Keyboard Immortal-Chapter 2557: Cause of Suspicion

“Such extreme heat! Could this be where Nuba dwells?” The Mermaid Queen, being from the Ocean races, was extremely sensitive to dry and hot environments.

The Goddess of Wu Mountain frowned. “That shouldn’t be the case. Nuba didn’t leave in this direction, and her dwelling is some distance away from here.”

Zu An traced his finger across the cavern wall to inspect its molten glass-like quality. “Even though they both specialize in flames, there is a vast difference between Nuba’s power and this. Nuba’s heat is purely destructive and deathly, whereas this heat also contains vibrant life force within it, despite its potential for destruction.”

Most people wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference, but Zu An’s grasp of different powers had reached a higher level than before.

“Could the Saintess have come here to challenge the master of the cavern? This power should belong to the cavern’s master, right?” the Mermaid Queen deduced.

Zu An neither affirmed nor denied her guess. For the battle to have become this intense, both parties had to have been on the same level. A guess was beginning to surface in his mind.

He suddenly spotted something in his peripheral vision. He flew over and picked up a metal fragment. It looked like copper but wasn’t copper; it seemed to have broken off from a massive cauldron. Strange runes were inscribed on the metal fragment, but it was hard to decipher them, as most of them were destroyed.

“Ah!” the Mermaid Queen suddenly exclaimed in shock.

A human face was inscribed on the metal fragment. It was carved so exquisitely that it resembled a living being, but the face was warped in extreme pain. Just the sight of it was enough to make one uncomfortable.

“I wonder who carved something like that. With such skills, they should carve something better than this,” the Mermaid Queen grumbled.

“You’re right. This wasn’t carved onto the metal piece.” The Goddess of Wu Mountain took the metal fragment and gently touched the face on it. Her expression turned grim. “It is a living soul.”

The Mermaid Queen was stunned.

Zu An had also noticed something amiss with the human face, and he hurriedly asked what was going on.

The Goddess of Wu Mountain solemnly replied, “In this world, there are malevolent arts capable of extracting a living being’s soul and trapping them in special containers to achieve unspeakable goals. These runes serve to suppress the soul.”

Zu An grimly murmured, “Could Yumen Beiqing have come here for some reason, only to stumble upon the cavern’s master utilizing some sort of malevolent art, upon which the two of them came to blows?”

That would mean that Yumen Beiqing might be in danger. She was undoubtedly powerful, but someone who dabbled in such arts would be anything but a pushover.

“Look here!” the Mermaid Queen exclaimed. She had been trying to distance herself from that eerie mask when she inadvertently stumbled upon another discovery

Zu An and the Goddess of Wu Mountain looked over and saw that a corner of the cavern wall had crumbled. The extreme heat in the cavern had likely caused the walls to expand unevenly, resulting in the collapse.

Zu An gently pushed the wall. It collapsed, revealing a secret chamber. He first scanned the interior with his divine sense before leading the way in.

The Mermaid Queen followed him. Even though she was creeped out by this place, Zu An’s figure gave her inexplicable peace of mind. freeweɓnovel.cøm

Zu An walked straight toward the innermost stone wall. His earlier scan told him that there could be something here. He took the Night Illumination Pearl from the Mermaid Queen, and the content of the stone wall was revealed.

There were many rough lines inscribed onto the stone wall, depicting warped humanoid figures as well as all sorts of blood-red runes. A long wooden pole towered above them, and planted on it was a pitch-black banner. The patterns on the banner felt eerie, even though they had become blurred.

This resembles the Soul Summoning Banner I obtained from the monsters, which can induce instability in one’s soul just by waving it. But compared to the banner depicted on this mural, it’s almost like a baby standing before a giant.

“Myriad Souls Banner!” The Goddess of Wu Mountain spat out three icy-cold words.

“Goddess, do you know this item?” The Mermaid Queen could tell that it was nothing good from the name.

“There are malevolent beings who collect living souls and fuse them into banners. The more souls there are inside a banner, the greater its prowess. Banners with over ten thousand souls are called Myriad Souls Banners, and they wield terrifying prowess. One would have to commit many atrocities to forge something like that.”

The Goddess of Wu Mountain looked at the lines on the walls with a frosty gaze. “Most parts of the mural have been erased, but it likely contains the forging method of a Myriad Souls Banner. For even a simple draft to induce such eeriness; its terror far surpasses any of the Myriad Souls Banners known to the world.

“Of course, stringent conditions have to be met to forge such a terrifyingly powerful banner.” The Goddess of Wu Mountain stared at the mural for a long time before adding, “I heard from my father that a Myriad Souls Banner of this caliber requires not just countless souls, but also the aid of someone who possesses the innate Cruel Poison Constitution to fuse lethal poison into it to maximize its killing prowess.”

Zu An was taken aback.

The Goddess of Wu Mountain was the Flame Emperor’s daughter, though it was unknown which generation of Flame Emperor her father was. Regardless, the Flame Emperors were from Shennong’s lineage and were medical experts. This gave great credibility to her words.

The forging of this Myriad Souls Banner likely required someone with the Cruel Poison Constitution, and the only person Zu An knew who possessed the Cruel Poison Constitution was Ji Xiaoxi. He was extremely relieved that she hadn’t come to this world.

But the fact that the Mermaid Queen had been transported into this world and that he had been unable to find or contact Ji Xiaoxi in the previous spacetime fragment left him with an ominous feeling.

“Goddess, are there any rumors about a Myriad Souls Banner of this caliber appearing in the world recently?” Zu An asked.

The Goddess of Wu Mountain shook her head. “No, and that’s what makes it frightening. The other party must be hatching a massive scheme.”

“You mentioned earlier that the forging of a Myriad Souls Banner requires the collection of living souls.” The Mermaid Queen’s face suddenly paled, and her voice quivered. “Could this Myriad Souls Banner be behind the abrupt deaths of the Chang clansmen?”

Zu An and the Goddess of Wu Mountain were horrified to hear that. Now that Zu An thought about it, he hadn’t sensed their souls when he inspected their bodies. He'd thought that was because the underworld hadn’t been built in this world yet, so their souls naturally wandered around the world.

But looking back on it, it was more likely that their souls had been siphoned away by the Myriad Souls Banner. Only something as malevolent at that was capable of quietly massacring so many experts.

Why did the Myriad Souls Banner spare me and the Mermaid Queen? And why did Houtu not mention this when Xingtian reported this matter to her?