any other stray thought, able to control a treasure like the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl and draw out its power to the utmost.

In Zhentian Palace, besides the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl, there were three other treasures, standing for the Azure Dragon, the Black Tortoise, the Vermilion Bird, and the White Tiger. The only one who could unleash the full power of these treasures was the little princess of Zhentian Palace!

Zhentian Palace's strongest fighting force had never been the Palace Master, or the Naikui, or any other expert — it was the little princess who had not the strength to truss a chicken. Imperial Preceptor Jingping and Xiong Xiyu had entered the Western Lands a step ahead of them, and leaving the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl with Xiong Qi'er was certainly not Xiong Xiyu's idea, but Jingping's. Xiong Xiyu had thought Jingping unreliable and had Shen Mu bring Xiong Qi'er into the Western Lands, never guessing that this played right into Jingping's scheme: it made Shen Mu and Xiong Qi'er and their party the target of Zhentian Palace, while Jingping and she could use them as cover to act in secret. "Imperial Preceptor Jingping deserves a good spanking.

He is a Heavenly King of my Tiansheng Sect, after all, and he dares to plot against his own Sect Master. " Shen Mu sighed and pulled himself together.

Just then the Dragon Qilin suddenly halted and said, "Sect Master, there is something. " Shen Mu looked ahead.

Range upon range of mountains stretched before them, and black coffins hung from the cliffs and precipices. The Dragon Qilin was flying between two mountains, and the black coffins hanging on the cliffs to either side all but covered them, making the mountain faces black. He counted swiftly.

There must be three to five thousand coffins here.

"This is.

.

.

a corpse-nurturing ground! " He opened his Danxiao Heaven Eye and looked, and at once saw gusts of baleful wind and a pall of mournful cloud shrouding the mountains.

This place was indeed suited to nurturing corpses.

According to the geography of the Western Lands, this should be Xiajun, some eight hundred li east of Leishan City, and Xiajun was precisely the territory of the Liu family of the Western Lands. "A corpse-nurturing ground is the Liu family's domain? These corpses — are they nurtured by the Liu family of the Western Lands? " It struck him suddenly: corpses had no spirit and no god — were they not the finest material for the divine-power wielders of the Western Lands to summon spirits and summon gods?

A divine-power wielder's body, tempered a thousand times over, was better even than a primal soldier; and it had four limbs, and in battle might even be able to use divine powers — more useful still than a primal soldier.

"Rise in rank and grow rich! " Suddenly a shout rang out. Shen Mu looked toward the sound and saw several turbaned men taking down coffins, chanting phrases like "rise in rank and grow rich" as they worked the divine powers of the Western Lands. A black coffin abruptly sprouted legs and feet, ran swift as flying along the cliff face, and came down with a thunderous boom.

Creak.

The coffin lid opened a crack, and a woman sprang stiffly upright out of it. Her neck turned rigidly and she looked at Shen Mu: "Could this be the Nether Demon Sect Master, come from the Central Lands?

" Shen Mu was startled — he could not tell whether the woman in the coffin was alive or dead. He said, "I am indeed Shen.

Might I ask who you are?

" "Liu Ruyin of the Liu family. " The woman leaped from the coffin and landed on the ground.

"I hear the Sect Master has brought the little princess into our Western Lands.

Where is the little princess? " Shen Mu, holding Xiong Qi'er's hand, smiled: "The little princess is here. " Liu Ruyin looked at Xiong Qi'er, and a fierce light blazed in her eyes. At once corpse qi surged to the heavens; the black coffins on the cliffs sprouted legs and feet of their own accord and came racing down from the cliffs, while other coffins floated in the air. The creaking and grating of coffin lids opening rang out without cease, and one after another "corpses," impossible to tell living from dead, sat up from their coffins and all turned to look at Xiong Qi'er!

Shen Mu reached out and took the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl from Xiong Qi'er's little pack, pressed it into her hand, and said calmly, "Liu Ruyin, your Liu family seems to be plotting something. " At the sight of the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl, Liu Ruyin raised her sleeve to cover her face and gave a shrill scream, crying in terror, "Do not you dare do anything reckless!

"