Chapter 419: Desolate Antiquity

First, I want to thank everyone for their opinions and thoughts on how we should overhaul completed novels. We've reviewed nearly 2000 comments across multiple platforms and forum, and while we haven't responded to everything I can promise I HAVE read it all. First, I'm going to briefly go into some of the things which were discussed which may or may not work, because I don't want people to think I ignored anything. I'm putting those in 'spoiler' tags so people who don't care can skip it. Then, we'll talk...

Chapter 419: Desolate Antiquity

After the formation flags and plates were appropriately arranged, Han Li took a deep breath and was about to cast a technique before being interrupted by the sounds of whistles coming from the horizon. A blue radiance flashed through the horizon followed by a blue streak resembling a flood dragon quickly flying across the ocean. In the blink of an eye, it arrived above them.

Once the light faded away, an eccentric wearing dual swords on his back was revealed.

Upon seeing his appearance, the others were startled. Above them hovered a shriveled and thin figure, with a red, rash covered face, and fierce, triangular eyes framed by long, messy white hair. This odd looking man wore a black short sleeved shirt with a strange flower basket hanging from his waist. From his Spiritual Qi fluctuations, it appeared he was a mid Core Formation cultivator.

After getting a clear view of the area, the eccentric was surprised to see so many Core Formation cultivators. But after his gaze fell onto the red light barrier and Han Li’s formation setup tools, his expression greatly changed.

“Are you Juniors seeking death? You dare to take advantage of this island lord’s absence to pry into his project? Hurry up and get off this island!” The eccentric yelled with an ominous glare.

“Island lord?”

“This is yours?”

Hu Yue and Jin Qing looked at one another for a moment while Han Li and the others were at an even greater loss.

This wasn’t an uninhabited island?

Hu Yue frowned and calmly asked, “Fellow Daoist is the lord of this island?”

“Obviously! I have already been this island’s lord for several hundred years.” The eccentric replied without a trace of politeness.

“That’s odd, my Brother Jin and I never caught a single glimpse of you on our last trip here!” Hu Yue stated in a calm manner.

“What? You’ve already come here once? Humph! It’s the same as the current situation. You came here while I was preoccupied with matters off the island.” The eccentric glared at them with even greater anger.

Hu Yue sneered and derisively said, “So you’re saying that you are the sole inhabitant of this island? Then your esteemed title of island lord is self conferred.”

As the restriction before him was about be eliminated, Hu Yue was unwilling to pay any attention to the eccentric before him.

“Humph! Stop equivocating! In any case, you’ve performed the grave crime of destroying these restrictions. Since you don’t wish to leave, then I will help you remain here permanently!”

Suddenly, the wicker basket on his waist turned into a streak of chilling white Qi, shooting straight towards Hu Yue.

This time, Han Li and the others were the ones to be surprised.

Had this person gone mad? Did he not see how many Core Formation cultivators they had on their side? Was his mind addled?

Hu Yue responded in furious alarm. With a wave of his sleeve two red lights shot straight towards the incoming white mist. With a muffled peng, the white mist was scattered and dissipated in every direction.

“It seems this dog’s bark is bigger than his bite!” Hu Yue relaxed upon seeing the mist scatter and bluntly made some cutting remarks.

The eccentric remained silent but strangely smiled.

Hu Yue’s heart trembled and his expression suddenly changed, before yelling, “What’s going on? My flying knives!”

After breaking the white Qi transformed from the basket, the two flying knives were tottering in their original place as if they were failing.

Afterwards, the scattered white Qi quickly reassembled itself, and with a flash of radiance, it reformed back into its appearance as a flower basket. The two flying knives were trapped inside the flower basket while enveloped in the white Qi, incapable of breaking free.

Hu Yue looked on in disbelief as his magic treasure was restrained. The other’s also paled in response.

However, the eccentric didn’t give them any time to think. He coldly laughed and his shoulders flashed with light. Shooting down two streaks of grey swordlight towards Hu Yue.

As he was next to Hu Yue, Jin Qing naturally found it embarrassing to just stand idle. He flicked his hand and threw out a small block stamp which grew larger as it smashed towards the grey light.

With a clap of thunder, the three magic treasures released brilliant flashes of interwoven colors.

At that moment, the cultivator surnamed Jian looked at Han Li and Crooked soul before silently raising his hand, and shooting a pitchfork glowing with black and white Qi towards the eccentric.

Han Li inwardly sighed. Since everyone else had acted, he and Crooked Soul could no longer just stand idle and had to join them against the eccentric. With that thought, Han Li and Crooked Soul released their Immemorial Bowl and Green Brilliant Dagger, sending them into the fray.

When the eccentric saw this, he didn’t reveal any fear. Instead he bellowed in savage laughter and spat out a pearl of black blood towards their magic treasures.

A huge series of explosions rang out!

Greatly going against their expectations, the bead had released a black radiance just as their magic treasures touched the bead and exploded, causing great spiritual damage to the magic treasures and all of their lights to immediately dim.

The cultivator surnamed Jian felt great heartache and appeared extremely regretful. His hands formed into an incantation seal to retrieve the flying pitchfork. From that strike, he would need to nurture it in his primal soul for about a year before recovering to normal.

However, he was late in retrieving his magic treasure.

As the eccentric coldly laughed, his wicker basket flashed with white light and suddenly shot towards the magic treasures in a streak of white light, entrapping them within.

The cultivator surnamed Jian suddenly thought of something upon seeing this and yelled out in despair, “An ancient treasure! You’re using a Desolate Antiquity!”

Han Li was stunned upon seeing this. A “Desolate Antiquity” was in fact a magic treasure refined by ancient cultivators. This type of magic treasure had a single divine ability, but it’s power was immense and incomparable to the power of common magic treasures of the present. The magic treasure refinement methods and the materials of antiquity were substantially different from those of the present. Their treasures were incapable of being withdrawn into the body and could only be carried physically like a magic tool.

This was also the only method of differentiating the Desolate Antiquity from common magic treasures.

Having now seen the abnormality of the flower basket and recalling that the basket had been hanging from his waist at the start, it was impossible for him to not realize the true identity of this magic treasure.

As for the “Heaven Opposing Spears” that were used on the Infant Carp Beast used by the Six United Palaces, they were also Desolate Antiquities that had been passed down.

Although Han Li was somewhat startled by the announcement of this ancient treasure, he had many killing moves up his sleeves. Still, he didn’t take the initiative to act as he was convinced the more tricks he kept hidden for later, the easier it would be to effectively deal with the upcoming moments of danger.

In addition, he clearly understood that even if the enemy had an ancient treasure, he wouldn’t be able to easily deal with so many allied Core Formation cultivators. It would suffice to only display the ability equivalent to a common Core Formation cultivator.

With that thought, apart from using the entirety of their control to wrench their magic treasures away from the white Qi, Han Li and Crooked Soul didn’t take any unusual actions and watched on with a detached gaze.

He was confident that someone else would inevitably take the initiative!

As he had expected, Hu Yue and the others revealed a trace of joy upon hearing that the flower basket was an ancient treasure. Since the eccentric had taken the first move, it was only proper for them to loot the treasure after they joined hands and exterminated him.

Thus, after a moment of hesitation, the cultivator surnamed Jian formed an incantation gesture with his hands, causing three streaks of black light to emerge from his storage pouch: three-meter-tall black banners with a murderous aura.

He then opened his mouth, shooting out a thread of black Qi towards the black banners. The banners released a series of ghostly wails, causing the other cultivators to become shaken and overwhelmed.

Meanwhile, Hu Yue bluntly abandoned his attempts to regain control of his flying knives and twisted his hands together, releasing a burst of thunderous azure lightning strikes.

With raised eyebrows, Jin Qing suddenly cast a magic seal towards his magic treasure, causing his white block stamp to release a dragon’s cry and increase in size several times over.

Having seen the three make such great displays of might, Han Li inwardly grinned and reckoned that the eccentric was about to suffer a great blow.

But despite displaying slight surprise upon seeing the three’s vicious attacks, his sneer soon returned. He tore off his short sleeved shirt and revealed his bare upper body.

Han Li nearly bit his own tongue in surprise.

Aside from his shriveled chest, two fist-sized human skulls were biting down on each side of his abdomen. Each of the skulls were jet-black and had long, messy hair. In addition, the skulls wriggled incessantly as if they were alive.

At that moment, the thunderous azure lightning and the three black banners had entered the eccentric’s sight. He lightly extended two of his fingers and started to speak an odd incantation.

The two human skulls began to release low, muffled sobs before flying away from his abdomen and biting off the eccentric’s two extended fingers. They then excitedly charged forward to meet the thunderous lightning and the black banners.

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